Genre: Role-playing (RPG), Hack and slash/Beat 'em up, Adventure
Lost Ark
Destined For Destruction - May Update Reveal
Heroes of Arkesia,
In last month’s April & May Roadmap, we gave a first look at what you could expect in May’s major update. In that article, we discussed our approach of monitoring player progression and feedback to find the correct release timing for more end-game content, such as the Valtan Legion Raid and the Deskaluda Guardian Raid. After closely monitoring alongside Smilegate RPG, we feel that enough of our player base has reached the item level needed to participate (or is within easy striking distance to get there over the next few weeks) and have decided this is the right time for these activities to enter the western shores of Arkesia.
It is never our goal for players to feel they need to pay to progress, and players who haven’t reached the item levels required to participate shouldn’t feel pressured— continue to enjoy the journey of exploration and challenging yourself at your own pace. For newer players eager to hit the high levels required to participate in end-game activities, we hope that the Express Event Missions and extension of the Guardian Raid Event to May 19 will help you progress while still teaching the vast variety of mechanics and game modes in Lost Ark. As existing fans of Lost Ark know, there are still many new activities, challenges, enemies, and more that have yet to be released, and we can’t wait to bring more experiences to Arkesia. We’re excited to introduce the first Legion Raid this month and can’t wait to witness your battles against this legendary foe. With that, let’s dive into the content arriving in May.
LEGION RAID - VALTAN (NORMAL & HARD MODES)
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 player's 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. The Valtan Legion Raid will also introduce a new rarity for gear - “Relic”. Relic gear can be crafted from materials earned in the raid. It provides more impactful armor and weapon bonuses, alongside bigger stat bonuses and more engraving nodes on accessories.
DESKALUDA GUARDIAN RAID
Guardians are powerful entities that can tip the scales toward good or evil. 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. Similar to the rewards in the Valtan Legion Raid, players will also have a chance to earn Relic quality accessories from defeating Deskaluda.
DESTROYER ADVANCED CLASS
We’ve talked about the cataclysmic impact that Warriors have on the battlefield, but nothing embodies this better than the hammer-wielding Destroyer. 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. Dealing massive stagger damage, the Destroyer is a welcome addition to any party attempting to vanquish powerful foes. The Destroyer will join the Berserker, Paladin, and Gunlancer as the fourth Warrior Advanced Class.
ADDITIONAL MAY CONTENT
CHALLENGE GUARDIAN RAIDS
Challenge Guardian Raids will add a new weekly activity for players looking for a challenge. 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, Challenge Guardian Raids will apply ‘Scale of Balance’ so that your characters’ item level will be adjusted appropriately to that of their enemy. Additionally, players cannot use the Battle Workshop in the raid region. However, with increased challenge comes increased rewards. Rewards for each Challenge Guardian can be obtained once per roster, per week, and offer more diverse rewards than normal Guardian Raids.
NEW QUESTS & OPEN WORLD ACTIVITIES
South Vern Activities - Chaos Line Hard Mode, Thunderwings Field Boss, the South Vern Chaos Gate, South Vern Ghost Ship, and South Vern Chaos Dungeons will all be arriving in Arkesia.
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 where players can participate in co-op quests or join solo to help suppress this unique uprising.
NEW 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 will be arriving in May. 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. 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.
NERIA’S WARDROBE
We heard players wanted more skins, so we’re adding a month of Neria’s Wardrobe alongside the normal store updates that will happen in May. 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.
QUALITY OF LIFE UPDATES
May will also introduce a bunch of quality of life changes, including front and back attack indicators, the ability to check daily & weekly content participation in a new menu, UI updates, improved party finder & party invites, updated loot dismantling, convenience features for Market/Auction House, and a few fun features, like being able to randomly summon favorited mounts and new hairstyles for customization!
BALANCE TUNING & UPDATES
Including a recent rework of the Destroyer Advanced Class to increase his impact on the battlefield, Smilegate RPG recently released a balance patch on many of the Advanced Classes to tune, update, and further define these classes’ roles on the battlefield. We’ll provide more specifics for players unfamiliar with these changes in the release notes, but you can look forward to these changes coming to Arkesia alongside the Destroyer.
LOOKING AHEAD
We’re excited for the new activities coming to Arkesia later in May, seeing players attempt the first Legion Raid, participate in more end-game content, and watching Guild vs. Guild action ramp up. We know that players are always curious what’s on the horizon. Now that we’ve locked in Valtan, Deskaluda, & more end-game content for May, we’ll be taking a look at the roadmap for summer and share a glance later this month at our plans. As always, we’ll continue monitoring player data and feedback into our decision making, and look forward to hearing your thoughts.
We appreciate and thank you for your continued support as we progress on this adventure together!
May 4 Weekly Update
Heroes of Arkesia,
All Lost Ark servers and regions will be coming down on May 4th at 12 AM PT / 7 AM UTC / 9 AM CEST (one weekday earlier than usual!) for our weekly maintenance and update. Downtime is estimated to last up to 7 hours due to backend changes. This week’s update will also include the following fixes:
Unlocking a character slot will no longer decrease the remaining number of available purchases for Character Slot Expansion tickets. Players that previously could not unlock all their character slots due to this bug will now see the correct remaining count.
Fixed several broken entries in the emoticon list.
Fixed an issue where the Feiton Powerpass could not be used if various World quests on preceding continents had not been completed. Players will be able to use the Powerpass as long as the Feiton quest “Will” has been completed.
Fixed an exploit with the Rapport system.
Please note that the weekly reset will still happen at the usual time, on Thursday at 3 AM PT / 10 AM UTC / 12 PM CEST.
We are still working through finalizing and testing the game build for our May Content Update. We are planning to release this update no sooner than the third week of May, and will continue to keep players posted with our progress. In the meantime, we will be sharing details and information on what content you can expect to see in this update several weeks ahead of release, so stay tuned!
