Genre: Role-playing (RPG), Hack and slash/Beat 'em up, Adventure
Lost Ark
Weekly Update - March 3
Heroes of Arkesia,
Downtime for this week’s update will begin at 10PM PT (6AM UTC) on March 3, with an expected downtime of 6 hours. This update will include general bug fixes, work on improving issues with matchmaking, and the balance updates to some Tier 1 and Tier 2 content that we announced last week on our official forums.
Balance Updates
Before we dive into the specific changes and updates, we wanted to share our reasoning for adjusting the balance for some of the Tier 1 and 2 Guardian Raids and Abyssal Dungeons.
It’s been less than a month since the hordes of heroes arrived on the western shores of Arkesia. Many players are still uncovering and learning the advanced systems during their adventures, from finding the perfect placement of their skill points in the Tripod System to customizing their playstyle with Engravings, Skill Runes, and Gems. It’s been exciting and humbling for us to see players at different stages in their journey as they quest to level 50 before encountering the diverse Tier 1 and 2 content— progressing step-by-step and exploring all that Arkesia has to offer.
In other regions, players had to stay in Tier 1 and 2 for a considerable duration, as Tier 3 had not yet been released. With the amount of time spent in these stages of the game, players had a long time to study the patterns and mechanics of the Guardians and Demons they encountered— leaving only a few monsters that ended up posing as challenging hurdles for them. As Lost Ark has progressed and added more content, the time and progression required for Tier 1 and 2 has decreased. In the western release, Lost Ark launched with Tier 1, 2, and 3 content. Tier 1 and 2 are designed as a prologue for the wealth of end-game Tier 3 content that Smilegate RPG has developed since their original launch. We hope that Tiers 1 and 2 will be used as a road for players to understand the many systems that comprise Lost Ark, encourage players to explore the vast world of Arkesia, and learn how intricate mechanics within battles play out.
With the different purpose of Tier 1 and Tier 2 in our regions, there were some overly difficult Guardians and Abyssal Dungeon encounters left behind. This balance update isn’t about simply adjusting the difficulty as whole. Rather, the focus is to improve some of the difficult patterns to better prepare players as they progress through each Tier and work their way toward Tier 3 endgame content.
We are aiming for players to ramp up into more challenging and complex content as they progress in their journey. There’s a variety of challenging future Tier 3 content that has yet to be infused into the western release - stay tuned for our roadmap article that will share what you can expect in the coming months. These upcoming encounters will serve as the hurdles for players to challenge themselves, master systems, and learn complex mechanics. Even Argos, arriving this month, will be an unforgiving opponent ready to test the mettle of the so-called heroes infesting Arkesia.
Abyssal Dungeons
Ancient Elveria
Necromancer’s Origin
Improved player forgiveness during the orb phase when trying to defeat Sigmund during Stage 2 of Necromancer's Origin.
Improved the visual effect of Sigmund's color wave to make it more clear to players.
Phantom Palace
Hall of the Twisted Warlord
Made a change to the Phantom Legion King attack pattern and Phantom Cut debuff stack that is applied to the character.
Updated the Phantom Legion King Illusion Sword summon attack pattern.
As the swords follow the players, if a player receives two stacks they will incur damage and upon reaching three stacks, they will die.
Hildebrandt Palace
Decreased the amount of damage required for the Stagger phase when Ephernia appears in Stage 3 of Hildebrandt Palace.
Increased the Phantom Energy effect range from the Meteor mechanic during Stage 3.
Changed the attack shape of the second Meteor mechanic from a circle to a front attack during Stage 3.
Gate of Paradise
Sea of Indolence
Increased the warning time for the omen attack in Stage 2 of Sea of Indolence.
Changed Indolence Sentinel Akam’s attack from a wipe mechanic to a high damage attack in Stage 2 of Sea of Indolence.
Guardian Raids
Vertus
Removed the stun debuff that was applied when players were hit by the tail swing attack.
Decreased the damage dealt by several attacks:
Jumping out of the ice.
Grabbing a player and breathing ice fire.
Nacrasena Decreased the damage dealt by several attacks:
Tail attack after thumping the ground with tail.
Jumping out of the ground.
Lightning projectiles.
Flame Fox Yoho
Reduced the duration of Flame Fox Yoho's Flame Ground attack.
Decreased Flame Fox Yoho’s HP.
Reduced the effect of the Burning Soul ability.
