TOP 6 Tips & Tricks I Wish I Knew Before Playing Lost Ark

by Mike Alexander / Articles, Lists, Trending / 03 Jan 2023

Tripod Studios and Smilegate RPG’s incredible MMO Lost Ark has been delighting South Korean fans since December 2019, and as of February 2022, the rest of the world gets to experience that lush, action-packed world of Lost Ark as well. With its 2.5D graphics and top-down perspective, Lost Ark channels the CRPGs of ages past while also filling the game to the brim with content and novel mechanics to keep players coming back every day. Since the game is still so new (at least outside of South Korea), there is still a ton for all of the fresh players to learn about Lost Ark’s world and systems.

If you’re just getting into Lost Ark and want to get started on the best possible foot, you’ll find some helpful guidance in this guide of Lost Ark: Top 6 Tips & Tricks for All Players (Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started). When you’re ready to explore the seven continents and locate the Lost Ark, pack up your ship and set sail so we can get started!

Know Your Quests

There are probably hundreds of quests total contained within Lost Ark. In order to get the most out of your experience, you’ll want to mix and match the quests you complete to maximize your character build and strength. It is possible to mainline the story quests which will get you to the end of the game and to level 50, but that’s not the most efficient path. You’ll want to mix in Adventure and Chain quests, which will each reward you with potions that increase your various stats or unlock a new feature for you. The more missions you complete, the more skill points you will have to outfit your character however you like.

Check Your Adventure Book

As you travel from place to place and explore the world of Lost Ark, you will passively complete tasks from your Adventure Book. The more time you spend in an area, the more you will complete, so remember to glance at your Adventure Book periodically. The initial rewards you receive for completing these tasks aren’t life-changing, but the rewards will increase in value and usefulness on higher tiers. If you’ve been playing the game for 50 hours and never checked your Adventure Book, you likely have armfuls of awesome rewards to claim for free!

Game the Rapport System

One of Lost Ark’s many mechanics is its Rapport System, which allows you to build relationships with specific NPCs over time. As you get to know them, your relationship level will increase, and you will gain rewards. The process of relationship-building is long and grindy, so you won’t want to spend too much time with a character who won’t give you good rewards. Thankfully, there are Lost Ark Affinity guides on the internet that will tell you which characters give what rewards, making it easy to make your decisions. If you want to use your playtime as efficiently as possible, referencing these guides is going to be the way to do it.

Custom Fast Travel

Because Lost Ark is so incredibly massive, it can take a long time to get from place to place, especially if you have to cross the sea to get where you’re going. Thankfully, there is a Bifrost system that allows you to place a fast travel point absolutely anywhere in the game, whether that be right next to a boss fight, close to an NPC, or at another important location. All you have to do is go to the location you’d like to return to, open up the Bifrost Management menu, and click “Save Location”. By default, you will have one location slot, and purchasing the premium membership for the game will give you two more for a total of three slots.

Experiment with Skills

In most RPGs, there is a cost associated with reclaiming your skill points to reallocate them, making your choices essentially permanent unless you’re willing to go through the trouble. Lost Ark is different because it encourages experimentation by allowing you to freely reallocate skill points however you like. You can have a completely different skill build from one minute to the next and it won’t cost you anything extra. Make sure to take advantage of this to find your preferred way to play the game.

Locating Materials

When you need to upgrade your trade skills or find materials for crafting, it can be a little daunting to look at the map and try to guess where you need to go. Thankfully, you won’t have to. If you hover over a location on the game’s map, there will be a portion of the pop-up window that says “Crafting Resources” and shows what kind of gathering spots are in that place. Use this to cut down on material-gathering time.

Mike Alexander

Mike has been playing video games since he was able to hold a controller, having been fascinated by Sonic 2 on his mom’s Sega Genesis. That fascination and passion for the art form has grown exponentially nearly 30 years later, and he doesn’t see that fading away anytime soon.
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