Genre: Role-playing (RPG), Hack and slash/Beat 'em up, Adventure
Lost Ark
Vykas Academy & New Twitch Events
“I am Vykas, the Covetous Legion Commander. I envy you. I want you. Come to me. I will kill you in ecstasy."
Beware, Heroes of Arkesia. After the tournament in Anikka, Vykas returned to Petrania with her Covetous Legion, eagerly awaiting Kazeros’s next move. When recent events in South Vern led to Chaos Gates opening across the skies of Arkesia, Vykas led the Covetous Legion to consume the world with her twisted, red avarice.
The Covetous Legion Commander Vykas arrives in Arkesia next week, and must be vanquished before she wreaks untold havoc and destruction. Vykas isn’t the only threat releasing in next week’s June 30 update. She’s joined by the colossal frost predator Kungelanium, recently awoken from his glacial slumber by the re-emergence of the Demon Legions and the Chaos spreading throughout Arkesia. To top it off, Thronespire will also open and pose a different type of challenge— a new solo dungeon experience in a twisted dimension teeming with enemies.
VYKAS LEGION RAID
"I am mighty and beautiful. Everyone obeys me."
LEGION RAID OVERVIEW
Vykas follows Valtan as the second Legion Raid arriving into the Western version of Lost Ark. In this raid, you’ll face dangerous and powerful members of the Covetous Legion before battling Legion Commander Vykas in her ‘Garden of Crimson Delight’. No revives are available mid-battle, so players must be ready to fight for their lives. Vykas is an eight-player Legion raid, has 3 gates, and is complete with a swathe of new unique characteristics, abilities, and mechanics. Players will need to be Item Level 1430 to attempt Normal difficulty, and 1460 for Hard.
As Legion Raids are challenging and take time, there are gates (or checkpoints) that will save players' progression as they advance through the Raid. In other activities, gates will save your progression for that session in case you wipe and need to try again, but in Legion Raids the gate save point system will not only let you try again, it also lets you take a break from a Legion Raid without losing out on progress or rewards. You’ll receive a reward whenever you clear a gate in a Legion Raid. Your completed gate information will be saved when you claim your reward, and your group can vote to decide whether you continue to the next gate or not. If your group votes to continue on, you’ll move forward with your current group to challenge the boss, enemies, or Legion Commander guarding the next gate. If you’ve decided to wait on challenging the remaining gates, you can come back later with your group or find a new group until the weekly reset.
NEW SIDEREAL SKILLS
In each Legion Raid, you’ll find Sidereals willing to fight alongside your group, allowing you to enlist their help to unleash powerful skills and attacks at critical moments in the battle. You can fill up the Sidereal Skill meter throughout the raid, and when the meter is full, the raid group leader can use one of the available Sidereal Skills. The Vykas Legion Raid introduces two new Sidereal skills, and brings back Wei— one of the allies found in the Valtan Legion Raid.
"Her avarice will create an insatiable thirst and make you doubt all those around you. Be careful not to be swayed by her!"
Nineveh - Divine Punishment Parkunas Nineveh fires arrows to precisely strike your foe, inflicting massive Damage and weakpoint damage. It can also partially remove buffs used by the Legion Commander on hit.
Inanna - Elzowin's Grace Inanna uses magick to create a protective zone, with strong defensive powers; granting immunity to push, absorbing some incoming Damage, and more. The moment the protective zone is disabled, targets within the area recover health.
The Relic Quality sets available at the Legion Commander Gear Crafting NPCs require materials from both the Valtan and Vykas Legion Raids to craft a complete set. The Vykas Legion Raid introduces two new items that can be crafted into gear; Covetous Fangs for Legendary gear, and Covetous Wings for Relic gear.
Players able to vanquish the three gates in the Vykas Legion Raid will be rewarded at each stage with increasingly desirable loot, matching the difficulty of those battles. Clearing each gate will grant Gold, Covetous Fangs and Wings, Relic Accessories and honing materials. The final gate can include additional special items, such as Engraving Recipes, Card Packs, and Honing Books. Additionally, after successfully clearing each gate, a bonus chest can be purchased with some of the gold just earned, giving additional Gear-crafting and Honing materials, Accessories, and Ability Stones. The final gate of the Legion Raid will also kick off a loot auction when completed, allowing players to bid on a bonus Gear-crafting Material Chest, Engravings, Honing Books, and more.
Hard mode will grant additional quantities of these items, and drop additional Covetous Wings instead of both Fangs and Wings. Stones of Chaos can also be earned in Hard mode, which are used to craft or upgrade the quality of Relic gear.
ENTRY
Legion Raids can be entered by any number of characters on your roster each week. Each character can face up to three different Legion Commanders each week - meaning your characters can fight both Valtan and Vykas in the same week. However, Normal and Hard difficulties for the same Legion Raid share a weekly lockout, so you can only attempt one difficulty (per commander) per week.
Players can participate in Legion Raids after completing the guide quest ‘[Guide] Notice: Legion Raid’. As an added step for the new Vykas raid, you’ll need to visit the Lunar Knights NPC in Vern castle and start the quest 'Blooming Again', which tells the Covetous Legion Commander's story. Once unlocked, the Vykas Legion Raid is available to enter through the Legion Raid structure located in major cities. Legion Raids can also be entered through the Party Finder tool (icon found below the mini-map), or through the “Integrated Dungeon” menu found by selecting the Integrated Dungeon icon under the mini-map, or by pressing [ALT] + [Q].
TWITCH DROP
Heroes of Arkesia,
Starting on June 30 at 8AM PT (3PM UTC) and running through July 27, members of the Lost Ark Creator Program will have access to a Pupper Mask & Amethyst Shard Set Twitch Drop to enable on their channels! Viewers will need to accumulate 4 hours of watch time in participating Lost Ark streams to claim this Drop reward. Full instructions can be found on our Twitch Drops page.
VYKAS CHALLENGE
In celebration of the second Legion Commander’s appearance, the Lost Ark Creator Program will be hosting the “Vykas Challenge”, similar to last month’s Valtan Challenge.
Participation in this friendly competition is being offered exclusively members of the Lost Ark Creator Program. Try your hand at being one of the first 10 teams to defeat Vykas (normal or hard) before July 3, 11:59 PM PT. Each qualified Creator Program Member on the team will earn 10 Bronze Founders Packs to distribute to their communities. Please see qualification and submission guidelines below.
RULES, QUALIFICATIONS & SUBMISSION
To qualify for this challenge, all of the following conditions must apply to you:
You’re a member of the Lost Ark Creator Program by Vykas’s release on June 30. Members accepted later than June 30 will not qualify for the challenge.