Decreased the damage dealt by several attacks:
Throwing Fox fires.
Jump forward and claw attacks.
Jump upward and claw attacks.
Tytalos
Decreased the duration of Tytalos’ Circle of Spalling rock attack.
Changed Tytalos’ attack that collects sand energy and explodes from a wipe mechanic to a high-damage attack.
Decreased the damage dealt by Tytalos’ earth explosion attacks.
Achates
Modified Guardian Achates summon statue pattern to always summon four Guardian Statues.
Decreased the damage required to apply Weak Point to Achates.
To keep Achates challenging in Trial Guardian Raids, that encounter will not have these changes – but more on that in a future update!
Lava Chromanium
Decreased the damage dealt by the lava eruption attack used by Lava Chromanium when becoming Berserk.
Levanos
Decreased the damage required to apply Weak Point* to Levanos.
*Weak Point is a mechanic which requires players to break a part of the enemy (such as shields, shells, wings etc.) or target a specific area with abilities and battle items marked with the ‘Destruction’ keyword.
Alberhastic
Reduced Alberhastic’s beneficial effect that was granted when obtaining the Heat Orb.
Changed the wipe mechanic to a high-damage attack.
General Updates & Bug Fixes
Fixed an issue that caused the “Battle Effects Display – include buff effects of party members” setting to not show some debuffs affecting party members.
Fixed an issue that caused the top-left in-game clock to show the wrong time zone due to daylight saving time.
Added an update to prevent players from being booted out of the server while logging in. We will continue to monitor data, feedback, and reports to ensure this issue is resolved.
Applied a fix to help improve matchmaking issues. We will continue to monitor data, feedback, and reports to ensure this issue is resolved.
Fixed an issue preventing an object from being interactable during “Nineveh's Aura of Chaos” rapport quest chain.
Fixed an issue where the Abyss Trader was missing from Rothun.
Fixed an issue where the Weekly Battle Item Bundle stated it could be claimed 10 times, correcting it to reflect the purchase limit of once a week.
We will do our best to provide detailed information for future updates, and look forward to witnessing the impressive battles and challenges you’ll encounter in your journey into Lost Ark.
Thanks for your support, we’ll see you in Arkesia!
March Update Reveal
Heroes of Arkesia,
While we launched just a few short weeks ago, fans of Lost Ark know that there is a wealth of content present in the Korean version that has yet to make its way to the western shores of Arkesia. We’ll be working closely with Smilegate RPG to infuse content into the western version at a steady cadence— starting in March!
Today we’re revealing some of the key features releasing in March, and in the near future we’ll share a roadmap that covers the top additions coming to Arkesia over the next few months.
March Content
Please note the following features are not a complete list of content included in the March Update. Additional changes and fixes are in progress, and we’ll share comprehensive release notes closer to when the update launches.
Story Episode - Kadan (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 comepleting 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
Encounter an entirely new end-game activity: Abyss Raids. Similar to Guardian raids, players will need to work together to defeat a Guardian before the time expires, with a limited number of revives available to the party. Abyss Raids will pit eight players against a Guardian- but these are bigger, badder, and much more difficult than your average Guardian.
Players will need to progress through three distinct phases as they work together to vanquish their titanic foe. In the three phases, the Guardian will grow more powerful with different mechanics and attack patterns. Each phase has its own rewards (collectable once a week), and different item level requirements for players to participate.
Argos will be available through the Abyss Raid Statue in major cities.
This isn’t all the content that will be included in the March Update - stay tuned for the full release notes, including details on additional changes and bug fixes. We’ll share more (including the date and planned downtime) closer to when the update is ready. Make sure you’re following our social channels and playlostark.com to see upcoming news, not to mention our roadmap reveal.
Thanks for your support - we’ll see you in Arkesia!
Current Top Issues Update
Heroes of Arkesia,
We are aware of multiple issues continuing to be reported over the weekend and are working day and night with Smilegate RPG to get them addressed.
Europe Queues
We know that players are still experiencing long queues in Europe. The Europe Central region is at capacity and unfortunately there is no way to increase the number of players per world in Europe Central. Adding more servers is not possible based on the complexity of all the systems that need to work together. Due to not being able to continue expanding Europe Central capacity, we quickly spun up Europe West. This is an appealing option for new players or for players who have not significantly progressed on Europe Central. We also provided a second variation of the Founders Packs to all users who purchased them in order to make switching servers more viable.
