Speeding up travel time is always a nice luxury to have, especially during sailing events, and that’s where the Astray comes in. Let’s see how one can acquire the Astray, the fastest ship in Lost Ark.
The Astray boasts the highest speed amongst all the ships in Lost Ark and possesses balanced resistance stats against the various Hazardous Waters. The ship requires quite the investment to craft and upgrade, as well as expensive crewmates to reach its highest potential. Obtaining this ship will require a minimum of 25 days, Trusted rapport, and a few hundred thousand Pirate Coins. Although it may seem daunting, the perks of the Astray are definitely worth the long-term commitment.
In order to craft the Astray, players will need to obtain the following items:
To obtain this blueprint, players will need to complete Una’s Task ‘She Drifts, Sea Grifts’ a total of 25 times. Players can find this task by using the default key bind ‘Alt+J’ and searching under the ‘Daily’ tab, as well as keeping track of their progress under the ‘Reputation Status’ tab. This task will require players to salvage treasures three times at a Treasure Salvage Point, which are events that may occur during Sailing Co-ops. It is recommended that players do Sailing Co-ops at either Arthetine or Yorn, because those locations will always start off with this specific event.
After first time completion, players may use ‘Una’s Tasks Instant Completion Pass’ for subsequent days, as limited time slots for Sailing Co-ops may be quite inconvenient.
To obtain this certificate, players will need to complete Una’s Task ‘Pest Control’ a total of 15 times. This task requires players to defeat either five Red Shark Pirates or Captain/Lieutenant Lorka. This is accomplished through the event ‘Everyone, Charrrge!’ that occurs every 15 minutes at Blackfang’s Den. Blackfang’s Den is an island located to the east of Luterra.
To obtain this manual, players will need to purchase the quest ‘Pirate Star: Astray’ from Mariner Rose for 300,000 Pirate Coins at Blackfang’s Den. To complete this quest chain, players must reach Trusted rapport status with Blackfang. Without gifting any rapport items, it will take players around 56 days to reach Trusted by doing all rapport quests and daily rapport actions. It is recommended that players make use of rapport gifts in order to speed up this process.
Aside from the in-game shop, Wandering Merchants are a great consistent source of rapport items.
Timber can be easily obtained by logging trees or purchasing from the Market. If players have low Logging level, Lullaby Island is a great location for farming Timber; otherwise, various Punika locations may yield greater materials with higher level trees.
This material can be crafted at a Processor NPC in any of the major cities or bought on the Market. It will cost three Strong Iron Ore, eight Heavy Iron Ore, three Sturdy Timber, and eight Tender Timber to craft a batch of 15 Uncommon Ship Parts Material.
Upgrading your Astray will give the ship higher resistances, speed, and durability, as well as additional crew slots. A level one Astray has two crew slots available with additional slots unlocked at level four, seven, and 10, for a total of five slots. It is incredibly expensive to upgrade a ship to the max level of 11 and will take a large commitment to do so.
The various ship parts materials can be crafted using Logging, Mining, and Fishing materials at the Processor NPC in all the major cities or bought on the Market. The various ship Timbers (different from Trade Skill Timber), Plates, and Essences can be bought with Pirate Coins from Tea and Libra Guild Vessels at every major city port. To completely max out the level of your Astray, you would need to spend around 444,000 Pirate Coins on these alone. The blueprints and special materials can be bought from Spearfish Hunting Guild Vessels and Plumpcrab Fishing Guild Vessels, at specific major city ports, for various Sailing Coin currencies.
As you can see, the total cost of upgrading an Astray to 11 is incredibly costly and may take players quite a while to farm out. Players may consider stopping at level seven because it unlocks the fourth crew member slot and is considerably cheaper than leveling from seven to 11. Depending on the setup, four crew members is enough to provide great speed and resistances.
Arguably what makes the Astray such a sought-after ship is its incredible crew and the perks that they provide. Unfortunately, the Astray’s exclusive crewmates are also incredibly expensive to acquire, adding to the already high costs. Here are the most important crew members for the Astray.
