Lost Ark – General FAQ

General Frequently Asked Questions

Are there any classes that are less desirable in raids or PVP?

In short, in PVE not really, in PVP kind of.

There is always a meta. But 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 the case where new classes are a little overtuned until they get nerfed.

There are certain classes that exhibit lower volatility and rarely shift from their position of 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 though, so there will always be times where parties in certain high end raids will want very specific classes, barring out others. But, this is fairly rare and only an issue in very specific encounters.

What is the level cap? How long does it take to reach?

The level softcap of Lost Ark is initially 50. You can reach it by completing the main story quest which takes anywhere from 12-15 hours for an experienced player or 20-30 hours typically for a new player.

There is also an Account Level which serves to give you minor stat increases as well as pretty much indicate how long you’ve been playing. When you earn character EXP, you will normally gain Account EXP as well.

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 level 11 and 12 are cheap but provide sizable damage increases for them. Level 51-60 takes several weeks per level up.

What classes can I choose from?

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.

Warrior

• Berserker
• Destroyer
• Gunlancer
• Paladin

Martial

• Wardancer
• Scrapper
• Soulfist
• Glaivist
• Striker

Mage

• Arcanist
• Summoner
• Bard
• Sorceress

Hunter

• Deadeye
• Artillerist
• Sharpshooter
• Machinist
• Gunslinger

Assassin

• Deathblade
• Shadowhunter
• Reaper

Specialist

• Artist
• Aeromancer

Can I play just one character? Or do I need alts?

The pace in which you progress is strictly limited by how much gold you make. Since alts directly equate to more gold, typically you would want at least a few alts to support upgrading your main at a reasonably fast pace. I would recommend 1-2 alts for a new player and gradually increase this as the content tier increases as well. This is a good excuse for you to try out multiple characters.

Take this time to explore trying out multiple classes since there’s so many diverse playstyles. You’ll have to put a small investment into each alt so that they’re enjoyable or playable.

What is shared between characters on a server?

How deep is the character customization in this game?

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 own wardrobe of outfits. Many outfits can also be dyed and patterned. Initially, the amount of dyeable outfits is a little limited.

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 genderlock 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 altogether. Their Awakening (ultimate) skills are different. Their class engravings are similar but different. The rate at which their specialty stat (a stat which is different for every class) scales is often slightly different as well.

12 of the 18 skills are exactly the same as well as 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 and they do enhanced damage, using the class engraving called Handgunner.

Gunslinger focuses mainly on her sniper rifle damage, being able to do high 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.

Can you trade in Lost Ark?

There is an auction house, 1:1 trading, and mailing. In order to mail costumes and equipment, they have a tradeable count and the recipient must use an additional currency called Pheons to receive it, in addition to whatever the gold cost is.

Items that are no longer tradeable cannot have their trade count restored. Materials don’t have a trade count. Gold can be traded or sent but there is a tax (everything has a tax). Silver cannot be traded.

What is the difference between Silver and Gold?

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.

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.

What is the sailing content like?

It’s very bare bones. You mostly only sail to travel through the ocean since you cannot fast between continents normally (unless you take the liner to fast travel but that costs Shillings).

There are co-op sea events where you can play some boat mini-games with others to earn tokens which can be exchanged for useful goods. These are timed calendar events.

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 Triports. You have to interact with the waypoint at least once before you can use it. This type of fast travel cannot be used to travel between continental landmasses.

The second is the liner. You can use the liner from any harbor and pay Shillings to fast travel to any other 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 few restrictions. You can change the save spot once every 24 hours per slot and this can be used to travel between continents. There is a 2 hour cooldown on using a teleport spot and it uses a negligible amount of Shillings.

Are guilds important?

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 that takes place on various islands. Winning these types of events allow you to occupy that territory. There is a massive gold reward for victors as well as second and third place guilds in a week. This amount is distributed by the leader and so it’s however your guild established allocation rules.

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 own benefits for collecting them, some of which include things like Skill Points.

Collectibles are important and you should probably do at least some of them that provide vital rewards.

Is this game cross-server?

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 house are cross-server. You can easily set-up pre-made parties to instances with friends on other servers.

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 specific application in mind and so despite the large amount 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.

You can save multiple skill presets depending on your needs and PVP uses its own separate special PVP skill page.