Gear Level Upgrade (Honing System) Guide: leveling equipment is a serious problem for many players in Lost Ark because it’s like any Korean MMORPG. However, there are many ways players can use to remove gearing upgrade hassles.
In this article, we share everything we know about the Lost Ark fast gearing upgrade level-up guide. This includes gear progression, instant upgrade, Lost Ark Akrasia Express events (Trizon Pass), and Tier 3 Pay To Win Power Pass. This is especially to help new players understand the system.
In short: Lost Ark’s normal gearing progression system is bad, painful, and wasted so fast after a short time. This is because the newest content destroys everything before. Plus, players are forced to upgrade old gear to try new content before they became no longer relevant. However, older items became easy to upgrade either due to Pay To Win Power Pass, Events, or Updates. It’s an unfair system to old players because they did all upgrade stages the hard painful way. However, in the end, everyone benefits when making a new character.
How Does The Normal Gear Upgrade Progression Work In Lost Ark?
First of all, you need to know how normal gear upgrade progression (Honing System) works in Lost Ark before looking into methods that make it easier.
Lost Ark gear upgrade progression (Honing System) is all about recycling old gear over and over after upgrades to get to the new tier or quality, which never ends. Whereas for accessories, you will throw them away after every single new Update, Tier, or Item Quality.
In other words, players need to increase the level of their character equipment to get a new Tier or Item Quality. Plus, they need to recycle it after the old gear reaches the recycling level, which is +15.
Although we hate this normal progression system in Lost Ark. However, players have to progress their character gear or item level in Lost Ark even if it is wasted after a short time. Besides, players have to be smart when progressing in Lost Ark and not rush foolishly because it’s a lost progression anyway.
Besides, If they don’t upgrade, they won’t be able to try new PVE content when it’s relevant or participate in the GVG or Guild Wars PVP competition. This is because the gearing-up progression in Lost Ark is Massive Pay To Win system.
For more information about Lost Ark GVG the PVP type, see the post below:
Gear Tier & Quality in Season 2.5:
Moreover, the small list below shows gear tier, regions (low/high), and quality:
- Tier 1: North Bern & Rohendel City:
T1: 302 – 600 – rare. - Tier 2: Yorn & Feiton:
T2: 802 – 1100 High – rare. - Tier 3: Punika & South Vern:
T3: 1302 – 1415 Low – Rare/Epic/Legendary.
T3: 1445 – 1575 High – Legendary/Artifact.
Note: T1 and T2 were the same as T3, but they were changed to become so much very easy. Therefore, expect to see T3 end the same if they release T4 or wipe out the entire Tier level system like what they did in season 1.
The Removed Upgrade Methods To Skip T1 & T2 In Lost Ark:
In the Lost Ark version 2.0, there were freeways with a 100% guarantee for players to reach the Tier 3 item level. However, this has been removed and replaced with an easy normal mode upgrade system in Lost Ark 2.5. (You can skip this section)
To illustrate, free boosts were sent to players as a mail message after finishing every city storyline, which starts from the North Bern region. The message ware contains items and some materials to guarantee a 100% chance to upgrade all equipment set to +15. See the image below.
The above picture shows an attempt to upgrade the weapon. In addition, the weapon has been recycled only, and the rest of the set is still at Legendary gear +15. In the older version, it was guaranteed 3 upgrades that go from +6 to +9 to +12 to +15.
Moreover, there was a gear that you can use to get to the item level of 802 instantly. To explain, it was possible to skip the entire T1 by getting special gear pieces that can wear even if the character is low-level (doesn’t require level).
This gear was available to all players and was possible to be found in the market or from high-level dungeons. Where players need to buy 3 gear pieces using gold to get LVL 802.
Furthermore, the images below show an example of what these special gear pieces looked like and their price, which depends on their quality or level.
We have returned some of these instead of keeping them deleted for information purposes.
Don’t Force Yourself to Upgrade Your Gear (It Will Become Easier):
If you are a Casual Normal F2P player or PVP player, which is the majority in any game. Then don’t force yourself to repeat dungeons and destroy your fun trying getting high item level just to try 1 or 2 new PVE dungeons faster.
As the game will waste your effort in all cases since any new player can get your 2-year efforts in one day.
Besides, the only benefit is remaining relevant to game content. However, Be aware that it’s not possible to get max gear +25 as F2P before the new update even with zombie methods.
Mostly, the best way to play Lost Ark without grinding is by just going to work and paying 50 USD to have fun with 95% of Lost Ark game content or waiting for the free event.
However, Tier 3 becomes really bad since it forces players to go even further beyond +15. So, if you want to try the latest updated dungeons and to stay relevant to the game content, you might need to pay 500 USD or more after every single new update depending on your RNG.
Furthermore, see the video below that shows Lost Ark 2021 progression in one day using P2W & F2P T3 Power Pass Boost to get the Sorceress class to 1400 (weapon 1415):
Equalized Content Is The Answer:
So until they release an event or update a fix for this P2W upgrade system in Lost Ark or make things easier for Free2Play Player without turning into a grinding zombie in T3. All you have to do is haveing fun with equalized content and not try to focus on boosting your character item level.
Also, you can notice that T1 and T2 look different and easier. But this is wasn’t the case back then and it was similar to T3 that looks similar to what you do after +1415 without any boost.
Moreover, check the topics below for all known methods and events for fast leveling in Lost Ark:
Lost Ark Akrasia Express Events & Trizon Pass (Free Instant Leveling):
First, Akrasia Express was one of the best events in the game. As it was the event that let us and many of our friends go more in-depth into Lost Ark, without bothering with the boring questing, character, and gear leveling.
