Hitting level 50 is a major milestone in Lost Ark, because from that point on, more challenging endgame content begins to unlock. It isn’t the maximum level in the game, that’s 60, but gaining levels becomes much less important at this point. Your new goals are, instead, geared towards item levels and stats. And there are many ways to go about improving these two things once you reach level 50 in Lost Ark.
Everyone reaches level 50 at different points in the game. It all depends on how much you enjoy getting sidetracked, filling out your Adventure Tome, and completing side quests. I got there towards the end of Arthetine. My advice to anyone who hits 50 before North Vern is to simply carry on with the story until you reach Vern Castle. This is where a lot of the new content unlocks.
Lost Ark Chaos Dungeons
When you arrive at Vern Castle, you will be given a quest to unlock Chaos Dungeons. This is your first daily and endgame activity. Chaos Dungeons are easy. They require you to clear waves of enemies and a few bosses, and you can do them solo or with friends. There’s no need to team up with random players unless you dislike playing solo.
You should do two Chaos Dungeons per day. After two, the rewards aren’t worth it anymore. A tier one Chaos Dungeon lets you collect 302 item level gear drops during the run, as well as a bunch of items you can use to purchase and upgrade this gear. It can also reward you with Engraving Recipes.
You should hop into Chaos Dungeons as soon as you can. After just a few runs, you will be at item level 302. If you’re not, Honing (I’ll get to that in a bit) can help you reach the 302 benchmark, which lets you unlock the next piece of endgame content, Guardian Raids.
You can also get a full set of 302 gear by completing the Shushire main quest. But that takes much longer. I highly recommend you go the Chaos Dungeon route. Then, you can carry on with the game’s story at your own pace.
Gear Honing and item Quality
The 302 gear you get from Chaos Dungeons will be with you until you reach the next tier of gear. Instead of searching for new gear, you can Hone your existing gear to empower it. Gear Honing requires you to collect materials from Chaos Dungeons and Guardian Raids. We’ll talk about those next.
To Hone a piece of gear, you need to upgrade it with Harmony Shards. For armor, you can use Guardian Stone Fragments and Harmony Leapstones to take it to the next level. For weapons, you use Destruction Stone Fragments and Harmony Leapstones. At first, your Honing has a 100% success rate. This begins to decrease at higher levels, and your gear can fail its upgrade. But, if you’ve just hit 50 in Lost Ark, you don’t need to worry about this.
You can see how the stats increase significantly with each level of Honing.
The 302 gear you acquire will have a Quality rating up to 100. The higher the Quality the better the Bonus Effect the items have. So, keep an eye on the Quality of the gear you get from your Chaos Dungeons and Guardian Raids, because if it’s higher than what you have, you can swap it out. There’s a handy Gear Transfer feature at the Honing NPC that allows you to take your existing Honed gear and transfer its level to your higher Quality gear piece. It’s very convenient and cheap to do.
The other thing to keep an eye on as you collect gear is the bonus stats of your jewelry and the Engraving nodes you get from them. Once you hit level 50 in Lost Ark, you should create, or find, two builds for your character — one focused on killing bosses and one focused on area damage. This informs the bonus stats and Engravings you want on your jewelry.
Lost Ark Guardian Raids
Once your item level hits 302, another quest in Vern Castle unlocks. This one opens up Guardian Raids. Unlike the mindless wave clearing in Chaos Dungeons, these require you to focus on your movement and skill rotations. They also require a decent build. You will need to roam around a map to find a boss, and then kill it before the timer runs out. It has a lot of health. Lost Ark Guardian Raids are often compared to Monster Hunter-style challenges. Again, you should just do two per day.
You cannot use regular healing potions in Guardian Raids. So, bring the ones you’ve been saving since the beginning of the game. Having a build designed to take down single targets and bosses is an immense help, along with a good party of heroes. For the tier one Guardian, Ur’nil, you won’t need to worry about Flares or other Battle Items. You should bring a skill that is a counter. Watch for the boss turning blue, then hit his head with your counter ability to get some free attacks in.