See you in Arkesia!
April Update - Battle for the Throne of Chaos
Heroes of Arkesia,
The April Update “Battle for the Throne of Chaos” including new content, quality of life updates, and a batch of bug fixes will arrive tomorrow! Downtime for the update will begin on April 21 at 12AM PT (8AM UTC) and is expected to last 8 hours. Find the new content and the list of fixes below.
Spotlight
New Advanced Class - Glaivier
Practicing an artistic and deadly form of martial arts, the Glaivier slices her way through the battlefield, weaving together attacks with her spear and glaive. The Glaivier has two distinct skill sets which can be swapped between— Focus and Flurry— with each stance and skill set represented by one of her two weapons. The shorter spear is used to unleash a furious barrage in the Focus stance, while the longer glaive harnesses the Flurry stance for gracefully lethal strikes and sweeping attacks. While certain builds may focus your attention onto one of these weapons, an effective Glaivier can maximize their potential by creating balance between the two stances, building up energy in one stance which grants an impactful stat-boost when swapping to the other. Learn more about the Glaivier in the latest Lost Ark Academy.
New Continent - South Vern
Discover and explore a new region of Arkesia with the introduction of South Vern. The settlers of South Vern borrowed technology from many different races to turn this once-barren land into a place of abundant waters and green pastures. Hearing rumors of the dangers that plagued North Vern, the Senate shut South Vern down and formed a new knightly order. Suspecting that something was amiss, Ealyn, the Queen of Vern ordered Knight Commander Avele to investigate. What could be happening to this peaceful continent? Uncover the mysteries of South Vern as you venture into this new region, encounter new characters, and complete quests. The South Vern storyline will conclude in an epic battle, with the power to shift the future of Arkesia. South Vern will join Punika as the second Tier 3 continent, requiring an item level of 1340 to begin.
In addition to the storyline, South Vern will include the normal difficulty of the new Chaos Line activity. The South Vern Chaos Dungeons, Field Boss, and Chaos Gate will be added in a future update, when more players have reached the minimum item level required to participate (1415). We apologize for an earlier communication stating that Thunderwings and the Chaos Gate would be available.
Progression Events - April 21 - June 30
Feiton Powerpass
Players will receive a Feiton Powerpass after completing Feiton's main story quest “Will” during the event period, or, if you've already finished the quest before the update, you'll get the Powerpass when the event starts! The Feiton Powerpass will function like the Vern Powerpasses available to players in the launch version of Lost Ark— once you’ve completed the storyline through that continent, you’ll be able to use it to bring an alternate character to that point in the game. With a Feiton Powerpass, you'll receive level 960 gear. This is an event Powerpass that will expire on June 30.
Express Mission Event
This new event will allow players to select one of their characters at combat level 50 that’s under item level 1000 to do “Express Missions”. That character will be granted level 302 gear, and have an opportunity to complete express and bonus missions for significant honing and progression rewards. The missions will be split up into four sections, corresponding to the major continents found in Tier 1 and Tier 2 (North Vern, Rohendel, Yorn, and Feiton), each granting an abundance of materials relevant to that tier to help players progress, such as silver, honing materials, major potions, Engravings, and much more.
For newer players, we hope this helps them catch up to friends while still learning Tier 1 & 2 and the game modes within them. For players already in Tier 3, this event can be used to quickly level up a new alternate character (maybe a new Glaivier?). Completing all the missions will grant a very impactful reward - so make sure to take advantage of this event while it’s around! Like the Feiton Powerpass, the Express Mission Event will be around until June 30.
Store Updates
Ark Pass
The Ark Pass adds new ways for players to earn meaningful rewards just by playing Lost Ark. With the Ark Pass, players can complete missions to progress their Ark Pass levels— and with each level you reach, you’ll earn rewards. The regular Ark Pass is completely free, and grants a variety of helpful rewards, such as honing material selection chests, pirate coins, and even a mount! In addition to the regular, free Ark Pass, players can purchase two additional levels— Premium & Super Premium— that add additional rewards to the rewards track. Ark Pass progress is roster wide.
The Premium Ark Pass will add additional rewards at every level that players will earn alongside the free rewards. Some examples include more honing material selection chests, gems, rapport chests, and a Vertus Pet! On top of the Regular & Premium rewards, the Super Premium Ark Pass layers in selection chests for the Noble Banquet skin collection, the Noble Banquet Wallpaper, and some legendary rapport chests throughout the 30 levels of the Ark Pass.
The Premium pass can be acquired in exchange for 1,500 Royal Crystals, and the Super Premium (all rewards + Noble Banquet skins) for 3,000 Royal Crystals. The Premium and Super Premium Ark Passes will be available in the in-game store until June 18, and progress can be earned until July 14.
General Store Updates & New Skin Sets
Glaivier special packages have been added, including the Graceful Monkey skin set. The Noble Banquet skin collection has also been added to the in-game store for players interested in purchasing separately from the Premium Ark Pass.
A few other minor store updates will take place in the April Update. Some item quantities have been adjusted in Mari’s Secret Shop, and a few new Crystal bundles are available in the in-game store.
General Updates
Added a 25-day track of new daily log-in rewards.
Improved co-op party play for Secret Maps. Now all four members can submit a map to get rewards with one run. No more worrying about someone dropping from your group after you used your map!
Chat tab changes will now be shared across your roster.
Modified voice chat volume settings to stay within a medium range of volume outputs.
Updated the server selection screen background.
Increased available character slots from 12 to 18.
Fixed an issue where skill tree info is not shown when viewing PvP skill info from Book Of Coordination while in a Custom Lobby.
Improved Book of Coordination settings. Players can now set up skill presets, tripod levels, skill runes, gems, item set effects, etc.
Updated text to better detail certain Welcome Challenges.
Adjusted rewards drop location for Naruna Hot Springs.
