Pet souls are the currency behind every companion in Aion 2. Kill the monster that a pet is based on, and it has a chance to drop that pet’s soul. Collect enough of them and the pet unlocks, levels up, and starts handing you permanent bonuses. The catch is that drop rates are not flat — they hinge on how your character level compares to the monster you are grinding, which is why some mobs seem to never cough up a soul.
Quick answer: Open the Pets menu and use Source to find the exact monster that drops a pet’s souls, farm it while your character stays within 10 levels of that mob, and run the Odylium Repository daily dungeon when you want souls in bulk.
How many pet souls each level needs
Every pet climbs through three levels, and each level is a cumulative soul total. Five souls of any single type unlock the pet and make it equippable from the Pets menu. The bar keeps filling from there.
| Pet level | Souls collected | What it adds |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | 5 | Unlocks the pet |
| Level 2 | 25 | New stats and abilities |
| Level 3 | 75 | Max level; unlocks Pet Transformation |
Level 3 is the cap on the global version, and it lets you transform into the pet yourself once you have an Empathy Candy. The Korean version runs pets up to Level 5, but global Level 3 delivers the same total stat bonuses, so you hit full pet power with less farming.
The character-level penalty that kills drop rates
This is the part most players trip over. Soul drops are tied to the gap between your character level and the monster’s level. Stay within 10 levels of the mob and the drop rate behaves normally, with souls falling from almost every kill. Push past that gap and drops collapse to roughly one soul every 20 to 30 kills.
A concrete example: a level 30 character hunting a level 10 monster will see almost no souls at all. That same level 30 character farming a level 23 monster gets a soul from nearly every kill. The monster has not changed — only the level gap has.
If you have already outleveled a low-level mob by too much, wait until character level 45. At that point every monster in the game scales to level 45 as well, which erases the gap and restores normal soul drops instantly.
After level 45, your character keeps getting stronger through Gear Score, skills, and stigmas while mobs stay put. Pushing your Gear Score above 1,000 before a serious farming session lets you clear monsters faster and collect souls more efficiently.
Find the exact monster with the Source tab
To identify a soul’s origin, go to Pets, pick the pet you want, then use Source in its pop-up. The game names the monster that drops the soul, gives its level, and marks its spawn on the map.
For example, the Elite Manduri Fighter pet lists its soul as a drop from the level 27 Wandering Manduri Fighter at Pilgrim’s Ridge in Verteron. Check the mob level there against your own and plan around the 10-level rule before you commit to a spot.
Farm bulk souls in Odylium Repository
Odylium Repository is a daily dungeon in the Unknown Fissure with a minimum entry level of 30, and it is the fastest way to pile up souls. A single completion can drop up to 80 chests, each holding five souls, for roughly 400 souls per run.
Entry runs on Unknown Fissure Challenge Tickets. Buy them from the in-game Shop under Wind Breeze Merch > Special for 100,000 Kina each. Purchases are capped at five tickets per character per week and eight per server per week. Repeatable Duty missions also hand out tickets, so check your Journal before spending Kina on more.
Reach faction-locked souls through the Spacetime Rift
Some monster types only live in one faction’s territory, which means part of the pet list is unreachable from your home zones. The Spacetime Rift lets you cross into enemy land to finish those collections.
- Set your mode to PvE before crossing; you can then clear hostile territory without being forced into PvP.
- Your time on the other side is limited, so plan the route before you go in.
- As you farm souls in that zone, finish its dailies and clear its strongholds to get more value from the trip.
Fill gaps with the Black Cloud Merchant and dungeon elites
When a soul is contested, located somewhere inconvenient, or sitting in the opposing faction’s territory, the Black Cloud Merchant is often the shortcut. Its stock refreshes every hour and sells pets and skins outright for Kina. Open it through the Shop interface and check back whenever you are chasing something specific.
Some rare pets never appear in the overworld. Their souls drop exclusively from elite enemies in dungeon and expedition instances. When hunting one, defeat the mid-bosses and side elites instead of heading straight for the final boss.
Skip the manual pickup with Pet Auto-Loot
By default you press F on each corpse to grab a dropped soul. The Pet Auto-Loot membership from the Wind Breeze Merchants removes that step, picking up any soul a wild mob drops the moment it dies. It lasts 30 days and is not account-wide, so it applies to the character that buys it. The feature is purely a quality-of-life convenience and is not required to progress.
Confirm it worked and why souls matter
You know a farm is paying off when the soul counter in the Pets menu climbs and the pet unlocks the instant you hit five souls. From there, each level you push unlocks owned effects, which are permanent passive bonuses that stay active whether or not the pet is equipped as a mount. Soul farming also produces Soul Crystals, which feed Genus Insight and turn your collection into permanent character stats. Because the system rewards consistency, the most efficient approach is to collect souls while you run dailies, dungeons, and rift content rather than grinding one target in isolation.
