If you are not familiar with how Lost Ark works and would like to learn, here is a quick rundown of the most basic fundamentals the game has to offer.
Lost Ark is an MMOARPG made in Korea. As such, the first thing we must mention is how the leveling system works in Lost Ark, which may look overwhelming to newer players.
In Lost Ark there are three types of leveling:
- Roster,
- Gear Score,
- Combat Level.
Roster is your overall level in Lost Ark. It's contributed to by every character you have in the game, and it offers rewards such as Blue Crystals chests and stat boosts. Gear Score, on the other hand, is the average level of all the items your character wears. Content in Lost Ark is locked behind Gear Score levels, so upgrading your gear is a must in this game.
Combat Level takes the place of the standard leveling in other MMOs. This can be leveled by just running quests, and it's separate for every character you've created.
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Knowing your worth is never a bad thing, and in Lost Ark, knowing the value of currencies is even more important. In Lost Ark there are four main currencies in circulation:
- Silver,
- Gold,
- Crystals,
- Pirate Coins.
Silver is the most common currency you will encounter in the game, used for things such as buying common items, repairing your gear, moving between continents, and activating Triports. On the other hand, Gold is the most important currency in Lost Ark. It is used for trading between players, exchanging for Blue Crystals, and upgrading your gear. The wealth of your character is determined by the amount of Gold you possess.
Crystals originate both from in-game rewards and real money purchases. They are usually spent in the store for potions, cosmetic items, and can be used for unlocking pet buffs.
Lastly, Pirate Coins, as the name suggests, revolve around maritime events, and are used to get additional materials for ships in the docks.
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If you're reading this guide, we can safely assume this is your first playthrough of Lost Ark. One gets easily lost with all the available content in the game, so knowing which quests to do to optimize your leveling is paramount.
The first piece of advice is to follow the main storyline, and do the story quests, as they give the most experience. While doing so, however, don't be tempted to do side-quests, as you can always revisit them at a later date, while they will get you sidetracked and the experience gain is not worth the time invested. The story quests are the ones represented with an orange icon on your map.
Aside from these, guide quests and chain quests are also useful for first-time players of the game to complete. These are the purple-colored quests, and introduce you to some fundamental features of Lost Ark.
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Combat skills are not the only important part of your character's development in Lost Ark. There are also the trade skills, with which players gather resources by using specific gathering tools. They can then decide to invest these materials into crafting professions.
There are six available Trade Skills in Lost Ark:
- Foraging,
- Logging,
- Mining,
- Hunting,
- Fishing,
- Excavating.
Every Trade Skill has its own rank which needs to be increased to obtain new buffs. Luckily, Trade Skills are shared by every character you have on one server, so grinding them is not a big deal.
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Lastly, we bring you some basic tips and tricks that will improve your Quality of Life in the game:
- When leveling from 1 to 50complete the dungeons on normal difficulty, instead of their hard version, as it’s far faster while giving the same amount of experience,
- In the beginning, use the healing potions that give a certain amount of Health Points. The health percentage-restoring potions are far too valuable to use before max level,
- Once you've obtained your "Song of Return", type "/escape" in the chat to immediately leave dungeons,
- If you want to play the main quest with your friends you can do so by just switching channels in the top right of your screen.
By following these simple guidelines, you should avoid making any blunders that you will regret later on in the game, while also getting to the endgame as quickly as possible.
As a last word of advice, we leave you with the encouragement to experience the game as much as you can at your own pace, and not to get sucked into the hype of blasting through the world of Arkesia for Internet points.
