Lost Ark News

Heroes of Arkesia,

February 8 marks two years of Lost Ark in the West, and we have a variety of events and gifts planned to celebrate the Lost Ark community. With the 2 Extreme Update, our goal is to thank the Lost Ark community for their continued passion, dedication, feedback, and support as we continue on this journey together. We can’t state enough how much we appreciate those who have joined us on this adventure! Learn about the gifts and special events we’ve planned to celebrate the community in Arkesia this month.


From introducing four new endgame raids to starting new community-centric video series, new player improvements, and many new classes, the second year of Lost Ark in the West has been filled with new adventures. While it’s impossible to capture the magnitude of everything the Lost Ark community accomplished, we hope this encompasses some of the special moments you shared with friends and other adventurers alike.



Data encompasses player activity from January 15, 2023 to January 15, 2024. Data from banned accounts has been removed from the statistics.


[h3]Anniversary Gift[/h3]


To thank our players for their passion, support, and participation in the Lost Ark community, we’ve prepared a gift that’s now available! Log-in and find the gift in your Product Inventory.

• 2nd Anniversary Headband Selection Chest x1
  
• Winter Trail Effect Selection Chest x1
  
• Structure: 2nd Anniversary Cake x1
  
• Winter MokoCahni Skin Selection Chest x1
  
• Chaos Dungeon Rest Bonus Recovery Brew x5
  
• Pheon x50
  
• Legendary Engraving Recipe Selection Chest x5
  
• Regulus's Light Currency Chest x20
  
• Special Legendary Card Selection Pack x1
  
• Book of Judgment Chest x1
  
• Wishful Amulet x5
  
• Menelik's Tome x5

[h3]Special Anniversary Events[/h3]


Join the celebration in-game with multiple special events! Participate in the Arkesia Festival where every two weeks there are new co-op quests for players to participate in, as they earn tokens to trade in for valuable rewards which even include the new Providence and Unity Skins.

In addition to the Arkesia Festival, a new Birthday Bash Event will take players on a trip down memory lane and lead them to earn rewards by re-experiencing some of the most iconic pieces of Lost Ark content that released over the last year.

The Twinkle Twinkle Exchange Shop has also returned, an Event Gold Shop where players can exchange Gold for valuable rewards, such as honing materials, legendary engravings, card packs, and more!
With enhanced daily log-in rewards, special Fever Time events, and more, there’s plenty of ways we plan to thank the community. Head into Lost Ark to checkout the events, or learn more in the 2 Extreme Release Notes.



An Anniversary Twitch Drop accompanies the 2 Extreme Update. Rather than tiers, there are 3 Drops, each with their own watch time. Unlike tiered drops, watch time for each drop is earned simultaneously.
Drop 1 - 2hrs - Amethyst Shards x1000

Drop 2 - 4hrs - Second Anniversary Cotton Gift
2nd Anniversary Cotton Socks (x5)
2nd Anniversary Cotton Towel (x5)

Drop 3 - 8hrs - Second Anniversary Mokoko Hat Selection Chest
2nd Anniversary Mokoko Hat (Green)
2nd Anniversary Mokoko Hat (Pink)
2nd Anniversary Mokoko Hat (Blue)


Make sure to head over to Twitch and celebrate with your favorite Lost Ark content creators to earn the drops before they end on March 7.



Once again, thank you for your continued support, passion, and participation in the Lost Ark community. We’ll see you in Arkesia, and be celebrating alongside you!

Heroes of Arkesia,

The February “2 Extreme” Update arrives in Arkesia tomorrow. Downtime will begin on February 7 at 1AM PT (9 AM UTC) and is expected to last 4 hours. The February Update includes Valtan Extreme, several special anniversary events, and more! Find the full list of content, events, skins, and other updates below. Henry is back with an episode of “Patch Notes with Henry” for any players looking for an express video explanation and visual showcase.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Let us know on YouTube if you enjoy this type of content from our team and would like to see more heading forward. Want all the details? Find the full list of content, events, skins, and other updates below!



