Lost Ark has become one of the most popular games on Steam and was sought after by many players at the beginning of this year! To better facilitate the game experience of new players, the purpose of this article is to allow new players to understand better and master the Information, Knowledge, and FAQ of the Lost Ark game.

 

 

Lost Ark Information

Lost Ark Monetization

• 1. How is this game monetized? Is it P2W? Do I have to pay to keep up?
  
• 2. Are mounts, pets, and costumes important? Are they easy to get?
  
• 3. Do they sell server transfers in Lost Ark?
  
• 4. Are there catch-up mechanics in Lost Ark?
  

Lost Ark General Guide

• 1. Lost Ark: Are there any less desirable classes in raids or PVP?
  
• 2. What is the level cap? How long does it take to reach in Lost Ark?
  
• 3. What classes can I choose from in Lost Ark?
  
• 4. Is the story good in Lost Ark?
  
• 5. Can I play just one character? Or do I need alerts?
  
• 6. What is shared between characters on a server in Lost Ark?
  
• 7. How deep is the character customization in Lost Ark?
  
• 8. Lost Ark: Are classes gender-locked? What is the difference between Deadeye and Gunslinger?
  
• 9. Can you trade in Lost Ark?
  
• 10. What is the difference between Gold & Silver in Lost Ark?
  
• 11. What is the sailing content like in Lost Ark?
  
• 12. Lost Ark: Is the world expansive? Is there fast travel?
  
• 13. Are guilds important in Lost Ark?
  
• 14. Lost Ark: Are there achievements/collectibles? Do they reward anything?
  
• 15. Is this game cross-server in Lost Ark?
  
• 16. Lost Ark: Is there character build diversity? Do I have to pay for skill resets?
  

Lost Ark FAQ

• 1. What is the endgame progression loop in Lost Ark?
  
• 2. What is more important, item level, character level, or roster level in Lost Ark?
  
• 3. What's enchanting like? Can my products break or downgrade? Is there a pity system?
  
• 4. What carries over from each gear set to the next in Lost Ark?
  
• 5. What is there to accomplish other than dungeons or raids in Lost Ark?
  
• 6. What dailies or weeklies do I have to do in Lost Ark?
  
• 7. When do I unlock life skilling? Is it important to life skills, or can I skip it entirely?
  
• 8. Is there private housing? How customizable is it?

Lost Ark PVP Guide

• 1. What is the state of PVP in other servers?
  
• 2. What kind of PVP is there in Lost Ark?
  
• 3. What's the difference between the PVP rank in the PVP menu and the PVP rank on my character sheet in Lost Ark?
  
• 4. Is PVP equalized in Lost Ark?
  
• 5. Can you get gear or stuff for PVE from PVP in Lost Ark?
  

 

 

Lost Ark Information:

The developer for Lost Ark is Smilegate RPG, a subsidiary of Smilegate, whose only game is Lost Ark. The publisher is Amazon Games.
The game developer is in charge of creating the game versions that every region plays on. Each region has its version that's being serviced to them. Think of the most up-to-date balance and quality of life on servers behind in terms of contents like raid and classes.
The game publisher is in charge of maintaining and operating the game servers while providing consistent service in terms of communication, marketing, localization, and monetization. They have very little to do with the actual development of the game. Still, they can often provide feedback from their respective communities that the developer can consider when they’re improving or creating new features.
The publisher handles monetization, but they can only monetize what systems are available to them based on what the developer provides (so generally, monetization does not veer too far away from the original version).

 

 

Lost Ark Monetization:

 

1. Lost Ark: How is this game monetized? Is it P2W? Do I have to pay to keep up?

There are three types of cash shop currency. Royal Crystals are the main cash shop currency used to buy any featured package, along with character expansion slots.