This event comes every time a new class appears in the game. In the past, the Akrasia Express event had two parts:
- Gives one free instant level 50 character ber account.
- Provide resource support after completing missions on the event page to easily upgrade equipment to a certain level.
Unfortunately, it did not happen again as it was before. Now, the Akrasia Express event is no more given a free LVL 50 character and has become just a resource support event.
However, it came back as a Trizon Pass, which is similar to the P2W Power pass method. This is better because it makes the player skip the questline of previous low-tier regions.
Moreover, see the image below, which shows the event page as well as shows one of the stages.
To clarify, the above image shows the fourth stage of raising a character gear from level 1325 to 1340. Where this event comes when the new Gunslinger character class the female gunner arrived in Lost Ark.
Lost Ark P2W Power Pass or Paid Character Boosts With Early End Game Gear:
Lost Ark Power Pass or Paid Character Boosts is one of the ways to save time for old players and shorten some of the boring, forced, and repetitive game stages that lose their fun after the first time.
Many Consider Power Pass Boosts As P2W In Lost Ark:
I don’t deny that it is a Pay To Win, but it does not affect the rest of the player’s fun if they just played with their friends casually and don’t focus to be relevant new content.
However, old players who have grind through all the old stages without boosts will feel like their efforts are wasted. In other words, their months or year of grinding is worth a few dollars, like 30 dollars or less.
On the other side, new players may feel like old content are meaningless to do and just pay 6 to 26 dollars and skip all of this and starts the real value fun.
The Prices Of Power Pass Boosts Including Gear Upgrade Leveling In Lost Ark RU:
Check out the list below which gives an example of the Lost Ark RU paid character boost prices and benefits:
500 Gems = 6.34 USD: Gives a level 50 character, level 302 Gear, and all previous quests are finished including North Vern.
1000 Gems = 12.68 USD: Gives a level 50 character, level 460 Gear, and all previous quests are finished including Roundel.
1500 Gems = 19.02 USD: Gives a level 50 character, level 802 Gear, and all previous quests are finished including Yorn.
2000 Gems = 25.36 USD: Gives a level 50 character, level 960 Gear, and all previous quests are finished including Feiton.
2500 Gems = 31.70 USD: Gives a level 50 character, level 1302 Gear, and all previous quests are finished including Punika.
Note: newest updates like Lost Ark KR will add additional stages to this such as boosts to 1340 including finishing all previous quests till South Vern.
Moreover, see the image below, which shows what Lost Ark Paid Character Boosts system looks like in the game.
Lost Ark Power Pass Looks So Cheap?
New players may ask why these look so cheap? Old players may say why my effort in the past year was worth a few dollars?
The answer is simply that the gearing-up system in Lost Ark is very bad. As the effort of players is wasted after a short period and all the content becomes worthless in the middle or less of the game when a new update arrives with a higher equipment score.
Therefore, these prices are very suitable especially since no one may pay real money for the low-level materials. Since old mats equal just one single gold in the game.
To be more clear, all these boosters do is complete the boring missions. In other words, players pay to complete all quests including the long boring ones to a certain level.
Everything Can Be Obtained In Game But:
Everything else can be obtained in the game. However, its a stupidly wasting a huge amount of time to complete or re-do all these tasks to get a level 50 character with a gear level such as 1302 in one week or more of hard work.
You can get all of this in 1 minute using the Lost Ark Power pass. Therefore, is one week of hard work worth $30? Of course not.
However, if its price increases, it will lose its value. Where if it happened, we may find that some players may rent out a very reliable hardcore friend, who doesn’t care about repeating these missions for them in exchange for gold.
However, this seems dangerous and will bring problems to the players and the game.
More simply, whoever pays will get a higher level character in a minute. On the other hand, those who don’t pay will get a new character by grinding continuously. This is for just doing the main quests only and without doing the important side quests like awakening quests (first-time-quest).
How Time It Takes Leveing To 50 In Lost Ark Without P2W Power Pass Boosts:
Raising a character to level 50 in lost ark takes about 16 hours of continuous grinding in the main quests without doing the yellow quests. However, some side quests might need to be done in the last city to get to a level 50.
In addition, every city or region after level 50 character needs about two hours to complete its quests. Plus, players need to wait until the next day to re-enter the Chaos Dungeons to get higher-level gear. Also, there is a possibility to face a problem with resources.
But the real value of the Lost Ark paid character boosts is in accomplishing the second Awakening quests. As it takes several days to complete it because it is a very painful and so long task.
What Will I Do In Lost Ark Global Release?
So for me (one of our admins), I might pay for character boosts just not to do the second Awakening quest again. Lost Ark Awakening quest if it is done once then all the characters in the account will get the quest rewards even the characters that will be created in the future.
Since I am an old player and have done all these main city story quests many times. I will not be able to repeat all those very boring tasks.
Because I hate them for how many times I had to repeat these quests. Plus, I will choose of course to pay to skip this very painful quest and boring time.
Whereas my plan may be that when the Lost Ark Global comes I will not play it when from the first day. However, I will wait when newer updates to come with gear-up events. Because I don’t want to be forced to do boring things again such as the awakening quest or gearing.
In addition, F2P players might find some players who want to buy gold in exchange for a top-up in the game. Where the effort to collect gold is much less than making a new character from scratch.
Finally: We Hope This Lost Ark Gear leveling Upgrade Guide Helps New Players
In the end, we hope this guide was helpful for everyone. We updated the old one and remove the irrelevant method. Sorry if the late update.
Furthermore, despite the Lost Ark problems represented by a very bad gear upgrade system and P2W. However, the big truth will remain that this is the best game in terms of quality that exists at the moment.
And as always, more additional information will be added If this post got enough support such as sharing our content.