Server Transfer Functionality
We definitely hear the request for server transfer functionality and have thoroughly investigated our options. This instant functionality does not currently exist in Lost Ark. This service just rolled out in Korea and is a weekly batch process that requires maintenance to run. It also does not support cross region functionality. Therefore, unfortunately, it is not a viable option at this point for the western version— but we will not rest until we’ve exhausted all options.
Power Pass Functionality
We’ve also heard the ask for Power Pass grants to help folks transfer to new regions, but unfortunately this is not something that can work as a solution. A Power Pass can only be implemented on a Roster that already has a level 50 character, and will not work on the first character on a Roster, even if you have previously done so on another region or server. However, you will still be able to earn 2 free Power Passes on the Europe West region after getting your first character to 50 and completing "Ealyn's Gift".
Crystalline Aura Update
As for reports of missing Crystalline Aura, we put in a potential fix today that should improve the connections while we continue to work on a more permanent fix with Smilegate RPG.
Matchmaking
We understand folks are also experiencing issues with matchmaking, which is a critical feature for organized play. To improve matchmaking we restarted Europe Central servers on 2/20 at 11pm UTC (2/21 12am CET) with an expected downtime of 2 hours. This helped stabilize the feature while we work with Smilegate RPG on a more long-term fix.
Gold Seller Spam
We are also aware of the increase in gold sellers spamming chat and are running frequent scripts to ban them. We are also actively working on improving our in-game moderation tools. We will continue to monitor, remove these gold spammers, and take actions as needed. While we work on a more permanent fix for spammers in chat, you can create a new chat tab by clicking the “+” icon in the chat box and selecting the chat types you want to include or exclude. This will allow you to hide area chat.
Fraud Protection Changes
In order to prevent fraudulent purchases, we have instituted a system to track the legitimacy of a player account and implemented a system to limit the number of daily purchases per account. We are in the process of updating the current “Purchase Failed” errors in the store with specific error messages so that players can more clearly understand the situation when their purchases cannot be completed.
Ongoing Work
We appreciate your help in identifying the top issues you are experiencing. Here are some further urgent issues we are working with Smilegate RPG to address:
A fix for matchmaking errors, in addition to the server restart listed above
A fix for store stability and latency with Crystalline Aura, as well as other lingering store and product inventory issues
These fixes will require a new build and downtime. We’ll keep you posted on its anticipated deployment.
We appreciate your patience while we work through these launch window issues. Your feedback and issue reports are extremely helpful and appreciated, as we continue working together to make Lost Ark the best it can be.
Player Grants: Lost Ark Launch Week Recap
Heroes of Arkesia,
After last week’s launch, we shared our plans to grant a Launch Gift and additional Founder’s Pack items so players can explore other servers, alongside compensation to players impacted by issues on the Galatur server. We wanted to gather all the information in one place, so that players can easily understand which grants apply to them. You can find each listed below, along with specifics on the player groups entitled to these grants and the applicable dates.
Launch Celebration Gift
If you haven’t heard yet, to thank everyone who joined us at launch, we’re collaborating with Smilegate RPG to grant all players a launch celebration gift. Anyone who logs in and enters Arkesia between February 19 at 11:59AM PT (February 20, 7:59AM UTC) through March 1 at 11:59PM PT (March 2 at 7:59PM UTC) will receive the gift. The gift includes these items (all non-tradeable):
Weekly Trade Potions Pack (1 Leap's Essence and 9 Minor Life Energy Potion)
Phoenix Plume x20
The launch celebration gift will appear in your in-game product inventory the first time you login after it’s made available on February 19 at 11:59AM PT (February 20, 7:59PM UTC).
Bonus Founder’s Pack Items
To make exploring new servers a more reasonable choice for players impacted by high queue times on their original server, we will be granting all Founder’s Pack purchasers that have purchased through Steam or redeemed their key from Amazon to their Steam account before 12:00PM PT (7:59PM UTC) on February 14 an extra set of the exclusive items (see full list below) alongside additional Royal Crystals. Please note that players who have refunded their Founder’s Packs will not receive this grant.
These items will be delivered to a player’s product inventory so they can be claimed on any server they choose, including the new servers that will open up within the new Europe West region. Original Founder’s Packs will not be affected by this, and will remain on the initial server where they were claimed (or in the in-game product inventory, if you have not yet claimed it). Players will begin receiving these grants on Saturday, February 19, and they will roll out throughout the course of the day. These will be claimable from your product inventory on any server you choose, so in the meantime we encourage you to find a perfect server to call home. All items are non-tradeable.