Added additional controller settings allowing users to tweak the pointer speed and thumbstick deadzone.
Added a new button in Custom PvP Lobbies allowing users to view all players’ active Book of Coordination presets.
Added an option to clear all text within the active chat tab when right-clicking.
Added a new setting allowing players to disable the virtual keyboard while using a controller.
Notable Bug Fixes
Fixed an issue that caused unnatural movement in the sails of the “The Great Journey” wallpaper.
Fixed an issue that prevented push-to-talk voice while the ‘Game Menu’ or the ‘Settings Menu’ were open.
Fixed an issue that caused enemies to spawn too close to certain NPCs, making it difficult to interact with them.
Fixed an issue that directed players to the wrong area in the “A Nose For News” quests.
Fixed an issue that prevented text from appearing in the text-to-speech chat tab.
Fixed an issue that caused an "Unknown Error" message to appear while traversing the Foul Hollow dungeon.
Fixed an issue that caused the untradeable version of the Destruction Punisher Skin Set to only apply to 1 slot.
Fixed an issue where the “Armen Stopping the Threat” cutscene was not available in the Memory Chamber.
Fixed an issue that caused the event timer shown on the map to be offset based on the player’s time zone.
Fixed an issue that prevented VO in several cinematics from being heard while playing as a female class.
Fixed an issue that caused an “Unknown Error" to be displayed when attempting to equip a compass that couldn’t be equipped.
Fixed an issue that prevented the “Immersed in Death” quest from being completed when reconnecting after equipping the necromancer disguise.
Fixed an issue that caused VO lines during Abyss Dungeons to be inaudible.
Fixed an issue that caused some text in the Book of Coordination to not display in the correct language in French, German, or Spanish.
Fixed an issue where another character’s VO was played while Armen was speaking during the “Belated Help” quest.
Fixed an issue causing debug text to be shown when opening more than one engraving selection chest at a time.
Fixed an issue that prevented ‘Trusted’ players from initiating a trade with a new or non-trusted account.
Fixed an issue that caused the total and online member count within the ‘Guild Menu’ to not display while using a non-English language.
Fixed an issue with controllers that caused some buttons to become unresponsive after skipping cutscenes.
Fixed an issue that caused certain tool-tips to be missing from the controller ‘Settings Menu’.
Fixed an issue that prevented the context menu from being opened with a controller in the ‘Friends Menu’.
Thanks for your support and we’ll see you in Arkesia.
Lost Ark Weekly Update - 4/7
Heroes of Arkesia,
All Lost Ark servers are back online and our weekly maintenance is complete. This update included a few fixes:
Fixed an issue that prevented players from loading into Ancient Elveria during Ealyn’s “Time to Heal” rapport quest
Fixed an issue where all Metallurgy and Tailoring books were marked as Tier 3 when exchanging with Winter Illusion vendor Mio
Fixed an issue where unintended characters could be used in chat
We appreciate your patience, and see you in Arkesia!
April & May Roadmap
Heroes of Arkesia,
In March, Smilegate RPG joined us in our Seattle studio to take a look at the content roadmap, improve operations & tools, and continue collaboration on all things related to the western release of Lost Ark. If you haven’t read it yet, be sure to read our letter to the community that details our approach to content coming after the March Update. For the purposes of the April & May roadmap, we’ll start off by reiterating a few things from that letter.
We're going to keep the near future focused on horizontal content and giving players clear paths for progression without feeling like they need to pay. We want to give more players time to reach the end-game before introducing Legion Raids (the definitive Lost Ark raiding experience), and ensure players are able to explore Arkesia and progress at their own pace without feeling pressured to race toward end-game content. Our March 24 update included new materials to help with honing chances that can be earned in two events (the Guardian Raid Event & the Arkesia Grand Prix), more ways for players to earn weekly honing materials, and a honing materials gift for all players. April will continue that trend, providing more horizontal content for players to enjoy as they learn the systems of Lost Ark and continue to progress. With that, let’s dive into April.
April
New Martial Artist Advanced Class - Glaivier
Practicing an artistic and deadly form of martial arts, the Glaivier slices and dices her way through the battlefield, weaving together attacks with her spear and glaive. The Glaivier has two distinct skill sets which can be swapped between— Focus and Flurry— with each stance and skill set represented by one of her two weapons. The shorter spear is used to unleash a furious barrage in the Flurry stance, while the longer glaive harnesses Focus stance for gracefully lethal strikes and sweeping attacks. While certain builds may focus your attention onto one of these weapons, an effective Glaivier can maximize their potential by creating balance between the two stances, building up energy in one stance which grants an impactful stat-boost when swapping to the other. The Glaivier will join the Wardancer, Soulfist, Striker, and Scrapper as the fifth Martial Artist Advanced Class.
New Continent - South Vern
The settlers of South Vern borrowed technology from many different races to turn this once-barren land into a place of abundant waters and green pastures. Hearing rumors of the dangers that plagued North Vern, the Senate shut South Vern down and formed a new knightly order. Suspecting that something was amiss, Ealyn, the Queen of Vern ordered Knight Commander Avele to investigate. What could be happening to this peaceful continent? Uncover the mysteries of South Vern as you venture into this new region, encounter new characters, and complete quests. South Vern will join Punika as the second Tier 3 continent, requiring an item level of 1340 to begin. For our newer players, we’ll be sharing more information on how to work your way toward Tier 3 and join this new adventure.
General Updates
South Vern and the Glaivier Advanced Class are not the only things that will arrive in April. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for more release specifics, such as new log-in rewards, in-game events, skins & store updates, and (okay, we’ll spoil one now), a Feiton powerpass that provides item level 960 gear to level your new Glaivier, or any other character you’d like!
Quality of Life Improvements:
Improved co-op party play for Secret Maps: all four members can submit a map to get rewards with one run.
