While Lost Ark has only been out for a little over three weeks in the US, it has been live in countries like South Korea, Japan, and many other eastern countries for well over a year. These countries also have more Lost Ark content available to them because the game has been updated for longer. This is a very promising sign for the future of Lost Ark and its continued growth in the US. In addition, because other countries have more content, they are effectively a roadmap for the content the US can expect for Lost Ark within the next year.

In less than two weeks, one of these expected updates will be live in the US. On March 10th, 2022, the new region of Kadan, two new explorable islands, Isteri and Illusion Bamboo Islands, and a new raid, Argos. This will be end-game content (Tier 3), so working through Tier 2 now to be ready for the new content is right where you want to be!

Moving into the Tier 2 guide, it is important to know that Tier 2 starts after ilvl 600 and the completion of the Yorn main questline. Then, players will move up to ilvl 800 by doing a couple of Chaos Dungeons with Aura of Resonance available. The goal is to hit ilvl 960, which unlocks the next part of the Tier 2 main story, Feiton, then ilvl 1100 to move into Tier 3. I have broken down the steps players can take to make this process faster and easier. The following guide is ordered from most important to least important.

Chaos Dungeons

It is important that players do at least two Chao dungeons in Tier 2 daily. Every day, players are given two dungeon’s worth of “Aura of Resonance” which gives the potential to drop gear, gems, honing materials, Cube/Boss Rush tickets, silver, and gold. After these daily two dungeons, players will only get two drops which can only be exchanged for honing materials and accessories. The player should go beyond the two chaos dungeons a day if they need specific honing materials. This video explains how to do Chaos Dungeons most efficiently once you have used up your Aura of Resonance.

Cube/Boss Rush

Tickets to these pieces of content can only be gotten from doing Chaos Dungeons with Aura of Resonance available, though they both have a low drop rate, and through your Guild (more on that later). However, receiving the tickets and actually doing them gives great rewards.

Una’s Tasks

Under the adventure tab, Una’s Tasks is important for a variety of reasons. First, there are dozens of quests to choose from, so players can choose the ones that give the best rewards for their needs. Second, it is the only way to gain Reputation Experience with different NPC factions in the game. These factions give unique rewards like new questlines, permanent stat increasing elixirs, and new ships for sailing in Lost Ark. Players are limited to 3 daily tasks per day and three weekly quests per week. Competing for these quests also gives points with Una, who gives Una’s Tokens which can be exchanged for gold.

Procyon’s Compass

Procyon’s Compass contains four important pieces of content that players will want to do daily, given they are available. Daily field bosses and Chaos gates can be found throughout the world and switch off daily. They drop materials, rare tomes, accessories, and secret maps, which can be done to get more honing materials. There are also daily adventure islands, and these have the chance to drop songs, Island tokens, pirate coins, and Island adventures which are like rare, unique quests. Finally, for the Procyon Compass, the weekly Ghost Ship is important and one of the hardest pieces of content in the game. It is important you know many other players entered Ghost Ship, too, because it is not something that can be done with a few players (30 players at least).

Island Exploration

Just like in Tier one, there were island players could go to and quest for honing materials. There are similar islands for Tier two, but fewer.

Distorted Island: Introduction to the Cube. The last quest requires you to go into the cube.

Hypnos’s Eye: If you are in Tier two, the quests should be easy. It does require you to fight a few bosses alone.

Fomona Island: Quest chain results in Island token.

Kharmine’s Lair: Part of the main storyline and results in Island token.

Azure Wind Island: Most of the quests are picked up from wooden horse statues located around the island that are making chiming noises around the island. There is twenty plus of these quests, and the last quest requires you to do the Adventure Island of Harmony Island to get the required song.

These Islands should give you plenty of materials. There are a couple of islands that are last resorts that give some materials, but not enough for what you must go through to get them. Here they are, Ice Maze Island and Anguished Isle.

Guardian Raids

Doing two guardian raids a day and collecting the guardian soul is a good way to get leapstones. However, players should prioritize doing the guardian raid that matches their ilvl the best. For example, ilvl 880 players should be doing the ilvl 880 guardian, not the ilvl 800, because it gives fewer materials.

Abyssal Dungeons

Abyssal Dungeons are a great way of getting upgraded gear, set pieces, and honing materials, but they can only be done once per week. They are also arguably the most difficult pieces of content in the game because they introduce one-shot mechanics. This basically means if the players do not do something correctly during a boss, they will have to start over again.

Guilds

Guilds give a low number of honing materials, but it is fast and easy to get them. Players can donate silver and research time to their guild in the guild tab (Alt + U) in exchange for bloodstones with just a few clicks. Players can then exchange these bloodstones for materials depending on the level of their guild. Also, as mentioned previously, bloodstones can also be exchanged for an RNG box that has the chance to give cube/boss rush tickets.

For players that are really looking to “go hard” and min-max this game, here is how you do it. Except for the Procyon’s Compass and Island Exploration, most players that stream this game or play this game like a full-time job do almost everything mentioned above on two to five other characters a day. All with the intention of funneling most of the materials gotten on these alts to the main character for gold or gear progression. This is not necessary to reach end-game content though! The Stronghold is a feature that all players should have been using since before Tier 1 has research available to make gearing and honing on alts easier.