Lost Ark Gear Progression is the post 50 way to progress your character in Lost Ark. The higher your gear score gets, the more activities will become available to you to help progress your gear score. Before we get into each tier’s individual progression, let’s look at the daily activities and other things you will need to know relating to Lost Ark Gear Progression.
Honing Materials and Key Terms
Honing Materials are gained through many activities in Lost Ark including the activities mentioned below, Maria’s Secret Shop, and your guild vendor! Below is a list of each Honing Material and what they are used for!
Guardian Stones – Used in the Armor Honing Process, Guardian Stones have 3 versions, one for each tier.
Destructions Stones – Used in the Weapon Honing Process, Destruction Stones also have 3 different variations.
Leapstones – Leapstones are used in honing both armor and weapons. Leapstones are the most frequent bottleneck in the honing process, so make sure you are utilizing Mari’s Secret Shop, Your guild vendor, and any Una’s Tasks to earn these valuable stones.
Harmony/Life/Honor Shards – A Special type of currency used in both Armor and Weapon Honing
Breath stones – used to improve your chance for a successful Honing in the later parts of each tier.
Guardian Souls – Earned in Guardian Raids. You can collect two of these daily. Guardian Souls greatly increase the number of rewards your receive from Guardian Raids.
Aura of Resonance – Used in Chaos Dungeons, Aura of Resonance regenerates every day, giving you more rewards from your Chaos Dungeons, Below is a Screen Shot of where you can locate your Aura of Resonance in the Chaos Dungeon Screen.
Daily Activities
The list below includes all of the daily activities that will help you get the gear and the materials you will need to upgrade (Honing) your gear to Tier 3. Below, is an attempt to prioritize the importance of each of these activities to make the most of your time.
Chaos Dungeons
Chaos Dungeons are unlocked in the North Vern Questline and require a minimum gear score of 250. These are easy to solo and reward a large amount of Gear and should be prioritized each day before you start the rest of your dailies. Make sure you are doing the highest-ranked one available to you at all times
Guardian Raids
4 Man Boss fights found in North Vern. These require a 302 ilvl to complete. Do these to harvest the daily limit of 2 Guardian Souls a day to maximize your Honing Materials. You will want to attempt to do the highest Guardian Raid available to you at the time.
QUICK TIP – If you have ALT characters – Make sure you harvest 2 souls a day on each of your Alts as well. This will award you extra Honing materials that are not bound to your ALT that you can use to improve the ilvl of your main!
Una’s Tasks (Alt-J)
Daily Quests, unlocked through the main storyline, can reward you with a decent amount of Honing Materials. Make sure you are choosing the quest that rewards the materials you need to upgrade your gear. Oftentimes, you can find Una’s Tasks that overlap with your other daily activities!
Abyssal Dungeons
Unlocked by the North Vern Main Quest, Abyssal Dungeons are Weekly challenging group dungeons. These require a minimum of 340 ilvl to unlock. The Primary reason to do these are to get the Epic and Legendary versions of your Tier Armor which provides you with powerful “Set Bonuses” that should help you clear content quicker. Each Abyssal Dungeon has its own weekly cooldown so make sure that you are doing these as they become available. We recommend that you do these until you have a full set of Legendary gear for that tier, then come back to them when you move up to the next Tier!
Procyon’s Compass
Found at the bottom of your minimap, Procyon’s compass helps you keep track of the following activities that you can do daily for a TON of loot, including Honing activities. The following are activities that can be found on Procyon’s compass.
- Field Bosses
- Ghost Ship
- Chaos Gate’s
- Adventure Islands
For more on Procyon’s Compass check out our Procyon’s Compass guide!
Other Ways to get Honing Materials
1.) Island Quests – Island Quests are one of the most lucrative activities in Lost Ark. Doing Island Quests (Islands) and collecting Island Souls can grant you a ton of Honing materials and other valuable items that will help progress your character!
2.) Dispatch Station Special Mission – Located in your Stronghold, These missions reward Honing Materials and take zero time investment. Once you upgrade your Stronghold and Dispatch Station you can run 2 of these at a time.
