Breakdown of Leveling Up in Lost Ark

Leveling in Lost Ark is similar to other MMOs, but there are some differences. Every single character on your account has their own level, known as Combat Level, and you also have an account level, which is known as your Roster Level. Some actions such as killing enemies will grant Combat experience, others such as achievements will grant only Roster experience, while others such as completing quests with grant both. Every Roster level comes with unique awards that affect all characters on your Roster; however, this guide is going to be focused on getting you to the soft Combat Level cap of 50 as soon as possible while also maximizing your rewards.

In this guide, we are going to cover general information about leveling, as well as some features that are new and exclusive to the Western release of the game.

The current max level is 60; however, once you hit Level 50, you are considered to be in the endgame because the experience between levels after this point grows astronomically large. Also, all endgame systems can be completed by characters that are Level 50 with no other level-based requirements.

For the average player who focuses on leveling as fast as possible, it should take around 16 hours to reach Level 50. Note that if it is your first time diving into Lost Ark, there is nothing wrong with taking your time reaching endgame and enjoying the beautiful story of the game. That said, in order to level as fast as possible, we are going to follow the main story as closely as possible because the main story is required to progress and grants us significantly more experience than anything else. The main story quests can be identified by the Orange quest symbol.

This later changes to a blue world quest symbol once you leave East Luterra on your boat and head to the next continents. Once you get the blue world quest symbol appearing, you can basically stop tracking the main quest altogether because the objective is not able to be completed.

The biggest change for the Western launch is that after completing the West Luterra storyline, you will have access to Engravings. Engravings are a major source of player power in Lost Ark and are broken down into Combat Engravings that everyone can use and Class Engravings, which transform or augment a class's play style. You will receive five random Ability Stones that are not too helpful for leveling. These are here for you to get introduced to the Engraving system and to increase the player's health from the Vitality that Ability Stones provide. If you get Spirit Absorption or other damage-increasing Engravings to Level 1, this can be a nice boost to your leveling. We would highly recommend avoiding Grudge and Cursed Doll because Level 1, you get massive penalties for almost no damage increase.

You will also be given twenty Engraving Recipes for the Drops of Ether Engraving, which you can consume to add this Engraving to your known Engravings. After consuming all 20 books — hint: use control + right click to select 'Use Bundle' to use all 20 at once — you will be able to add this Engraving to your character sheet in the slots below your weapon. This should add two +3 nodes of Drops of Ether to your character, which brings you above the requirement of five for Level 1 of the Engraving. Overall, this Engraving is not that great, but it is nice for awhile.

There are additional quest rewards that have been added to the game that will allow you to get a full 20 class Engraving recipes before leaving East Luterra. This means that you can easily activate your class engraving at Combat Level 35, which can drastically boost your character power.

During our testing, we were able to locate 26 Uncommon Class recipes, three Rare Class Recipes, 15 Uncommon Combat recipes, and eight Rare Combat recipes. This means that you will be able to unlock a single Class Engraving but not any of the Combat ones until later. Note that Islands do provide a large amount of Uncommon Combat Engraving recipes, so you can later unlock more if you need. Note that all of the Engraving Recipes found while leveling come in boxes or satchels that allow you to pick the Engraving you want; however, you cannot trade these Engravings to other players, so it is best to pick the Engravings you want to focus on unlocking first.

These quests have extremely high priority because a Class Engraving can provide incredible levels of power for your leveling experience. The quests below are broken up between Class and Combat Engravings and then ordered by when they appear while following the Main Quest.

• Knights to be Remembered – Luterra Castle: available after unlocking PvP and takes a few seconds for three Uncommon Class Engravings.
  
• The Song of the People – Luterra Castle: available after unlocking the area and takes a few seconds for two Uncommon Class Engravings.
  
• Where Help Is Needed – Leyar Terrace: this quest becomes available after you finish this zone and takes you to the same place as the main quest for three Rare Class Engravings.
  
• Memories of Luterra – Luterra Castle: this quest chain becomes available after the Lostwind Cliff solo dungeon and starts with King Thirain. It grants a staggering 15 Uncommon Class Engravings and a Skill Point Potion. Note that by this point you should have 20 Uncommon Class Engravings and be able to unlock your Class Engraving by consuming them.
  
• Leave the Stone Alone – Seaswept Woods: this quest is rather quick since you will likely need to kill pirates anyway for the main quest. Killing a few extra does not take too long for two Uncommon Class Engravings.
  
• Rough Ruffians – Delphi Township: this quest is super quick and has you moving some boxes for one Uncommon Class Engraving.
  
• Make Do with Cacti – Riza Falls: this quest is also rather quick and will reward three Uncommon Class Engravings.
  

• The Tyranny Has Ended – Dyorika Plain: this is the first yellow quest you come across after leaving Luterra Castle and is extremely short for five Uncommon Combat Engravings.
  
• For the Masterpiece – Dyorika Plain: this short quest has you help a painter and takes under a minute for three Uncommon Combat Engravings.
  
• No Smoke Without Fire – Dyorika Plain: talk to the quest giver and then talk to another guy you were going to talk to anyway for two Uncommon Combat Engravings.
  
• A Song to Remember – Sunbright Hill: this quest takes about a minute and can be done at the same time as the main quest in this area for three Uncommon Combat Engravings.
  
• Repulsive Redfins – Croconys Seashore: this quest is extremely fast; just destroy one thing in an area close to the quest giver and then mount up and hand in for two Rare Combat Engravings.
  
• Passing Notes – Croconys Seashore: this quest is criminally easy, as you simply need to go from this NPC to the next NPC you were going to talk to for the Main Quest anyway for two Rare Combat Engravings.
  
• Fox's Revenge – Croconys Seashore: This quest immediately follows the previous quest and requires that you kill a few pirates on the way to the next spot on the main quest for one Rare Combat Engraving.
  
• Wisdom of the Ages – Mokoko Village: This quest requires that you talk to the Mokoko Elders and then bring them some food which takes about 20-seconds to complete for three Rare Combat Engravings.
  
• Beeing Greedy – Sweetwater Forest: this quest becomes available after you bring the ladybug to the second farm and requires you to kill some extra pirates while killing bees for the main quest for two Uncommon Combat Engravings.