Beginner’s and Returner’s Guide

Are you about to take your first steps into the world of Arkesia? Or perhaps you have decided to return to the game after a break. No matter the case, if you feel overwhelmed by the amount of content and systems you’re being thrown into, this article is here to provide you with step-by-step instructions and guide you toward the appropriate sources, helping you overcome challenges and reach the juicy endgame!

Choosing the correct class and build to fit your personal playstyle is very important, and can make your journey truly memorable. Before you make such an important choice, think first about your preferences, the amount of free time you have available to spend in the game, and your skill level. Picking a class based on these factors is bound to lead to satisfaction!

For example, if your available playtime is limited, it would be unwise to pick a build that requires a high amount of time and resource investment to make it work properly. Without proper min-maxing, some builds might negatively impact your overall raid experience and that of your party members.

Now take a look at the Class Overview article and pay close attention to the Pros & Cons of each build. Once you have made your choice, either use the links in that article or go to the Build Guides category to learn more about your class and build.

If you want to level your first character or an alt without the help of any boost or skip events, use the following articles listed below as guidance. If you want to jump into the endgame with accelerated progress, then skip ahead to the next section of this article.

In Lost Ark, you will be introduced to numerous events that either provide you with a ticket to boost a character closer to the endgame, or accelerate your progress by rewarding you with additional materials. Take a look at the different sections below for more details!

The Powerpass is a ticket which you can assign to a character of your choice to take give it a significant head-start towards the endgame. To use it on your char, follow the steps below!

The Event Quest window can have multiple different ongoing events at the same time, so make sure to check out each tab if there's more than one. Aside from the Express Events, which are meant for one character only, there might be others providing you with free materials for completing specific goals. Here are all the currently available events and what rewards you should expect from participating.

Opening up your Quest Journal (J), you will find several Guide Quests in the Guide tab at the top. They aren't hard to complete or long, with most of them only requiring you to speak to an NPC. Their purpose is to introduce you to various systems that the game offers, and explain how you will interact with them. It's highly recommended that you go through them whenever one becomes available if you are unfamiliar with the game.

One very important Guide Quest that you should complete immediately is [Guide] What Is Gear Set Conversion, as it allows you to freely swap between Gear Sets, an integral part of your character's build.

Due to the vast amount of events available to help you start off, and the large quantity of items you receive from content, your inventory will quickly fill up with a variety of items. In order to help you quickly navigate through it all, here are a few things to consider:

Battle Items play a key role in Lost Ark's raids. HP Potions serve as the primary way of healing, while other consumables like Whirlwind Grenades and Destruction Bombs can greatly help with solving raid mechanics. These items can only be equipped onto dedicated slots on your hotbar, and cannot be used without first equipping them.

You will be periodically provided with Collective Battle Item Chests via gifts or events. Sometimes they will contain all four of the following chests, and sometimes you will be required to choose between them:

Each of these chests can be opened to obtain specific Battle Items, depending on your current needs. Make sure not to open too many of them at once.

For starters, you should open some HP Potions, Whirlwind Grenades, and Destruction Bombs. These will be great for most raid encounters, especially early on. For more specific Battle Item usage for each encounter, you can refer to the Solo Raids Guide Collection.

Your Battle Items are stored inside a special storage, found via the 4th tab at the top of your inventory. For ease of use, it's recommended to toggle the "Tradeable/Untradeable Merge" option at the top right. To help declutter this inventory even further, you can click on the star icon on each item you want to add to favorites, then tick the "View Favorites" checkbox at the top left. This will make it much easier to filter through Battle Items when you need to change them.

In order to equip Battle Items, you can simply drag and drop from the inventory onto your slots.

Although the Mokoko Express event instantly sets you up with a build for your chosen class, it is often not the exact setup that you should be using. In order to fix that, it's recommended to go through a Build Guide for your class and follow it to change the incorrect parts that the Express event provided.

This can also help you get a better understanding of your character, if you wish to know more, but for now, here are the main parts that go into a character's build:

Mass Presets (Alt + E) are an incredibly helpful feature that allows you to create up to 5 different builds and assign them to be equipped automatically when you enter certain content, essentially solving the need for you to worry about your build being correct. Each preset is made up of the following parts:

Make sure to set up the separate tabs for each of these individual pieces first, and then simply select them in the Mass Presets (Alt + E) window and save the changes you made to it.

Tip: You can quickly swap between presets manually by using Ctrl + A/S/D/F/G!

In order to apply a preset to certain content, head to the entry window for that content and look for a dropdown next to the Gear Preset icon, then select the preset you want to use for it.

Important: Make sure that you check a Build Guide for your class and set up a dedicated Chaos Dungeon build. This will significantly improve your experience in this content!

Gear Progression (or Vertical Progression) is the main way of unlocking access to new content and empowering your characters. To avoid wasting your precious time or upgrade materials, make sure to check out the guides below.