3.) Sylmael Bloodstone Exchange – Le’verille, the Vendor, is located in North Vern and will trade Bloodstones for Honing Material. Bloodstones are earned by donating silver (or other currency) to your guild daily using ALT-U.
4.) Mari’s Secret Shop – Located in the Shop Tab, you can exchange crystals for Honing Materials
5.) Traveling Merchant Ship – This ship sets outside of every port and allows you to exchange your pirate coins for Honing Materials. Just set sail and you should see one close by! These Have a Weekly limit.
Lost Ark Gear Progression Activity Order
While leveling, you will want to make the most of your game time. Below is an easy-to-follow list that places both the rewards and the time it takes to finish the activity into account.
NOTE – Even though Chaos Dungeons and Guardian Raids are at the top of the list – Make sure you put them off as long as you can that day. This way you can use the items you have earned through the other activities such as islands to upgrade your gear and ensure that you are using your Aura of Resonance to do the highest-ranked Chaos Dungeons and Guardian Raids possible.
- Highest ilvl Daily Chaos Dungeons x 2 using Aura of Resonance
- Guardian Raid – Harvest 2 Guardian Souls of Highest Raid level possible
- Island Quests til you complete your appropriate Tier
- Procyon’s Compass Daily Event
- Daily/Weekly Una’s Tasks – selecting overlaping quests that reward Honing Materials ONLY
- Weekly Abyssal Dungeons until you have completed your legendary set for that tier.
0 To 600 – Tier 1 Gear Score Progression
0 To 302 Item Level
The First benchmark of your Lost Ark gear progression journey will be getting your character to level 50. At this point, you should reach 250 ilvl (or close) and will unlock most of the daily activities that will help you progress to Tier 2 and beyond.
Here is where the path splits depending on your situation.
- If you have time to finish the Vern/Shushire Questline (around 3 hours total) before the server reset, continue the main story quest til you finish Shushire. At the end of the Shushire questline, you will be rewarded with a full set of 302 gear. Then, go back and do your newly unlocked daily missions to start improving your 302 item level with the Honing System.
- If you do not have time to finish the Vern/Shushire Quest Line, go ahead and start knocking out daily activities using the gear Progression Activity Order obove. Then When you have time, make sure you go back to complete the Shushire questline. You will need to finish it to progress to the next step in the story and progress past iLVL460
302 To 460 Item Level
For this step, you will continue to use your daily activities to push to level 460. Make sure you are utilizing the Activities above to gain as many daily materials as you can.
This phase is when you should start your Tier 1 island quests. Before you start, head to Freedom Island and Black Fang Den and complete both missions. This will reward you with ALOT of Pirate Coins that you will need in the next step. Then Head to Peyto to buy “Song of Resonance” sheet music. This will help you complete future islands!
QUICK TIP – Islands can be found all over the world map using the search bar in the top right of the map screen. Island Quests provide a massive amount of rewards including honing material and even skill points.
Below is a list of the islands that you should try to complete before hitting ilvl600.
- Glacier Island
- Panda Island
- Shadow Tower Island
- Dreamgull Island
- Serenity Isle
- Toto Silver Island
- Starlight Isle
- Fantasm Island
- Outlaw Island
- Little Luck Island
- White Wave Island
- Giant Mushroom Island (will need Forest Minuet to Finish)
460 To 600 Item Level
Once you reach 460, it’s time to continue the Main Story Quest Line and complete the Rohendel Chapter. Once you do so, this will unlock the Rohendel Chaos dungeons. Continue to grind your dailies and finish up any Tier 1 islands you may have until you reach gear score of 600. Once there, you’ll be ready for the next step of Lost Ark gear progression, Tier 2!
600 To 1100 – Tier 2 Gear Score Progression
600 – 802 Item Level
This should be the quickest step in your Lost Ark gear progression. Go to the Auction House using Alt-Y and select the Gear DropBox and highlight “All”. Here you should be able to pick up a full set of Tier 2 gear for 1-2 gold per piece. If for some reason you do not have the gold necessary to purchase your 802 armor, you will need to start doing your tier 2 daily activities which will require you to complete the next step in our journey, the Yorn Quest Line.
