INTRODUCTION
This written guide isn’t really a guide, but it's more of a structured transcription of everything I talk about and explain in the ‘Min-max’ video. I know a lot of people prefer these written guides, so there is an option for everyone. If you have any questions you are more than welcome to ask them in youtube comments, discord or on twitch when I’m streaming. All the socials will be posted below.
LAUNCH TIMES
Due to how lost ark launch has been scheduled the initial min-maxing is structured around completing all daily and weekly content before first reset. The problem is that the launch happens in different local times in different timezones. Daily reset has been confirmed for 1am server time and weekly reset is on Thursdays at 1am. Launch times are as follows: 9am PST, 12pm EST and 6pm CET, which means players in PST timezone have 16 hours before daily reset, EST has 13 hours and EU has 7 hours. Considering leveling to 50 takes 10-11 hours, it makes it literally impossible for EU players to reach 50 before daily reset at 1am. This isn't really a problem, but it's going to make a small difference in min-maxing for NA and EU players before the first daily reset, which will be explained later.
LEVELING, ALTS AND AWAKENING
If you are going to min-max early on, it's important that you don't take more than 10-11 hours to reach level 50. This doesn't matter for EU players but you should still level as fast as you can. When you reach 50 you want to progress your main story quest in Vern Castle until you unlock chaos dungeons, guardian raids and daily una tasks. Unlocking some of these might require a simple purple guide quest that you can find by going in your quest journal and clicking guide quests at the top. After that you want to use the Song of Trixion and teleport to Trixion where you will take an awakening quest from an NPC called Beatrice. Completing it takes 15-20mins and it will unlock your lv50 skill and awakening skill. After you complete the quest you will want to go to the character selection screen and create 5 alts. This will start generating rest bonuses on all alts, so once you level them up to 50, you will have a full rest bonus and gain better rewards.
KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER SYSTEM
Recently it has been confirmed that NA/EU will get a ‘Knowledge transfer system’ that is only available in KR. Essentially this means that you can pay gold for your alts to be leveled automatically. There are some restrictions and requirements for this. For every automatically leveled alt, you need to manually level a character to 50. If you are looking to have 6 characters, you need to level 3 of them manually, and then you can pay 600g each and have the other 3 leveled automatically. Auto leveling process takes 8 hours. There are options to level these alts straight to tier 2 and tier 3, but there are bigger requirements and it costs much more gold.
ACQUIRING 302 GEAR
Next we need to secure the first 302 gear set and this is where timezone differences will come into play. PST and EU timezone players will want to fully complete Vern's main story quest, then sail straight to Shushire and complete the main story quest there. Completing the vern and shurshire main story takes around 2-3 hours and it will give you a full 302 gear set. For EST players, you want to acquire your gear by doing 2 chaos dungeons, then upgrading the gear with all mats you have, then doing 2 guardian raids while harvesting both souls and finishing up with 3 daily una tasks all before the first daily reset. Everything else from this point will be the same for all 3 time zones.
ISLAND HOPPING FOR MATERIALS
Now we want to upgrade our gear as high as we can, so we will need to drain every upgrade material source in the game. First we are island hopping and doing quests that reward upgrade materials. The Islands you want to go to are Serenity Isle, Panda Island, Toto Silver Island, White wave island, Dreamgul island and Glacier Isle that starts on Peyto.
ISLAND HOPPING FOR PIRATE COINS
Next we are doing more Island hopping, but this time we are going for pirate coins. The islands you want to go to are Golden Wave Island, Runaways Island, Freedom Isle, Kalthertz, Blackfang’s Den, Peyto (only yellow quest). You will use pirate coins at a Traveling Ship Merchant that is located outside every harbor, to trade for upgrade materials each week, since they are on a weekly limit.
DAILIES AND WEEKLIES
Next we are doing 3 daily una tasks to grab Harmony Leap stones. You can do any daily that gives Leap stones as rewards but my recommendations are Paradise Cab that starts at Cruise ship aka Peyto, Rob the loot that starts in Shushire, Frozen sea region and Slaves Rescue that starts at Island of Icy Hearts aka Kaltherz. Don't forget to save these 3 into your bifrost teleport as you will be doing these 3 dailys every day. After that you want to finish both PVP weekly quests that reward the most Leap stones and complete them before the first weekly reset. After you complete dailies and weeklies you will want to claim Epona badges before weekly reset.
CHAOS DUNGEON FARM
Next we will use all the materials gained to upgrade gear as far as it goes. In theory this should be enough for 460 item level, but in case it isn't, you will want to farm highest available chaos dungeon for Crystals that you will then trade for upgrade materials that are available on a weekly limit, so you will want to grab all of them before first weekly reset. Since this is a min-maxing guide I did some math. On average it takes 7mins to complete 1 chaos dungeon and on average one run drops 150 Crystals. You will need exactly 4350 Crystals to obtain every material, which means you will need to do 29 runs of Chaos dungeons, which means it's going to take around 3.5 hours to obtain all materials. You will want to farm these before the first weekly reset to maximize material gain. Use those materials to progress your gear further.
IF YOU ARE NOT 460
If you are not 460 item level by now you will want to do the Vern Weekly abyss dungeon, and 2 guardian raids, where you only harvest 2 souls on highest available boss and do first clear only on bosses that are lower than your item level, which will reward you the chest that gives you set of accessories. Apply the ones that give you primary stats for your class. Since you are not 460 item level and you have finished your daily PVE activities you will want to focus on World and sea events that will be available that day. The schedule for these is still unknown, so check on your calendar what is available and when. Priority on chaos gate, world bosses and ghost ships. Next you will do your daily rapport songs and emotes to which NPC you want. My recommendations are King Thirian, Sasha and Adele as they give GOLD after you reach a certain level of rapport with them. To finish off the day you will want to deplete your gathering bar. To unlock life skills and gathering you will want to go back to West Lutera continent in region Lakebar, there you will have gathering guide quests that after you complete they will give you Blue Gathering tools. After you finish all of them, go to Annika in the Delphi Prefecture region and only do Herbalism until you fully deplete your gathering bar. Make sure you unlock your estate beforehand and complete the tutorials inside. Always make sure you send a ship to mission and in the laboratory start working on recipes for potions. After all of this your day of min-maxing has finished and you are free to do whatever else you want to do. Whether it's PVP, exploring islands, farming mokoko seeds or even leveling another alt, it's up to you.
