Lost Ark Leveling Guide

A lot of content in Lost Ark is locked behind reaching combat level 50 on at least one character, with rewards tied to daily and weekly timers. Because of this, you’ll want to level up as quickly and efficiently as possible to start earning endgame gear. Thankfully, the leveling process isn’t too convoluted, with only a few things to watch out for. In this Lost Ark leveling guide, we’ll take you through each notable section of the journey to level 50.

General Leveling Tips

Lost Ark does not give much incentive to kill regular mobs in each zone, as they give a pitiful amount of experience and silver. Make sure to avoid them if possible — this also applies to many dungeon mobs, since you can often just run past them to the next objective.

It’s also worth making use of mounts and Triports (fast travel points) to save time traveling. Even teleporting in the same zone can speed things up, and the silver cost for using Triports is lower than what you’ll earn via leveling.

Combat Levels 10 - roughly 30 | Lost Ark Leveling

In the western version of Lost Ark, characters start out at level 10. After selecting your subclass during the opening section and watching a few cutscenes, you’ll be taken to the prolog. This is a decent way to learn the controls, but entirely optional. Choosing the “Skip Prolog” option will take you right to the main storyline in Runa Pass. While you’ll miss a few gear pieces by doing this, you’ll get better equipment soon anyway.

From here, you’ll want to follow the main story quests — these are marked by orange quest markers on the map and in your journal. You’ll naturally gain levels as you complete each quest, gaining gear and completing dungeons throughout the first island.

Regular sidequests (marked by yellow exclamation marks) can safely be ignored. These generally only give low amounts of experience and silver. However, chain quests (similarly marked to regular sidequests, but with an additional chain symbol) should be completed, as they often give stat bonuses or other useful rewards.

The other type of quest to complete as they appear are guide quests. These generally unlock gameplay mechanics, such as pets and trade skills. Most of these are marked as roster quests, meaning that you’ll only need to do them on one character.

Eventually, after completing the quest “Set Sail!”, you’ll start getting a new type of quest: world quests. This is where the second part of leveling comes in.

Combat Level 31 - 50 | Lost Ark Leveling

World quests (shown with a blue marker) replace the story quests of level 10 to 30, though they’re not much different. The only real change is that you’ll be required to sail to each island before starting their storylines (with the occasional quest at sea). Embarking East Luterra, you’ll visit Tortoyk, Anikka, Arthetine, and then North Vern. By the time you reach Vern Castle, you’ll be level 50. If not, the next few story quests should give enough experience to get you there.

Level 50 - 60 | Lost Ark Leveling

Level 50 is Lost Ark’s soft cap for leveling. You’ll have most of your skill points, and all the important systems can be unlocked. However, it’s possible to keep leveling up to level 60. This will give you even more skill points, and even the ability to increase skill levels even further.

The catch is that you’re required to gain a crazy amount of experience per level after 50. Because of this, there’s not much reason to focus on leveling at this point. You’ll eventually level up by completing later world quests, and the main goal instead becomes to farm better gear.

About Lost Ark Roster Level

Separate from your combat level is the roster level. This is shared between all characters, with its own type of experience. While this is gained at a slower rate than combat experience, the fact that it also builds up via leveling alts means that it’s always increasing at a steady rate. Achievements and collectables are a great source of roster experience too, since there are hundreds of them across the game.