While you should first familiarize yourself with the Gear Progression Guide, it only offers an overview of how your gear evolves from the beginning right up until endgame, and does not give in-depth explanations about the systems you'll be interacting with along the way. Here are some of the most important aspects you should learn about regarding how to acquire gear and how to enhance it using the materials provided by the Mokoko Express:

After reaching Item Level 1580, the Mokoko Express will provide you with an Akkan Ancient Gear Selection Chest. After opening it, you will acquire a new gear set that requires you to interact with Gear Transfering in order to continue your progression. To do that, head to the Gear Honing NPC and click on the Gear Transfer tab. From there, you can simply select a new gear piece as the target (left) and an old gear piece as the material (right), and transfer over the quality and item level.

You are now ready for battle! Introduced in Summer 2024, a solo version of earlier raids is available, stretching from Valtan up to Ivory Tower. If you're a new player, this can help you learn the game at your own pace, and if you're a returner, this allows you to jump right back into the fray, without having to deal with Party Finder.

Now that you're up to speed on how to build your character, you can choose to experience these raids however you want, and we wish you good luck on your journey if you prefer to discover things on your own! However, if you find yourself wanting a helping hand, make sure to check out our Solo Raids Guide Collection! Alternatively, you can keep on reading this guide to find out more about other types of content that Lost Ark has to offer, or come back to it later.

Dailies and Weeklies are your main sources to obtain Honing Materials, Gold, and Silver. Check out the list below and learn more about each daily and weekly activity.

Tip: For additional one-time rewards, check out the Tower and Thronespire Guides.

If you want to kick back and relax after doing all the important dailies, weeklies, and other vertical progression content, you should give the activities below a try. By completing these you will not only learn more about the lore of the world of Arkesia, but you can also unlock new costumes, mounts, furniture for your stronghold, and other rewards!

Some collectibles are easy to get but others might require more than a few weeks to complete. If you don't have enough time to complete your collections, you should at least try to unlock the things which are closely tied to your vertical progression! If you would rather skip through most of these collectibles and gain the essential rewards tied to them, you can read about the Arkesia Tour at the end of this section.

Most of the major areas and continents have their own dedicated Aventure Tome. By completing tasks in those areas, you can unlock Music Sheets, Collectibles, Runes, Skill Point Potions, and more.

This is the true end content! Improve your relationship with NPCs by interacting with them on a daily basis. By maximizing your affinity with some specific NPCs, you might even unlock some "alone time" with them!

The Arkesia Tour (or Horizontal Express) helps players quickly and easily unlock important collectibles, such as Runes or Skill Point Potions, through completing a series of special tasks listed in the event window.

Here are all the activities you must finish for each stage of the Arkesia Tour.

For more details on unlocking the remaining Skill Points, check out the Skill Point Collection Guide.

There are quite a few interactions and tricks in Lost Ark which are left unexplained. Knowing about some of these can make your everyday life in Arkesia so much easier! We've also prepared some tools to greatly improve your ability to learn and plan ahead.

In this section we will cover additional bonus topics that do not necessarily fit into the other categories but are still important and somewhat frequently talked about.

As you keep progressing with your gear enhancements and unlocking essential collectibles, you will often be required to spend specific currencies, such as Gold, Silver, Pirate Coins, Gienah's Coin or Procyon's Coin. Check out the guides below to learn more about them!

"You need to make alts in Lost Ark to progress at an adequate pace, otherwise you will fall behind!" - you might have heard this sentence more than once from content creators or by just hanging around in the community. This statement is not entirely wrong, since creating alts and doing daily & weekly content on them to funnel the materials indeed helps you progress faster. However, before making the decision to create alts, you should be aware of the following things.

Creating alts and pushing (honing) them to relevant item level thresholds requires resources, which you could have otherwise used towards progressing on your main. However, if you play these characters diligently, you will naturally acquire most of the honing resources you need in the form of bound materials.

Once new endgame content releases, you usually have to upgrade your alts to a higher item level to still make use of the resources they generate. You can think of this as a constantly moving goalpost. If you lack the time to play your alts, you should either restrict the amount of alts you have or avoid them entirely!

As a bottom line, this game allows you to have more than one character, and with enough dedication and effort they can all be close to each other in terms of strength and progression. You should ask yourself how much free time you have at your disposal after doing all the necessary content on your main. If you find that you have enough time to regularly do daily & weekly content on more than one character, check out the following guide!

Your stronghold is more than a cozy home for you, your friends and the members of the community. It is a place where you can craft items required for honing, unlock research to aid your progression, train your alts and pets to make them stronger, and more! Learn everything you need to know about your stronghold by checking out the guides below!

Being part of an active guild comes with a lot of benefits. You get access to the guild vendor, where you can purchase additional honing materials. It will be easier to find people to play with and form static groups, and you can even participate in guild-specific content and compete with other guilds on your server!

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