Lost Ark is an expansive MMORPG with plenty of options for leveling up and progressing your character. With multiple classes, skill trees, tripods, engravings, and more, it can be overwhelming to know where to focus your upgrade efforts. This guide will walk you through what you should prioritize leveling as you progress through Lost Ark.
Leveling Your Character
The most basic form of progression in Lost Ark is leveling your character from 1 to the current cap of 60. Gaining character levels will unlock more skills, tripods, higher gear score equipment, end-game raids, and additional content. Here are some tips for leveling up efficiently:
- Complete main story and side quests – These offer the bulk of early XP rewards.
- Do island quests – They give big chunks of XP and useful rewards.
- Run dungeons – Running dungeons like Abyssal Dungeons and Chaos Dungeons will give good XP.
- Use XP boosts – There are various XP boosts like food and songs to speed up leveling.
Getting your character to the current max level opens up the true end-game, so make this your first priority.
Gear Score
Gear Score (GS) represents the overall power and item level of your equipment. Raising your GS increases your stats and unlocks access to higher level content. Here are the milestones to aim for:
| Gear Score | Content Unlocked |
| 302 | Abyssal Dungeons |
| 460 | Argos Raids |
| 1415 | Valtan Legion Raids |
| 1445 | Vykas Legion Raids |
| 1490 | Kakul-Saydon Legion Raids |
Target completing the major story arcs to earn full gear sets to push your GS higher. Run Chaos Dungeons and Guardian Raids to collect upgrade materials. Use honing to enhance your gear past +15.
Class Engravings
Class engravings customize your skills and playstyle. They have large impacts on your damage, identity meter, and resource generation. Prioritize leveling your class engravings as high as possible. The most powerful ones are:
- Barrage Enhancement for Artillerist
- Loyal Companion for Gunslinger
- All-Out Attack for Berserker
- First Intention for Wardancer
- Igniter for Sorceress
Level 3 class engravings should be one of the first things you pursue after hitting max level. Getting them to level 4 or higher requires significant investment, so focus on other areas first if resources are limited.
Combat Engravings
Combat engravings add powerful effects and synergies for your build. Prioritize leveling the key combat engravings for your class. Some top options include:
- Grudge
- Cursed Doll
- Keen Blunt Weapon
- Raid Captain
- Mass Increase
Aim to get your main combat engravings to level 3 quickly. This can be done relatively cheaply by buying level 3 engraving books. Pushing them higher is very expensive and should be done after addressing other areas.
Gem Levels
Gems give big boosts to your primary stats. Level up gems and aim to get them to:
- Level 5 – Uncommon gems (gray)
- Level 7 – Rare gems (blue)
- Level 10 – Epic gems (purple)
- Level 12 – Legendary gems (gold)
Upgrade your gems by combining lower tier gems. Pay attention to gem abilities for bonuses that align with your build.
Tripods
Tripods enhance your skills and provide a meaningful power boost. Follow these tripod tips:
- Level key damage skills to max
- Prioritize Tripod levels over rarity at first
- Transfer your highest tripods to gear first
- Save high rarity tripods for transfer later
It takes significant grind and resources to max all tripods. Focus on damage skills first before utility/synergy skills.
Card Sets
Lost Ark’s card system provides valuable stat bonuses. Aim to complete these sets first:
- We’ll Meet Again – HP
- Forest of Giants – Crit
- Master of Hides – Move Speed
- Courage – Domination
- Lostwind – Attack Power/Crit Damage
Acquire cards through side quests, adventure tome rewards, and card packs. Reroll duplicates to eventually complete sets.
Rapports
Building rapport with NPCs offers useful rewards like card packs, stronghold upgrades, emotes, and stat boosts. Prioritize rapport with these NPCs first:
| NPC | Key Reward |
| Shandi | Giant’s Hearts |
| Beatrice | Skill Point Potions |
| Nia | Giant’s Hearts |
| Calvasus | Skill Point Potions |
Gift rapport NPCs daily and complete associated quests. Higher rapport tiers unlock better rewards.
Roster Level
Raising your roster level increases your character slots and grants useful bonuses. Some ways to boost it include:
- Leveling alts
- Completing masterpieces in adventure tome
- Unlocking ignea tokens
- Maxing reputations
- Doing horizontal content on alts
Aim to increase your roster level passively over time. Focus on horizontal progression that benefits your overall account.
Stronghold
Upgrading your stronghold provides roster-wide bonuses and unlocks features like crafting. Prioritize upgrading:
- Training Grounds – Bonus HP/Stats
- Crafting – For ability stones
- Merchant – Discount on purchases
- Dispatch – Passive income generation
Use spare resources like wood/stone to push stronghold levels higher over time. Claim weekly guild shop rewards.
Alt Progression
Leveling and gearing alts provides huge long-term benefits through additional income sources and roster power. For each alt:
- Push to max level
- Gear to 1370 ilvl for Greater Leapstones
- Complete daily/weekly Una Tasks
- Funnel upgrade materials to main
2-3 well-geared alts makes a massive difference through the additional income gained. Stagger their progression to pace your resource generation.
Conclusion
Lost Ark offers deep and varied progression. Focus first on horizontal growth like skill points, cards, tripods, and engravings that benefit your whole roster. For vertical upgrades, prioritize your main’s gear honing, gems, and combat engravings. Slowly develop your alts over time for additional income. Keep expanding your character’s power through the many avenues available and you’ll be dominating Lost Ark’s end-game raids in no time.