Note: We’ve decided to help players get a head start on their adventures in Arkesia before the weekend hits, so we’re moving up the Bonus Founder’s Pack Grants to begin today, February 18th, beginning at 2 PM PT / 10 PM UTC. These grants will happen over the course of the day, so if it takes a bit of time for your new pack to show up, don’t fret! Because of the number of players receiving this grant, distribution could take up to 24 hours to complete.
Enjoy your time exploring new servers, new regions, and new horizons!
Bronze Pack
Founder’s Title*
Founder’s Exclusive Pet
Silver Pack
Founder’s Title*
150 Royal Crystals
Founder’s Exclusive Pet
Gold Pack
Founder’s Title*
500 Royal Crystals
Founder's Exclusive Pet
Northern Lawmaker Skin - (Unlocks one skin on the character that opens the chest)
Platinum Pack
Founder’s Title*
1,000 Royal Crystals
Founder's Exclusive Pet
Northern Lawmaker Skin (Unlocks one skin on the character that opens the chest)
Founder’s Platinum Skin (Unlocks one skin on the character that opens the chest)
Founder's Exclusive Mount
Platinum Welcome Crate
Founder's Exclusive Wallpaper*
Founder's Exclusive Structure
Legendary Rapport Gift Selection Chest
Launch Limited Card Pack
*If the Founder’s Title or Founder’s Exclusive Wallpaper are used on the same Roster where a pack has already been claimed, you will not be able to use these items.
Galatur Server
During the head start access period there was an issue with the Galatur server that caused a number of users to become stuck in a state where their character no longer had the Main Story Quest available. This is clearly an issue and one that we want to address as quickly and fairly as possible. The issue is complex and requires manual editing of each affected account while the player is online. This makes fixing these characters a very slow process. Please know if you really want to save your original character you can work with Customer Support, but it will take some time.
We know how frustrating this is and are granting an Explorer Starter Pack to all impacted users that can be used on any character going forward, as we believe many players are now playing with new or alternate characters. The grant will occur on February 17 at 11:59AM PT (7:59PM UTC), and is able to be claimed any time, on any server, in any region, of the player’s choice.
The Explorer Starter Pack includes:
30 Day Crystalline Aura
Basic Upgrade Supplies Chest
Achatemeow Pet Selection Box - Tradeable
Dyorika Warhorse Mount - Tradeable
Character Expansion Slot
We’d like to extend a huge thank you to all the players who have ventured into the world of Arkesia over the last week. We appreciate your patience and hopefully these make goods will help you on your adventures in Arkesia!
Europe West Region Now Open
On Thursday, February 17 at 6PM CET (9AM PT), we will open a second region for European players. Before you decide where to call home, here’s everything you need to know.
Due to overwhelming demand in Europe we are opening a second region for players: *Europe West*. This has been a complex process that required 24/7 effort from both the Amazon Games and Smilegate RPG teams. We want to thank you for your patience while we worked on this. We’ve been blown away by the number of players and can’t wait to welcome more of you into Arkesia.
The new region, Europe West, will go live at 6PM CET (9AM PT) on Thursday, February 17
We expect opening a new region to reduce, not eliminate, queue times for Europe Central. However, players choosing the new Europe West region are much less likely to experience long queues. Please note, if you move to the new region you will continue to be able to use your Royal Crystals and Crystalline Aura but no redeemed, claimed, or acquired items move with you. The launch celebration gift we announced on Sunday will be granted to all players (regardless of server or region). Anyone who logs in and enters Arkesia between February 20 at 8:59AM CET (February 19, 11:59AM PT) through March 2 at 8:59AM CET (March 1 at 11:59PM PT) will receive the gift. In addition, for players choosing to play on Europe West, we’ll be granting some progression support:
We understand that players have been collecting daily attendance rewards since launch and we don’t want players migrating to Europe West to miss out, so the last 10 days of daily attendance rewards will be granted automatically to all characters on Europe West with the next maintenance.
Europe West players will also see special daily attendance rewards for the first 10 days of the Europe West server launch, in addition to the daily attendance rewards mentioned above.
