Pay to Win Lost Ark

Lost Ark is a Free to Play (F2P) game coming to Western audiences on Feb 11th (Feb 8th for Founder’s Pack purchasers). While the developers have said they are making changes to their their monetization policy and business model. We’re not 100% sure how these changes to microtransactions will pan out and if they’ll change over time. Here’s the scoop on how players will be able to spend real money in game based off of what we know to be true for other regions and will likely stay the same for the NA/EU release.

Is Lost Ark Pay to Win?

This is one of the biggest first questions that gets asked about Lost Ark. And for many veterans of the game the answer is simply, no. Virtually everything you can obtain in the game is accessible to F2P players. While players can spend real word money on in-game currency in Lost Ark, it is entirely an optional venture. The biggest concern that players have is that people who choose to spend money on the game are doing so to save time gathering the resources needed to upgrade the equipment on their character.

Upgrading equipment in Lost Ark is achieved through obtaining materials and gold from many tasks such as defeating monsters and completing various tasks. A lot of these systems prevent the player from rapidly completing the content and are time gated into daily or weekly repeatable content.

Some players find this type of system annoying; asking “Why am I only allowed to progress my character a certain amount every day? I should be able to play at whatever pace I choose.” That perspective is simply not the case for most MMOs. However, this can be circumvented by creating a second (or third, or twelfth) character (aka Alt) to aid in gaining more of those upgrade materials and gold to funnel them into improving the first character (aka Main). While going this route can become very time consuming it is the fastest way a F2P player can progress a main character through content.

At higher levels of item upgrading, it is not guaranteed that your item will be upgraded. If you attempt to improve it with your materials there is a chance that it can fail. You will not lose your equipment, only the upgrade materials and gold (and the time invested in obtaining them).

Bottom Line

The only thing you “Win” by paying real money is getting to end game content faster than everyone else. That being said, there are a number of questionable advantages some players can get by paying. Below are all the ways you can spend real money if you have the finances and are happy to support the developers in this way.

How do you Pay to Win in Lost Ark?

Players can buy Royal Crystals with real money. They can buy some items directly with these or they can also convert them into Crystals. Crystals are used to buy a number of items, activate pet functions, acquire additional loot, and items from Mari’s Secret Store (a store that rotates its inventory every 24 hours and allows players to buy items there up to 72 hours after).

Players can also buy Gold with Royal Crystals from other players in the in-game Auction House. Gold is typically the greatest limiting factor in how quickly a player can progress their item level and access new content. This is a key part of the player driven economy; as the value of a players time in obtaining Gold is now a factor to take into consideration.

Crystalline Aura

The Crystalline Aura is a subscription service that provides numerous benefits to player convenience, quality of life, and various boosts to make your character stronger. Many advantages have been removed entirely to make the game fairer for those who choose not to pay for it. However, there still remains a number of minor benefits that do ultimately affect the rate at which you progress in the game.

Avatars

Some Cosmetic Avatars provide a very little stat boost. The effective bonus provides roughly around ~1% boost. It’s not very much and many can be obtained during seasonal in-game events but is a factor to be considered in the P2W argument.

Pets

Pets can also come with a subscription that cost Crystals. This subscription does provide both defensive and offensive stats to your character. And changing those bonuses also costs Crystals too.

Mounts

Mounts bought from the cash shop are legendary and have a slightly faster base movement speed than other ones.

• Legendary Mount:
  • Movement Speed 450 units per second
  • Dash may be further or useable more often
• Epic and lower Mounts:
  • Movement Speed 420 units per second

There are Legendary mounts that exist in the game and are obtainable without paying. They require a significant amount of time invested however.

Cards

Cards are collectible items that provide a stat bonus once obtaining a specific set of cards. In early stages of the game they are not very significant bonuses, but at later stages of the end game they are key in reaching a characters maximum potential. Unfortunately, many cards needed in a set are randomly obtained through Card Packs. Card Packs can be bought with Royal Crystals and Crystals.

Rapport Gifts

Gaining reputation with specific NPCs gives cards, currency and other items that boost a characters power. Some legendary rapport items used to increase your reputation with an NPC can be found within packages purchased with Royal Crystals and sometimes Crystals. There are other sources of these items found throughout the game, but it’s clear this will speed up that process as well.

Consumables

Difficult End Game Raids require the use of Battle Items. These are consumables like Health Potions, Bombs, and other Utilities. They are crafted in a players stronghold with the use of life skills. They can also be found in Battle Item Chests that can be purchased with Royal Crystals and Crystals. They can also be bought from the Auction House with Gold. If a player doesn’t have the time to invest in obtaining these, buying them with real money is certainly an option.

Daily Una Tasks

If you don’t have enough time to complete these tasks in the day you can simply purchase “[Daily] Una’s Task Instant Completion Pass” with Crystals.

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TL;DR

You can complete everything in Lost Ark for free. Paying for anything in the game is simply paying for the convenience to speed up the process of character progression, allowing you to experience all the content faster than everyone else. This doesn’t, however, mean you will be able to complete everything before everyone else. The most difficult end game content requires deep knowledge and understanding of game mechanics, boss fights, and exceptional party coordination.

https://thegamescabin.com/item-upgrade-guide-lost-ark/