For your raid clear to qualify, you must complete Vykas on the Western version of Lost Ark published by Amazon Games.
To validate your submission, you must send the following to the LostArkCreator@amazon.com email alias:
Defeat Vykas and submit a link to a VOD or clip of you and your team completing the Legion Raid, showing the defeated boss and Raid completion screen.
In your submission, provide the email and Twitch account in which you have associated with the Creator Program.
Multiple submissions are not allowed.
Not all team members need to be Content Creators. However, all Creators on your team are eligible to win the Bronze Founder’s Packs. For all Content Creators in your team meeting the qualifications above, provide a list of their in-game names, email associated with the Creator Program, and their Twitch channel URL.
The challenge must be completed before July 3, 11:59 PM PT.
Once validated (if you’re part of the first 10 groups to submit), you will receive an email from us with your prize during the following week.
LOOKING AHEAD Speaking of progression events, we wanted to provide an update on the summer progression events previously teased in the Team Update & Roadmap article. While we’re still fine-tuning the details of the next progression event, we’re happy to announce it will arrive in Arkesia in the July update, along with the free Punika Powerpass we’re giving to all players. These progression events can be used on existing character, or a newly created Arcanist - also arriving in that update!
Stay tuned to PlayLostArk.com and our social channels next week for the full June Update release notes. We’re excited to witness the epic battles unfold next week against the Covetous Legion Commander. Good luck to all members of the Lost Ark community challenging Vykas in-game next week! We’re excited to see the loot earned in-game from your victories alongside the Twitch drops and Vykas Challenge rewards. We'll see you in Arkesia!
June Team Update
Heroes of Arkesia,
The Wrath of the Covetous Legion update will arrive in Arkesia on June 30. We can’t wait to witness the upcoming battles against Legion Commander Vykas and the Guardian Kungelanium, along with the personal victories as players test themselves in the solo Thronespire dungeon. We’re also ecstatic to announce that we’ve worked with Smilegate RPG to include a top player request in the June update— a Stronghold Research available at Item Level 1460 that improves alternate characters’ honing rates on their journey to Item Level 1415. We were too excited to not spoil that one, but you’ll have to wait until June 29 for the full release notes.
While we originally hoped to release the June update earlier in the month, a few factors played into the update moving to the end of the month; working with Smilegate RPG to add in the player-requested Stronghold Research, our teams focusing on ridding Arkesia of bots (and corresponding queue times), evaluating other content set to arrive, and adding in a few player gifts. In the June & July roadmap we released earlier this month, we shared that the Yoz’s Jar cosmetic system would arrive in the June update. After taking another look at the system’s design and listening to player feedback, we’ve decided to remove Yoz’s Jar.
First, some background. It’s important to us that players have a path to acquire items from our in-game store without spending real money. Nearly every store item can be acquired with Crystals, available by trading Gold through the player-run Currency Exchange. Items acquired with Royal Crystals are also tradable through the player-to-player Market. The Market allows the community to play an active role in the valuation of items and makes the economy within Arkesia highly flexible— letting players trade items as they see fit. Through these avenues, nearly all items are available in exchange for in-game, earnable currencies (with a few account-level exceptions, such as name changes).
Yoz’s Jar
With that context, let’s discuss Yoz’s Jar. This cosmetic system includes a variety of Epic skins and two signature Legendary skins for each Advanced Class. As fashion plays a critical part in vanquishing Kazeros’s Demon Legions, we were excited to introduce a collection of unique looks. However, the Epic and Legendary skins aren’t purely cosmetic. They provide a small (1% and 2% Strength/Dexterity/Intelligence, respectively) attack power increase. Every advantage is critical as players engage in Lost Ark’s challenging activities, like the newly introduced Legion Raids. While Epic and Legendary skins from Yoz’s Jar would've been available to everyone through Crystals and the player-to-player Market, data and feedback suggested they would fetch very high Gold prices— making it difficult for players to acquire a Legendary skin, much less a matching set.
We didn’t want players to feel that the skins found in Yoz’s Jar were necessary for gameplay, especially if gated by a significant monetary or in-game currency barrier, which is why we've decided to remove Yoz's Jar and the skins from the Wrath of the Covetous Legion Update. Flexibility and fairness to players have always been driving forces in the partnership between our teams as we work to ensure that players are able to enjoy and play Lost Ark however they see fit.
Player Gifts
To thank players for their patience and celebrate the launch of the Wrath of the Covetous Legion update, we’re excited to announce that two gifts will be granted to all players! We’ll be giving all players a Growth Support Pack which contains:
Destruction Stone Selection Pouch x5 - allowing one of these options to be selected from each chest:
Tier 1 - Destruction Stone Fragment (Bound) x1000
Tier 2 - Destruction Stone (Bound) x1000
Tier 3 - Destruction Stone Crystal (Bound) x200
Guardian Stone Selection Pouch x12 - allowing one of these options to be selected from each chest:
Tier 1 - Guardian Stone Fragment (Bound) x1000
Tier 2 - Guardian Stone (Bound) x1000
Tier 3 - Guardian Stone Crystal x200
Honing Shard Selection Chest x10 - allowing one of these options to be selected from each chest:
Tier 1 - Harmony Shard Pouch (L) x3
Tier 2 - Life Shard Pouch (L) x3
Tier 3 - Honor Shard Pouch (L) x1
We’ll also be giving all players a Mokoko Skin Selection Chest! Pick your favorite one and battle Vykas, Kugelanium, and the Demon Legions entering Thronespire in-style.
These gifts will be available to claim after the weekly downtime and update on June 30.
Store Updates
The Wrath of the Covetous Legion update will also include some new store items. For players looking forward to switching up their outfit, we’re adding new cosmetics to the in-game store; the Shadow of Stern collection and the Umar collection. Growth Support Packs containing honing materials will also be added to the store for players looking for a consistent offering over the rotating honing materials currently available in Mari’s Secret Shop. Each pack will be available through the in-game store for about a month, and has a purchase limit of one per customer. The full details and pack contents will be shared in the upcoming release notes.
It’s always our goal for in-game purchases to be (and feel) optional, and for players to feel encouraged to progress at whatever pace they’re comfortable with. We’ll continue to bolster the amount of in-game earnable honing materials for all players through progression events, free powerpasses, special events (like event islands), and other new content with valuable rewards.
We’re eager to continue our collaboration with Smilegate RPG to provide the best experience possible for the range of players in the community. As always, thank you for your feedback, support, and participation in the Lost Ark community. We’ll see you in Arkesia!