The Europe West region will launch with eight servers. Additional servers will be opened if needed, based on population levels. The eight starting servers are:
Rethramis
Tortoyk
Moonkeep
Stonehearth
Shadespire
Tragon
Petrania
Punika
Founder’s Pack Redemption
To make playing in the new region a more reasonable choice, we will be granting all Founder’s Pack purchasers that have purchased through Steam or redeemed their key from Amazon to their Steam account before 12:00PM PT / 8:59PM CET on February 14 (even if it is still in your Product Inventory in-game) an extra set of the exclusive items from the Founder’s Pack they claimed alongside additional Royal Crystals. Players will begin receiving these grants on Saturday, February 19, and they will roll out throughout the course of the day. Find out more here.
The additional Founder’s Pack items will be claimable on any new server you choose, so we encourage you to wait and find a perfect server to call home before claiming.
Thank you, heroes of Arkesia!
Update: New European Region
Heroes of Arkesia,
We’re blown away by the number of players that have joined us in Lost Ark since our launch on Friday. Arkesia is filled to the brim with eager players, so we’re working as quickly as possible to set up an entirely new region of servers in Europe. Due to the game’s architecture this is the only way to accommodate more players in Europe so it’s a joint effort between Amazon Games and Smilegate RPG. Rest assured we are working 24/7 until it’s live.
While we understand lengthy queue times may persist, we will need time to ensure everything is set up to be in top shape to help accommodate all players to get in game. We’ll share an update on exact timings as soon as possible.
Please note that this will be a distinct new region (separated from Central Europe) without cross-region play availability. This also means that region-wide features, such as your Royal Crystal and Silver balances from Central Europe will not be accessible in the new European region. The new region will be ideal for players who have not yet created their character or haven't otherwise committed to stay on their existing server. If you plan to restart in the new region, you may wish to hold off on claiming any "per Account" items, such as the additional Founder’s Pack Redemption, until you have created a character and are able to redeem in the new region.
To thank everyone, we also want to announce a launch celebration gift that Smilegate RPG and Amazon Games are granting to all players. The gift includes these items (all non-tradeable):
We will make the gift available after the new region is up and running. Anyone who enters Arkesia from the time the gift is available through March 1st at 11:59pm PT (March 2nd at 8.59am CET) is eligible to receive it.
Thank you for your support and patience as we work to get everyone to their new home in Arkesia.
Regarding Central Europe Server Queues
Heroes of Arkesia,
With the massive number of heroes that have joined us since Friday’s launch, we are aware that the current queue times for servers across the Central Europe region can be extensive.
We are actively working alongside the Smilegate RPG team in order to explore multiple options to help decrease queue times and get more players into the game. We will provide more detailed plans on this as soon as we are able.
All servers in the Central Europe region will be brought down for maintenance at 11PM PT on February 12 (2AM ET, 7AM UTC, 8AM CET on February 13). Downtime is expected to last approximately 3 hours, and we will provide an update when servers are back online.
We are actively working on ways to add additional capacity to the servers in the Central Europe region in order to help shorten queue times and get more players in-game, and this maintenance is an important step in helping lay the groundwork for us to do so.
Thanks for your patience as we work to get more players into Arkesia!
Launch Update
Heroes of Arkesia,
Due to deployment issues the Lost Ark launch is unfortunately delayed. We hope to have this resolved in a matter of hours, and we appreciate your patience. We want your time in Arkesia to be a great experience and we’re working hard to get Lost Ark live as soon as possible. Stay tuned to our social media and website for updates. Here’s where you can find us:
Heroes of Arkesia, During the Head Start period of Lost Ark's launch, a massive number of heroes arrived in Arkesia. While we are thrilled to have so many players joining us, we also recognize that this has brought about large queues on our more popular servers, leading to a less than ideal experience for these players.
In an effort to improve player experience for those who have faced queues, we will be taking several steps to put preventative measures in place ahead of our full launch on Friday morning, in addition to addressing some of the outstanding issues surrounding Founder’s Packs claims.
Founder’s Pack Redemptions
Players have let us know one of the reasons they are reluctant to switch to lower population servers is because many of them have already redeemed their Founder’s Packs on another server. To help combat this and make exploring new servers a more reasonable choice, we will be granting ALL Founder’s Pack purchasers that redeem their pack by 12 PM PT (8 PM UTC) on Monday, February 14th an extra set of the exclusive items from the Founder’s Pack they redeemed (e.g., the Founder’s Exclusive Pet and Founder’s Title from the Bronze pack; see full list below) as well as some additional Royal Crystals for Silver, Gold, and Platinum Pack purchasers.