Blue Crystals are player-exchanged cash shop currencies that you can convert Royal Crystals into. These are used for unlocking items like extra inventory space, pet functions, and card album space. They're also used for rotating hot offers on Marie's Shop inside the money shop. These can't be converted to Royal Crystals and cannot buy most function packages like new outfits. Players will normally convert their gold into Blue Crystals to complete all of those functions as F2P.
Lastly, there is Mileage, which is accrued when spending Royal Crystals on certain things. Mileage is used for a very limited set of vanity items like mounts, sails, or emotes.
Lost Ark in Korea, Japan, and Russia have some P2W. The game features an exchange of currency with a cash shop and in-game currency like many other games. However, as all upgrades are limited by gold, those who can spend real money to buy Lost Ark gold will progress their item upgrades faster.
It's also not atypical to see the publisher sell materials packages, which usually becomes more intense with the server age.
Many long-time F2P players do not need to spend money in Lost Ark to keep up. It is usually extremely expensive for anyone who is a brand new player, and the server is already old, and you want to spend money to catch up to where current endgame players are. But if you've been gradually playing, you will always be able to keep up with the latest content.
Be conscious that because of the pacing of content updates, for those who P2W to rush to +15 or greater, you are waiting idly for the subsequent content to come out when F2P players catch up and anything beyond +15 will depreciate with the tier jump.
Ranked/Arena PVP is fully you'rezed, so no form of P2W can benefit you there.

 

2. Lost Ark: Are mounts, pets, and costumes important? Are they easy to get?

Legendary mounts are usually obtained from the cash shop. You can earn some legendary mounts as a F2P player, but they're very time-consuming to obtain. Legendary mounts are typically slightly faster than epic mounts (with many unlockable ones) and make traveling slightly more enjothey'reAll mounts are available to all characters on your server, and multiple characters can equip the same mount.

Lost Ark Pets are usually from the cash shop and provide auto-loot natively. You can also get a free pet through the guide quest in-game. It's a quality of life that you can't live without. You don't need multiple pets, just one. They can also provide remote functions (like accessing your mailbox from anyIt'se in the world). These extra functions that aren't auto-loot demand a subscription to activate; even so, the price is extremely low for a single month, and it activates on all your pets. All pets are readily available to all characters on your server, and many characters can equip the same pet.

Don't provide a minor stat boost. Getting a purple costume is not very difficult, and the realized damage gain for a full set of purple outfit items is about aren'treased global damage. Costumes are usually class restricted, so a warrior cannot wear a hunter's costume.
These things can sometimes be handed out during events, especially as the server grows older.
These things can also be purchased for gold in-game from other players on the auction board. It is typically recommended that you obtain cosmetics this way because it's cheaper than spending real money. You can also get costumes through gameplay via Providence Hearts (Rapport currency) or randomly drop some through Chaos Dunhunter'sontrary to well-known belief. You can't obtain more raid entries. The ticket to perform additional each-day quests just isn't only overpriced but negligible to your progress.

 

3. Do they sell server transfers in Lost Ark?

Server transfers currently exist in Korea. They allow playtests to migrate between servers within the region but not other regions. The cost is approximately 20,000 KRW, which is around $17. To server transfer, you must not be in any guild on your characters and have no items listed on the market or in your mail. The target server you want to migrate to must have no characters on it, as denigrate ALL of your characters and unlockables at once. Currently, server transfers are only during specific time windows.

 

4. Are there catch-up mechanics in Lost Ark?

Much like character boosts, there are catch-up mechanics built into the game. As new content is released in Lost Ark, older content provides special functions that allow new players to accelerate through them quickly.

 

 

Lost Ark General Guide:

 

1. Lost Ark: Are there any less desirable classes in raids or PVP?

In short, in PVE (Lost Ark PVE Tier List ), not really, in PVP kind of (Lost Ark PVP Tier List).
There is always a meta. But Lost Ark every class is capable of doing all the content in the game. Smilegate regularly does balance patches that shift this meta a few times a year.

PVP also goes through these balance passes where classes are meta or out of meta. Lost Ark is also susceptible to new classes being a little overturned until they get nerfed.
Certain classes exhibit lower volatility and rarely shift from being pretty good. But bad classes always eventually see their time in the spotlight. It's a matter of when not if.
Some classes synergize better with others, so there will always be times when parties in certain high-end raids will want very specific classes, barring others. But, this is fairly rare and only an issue in very specific encounters.

