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Lost Ark: This is how the engravings work, which you use to make your character stronger

 

Lost Ark: This is how the engravings work, which you use to make your character stronger

Lost Ark has many different systems to show character progression. One possibility for improvement is the engravings, which seem very complicated at first. We explain the system.


What are engravings? With the engravings, you can improve certain aspects of your character, but you always have the risk of making others worse again. Basically, they serve as an upgrade for your set, but they can even throw your character completely overboard:


  • For example, there is an engraving for the marksman that completely deactivates the weapon change and increases the damage of the two pistols enormously.
  • The sorceress, in turn, can either enhance her identity ability or turn it off entirely.

You encounter the system for the first time when you are Luterra Castle and the first, larger city is finally open to you. A purple quest then slowly introduces you to the system but leaves many questions unanswered.


Get and upgrade engravings

How does the engraving work? A basic distinction is made between combat engravings and class engravings. While the combat engraves are all identical and can be used on all classes, the two-class engraves are only available on their respective subclass.

While combat engravings can be activated anywhere, the others are class-bound

While combat engravings can be activated anywhere, the others are class-bound
While combat engravings can be activated anywhere, the others are class-bound

How do you get the engravings? Within a tutorial quest in Luterra - around level 26 to 28 - you get 5 Stone of Birth for free for the first time. You can then use these to upgrade and activate your first engravings. 


These stones always have two positive and one negative effect. Each of them has 5 possible points and you have to roll a total of 15 times to either fill or destroy each slot.


The chances of success and failure are recalculated after each attempt. Ideally, you want to achieve as many successes as possible with the positive, blue aspects, while hoping that the red, negative points will not work.


If you have changed the stone a total of 15 times, you can equip it and unlock the actual engravings.

Only after all 15 upgrades does the stone awaken and you can use it

Only after all 15 upgrades does the stone awaken and you can use it
Only after all 15 upgrades does the stone awaken and you can use it

How does engraving work? Once you have equipped the stone you want, you can see which engravings you have unlocked in a new window. From 5 points an engraving or an engraving level is active, everything below is irrelevant.


So you want to make sure that you have as many blue activations as possible and keep the red ones under 4 as far as possible so that the negative aspect of the engraving is not activated.


In addition to countless positive effects, the possibilities for negative effects are limited. They reduce either your damage, your movement speed, your attack speed, or your resistance.


If all 15 stones are active, you then have penalties between 6 and 15% on the respective value. So make sure that your negative effects are never too high. Better to forgo a positive than accept a nasty negative.


How do you improve engravings? In addition to the luck factor, the collecting aspect also contributes to how good you actually are. You can also find books for certain engravings in order to upgrade them in a targeted manner.


If you can find 20 books of the same engraving, you will unlock a new level of engraving. That gives you between +3 and +12 points on these.


So now if you have a stone equipped that gives you +3 to the Drops of Ethe engraving, you can collect 20 books of that engraving and then have a total of +6 Drops of Ethe. This activates engraving without actually unlocking it on the stone.


You can get these books from the following sources:


  • By purchasing with currency obtained from Chaos Dungeons
  • Buy from other players
  • Nebenquests
  • Chaosdungeons
Drops of Ether and Master Brawler are active here, the others are not
Drops of Ether and Master Brawler are active here, the others are not

What's next? It's best to find out which engravings are strong for your class. The engravings in Lost Ark are rare and require a fair bit of investment. So you get annoyed if you give away silver and books to engravings that you don't even need.

After unlocking Engravings, you'll also get Engraving books more often as quest rewards. Seeing what rewards a side quest brings is now even more worthwhile than before.

Have you already had experience with the engravings or have you ignored the mechanics so far? Do you have any tips and tricks that could add to this guide? Feel free to write it to us in the comments.

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