Is Ancient Online Pay-to-Win? Our Fair Play Pledge and the Rules of the Item Shop
Power is not sold for real money in Ancient Online. What the Item Shop offers, what it never will, and how the server enforces the rule: all explained.
One of the first questions to ask before you give your hours to an MMORPG is this: is this game pay-to-win? For Ancient Online: Remastered the answer is clear: no. Damage, defence, stats, levels and item power cannot be bought with real money. This post sets out in concrete terms what the pledge means, what you will find in the in-game shop, the Item Shop (Nesne Market), what we will never sell, and how the rule is enforced.
The game is in development. When the Item Shop opens to players, its products and details will be announced separately; what follows are the rules of the shop that do not change.
The Fair Play Pledge: four rules
The pledge, which applies to every game Astronaut Entertainment develops, has four points:
- Power is not for sale. Nothing bought with real money ever turns into damage, defence, stats, levels or item power.
- The shop is for looks and convenience. The shop only offers costumes, appearances and convenience items — nothing that grants combat power, experience or in-game currency. No one climbs the rankings with a credit card.
- Effort wins. Rare items, ranks and leaderboard spots are earned in dungeons, battles and markets — never purchased.
- The pledge is permanent. This rule does not bend under revenue pressure: not on launch day, not years later.
The full text of the pledge is in the Fair Play Pledge section of the studio website.
What does the Item Shop offer?
Only items from a predefined item pool can be put in the shop. The pool is made up of these groups:
- Costumes: Outfits, hair and headgear, weapon appearances. None of them carry a stat bonus.
- Pets: Only those that give no bonus and are there for their looks.
- Emotes and fun: Social items such as emotes and fireworks.
- Convenience items: Time-saving items such as an extra inventory row, storage expansion, the teleport ring, the Ring of Language, name and gender changes, stat and skill resets, and hair dye.
We list the convenience items explicitly because we do not want power hiding behind the word "convenience". None of these items grant combat power, experience or in-game currency.
Every item bought from the Item Shop arrives bound: it cannot be sold to other players, so it cannot enter the game economy as goods bought with money.
What will the Item Shop never offer?
- Items that give stats: Costumes with bonuses, hair or masks with bonuses, pets with bonuses.
- Mounts: Because they give speed or bonuses, there are no mounts in the item pool at all.
- Potions and boosters: Healing potions, experience boosters and drop boosters.
- Upgrade materials: Materials for upgrading items and improving skills.
- In-game currency: Items that earn you Tael, directly or indirectly. Tael cannot be bought with real money.
- Equipment: Weapons, armour and accessories are not sold.
- Boxes with random contents: They are outside the pool because, once sold for money, they would turn into loot boxes.
- Dungeon keys and entry tickets: Because they would open a paid shortcut to content.
How is this rule enforced?
Saying "there is no power in the shop" is easy; what matters is that it cannot be added, not even by mistake. That is why the rule is not just a policy but a check on the server:
- The items that can be put in the shop are defined in a fixed pool file. This file ships with the game's data; it cannot be changed from the admin panel.
- If someone tries to add an item that is not in the pool, or one that grants power, to a product, a bundle, a coupon or a mass gift, the server rejects the operation.
- This check is backed by automated tests.
What you earn by playing
The reward for effort is inside the game. The development build has an account-wide login calendar, playtime rewards and a single-tier, free battle pass; the battle pass has no paid upper tier.
Why do it this way?
Every advantage sold for money devalues the effort of another player who has poured their hours into the game; the community splits and the world empties. We want to build a world that will live for years. For a victory to mean something, everyone has to earn it by the same rules.
Frequently asked questions
Do costumes give an advantage in combat?
No. None of the costumes in the shop pool carry a stat bonus.
Aren't convenience items an indirect advantage?
When we selected these items, we checked their effect on combat power, experience gain, item drops and in-game currency income one by one. For example, an item that automatically picks up money from the ground was left out of the pool because it indirectly increases income.
Will this rule change in the future?
No. That is exactly what the fourth point of the pledge says.
Next step
This post covered the payment side of the pledge. For the design side, the fixed level 99 cap and the systems we will not add, read our design pledge.
For the big picture of the game, read What is Ancient Online: Remastered?; for your first steps, read the beginner's guide.