Chat tab settings are shared across a player's Roster.
Improved Book of Coordination settings: Can use skill presets, tripod level, skill runes, gems, item set effects, etc.!
May
We promised to be honest, sometimes brutally so, and now is one of those times— while we can say that we firmly plan on releasing the Destroyer Advanced Class, Trial Guardian Raids, and quality of life adjustments in May, Valtan’s Legion Raid and Deskaluda will be moved if we feel these activities would create pressure within the community. Eventually, end-game content will be introduced, but players should feel comfortable to continue progressing at their own pace.
Our data has suggested that a big enough portion of our active players will reach, or be close to reaching, the item levels needed to participate in higher level end-game content by May. Our goal is to provide fun content for players, even if it’s at a higher level, while never making players feel pressured that they need to pay to keep up. We will continue monitoring player feedback and data, and provide updates when we’re able as we strive to remain transparent in our communication and decision making. We appreciate your support and feedback, so please keep it coming while we start this adventure together!
New Warrior Advanced Class - Destroyer
We’ve talked about the cataclysmic impact that Warriors have on the battlefield, but nothing embodies this better than the hammer-wielding Destroyer. 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.
Trial Guardian Raids
Trial Guardian Raids will add a new weekly activity for players looking for a challenge. Each week, players can attempt to defeat three Trial 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, Trial Guardian Raids will apply ‘Scale of Harmony’ so that your characters’ item level will be adjusted appropriately to that of their enemy. Additionally, players cannot use the Battle Workshop in the raid region. However, with increased challenge comes increased rewards. Rewards for each Challenge Guardian can be obtained once per roster, per week, and offer more diverse rewards than normal Guardian Raids.
General Updates
May will also introduce a bunch of quality of life changes, including the ability to check daily & weekly content participation in a new menu, UI updates, improved party finder & party invites, updated loot dismantling, convenience features for Market/Auction House, and a few fun features, like being able to randomly summon favorited mounts and new hairstyles for customization!
May - Tentative
New Guardian Raid - Deskaluda
Guardians are powerful entities that can tip the scales toward good or evil. A new Guardian will arise and must be vanquished before they usher in an age of darkness. Upon arrival, Deskaluda will be one of the most powerful Guardians in Arkesia, requiring a high item level to encounter (1415). As with the other Guardian Raids, you can attempt to vanquish them alone, with a party, or matchmake with up to three other heroes.
Legion Raid - Valtan (Normal & Hard)
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 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 player's progress as they advance through the Raid. Valtan is an eight-player Legion raid, and introduces a swathe of new mechanics. Players will need to be item level 1415, and we'll share more information on Legion Raids when we approach the May Update.
Looking Ahead
Once again, this is not all of the content that will release in April & May. We’ll keep you up to date if anything changes as we work through both of those updates and work to ensure you know what is on the roadmap for coming months. We’re excited to watch you progress through your journeys in Arkesia, both in vertical content and horizontally, as you explore all Lost Ark has to offer. We’ll continue to evaluate data and listen to player feedback, and share summer roadmap content after April & May are wrapped up.
Thanks for joining us, and we’ll see you in Arkesia!
March 24 Weekly Update
Heroes of Arkesia,
In the letter we released with Smilegate RPG last week, we communicated some upcoming adjustments to honing materials, new events, and the start of Competitive Proving Grounds Season 1. These all arrive in this week’s update, releasing on March 24! Downtime will begin at 12AM PT (7AM UTC) on March 24, with an expected downtime of 8 hours. Below you can find a list of all the updates and fixes coming in this update.
Spotlight
Casual Guardian Raid Event
Enjoy Guardian Raids in a more casual way! Relax, play, and get honing rewards. ‘Scale of Balance’ is applied to change the character's stats to match the Guardian's level, and the difficulty is adjusted according to the number of participants in the raid. Players will be able to challenge Helgaia, Frost Helgaia, Lumerus, Ur’Nil, Vertus, Chromanium, Nacrasena, Dark Legoros, Icy Legoros, Calventus, and Levanos! This event will last for roughly a month, and players with item level 250 or above will be able to participate.
Similar to the Grand Prix, you can enter once a day (per roster) and earn event specific coins to spend on rewards at a new vendor. Completing the Raid during the week will grant 200 coins, and a weekend win will grant 300 coins. This vendor can be found in major cities beside the entrance to this new activity, and will be fully stocked with Tier 1, 2, & 3 honing material chests, Metallurgy & Tailoring Books (used to increase honing rates), and a T3 Gem chest— available to be nabbed every week until the event ends.
Competitive Proving Grounds Season 1
Competitive Proving Grounds Season 1 will begin after the March 24 downtime for the weekly update. Players will be able to queue solo for the 'Team Deathmatch' mode, battling each other for prestige and rewards. As you win or lose Competitive matches throughout the season, you can track your 'Competitive Match Average Score'. Your rank is determined by your score, as are the rewards you receive when the season ends. If you’re eager for more details before the update, please visit our Competitive Season 1 article.
