On April 17, 2024, the April update “Unleashed Darkness” was released for Lost Ark. All Arkesia heroes are looking forward to fresh raid challenges and a new equipment system called Transcendence.
What can fans of Lost Ark expect with the April update? “Unleashed Darkness” brings the following highlights:
- Legion Raid for Thaemine, the Dark Legion Commander – for heroes with item level 1,610 or higher
- Guardian Raid for Veskal – for heroes with item level 1,630 or higher
- Chaos Dungeon Enlightenment Level 2 as a new activity for heroes with item level 1,630 or higher
- The equipment transcendence as a new system where players can enhance and improve the base effects of their equipment using ancient powers sealed in ruins. More on this later.
In addition, new cosmetic items, balance adjustments, event updates, bug fixes, and innovations for the currency exchange will land on the live servers. You can find the full patch notes for the April update on the official Lost Ark website.
A trailer for Lost Ark with real actors – what could go wrong?
Like a game within a game
What is Transcendence all about? With the new equipment system, you can boost the damage and defense of your endgame characters, but the transcendence is so complex that the developers have included a comprehensive guide in the patch notes.
These are the requirements you must meet for transcendence:
- The character must possess “Upper Ancient Equipment” at item level 1,610 or higher.
- You need to earn “Dark Fire” through the new Legion Raid to be able to transcend your equipment.
- To achieve the highest level of transcendence with gear pieces, you must master the new Legion Raid on Hard mode.
If you possess a “Dark Fire”, you can accept a guide quest for the equipment transcendence in any capital city, which will provide you with assistance.
How does transcendence work? You undergo transcendence by releasing ruins for your equipment pieces. Through the transcendence UI, you can enter these ruins with their magical circles. The goal is to destroy the stone tablets by summoned elementals.
Once you have destroyed all stone tablets (except the distorted ones), you break a seal and advance the transcendence (your equipment is enhanced and you can attempt the next level of transcendence). The challenge becomes tricky because each elemental summoning costs gold and there are different elemental powers and stone tablets.
The official video for Lost Ark – Unleashed Darkness:
If you happen to destroy an Ancient distorted stone tablet, three other random tablets will be restored. So you need to think carefully about how to proceed in order to destroy all stone tablets with the available gold and the right elemental powers.
If you need to leave the transcendence area temporarily, Lost Ark will save your progress so far. However, you can also manually reset your progress. You can find all further details about the new equipment system in the patch notes linked above.
Sounds pretty complex and overwhelming, doesn’t it? Yet the developers have taken on the challenge of overwhelming in Lost Ark. You can read more about it here: Lost Ark: Fight against Overwhelm and Bots – Player Feedback Sets the Direction
