Everything you need to know to play Lost Ark in 2022

Let's start right away with an important feature: this manual will be relevant for a very long time, except for some specific features, such as, for example, the appearance of new content or changes in the appearance of the interface (which has already happened once).

However, this manual will most likely be gradually updated, and I tried to shorten the text below as much as possible, leaving only the main important points.

You can read more about this or that system here.

Structure

1. Login screen and tutorial
2. Interface and its features
3. Map and its functionality
4. Character characteristics and costumes
5. Damage dealt and two important bars
6. Abilities and tripod system
7. Mini-bosses and events in locations
8. Main types of quests
9. Moving around the world
10. Music system
11. Different game currency
12. Inventory and miscellaneous items
13. Upgrading your equipment
14. Achievement system and adventure log
15. Relationship system and card games
16. Peaceful Professions, Gathering and Crafting System
17. Activities and their varieties
18. Maritime space

1. Login screen and tutorial

As soon as you launch the client and select the appropriate server, of course, you will need to create your character, and after that, when logging directly into the game, you will need to come up with a pin code and confirm it. This measure is quite common in Asian MMOs and allows you to protect your account, and this pin code is also used to make purchases in the game store.

The Russian and European versions may abandon this system due to the peculiarities of localization or the platform on which the game will be distributed.

There is also a rather interesting button in the upper right corner that allows you to change the login background, for example, to a cathedral, where your characters will sit on benches. You can get new backgrounds by performing various activities directly in the game.

Further, after entering the game directly, for any archetypes, the player will need to go through a short introduction, and after that, the game will offer you a choice to go through the abolition or skip it. If you choose the second option, your character will immediately receive the tenth level and will be with the local goddess, who will provide the opportunity to choose a subclass.

The first option will send you to go through sublocation and study the game. After completing all the necessary tasks, the system will issue "Rabbit Ears" as a bonus - a headdress for the character.

2. Interface and its features

Of course, in every game, the main interface plays an important part because it is always in front of each user's eyes. Below we will look at its various elements, divided into groups.

Group A is a kind of small indicators of various systems, and here you can choose which types of currencies will be displayed at the end.

1. An indicator of regular and system mail, and it is the items sent by the second type that can be picked up immediately by clicking on the icon. In the case of regular mail, you will need to find a special building.
2. Group search indicator, in which you can see how long you have been looking for partners in a particular type of content.
3. Crafting status indicator, the fact is that it may take several minutes of real time to create some things.
4. An indicator of peaceful professions, the special statuses of a certain collection are displayed here. For example, a hunter has a trap that will catch prey after X time, and this is where you can check if it happened or not.
5. Auction indicator, signaling that the exhibited item has been bought.
6. If I remember correctly, a certain crafting recipe can be noted at various NPCs if suddenly you are afraid you will forget exactly where it is located.
7. Maps of hidden dungeons. This indicator will only work if the scroll owner decides to share it with other members of the group.
8. A special marker that a player can put on the map, marking a certain place.
9. When you click on this button, the system will show your items that can be exchanged.
10. The interface of various game currencies you have already managed to collect.
11. Group B - here are the mini-map, the armor wears indicator, and, finally, the menu with the various channels of this location for changing them.

Group C is a small menu with indicators for various game systems. It's just a simplified interface view that appears when you press ESC. Here we will analyze only the main groups and individual icons, left to right.

In-game store

Achievement journal.

• Events - main activity calendar, daily board, and more.
• Character - everything related to your character.
• Adventure - mostly secondary content such as map interface, relationship menu, daily quests, and more.
• Manuals - various directories with useful information.
• Society - various social systems.

3. Map and its functionality

There is always a huge number of different symbols in any MMORPG on the map. In Lost Ark, they are all divided into four main categories.

• The first category is the designation of various quests and open activities.
• The second category has collected the designations of dungeons, ports for going to the sea, teleports, transitions between zones, etc.
• The third category is the simplest, containing the resource icons for each peaceful profession.
• The fourth category is a list of all the main NPCs, but for some reason, not all icons are displayed here during all the tests (which is rather inconvenient).

To teleport to any open point, just click on it. On the left side, there is a huge list of all locations of this continent. When you select any location in the drop-down list, all teleport points will be displayed if you have opened them.

At the top right, there is a special search system for a specific NPC or area, but for some reason, it worked pretty poorly for me, provided that I entered everything in Korean.

At the bottom left are three small buttons responsible for the following functions: go to the world map, find where your character is, and, finally, the button for setting a label.

