Lost Ark: 10 Things You Need To Know Before Getting Started | Quick Tips Guide

A new craze has hit the Steam charts, topping over 500,000 concurrent players — Lost Ark is a F2P Diablo-like MMO that is designed to suck your time like a temporal vacuum. And we’re about to dive into the basics of this expensive, smash-hit Korean import that’s finally available in the west for the first time. If you’re hesitant to jump in, or curious, or completely baffled after character creation, here’s a quick list of 10 tips you’ll want to keep in mind on your quest to reach the end-game content. Lost Ark isn’t just a game for some people. This is a lifestyle, so if you’re ready to take your first steps, let’s begin.

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More Lost Ark guides:

6 Easy Steps To Level Up Fast & Reach The End-Game | Important Keybinds List | All Currencies

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#1: Every Class Is Useful And You Can Respec Any Time

Lost Ark character creation can be a daunting process, but no matter what class you select for your lengthy adventure, know that they will be useful. Every class is designed so they can complete the content of the game — even Support classes — and they’re even better when working with friends or playing with teams. Doing damage is great, and so is helping your team. Especially when you reach Level 50 and take on the end-game raids.

• NOTE: At Level 30~, you can return to Trixion and talk to the NPC Beatrice. She’ll give you a training room to test your skills with a DPS meter — making it easy to see which abilities do the most consistent damage. And you can respec.

You can even respec at any time. At no cost, you can reset skill points, tripods and runes to test combinations. There’s no penalty for this. There’s also no penalty for playing multiple characters on the same server — you’ll even earn special account-wide character rewards through the Roster Level system. The Roster Level is shared by all your characters on the server, so even when you’re playing with an alt, you’re helping your main succeed.

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#2: Save HP Potions, Use Healing Potions

There are two types of potions you’ll collect as you progress through Lost Ark — and one of them is way too valuable to waste. HP Potions heal a percentage of your total health (30% / 40% etc) while Healing Potions heal a specific numerical amount. That means HP Potions are ALWAYS USEFUL — making them incredibly valuable in the end-game, because you’ll still be able to rapidly heal.

Instead of wasting those useful HP Potions, keep them in storage and chug Healing Potions until you reach Level 50. You’ll receive so many Healing Potions, you can make some quick Silver profit by selling them during the campaign. Silver is required for teleporting, so earning extra if you’re a F2P-player can’t hurt.

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#3: Pay Attention To Progression

The goal of Lost Ark is to reach Level 50 and perfect your build. Running through the campaign, there are some small details that might trip you up — like how to progress. There are multiple markers you’ll want to pay attention to, each with different types of quests.

• Orange Quest: Level 1-35 Main Quest line.
• Purple Quest: Level 35-50 Main Quest line.
• Purple Exclamation Point: Tutorial Quest. Can be skipped — but they give good rewards for first-time players.
• Side-Quest: The linked chain symbol denotes a side-quest with good rewards. These can give silver or skill points. All of these are optional.

After completing the continent of East Luttera, you’ll unlock the Voyages section of your adventure. With your boat, you can explore islands and continue the story by following purple quest markers — eventually leading to the Arthetine continent. In the second half of the game, you’ll be able to unlock end-game features by completing side-quests, so finish as many of them as you can early.

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#4: Earn More XP For All Your Characters

At Level 50, you’ll unlock Rested XP. This is a feature that should be well-known to MMO players — when you’re logged off, you’ll build special Rested XP buffs that help you earn more XP when you log back in. This is an account-wide buff, so all of your server characters will get the same Rested XP boost. Once you’re Level 50, you’ll want to go ahead and create an alt or two to take advantage. Even if you don’t plan on playing with the character, you can still sit and earn that sweet Rested XP.

In addition to Rested XP, you can also earn easy Roster XP by collecting hidden Mokoko Seeds. There are many seeds hidden all throughout each map — there are useful resources all over the internet to find them, so I recommend finding locations ASAP to rapidly increase your Roster XP and unlock bonuses for all your characters while progressing through your journey.

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#5: Using Mounts & Travelling Faster

In about 30~ minutes of gameplay, you’ll unlock your first free mount. You can unlock more mounts later through Adventure Tome rewards — new mounts have dash and jump abilities that your starting mount lacks. Mounts are just one way you can quickly get around the map.

• Unlocking Triports allows you to fast-travel at the cost of silver. You can quickly access triports on your overlay map by pressing [Alt+LMB].
• And don’t forget about auto-run. Press [T] to toggle on auto-run.
• Use the Song of Escape to instantly leave an instance. Press [F2] to open the Song List.
• And you can instantly teleport out of instances with the /escape chat command. You can only use this feature once every 15 minutes.

You can also rapidly travel using Bifrost Locations [Alt+W]. These are additional fast-travel slots you can place at any location you constantly travel back to — perfect for completing daily quests. You can unlock up to five slots. You’ll earn two slots by reaching Combat Level 40 and Roster Level 60.