These items will not be tradeable, and will be delivered to a player’s Product Inventory so they can be claimed on a new server. Your original Founder’s Pack will not be affected by this, and will remain on the initial server where you redeemed it (or in your Product Inventory, if you have not yet redeemed it). We are currently working to get these item grants ready to go, and will update players when they are ready to claim — these will be claimable on any new server you choose, so in the meantime we encourage you to find a perfect server to call home.
Bronze Pack
Founder’s Title*
Founder’s Exclusive Pet (Untradeable)
Silver Pack
Founder’s Title*
150 Royal Crystals
Founder’s Exclusive Pet (Untradeable)
Gold Pack
Founder’s Title*
500 Royal Crystals
Founder's Exclusive Pet (Untradeable)
Northern Lawmaker Skin (Untradeable)
Platinum Pack
Founder’s Title*
1,000 Royal Crystals
Founder's Exclusive Pet (Untradeable)
Northern Lawmaker Skin (Untradeable)
Founder’s Platinum Skin (Untradeable)
Founder's Exclusive Mount (Untradeable)
Platinum Welcome Crate (Untradeable)
Founder's Exclusive Wallpaper*
Founder's Exclusive Structure
Legendary Rapport Gift Selection Chest
Launch Limited Card Pack
*If the Founder’s Title or Founder’s Exclusive Wallpaper are used on the same Roster where a pack has already been redeemed, you will not be able to use these items.
Please note that this is a one-time grant, and we do not have plans to continue to make additional grants of items available to players in the future. For example, there will be Starter Packs available for purchase at full launch tomorrow (more details to come), and we highly recommend only redeeming them once you settle into your permanent home server.
Character Creation Limits on Select Servers
Earlier today, we put a limit on the creation of characters by new players on servers that have reached large queue times. This will aid in preventing queues from increasing further as our player base continues to grow. If you already have a character on one of these servers, you will still be able create additional characters for your Roster.
This character creation limit will remain in place for the foreseeable future, and we will provide an update when it is eventually removed. You can read full details on which servers have character creation limits in place on our dedicated forum post.
Additional Servers
Ahead of our free-to-play launch, we will also be opening up additional servers in each region to help support the influx of new players and will continue to monitor to add more capacity as needed. The following servers will open at 9 AM PT on Friday, February 11th:
NA West Shandi
NA East Sasha Adrinne Aldebaran Zosma Vykas Danube
Central Europe Inanna Thaemine Sirius Antares Brelshaza Nineveh
South America Gienah Arcturus
Thank you for your incredible support and excitement around Lost Ark’s launch in the West. We appreciate your patience while we work through addressing these issues, and we look forward to seeing you in Arkesia.
Launch Release Notes
Heroes of Arkesia,
For existing fans of Lost Ark and participants in our Closed Beta test, we wanted to compile a full list of changes and updates we’ve made since the last time you were able play. We’ve made a variety of updates, from new game content, new features, and store adjustments to westernization and moderation changes. For key timings and other non-update related launch details, check out our Launch Details Article.
GAME CONTENT
USER EXPERIENCE
Thanks to player feedback on the new Prologue experience during Closed Beta, we’ve added an additional "Welcome Challenge" feature. The Welcome Challenge helps guide new players through a subset of optional missions. Initial missions will support and teach players game mechanics and increase in complexity as you move into later areas of the game.
The Welcome Challenge will be visible after reaching Prideholme with a new character.
CHARACTER & ROSTER UPDATES
Level cap increased to 60, up from 55 in Closed Beta. Each level earned after 50 grants the player additional skill points.
Roster level cap increased to 250, up from 100 in Closed Beta. Roster was previously called "Expedition Level".
Removed Summoner and added the Sorceress sub-class.
DUNGEON & RAID CONTENT
Three new continents added: Yorn, Feiton, Punika.
Respective Field Boss Additions.