Lost Ark Weekly Update - June 23
Heroes of Arkesia,
All Lost Ark servers and regions will be coming offline on June 23rd at 12 AM PT / 7 AM UTC / 9 AM CEST for our regularly scheduled maintenance and update. Downtime is estimated to last up to 4 hours, and includes the following changes:
The end date for the Super Express Event has been adjusted to July 20th to prepare for the next Express Event, which means you will need to complete your event missions before this date. As an additional note, remember to designate a character for the Super Express Event prior to June 30th if you want to participate!
Claim bugs for the Fever Time Event have been resolved. We will run an additional instance of last weekend’s event to make up for the previous issues that prevented some players from being able to claim these rewards.
The June Update will release on Thursday, June 30th; detailed information about the delay will be coming later this week in a larger Team Update, but we wanted to provide a bit of insight to players ahead of this.
We are still working across teams to finalize a build that addresses multiple concerns of our playerbase, primarily in terms of monetization and related systems. While this won’t be ready for launch tomorrow, the June Update will go live next week on June 30th. A breakdown of the new changes will be shared in the Team Update later this week.
In addition to these incoming changes, the team has also been working toward long-term solutions for the ongoing botting issue. In early June bots seemed to reach a new high in Lost Ark, so it was imperative that we focus in on getting this situation under control. While the work isn’t finished yet, recent efforts including last week’s massive ban wave have had a very positive impact in terms of culling bots from Arkesia, and we are continuing to tackle this as a top priority.
We’ll be following up soon with more details, and we appreciate your continued support of Lost Ark. Thank you for your patience, and we’ll see you in Arkesia!
Lost Ark Weekly Update - June 2nd
Greetings heroes of Arkesia,
All Lost Ark servers and regions will be brought offline on June 2nd at 12 AM PT / 7 AM UTC / 9 AM CEST for this week’s regularly scheduled maintenance and update. Downtime is estimated to last up to 5 hours and will include the following fixes:
Fixed an issue that caused the client to stop responding when loading into Haiger's Manor or Rivelvarr Ruins. This content will be re-opened to players.
Chaos Dungeon exchange vendor rewards have been adjusted to be character bound. Shards earned from Chaos Dungeons are Roster bound, so players can share them with other characters on their Roster in order to redeem rewards from the exchange on alternate characters.
Fixed an issue where the Basic Horn-rimmed glasses would appear as white when equipped at the same time as the Wily Dawn Chestpiece and Pants.
Fixed an issue that caused an "Invalid Customization Info" error to appear when attempting to load an older preset in the Character Creation menu. If this issue persists, players can navigate to the folder containing the customization files (found at Lost Ark Live\EFGame\Customizing) and change the file extension of all saved presets from ".cus.bak" to ".cus" to resolve the error.
Chimek, an NPC from Wild Wing island, will no longer appear throughout Naruna Hot Springs.
Timers displayed in the Adventure Island menu will no longer reference UTC time in all regions.
Fixed a performance issue seen in various endgame dungeons and raids when using the Korean VO DLC.
Remaining entry counts will now show correctly in the Integrated Dungeon menu.
Fixed an issue that caused the Awakening Skill to be triggered when using the Smart Ping feature on a controller. Smart Ping can be trigged by pressing A, B, X, or Y while LB + LT + RB + RT are held down.
Reverted the dash distance changes on the Radiant Golden Cloud mount. The cooldown for the dash remains at 5 seconds.
Additionally, the team is still working through the following issues:
This update includes a speculative fix for the Island Siege timing issue that will be put in place with this downtime; we will update players on this once the build is live.
UI elements (such as items) may still get stuck on the player’s cursor in various situations.
Players on the Vykas server are unable to donate to a guild.
Thank you for your patience, and we’ll see you back in Arkesia soon!
Team Update & June - July Roadmap
Heroes of Arkesia,
Members of our team joined Smilegate RPG in South Korea last week to look at the roadmap, improve tools and processes, fight the war on bots together, and more as we continue our collaboration. Coming out of those meetings, we have a few topics we’d like to discuss before sharing a sneak peek at the June and July roadmap. We recently shared an update on our battle against bots that we encourage you to read if you’re interested in learning more about our efforts. We’ll keep this team update focused on a few other topics we know the community is interested in, such as Advanced Class release cadence and a discussion about release notes, before we dive into the upcoming content.
Team Update
Advanced Class Release Cadence
Lost Ark first launched in Korea in 2019 and Arkesia has been growing ever since, with new challenging activities, continents, and classes. There’s a vast amount of content we’re working with Smilegate RPG on bringing to the Western version. Lost Ark only launched in the West three-and-a-half months ago, and we’re excited to continue a fast release cadence as we work to catch up with other regions and grow the global community. While there’s a lot of content that has yet to arrive on Arkesia’s Western shores, we know that one of the top player questions is regarding the Advanced Class release cadence. Below you’ll find a glance into our plans and reasoning before we share the June & July roadmap content.
We are planning to release one new Advanced Class every two months for the rest of 2022. We’ve worked with Smilegate RPG to carefully plan out this schedule, which is a much faster cadence than other regions as we catch up. We know some players are eager to max out their roster and want them even faster, but Class releases build excitement and bring new (and returning) players into Arkesia. Having a steady flow of content releases that include Advanced Classes during Lost Ark’s first year in the West will help support the long-term health of the game. While the specific Advanced Class schedule is not set in stone, we can say we’re planning to release the first 21 Advanced Classes before other new, or future, classes.
Our teams work with Smilegate RPG to evaluate a variety of factors when looking at which Advanced Class to release at a specific time, such as planned balance updates/reworks, relevance of the abilities and playstyle to other content, community feedback, and more. The release of the Glaivier and Destroyer Advanced Classes provide a good example. Our teams knew we wanted the Destroyer to release at (or around) the Valtan Legion Raid for players to begin leveraging the massive stagger damage in end-game activities. However, releasing the Destroyer shortly before a planned rework wouldn’t be a great experience, so we pulled forward the fan-favorite Glaivier Advanced Class into its place, and released the Destroyer alongside Valtan.
We know the importance of having a variety of playstyles, and when a new Advanced Class releases we want to provide players who enjoy it with paths to quickly progress. Along with planning out the Advanced Class release cadence, we’re also working with Smilegate RPG to plan in-game events and features that will help players progress their characters. As we’ve mentioned previously, we’ll let players know what classes are coming out near Powerpass grants or progression events to ensure players can make an informed decision about how and when they want to use these features. In the roadmap below, you’ll find more information on the next planned Advanced Class - the Arcanist.