4. Character characteristics and costumes

The effectiveness of your character in battle, of course, is determined by the presence of the most advanced equipment, but his main task is to increase the main indicators, or, in other words, characteristics. The characteristics menu is called up with the P hotkey.

In total, at the time of this writing, you have eight different characteristics, which are divided into main and auxiliary. But besides this, the game also has a button that opens a more detailed list of characteristics, such as, for example, the resistance of a certain element.

Main characteristics:

• The main characteristic is that its name is different for everyone and, for example, for DH, it is a skill, and intelligence will already be written for the arcana.
• General indicator of health.

Additional characteristics:

• Crit - increases the chance to deal critical damage and does not increase critical damage itself.
• Mastery \ Specialization - increases the damage of a certain ability (or several abilities) of the class and the strength of the ult ability (important not to be confused with the class ability).
• Suppression - increases damage against weakened opponents and those who are in a state of control.
• Speed ​​- increases the speed of your attacks and movement, also reduces the recharge time of abilities.
• Endurance - increases magical/physical defense and the effectiveness of "shields" and recovery effects.
• Proficiency - Increases the duration of various statuses you impose and reduces the duration of negative statuses on the character. Increases damage by the boss's weakened bar.

Next, the characters have another window, so to speak, "characteristics", where such indicators as fame, attractiveness, courage, etc., are located. These options are needed to interact with various content in the game. For example, they allow you to open special dialogue options to complete the quest instantly.

Also, to develop relations with a certain NPC, the system may require you, for example, an attractiveness indicator of 100. Some NPCs may have several of these requirements at once.

Each character can put on a suit, it is placed in a special interface of the character window, and in addition to the unique appearance, it provides nice bonuses. For example, a costume that can be bought in the in-game store increases your character's main stat by a certain percentage (like a total of 5%) and your attractiveness.

5. Damage dealt and two important bars

The main damage you inflict on the enemy here works according to the standard MMO system, where white numbers are normal damage, and yellow numbers are critical. However, various bosses and the HP strip with the layer number have a small purple strip. In the future, we will simply call it the attenuation scale.

This is quite an interesting mechanic, as the various abilities of each class deal a certain amount of damage to it, and some are more effective than others. Once you manage to knock it down completely, the boss will fall to a stationary state for a while, providing players with an ideal opportunity to deal damage (for example, cast an ult).

After that, the boss will get up again and begin to move actively, temporarily blocking this very strip. Roughly speaking, you will not be able to knock it down on CD, constantly keeping the boss in a weakened state.

6. Abilities and tripod system

As you advance from the first to the maximum level, your character will gradually receive more and more new abilities. However, you can only use eight at a time. Each ability can be strengthened by pouring a certain amount of special development points into it. They are given to you for each new level and after using special items.

A unique "class ability" is also available to all Lost Ark classes from the first level, and its functionality varies significantly. For example, for a demon hunter, such an ability is the ability to switch between three types of weapons, and for a berserker, a transition to a state of bloody rage.

In addition to the standard abilities, each class also has a unique ability that is unlocked at about level 50 through quests, which, unfortunately, cannot be pumped in any way and is called an ult. Also, in addition to this, through again quests, each player will be able to open another "powerful" ability, which can already be safely pumped.

In turn, to use the ult, you will need to buy special consumable items.

Korean developers were able to quite interestingly implement the system of abilities in their project through an interesting system called "Tripod".

Gradually, with the development of each ability, additional effects will open to the right of it. They can endow the skill with new properties or completely change it.

In total, there are three rows of such additional effects. In the first two, you can choose three effects, but in the third - only two. You can change them whenever and wherever. The only limitation is the cooldown of the ability, in which case the system will tell you to wait.

7. Mini-bosses and events in locations

Exploring almost every location on a particular continent, you can stumble upon special mini-bosses and events that start randomly.

Mini-bosses are more complex versions of regular mobs, but the developers again came up with a rather interesting system of additional abilities. They are displayed with special icons above the mob's head, and gradually you will remember what these abilities are.

During the battle with these mini-bosses, these abilities are activated in random order. For example, purple balls may appear around the mob, which will explode after a short delay, causing damage.

Events are just a certain area on the map. A special quest will automatically appear as soon as the character enters it. Usually, as the main task, the system will ask you to kill certain mobs in X number or break various structures.

On the mainland, all events can be divided into personal, where each user has their progress, and mass, where the percentage of completion is filled by the efforts of all players in the event zone. The latter should interest you the most since the reward is directly proportional to the contribution that the player made. For example, sometimes experience was given as a reward for one story mission.

