In Lost Ark there is the so-called Fortress. This is the housing system of the game. However, it is not limited to just one building. Instead, you can customize an entire island according to your wishes. We at MeinMMO reveal what awaits you.
What can you do in the housing of Lost Ark? Your own island offers a variety of content:
- You can unlock passive bonuses
- There is a crafting station and an account-wide storage
- In the expedition station, you can send NPCs on journeys, who then bring you rewards
- Through the training ground and knowledge transfer, you can passively level up other characters
- There are NPC merchants where you can exchange materials and currencies
- You can design your island according to your wishes
Your fortress works server-wide. So, if you have built it with your main character, any other character can visit it after reaching the story milestone.
When is housing unlocked? You will receive your own island at level 26. To unlock it, all you need to do is follow the main story. In the quest “Song of Home and Hearth,” you will then visit your island for the first time.
The unlocking of your own fortress costs nothing.
How does the action energy work? The housing of Lost Ark relies on action energy. You start with 15,000. This energy is consumed when you send characters on missions, research recipes, or engage in crafting.
Through upgrades, the amount of energy and the recharge rate will improve over time.
The main features of the island explained in detail
At the start of your own island, the most important buildings and features are already available to you. We reveal what exactly they are.
The Estate
The estate gives you a passive bonus on the island, such as faster crafting or a higher chance of perfect rewards in crafting. Here, you should choose the bonus that best suits your playstyle.
Additionally, you can choose an outfit to wear on the island that also provides a bonus.
The Laboratory
One of the most important buildings at the start is the laboratory. There, you can commission research to unlock new parts of the island or new recipes. Upgrading existing content also takes place through this laboratory.
Commissioning research costs materials like ore or wood that you need to collect beforehand, as well as currencies like silver or gold. Each commission also costs work points and some time until it is fully researched. The time depends on the content being researched. Smaller recipes cost less than an hour, while larger innovations can take over 8 hours.
It is important that you do not have to research all available recipes and content to level up your island. Some things can be ignored if they are not relevant to you.
The Workshop
Crafting takes place in the workshop. However, you cannot create armor and weapons there, but mainly useful gadgets, buff food, and furniture.
To use the contents of the workshop, you need items from the gathering professions, such as lumberjack, mining, hunting, fishing, and excavation. You can then further develop these in the workshop. For this, you will also need to learn recipes that you obtain through the laboratory.
The workshop is especially suitable for the potions that you can only use in dungeons and raids. Also gadgets like a scarecrow that taunts the boss, or grenades that slow down enemies or even hold them in one place.
The Naval Expeditions
In this station, you can send NPCs on various missions. You can select these missions through the interface. They cost energy and time but provide fortress expedition experience as well as pirate coins and seals that you can use as currency.
You should use these missions every day to generate progress for your fortress. However, you must manually collect the rewards of the missions. At the beginning, you can only send one ship; over time, you can send several ships. To do so, you need to level up the expedition station. You can also hire more crew members with the seals.
Each mission has a chance of failure. A failed mission, however, only rewards you with fewer rewards. It is not possible for a mission to fail completely, and you receive nothing. Therefore, it is also worth selecting missions with a high chance of failure.
It is important to note, however, that you should rather ignore the special missions. Although your NPCs will be sent on guardian raids and cube dungeons, they are not very profitable regarding energy consumption compared to the rewards gained.
Training Grounds and Knowledge Transfer
In the training grounds, you can level up characters from your account that are on the same server. All characters that are at least level 50 and are at least two levels below the character with the highest level are eligible.
- If you have a character at level 60, you can passively level your other characters from 50 up to level 58.
- For this, you only need to send the character to training. There are no costs.
- Characters can train for a maximum of 7 days in a row and earn a certain amount of X XP per hour.
- In an example we saw in the video, the character gathered about 40 million XP in 7 days, which corresponds to just under one level after level 50.
It is important to note that you can still play the character even if they are currently in training.
On the island, knowledge transfer also takes place. Through this, you can level characters from 0 to 50 and even beyond. However, there are costs associated with this. More about this here: Lost Ark allows you to automatically level characters, and you don’t even have to spend real money.
NPC Merchants on the Island
On your island, in a specific corner, there are various NPCs with whom you can trade. Some of them are permanently located on the island and trade for the pirate tokens that you can earn through the naval missions.
Other merchants only appear for a short time.
Decoration according to your wishes
What about decorations? Another highlight on the island is decorating. You can place both buildings and furniture as well as bring NPCs to your island.
- You can place furniture and buildings through the “Placement” menu. You open it with CTRL+2.
- The NPCs, on the other hand, you can bring to the island through the flirt system. Correspondingly, there is also a wardrobe system that allows you to visually change the NPCs.
- Additionally, you can also place every character that you own on the server on the island.
Housing and the real money shop: The housing system of Lost Ark is indirectly connected to the real money shop. You can buy various furniture and buildings for your island there. Additionally, you can shorten some times during research with blue crystals. These are available for gold (in-game) or royal crystals (real money).
What do you think about Lost Ark’s housing system? Do the contents appeal to you? Where did you have difficulties understanding?
All guides to Lost Ark on MeinMMO can be found here:
