Lost Ark Lost Ark - Advanced Basics

Intro

Note From The Author this is a work in progress

i will write more stuff, as soon i reached it ingame, and understood it.

most of the infos are simply from things i understood, some lists are taken from other pages (no refs, since most of them just copied those infos too)

i am a martial artist main (striker with an off scrapper and soul fist and a few more alts)

at the moment i am at tier one, shortly before tier two

so, no. i am not a "pro" players, just a casual having fun with the game and sharing what he understood with his mates

this (steam guides) is a nice way to do that in a permanent form

if you don't like it fine, feel free to comment and tell me what can be done better, or is even wrong

if you think you need to insult me for stuff i wrote here, please think about that need again, and if that thought still remains, feel free to go ahead

i am a native german speaker, so don't sue me on typoes and grammatical errors plz - you are welcome to mention them tho, so i can fix them

i simply decided to start this in english, for a greater accassibility and since it's my prefered language

at some point, i will or might translate the whole thing into german

my main priority in this game is fun. i even enjoy the story!

i never planned to rush to endgame (could have done that, but i am not a fan of that behaviour)

this guide has an order, tho it might not be too obvious ;)

it is ordered according to leveling progress in the game, as i encountered the features (mostly)

styles and pictures are - like the rest - a work in progress

Thane.

Usefull Settings

just to mention some options that i personally found usefull, and reasons for my choices:

VideoForce 21:9 Aspect Ration if you own a 21:9 monitor anyway, ignore this

most "pros" suggest to force the 21:9 aspect ration, for the increased view range (side wise)

in PvP it is kinda mendatory, bc of the range advantage

in PvE the normal view should be enough on the usual non forced aspect ration

i prefer the normal aspect ration on my 16:9 monitor, bc the view simply gets too small (height wise)

Lock Cursor by default for some reason disabled

locks the cursor to your active window

enable it if you play on a non full screen setting

HUD Size Adjustment i suggest to use the 80% setting, less clutter on your screen from the main UI/buttons

Audio Select Voice Language you can actually set the default audio language to another one than the text language

e.g. play on english sound, and have german text

or play on english text with korean audio

i suggest the korean audio, but that is just a personal pref. dialogues feel less way cringe this way for some reason ;) but as said, that's just me.

the text language is defined by your installed client version, if you want to change that, do it in the steam game settings

Sound in Background disabled by default

enable if you want your sound to continue playing while you tab out of the game window

Gameplay - Control and DisplayCombat Outline under "Show Combat/Pet"

draws a white outline on your character as soon you enter combat

usefull to be able to always see your character, even if he/she is blocked by structures, or the zerg

Display time in AM/PM format under "UI"

stupid yankie time system

disable to get a european (24h) time display

Cursor Aim * under "Combat Settings"

enabled by default

"magnetizes" your cursor aim, to focus on mobs

can lead to inaccuracies when fighting bigger groups

i suggest to disable it for higher precision while aiming

* i am playing with mouse. no comment from me if you are playing with gamepad, didn't test that. might be better to keep this setting on with gamepad, to get the "usual aim assist"

Gameplay - Name Tags gives you the option to chose what you want to see from player names (title, guild...)

when in bigger raids (chaos portals for example) all the names on the screen can kinda block your actual view on the game, chose what you like for the situation

Level One To Ten

Trick Paragraph!

We don't get leveling from level one to ten in the western release version. Just know that there is some story content depending on each class which we won't get to see, but it will be referenced in the game a bit later on now and then, don't let this confuse you.

Our chars have a background story!

Example: the martial artists got the usual training / enemy stuff in which they rose to the top of their "clan", yeon.

Costumes

Do you need them or not?

In general, you don't NEED them, but you WANT one!

Costumes not only come with the benefit of having a graphics applied to your armor, they also add Virtue Points and stats boni (for example: +0.5% - +1% strength) to your character, which can be pretty important in the later run (for Rapport).

Most costume variants offer different Virtue Stats on them in their colour variations, so check what you want/need before chosing one.

Also, not all but some of them can be coloured or have added added patterns at NPC when having the needed requirements, which you can get on a weekly base through the grand prix event atm or the AH/market.

Costumes can either be purchased for cash on the Lost Ark Shop, when they are available, or for gold on the auction house from other players.

The AH prices rise as soon those costumes left the shop ofc, so you might need to wait a bit to find a decent pricing, or just go full whale and get what you want.

At the moment there are like three to five costumes per class (with one of them actually being able to be bought for currency you get by just playing the game, you can get those in all major cities at the NPCs). not all being class bound tho, but they ALL will bind to the class (and gender) you use themem on the first time.

You can chose to just wear a costume for the Virtue Boni, and switch their visuals off, incase you might get a head costume you do not like for example.

Also, there is a costume storage, so you don't have waste precious space if you don't actually wear em, just hit your closest storage NPC and open the corresponding tab.

Leveling To Softcap And Quests

BasicsThis is where our game in the western version starts.

You will enter the game in a more or less short storyline, introducing you to the basic caracters, your character and its basic abilities.

The whole thing should roughly take you about 45-ish minutes to complete.

I suggest to do it once at least, bc there is a head costume part rewarded once per roster, for the first completion (it will bind to that char class, so use it wisely)

Even if you decide you don't need or want this, this is your first costume part, and it grants 1% strength, which ain't much at first, but as usual, boni stack up in this game, and sooner or later 1% won't be that little!

Note: if you don't like its appearance (mechanicle goggles on your head), you can chose to hide the optic and just wear it for the 1% bonus.

Nothing too complicated in here, or stuff you could do wrong, so as suggested, do it on your first char, and after that you can decide if you wanna skip it or not (still awards basic equipment rewards, even after the first completion)

As soon you reach the first city... you have to get through more intro stuff.

Armen's story is advanced during this part, and it basically leads you through the continent of Lutarra. Also the game will throw new "systems" at you now and then, explaining them in detail. basically nothing too complicated yet, just things like "different skills and their usage".

A few notable things here:

Level CapTechnically, the level cap is at level 60. Players in Lost Ark refer to 60 as "hard cap", and consider 50 the "soft cap".

What this means? At 50 you reach "endgame", and will be able to participate in the "real" content, depending on your item level.

You will continue to gain experience and levels past 50, the pace of that happening will DRASTICALLY slow down tho.

things you get for leveling up after 50:

level ups for you Tripod skills (at 55 and 60 one more level possible)

more Skill Points (again, at 55 and 60 each 30)

Quests Main Quest Line:The Main quest light will first be shown as orange icon during this part, this is the quest you need to advance, to get to later content.

This icon changes its colour later on (as soon you get sailing) to blue.

You will reach a clean level 50 in Vern without doing any side-quests just by doing your main quest line.

Side Quests:A lot of characters you meet will offer additional side quests, those are NOT needed to advance the story and leveling, and can be done at a later point.

Note: You WILL reach level 50 about the time you hit Vern, if you only play the main quest line. Depending on the number of side-quests you complete on your way, you should hit 50 at some point around Arthetine (4th continent).

Roster Quests:Some of the quests will be ranked as "Roster Quests". Those quests can either not be repeated on alts at all, after doing them once, or will simply not reward the full thing at it's end. Don't be puzzled by that, just know they exist.

Rapport, Adventure Tome And Items

Rapport Characters:

You will meet your first rapport charaacters here, and they aren't very important at first, first rewards are very minor (for every character), but keep in mind that:

you will get gold from some of those rapport chars later

cards

some of them actually reward Skill Point Potions or Virtue Points

once you maxed each of those chars (which you won't be able to do now, they require certain stats to advance to the end), you can place them in your stronghold, for extra fluff.

Adventurer's Tome

The adventurer's tome is your "achievements reward list" for each continent.

It is split into segements for the available continents, and offers rewards for each 10% completion of the secrets, kills and gatharables of each area.

You can check for easy rewards (for example, Vern offers you a raptor mount at 30% which can be done during the normal leveling process easily), but you will complete this beast at a later point.

