Lost Ark News

Heroes of Arkesia,

The winners of the 2024 Emote Design Competition have been determined by the community, and will be added into the game for all players to use!

Winners:

• Karadign - Goblinkoko
  
• Nyaffie - ArtistCaught
  
• Gureum - NinevehPopcorn
  
• Grate - MokokoDead
  
• Lupical - EchidnaWow
  

Congratulations to the 5 winners, and a huge thanks to all the finalists, players who submitted, and those who voted for the winners! We appreciate your continued passion and engagement, and we can’t wait to see heroes using these emotes in Arkesia as soon as possible. Adding the final emotes to the game will take several months, and a final date will be announced as soon as we’re able to confirm which update they’ll arrive in.

In the meantime, we’ll see you in Arkesia!

Heroes of Arkesia,

We wanted to take a moment and provide an update on our plans for two important things arriving next month; the upcoming region merge and Ladon/Echidna.

[h2]Region Merge Update[/h2]
In a team update earlier this year we shared our plans to merge several regions for players to grow, play, and explore Arkesia together in Summer of 2024. On June 5, 2024, we will begin this process by merging South America into North America East.

For NA West, we are still searching the best solution to ensure the lowest latency possible for all players. Unfortunately, we found issues that would prevent a good customer experience during the extensive testing we conducted. Identifying an optimal outcome will take time, and this merge will not take place in Summer of 2024. We wish we could provide a firmer update on when we could move forward with connecting these regions, but we have not yet identified a path to do so. Our current plan is to proceed with merging South America into NA East on June 5, and to continue investigating options to combine the merged region with NA West in a way that provides the best player experience possible for all.
Next week, we’ll share the Region Merge policy and what players in the South America and North America East can expect when they merge.

[h2]Localization Update[/h2]
When our teams first uncovered the name Echidna many years ago, the final form of the original Covetous Legion Commander hadn’t yet been fully revealed— so it was changed to a related figure in Mythology; Ladon. After reviewing Echidna’s presentation in Lost Ark and reading through community feedback, we agree that the name Echidna is best suited for the alluring and deadly enemy in the first Kazeros Raid arriving June 2024. We will be working to update the name from Ladon to Echidna for her release. There may be a few places where we can’t change previous messaging, such as the video component of Part 2 of the 2024 Roadmap— but rest assured— the official name is now Echidna. Interested in learning more about Echidna and the upcoming Kazeros Raid? Checkout Part 2 of the 2024 Roadmap or stay tuned our website and social channels for more information.

Thank you for your continued passion and feedback! We’ll see you in Arkesia.

The 10 finalists of the 2024 Community Emote Competition have been selected, but only the top 5 (based on player upvotes) will be added into Lost Ark as emotes.

The Lost Ark community can vote on their favorites by using reactions in Discord from May 3 - 10. At the end of the week, the top 5 will be selected as winners and added into the game for all players to use! Adding the final emotes to the game will take several months, and a final date will be announced after the competition.

Find the voting channel in the Official Lost Ark Discord.

If you’re unable to find the 2024 Emote Contest section of Discord, you can add the relevant channels to your list of viewable channels on the left side of your screen by navigating to “Channels & Roles” in the top left of the Discord UI, then navigating to “Browse Channels” and selecting the channels you would like to see.

Heroes of Arkesia,

We’re excited to share the second part of the 2024 roadmap, which includes the major planned content pieces arriving in Arkesia over the next three months in 2024. Join Product Manager Andy Lin, Head of Editorial Henry Stelter, and Community Manager Roxanne Sabo for our team’s video update.

The roadmap content discussed are highlights we know players are eagerly awaiting, but the roadmap is not a comprehensive list of every change arriving in Arkesia over the next few months, and could change. As we approach each month, more details will be shared. New quality of life (QoL) updates, balance tuning, adjustments to support new and returning players, and unique events may appear in the upcoming months. Stay tuned to our website and social channels for future release notes including the full list of new content, cosmetics, balance changes, events, and more included in our major monthly updates. Below you’ll find the video roadmap with our team members discussing the content, followed by a written summary. With that, let’s dive in.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Visit our website for the written roadmap.

Heroes of Arkesia,

With the arrival of Thaemine The First in the Darkness Unleashed Update, players can soon race to clear the most powerful Demon Commander and carve their name into Arkesian history. Thaemine The First is a special race to clear the original— and hardest— difficulty of the Thaemine Legion Raid. Clearing will be a challenge, even for the most experienced adventurers. But with extreme challenge comes prestige, and we have a variety of prestigious rewards planned for those who can vanquish Thaemine in his most powerful form. The race for Thaemine The First will begin on April 20 at 10AM PT (5PM UTC) for parties who have cleared Hard Mode. Learn more about the details and conditions in the Thaemine The First Details Article.

[h3]First Clear Leaderboard[/h3]
Want to keep an eye on the competition? Checkout the Thaemine The First Leaderboard, where the first teams to successfully clear in each region will live in Arkesian history.


[h3]Thaemine The First Highlight Submission[/h3]
We want to highlight the most memorable community moments from your journey to first clear. Share your highlights for a chance to appear in our community spotlight video.

When you have a clip or highlight you’d like to share with us, please Submit Here.

Upon clicking the link you’ll see an option to upload a file. When you choose the clip you want to upload, you will be prompted to enter a description and an author. The description can be a summary of the clip, or something you’d like us to watch out for. The author is your in-game name so that you can get credit in the video.

Our team will review your clips and put the best of the best in a highlight video commemorating the Lost Ark community’s epic quest to clear Thaemine The First. Not everyone who submits a clip will be included, but we welcome everyone to participate.

As for which clips to submit, they can be whatever you want to share with the community. Obviously if you’re one of the players who clears Thaemine The First, we’d love to see it! But it doesn’t all have to be triumphs. Maybe you pull off some great plays, score some epic kills, or just experience hilarious fails. We want to see it all!

Once you’re ready to take on Thaemine The First, please share your clips with our team. Looking for more details? View the Amazon Games Privacy Policy.

We’ll see you in Arkesia, and wish you luck as face the Darkness Legion Commander, Thaemine.