Behind the Scenes - Release Notes
Since launch, we’ve promised to be as transparent as we can with the Lost Ark community around the world. With changes to Lost Ark impacting moment-to-moment gameplay and a variety of game systems that players engage with every day, we fully understand the importance of clearly communicating those changes as specifically as possible. We wanted to acknowledge frustrations in the community and ensure that it’s an ongoing area of conversation between our teams and a focus of ours to improve. Our goal is to always clearly communicate changes, but on both the April and May updates we’ve fallen a little short.
Lost Ark has a colossal amount of content and systems. When we work with Smilegate RPG to compile game-builds blending content that released years ago in Korea with newer content like QoL updates and balance changes, things get complicated very quickly. Neither of our teams intentionally leave release notes out, but occasionally, when layering content together and handing-off details, a few changes can slip into the build or get lost. Additionally (also due to the enormous amount of content) a bug can slip into the build that goes unnoticed by the various QA teams working around the clock. Certain bugs can even look like changes to the game, and we know that can be extremely confusing— we’re looking at you, rapport bug. We appreciate the bug reports submitted by players on the Official Lost Ark Forums, which we review and strive to fix as soon as possible. If you ever have a question on something you encounter, make sure to check the forums for updates on issues that sometimes arise after a content release.
Our teams at Amazon Games and Smilegate RPG appreciate the passion and patience of the Lost Ark community, and we’re excited for the future as we continually improve our collaboration and work to provide the best experience in Arkesia. Now that we’ve wrapped up this team update, let’s dive into some of the new features, activities, and the new Advanced Class arriving over the next two months.
Roadmap - General
The content found below are some of the highlights we know players are looking forward to, and similar to the previous roadmaps, isn’t a comprehensive list of everything releasing in these updates. Stay tuned to our website, social channels, and the release notes for the full list of new islands, store updates, events, bug-fixes, and more. We’re also planning on giving every player a free Punika Powerpass this summer, and are fine-tuning the details for another Express Event. We’ll let you know when the dates and details are finalized!
June
Legion Raid - Vykas (Normal & Hard)
Battle the Covetous Legion’s Commander Vykas, who will join Valtan as the second Legion Raid available. Legion Raids are difficult team-based activities that require teamwork to understand and enact the strategy necessary to counter each Legion Commander's unique characteristics, abilities, and mechanics. As Legion Raids are challenging and take time, there are gates (or checkpoints) that will save a player's progress as they advance through the Raid.
Like Valtan, this Legion Raid will require eight players. To enter normal mode, players will need to reach item level 1430, and for hard, 1460. The Vykas Legion Raid will grant materials allowing successful players to finish crafting their Relic gear sets, alongside a host of other valuable rewards.
New Guardian Raid - Kungelanium
Joining Deskaluda, the frost predator Kungelanium will enter the gauntlet of powerful Level 6 Guardians available to challenge in a Guardian Raid. Kungelanium will be available for players to challenge once they reach item level 1460 or higher. Like other Guardian Raids, you can attempt to vanquish alone, with a party, or matchmake with up to three other heroes.
Thronespire
Thronespire is a new single-player dungeon experience in a twisted dimension with 50 levels. Once you enter a floor, you’ll have a limited amount of time to clear it before moving to the next, or failing and need to re-try. While similar to the Shadowspire and Fatespire solo dungeons, Thronespire has a few key differences. In Thronespire, you’ll battle until overwhelmed, working to defeat as many floors and enemies as possible before you meet your match and succumb to the Demon Legions. Completing the first 25 floors grant first-time clear rewards (you’ll earn all rewards for the floors you conquer). The other 25 floors are focused on prestige and completion times— proving you have the solo skills it takes to conquer anything the Demon Legions throw your way. Players will need to be item level 1325 to participate.
New Store Cosmetics - Yoz’s Jar
Yoz’s Jar is a new consumable that arriving in the in-game store that will introduce a variety of Epic and Legendary skins. If you have a skin you don’t like or wear anymore (or maybe one from Yoz’s Jar you’re not a fan of) you can break it down for “Cloth”, which can be used with a Jar to roll a new skin from a determined list. This new cosmetic system will also give a chance to acquire Legendary skins, which provide better benefits than Epic skins. No worries if you like an older skin more than the looks of your new Legendary one with bigger bonuses, you can ‘Overlay’ the skin you like over the Legendary skin! Like the rest of the content previewed here, we’ll share more details as we head toward the June update.
July
New Mage Advanced Class - Arcanist
The Arcanist imbues special cards with her Magick and uses them to for a variety of effects. From slicing up enemies with a deluge of thrown cards to summoning powerful Magick attacks or team effects from the cards themselves, the Arcanist has a trick up her sleeve for every situation. Despite being armed with a variety of skills, the Arcanist will sometimes leave things to the fate of the cards with her specialty skill “Card Deck”. When the player lands an attack, it charges the Card Meter. Once the meter is completely charged, a card with random stats registers on the Card Deck, which can be pulled out and used to varying degrees of devastating effect. The Arcanist will join the Bard and Sorceress as the third available Mage Advanced Class.
Valtan Legion Raid - Inferno Difficulty
The most difficult version of Legion Raids, the Inferno difficulty is all about proving you’re the among the best of the best in Arkesia, and earning the prestige. Rather than chasing the normal rewards of gear, materials, and everything else you’d receive in a Legion Raid, Inferno rewards instead showcase your victory with titles, achievements, Stronghold structures, and more! A new in-game vendor will be added for players to access a variety of prestigious rewards, earned after various numbers of clears. There are a few key differences between Normal/Hard and Inferno difficulties:
‘Scale of Balance’ is applied, and the raid requires use of the Book of Coordination, so everyone’s gear is normalized against the level of your Legion Commander opponent.
The gate progression system will not be active - you can’t make it half-way and come back later in the week.
Inferno mode will not count against your weekly attempt limit for Legion Raids, so you can play Valtan on Normal/Hard and Inferno in the same week, and try Inferno as many times as you’d like.
Valtan Inferno difficulty will require item level 1445 for players to participate.
Challenge Abyssal Dungeons
Similar to how the recently released Challenge Guardian Raids applies Scale of Harmony to equalize your power against your foe, Challenge Abyssal Dungeons will use this treatment in a new weekly activity. With greater challenge also comes greater rewards. Various honing material selection pouches— like Challenge Guardians, you can pick the offering closest to your item level— will rotate through the rewards, and cards aplenty are available as drops or in the end-of-dungeon loot auction. You can play through each Abyssal Dungeon once (per roster) each week.