Player Gifts
As mentioned in last week’s letter from Amazon Games & Smilegate RPG, Lost Ark fans around the world are celebrating all the new players now enjoying the game they love. Players in Korea received gifts to commemorate the western launch of the game, and we wanted everyone to be included. We’re so grateful for all of you who have joined us on the start of this adventure and we’re excited about the long future ahead! To help you on this journey with us, enjoy a gift full of fun cosmetics and useful materials. The gift includes:
New Animal Skin Selection Chest
Mokokon Pet Selection Chest
Moko-board Mount Selection Chest
Lost Ark United Structure
Appearance Change Ticket
Pheons x132
Menelik's Tome x5
Legendary Card Pack Selection Chest x2
While we’ve decided to hold off on the Jukebox songs announced last week (as that content has not yet made its way to the western version of Lost Ark), alongside the items listed above, we’re excited to announce an additional gift for players focused on honing! When opening each chest, players can choose between the options listed below it. 5 Leapstone Selection Chests
Harmony Leapstone x50
Life Leapstone x50
Honor Leapstone x30
6 Guardian Stone Selection Chests
Guardian Stone Fragment x1000
Guardian Stone x1000
Guardian Stone Crystal x200
2 Destruction Stone Selection Chests
Destruction Stone Fragment x1000
Destruction Stone x1000
Destruction Stone Crystal x200
1 Honing Special Material Selection Chest
T1 Metallurgy Book x2 & Tailoring Book x10
T2 Metallurgy Book x2 & Tailoring Book x10
2 Fusion Material Selection Chests
Caldarr Fusion Material x50
Simple Oreha Fusion Material x25
These gifts will show up in your Product Inventory after the weekly update! Players who join us in the near future will also be granted these gifts on their first log-in, and we’ll communicate the end-date when it begins to draw near. Thanks again for joining us on the start of this adventure.
General Updates & Fixes
Arkesia Grand Prix Reward Adjustments
Added Metallurgy & Tailoring Books (used to increase honing rates) to the weekly reward table. Increased quantities of weekly honing materials to ensure players are rewarded for participation. Destruction Stone Crystal (Bound) is now in bundles of 50 and can be redeemed up to 10 times. Guardian Stone Crystal (Bound) is now in bundles of 150 and can be redeemed up to 10 times. Increased coins earned to make purchasing the new items and snagging the rewards you want easier. Chaos Dungeons and Guardian raids now grant 125 coins (instead of 100) for the first two daily completions per character. The Grand Prix itself can now award up to 888 coins for a daily completion, up from 800.
New Fraud & Bot Prevention System
We are continuing to listen to player concerns and take a hard stance against bots. In this update, we’ve included a new prevention system to crack down on bots and fraudulent purchases. Players who have a Steam account in good standing and have met the small purchase requirement needed to use Steam’s social systems shouldn’t be impacted. Players who have not met this ‘Trusted’ status through Steam or Lost Ark will have reduced access to a small number of social and economic systems. Specifically, these accounts will have smaller daily Steam purchase limits than ‘Trusted’ players and be prevented from:
Initiating player-to-player trades (requests can still be received)
Sending in-game gifts
Exchanging Royal Crystals for Gold
Sending in-game mail with attachments
Our goal is for players to always enjoy their time in Lost Ark, safe from users engaging in fraudulent purchases or the negative impact bots have on both the economy and player experience. The only dangers in Arkesia should be the Demonic hordes, voracious wildlife, and colossal Guardians. We strive to remain both flexible and transparent, listen to feedback, and create the best experience possible. Please remember that real-money transactions (RMT) such as buying or selling Gold or other in-game items (to players or on secondary marketplaces) is prohibited under our Code of Conduct and will result in disciplinary action.
Additional improvements to our anti-cheat programs have also been enabled in this update to help prevent cheaters and bots, alongside a few more changes we’ve developed with Smilegate RPG behind the scenes. We can’t spill all our secrets, or those engaging in these activities would catch wind. We know this won’t solve everything, and we will continue cracking down on users engaging in fraudulent purchases and bots. If you have any feedback for our teams after experiencing these changes firsthand after the weekly update, we’d love to hear your thoughts on our official forums.
Messaging Updates
Added clearer messaging on failed purchases.
Updated and improved localization and in-game translations.
Bug Fixes
Fixed an issue that allowed players to accept the quest "Off to the Races" without being level 50.
Fixed voice chat related issues in the South America region.
Fixed an issue that could cause Adventure Island rewards to only be claimable once during the weekend.
Fixed an issue with the World Boss Achievement. Players that earned this achievement previously will now see it completed.
Thanks for your continued support and feedback! We hope these updates make for a better progression experience, and look forward to hearing your feedback after you’ve experienced the changes firsthand. We’ll see you in Arkesia.
Lost Ark Hotfix - 3/18
We resolved an issue where an item could be redeemed more times than intended.
Thanks for your patience, and we’ll see you soon!
Amazon Games & Smilegate RPG Message From the Team
Heroes of Arkesia,
We can’t believe it’s already been over a month since Lost Ark launched to western audiences. Our teams, at both Amazon Games and Smilegate RPG, have been working tirelessly on stability, combating bots, preparing new content, and much more behind the scenes. We appreciate the support and patience we’ve seen from players around the world, and before diving into our team update, we’d like to thank the millions of heroes who have set foot in Arkesia and joined us for the start of this adventure.
Speaking of adventure (or at least of international travel), this week we’re joined by Smilegate RPG in our Seattle office for a fun and productive uniting of forces while we take a look at the content roadmap, improve operations & tools, and continue collaboration on all things related to the western release of Lost Ark. We thought this would be the perfect time to also partner on authoring an update to address concerns we’ve seen within the community, share our approach for releasing new content into Arkesia’s western shores, and spoiling a few upcoming surprises. Let’s triport right into it.
A Look Behind the Curtain: Progression, Argos, Content Roadmap, & Skins
Launching Lost Ark in the west has been a wonderful, humbling, and great learning experience for us at Amazon Games and Smilegate RPG. Our journey has been filled with late nights, creative problem solving, hopping into western servers to play together, and now, looking ahead at things to come. As we continue to learn from our players’ feedback and dive into data, our goal is to remain transparent (sometimes brutally so) with our players.
To set the stage, we’d like to reiterate some thoughts on progression we shared earlier this month. In other regions, players had to stay in Tier 1 and 2 for a considerable duration, as Tier 3 had not yet been released. In the western release, Lost Ark launched with Tier 1, 2, and 3 content. The intention is that T1 & T2 will be used as a road for players to understand the many systems in Lost Ark, encouraging players to explore the vast world of Arkesia and learn how intricate mechanics within battles play out. The first two Tiers are designed as a mid-game prologue for the wealth of end-game Tier 3 content that Smilegate RPG has developed since their original launch.