Some of those rewards (eg. skill point potions) are important for maxing your char, but those usually are on a higher "rank" in its tome sections, first reachable is rank 6 some time after Vern.

Items

Tiers item level 0 - 599: Tier 1;

item level 600 - 1099: Tier 2;

item level 1100 - 1575: Tier 3;

Faint Ore Charm acquisition: collectible, World Tree Leaves (12)

improves gathering (all tradeskills +1, basic reward bonus +5%)

can be upgraded in rarity for improved stats

Uncommon Wooden Compass acquisition: collectible, Island Souls (15)

improves sailing (increased speed on sea and islands, reduced ship repair costs)

can be upgraded in rarity for improved stats (turtle on Opher)

Songs

Songs can serve different purposes.

From completing certain Queststeps to Rapport or just "basic functions", the range is quite wide.

Some are gained by completing certain steps of the main quest, other are earned via the Adventurer's Journal, and yet others again are gained completely different (#13: the larch).

Instruments are class bound, each class his their own variant of it. There are some skins for instruments, but they won't actually change the effect of it.

As before, they will add Virtue Points to certain Virtues, which again increases your chances in Rapport (also, they give you a colour for your instrument).

Follwing, a quick overview on how to get em and their purpose:

Song Name Description Acquisition Song of Escape Leave Instances such as Dungeons or Islands Main Quest Song of Trixion Travel to Trixion Main Quest Song of Return Moves you to your stronghold Main Quest Song of Hearth and Home Travel to Stronghold Stronghold Quest that Starts in Luterra Song of Valor An encouraging anthem of Luterra. Increase Rapport with NPCs Main Quest Heart’s Melody A song with the power to move people’s hearts. Main Quest Serenade of Love A beautiful song of romance Main Quest Elegy of Serenity A song that soothes away sadness !Quest Elegy of Serenity, given by Mathias in the Arid Path of Arthetine. Song of Resonance It opens hidden spaces Sold at Peyto Island by Treasure Hunter Igran for 16,500 Pirate Coins Forest’s Minuet It removes hidden paths by moving thorny vines !Quest It’s Okay, Miss Fairy Starts from Hiding Fairy in Lullaby Island. Song of Reminiscence Remembering places and times of the past !Journey Lost Footsteps – Part of the 2nd Awakening Questline Song of Temptation Can charm the target Complete 50% of the Adventurer’s Tome in Yudia Requiem of Twilight It’s a song for appearing departed souls. !Quest Island of Eternal Rest from Farther Dirutn in Tranquil Isle Song of Starlight It is the song of the starkeeper who guides souls Purchased from Favreau on Starlight Isle for 3,300 Gienah Coins (top of castle). Heavenly Harmony A song harmonious with the flowers Obtained from Chest after doing a Co-Op Mission on Harmony Island Festival Overture A song to mark the beginning of the holy festival n/a? Song of Eternity A beautiful song handed down to Sylvains Complete 60% of the Adventurer’s Tome in Rohendel. Song of Spring A melody to breathe life into the heart and soul. !Quest Shangra’s Pure Energy – Starts from Eunsun at Shangra Romantic Weapon A fun song filled with the romance of Yorn Complete 60% of the Adventurer’s Tome in Yorn Soulful Requiem Requiem to commemorate Delains Complete 60% of the Adventurer’s Tome in Feiton Song of Harmony A song with Harmonious Blessings Complete 50% of the Adventurer’s Tome in Punika

Crossing The Vast Seas

"On the Grand Line, you can't trust the wind, the sky, the waves, or even the clouds. Everything is treacherous. The only thing you can count on is the Log Pose!"

There are multiple ways to cross the oceans in Lost Ark.

By Ship

Your first is ofc your little armada of ships. You need to watch out for hazards and ships having propper resistances to those, when staying around for too long.

To start sailing, simply visit a continent's port, and walk into the yellow circle at the harbor (or hit M and press start sailing on the lower left, which will teleport you into the port's harbor for a small fee).

Ships can be upgraded, to offer place for more crew members, enhance their resistences and/or stats.

