If you need a break from fighting, you can peacefully gather ores, fish, or hunt in Lost Ark. We at MeinMMO explain to you how Life Skills work.
What are Life Skills? In Lost Ark, you can craft many items yourself, but you need materials for that. This is where Life Skills, or crafting skills, come into play. Ultimately, you can craft the new items on your island, which you can unlock only slightly later.
You will learn the following skills starting from level 24 through guide quests:
- Logging: You fell trees with an axe. If a second person joins, the axe becomes a saw and the process goes much faster. Initially, you can only fell thinner trees; thicker ones require a higher skill level. Wood is essential for research and shipbuilding.
- Mining: On some maps, you can find ores that you can mine with your pickaxe. Mining is important for research and shipbuilding.
- Gathering: You gather herbs, flowers, and mushrooms. To collect mushrooms, you need gathering level 10. Important for crafting consumables and healing potions.
- Fishing: Position yourself at a fishing spot, press B, and select the Pose Fishing skill from the Life Skills. When a fish bites, press the button again to reel in the catch. Fish are important for cooking.
- Hunting: Switch to Life Skills and press the button for “Search” to mark your hunted target. Then press “Throw”. You can now obtain meat and fur from the animal. The meat is important for cooking.
- Excavation: Activate the “Sonar” ability under Life Skills. You will automatically search for excavation points near you. With “Relic Search,” you will dig up an item. Important for ability stones and transfer materials.
Every time you perform one of the skills, you consume work energy, of which you have a maximum of 10,000 available. If you gather and mine diligently, you may need to wait until the work energy recharges. 4,320 points automatically regenerate each day. You do not need to be online for that.
For particularly diligent gatherers, you can buy potions in the shop that instantly replenish your work energy by a certain amount.
Gathered items do not go into your normal inventory but are stored separately so they do not take up space. With the resources, you can craft all sorts of items in your fortress. This resource storage is also account-wide. You also share the materials with all characters.
mmo_video id=770501
Life Skills: The Basics
How do I get tools? You can buy the first tools from a merchant. He is probably right next to you when you accept the guide quest for crafting.
In total, tools are available in tiers 1 to 5. These are rarity levels represented by different colors in Lost Ark: Uncommon (Green), Rare (Blue), Epic (Purple), Legendary (Orange), and Relic (Red). From tier 2/Blue onward, you need to craft them yourself.
With each tier, the chance for rare materials increases while the loss of durability decreases. However, you will receive the first blue tools as a gift once you complete the guide quests for the respective profession.
How do I increase the skills? For practicing a craft, you automatically receive experience for the respective profession. For thicker trees, mushrooms, and rarer plants, you need a higher level in the skill to be able to collect them.
Additionally, the same effect applies as with better tools: The higher the tier, the higher your chance for rare materials. The tier applies account-wide, so you do not have to start from 0 with each of your characters.
Why is crafting important?
What is worth crafting? Through crafting at your fortress, you can craft potions, which you otherwise have to buy with gold on the market. In Guardian Raids, in the Cube, and in the Tower, you can only use combat potions, not regular potions. You can easily craft these from gathered flowers at your fortress.
Wood is worth it to upgrade your fortress and craft ship materials there. You also need wood to craft the ship Astray.
Cooking is unlocked at fortress level 10. Then you can craft so-called feast dishes that buff you when used in combat. You consume them at your fortress, and the effect lasts for two hours. You can also grill your food. Grilled food can be taken into battle and used on-site.
Of course, you also need ingredients for cooking. You obtain these through fishing and hunting.
Additionally, by performing crafting activities, you occasionally receive World Tree Leaves or a ticket for the Platinum Field.
This is how Life Skills pay off
World Tree Leaves
When performing crafting activities, you will randomly receive so-called World Tree Leaves. You can exchange these with the NPC Chapman; you will receive a reward for every six leaves.
These rewards include a crafting skill XP potion, a title, the ability to transform into a rabbit (Yes, really! You can choose whether blue or pink!), and other rewards.
The Platinum Field
The Platinum Field is an area where you can find many ores, mushrooms, and plants. You have 15 minutes to collect as much as possible. During this time, you do not consume any work energy.
Additionally, the Platinum Field offers special resources. You need to collect these and bring them to the starting area. The problem is that you cannot fight while holding the items, and the area is full of monsters. If you manage to do this, you will unlock bonuses or restore all resources in the field.
Requirements for the Platinum Field are an item level of 250 and a ticket. You randomly receive tickets while performing Life Skills.
What do you think of the crafting skills in Lost Ark? Do you find them unnecessary, or are they a great addition to fighting? What skill level have you reached, and what tools do you use? Feel free to let us know in the comments here on MeinMMO!