As Gold River (Lost Ark’s Game Director) recommended, you are progressing at your own speed and enjoying horizontal content such as exploration, collectibles, quests, and more alongside your vertical item level progression. A lot of players are currently progressing through T1 and T2. Some of you are already on T3, ready to vanquish end-game challenges. Our goal has always been for players to progress at whatever pace they see fit. The western version of Lost Ark launched with content at (and above) item level 1370, such as the Night Fox Yoho & Velganos Guardians, World Bosses, Ghost Pirate Ships, Chaos Dungeons, and Abyssal Dungeon hard modes in Punika, partially due to the player feedback we received in our Closed Alpha & Beta tests.
With that important context, let’s talk about Argos. We’ve seen player concerns that releasing Argos before a significant portion of the player base had progressed through Tier 3 made Lost Ark feel pay-to-win. We never wanted players to feel rushed in their quest to hit item level 1370. We considered having Argos available at launch, but viewed the Abyss Raid as an important stepping stone, helping bridge the gap to end-game activities that have yet to be released in the Western version of Lost Ark (we’re looking at you, Legion Raids). Through that lens, we wanted to give Argos a spotlight and a special introduction into Arkesia.
We made a mistake releasing the March game update too quickly after launch. Data we analyzed alongside Smilegate RPG from their previous launches projected that a larger portion of players would have reached the level required to challenge Argos. However, we overlooked certain variables, such as players spending more time on horizontal content and the price of honing materials increasing due to bots and real-money transactions. These factors contributed to a scarcity of T3 honing materials. Together, our teams at Amazon Games and Smilegate RPG are continuing to gather data on play patterns in the western version to better inform our future content roadmap. We appreciate the patience and support we’ve seen from the community while we continue to learn together and work on updating our roadmap, and apologize for the confusion our early excitement has generated.
After analyzing data and listening to player feedback across all our community channels, we believe that an update that helps adventurers progress with the content currently in-game is more important than releasing new end-game content. We’ll expand on this below in the honing section. With that said, players should feel encouraged to progress at whatever pace they’re most comfortable with. However, there is still a wealth of end-game content that needs to arrive in Arkesia. End-game content will be introduced, but players should continue progressing at their own pace. Our goal is to provide fun content for players, even if it’s at a higher level, while never making players feel pressured that they need to pay to progress. Flexibility has always been a driving force in the collaboration between our teams— as has ensuring that players are able to enjoy and play Lost Ark how they see fit. From adjustments to the monetization for the western version, (like making sure that aside for some account level features, everything can be earned in-game) to listening to player feedback on content timing, we want to remain flexible.
Amazon Games and Smilegate RPG will continue to monitor, but feel that Legion Raids— the definitive Lost Ark raiding experience— should be released after players have acquired enough materials to be confident and ready for the complicated challenges awaiting them. Don’t worry, more content is still coming soon. Horizontal content like new classes, islands, and the continent of South Vern will release as planned. We will share a more comprehensive look into our content roadmap for April and May in the near future, after our week of in-studio collaboration has concluded and the plans have been finalized.
Now that we’ve discussed our approach to progression and end-game content, let’s move on to cosmetic skins and Advanced Classes. As we read the forums, watch streams and videos, check-in on Discord, and hop in-game, we’ve seen feedback that players would like skins and Advanced Classes to be released at an accelerated rate. These two categories of content are entwined, which is one of the reasons that speeding up too much is tricky. Existing skins in the Korean version were released before some classes, requiring art and development time to rig models with skins for newer classes and the special weapons that accompany them. Still, we are releasing skins at a faster rate than they were originally in Korea, and we will continue listening to player feedback about the tempo of their release. Similarly, classes will be released faster, and our goal is to catch-up! As we release new content into the game, we want to add new classes that compliment that content. More classes will be available soon, and we’ll share specifics in the upcoming roadmap we’re working on with Smilegate RPG in studio this week.
Economy: Bots & Honing Materials
Another area of player concern we’ve seen is around honing. We know that for every triumphant yell as a player succeeds a low percentage hone, there are other players frustrated with their attempt failing, leaving them without enough materials to try again. As players focus on their first character, we’ve seen that there are a lower number of alternate roster characters to help feed main characters (and the economy) with high level honing materials.
A shortage of Tier 3 progression materials, coupled with problems introduced by bots, have made honing materials too expensive and a burden for players. To combat this, we will be supplying more progression materials for players to earn through fun in-game events, injecting more gold into the mid to end-game, and continuing our hard stance against bots.
Bots
Bots have been a problem for us since launch. Even though we banned them as quickly as we could, they kept springing up. Thanks to the mass ban of bots around the timing of the Argos update and the removal of early-game gold that attracted them in the first place, we’ve seen a steep decline in bot activity and bot-farmed gold that was used to inflate the prices of honing materials. We will continue to take a hard stance against the remaining bots to make them inefficient, while ensuring active players can access gold, to create a better experience for all.
Injection of Honing Materials
In next week’s update, we will provide additional Grand Prix honing rewards, introduce a new casual Event Guardian Raid to supply players with more honing materials, and kick-off the first season of Competitive Proving Grounds!
Event Guardian Raids
In this event, you can enjoy Guardian Raids in a more casual way. Relax, play, and get honing rewards. Similar to the Grand Prix, you can enter once a day (per roster) and earn event specific coins to spend on rewards at a new vendor. This vendor can be found in major cities, alongside the entrance to this new activity.