Valtan will return in a new, challenging version of the 8-player raid. There are two versions of Valtan Extreme - Normal at Item Level 1580, and Hard at Item Level 1620. With greater challenge comes greater rewards. There are first-time-clear rewards that will be given upon clearing 2 Gates, along with rewards as you reclear. Each roster can enter the raid once every 2 weeks, with gate progress bound to the character that cleared the first gate.
Gold can be obtained regardless of the character being designated to earn Gold or not upon clearing. Reward opportunity resets every 2 weeks, and the rewards can be claimed by the cadence below:

• 2/7 (after maintenance) - 2/21 (before maintenance)
  
• 2/21 (after maintenance) - 3/6 (before maintenance)
  
• 3/6 (after maintenance) - 3/20 (before maintenance)

Players can enter through the Legion Raid 'Demon Beast Commander Valtan' entry UI by clicking the 'Extreme' button, and the corresponding Party Finder sections have been added to the UI.



When a Gate has been cleared, players can reset the progress by using the 'Gate Reset' feature. When a Gate is reset, all progress on Gate 1 is reset and the player can either select a different difficulty and try the raid again, or players can enter the raid with a different character.

• The Freja Island Event will draw to a close with the February Update.
  
• A new Daily Log-in Reward track and new Fever Time events have been added that include special second anniversary rewards.
  
• The Daily Playtime Rewards will continue until February 28.
  
• Added a new event shop with tabs for several special anniversary events.

[h3]Arkesia Festival[/h3]


Players can take part in celebrating Lost Ark’s Second Anniversary at the Arkesia Festival. Every two weeks of the festival there will be a new co-op quest for players to participate in, keeping things fun and fresh as you earn tokens to trade in for valuable rewards. The event will take place in the port cities of major continents.

Week 1-2 (2/7 - 2/21) What I'm Looking For
Find the item matching the random buffs appearing overhead! 3 types of random buffs will be given one at a time, and players must find the item identical to the given buffs to acquire points.

Week 3-4 (2/21 - 3/6) Run, Piñata, Run!
All players participating in the event will turn into a giant Piñata, and will race to the finish line. A brief introduction about the controls will be provided after receiving the quest. Use the three skills provided to reach first place in the race!

Week 5-6 (3/6 - 3/20) Break the Gourd! / A Heart Full of Love
In the event 'Break the Gourd!', players can use the 'Naughty and Nice Piñata Candy' to break the gourd in time to get second Anniversary tokens! After the 'Break the Gourd!' event is finished, players can gather around to celebrate the second Anniversary of Lost Ark through together. All players who participate will receive token rewards.

Tokens can be earned by participating in the events, clearing Chaos Dungeons or Guardian Raids, and from Daily Playtime Rewards, and redeemed in the event shop. Rewards include progression and honing materials, and a special reward of the Providence and Unity Skins!

[h3]Birthday Bash[/h3]


In addition to the Arkesia Festival, a new Birthday Bash Event will take players on a trip down memory lane and lead them to earn rewards by re-experiencing some of the most iconic pieces of Lost Ark content that released over the last year. We also hope this event will help players progress toward existing and upcoming content!

Players will have to complete missions in Brelshaza (HM), Kayangel (HM), Akkan (NM/HM), Ivory Tower (NM/HM), Chaos Dungeons, and Guardian Raids to earn Honing Materials, Gold, Cards, Card XP, Accessories, Ability Stones, and Amulets! Similar to previous events, the more gates you clear during the course of the event, the more missions you will complete and rewards you will earn.

[h3]Twinkle Twinkle Shop (Golden Frog)[/h3]
The “Twinkle Twinkle Exchange Shop” will return, an Event Gold Shop where players can exchange Gold for valuable rewards, such as honing materials, legendary engravings, card packs, and more! Some rewards will include a ‘Toad Token’ which can be redeemed for additional items. The Twinkle Twinkle Shop will be included in the Event Shop category, along with the Second Anniversary Event Shop. The event will last until March 20.


[h3]Providence and Unity Skins[/h3]
The recent cosmetics designed by the community in Korea arrives as the Providence and Unity skins, Jalopy mount, Moon Fox pets, and Wallpaper: Night of Glittering Memories in the west. Celebrate the anniversary in style! Find the new cosmetics showcased below.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Vault Skins[/h3]
For four weeks, we will be re-releasing some fan favorite skins. Hurry and get your hands on them— they’ll only be available for that one week before they disappear back in the vault.
Week 1 (02/07 - 02/14) Midsummer Night’s Series
Week 2 (02/14 - 02/21) Festival & Ball Series
Week 3 (02/21 - 02/28) Neon Wingsuit Series
Week 4 (02/28 - 03/06) Wave/Sand/Wind/Beach Swimsuit Series + Midnight Summertime Series

• Made improvements to decrease the short client freeze that could occur during login, server connection, and environment load.
  