Guardian Raids reward you with jewelry, materials for Honing gear, and a chance at Engraving Recipes. You can also get the Guardian’s cards. The materials for Honing are what you’re really after. Doing Chaos Dungeons and Guardian Raids daily is your source of more power.
Tap into your true power
Another thing you should do once you reach level 50 in Lost Ark is unlock your first Awakening Skill. This is your ultimate ability, and it adds a significant amount of power to your character. To unlock your Awakening Skill, just follow a quest that takes you around Anikka and to Beatrice in Trixion.
I highly recommend you do this as soon as possible after you’ve unlocked Chaos Dungeons. You can do it after Guardian Raids, too. However, Awakening Skills make the Guardian Raid a lot easier. Using your Awakening will consume one Chaos Shard, which you can purchase from vendors for 150 Silver. So, they’re really cheap, and there is no need to save them.
The Soulfist World Domination Awakening Ability.
Lost Ark Abyssal Dungeons
Once you’ve Honed your gear to item level 340, you can to enter Abyssal Dungeons, which means you’re in for a challenge. Abyssal Dungeons are the considerably tougher dungeons from Lost Ark’s story, but the rewards are good. You can only complete the Abyssal Dungeon once a week per character. Enter with a party of four, and do your best to clear it. You can enter with your area damage build, and later swap to your boss killing build in the dungeon.
The item level 340 Abyssal Dungeon rewards you with epic Jewelry that has two Engravings slots, epic Ability Stones, and Knight’s Oath materials. You can also get cards, gold, and Engraving Recipes. The Jewelry and Ability Stones are better than your 302 equivalents, and the Knight’s Oath materials can be used to purchase epic level tier one gear. Again, they’re better than your 302 items.
Life after 50
The activities I’ve mentioned so far are just the beginning of the endgame for Lost Ark. They’re what you will turn to daily and weekly to keep growing your character’s power. However, there is so much more to the game that you can begin enjoying once you reach level 50.
The moment you hit 50, you gain access to the calendar. These are daily events that take place all over Arkesia, but they do require you to raise your item level significantly. However, there are some 250 and 302 item level ones you can join if you’ve unlocked the areas. Activities in the calendar include things like world bosses, island adventures, and co-op sailing quests. The easiest way to track them is with the alarm pop-out on the top-left corner of the screen.
At level 50, you also gain access to daily and weekly quests. These are known as Una’s Tasks in Lost Ark. Open the window with Alt+J, and then browse the various tabs to see which daily, weekly, and other quests you want to pick up for additional rewards. The guild quests depend on what your guild has unlocked.
Once you’ve unlocked Chaos Dungeons and Guardian Raids, you also get access to the Tower. You need to battle your way up the floors for rewards. They mostly give cards and Engraving recipes. Your item level gates your ability to climb the tower, meaning you’ll need higher levels to access the higher floors. So, check in on it from time to time. But there is really no rush here.
The journey continues
On the way to North Vern, you will stop at a tiny island called Opher. This is where you learn about Island Hearts, another collectible. Once you’ve done this, you can explore islands to gather all their rewards, Mokoko Seeds, and Island Hearts. The events that pop up in the calendar are a good way to decide which islands to visit.
Once you reach level 50 in Lost Ark, you have all of the activities I mentioned to keep you busy. But, you still have plenty of story content to play through, too. So, you can continue with that once you’ve done your daily and weekly activities. You can also just keep on playing the story and not immediately worry about any of the other stuff. You will be rewarded with a full set of 302 item level gear at the end of the Shushire region. This is also a good place to get to before you activate your Powerpass to level an alternate character. If you do it before the end of Shushire, you end up missing out on a bunch of quest rewards because the Powerpass will complete the Roster quests automatically and only give you some of the rewards.
And that’s everything you should be doing once you reach level 50. There is plenty more endgame content further down the road, but Lost Ark eases you into it very well. If you’d like assistance with more elements of the MMORPG, you can check out our Lost Ark guides and features hub for plenty of tips and tricks.