Looking Ahead
We’re excited to witness the epic battles against Vykas, and seeing which heroes are able to defeat Valtan in the Inferno difficulty. Stay tuned to our website, social channels, and the release notes for the full list of new islands, store updates, events, bug-fixes, and more over the coming months. See you in Arkesia!
5/21 Hotfix
Heroes of Arkesia!
Tonight’s update addressed some of the issues we’ve seen since the release of the May Update.
Fixes in this update include:
Fixed an issue where Ealyn and Sasha’s affection rapport tiers were missing
Fixed an issue causing the “/Dance” command, to not work when sent in chat.
Fixed an issue allowing the Destroyer to open the Platinum Complimentary Skin Chest, granting no items.
Fixed an issue where the counter effect line wasn’t shown for the Sorceress’ Ice Shower skill
Fixed an issue causing the Absolute Strength tripod on the Destroyer’s Perfect Swing skill, to not deal any bonus damage
Fixed an issue blocking players from honing gear past +15, with a character currently participating in the Super Express event.
Reverted the cooldown and distance changes to the Radiant Golden Cloud mount
Thank you for your patience and support, we’ll see you in Arkesia!
Destined For Destruction - May Update
Heroes of Arkesia,
The May “Destined For Destruction” update arrives in Arkesia tomorrow! Downtime for the update will begin on May 19 at 12AM PT (8AM UTC) and is expected to last 4 hours. Destined for Destruction includes the new Destroyer Advanced Class, the first Legion Raid, quality of life updates, new cosmetics, a comprehensive balance patch, new activities, and more! Find the full list of content and updates below.
Spotlight
Valtan Legion Raid
Valtan will introduce the first Legion Raid into the western version of Lost Ark. Legion Raids are difficult team-based activities that require teamwork to understand and execute the strategy necessary to counter each Legion Commander's unique characteristics, abilities, and mechanics. As Legion Raids are challenging and take time, there are gates (or checkpoints) that will save players' progress as they advance through the Raid.
Valtan is an eight-player Legion raid, has 2 gates, and introduces a swathe of new mechanics. Players will need to be item level 1415 to attempt normal difficulty, and 1445 for hard. Learn more about how to enter the Valtan Legion Raid, new mechanics like Sidereal skills, and information on rewards in the Valtan Lost Ark Academy.
Destroyer Advanced Class
Armed with a variety of skills centered around charging into the heart of the fray, their hammer attacks are so catastrophically crushing that Destroyers can bend gravity to their will— slowing, launching, pushing and pulling enemies— whatever it takes to utterly, beyond a shadow of a doubt, destroy them. The Destroyer will join the Berserker, Paladin, and Gunlancer as the fourth Warrior Advanced Class. Learn more about the Destroyer’s unique abilities, skills, and playstyle in the Destroyer Lost Ark Academy.
New Activities
Deskaluda Guardian Raid
A new Guardian will arise and must be vanquished before they usher in an age of darkness. Deskaluda will require an item level of 1415 to attempt. As with the other Guardian Raids, you can attempt to vanquish Deskaluda alone, with a party, or matchmake with up to three other heroes.
Challenge Guardians
Each week, players can attempt to defeat three Challenge Guardians. Every Guardian has their own required item level to enter, and each week one Guardian will rotate out, replaced by a different foe. Differing from a normal Guardian Raid, not only are these foes more difficult, Challenge Guardian Raids will apply ‘Scale of Harmony’ so that your characters’ item level will be adjusted to match that of their enemy. However, with increased challenge comes increased loot! Rewards for each Challenge Guardian can be obtained once per roster, per week, and offer more diverse rewards than normal Guardian Raids.
Guild Activities
While being in a guild has been a helpful source of finding raid groups and providing benefits like the guild shop, new PvE and PvP guild activities arrive in this update. Issue challenges across Arkesia to control guild bases to prove your guild is the best around.
Island Siege - A PvP guild activity that allows you to battle other guilds in PvP combat. Your ranking is determined by how many points you earn from capturing objectives and defeating enemy players. Island Siege also includes fun activities, like Naruni Island Racing, Snowpang Island Snow Fight and a PvE competition on Altesien island. Earn rewards and perks like gems, accessories, ability stones and more.
Raid Match - Enter a base with your guild and challenge the powerful Sylmael Devourer. Once summoned, you’ll have limited-time to cooperate with your guild and quickly destroy the Sylmael Devourer. The faster you kill, the more you move up in the guild rankings.
If you’re not in a guild yet, time to start searching! You can use the [Alt-U] hotkey or find the guild menu on the list of menus by pressing escape. Once there, if you’re not in a guild, you can browse through and apply! Many awesome Lost Ark content creators also have series of guilds for their communities, so make sure to see if there are guilds for any communities or friend groups you might already be a part of.
South Vern Content
Added 3 levels of South Vern Chaos Dungeons. To participate, you must first complete the "Invading Chaos Wave" quest in South Vern. Item Levels required to participate:
Level 1: 1415
Level 2: 1445
Level 3: 1475
Added the South Vern Chaos Gate and corresponding Secret Dungeons. Requires Item Level 1415 to participate.
Added the South Vern Ghost Ship. Requires Item Level 1415 to participate.
Added hard mode for the Chaos Line. Requires Item Level 1415 to participate.
Added the Thunderwings Field Boss to South Vern. The recommended Item Level is 1460, but like other open-world Field Bosses this doesn’t prevent players with lower levels from participating.
Wild Wings Island
Arkesia is a vast land, filled with a myriad of menacing and sometimes, well, less-menacing threats. Seeking revenge for eating their friends and family, Crispy Golden Chickings are planning to raid the island. Players turn into a chicken or beer to battle the Chicking boss to earn event coins. The quicker you defeat waves of enemies, the quicker more Chickings appear and the more coins you can earn!
Wild Wings Island is a new event island (appearing west of Tortoyk, with an event every hour) where you can participate in co-op quests or join solo to help suppress this unique uprising. In return, you’ll be rewarded with Rapport Chests, Tailoring & Metallurgy Books, Honing Materials, Pheons, Card Packs, Silver, and more!
Store Updates
Neria’s Wardrobe
Neria’s Wardrobe is a limited-time skin shop that sells individual skins (head, chest, pants, etc.), and will be around for roughly a month. Players can buy individual items for their character, such as snapback hats, t-shirts, jeans, fit and flare dresses, and more. Your character will be modeling modern fashion while fighting epic bosses. Neria’s Wardrobe can be accessed through a new tab at the top of the in-game store’s UI titled ‘Dressing Room’.