 

2. What is the level cap? How long does it take to reach in Lost Ark?

The level soft cap of Lost Ark is initially 50. You'll be able to reach it by completing the key story quest, which takes anyplace from 12-15 hours for a skilled player or 20-30 hours normally for any new player.
There is also an Account Level that serves to give you minor stat increases and pretty much indicate how long you've been playing. When you earn character EXP, you will normally gain Account EXP.
Level 51-60 only provides 6 Skill Points per level up and the ability to upgrade your skills from level 10 to 11 and 11 to 12 and 55 and 60, respectively. Upgrading your skills to levels 11 and 12 is cheap but provides sizable damage increases for them. Level 51-60 takes several weeks per level up. (Quickly Reach level 50 Guide)

 

3. What classes can I choose from in Lost Ark?

Historically the game has always been released with only the original 12. However, NA and EU will launch with additional classes. Below is a list of the available and upcoming classes.

• Green = Confirmed on NA/EU launch.
• Yellow = Unconfirmed or not on launch.
• Red = Currently unknown.

 

4. Is the story good in Lost Ark?

I think so, but that is subjective. You may study the full backstory of Lost Ark within this document that I translated.

 

5. Lost Ark: Can I play just one character? Or do I need alerts?

The pace at which you progress is strictly restricted by how much gold you make. Because alts straight equate to additional gold, ordinarily, you'd want at least a couple of adults to help upgrade your major at a reasonably speedy pace. I would suggest 1-2 alts for any new player and steadily boost this because the content material tier increases simultaneously. This is a fantastic excuse for you personally to try out numerous characters.
Take this time to explore trying out multiple classes since there are many diverse playstyles. You'll have to put a small investment into each alt so that they're enjoyable or playable.

 

6. What is shared between characters on a server in Lost Ark?

What	From	What It Does
Passive Combat Stats	Permanent Stat Point Potions Card Collections Roster Level	Very minor boost to character strength.
Affinity Stats	Permanent Affinity Point Potions	Perform affinity actions with romanceable NPCs.
Skill Points	Skill Point Potions	More versatile skill build.
Cards	Misc. Content	Equip to unlock defensive and offensive extra stats.
Mounts	Cash Shop Misc. Content	Zoom, zoom.
Pets	Cash Shop	Auto-loot, stat boost, mobile functions.
Runes	Misc. Content	Improve skills.
Specific Currencies	Shilling Gold Bond Stones Rift Shards Pirate Coins Special Voyage Tokens Estate Tokens	Buy stuff.
Life Skills	N/A	Life skill levels and tools are shared on all characters.
Ships	Misc. Content	Sea zoom, zoom.
Storage	N/A	Can transfer unbound items between characters. Extra space can be researched from your estate.

 

7. How deep is the character customization in Lost Ark?

The actual character creator is limited. You can only really customize the face and hair. Body proportions cannot be customized.
You can make your style your own by equipping your wardrobe with outfits. Many outfits can also be dyed and patterned. Initially, the amount of dyeable outfits is a little limited.

 

8. Lost Ark: Are classes gender-locked? What is the difference between Deadeye and Gunslinger?

The classes of Lost Ark are gender-locked. They are currently slowly removing the gender lock one class at a time. However, there is a caveat to this.
The other gender goes by a different class name. 6 of their 18 skills are different. Their Awakening (ultimate) skills are different. Their class engravings are similar but different. The rate at which their specialty stat (a stat that is different for every class) scales is often slightly different.
12 of the 18 skills are the same and the concept of their identity skills.
Deadeye focuses on staying near the enemy's rear and dealing devastating damage with his shotgun. His sniper rifle stance, in comparison, is very weak. It's possible to play a specialized build where he also only uses his pistols, which do enhance damage, using the class engraving called Handgunner.
Gunslinger focuses mainly on her sniper rifle damage, being able to do great damage for a range, but her shotgun is pretty strong too. It's possible to play a specialized build where she only uses her pistols and sniper rifle with greatly increased critical chance, using the class engraving called Hunting Time.

 

9. Can you trade in Lost Ark?

 

10. What is the difference between Gold & Silver in Lost Ark?

Gold is the currency used for trading between players. It is much rarer to come across compared to Silver and usually only comes from raids and special events. It is also used in certain gear upgrading systems. Depending on what version of Lost Ark you have, the scarcity of gold may be more or less.
Silver (the silver coin) is dropped by most monsters and is used for any non-player interaction function. This includes upgrading your gear, buying items from NPCs, etc.