Chaos Dungeons
Yorn Earth stages 1-4
Feiton Shadow stages 1-4
Punika Star stages 1 & 2
Punika Moon stages 1-3
Punika Sun stages 1-3
Yorn / Feiton / Punika Chaos Gates have been added
During Closed Beta, content up to the Phantom Palace was available to players. For launch, we've also added the following Abyss Dungeons:
Ark of Arrogance [Lamenting Road]
Ark of Arrogance [Falling Proud Furnace]
Gate of Paradise [Sea of Sloth]
Gate of Paradise [Silent Karkosa]
Gate of Paradise [Alaric's Sacred Ground]
Oreha's Well [Eye of Aira]
Oreha's Well : Oreha Preveza
New Guardian Raids Added:
T3 Dark Legoros
T3 Helgaia
T3 Calventus
T3 Achates
T4 Frost Helgaia
T4 Lava Chromanium
T4 Levanos
T4 Alberhastic
T5 Heavy Armor Nacrasena
T5 Igrexion
T5 Night Fox Yoho
T5 Velganos
We introduced the Shadespire Tower (Floors 1 - 50) during Closed Beta. For Launch, we've also added Fatespite floors 1-50. Either tower can be accessed via any major city.
Additional Cube instances have been added:
Elite Cube (Normal)
Dimension Cube (Normal)
ISLAND & SEA CONTENT
During Closed Beta roughly 70 islands were accessible. We are introducing 3 more continents for Launch (Yorn, Feiton, Punika) with 27 additional islands to discover and explore in the Procyon Zone.
Co-op quests added for Yorn Strait, Feiton Strait and Punika Strait (Sea Regions).
Sea Gates added:
Gate of Earth
Gate of Endurance
Gate of Guidance
Additional Ghost Ships added:
Feiton Ghost Ship
Punika Ghost Ship
SCHEDULED ACTIVITIES
Players can check for 4 types of content through Procyon's Compass (the widget that displays active content), or by accessing the Calendar in the top-left of the HUD for the full schedule. Activity times are based on the local time of the server's region.
If you drop out or leave the area while participating in these activities, the reward counter will not increment and you will have another chance to earn a reward.
Field Bosses, Chaos Gates, and Ghost Ships
Following the day-of-the-week schedule, the Field Boss, Chaos Gate and Ghost Ship activities will take place every hour between 10am until 5am on the next day.
You can participate every hour, but you will not get any additional rewards once you’ve exhausted all opportunities to receive rewards. The limits are:
1 reward per day for Field Boss and Chaos Gate activities. Opportunity to receive rewards will reset every morning at 10am UTC + 0 .
1 reward per week for Ghost ship. Opportunities to receive rewards will reset on Wednesday at 10am UTC + 0.
Adventure Island
Following the schedule listed on the in-game calendar, the same Adventure Island will unlock 3~4 times a day.
On weekends, a total of 2 groups of Adventure Islands will appear within the schedule. Example: Ghostwhisper Island / Lagoon Island / Snowpang Island x3
and* Monte Island / Harmony Island / Phantomwing Island x3.
Adventure island has two types of rewards:
Permanent Rewards: Island Tokens and Skill Runes, which are obtainable once per Roster.
Repeatable rewards: Gold, Silver, Card Packs & Pirate coins, which can be obtained once a day per Roster.
STRONGHOLD CONTENT
Stronghold Knowledge Vault has been added. With the 'Knowledge Vault,' you can take progress that has already been experienced on one character and transfer it to a different character on the same account.
You can use the Knowledge Vault by completing the following:
Complete the Stronghold quest ‘First Steps"
Progress a character to level 50
Complete North Vern’s main quest 'Ealyn’s Gift’
Complete the 'Nothing is Impossible for Cykins!' quest offered by the Stronghold's Butler, Adeline
When receiving knowledge transfer, you can only transfer knowledge for 1 continent at a time. Transfers go in order of the storyline, starting from North Vern.
Once knowledge transfer has begun, you cannot cancel. You cannot do instant complete.
Characters receiving a knowledge transfer cannot use Power pass.
Knowledge Vault will be available for North Vern up to Feiton.
EVENTS AND REWARDS
Similar to Closed Beta, we will be running an attendance bonus event at the start of Launch. Adventurers will be able to claim various rewards each day they login.
IMPROVEMENTS & QUALITY OF LIFE
Improvements made in support of Player Safety, including reporting for messages and entity names.
Updated Guild menu UI/UX.
Polished and updated the store UI.
Added the ability for users to add an account (similar to adding their roster) as a friend and display which character they're currently playing on - friends lists are no longer locked to characters.
Added the ability for players to display themselves as AFK and provide a message to other players attempting to interact with them.