In this event, ‘Scale of Balance’ is applied to change the character's stats to match the Guardian's level, and the difficulty is adjusted according to the number of participants in the raid. Players will be able to challenge Helgaia, Frost Helgaia, Lumerus, Ur’Nil, Vertus, Chromanium, Nacrasena, Dark Legoros, Icy Legoros, Calventus, and Levanos! This event will last for roughly a month, and players with item level 250 or above will be able to participate. We'll reiterate the details of this event in next week's update notes, but are excited to spoil the surprise as players look to earn more honing materials.
Arkesia Grand Prix Adjustments
We’re adding Tailoring Books and Metallurgy Books to the reward table for players to increase their honing rates, and we’re increasing the number of event coins earned to help players get items easier than before. We hope these new rewards will help players as they look to progress to T3 and beyond.
PvP Rewards
For players eagerly awaiting PvP action, Season 1 of Competitive Proving Grounds will release in next week’s update. Players will be able to earn a variety of rewards, including access to weekly honing materials. We’ll have a dedicated article announcing more details next week. We will continue to review player feedback and data around honing materials, rates, and price within the in-game economy, but are excited to provide more opportunities for players to gather materials starting this month.
Conclusion— Complete with Gifts
We know there’s a lot to unpack above, and even with the context and information, you may have questions, concerns, and feedback. Our teams at Amazon Games and Smilegate RPG will continue to listen to your feedback and work to communicate openly with you. We sincerely appreciate the enthusiasm and support we’ve received in the first month since launch. Before we wrap up, if there’s one thing the Rapport system has taught us, it’s that people love gifts.
Lost Ark fans around the world are celebrating all the new players now enjoying the game they love. Players in Korea received gifts to commemorate the western launch of the game, and we wanted everyone to be included. We’re so grateful for all of you who have joined us on the start of this adventure and we’re excited about the long future ahead! To help you on this journey with us, enjoy a gift full of fun cosmetics and useful materials. You’ll receive this gift the week of March 21, after our weekly update and maintenance.
The gift includes:
New Animal Skin Selection Chest
Mokokon Pet Selection Chest
Moko-board Mount Selection Chest
Lost Ark United Structure
Appearance Change Ticket
Pheons x132
Menelik's Tome x5
Legendary Card Pack Selection Chest x2
Jukebox songs that will be provided when Jukebox content is released in the future.
With such an expansive and complex game there will be nuances and differences between the players in each region— but this is just the start of the adventure. Our teams at Amazon Games and Smilegate RPG will continue to listen to players and analyze the data to find the right time for new end game content as we try to catch the western version up to the rest of the world.
Thank you again for joining us, along with your continued enthusiasm and support! We’ll see you in Arkesia.
Lost Ark Update to Top Issues - March 11
Heroes of Arkesia,
Staying transparent is important to us, and we want to share updates about the game and any issues we are working through with you as consistently as possible. As content arrives and updates are released into the game, you may see these Top Issue updates being published at different days through the week.
While this post references several topics that have been ongoing, the team is also keeping a close eye out for any new issues that may spring up with our March update. We will provide those updates in a separate post if necessary. We appreciate the feedback and questions! Keep them coming on our official forums.
Bot Bans
Last Friday we began rolling out bot bans, targeting over a million illegitimate accounts. We know this will not fix the situation by itself and there are still bots present the game, so we want to provide reassurance that this was just one step in an ongoing battle. Following this initial massive ban wave, we are continuing to regularly roll out additional bans to clear out more bots from the game. Beyond that, we are also working on internal methods and tools to make it much more difficult for bots to enter the game, especially at the current rate they are being created. These updates will soon be on their way to the game.
We’ve also heard player concerns about the effect these bots may have on the in-game economy when it comes to gold buying and selling, and we are closely monitoring this situation. We have changed the gold reward to silver for some Rapport and Guide Quest rewards in order to prevent the abuse of these systems by botters and gold farmers.
Please also remember that participating in any real-money transactions (RMT) through third party sellers is against our terms of service and will result in an account ban, for both the buyer and seller. To help safeguard your account, be weary of gold and gifts sent to you by users that you don’t know, and always reject any items that show up in your mailbox that you feel uncertain about.
Matchmaking
Our March 3rd weekly update included significant improvements to the matchmaking system on servers and regions where it was previously failing. As a result of these changes, we have been happy to see a large number of player reports confirming that things are working much more smoothly, even during peak times.
We appreciate your patience as we worked to get this fixed, as we know how frustrating this issue was. We will keep a diligent eye out to see if there are any additional adjustments or improvements that need to be made in the future.
Language Filter
With last week’s update, we added a chat filter for players to select specific languages. This is a new feature for Lost Ark that was developed in direct response to player feedback that Area chat could sometimes get confusing when multiple languages were being used.
To use the language filter feature, click the ‘+’ button in the chat window to create a new tab, and select what languages (and other types of chats) that you’d like the filter to include.
Europe Central Queues
As a number of players have noticed, especially over last weekend, we are happy to share that queues in Europe are becoming more manageable. This is a result of a number of adjustments we’ve made in the background, including (but not limited to) improved game stability. We know it has been a long road for many players who stuck with their servers in the Europe Central region and we’ll continue to monitor the situation and make improvements wherever possible— like getting on top of bot bans, as we mentioned above.
About Bug Reporting & Fixing
As we continue to update Lost Ark and introduce new content into the western release, new bugs and issues will inevitably arise. In most cases, issues and bugs require a client patch (and subsequent downtime) to fix. Because of this, unless something is game breaking or causing extremely widespread issues, most fixes will roll out during our weekly updates. We know bugs can be frustrating, but with less frequent maintenances happening as we move towards a weekly update cadence, they will take some time to fix. Hotfixes are a valuable tool for critical issues, but we want to limit how often the game is offline.
With that in mind, player bug reporting continues to be invaluable. Be sure to report any bugs you find in the Bugs and Localization Feedback section of our forums, as it helps our team closely track (and fix) the issues players are encountering in the game!