New Cosmetics
A new cosmetic collection and a Destroyer Exclusive Skin have been added to the in-game store, available in exchange for either Crystals or Royal Crystals. Explore the in-game store to find the bundle or individual items that best suit your needs and style.
Shushire’s Will - Destroyer Exclusive Skin Set
Dawn Collection Armor Skins
Dawn Collection Weapon Skins
Stronghold Structures & Customization
Added new Stronghold structures and customization items to the in-game store. Items include tents, the Romantic Camping set, the Sweet Picnic set, and more!
General Store Updates
Destroyer special packages have been added, which include the Shushire’s Will skin set alongside other valuable items to help you in your adventures.
A few other minor store updates will take place in the May Update, such as adjustments to item quantities in Mari’s Secret Shop, and the addition of a few new Crystal bundles.
Added a button allowing players to preview skins from selection chests in their inventory before making a choice.
General Updates & QoL Adjustments
Updated Character Customization
Added 5 new hairstyles for each of the five class categories (Assassin, Warrior, Mage, Martial Artist, and Gunners).
Added 5 Warrior premade looks and 5 facial presets without facial hair.
Added human ears for the Mage class.
Added a scroll bar to the hairstyle selection icon list.
New QoL Menus, Options, & Settings
Added an “Integrated Dungeon” menu that lists all the Dungeons and Raids available to a player, and allows players to enter those activities directly through the menu. This menu can be found by selecting the "Integrated Dungeon" UI element under the mini-map, or by pressing [ALT] + [Q].
Players can now check their character’s participation status for various pieces of content on the “Game Menu” by pressing [ESC].
From within the settings menu, players can now set a chat macro to be displayed upon using a skill.
Added ‘Favorite Mount’ settings. Favorited mounts will be randomly summoned.
Improved item loot options and settings, auto-dismantling, and loot alerts.
Added an option to exclude items with specific engravings to auto-dismantling.
Improved Integrated Preset options.
You can now apply Integrated Preset to use tripod effects in the Skill Tree Inventory. This effect will be applied to the skill immediately, and will not overwrite your gear.
Added an option to change your Integrated Preset at the entry point of all end-game contents, such as Chaos Dungeon, Abyss Raid, Legion Raid, etc.
You can automatically summon a specified pet with the Integrated Preset.
You can now designate which characters can gain gold rewards from specific activities, like Abyss Dungeons, Abyssal Raids, and Legion Raids. The maximum number of characters that can earn gold is still 6 per activity.
Added new Party Finder & Party Invite improvements. Offline players will not be shown in the Party Invite UI. If you request matching or try to enter a different content while you are in Find Party lobby, a pop up will appear to confirm if you want to leave the lobby.
Added a drop down menu in the Find Party UI (in the Legion Raid section) where you can select which gate you want to find teammates for, as Legion Raids have different gates you can enter. Learn more about gate entrance in the Valtan Legion Raid Lost Ark Academy [linked].
Added a new "Toy" tab in the "Interact" menu that allows players to store their transformation and equippable toy items.
Market & Auction House Improvements
You can now search more specifically from the “Advanced Search Options” menu in the Auction House. You can also reset search presets from the Advanced Search Options by deleting search options.
If an item listed in Market or Auction House has less than 3 hours, and more than 5 minutes left before it expires, you can re-list the item. You will pay the deposit again and your old deposit will be returned to you by mail. If you instead choose to cancel a listing within that timeframe, your deposit will be returned by mail along with your item. If an item is sold while attempting to re-list or cancel the listing, the deposit that you paid will be refunded immediately. If the listed product has less than 5 minutes left before it expires, you will not be able to re-list it or cancel listing.
You can now check how many Pheons you have directly from the Auction House UI.
Stronghold Improvements
Farm Improvements & Updates
From the new Farm menu, you can now select and plant Gatherables on the slots. Gatherables in the slot will be ready to harvest every morning. You can check your notifications or go to the management mode to see Gatherables that are ready to be harvested.
Depending on your Research level, you can now harvest Splendid Gatherables, which will give you more rewards.
Mastery Skills and passive perks provided by trade skill levels don’t apply buffs when harvesting Gatherables in the Stronghold farm.
You can no longer complete trade skill related Una's Tasks or Guild Requests from the Stronghold farm resources.
General Stronghold Improvements
Boundaries will be now shown so you can easily identify where structures can be successfully placed.
You can now select and edit more than one structure at the same time by pressing [CTRL].
Inventory limit for certain Stronghold structures has increased from 99 to 999.
You can now send more than one dispatch on the same special mission from the Dispatch Station. If a crew member that you added manually is the same as one in auto-formation, then the auto-formation button will become inactive.
General Updates
Refreshed the daily log-in reward track.
Two accessories with the same name (two "Space Rings" for example) can now be equipped at the same time.
Added front and back attack indicators when fighting a boss to better see where your attack is landing.
Added settings that can adjust the shape and color of the indicators. These can be found by navigating to Settings > selecting “Gameplay”, and then selecting “Controls and Display”.
Added shortcuts in the Frost Haven and Foggy Ridge Guardian Maps.
Raid leaders’ chat messages will now be highlighted.
Improved World Map symbol search and the Dungeon Map checking function. You can now look up targets that are on a different floor.
When collecting token items, the alert will now show which inventory it's being stored in.
The amount of silver in the South Vern entrance ticket chest at the Guild Vendor has increased from 37,000 to 42,000.
Added an item level limit of 1415 to get gold rewards from Oreha’s Well Abyssal Dungeons. Applies to both Normal and Hard mode.
Monte Island improvements:
Players can now enter Monte Island from a fixed location.
A compass has been added so players can easily navigate to the co-op quest area.
Number of participants for the ‘Sweet Dreams’ co-op quest has been reduced to 30 participants.
To beat the Strange Treasure Chest, you will need to use a frying pan by using the F5 key.
Strange Treasure Chests will produce more notes, but will no longer drop silver or gold.
You will no longer lose an alcohol buff if you move to a different area. Certain alcohols will now have a 10-min buff.
You can now refill Sweet Mojito and Punika Gin by taking your empty bottle to Gali in Nia Village.
A "Quality Upgrade" NPC has been added to all major cities allowing players a chance to upgrade the quality of Relic gear obtained from Legion Raids for gold.
Cooldown time for the Sniffer Dog excavating skill has been decreased from 5m to 3m.
