How Lost Ark End Game Gear Progression Works
Lost Ark gear is separated into levels and tiers, and each tier has its own level. When you hit end game at level 50, for instance, your gear level should be around 250.
Unlike New World’s rather perplexing Gear Score system, Lost Ark’s is much simpler.
You can either manufacture better gear or run dungeons until you have a complete set of rare gear with the score you desire.
Then, you continually upgrade that gear using materials until the item level hits the maximum.
In this Lost Ark end game guide, we’ll teach you how gear progression works from level 50 onward with explanations for the different content tiers.
If you found this guide looking for the best classes, check out our Lost Ark tier list for PvE.
How higher tiers and upgrades are achieved
Changing tiers has no bearing on your ability to progress. For example, the first dungeon in the second gear tier requires level 600 gear, and once you have that (or greater) from previous dungeons, you can move on to the next tier of challenges and repeat the process.
You have two possibilities with each tier after reaching level 250, either grind dungeons for better gear or improve your gear from the main and side quests also purple quests.
Let’s start our Tier journey starting with Tier 1 gear
Tier 1: Phase 1 (Level 0-250)
You reached level 50 and by the time you got there, you will check your gear and it’s 250. This basically the start of the end game content. With that, you will be focusing on getting your gear score higher and higher until you reach 1375. What matters most is focusing on three things: the main quest, instances, and Islands.
Tier 1: Phase 2 (Level 250-302)
In this phase, to get the gear you need to complete the Shushire world quest which is the main quest, you will obtain a full set of level 302 gear. The other option is to grind the North Vern Chaos Dungeon. That means you will be playing the same dungeon till you get your full set, but it’s pretty fast so don’t be discouraged – each run is about 5 minutes.
Tier 1: Phase 3 (Level 302-460)
At this stage, you will be focusing on learning more about honing, engravings, stats, Abyss Dungeons, Chaos Dungeons, Guardian Raids, Islands, and their rewards along with the main quests to Rohendel.
For example, gear honing is upgrading your items with specific materials and having a successful rate to get improved stats on your gear. Gear goes from +1 to +15, and the chances of failing near the +15 upgrade are quite high, but at the start you don’t need to worry about that and are almost guaranteed an upgrade when you Hone your gear. Failing costs you the mats, and means you have to try again.
Most end game activities will give you the mats you need to upgrade your gear, so do whatever you feel like at the time. Remember that there are daily and weekly caps on the rewards from most activities though. The game does a good job of guiding you on what to pick.
There are 2 main weekly sources: Abyssal Dungeons and Una’s Tasks. Abyssal Dungeons are the highest difficulty between the instances, due to their mechanics and damage checks and the rewards are massive but only weekly. Una’s Tasks (Alt+ J) give you a list of several quests you can choose from. You can complete 3 per week, so pick the ones with the best rewards for gearing.
Daily sources of honing materials: Chaos Dungeons, Guardian Raids and Una’s daily tasks.
- Ship Shop
- Traveling merchant ship, you click on the tap normal and exchange materials for pirate coins
- Exchange Chaos Dungeon shard
- Once you have done your daily Chaos Dungeons, you can still do them and collect Perception Shards which can be exchange materials. Not that this is slower than just doing them daily.
- Sylmael Bloodstone exchange
- Exchange crafting materials for Sylmael bloodstone which can be obtained from grinding guild activities and donations.
Tier 1: Phase 4 (Level 460-600)
You will reach Rohendel, progress your main quest, and then upgrade your gear with the newly unlocked dungeons. You still have to do the same activities above to gather mats, but you also get access to new raids and dungeons, so continue to do the level appropriate ones.
As an added bonus, you can also now craft your legendary gear now, mainly by Order Weapon, gloves, chest, helmet, and shoulders. Note that these make you stronger but they don’t give you higher item level. Just make sure that you continue to transfer your gear upgrades to new gear you equip (This just costs silver).
You will likely hit a snag here when you get to 560 as failure rate for upgrading will be through the roof, so don’t try and squeeze blood from a stone. Continue your dailies and do the adventure quests and island quests to steadily gather mats. Open an alt, and just try and enjoy yourself and not rush.
Congratulations you have reached Tier 2 now
Tier 2: Phase 1 (Level 600-802)
Now you start doing Islands like Hypnos’s Island, Gravis Island, Twilight Isle, and Revelry Row along with Yorn’s Chaos Dungeon.
If you have done some Islands and daily events you will find some tier 2 materials in your bag which are Guardian Stone, Life Leapstone, Destruction Stone, and Caldarr Fusion Material.
Tier 2: Phase 2 (Level 840-1000)
You will have enough resources to find materials from the activities in the game in general finishing two continents, Yorn and Feiton, and doing the yellow side quests in them.
Remember that you can always farm the continent’s dungeons once more on the difficulty you haven’t done through questing.
Tier 2: Phase 3 (Level 1000-1100)
Here it will be hard to find materials and failing the honing will be a bit frustrating so do not give up and keep farming daily dungeons, Una’s quests, and the steps mentioned earlier.
You will have to mainly focus on spamming dungeons, cube, tower, and from 1080 or below. Do not hone your gear unless you have 20 Moon’s Breath.
Tier 3, the last (and most difficult) tier in EU/NA
Tier 3: Phase 1 (Level 1100-1302)
Now that you have reached the maximum tier level for the patch, welcome to the Punika continent.
Here, you get hard bosses with a lot of mechanics to grind daily: Chaos Dungeon, Guardian Raids, Una’s tasks, and Island Tokens.
Tier 3: Phase 2 (Level 1302-1375)
This phase is divided into two parts, up to level 1325 you will focus on Punika level 2 until you get an epic set of gear so you get 10% or even more overall damage.
Yes these small numbers matter, keep upgrading till 1370.
Tier 3: Phase 3 (Level 1375-1415)
Stick with Punika level 3 phase 1 and the Abyss Raid Argos until you get a set of the Legendary gear and upgrade it to 1415.
Start grinding Giant Hearts, Mokoko Seeds, and the rest of the achievements to become stronger with vitality potions and skill points.
Tier 3: Phase 4 (Level 1415-1460)
This is where things get more difficult and interesting. You can continue upgrading like normal, getting your gear to level 1430 and then 1460.
Generally, at this gear score, you will be focusing more on the small details of each aspect of the game, your stronghold, continent progression, and Islands tokens.
Tier 3: Phase 5 (Level 1460-1490)
Similar to Phase 4, but you need to focus more on finishing the continents so you get more skill point potions.
At this stage, you will need to get more level 10 skills for any character you are playing.
Raids and dungeons will require a certain skill level of mechanics and damage check for some phases of each of the bosses that would require you to work on your gems.
Tier 3: Phase 6 (Level 1490-1575)
Congratulations! You have reached the highest phase and the end of tier 3 for the current 1.0 patch.
Now you would want to finish the rest of each point you have in the collectibles.
Your card collection should be fully optimized by now, rotating the combos depends on each encounter of the end game raids.
For achievement hunters, this is your time to rise and shine, complete it and you will be greatly rewarded by Roster level and many more.
Thanks for reading! Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. For more guides and articles, check our Lost Ark blog.
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