 

11. What is the sailing content like in Lost Ark?

It is very bare-bones. You mainly only sail to travel by way of the ocean, given that you cannot move quickly between continents usually (unless you take the liner to travel rapidly, but that expenses Shillings).
You'll find co-op sea events exactly where you may play some boat mini-games with other folks to earn tokens which may be exchanged for helpful goods. They have timed calendar events.

 

12. Lost Ark: Is the world expansive? Is there fast travel?

There are four types of fast travel in Lost Ark.
The first is using special waypoints to teleport within a continent, called Tripods. You have to interact with the waypoint at least once before using it. This type of fast travel cannot travel between continental landmasses.

The second is the liner. You can use the liner from any harbor and pay Shillings to fast travel to another harbor in another continental landmass.

The third type is the Song of Memories. Early on, you'll receive a song that you can play that allows you to instantly teleport back to a major city that you're saved to. The cooldown for this song is 2 hours, but you may be able to reduce the cooldown by enabling security measures on your account.

The final type of fast travel is the Traveler Book. This book allows you to save spots in the world that you can teleport back to at any point. There are a few restrictions. You can change the save spot once every 24 hours per slot, which can travel between continents. There is a 2-hour cooldown on using a teleport spot, and it uses a negligible amount of Shillings.

 

13. Are guilds important in Lost Ark?

Guilds provide a sense of camaraderie. On top of that, you can earn Silmael Bloodstone currency which is used to purchase from the guild store useful things like ticket boxes to certain contents and materials for upgrading.

There are also two types of GVG. One type is a weekly boss time attack, and the other is a GVG PVP event on various islands. Winning these types of events allow you to occupy that territory. There is a massive gold reward for victors and second and third place guilds in a week. The leader distributes this amount, so it's, however, your guild established allocation rules.

 

14. Lost Ark: Are there achievements/collectibles? Do they reward anything?

There are a lot of achievements. Achievements can give Roster EXP among other small rewards like titles.
Collectibles include Mokoko Seeds, Mark of Ignea, Island Hearts, Giant's Hearts, Voyage Maps, Masterpieces, World Tree Leaves, and Star of Orpheus. These each have their benefits for collecting them, some of which include things like Lost Ark Skill Points.
Collectibles are important, and you should probably do at least some of them that provide vital rewards.

 

15. Is this game cross-server in Lost Ark?

Overworld areas are not cross-server, and you'll only see people from your server in the different islands and continents.
Dungeons, Raids, PVP arena, and auction houses are cross-server. You can easily set up pre-made parties to instances with friends on other servers.

 

16. Lost Ark: Is there character build diversity? Do I have to pay for skill resets?

Most classes have 1-2 raid builds, a mobbing build, and potentially a few different kinds of PVP builds for the types of PVP (explained below).
Most of the skills are designed with a specific application in mind, and so despite a large number of skills, typically, you'll see certain skills appear in all raiding builds within a class.
Skill resets are always free as long as you're out of combat.
Depending on your needs, you can save multiple skill presets, and PVP uses its own special PVP skill page.

 

 

Lost Ark FAQ:

 

1. What is the endgame progression loop in Lost Ark?

Endgame involves a never-ending chase towards certain item level thresholds to advance to the next content and gear. You'll do daily and weekly content to earn materials used to RNG upgrade your items which will increase your item level and the number of activities you can do overtime.
The game is designed for the better majority of time for you to aim to achieve +15 on any given set of items at any time. The game goes up to +20 enhancements, but +15 is all you usually need to proceed to the next tier of content. The exception occurs later when you need to go beyond +15 in T3.
Lost Ark is split into tiers. Please think of a tier as an expansion from another MMO. Currently, in Korea, there are three tiers of content. There's a micro-ecosystem of content within every tier, and every tier has its endgame raid content. That means, even if you're in T1 content, there is an endgame, and that endgame will constantly shift as new content is released.
Lost Ark frequently has you changing out your gear for new gear. Some of your efforts into your existing gear will carry over (for example, some enhancement levels) each time. This is why it is generally recommended against whaling for enhancements because a lot of that effort will always be wasted with the inevitable tier-up.
Coupled alongside this is the effort of playing alts to get more daily and weekly rewards, earning collectibles, and striving for vanity encounters (equalized content) if that's what you enjoy.