If expanded, the mini-map will now close automatically during trade skill mini-games.
Players can now use their mouse to add or remove sheet music, mounts, and pets in hot-bar slots while holding an item that they've picked up.
A button has been added allowing players to preview skins from selection chests within their inventory before making a choice
Vendors items with purchase limits (daily, weekly, roster, etc.) will now be moved to the bottom of the store UI if the available quantity has been exhausted.
Improved controller support. Players can now use their controller to use smart pings to share their location with party members. You can now use RT+RB+B on your controller to start/end deal meter in the Training Grounds.
Class, Damage Reduction, & Rune Balance
Please visit our release notes page on playlostark.com for the full balance updates, which include comprehensive changes to some Skill Runes, the damage reduction effect, and tuning for many of the Advanced Classes to balance their impact and further define their battlefield roles.
Notable Bug Fixes
Fixed an issue preventing entry into Secret Dungeons if the map was stored in the Pet Inventory.
Fixed an issue causing uncraftable Feasts and BBQs to display in the Chef's Kitchen within the Stronghold.
Fixed an issue causing most events saved in the calendar to be removed after closing and reopening the menu.
Fixed an issue causing the “Attachment” and “Delete” selection buttons to not function within the mailbox.
Fixed an issue causing cutscenes to only trigger for a single player when progressing through a quest with a party member.
Fixed an issue causing the ticking SFX heard at the end of a Team Elimination PvP match to persist through the proceeding rounds.
Fixed an issue causing all options/items to disappear when searching for invalid terms at any vendor.
Fixed an issue causing UI elements to disappear when pressing the tab key while viewing items from a vendor.
Fixed an issue causing ban reasoning and expiration timers to not be shown in specific cases.
Fixed an issue causing the event time shown in the calendar to not follow the local server time.
Fixed an issue causing the timers displayed in the Adventure Island menu to reference UTC time in all regions.
Fixed an issue causing the weapon effect toggle to activate after accessing the dismantle menu from the inventory.
Fixed a controller related issue where some pop-up tutorials would display keyboard commands instead of controller inputs.
Fixed an issue preventing the "The Shandi's Trial: Focusing" quest from being completed while using a controller.
Thank you for your support! We’ll see you in Arkesia.
Valtan - Legion Raid Academy, Creator Challenge, & Twitch Drop
Beware, Heroes of Arkesia.
After being critically injured at the Wall of Glory in Luterra, Legion Commander Valtan was betrayed by Kharmine and his thirst for power. Kharmine absorbed Valtan’s body, tearing his soul to pieces.
Time passed, Valtan’s shredded soul wandering endlessly through the abyss.
Requiring reinforcements for the invasion of Arkesia, Plague Legion Commander Akkan used his powers to stitch Valtan's soul back together. Akkan placed it in a new patchwork body— a physical representation of Valtan's tattered soul. Valtan feels endless anguish. Tortured by memories of being torn into pieces and constant pain having a new patchwork body, the Lord of the Demon Beasts will not stop until he destroys everything in sight— inflicting the same crushing agony on all those in his path.
Filled with the traces of a horrific massacre, the Resurrected Demon Beast Lair is an area that Valtan entered from a Chaos Gate after the events that recently transpired in South Vern. Strategically located upon a towering mountain peak in Luterra, it now serves as the Demon Beast Legion's camp. Once again, the Lord of the Demon Beasts will return to the battlefield to fill Arkesia with blood and shrieks of terror...
"I am… Valtan, the Demon Beast Legion Commander!"
LEGION RAID OVERVIEW & GETTING STARTED
Valtan will introduce the first Legion Raid into the Western version of Lost Ark. Legion Raids are difficult team-based activities that require teamwork to understand and execute the strategy necessary to counter each Legion Commander's unique characteristics, abilities, and mechanics. As Legion Raids are challenging and take time, there are gates (or checkpoints) that will save players' progression as they advance through the Raid. Valtan is an eight-player Legion raid, has 2 gates, and introduces a swathe of new mechanics. Players will need to be item level 1415 to attempt Normal difficulty, and 1445 for Hard mode. Normal and Hard share a weekly lockout, so you can only attempt one difficulty per week.
Players can participate in Legion Raids after completing the guide quest ‘[Guide] Notice: Legion Raid’. Once you’ve completed the guide quest, you can visit the “Lunar Knights” NPC located in Vern castle to start the quest 'Resurrected Lord of Destruction' which tells the story of Valtan.
Once unlocked, the Valtan Legion Raid is available to enter through a new structure located in major cities. Legion Raids can also be entered through the Party Finder tool (icon found below the mini-map), or through the new “Integrated Dungeon” menu arriving in the May update that lists all the Dungeons and Raids available to a player and allows entry into those activities directly. This menu can be found by selecting the Integrated Dungeon icon under the mini-map, or by pressing [ALT] + [Q].
GATE PROGRESSION SYSTEM
In Legion Raids, gates (or checkpoints) work a little differently than other activities. In other activities, gates will save your progression for that session in case you wipe and need to try again, but in Legion Raids the gate save point system will not only let you try again in case of a wipe, it also lets you take a break from a Legion Raid without losing out on progress or rewards.
You’ll receive a reward whenever you clear a gate in a Legion Raid. Your completed gate information will be saved when you claim your reward, and your group can vote to decide whether you continue to the next gate or not. If your group votes to continue on, you’ll move forward with your current group to challenge the boss, enemies, or Legion Commander guarding the remaining gates. If you’ve decided to wait on challenging the remaining gates, you can resume challenging the remaining gates until the weekly reset.
The May “Destined for Destruction” Update will include a new drop down menu in the Find Party UI (in the Legion Raid section) where you can select which gate you want to find teammates for. Valtan will have two gates. If you complete the first one you can come back and challenge the second one later on, even with a whole new group if you deem it necessary.
SIDEREAL SKILLS
Legion Raids introduce a new mechanic; Sidereal Skills. In each Legion Raid, you will find Sidereals who will fight alongside your group, allowing you to enlist their help for powerful skills mid-battle. You can fill up the Sidereal Skill meter throughout the raid, when meeting certain conditions during boss battles. When the meter is full, the raid group leader can use one of the available Sidereal Skills, unique to each Legion Raid.
In the Valtan Legion Raid, there are 3 Sidereals you can call upon for aid:
Thirain - Completed Vanquisher Thirain awakens the Vanquisher and smashes it with the power of light to create a massively damaging explosion. It has a powerful Weak Point ability granted by Vanquisher’s holy powers.