Finding new ships can take you some time at first, some require progress in the Reputation System, others are handed to you just be reaching a certain point in the leveling process (for example you get your first one after Luterra, another one, the sturmbrecher will be given to you after Arthetine, to reach Shushire and so on).

Ship Acquisition

There are 3 Reputations / Daily Quests you can level on Una's List (Alt+U), which will reward you with one new ship at their final level each:

Quests

"Bleak Night Fog" (kill the Ghostship / its Captain): Eibern

"She Drifts, Sea Gifts" (Co-Op sailing events, you need two certain ones to appear, so this might take a bit): Astray

"Ride Like The Wind" (drive 3 guests home from Peyto); Eurus

edit: i might add a full list a bit later

The Oceanliner

Your second way, is the Ocean Liner. A System that allows you to sail from pots to other ports - tho not all are accassible from anywhere.

To use the liner, visit your local port and find the NPC called "Riff", when talking to him, he will give you a list of ports that are available from your current location and - for a small silver fee - bring you there.

Bi-Frost and the Song of Return

As last alternative for continental movement, you are given the song of return at some point in Luterra (portal statue). You can use that once an hour-ish to return to your set Return point in the Major cities.

And last but not least, you can use the Bi-Frost, which can be set anywhere and you can return to that location for a small silver fee.

At a later point ingame, you get another Bi-Frost slot to save a second location, unfortunately changes those locations later on, requires you to pay some crystals.

Islands And Other Events On The Sea

General

Islands reward Island Souls.

Those can be handed in on Gopher to get rewards (see Alt+L ingame).

There are a lot of islands, some for lower levels (250++), others a bit higher (460++).

Most of those islands don't require you to do a lot, they offer some distraction from the grind and monster slaying. Their rewards on the other hand can be quite handy, reaching from islands souls (as mentioned above) to skill runes, over toys and other thing.

Also, most of those islands are accassible all the time, with some exceptions:

Reward Islands

Those islands are always accassible and on the same location, you can hand in your Island Souls (Gopher), Masterpieces (Sunflower Island), Mokoko Seeds (Tortoyk), Sea Bounties (Peyto) and Giant's Hearts (Wisdom Isle) on them.

Also most of them offer shorter or longer quests: usually just a lot of walking, finding, sailing, clicking and - if you want - story reading.

Adventure Islands

Those appear according to the calender (and a rotation) on set locations. You can do one of those per day, and their rewards and times can be checked in procyons compass (Note: times tend to be off, Amazon somehow managed to screw up DST, check the calander after checking procyons).

Shangra and Tooki

Shangra and Tooki Island spawn on a two hour-ish Rotation, and on different possible locations. You wanna do Shangra for example to get the flying Nimbus mount (full Goku style!).

Those islands can spawn on multiple locations, and ten minutes before their appearance they will "introduce" their location with a water swirl at the corresponding location. If you start sailing at Vern 10 minutes before their spawn and watch the area chat for links, you will usually get their location and don't have to search em yourself.

Other Events

The sea also offers more activities for its captains:

co-op sailing events

versus events (team)

somewhere in the vast sea

ghost ship

All of them have their respective rewards (and some associated reputation quests), and all of them are on a timer, watch the alarms window or check the calender.

To access the "Somewhere in the sea" event, you need keys, a key of harmony for the Gate of Harmony and so on. This event happens only on 3 days a week, so don't miss it!

Awakening Quests

Awakening Skills Awakening Quests give you access to your most powerfull skills

the Awakening Skills deal MASSIVE damage

they are on a 5 minute timer, and require one chaos shard per use

note that you can only use one Awakening Skill, even tho you unlocked both you need to chose one of them, which you want to actively use in combat

First Awakening Quest you get your first Awakening Quest at level fifty

once you reach Vern and complete the blue quests up to a point, you will get a message from Beatrice

complete that quest line, and you will have access to your first Awakening Skill

you will also get your last class skill with that questline

Second Awakening Quest to get access to your second Awakening Quest and Skill, you will need to finish the Rohendell Questline (blue) and a gear score of at least 380

at that point, you will receive a "letter", go to the postmaster and get your quest there

this questline takes some time, even more than the first one

complete that quest line, and you will have access to your second Awakening Skill (and get some skill points in the process)

AltsIf you play an alt character, and your main already completed their awakening quest, Beatrice will instead remind you of "an old untapped power", which you can directly unlock at Vern.