802 To 960 Item Level
After you receive all of your 802 gear and have completed the Yorn Quest Line, Make sure you head over to the Honing NPC and Gear Transfer all of your Tier 1 Armor over to your Tier 2 armor. This Should give you a “free” +1 Enchant to all of your armor.
QUICK TIP – If you plan on using ALTS to help level your main, you can head to your stronghold and research “Honing Success Rate” which improves Tier 1 Honing across all of your rosters. This should help you get an ALT to Tier 2 much quicker so you can feed Tier 2 Honing mats to your main!
Next, you will want to make sure you finish all of your Tier 2 Island quests! Below is a list of Islands we recommend you complete. Again, Make sure you are finishing the yellow and purple quests on these islands
- Fomona Island
- Aiwana Island
- Liebeheim Island
- Revelry Row
- Distored Island
- Twilight Isle
- Gravis Island
- Hypnos’s Island
- Azure Wind Island
After finishing these islands, go back to North Vern and use the Honing mats you have earned. This should put you at around 960-1000.
960 to 1100 Item Level
Once you hit 960, you will be ready to travel to Feiton and complete the Feiton Story Quest. Doing this will unlock your last set of Tier 2 Chaos Dungeons.
The rest of the Tier 2 progression is very similar to Tier 1 Progression. Make sure you use your time wisely each day, prioritizing your daily activities. completing dispatch quests and checking the guild vendors and ship merchants. (including Mari’s Secret Shop)
Some other activities you can do if you’re done with your dailies are Chaos Gates and Boss Rush. Chaos Gates are timed events that you can find on your calendar tab. These are world events that reward you with honing mats and maps! Boss Rush is an activity that requires a ticket, similar to the Cube, that rewards you with a ton of honing mats once you complete all of the floors.
Once you hit gear score 1100, you’re ready to move on to tier 3!
1100 To 1575 – Tier 3 Gear Score Progression
1100 To 1325 Item Level
Here’s where the real endgame and latest Lost Ark content starts. The core of TIer 3 gear progression remains the same as the previous two tiers.
First, Head to Punika and finish the Punika Story Quest. This will of course unlock your Tier 3 Chaos Dungeons. Next, You will start off this tier by farming out your first (blue) Tier 3 armor set in the Punika Tier 3 Chaos Dungeons. Once you get the full set make sure you use the Gear Transfer Feature and get the free +1 to your Tier 3.
Now, you will once again return to your (Tier 3) Daily Activity grind. There is only one Tier 3 Island that you will need to do, Anguished Isle. Instead of a one-time quest, Anguished Isle is a daily event. You will want to use the Bifrost system to teleport here daily. Here is a quick reminder of the priority with the Tier 3 changes.
- Highest ilvl Daily Chaos Dungeons x 2 using Aura of Resonance
- Guardian Raid – Harvest 2 Guardian Souls of Highest Raid level possible
- Procyon’s Compass Daily Event
- Daily/Weekly Una’s Tasks – selecting overlapping quests that reward Honing Materials ONLY
- Weekly Abyssal Dungeons until you have completed your legendary set for that tier.
- Anguished Isle Daily
QUICK TIP – Don’t forget to also set up your Tripod tracking in the Combat Skills tab, under settings, to make sure you are getting useful gear
1325 To 1415 Item Level
A lot more of the same here with a few changes. First, You will now get your gear quality upgrades from the Punika Abyss dungeons. As you get your new gear, make sure you use the gear transfer system to move your current Item level over. Once you get the full set, you will want to push up to around 1370 to 1415 to get ready for the Argos Abyss Raid! You will need to be patient though, as upgrading will take much longer than before due to the poor success rate of Honing in Tier 3. Just keep doing your dailies 🙂 and before you know it you’ll be ready for Argus!
In this stage and beyond, having Alts at Tier 3 becomes EXTREMELY useful. This allows you to funnel Honing Materials to your main and decrease the amount of “time” it takes to push up to the Argos Raid. For that reason, if you run out of things to do for the day, progressing on an Alt is more beneficial to gear progression than actually playing on your main. Just make sure you have all of your stronghold upgrades to reduce the chance of Honing Failure before you start!
QUICK TIP – Make sure you are upgrading your gems to Tier 3 as well!
1415+ Item level (Coming soon!)
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