Integrated presets have been added, allowing players to create presets that consist of a variety of feature specific presets (cards, skills, gear, gems and more).
DirectX11 support has been added as the default setting. A player can switch made to DirectX9 mode if they feel their performance is affected. Once in-game, press ESC to go to the Game Menu, click the Settings gear icon, and go to the Video tab. DirectX 9/11 mode can be toggled at the top of this settings screen.
NEW FEATURES
We are including 15 playable classes.
To match the Sorceress release in Korea, we will also include the Sorceress advanced class, replacing the Closed Beta option of the Summoner.
The Striker class has also been introduced since Closed Beta.
Global Chat has been added to allow players to communicate with others in other worlds of the same server region.
Each chat room can hold a maximum of 100 players.
Players can see the previous chat logs before they enter the room and chat messages that were sent when they have logged-off.
Korean VO has been added as a DLC pack on Steam. Please note this only affects spoken dialogue to allow players to experience the original VO of the game. Text options are restricted to English, French, German or Spanish.
Text-to-Speech Accessibility is available for reading chat messages. Additional improvements have been made after Closed Beta Feedback. To use this feature, players have to activate Windows Narrator outside of the game. Once the "TTS" setting is turned on in-game, chat messages or text typed will be read aloud by Narrator.
Speech-to-Text Accessibility is available for transcribing voice chat in a Party or a Raid. To use this feature, players must turn on the setting under Game Settings >> Community >> Chat and must participate in a Party voice chat.
Added the Room Of Growth, which is accessible after completing the Northern Bern World Quest "Afterimage of the Rift". This feature allows you to experience and learn additional game modes that Lost Ark has to offer, such as mounts, pets, crafting, engraving, disassembling, and refining.
Added Procyon's Compass - Adventurers will find a menu accessible through a Widget that showcases the active Field Bosses, Ghost Ships, Chaos Gates, and the current Adventure Islands.
Added Adventure Island - This is a new activity that directs users to islands that are only available during certain times. Once on the island, you'll be given a co-op quest and must face a boss in order to receive a variety of rewards.
Custom PvP matches and spectating has been added.
WESTERNIZATION
Free-to-Play Focused
As we expressed in previous release notes, Amazon and Smilegate RPG worked together in fine tuning contents. One example is “View More” boxes in raids are now obtainable with Gold instead of Crystal.
Moderation
Mechanisms and messaging have been put in place to support player safety, keeping Arkesia free from behavior that is against our code of conduct.
Language Filtering
Additional improvements have been made on our language filter after feedback we received in Closed Beta. We will continue to watch this post Launch and make adjustments as needed.
Currency Exchange
Updated the Currency Exchange make it more understandable on what's being exchanged and earned through the auctions.
Power Pass / Adventurers Path
Power Passes allow players to progress already-experienced content quickly on additional characters, so more classes and content can be experienced. There are two ways a Power Pass will be provided to Adventurers:
When the player completes the Main Quest (Ealyn’s Gift) from North Vern, a single Vern Power Pass Token will be provided via in-game mail.
After using the first Power Pass, a second Power Pass will be granted to players via in-game mail.
After two Power Passes are received, you will not be able to earn a third Power Pass this way.
Only two Power Passes can be earned per game account.
The Adventurers Path can be started immediately after consuming the Power Pass on an alternative character.
This feature compresses the level 10 - 50 segment for an alternative character through a story told by Beatrice.
It will guide you on the essentials and progression, specific to your class, allowing you to re-live the content quickly through the new character.
Completing the Adventurers Path quest chain will equip your character with the gear appropriate for Vern content.
STORE
Post Closed Beta, we collaborated with Smilegate RPG in fine tuning products to accommodate the market of Western players.
The full store will be open starting at Head Start including Mari's Secret store, set with its own schedule.
Crystalline Aura will be available at Launch and is the exclusive premium service for the Western users.
This service allows adventurers to enjoy an array of convenience functions. These benefits will be differentiated from other countries and can be found listed in the shop for each Founders Pack
Additional functions will be added to the Crystalline Aura at Launch.
Odds Information
Some products acquired with Crystals or Royal Crystals that are purchasable in the store contain random rewards. The breakdown of the odds of receiving those rewards will be published online on our odds page.
This link can also be accessed through the in-game Store.
Our Known Issues List for the launch build can be viewed here:
Thank you for your support! We can’t wait to see you in Arkesia.