Balthorr - Arcturus's Breath Balthorr strikes the anvil with Earthen Strength. When he strikes the anvil, all squad members within 14 meters of the anvil are enhanced for a short time with enchanted armor. The enchanted armor grants Push immunity, reduces the damage taken from the foes, and blocks some of the Legion Commander’s powerful skills.
GEAR & REWARDS
With great challenge comes great reward. In Legion Raids, you can earn Legendary gear crafting materials, Relic gear crafting materials, Relic accessories, Gold, honing materials, Ability Stones, Cards, and more! Each gate of a Legion Raid will grant rewards to all players, and the final gate granting additional rewards with the customary bonus chest you can buy for gold, and a loot auction— both similar to what you’d experience in an Abyssal Dungeon or Abyss Raid. While the same rewards can be found in both Normal and Hard mode of Valtan, the Hard mode will grant greater quantities. You’ll also need to be item level 1445 to craft the Relic sets of gear. The gear transfer function will work on Relic gear, so you won’t lose any progress when switching over.
Additionally, a "Quality Upgrade" NPC has been added to all major cities allowing players a chance to upgrade the quality of Relic gear obtained from Legion Raids.
TWITCH DROP
Starting on May 19 at 8AM PT (3PM UTC) and running through June 15, members of the Lost Ark Creator Program will have access to a Battle Chest & Amethyst Shard Set Twitch Drop to enable on their channels. Viewers will need to accumulate 2 hours of watch time in participating Lost Ark streams to claim this Drop reward.
VALTAN CHALLENGE
Valtan brings the first Legion Raid to the western version of Lost Ark, dropping May 19th! In celebration of the Legion Commander’s arrival, the Lost Ark Creator Program is hosting the “Valtan Challenge”.
Participation in this friendly competition is being offered exclusively members of the Lost Ark Creator Program. Try your hand at being one of the first 10 teams to defeat Valtan (normal or hard) before Saturday May 21st, 11:59 PM PT. Each qualified Creator Program Member on the team will earn 10 Bronze Founders Packs to distribute to their communities. Please see qualification and submission guidelines below.
RULES, QUALIFICATIONS & SUBMISSION To qualify for this challenge, all of the following conditions must apply to you:
You’re a member of the Lost Ark Creator Program by Valtan’s release on May 19th. Members accepted later than the 19th will not qualify for the challenge. If you’ve received this email, you are a member of the Lost Ark Creator Program already.
For your raid clear to qualify, you must complete Valtan on the western version of Lost Ark published by Amazon Games.
In order to validate your submission, you must send the following to the LostArkCreator@amazon.com email alias:
Defeat Valtan and submit a link to a VOD or clip of you and your team completing the Legion Raid, showing the defeated boss and Raid completion screen.
You may only submit your Valtan Raid once. Multiple submissions are not allowed.
Not all team members need to be Content Creators. However, all Creators on your team are eligible to win the Bronze Founders Packs. For all Content Creators in your team meeting the qualifications above, provide a list of their in-game names and their Twitch channel URL.
The challenge must be completed before Saturday May 21st, 11:59 PM PT.
Once validated (if you’re part of the first 10 groups to submit), you will receive an email from us with your prize during the following week.
LOOKING AHEAD
We’re not going to spoil the unique mechanics, moves, and challenges you’ll experience within the Valtan Legion Raid, as we know some groups like to figure it out on their own! If you want some tips or tricks, head over to YouTube! There are a variety of talented Content Creators who have already made comprehensive guides to prepare you and your group for Valtan.
On May 19, Valtan, Deskaluda, The Destroyer Advanced Class, Challenge Guardians, and many more threats, new types of content, and skins will arrive in Arkesia. Good luck to all members of the Lost Ark community— creators and viewers alike as they earn drops, rewards, and in-game loot in their battles against the Demon Beast Legion Commander. We’ll see you in Arkesia!
Regarding Bots in Lost Ark
Heroes of Arkesia,
We know that bots have been causing frustration within the community, and we share in that frustration. Over the past few months we’ve made a number of changes to Lost Ark in order to combat bots. We know that there’s still work to do, and we want to share some detail on how we’re approaching this ongoing issue so we can give Lost Ark players a better experience. Since Lost Ark launched, we’ve been fighting a war against the bots infiltrating Arkesia. Addressing bots can be especially challenging in free-to-play games because it’s so easy to create an account and enter the game, but we’re working on multiple fronts to fight them. Here are some of the measures we’ve taken so far:
Permanently banned several million accounts that participated in botting, hacking, or gold selling.
Level-gated area chat to keep brand-new accounts from spamming gold-selling advertisements.
Actively updated the game’s automatic chat moderation with lines and phrases that we know are commonly used by gold sellers.
Changed the reward structures of quests and events to add a stronger deterrent against using bots to farm gold.
Updated and improved Easy Anti Cheat detection capabilities to better identify and act against bots.
Enabled a native detection system to help quickly identify bad actors and take action against them.
Improved reporting tools in-game to help our players report bots and our support staff act more quickly on reports.
Blocked IP from regions where we do not have publishing rights that have shown large amounts of bot activity.
Blocked VPNs to stop bad actors from working around IP bans.
While each of these tactics has shown some measure of success in removing bots from the game, our work is far from over. We can’t share all the details, because we don’t want to help bot users more easily adapt to our tactics, but we’re working closely with Easy Anti Cheat to improve their support of Lost Ark and with Smilegate RPG to improve the native bot detection system, while tuning events and rewards to prevent or remove paths for bot abuse. We’re also exploring new ways to help combat bots natively at scale.
We’ve heard some questions from the community about tools like Captcha or two-factor authentication. These tools would require sizeable platform and architectural changes to implement in Lost Ark. Real-world account owner identification is another method used in some regions, but the global scale of the Western version of the game and varying laws in the territories where we operate Lost Ark make this a less realistic solution for us. We’re continuing to explore our options for additional tools that are scalable and could make a significant impact.
As we continue our quest to rid Arkesia of bots, we are also conscious of possible pain points some of these measures might cause for our players, and are working to balance this. We appreciate your patience as we continue working to bring the best possible Lost Ark experience to our players.
May 13 Hotfix
All Lost Ark servers and regions will be coming down for a hotfix tonight, on May 13 at 12 AM PT / 7 AM UTC / 9 AM CEST. Expected downtime is approximately 5 hours. This hotfix includes infrastructure improvements that are necessary to deploy ahead of next week’s May Content Update.
Thank you for your patience, and we’ll see you in Arkesia soon!