IF YOU ARE 460
If you are 460 item level by now then you will want to sail straight to Rohendel, complete the main story to unlock higher tier 1 content and use upgrade mats gained to progress your gear as far as it goes. The biggest priority will be completing both Vern and Rohendel weekly abyss dungeons before FIRST weekly reset. If you achieve this you will then refer to the section of the guide before this one and start working on everything mentioned there. Finish up guardian raids, do your rapport and gathering, focus on world and sea daily events that are available on the day and after all that you are free to do whatever else you want. After the first weekly reset you are no longer pressed for time and can play the game at a slower pace as min-maxing also becomes less important.
PROGRESS TO 600
Your main goal will be item level 600 which unlocks Yorn and puts you in TIER 2. To reach 600 item level, you will keep doing all daily and weekly activities mentioned before in a guide, until you have enough materials to reach it. To help a bit with extra materials when reaching 460 and unlocking Rohendel, you will have access to new Islands. Recommendations are Twilight Isle, Sublime Island, Isle of Yearning, Atropos and Cradle of the Sea Fermata which when completing quests will give you upgrade materials and pirate coins. While you are progressing to 600, make sure you complete the 2nd awakening quest that starts in Rohendel after you complete the main story at the NPC next to the mailbox. The quest takes 3-4 hours to complete. Also another important thing is going for Skill Point Potions.
TIER 2
When you reach item level 600, sail to Yorn, complete the main story quest to unlock tier 2 content and obtain upgrade materials. You will want to acquire an 802 gear set by running the first Yorn chaos dungeon 2 times. You will also receive gems from Chaos dungeons and some other tier 2 content so make sure you combine them and apply to your gear. The same principle to progressing gear applies here. Your daily and weekly checklist does not change, you are always doing the highest available chaos dungeon and guardian raid, same 3 daily una tasks, as rewards scale with your item level and you get tier 2 leap stones. All other side activities, world and sea events you were doing in TIER 1 you keep doing in TIER 2. As soon as you reach item level requirement for Yorn Weekly abyss dungeons you should complete it. Your next item level goal is 960 which unlocks new continent Feiton. Completing the main story quest unlocks higher tier 2 content and gives upgrade materials. It will also unlock 3 new weekly abyss dungeons that you should complete as soon as you meet requirements. To help you gain extra materials, you will want to go island hopping to obtain tier 2 upgrade materials from quests on islands. These islands are Bikini Island, Liebeheim, Island of Distorted Dimensions, Pomona, Resort Gavis, Hypnos Eye and Island of Fantasy. Eventually in tier 2 you will want to complete Tower of Shadow as it will be much easier on higher item level and it will unlock extra materials for your alts.
TIER 3
Your next item level goal is 1100, which will unlock the next continent Punika and put you at tier 3. Again the same principle to acquiring gear applies, first finish Punika main story quest to unlock all the tier 3 content, then run 1st Punika chaos dungeon to acquire 1302 item level gear set. The initial set will be blue and you will want to upgrade it to +6, which is 1325 item level, this will allow you to run 1325 ilvl chaos dungeon that will drop the purple 1302 gear set which gives better stats. Upgrade that set until you meet requirements for Punika Abyss dungeons. Completing that will grant you materials that you will use to craft purple gear set. If you are confident and meet item level requirements, you can run them in HARD MODE for better rewards and more mats. One of the 3 purple sets will be your final gear set until new tier 3 content is released. You will want to be ready for Argos Abyss Raid with a minimum 1370 item level which is +15, and if you want to effortlessly clear all 3 phases you want to be ready with 1415 item level which is +18. Also don't forget to replace your TIER 2 gems with TIER 3 gems as they are 50% less effective when paired with tier 3 gear and accessories. Your daily and weekly checklists don't change in tier 3 and you still want to do 2 guardian raids, 2 chaos dungeons and 3 daily una tasks every day, while adding everything else you did in tier 1. You will also want to complete Tower of doom as you will breeze through it with tier 3 gear. At tier 3 you will also want to start farming lower item level guardian raids and weekly abyss dungeons for cards and runes, you should have at least 3 maxed out engravings. Having good engravings will matter the most in equalized weekly heroic guardian raids and abyss trials. Make sure you join a guild and do all guild support to farm Sylmael tokens that exchange for upgrade materials, and do around 20-30 PVP games each week to obtain PVP tokens that can be exchanged for upgrade materials.. Main min-maxing in tier 3 is all about how many alts you can manage and how much time you have each day and each week to do daily and weekly checklists on multiple characters.
FINAL WORDS
I tried not going too in-depth when it comes to explaining things that are not related directly to progression from tier to tier. Main min-maxing happens in the first few days before the first daily and first weekly reset. The higher you progress the less important it is to min-max everything. Some things that are mentioned have not 100% been confirmed and there is always the possibility that gear progression is slowed down by too much and sources of upgrade materials are nerfed, which would essentially make the first part of progression and this guide irrelevant. Nonetheless this will be exactly step by step what I will do on launch. There are definitely things I could have explained better and talked more about, but I didn't want the guide to be super long. Hopefully this guide helps you and you learned something new.