When stuck between the item level of 1350 – 1370, players will be scraping by for all the honing materials they can get to push their main character to the next level. This is easier said than done with honing success rates going as low as ten percent for the final upgrade. However, Creating alt characters in Lost Ark is a widely used method to acquire additional materials and there are multiple aspects to doing so that are often overlooked.
To make sure you get the most of your alt character, here’s a helpful guide.
While the golden rule of having fun in Lost Ark still applies to building your alt character, there are a couple of factors you can consider if you insist on trying to optimize.
Chaos Dungeons
The most important content that alt characters should do as frequently as possible are Chaos Dungeons. Not only are they very easy to clear, developers also confirmed it is the most valuable content available for gathering honing materials. With that in mind, classes that have excellent area of effect skills are often ideal for this purpose.
Cost-efficiency
In this case, cost-efficiency is specifically about a class’ reliance on engravings to reach its full potential. Classes like Gunslinger and Sorceress require a 3333 or 33333 engraving set up to be fully optimized. On the other hand, classes like Bard, Gunlancer and Shadowhunter require far less engravings to be serviceable.
Remember that alt characters by nature serve the purpose of providing materials for the main character. As such, minimizing costs of raising them is something to always consider.
Knowledge Transfer
While Lost Ark gives every player two Powerpasses, there are other ways to advance further through the game after you have used them. Knowledge Transfer is a mechanic available in the Roster Stronghold to skip story quests in regions your main character has already completed.
All you have to do is pay the gold fee and wait a few hours. Using this feature along with the Training mechanic will help with the level up process for the character as well.
Binding Items
Surprisingly, there are very few features in the game that forcibly binds the acquired honing material to that character. Many exchanges (minus the event specific ones) often drop tradable materials. Shards are the only exception.
Shards are not shared between characters, and this is additionally problematic with Mari’s Shop considering it often gives too many shards. It’s strongly recommended to avoid buying them for alt characters.
Collectibles
Collectibles are crucial to progress through the game. Notably, there are many features like Island instances and World Bosses that have a chance of dropping Island Souls and Giant’s Hearts. As such, utilizing Bifrosts to constantly grind instances until the collectibles drop can save a lot of time.
Tower
While the Tower gives you plenty of honing materials, many of them are difficult to clear and drain health potions. As such, very few players go fully through the Tower for the purpose of gathering honing materials. It is not necessarily a bad idea, but there are definitely more time-efficient features to choose as alternatives.
