Lost Ark is a game with great emphasis on having several alternate characters (alts) to help progress a player’s account. Alts bring various benefits including additional honing materials, gold, silver, and other quality of life features. Having alts can definitely liven up a player’s experience in Lost Ark, so let’s take a look at what they offer.
Lost Ark is a game that highly encourages the creation and usage of multiple alts to gain advantages in progression. Unlike many western MMOs, such as World of Warcraft, where players put majority of their focus on one main character, alts in Lost Ark demand quite a bit of investment. Players that are willing to invest in alts can expect to reap various benefits for their roster, including gold, silver, honing materials, and more. Many of these benefits can be funneled towards a player’s main character to speed up their growth. Several progression systems are also shared across the entire roster, easing some of the process in developing multiple characters. Let’s see how multiple alts can benefit a roster.
One of the main reasons to have alts is the weekly generation of gold. Gold is an incredibly important resource in Lost Ark and is heavily tied to development of character power. Unlike many MMOs, gold is considered a necessity in this game and not just a luxury. Engraving Books, Accessories, Tripod Upgrades, and Honing costs all rely on gold. Aside from Honing costs, it’s possible to acquire the rest through random drops, but depending on RNG to build out characters is simply unrealistic in Lost Ark. Thus, most players will head to the market and auction house to purchase what they need.
The main consistent source of gold is through weekly activities such as Abyssal Dungeons, Abyss Raids, and Legion Raids. Each week only six characters in a player’s roster may obtain gold as a reward from doing the aforementioned activities. Usually, players will designate their six highest ilvl characters as gold earners due to having access to higher level content. Characters also have a limit of three Legion Raids per week that they can obtain gold from. This is currently not a factor for global servers as only three Legion Raids have been released. However, keep this in mind for future raid releases.
Characters in Tier 1 and 2 do not have access to Abyss Raids and Legion Raids, so it is advised to push as many alts as one can into Tier 3 for more gold generation. Likewise, higher Tier characters cannot obtain gold from previous Tier activities. Characters at specific ilvls in Tier 3 will also lose access to gold from certain lower-level weeklies. For example, characters lose access to gold from Aira’s Oculus and Oreha Preveza at ilvl 1415, and access to Argos gold at ilvl 1475.
Having multiple characters generating weekly gold in Tier 3 can be very helpful for players, especially in the current economy. Inflated market prices due to bots make it extremely difficult for players to afford the equipment they need. With some accessory prices reaching over 100,000 gold and Legendary Engraving Books costing over 10,000, as well as high Blue Crystal costs, it can take weeks for a single character to farm what it needs. For reference, let’s take a look at a character with an ilvl of 1475. Each week, they have access to Valtan Hard, Vykas Hard, and Kakul-Saydon Hard, which generates only a total of 13,500 gold, assuming they do not purchase Sidereal’s Blessing Chests at the end of each Gate. Although it may not solve the inflation problem, having alts does make it slightly more bearable.
Another consistent source of gold is from selling unbound Honing Materials obtained from daily Chaos Dungeons and Guardian Raids. Their value will vary between regions, so it is up to players to decide if it's better to sell or use them.
Lastly, is gold obtained from selling Accessories, Ability Stones, Tripods, and Engraving books. This is entirely reliant on random drops so players should not expect to make consistent gold from them. Although, having multiple characters doing various activities does increase the odds of higher value items dropping.
Silver is an important resource that is vital to Honing characters, faceting Ability Stones, Tripod transfers, and rerolling Gems. It is also used for miscellaneous purchases such as Rapport Gifts, Cards, and Adventurer’s Tome progression. Players often find themselves short on silver due to the high costs of Honing in Tier 3. Fortunately, unlike gold, there is no character cap on the various activities that provide silver. Alts can easily provide tons of silver with very little effort.
The best way to obtain silver is through Chaos Dungeons. The amount of silver increases based on the ilvl of the Chaos Dungeon. The current highest level of Chaos Dungeon (1475) provides more than 60,000 silver on average, with Aura of Resonance. Players are still able to gain silver without Aura of Resonance, but the amount received is very insignificant, so it is not recommended to run without the Aura. As mentioned before, there is no cap on how many characters can do Chaos Dungeons so quite a bit of silver can be generated through alts.
Another consistent way to generate silver is through what are known as ‘Lopang dailies’. Lopang dailies include six different Una’s Tasks, called ‘Special Delivery’, that provide silver as a reward. The amount of silver varies depending on the ilvl of the characters. Tier 3 characters generate an average of 25,000 silver per Lopang daily. These Una’s Tasks take considerably low effort, especially when players set up Bifrosts for each ‘Special Delivery’ location. Many players have huge rosters just to set up as many ‘Lopang Alts’ as possible, which generates a constant source of silver. Various Weekly Una’s Tasks also provide silver rewards.