There are also even more complex and interesting events, but they are already taking place mainly on the islands in the open world.

In addition to the experience of killing mini-bosses and completing events, you can get useful items and the special currency "Lupeon Coins", we will talk about them later in the text.

8. Main types of quests

In total, there are, roughly speaking, ten types of different quests in the game if, of course, we count events at locations for separate quests. Below, we will see what they are in general and how they look in a brief form.

I will designate them with the colors of the corresponding icons, and in the picture below them, it will already be possible to look at the icons themselves in the same order as the list.

Orange quest - depicted by an arrow with wings, the main story quest dedicated to the current global goal. The main point of the whole game is to collect special parts of the ark, and for now, the plot ends at a certain point.

Like the first one, the Yellow quest is displayed simply with an arrow. If you see that the quest icon is different, you can complete it several times and sometimes get a good reward. Roughly speaking, these just side additional tasks.

Blue quest - looks like a blue door. These are special separate story locations.

The Red Quest is a personal event described above, periodically appearing in various locations.

The blue quest is a world quest. This type of quest will take you through all the currently available continents. After passing the first human mainland, this will be your new main story.

The green quest is the public event described above. To complete, all players must fill the progress bar by 100%. Sometimes this requires a certain number of players.

Purple quest - endgame quests allow the player to get valuable items. This is how the quests for the ult ability will be displayed.

Salad quest - daily tasks.

Pink quest - if the NPC with which you can increase relations has a special quest, you will see such an icon. However, you will need to reach a certain level of relationship for this.

There are also quests with a star icon, they are a kind of competitive quests, and usually, they can only be found where free PvP is allowed due to the main principle.

9. Moving around the world

You can explore the available locations and continents simply by running, but the speed of each character is low, and running to the middle of the map can take several minutes. To facilitate this task, the game provides several different ways.

Teleportation system - usually, there is at least one teleporter or even several in each location. You can move between them simply by clicking them with the mouse button or selecting the map in the left menu. The cost of such a movement is quite small, but first, you need to open the teleport point by approaching it and pressing the F key.

Personal vehicle \ Mount - given out almost at the very beginning of the game, significantly increases the speed of movement and can be called even in the middle of a battle (the main thing is that the character is not damaged). Each mount has its dash, which allows you to overcome a small ground area quickly. The highest grade mounts also have additional abilities that increase speed.

A personal ship is the first way to move from one continent to another. It's just that they could not create teleports capable of transferring matter over such long distances in this world.

The liner is a faster way to travel between the islands, but the price for such a service is several thousand.

10. Music system

Once the player reaches the first major city, he will immediately be introduced to the music system activated by the hotkey F2. You will see a small menu with various melodies. Each archetype has its musical instrument. For example, hunters have an electronic guitar.

The initial required set of melodies will be given to you as you progress through the story. The rest can already be obtained by going through some purple quests, exchanging special items, through public events, etc.

By itself, you need music, for example, to quickly leave a certain instance location or move to the space of a local goddess. In the future, this system will already be used in various quests, events, and, most importantly - in the relationship system.

Also, with the help of a musical instrument, the character performs teleportation.

11 Different Lost Ark currency

As in all other MMOs, in the world of Lost Ark, a huge amount of currency is used for everyday needs or exchange for useful items. Since the list is quite large, we will analyze only the most important ones.

Silver is the main currency used everywhere.

Lost Ark Gold is a unique currency used in auctions and world bosses.

Seal of Lupion - as I already wrote, it drops from mini-bosses, events, and other sources. It can be exchanged for various items and, most importantly, jewelry with an increased level of GSA.

Crystals are a unique currency in the game store, for which you can buy certain items.

Ethereal crystals - it is for this currency that you exchange real money. For example, you can buy a suit for it.

M coins - issued whenever you buy items for ethereal crystals. For example, a direct analog of the "Miles" of coins in Black Desert Online, you can buy mounts or a coupon for changing their appearance for them.

Mococo seeds are a unique currency that is scattered all over the world. You can collect it by any character, as it is tied to your account. You will first need to buy an earring of a red grade, to get some seeds you will need a special song. When buying items, the currency is not spent.

The island's heart is the second unique currency, which is already tied only to the character. Obtained by fulfilling various conditions on the islands, you can first buy a good purple set for it. When buying items, the currency is not spent.

12. Inventory and miscellaneous items

The inventory itself performs a storage function and provides some other services. At the time of writing, the inventory size is fixed, and, unfortunately, it cannot be increased. The inventory is opened with the I key.