• EAC related server code has been updated to change the game access flow between character selection to game world entrance. Before: If EAC authentication has not been done during character selection, the game client will shut down. After: If EAC authentication has not been done during character selection, players will be returned to server selection screen.
  
• Purchase limit for Level Complete Pack (Lv.50) has changed from Roster bound to Account bound.
  

Heroes of Arkesia,

Join the Design Teams including the Scenario and Sound teams at Smilegate RPG for a look into the design and insight into the process when creating the themes, experiences, and sounds of Voldis. There may be a few spoilers found below if you haven’t played through Voldis’ storyline yet, so proceed with caution or come back after you’ve ventured to the city of the sages.



[h3]How does Voldis fit into the larger story of Lost Ark? Are there future stories that will take place there?[/h3]
Voldis is the continent born from the butterfly effects of many important events throughout Arkesia’s history. Key events such as the Hollow War, Chain War, choices made by the Guardians, and the reform of Sacria all played their unique roles in the creation of Voldis. The Adventurers’ journey of finding the Ark ends in Elgacia. After that, adventurers visit Voldis for the pursuit of a new objective, opening up a whole new phase different from the past. In a nutshell, Voldis is where the past and the present encounter each other, leading to the future— making this region a crucial bifurcation revealing deeper concepts of the lore in Lost Ark.

[h3]Is there a message you want to send to the adventurers through the Voldis storyline?[/h3]
We want to share with the adventurers another story through Zeherade and the Sages of Voldis. So far, Lost Ark has discussed themes regarding creators and creations, determinism and free will, cause and effect, light and darkness, good and evil each with various perspectives for us to think about through the stories found within of Lost Ark.

We wanted to tell a new story to adventurers through Voldis, the current endgame continent with Zeherade, Mariu, the Sage’s Tower, and the Guardians.

From Sacria where their endless pride was answered by an apocalypse, to Voldis’ Ivory Tower of knowledge that was built by those who lost their faith, Voldis shows many concepts - Sorrow of mortals that struggles in front of the immortal beings. Ironically, because mortals inevitably meet an end, their remarkable will gets passed on to the next generation. This also leads to the concepts such as birth and death, and interesting perspectives surrounding life and creations.



By travelling around the Sage’s Tower, which houses all the knowledge of the world, and being part of their story, you will be able to take a peek in the interesting thoughts of people of the Voldis. With that, you may find out the intersecting perspectives of the people from Voldis, and from the continents as they have faced or got influenced by various events, and also compare the previous journeys in older continents in terms to understand or compare what each continent or individuals represent. This would make your journey in Arkesia more fun.

We hope you enjoyed Voldis, and please look forward to the evolving stories of Lost Ark with various perspectives and stories across Arkesia in the future.

[h3]Various gods consist the world of Arkesia, and appear to play important roles in the lore so far. Will the adventurers meet gods more in the future to collaborate with or oppose them?[/h3]
For example, Procyon appeared-indirectly in a form of a bird when we had to look for Diogenes, and a real goddess appeared in Voldis very recently (Sceptrum, the god of wisdom communicating to us in her own voice).

Gods of Lost Ark are constantly going to play key roles in the future lore. Look forward to their stories as well! Do keep in mind that the gods have personalities and do exist in the world of Arkesia. Their powers and authorities are real here.

[h3]What are some fun stories or decisions made during the development of Voldis? [/h3]
Some of the countless places you visit in Arkesia are intentionally designed and created to express the theme we wanted to show, rather than focusing on the beauty, mystery, freshness, gameplay compatibility and so on. We believe that the Tower of the Sages in Voldis would be a good example of this.



In Voldis lore, sages have critical roles. The sages, as important as they are, reside in a gigantic, tall tower of 123 floors. The reason for designing the tower so tall is that ‘tall tower’ typically implicitly represents will and drive for improvement of the humans. Nowadays in real life, tall buildings are bit too common, but the iconic tall landmarks(such as skyscrapers and Eiffel Tower) have represented civilization and technology, especially that they required ‘strong will and skills’ to build. We felt that this very point best illustrated the identity of Voldis and the Sages we wanted express. Thus, the tower became the abode for the sages.