Cube is also a great source of silver, depending on the level of chests that players reach. Cube Entrance Tickets have a chance of dropping from the end boss on the second floor of Chaos Dungeons (with Aura of Resonance). Tickets may also have a chance of appearing in Entrance Ticket Chests, sold by Sylmael Bloodstone Exchange NPCs. If tickets do not drop from the chests, silver is rewarded instead. Each character may exchange for three chests of each Tier every week, as long as their Guild level is high enough. Reaching Diamond Chest in a Dimensional Cube (Tier 3) gives around 80,000 silver. There is also a chance that players may run into a ‘Lucky Stage’ during the Cube, which may grant additional silver. These can be quite tedious to run so it is suggested to wait and run with x3 tickets or dispatch them for slightly fewer rewards.
Alts can provide unbound Honing Materials from various sources such as Chaos Dungeons and Guardian Raids. These mats can be funneled into the main character to speed up its progress or sold on the market for more gold. The only material that can’t be traded from alts is unfortunately Honing Shards, which are bound instantly to the specific character. Players can of course do both Chaos Dungeons and Guardian Raids on as many characters as they wish. Each character can also trade in Pirate Coins every week with Tea and Libra Guild Vessels for additional unbound Guardian and Destruction Stones.
Gems are incredibly strong damage boosts and alts can aid in collecting them from Chaos Dungeons and Boss Rushes. Boss Rushes reward large amounts of Gems so it’s highly advised to do them on all characters that have them. Like Cube Tickets, Boss Rush Tickets can be randomly acquired from Chaos Dungeons and Entrance Ticket Chests. Gems collected by alts can be sent to the main character to help slowly build towards higher level Gems. Alternatively, players can choose to sell high level Gems as another source of gold income.
Alts can also help speed up progress on various Una’s Reputations. Many important rewards are locked behind Reputations, which are time gated by Daily Una’s Tasks. A single character may only work on three Reputations each day, meaning it may take months for players to achieve their goals. With multiple characters, various Reputations may be worked on simultaneously while also allowing the main character to focus on dailies that reward Leapstones.
A great quality of life that alts bring to the table is being able to save more Bifrost locations. This can be incredibly useful in cutting down travel time for various activities such as Wandering Merchants, Rapport, Adventure Islands, and Sailing Events. New players that have yet to unlock additional Bifrost slots or purchase Crystalline Aura can take advantage of their alts’ Bifrost slots.
Alts can also be used to farm Legendary Cards from Abyssal Dungeons, regardless of their gold eligibility. Even if a character can no longer earn gold from Abyssal Dungeons, there is still a chance that players may receive Card drops at the end. This can get quite tiresome and time consuming, especially with the low Legendary Card drop rates. Farming Cards this way may not be ideal, but it’s definitely an option if players don’t mind the grind.
The answer is simple: as many as the player would like. It’s completely fine to have no alts at all as well, although progression will be noticeably slower in comparison. At the end of the day, players’ enjoyment and time availability are the most important factors. Some players enjoy playing a variety of classes while others prefer to focus on one. In fact, for those who enjoy only one class but would also like the benefit of alts, having duplicates of the same class is slightly more efficient. Duplicate classes mean not having to spend gold on additional Engraving Books, as well as having the option to share the same Gems.
Players with time constraints that wish to play multiple characters should consider taking advantage of the game’s Rest Bonus feature. Unfinished daily Una’s Tasks, Chaos Dungeons, or Guardian Raids generate Rest Bonuses depending on the amount missed. For example, missing out on both daily Chaos Dungeons will generate enough Rest Bonus for players to collect double rewards on one Chaos Dungeon the next day. With this in mind, a common strategy is to rest each character for two days and complete their dailies every third day. This allows players to collect materials at 66% efficiency with only a third of the effort, compared to doing them every day. Players can stagger their characters’ Rest Bonuses so that they aren’t all on the same day. Make sure to use the game’s Task Tracker to help keep track of each character’s daily and weekly objectives, as well as Rest Bonus accumulation. The Task Tracker can be found on the Game Menu by pressing Escape.
Alts in Lost Ark are absolutely not mandatory, but highly encouraged. The game provides several ways to help players develop large rosters, including Character Passes, Express Events, Knowledge Transfers, and Stronghold Honing Research. Players have the opportunity to easily experience the large variety of fun classes that Lost Ark has to offer. The important thing to keep in mind is to have fun and not treat alts like a chore. There is no need to complete every task on each character and it’s okay to take breaks from them. Think of the benefits that alts bring as nice bonuses and not requirements. Pace yourselves and enjoy!