At the top right, there are several basic filters that, when switched, highlight only a certain type of item. Below you can see how much silver and gold you currently have.

The item sorting button and the equipment scrapping system are a little to the left. Unlike most MMOs, this function is built right into your inventory here, and you will need to pay a little silver to use it. On the other hand, it has no usage restrictions, so it doesn't matter where you are.

By opening the interface, you can manually move the items you want to disassemble or use the automatic process by grade and type of equipment. Then we press the "Disassemble" button to get the components. Unfortunately, they can be called waste in another way, suitable only for sale by NPCs.

Next, consider various useful items, in addition to basic equipment, resources, and tools.

If an item has a bag icon in the lower right corner, it is only good for sale to any NPC.

If an item has a two-page icon in the bottom right corner, it means it is a collectible and will automatically be added to the adventure log after use.

Scroll items are special treasure maps.

The game has consumable items placed in a special cell on the F1 button and four slots for keys 1,2,3,4. The first item is ordinary potions, which you will use most often. The higher the grade of the jar, the more it restores HP, and, accordingly, it costs more.

Consumable items of the second type include:

• Special potions are the only way to heal in certain content.
• Various shurikens and bombs for dealing damage.
• Additional potions with a certain effect.

13. Upgrading your equipment

The eternal race for the best equipment is not the only way to somehow increase your character's effectiveness in battle. There are several additional ways to do this in the game.

Several systems, which I will write about below, are available from special NPCs in every major city.

Disclosure of a class stone: There is a special cell where a class stone is inserted among all the equipment. It increases and decreases various secondary characteristics of the character.

Sharpening (polishing equipment) - in total, each piece of equipment can be sharpened to the fifth level, gradually increasing its GSA level. However, this is a rather costly business since the needed resources are not easy to get, but, for example, they sometimes appear in a special section of the game store in the amount of one piece.

Change of stats - each piece of equipment increases several additional characteristics so that they can be changed at this NPC. However, this process is completely random, and the result may be completely different stats or simply change numerical indicators.

They are changing effects - when sharpening equipment to grade 3, it will enhance various class abilities. They can also be changed at a special NPC. Of course, a new effect from the pool will also be randomly selected, which can be viewed by clicking on the magnifying glass.

Rune insertion is a standard system with which you can insert special stones that enhance various aspects of your character.

Ring engraving is a pretty useful and complex system that gives your rings special passive effects. The fact is that first, you need to open these effects by collecting special books, reading more on the forum.

14. Achievement system and adventure log

Achievements are a standard system used in many game projects, only in the world of Lost Ark. By completing them. You gradually earn a level. It allows you to unlock special useful rewards. For example, you can get additional backgrounds for the background of the character selection window.

If you press the N button, a special adventure interface will open in front of you in the game. Roughly speaking, this is a rather interesting system that allows you to receive various rewards for performing special actions on a certain mainland.

To do this, you need to do the following:

• Complete a story related to the mainland.
• Complete all dungeons on Easy and Hard difficulty.
• Collect various collectibles.
• Complete various tasks in locations.
• Kill the world boss/bosses.
• Open all teleport points.
• Reach the highest level of relationship with all NPCs in the continent.
• Cook certain meals.
• Kill special monsters with a mark over their heads.
• Explore all locations.

15. Relationship system and card games

If you press the key combination alt + N, you will see the relationship interface, or rather, a list of various NPCs in a particular location. Looking ahead, it is worth paying tribute to the developers that they tried to slightly reduce the search for this or that NPC by writing a specific place in the location itself.

Roughly speaking, for example, the NPC Deer is located in the location of Teldrassil, near the tavern "Lunar ass".

Once you find any NPC, you can start building relationships with. You can do so by using three options:

• Talk - accurately use certain emotions. If you have them, in total, you can do this action only once a day (if my memory serves me right).
• Serenade - in other words, play music. If you have opened the songs that this NPC accepts, you can do it again once a day.
• Gifts - each NPC only accepts certain items that will be highlighted, but unlike the first two options, there are no restrictions. The more valuable the gift, the more friendship points you get.

Having reached a certain level, each NPC will give you a special gift, either a very expensive item or, says, amount. Some NPCs can also open unique quests.

By pressing the important thing combination alt + C, you will see your card almanac, where special combat cards will be added. They can be obtained by performing various activities.

Cards can be improved and developed, as well as sold at auction. The card system itself is a pleasant additional entertainment and is completely autonomous. The player will only need to make the right deck, taking into account the enemy's elemental weaknesses.