 

2. What is more important, item level, character level, or roster level in Lost Ark?

Item level is the most important driving factor behind everything you can do. The character level is pretty moot. Once you reach 50, you're technically eligible for all content in the game. Roster level is only a sign of how long you've been playing the game and doesn't signify anything else.

 

3. What's enchanting like? Can my products break or downgrade? Is there a pity system?

You collect supplies (all might be obtained in the auction home), gold, fragments, and shillings, and after that, you try to upgrade. If you fail, there's no likelihood of item break, and there's no downgrade. You lose the components and currencies spent to try the upgrade.
When you fail, you accrue Craftsman's Power around the item, which must it reach 100%, the following upgrade is assured. The quantity of failures essential for any guaranteed upgrade increases the larger you go.

The lowest upgrade percentage chance you have to deal with while on the path to +15 is 40% odds in T1/T2. With adequate material and gold income in any given week, you can attempt several upgrades every day or week.

 

4. What carries over from each gear set to the next in Lost Ark?

Answering this because of the potential fear that people may have regarding frequent gear-ups in Lost Ark.
Part of your enhancements will carry over depending on if it's an up to a new tier. The amount depends on what enhancement you reached; the higher you go, the more is preserved.

 

5. What is there to accomplish other than dungeons or raids in Lost Ark?

Aside from dungeons and raids, there's PVP, island mini-games, island story quests, a slew of collectibles with worthwhile rewards, achievements, and sailing activities.
Dungeons and raids are a significant portion of Lost Ark and one of the main appeals.

 

6. What dailies or weeklies do I have to do in Lost Ark?

The most important dailies are two boss fights, two mobbing dungeons, and three simple quests. There are a few other notable things to do on a given day, such as affinity actions. Daily timed events on islands can reward you with useful things, including gold on some days.
As far as weeklies, you usually have a lot of raids you need to accomplish. Initially, there may not be much in NA/EU, assuming they start in T1. As time goes on, you gain access to more permanent weekly raids that will add to the amount of playtime on any given character. Every character/alt has its lockout for dailies and raids, which is why alts tend to be so effective. As new content comes out, older content no longer gives useful rewards to you, so you typically stop doing them (the content changes, but the amount you should do does not).
Usually, one character will take about 40 minutes to an hour per day to complete the normal dailies. Weeklies will typically add a couple of hours per character per week (this amount starts less and increases as new permanent weekly contents are added). This is linear because of individual lockouts. For example, I play seven characters, they take me 4-5 hours each day to do all of their dailies, and weeklies add anywhere from 3-4 hours per week per character (Daily and Weekly Checklist).
When new raids come out, prog can take several hours depending on what raid it is (there are guides for everything already).
Between alts vs. a main, you'll often spend more time on alts than you will on your main unless there's released content that you need to prog on your main.

 

7. When do I unlock life skilling? Is it important to life skills, or can I skip it entirely?

You unlock it around level 20 very early on. Life skills are not vital, but they are valuable. You only get a limited amount of energy to do life skill-related gathering each day, and the components you gather can be used to create battle items that you can use yourself or sell. It is almost always economically advantageous to craft your battle items.
You do not need craft gear in this game with a profession. Set items are produced using raid mats at an NPC.

 

8. Is there private housing? How customizable is it?

There is private housing. You unlock it right after finishing the first continent around level 30. House customization offers a lot of different furnishings to decorate your home with, and by reaching max affinity with romanceable NPCs, they will also inhabit your island to help it feel a little less lonely.
Furnishing your home will take gold, though, so most people won't bother unless they're already satisfied with their current character progression.
There will be many major housing improvements throughout 2022!

 

 

Lost Ark PVP Guide:

 

1. What is the state of PVP in other servers?

Pretty spotty/inactive in Russia/Japan. Korea, it's populated enough mainly due to the much larger overall population that you can usually get a queue at any time of day (for ranked queue). The normal queue is fine on the servers.
Balance is not perfect, some classes are 'ower tier' than others, and PVP balances often come less frequently than PVE balances.
There has been increased focus on improving PVP in Korea lately with the Rowen continent and soon-to-be Royal Roaders eSports event.

