Lost Ark has quickly established itself as a must-play game of 2022. The free-to-play fantasy MMO sees players dashing around the land of Arkesia, trying to find a shattered ancient relic and restore peace. Obviously, this is no easy feat, and players will find themselves plagued by endless demons and enemies during their travels – leaving plenty of opportunity to beef up each character.
The character you build in Lost Ark is unique to you, with an incredible array of customisation choices available from the very start of the game. Before you start your quest, you’ll have to choose which class you want to be from those available. This will determine the strengths of your character, as well as their weapon type and appearance.
Each character is so clearly defined and specialised through these classes, meaning that it’s becoming more common for players to create additional characters to really get the most out of Lost Ark and see everything the game has to offer. Using alts can also help with gathering resources, questing, and taking down endgame foes.
What better time to get an edge in Lost Ark than when a new class is about to drop? Holding an alt character means you can dive right in as a Destroyer and experience the game from another angle without having to start from scratch. Whether you’re new to the concept, or already handle multiple alt characters, we’re here to lay out the benefits of this strategy.
You can boost your Roster Level faster
Imagine starting as a Mage, levelling endlessly, and then suddenly the new Destroyer class arrives. You like the look of it, and fire up an alt to test it out. In most games, you’d have to start afresh and grind your way up from the start when playing as a new class.
Not so in Lost Ark, where your alt characters are still very much linked through your Roster, which means that their overall level goes up as you play, buffing even unplayed characters so that when you’re ready to switch to a Warrior or a Gunner, you won’t be left in the dust. A high Roster level means boosts to base stats such as Intelligence, Vitality, Wisdom, and Charisma across the board for all your associated characters. These boosted stats will no doubt come in handy in new endgame content like the newly added Valtan Legion Raid, where you’ll need every advantage you can get to succeed.
You gain a Rest Bonus on your unused characters
Many of Lost Ark’s rewards replenish on a daily basis, and the Rest Bonus is one of them. If you’re playing with one character while your alts recover from their time doing daily content, you’ll rack up Rest Bonus points that can be spent the next time you log in. Completing a Chaos Dungeon or Guardian Raid with more than 20 points in your Rest Bonus meter means better rewards and double loot, so it can never hurt to have a few alts chilling in the meantime.
Materials and resources can be traded between characters
To put it simply, an alt character will allow you to earn more money and loot. Another benefit of the Roster system is that you can easily switch items out between alt characters, as long as they are tradable and not bound to a specific character. This includes pretty much everything you receive from Chaos Dungeons and Guardian Raids, meaning that when running with your alts you can then send all the honing materials and gems to your main character to keep them buff and boosted, if that’s your style.
You can try out different classes
Lost Ark has an incredible depth and breadth of character classes to choose from, and with more arriving since launch, you’ll be hard pushed to choose just one. Luckily, having an alt character means you can try out all the different attack styles and skills without losing any progress. Take the Destroyer, for example – you can check out this devastating new Advanced Class in action in our video below.
You can use a Power Pass to jump straight to the endgame with an alt
Having an alt is encouraged in Lost Ark, to the point where the Power Pass system actively promotes their use. One of these nifty consumables will ensure that levelling your second and third characters is a bit easier than levelling the first, meaning you don’t have to sit through the same story multiple times.
Using a Power Pass will unlock the Adventurer’s Path. which is a full quest chain, although a little different from the main story quest. Once you reach the end of it, your alt will be at Level 50 and ready to kick some ass. Power Passes are very limited, and don’t mean you can skip levelling altogether, but they do make the path to a beefy squad of alts a little easier.
You can use Knowledge Transfer to boost alts to Level 50 – for a little gold
If you’re out of Power Passes, you can also use the Knowledge Transfer system to boost your alts and have them enjoying that endgame content alongside your main. It takes a chunk of gold and some real-world hours, but once the transfer is complete, you’ll have a level 50 alt. Using this method also means every side-quest up to level 50 is still open, leaving plenty of room to grind for higher rewards.
With the inclusion of a new class and the first Legion Raid this month, there has never been a better time to check out Lost Ark. To get started, download it for free on PC via Steam.