16. Peaceful Professions, Gathering and Crafting System

As you move along the storyline, sooner or later, the player will reach the moment when he will be introduced to the system of peaceful professions. It is, in fact, the resource collection profession typical of MMOs.

In total, there are six professions in the game, which are responsible for their type of resources, but initially, it is best to pump only one since each resource will require you to have a certain level of the profession. This leveling process itself is comparable to the development of basic abilities, here you will also be given special points for each new level, and you will need X points.

Switching between a civilian and a combat profession occurs when you press the hotkey B or when you just go to collect a resource. In this case, the game will automatically switch. To collect resources, you will initially need a special tool consumed when collecting, so it's better to buy 100 pieces immediately.

Apart from that, as I said, you need a certain level of professionalism, but there is a little trick associated with the tools. The fact is that the overall level is formed based on the current pumping and the bonus that the tool provides. For example, the simplest one adds +1 levels, while the more advanced blue will add +2 levels.

As a result, even if you have a level 3 branch, equipping a blue tool will allow you to collect level 5 resources.

Crafting in the game is quite simple, as it requires the following from you:

• X resources of a certain level.
• Special resources are obtained by re-crafting.
• Special blanks, they can be bought from the NPC nearby.
• Unique, rare items are usually needed for yellow and red grade equipment.
• A certain amount of money and time to create.

Keep in mind that not all NPCs can find the recipe you need, so you will have to explore every major city in search of the one you need. Within the map, they may be marked as having a sword icon.

17. Activities and their varieties

Below I'll just list some of the different activities that are available at the time of this writing:

• Daily tasks - can only be completed three times a day. The interface is opened by pressing alt + J.
• Dungeons - I think it makes no sense to describe. There is easy and high complexity.
• Cinematic dungeon \ Ark dungeon - in fact, the same as a regular dungeon, only more beautiful and spectacular, usually contains a piece of the ark at the end or a plot.
• Chaos dungeons are a daily type of dungeons in which a special boss will be waiting for you, reinforced like mini-bosses in open locations. There is a more complex version that you can enter once a day. Equipment and, for example, sharpening stones are given as a reward.
• The Dark Tower is a single-player content where you need to go through the floors one by one. There is a more complex version. Varioususeful items are given out as a reward.
• Cube - group activity, where everything depends on luck and the random factor, you need to kill opponents in a small room for a while. The reward depends on how far you can go. There is a more complex version.
• Platinum Islands - content for peaceful professions and gathering resources.
• Gates of Chaos is an open event that periodically appears in locations designed for many players. You need to get to the boss after killing many small mobs.
• Boss Rush is a group activity where you need to hold out as long as possible, killing bosses for a while. A special currency is issued as a reward. Then it can be exchanged for various things.
• Guardians are the most difficult content at the time of this writing. You need to kill a rather strong creature as part of a group. As a reward, resources for creating unique guardian equipment and reagents for sharpening it fall out. There are many levels of difficulty and different varieties of guardians.
• And much more.

18. Maritime space

In addition to various land locations, about the same part of the map is occupied by sea space, which the player can also safely explore on his ship. Initially, you will need to completely go through the first mainland of people, where the very first ship is issued during the storyline. In the future, as you move further along the story, you will be given two more ships from the available ones, but all the rest will have to be obtained by performing various activities.

As the main resource that is used as soon as you go out to sea, there is some kind of energy, which, in turn, is spent on almost all actions, and as soon as its supply runs out, your speed will drop a minimum sharply.

You can replenish this energy at any port for the main currency.

Each ship has its main characteristics, a set of various abilities, and resistance to the negative effects of the sea. Gradually, with the development of the ship, it will also be possible to change its appearance. Ships, like a character, can be upgraded, but for this, you will need to collect special resources, which at times will be very difficult to collect.

The main abilities of the ship are pumped only when leveling up, but they can be strengthened by placing a special sailor. Each ship features a certain variety of slots the place you could place distinct sailors, but there are also special slots for sailors of a certain type.

Like everything else in this MMO, sailors are divided into different grades. Depending on the grade, they can improve one ability or, say, several at once. To replenish his loyal team, the player will have to look for special cards by performing worldwide activities.

The sea space is filled with various activities, which are again divided by grade, allowing you to get more valuable loot. However, the water that will constantly surround you will not always be calm. There are various dangers here, ranging from an ordinary storm to a ghost ship.

Moreover, it is the last danger that is the most interesting, since the player is simply boarded and it will be necessary to kill the local captain and his dead Nakama.