Obtained at the Island of Mist by trading in one ‘Tears of the Abyss’ with the NPC, Keith. ‘Tears of the Abyss’ can be acquired from Spearfish Hunting Guild Vessel outside Punika for 8,016 Sun Coins. ‘Tears of the Abyss’ can also be acquired upon reaching 40 and 44 Sea Bounties.
Spearfish Hunting Guild Vessel and Plumpcrab Fishing Guild Vessel are on 20-minute rotations, so they might not always be there.
This rarity of Blackfang is incredibly difficult to get as it is gated heavily behind RNG, so players should not expect to have this for their crew setup. Legendary Blackfang will have a low chance of dropping from opening treasure chests at the end of sailing Gate events. To open these chests, players will need to obtain corresponding keys from Sailing Co-op events that occur at various locations. Use the in-game alarm system at the top left to check for their scheduled occurrences.
This rarity is gained as a reward for earning Trusted with Blackfang and is a great substitute for Legendary Blackfang.
Exchange with Spearfish Hunting Guild Vessel outside Punika for 14,428 Sun Coins.
Exchange with Gador in players’ Stronghold for 7,870 Raid Seals. Gador is a merchant that may appear after reaching 70% with Yorn’s Adventure Tome and completing ‘Great Ashen Forge’s Invitation’.
Exchange with Spearfish Hunting Guild Vessel outside Feiton for 3,607 Ancient Coin or obtain from possible drop when freeing prisoners on the island, Kalthertz.
Exchange with Plumpcrab Fishing Guild Vessel outside Punika for 144,288 Pirate Coins.
Exchange with Saha in players’ Stronghold for 7,870 Raid Seals. Saha is a merchant that may appear after reaching 70% with Punika’s Adventure Tome and completing ‘Invitation from the Lailai Merchant’s Association’.
Exchange with Gador in players’ Stronghold for 3,930 Raid Seals or with Plumpcrab Fishing Guild Vessel outside Rohendel for 36,072 Pirate Coins.
Exchange with Spearfish Hunting Guild Vessel outside Rohendel for 2,705 Sceptrum’s Coin or obtain from possible drop when freeing prisoners on the island, Kalthertz. A good budget option for speed.
The most common setups for the Astray will run a combination of the crews listed above. Blackfang is the most important member for the Astray due to her ‘Tailwind’ trait, so it is highly recommended to include at least one of her. ‘Tailwind’ allows your Astray to use ‘Fast Sailing’ more regularly than other ships. A well-rounded setup example would be:
Players can tinker around with the setup depending on whether they prefer higher speed or higher resistances. To get more resistances, Legendary/Epic Blackfang and Legendary Barakas may be taken out for two additional Wilhelms. Wilhelm provides low sailing speed, but very high resistances. If players prefer more speed, an additional Blackfang, Barakas, or Fordin can be put in place of Wilhelm.
The best way to earn Pirate Coins and Sailing Coins is through Adventure Island events. Once a day, players can earn rewards from one of the Adventure Islands available and at least one of them will reward both Pirate Coins and High Seas Coin Chests. Each High Seas Coin Chest gives players 100 of their choice of Sailing Coin when opened. Sailing Coins can also be used to exchange for Pirate Coins, with Sun Coin being the most efficient, at an exchange rate of one Sun Coin to 20 Pirate Coins.
Sailing Co-ops and sailing Gate events are also good sources of Pirate Coins and Sailing Coins. The Sailing Coin currency will vary depending on the location of these events. Make sure to use the in-game alarm system to check when events are available and what rewards are given. Players may also earn Pirate Coins from completing certain reputations with Una’s Tasks; however these are one-time rewards only.
Acquiring and maxing out your Astray is definitely a marathon, but the daily time investments can be quite short. Alongside the daily sources of coins, future seasonal events and Battle Passes may also provide quite a bit of Pirate Coins and Sailing Coins. There is absolutely no rush in getting your Astray and even more so when it comes to upgrading past level seven. Pace yourselves accordingly and eventually this incredible ship and its crew can be yours!