I am not quite sure about the 2nd awakening skill, but atm both my martial artist alts have their two awakening quests available in Vern. So i'd guess it's safe to say you get them both in or when completing the Vern main story line.

Advanced Dungeons, Engravings And Gear Honing (Level 50++)

As soon you reach Vern and/or level 50, your leveling progress will slow down and shift to mainly upgrading your armor item level.

Also the game will throw a lot of new systems at you:

gear honing

chaos dungeons

the tower

abysal dungeons

guardian raids

Item Level Advancement

You start at about 302 in Vern, which is considered tier one.

From that on, to advance to later continents, you will need higher item levels, but that info will be given to you via a guide quest.

After reaching the required item level, new Quests to get to the next continents will appear.

That item level advancing is done by playing chaos dungeons, the tower or abysal dungeons.

Chaos Dungeons and Honing

Basically, you can do two per day. You will get a lot of drops (weapon, gear/armor or accesoires), and some honing materials in those runs.

Those 2 runs deplete your Aura of Resonance, and after that, you will get WAY less gear and accesoire drops, but an increased number of honing material and perceptions shards.

Engravings

Engraving seriously improve your skills and gameplay.

They must be learned, but can be accessed by the whole roster (with the exception of class engravings which obviously require the corresponding class),

You will most likely first encounter engravings in Luterra Castle, and get some Guide Quests for it.

Those quests will explain the basics of engravings, if you read the text ;)

In general you want to chose your engravings to fit your playstyle.

And yes, there are "best" engravings. Tho if you wanna use em is up to you. No one forces you to play with others or even effectivly!

Engravings come in rising quality, each of them having 20 ranks.

Once you reached rank 20 on a corresponding engraving, you can use it as Engraving Effect.

You can equip two Engraving Effects.

Each rank of the Engraving Effect adds +3 notes for its Engraving.

Usually, you want to chose one class engraving, and get that to tier 1.

After that, either advance that Engraving to tier 2, or get another (non class) Engraving to tier one.

For endgame, you will most likely have 2 Engravings on tier 3, and the better/higher you get, have more and more Engravings on tier one to three.

I will not talk about "best engravings" here (yet, might do it later).

There are pages for that, see https://lost-ark.maxroll.gg/ for example.

Gear Honing

Honing materials can be used to upgrade your gear at honing NPCs, with decreasing chance of success the higher the item level.

They are split into:

base parts (harmony shards),

gear parts (guardian stones) and

weapon parts (destruction stones)

Perception shards can be traded for either new gear (up to your item level), or more honing materials.

Una's Tasks: Dailies, Weeklies And Reputation

At about level thirty, you will get access to Una's Tasks (Alt+J).

They are split into:

daily quests

weekly quests

reputations

Daily Quests you can do three daily quests per character.

you can repeat the daily quests on alts

unless i was every time reallllllly tired, repeating dailies will only yield the daily reward, and not add extra reputation progress

you will get rewards (silver, pirate coins, few honing materials and gems)

they are the backbone of Una's Tasks

Weekly Quests you can do three weekly tasks

they are a lot like daily quests, but with greater rewards for bigger tasks

they are split into Chaos Dungeon, Guardian Raids, Cube, Boss Rush, Proving Grounds, Trade Skills and Sailing

Reputations the real rewards of the Una's Tasks system

they ask you to repeat certain daily quests, to advance in ranks for different factions/groups

some of them reward new ships (ghostship and she drifts)

other offer virtue points

one of them rewards 3 skill points (whispering islet, choir teacher)

best advice: check em ALL like once, find what you want for NOW and do em. when you find out what you actually NEED (new ships, skill points potions, songs, ...), do them.