Europe West March Login Rewards
As we briefly mentioned in last week’s Top Issues update that Europe West will be receiving modified log-in bonuses to help players who moved regions to catch up. We're still locking down that list of goodies and we'll share more information soon for Europe West players on our official forums.
Thank you again for your continued feedback, bug reports, and support. We will continue to build the ways we communicate with our players and work hard to address the issues we hear you surfacing. We’ll see you in our forums, Discord, and of course in Arkesia.
March Update Release Notes
Heroes of Arkesia,
The March Update with new content and a swath of bug fixes has arrived! Downtime for the update will begin on March 10 at 12AM PT (8AM UTC) and is expected to last 4 hours. Find the new content (including a few additions from our previous announced features) and the list of fixes below.
Spotlight
Kadan Story Episode (Includes Isteri & Illusion Bamboo Islands)
Experience a new storyline, complete with its own quests, new islands, and cinematic moments. These quests will include a cast of new and returning characters as you learn more about the Sidereals and search for the legendary Kadan, the first Guardian slayer, in your journey to find the final Ark. Players will need to have completed Feiton, alongside completing the following quests: ‘Yorn - Let There Be Light’, ‘Whispering Islet - Start of Our Story’, and ‘Illusion Bamboo Island - End of the Trials’ as a prerequisite before embarking on the new end-game questlines. Both Isteri & Illusion Bamboo islands are recommended for players at item level 1100.
Abyss Raid: Argos
Similar to the Guardian Raids that players have encountered in their adventures across Arkesia, participants will need to work together to defeat the Guardian Argos before time expires, with a limited number of revives available to the party. As an unrelenting foe, eight players are required to face Argos. Players will need to progress through three distinct phases as they work together to vanquish this powerful Guardian. In the three phases, Argos will grow more powerful with different mechanics and attack patterns. Each phase has its own table of rewards (collectable once a week), and a different item level requirement for players to participate.
To face Argos players must first complete the guide quest “Abyss Raid Unlocked!”. Those meeting the requirements are able to enter the encounter through the Abyss Raid Statue in major cities, where they can look for battle companions through match-making or by finding a specific group. Players can also find a group and enter the encounter using the “Find Party” button located below the mini-map.
General Updates
Arkesia Grand Prix
Looking for a change of pace after intense Abyssal Raids and Competitive Proving Grounds matches? Look no further than the limited-time Arkesia Grand Prix racing event, available for the next month. In this mode, two teams of seven players (7v7) will compete against each other, racing around a course while transformed and attempting to progress toward their goal while preventing the other team from progressing. Progress can be earned by reaching the goal and eating cakes! The Arkesia Grand Prix will be live for roughly a month after the March update, until the April Update releases. An NPC named “Arkesia Grand Prix Manager” will arrive in every major city (other than Prideholme) to help you enter the event, granting an “[Event][Daily] Go to the Arena!” quest for players to gain entry. Players must be level 50 to enter the event. Please note there is a known issue that the messaging for this requirement is only available in English in-game.
Competitive Proving Grounds Season 1
Unlike the other content in the March Update, the initial March update will lay the groundwork for Season 1 of Competitive Proving Grounds, and the season will begin later in the month. We’ll keep you posted on the exact time the season is set to kick-off. Time to start honing your player vs. player skills— the first season of competitive Proving Grounds is on its way; where players can battle each other for prestige and rewards. Players will be able to queue solo for the 'Team Deathmatch' mode. As you win and lose throughout the season, you can track your 'Competitive Match Average Score'. Your rank is determined based on your score, as are the rewards you receive when the season ends. To participate, players will need to play Proving Grounds and reach Tier 1, so make sure to get some matches in before Season 1 begins!
New Skins
Added the Omen skin collection to the in-game store. These cosmetics will be available in exchange for Royal Crystals until the April Update releases.
New Log-in Bonuses
The March update will add a new track for players to receive daily rewards for logging and claiming on a daily basis. Rewards include a variety of helpful materials, such as honing materials, rapport selection chests, card packs, and much more! This track will have 25 daily bonuses, alongside additional rewards at the 10, 15, and 20 day thresholds. These rewards will be available until our April Update. Europe West will be receiving modified log-in bonuses to help players who moved regions to catch up. We'll share more information on our official forums soon for Europe West players.
Notable Bug Fixes
Fixed a Direct X 11 related issue causing the game client to become unresponsive after switching from Windowed Mode to Fullscreen and Alt+tabbing.
Fixed an issue with graphical settings where sometimes the “Restore to Default” button would set the graphical settings to a higher than intended default setting.
Fixed a few issues with Controller Support related messaging for tutorials and other instructions.
Fixed an issue where it was not possible to unequip gems when using a controller.
Fixed an issue in Character Creation/Customization causing the "hello" tattoo to display backwards.
Fixed an issue with Stronghold's Manor Management UI causing the AZERTY keyboard input was not properly supported.
Fixed an issue where the wrong Guide video for the Abyssal Dungeon was being played.
Fixed issues causing players to sometimes be unable to hear others, speak, or leave while in Raid group chat.
Fixed an issue causing hotkey functionality for global chat to not work properly.
Fixed an issue where the Weekly Battle Item Bundle stated it can be claimed 10 times. Changed it to reflect a purchase limit of once a week. While previously communicated this issue as fixed in our last update, we continued to work on resolving it and apologize for any confusion between the updates.
Fixed an issue in the Training Room causing the tutorial text for the Stand Up movement to disappear too quickly.
Fixed an issue in the “Honest Liar” quest preventing players from using mouse clicks to advance quest interactions and NPC dialogue.
Fixed an issue causing the Notos Orka Ship Skin Selection Chest to be limited to 1 purchase instead of 3.
Fixed an issue causing the Stronghold Lab UI to not display additional research slots when unlocked.
Fixed various other minor and backend issues.
Thanks for your support! We look forward to hearing of your adventures on the new islands and your battles against Argos.