[h3]How were some of the key soundtracks for Lazaram / Kalinar / Zeherade designed?[/h3]
Lazaram the Trailblazer

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

The soundtrack of Lazaram, the final boss in Voldis storyline, was inspired by its blood-red façade and skills, ceaseless attacks and actions. With sense of weight and grandeur as basis, we tried to dissolve the feeling of sharp high-pitch, and fast beat sounds without a gap. Following the concept of Chaos Guardian, we wanted to convey the sense of chaos, and also the fast-paced, intense combat happening in a tight environment with the music.

Kalinar

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Soundtrack for the metropolis of Voldis, Kalinar, was composed based on the following keywords: city of sages/alchemy/hymn for the humans (the concept of human beings challenging mother nature or supernatural beings that are deemed more powerful than them) /city built on river/aspiring.
Tribal Part– Sets the tone, and demonstrates the vibes of city.
Orchestra Part– Symbolizes hymn for the humans (the concept of human beings challenging mother nature or supernatural beings that are deemed more powerful than them), with aspiring and magnificent melody.

Zeherade Theme

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

The song expresses the mystical golden aura of this artificial elemental (Zeherade) with this soundtrack dedicated to its namesake, Zeherade, the Great Sage.

[h3]What was the design process for the Ivory Tower and the Elixir System? How does the team feel about this type of endgame content moving forward?[/h3]
Ivory Tower of Chaos
As always, an Abyssal Dungeon is added yet again for this relatively new continent, Voldis. Abyssal Dungeons exist for each continents in Lost Ark with the difficulty resembling Raids, thus more difficult than the story dungeons. Lazaram, who was sealed in the Sage’s Tower, summons Chaos Guardians resulting in the tower being saturated in chaos.



Elixir System
As more and more endgame contents are getting updated, we wanted to introduce the new progression system for progressing the characters in diverse ways for players in the 1600-1620 Item Level range. As this system is tied to the Voldis, the concept that the sages of Voldis who are also experts in alchemy are giving advice for creating elixir was added.

However, as various progressions are being added alongside increasing level caps and content which may fatigue/pressure players, we will constantly be easing the earlier stages of progression as more and more endgame content releases.


Thank you for joining our teams at Amazon Games and Smilegate RPG for a look into creating Voldis. Curious what’s next for Lost Ark? Checkout the 2024 Part 1 Roadmap. Thank you for your support! We’ll see you in Arkesia.

Heroes of Arkesia,

The February ‘2 Extreme’ Update arrives in Arkesia next week on February 7, bringing Valtan Extreme, a ton of special anniversary events, and more! Find teasers for some of the key content and the winners of the Anniversary Art Contest below.

[h2]Valtan Extreme[/h2]
Valtan will return in a new, challenging version of the raid. There are two versions of Valtan Extreme - Normal at Item Level 1580, and Hard at Item Level 1620. With greater challenge comes greater rewards. There are first-time-clear rewards that will be given upon clearing 2 Gates, along with rewards as you reclear. Each roster can enter the raid once every 2 weeks, with gate progress bound to the character that cleared the first gate.

[h2]Second Anniversary Celebration[/h2]
To celebrate the anniversary in game, we’ll have several fun in-game anniversary events for players to enjoy accompanied by special rewards. Players can take part in celebrating Lost Ark’s 2nd Anniversary at the Arkesia Festival. Each week of the festival there will be a new co-op quest for players to participate in, keeping things fun and fresh as you earn tokens to trade in for valuable rewards. In addition to the Arkesia Festival, a new Birthday Bash Event that will take players on a trip down memory lane and lead them to earn rewards by re-experiencing some of the most iconic pieces of Lost Ark content. Stay tuned for the full details in next week’s release notes.

We recently completed the Anniversary Art Contest, where players created and submitted anniversary-themed loading screens that will be added into the game during the second anniversary celebration. We’re excited to announce the three winners ahead of next week’s update, and congratulate the talented winners!
[h3]Winner: Nyaffie[/h3]


[h3]Winner: Analiciá[/h3]


[h3]Winner: Xrebirth[/h3]


Be on the lookout for these pieces of fanart in the game next week, or head over to the Official Lost Ark Discord Server to see all of the awesome community submissions. The full release notes will be shared next week, and in the meantime, we’ll see you in Arkesia.