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#6: Save These Chests For End-Game

Not all treasure chests are created equal. Certain reward crates / chests will give you a selection of items. If a chest generates random items, go ahead and open it. If the chest gives you an option to select Battle Items or Cards, you’re better off saving that chest until Level 50.

These chests are great because you might need Battle Items at the end of the game, or in the case of Cards, you might need a specific card to complete your deck. They’re a lot harder to get later in the game, so hang onto these rare chests before you waste them. You can also earn cards for your deck frequently by completing Adventure Islands / Voyage Co-Op missions.

At Level 50, you’ll know whether these treasures are worth it. If you don’t need them anymore, feel free to take advantage of the Auction House and sell that junk off. Using the Auction House costs gold, but you will be refunded if your item doesn’t sell.

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#7: Playing With Friends & Team Communication

Working with other players is an important skill in Lost Ark, and there are tools you might not know about that make coordination easier. First of all is playing with your friends. To play with friends, you need to add them to your Friends List [U]. You can only add friends that are on the same server, and on the same server channel. Once a friend has been added, you can add them to your party and you’ll appear in the same instance.

Once you’re with your friend, or with a team, there are tools you can use to coordinate gameplay without using a mic or having to type.

• [Left Shift + RMB On Map]: Shares Your Map Location To Chat
• [Ctrl + LMB]: Ping location. You can ping anything for your team — you can place special markers, or ping enemies and spots on the ground instantly.
• Signal Flairs: When on a raid, purchase Signal Flairs — these items reveal the location of the Guardian Raid boss. They’re worth the cost for your team.

Pinging is incredibly useful for fast communication. If you’re working with an online team, they can be pretty ornery about in-game cutscenes and players will often kick if you don’t skip. If you don’t want to worry about voting, you can change your settings to auto-skip story cutscenes.

• Settings -> Gameplay -> Controls & Display -> Combat Settings -> Toggle On “Skip Dungeon Cutscenes”

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#8: Keeping End-Game Engravings & Tripods

Tripods are upgrades you can equip to your Skills to make them even better. Tripods can be unlocked by finding new Tripods attached to specific gear — once a Tripod is added to your Tripod library, you can keep it forever. This is even more useful when you realize that you can essentially get any Tripod you want for free once you unlock the Auction House.

• How To Get Free Tripods: To unlock new Tripods you don’t already have to your Library, purchase gear from the Auction House with a Tripod attached. Add that Tripod to your library, then re-sell it at the Auction House.

Engravings are another way to augment your skills. Engravings are found on Accessories and Ability Stones, and it isn’t exactly clear what Engravings you’ll want as you progress — and rarely, you can find Engraving Recipe Books, which allow you to apply custom engravings. These books are incredibly sought-after, so if you get one in the campaign, keep it! Once you reach Level 50, you’ll have a better idea for what types of engravings you’ll want to use the most. If the Engraving Book isn’t useful for your build, then you can choose to sell it at the AH for big gold.

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#9: Upgrading Your Island Stronghold

Complete the tutorial for Trade Skills ASAP so you can begin upgrading your stronghold. Starting with Metals and Wood, collect resources then begin researching new facilities at the Lab. Upgrading your Island Stronghold takes hours and hours of real-time, and doing anything at all in your Stronghold costs Action Energy. AE is spent to sent sailors on missions or on constructing facilities, and it recharges automatically over time. There is a maximum of 15,000 — so you’ll always want to be researching or sending sailors on missions, spending that AE to maximize your time.

• Press [Ctrl+1] to quickly access the Island Management menu.

You’ll unlock the Island Stronghold after completing the Eadalin’s Gift quest in North Vern. After that quest, take on Secretary Theo’s Invitation — in which you’ll meet with the King and unlock the full island estate. You’ll also unlock the Song of Hearth and Home which you can access from the Song Menu [F2] to instantly fast-travel back to the island.

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#10: Doing Your Daily & Weekly Tasks

Games like Lost Ark are all about the end-game grinding. There are two types of activities you’ll want to repeat — Daily Tasks and Weekly Tasks. Here’s a quick rundown of all the Daily and Weekly tasks you’ll want to complete for a constant stream of good rewards.

NOTE: Find Daily Quests easily by pressing [Alt+J]. You can repeat 3 Daily Quests per day, or 3 Weekly Quests per week.

• Dailies: Una’s Tasks, Chaos Dungeon, Cube Dungeon, Chaos Gate, Guardian Raid, Adventure Island, Voyage Co-Op Mission, World Bosses
• Weeklies: Abyss Dungeon, Abyss Raid, Challenge Guardian, Challenge Abyss Dungeon, Ghost Ship, Guild Bosses

There’s no way to do them all, so you’re better off figuring out what you enjoy doing with your friends. Or, you can just put the game down and enjoy finishing the story. That’s enough content for most of us.

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That’s everything you really need to know before playing Lost Ark for the first time. This is a ridiculously intricate game, with layers of content that’s been updated and tweaked for years before reaching American shores. There’s no way to cover literally everything you need to know here — this is just the start of your journey, so take it slow and try to have fun!