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.
If you have time before the daily reset after reaching level 50, continue through Shushire and complete the world quest line. Doing so will give you a set of 302 Rare T1 equipment to skip the first Chaos Dungeon.
If not doing step 1, starting from item level 250, get your 302 Rare T1 equipment from [Vern Ancient 1] to immediately get to 302. It may require more than one run to obtain all pieces.
Upgrade until you reach 340. This is +2 median.
Begin to run Abyssal Dungeon [Demon Beast Canyon] and [Necromancer’s Origin] to craft the Heroic T1 Set.
Upgrade until you reach 460. This is +8 median.
Begin to run Abyssal Dungeon [Hall of the Twisted Warlord] and [Hildebrandt’s Palace] to craft the Legendary T1 Set.
Upgrade until you reach 600. This is +15 median.
Change into Rare T2 Equipment from Yorn’s Chaos Dungeon. Succeed your currently equipped items.
Lost Ark T2 Meaning
Starts at 802 after filling all slots with Rare T2 equipment.
Content now rewards Gems. Make sure to equip a set of them.
Upgrade until you reach 840. This is +2 median.
Begin to run Abyssal Dungeon [Road of Lament] and [Forge of Fallen Pride] to craft the Heroic T2 Set.
Upgrade until you reach 960. This is +8 median.
Begin to run Abyssal Dungeons [Sea of Indolence], [Tranquil Karkosa], and [Alaric’s Sanctuary] to craft the Legendary T2 Set
Upgrade until you reach 1100. This is +15 median.
Change into Rare Basic lower T3 gear from Punika’s Chaos Dungeon. Succeed your currently equipped items.
Lost Ark T3 Explained
Starts at 1302 after filling all slots with Rare T3 gear.
The T2 Gems must be replaced by T3 Gems at some point, as they are 50% less effective once placed in T3 accessories. If you have very high level T2 gems, you can wait until you get decent T3 gems to replace them.
Upgrade until you reach 1325. This is +6 median.
Begin to run Abyssal Dungeon [Aira’s Oculus] to craft Heroic T3 set.
Upgrade until you reach 1340. This is +9 median.
Begin to run Abyssal Dungeon [Oreha Preveza] to supplement crafting Heroic T3 set.
Upgrade until you reach 1355. This is +12 median.
Succeed into Heroic T3 gear from [Punika Month 1-3] if you don’t have Heroic set equipment.
Begin to run Abyssal Dungeons [Aira’s Oculus] and [Oreha Preveza] on Hard Mode to supplement crafting Heroic T3 set.
Upgrade until you reach 1370.
Begin to run Abyssal Raid [Argos] to get materials to craft Legendary T3 set.
Don’t craft the good weapon. It’s not needed – craft the weapon from the first set.
If you’re F2P or behind, you may want to consider crafting the basic (worse) set since it requires less materials so you can succeed sooner to access later phases to get more materials, rather than waiting to craft the better sets.
As you replace your Lower T3 items with Argos gear, it will become easier to reach the next milestone. Upgrade until you reach 1415.
Begin to run Legion Raid [Valtan (Normal)] to get materials to craft Legendary Legion Raid T3 set.
This set has the same item level and basic effects as Argos gear, but the set effect is much stronger.
This set is optional. You can also just proceed to step 14 with Argos gear.
Upgrade until you reach 1430.
Begin to run Legion Raid [Vykas (Normal)] to get materials to craft Legendary Legion Raid T3 set.
Much like the previous step, this step is also optional. You can also just proceed to step 16 with Argos gear.
Continue to upgrade until you reach 1445. This is +17 median.
Begin to run Legion Raid [Valtan (Hard)] to get materials to craft the Relic Legion Raid T3 set.
This set has the same item level and basic effects as Argos gear and the Legendary Valtan Legion Raid set, but the effects and set bonuses are far stronger.
Continue to upgrade until you reach 1460. This is +18 median.
Begin to run Legion Raid [Vykas (Hard)] to get materials to craft the remaining pieces of Relic Legion Raid T3 set.
Continue to upgrade until you reach 1475. This is +19 median.
Begin to run Legion Raid [Kakul-Saydon (Normal)] to get Frenzy Trumpets to upgrade each of your set items to Lv. 2. This nets you anywhere from 3-5% additional global damage.
Continue to upgrade until you reach 1490. This is +20 median.
Begin to run Legion Raid (Brelshaza (Normal)] P1/P2 to get materials to craft the Upper Relic Legion Raid T3 set.
Obtain a Relic Bracelet from either Legion Raid, Chaos Dungeon, or Guardian Raid.
As you replace your Mid T3 items with Brelshaza gear, it will become easier to reach the next milestone. Upgrade until you reach 1540.
Begin to run Legion Raid (Brelshaza (Hard)] P1/P2 to get materials to craft Upper Ancient Legion Raid T3 set.