 

2. What kind of PVP is there in Lost Ark?

There's arena PVP, island PVP, and GVG.
Arena PVP can be queued from anywhere in the world. It includes FFA (no one plays this), LTS (less populated but has 1v1 combat), and TDM (3v3, has a normal and ranked queue).
There are no premade for the ranked queue, but you can premake LTS and TDM unranked. There is no actual 1v1 game mode either.
FFA is as it sounds. It's a clown fiesta. Everyone gets put into a ring and kills each other.
LTS is 3v3, but each team sends in one player at a time. The winner stays on. If all members of your team die, you lose. Cooldowns and health are not replenished for the winner per bout. This does not have a ranked mode. LTS is extremely good for learning what each class does and how to win super armor battles against them.
TDM is 3v3 in the most traditional sense. Most kills within the time limit win. The ranked queue is a solo queue and puts you in a team of usually similarly skilled players (sometimes it'll put a high rank with low ranks, but one on each side). TDM is the only environment where you can learn about team play, peeling, engaging/disengaging as a group, ult tracking enemies/allies, and awareness.
There is MMR gain and loss in ranked. MMR brackets (bronze, silver, gold, platinum, diamond, master, grandmaster). In your first 50 or so matches of the season, you gain and lose many points. These serve as your pseudo placement matches. After that, your MMR gain and loss start getting smaller and smaller, and it becomes difficult to climb.
Island PVP are mini-games that appear on islands that have different PVP objectives. Most islands with PVP events are also open PVP areas, but you gain nothing for attacking people in these places. There are a few of these.
GVG is PVP among guilds, and it's a weekly event where guilds field their players against one another in different island occupation events. Each island has its objective. Some are combat. Some are non-combat. Occupying the territory by winning the most points by the end of the GVG period confers benefits such as gold and other rights.
In the (near) future, Korea will be adding a continent called Rowen, which is focused on open-world PVP. The continent, unlike previous continents, will feature a slew of PVP events in an attempt to 'celebrate the fun of PVP' without it being too competitive. More details later.

 

3. What's the difference between the PVP rank in the PVP menu and the PVP rank on my character sheet in Lost Ark?

The one on your character sheet is strictly played amount. It doesn't take into consideration your wins or losses. At the end of every week, the number of PVP points you've accrued by participating in PVP activities is tallied up, and you're placed in percentiles with every other player on your server (not region). Those who played more PVP are in a lower percentile and gain more rank points towards this PVP rank. Those who played less may not get enough points to maintain their rank. When PVP activity is high on the server, more PVP must be played to place in a lower percentile.
You can unlock new things in the PVP store to buy by ranking up your character sheet rank. Some are materials for upgrading in PVE, and some are vanity items that may or may not be temporary (mount, aura, etcetera). By being a higher rank in this category, you get more PVP currencies at the end of each week to buy stuff from this store.
The PVP rank in the PVP sheet has to do with your rating rank (bronze, silver, gold, etcetera). This is gained and lost with every match. You must play at least one match every 14 days, or your rating will begin to decay. At the end of the season, the top players receive rewards, including PVP costume, PVP mount, and sometimes even cash shop currency.
The PVP rank in your character sheet and the one in the PVP menu are not related and are for two different things.

 

4. Is PVP equalized in Lost Ark?

All Arena events are equalized. Everyone has the same combat stat cap that they can freely adjust in a unique menu, and everyone gets 340 skill points for Arena on a separate Arena-specific page. Players cannot exceed level 10 skills, even if over level 55. The game sets health and attack power. No gear is required to do arena PVP, except for a weapon so that you can cast your skills (weapon restriction).
Most island PVP events are equalized minus a couple, such as Slime Island.
GVG varies but a few GVG events are non-equalized, so only the strongest guilds can contest top territories. Guilds 2-5 still get a large reward at end-of-week rankings on an island, and guilds 6-10 get a smaller reward. However, since the reward is not exclusive to 1st place, weaker guilds can still participate in higher-ranking occupation islands.

 

5. Can you get gear or stuff for PVE from PVP in Lost Ark?

You can get PVE-related materials for upgrading from the PVP vendor using the currency gained from matches and your end-of-week character sheet PVP rank.