Skillpoints

Skillpoints can be invested into skills, increasing their level to raise their effectiveness and add new effects or increase their damage.

One Tripod can be activated (out of three) at level four, seven and ten.

At level 50, the maximum level of a skill is ten, at level 55, you can upgrade skill to lvl eleven for a 10% damage increase, and at level 60 you can upgrade skills to level twelve, for 5% additional damage.

At level 50, you got a theoretical maximum of skillpoints of 348 and at level 55 and 60 you get 30 more skillpoints each, increasing that maximum to 378 and finally 408 (total maximum until South Vern arrives).

Levelingtotal: 60;

from 50 to 55 (30)

from 55 to 60 (30)

Breakpoints this is a general reccomendation for the distribution of skillpoints on skills.

i don't run this distribution on all of my chars myself. not sure i even run it on one of em

nm, this is the general opinion, and i thought it would be of value to mention it.

# of SP combinations 252 5x Lv. 10 Skills, 3x Lv. 4 Skills 261 5x Lv. 10 Skills, 1x Lv. 7 Skill 270 5x Lv. 10 Skills, 1x Lv. 7 Skill, 2x Lv. 4 Skills 282 5x Lv. 10 Skills, 2x Lv. 7 Skills 285 5x Lv. 10 Skills, 2x Lv. 7 Skills, 1x Lv. 4 Skill 288 6x Lv. 10 Skills 297 6x Lv. 10 Skills, 2x Lv. 4 Skills 312 6x Lv. 10 Skills, 1x Lv. 7 Skill, 1x Lv. 4 Skill 330 6x Lv. 10 Skills, 2x Lv. 7 Skill 336 7x Lv. 10 Skills 342 7x Lv. 10 Skills, 1x Lv. 4 Skill 348 6x Lv. 11 Skills, 1x Lv. 7 Skill, 1x Lv. 4 Skill 384 6x Lv. 12 Skills, 1x Lv. 7 Skill, 1x Lv. 4 Skill 384 8x Lv. 10 Skills

Adventure Book Skill Pointstotal: 18;

70% East Luterra Adventure Tome (3)

60% North Vern Adventure Tome completion (3)

50% Shushire Adventure Tome completion (3)

70% Rohendel Adventure Tome completion (3)

80% Punika Adventure Tome completion (6)

The Tower Skill Pointstotal: 12;

Shadespire 20th floor (3)

Shadespire 50th floor (3)

Fatespire 20th floor (3)

Fatespire 50th floor (3)

Una’s Task Skill Points "Whispering Harmony" (3)

Skill Points from Queststotal: 42;

“A Light Cast Over the Dark Fields” in East Luterra (3)

“Eggs in the Sky” in Anikka (3)

“The Hidden Robber” in Shushire (3)

“The Stone of Power” in Serenity Isle (3)

“[Awakening] The Sunset” in Rohendel (3)

“Return Trip” in Rohendel (3) "The Wayward Son", Required finding an Old Pendant in Shushire (3)

"Memories of Luterra", Starts with Thirain (3)

"Wondrous Find", Starts at Cadri in Port City Changhun (3)

"Journey: Strange Mail", Rohendell (3)Feiton

“The Last Melody of a Requiem” (3)

“Those Buried in the Dark Ground” (3)Punika

"Lost letters" (3)

“Eternal Love” (3)

Skill Points from Tradingtotal: 36;

20x Island Token (6) 4x Giant’s Heart (3)

6x Giant’s Heart (3)

10x Giant’s Heart (3)

12x Giant’s Heart (3) 8x Ignea Token (6) 2x Omnium Stars (6)

6x Omnium Stars (6)

Updates

20.03.2022: fixed some typos throughout the whole document (guess i didn't find all yet, sorry)

added quick ship acquisition list to "Crossing the Vast Seas"

minor Updates to "Una's Tasks: Dailies, Weeklies and Reputation"19.03.2022: added "Faint Ore Charm" and "Uncommon Wooden Compass" infos to "Rapport, Adventure Tome and Items"

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2771529914

Lost Ark - Advanced Basics