Lost Ark Engravings Guide - All The Best Tips & Tricks

Smilegate's latest MMO title, Lost Ark, has garnered overwhelmingly positive reviews on Steam, peaking at over 1.3 million concurrent players within the first few days of its early access launch.

Arguably one of the most essential elements of the game is Engravings, which essentially mimic status effects found in other MMO games. While veteran MMO players might be familiar with these, it's no surprise that new players might be confused by this complex mechanic.

So, if you're new to Lost Ark and are struggling to get a grip with its Engraving mechanic, then look no further. We've got you covered. In this guide, we'll detail explain what they are and how to unlock and upgrade Engravings in Lost Ark.

What are Engravings in Lost Ark?

In Lost Ark, Engravings are special passive effects appearing on Accessories and Ability Stones, typically giving your characters some temporary or permanent buff.

These effects are vital to the endgame and, in some instances, may modify the traits or abilities of characters to either bolster or fundamentally change the way the class is played.

In general, the more powerful Engravings are, the more likely they will come with caveats (or damaging spells) to balance them out.

How to unlock Engravings in Ark?

As mentioned previously, Engravings can be found on Accessories or Ability Stones; however, they are only unlocked once your character is Level 27 (usually during the "A Kingdom Reclaimed" quest).

You can view Engravings via the Engravings Menu by pressing Alt+I. Notably, most of these will be locked since you must acquire Engraving Points to activate their effects.

A random dice roll determines the type of Engraving you receive. There are three primary Engravings types: Neutral, Class, and Negative, explained below.

Normal Engravings

These confer general effects and can be used by any class. Examples include Disrespect, which adds up to 36% damage to foes with 30% or lower HP, and Spirit Absorption to increase Attack or Movement Speed by up to 15%.

Negative Engravings

These Engravings come with debuffs that essentially penalise your character. Some examples are reduced Attack Speed, reduced Movement Speed, or the like. The higher the level of a Negative Engraving, the more severe the penalty will be, so you should keep these out of your build.

• Read more: How to fix Lost Ark Unavailable in your region error

Class Engravings

These are class-specific and typically confer powerful buffs that might change how the class is played. Some examples are Berserker's Technique for the Berserker class, which grants up to 50% critical strike damage while bursting. Another example is True Courage for Bards, which increases outgoing damage by up to 20% and adds a Crit rate of 10%.

How to upgrade Engravings

Engravings can comprise three levels (Levels 1-3) and can be upgraded by accruing enough Engraving Points. For example, Level 1 requires 5 Points, Level 2 requires 10 Points and Level 3 requires 15 Points. With each level, the effect of the Engraving will become more powerful.

In addition to being found on Accessories and Ability Stones, Engravings are also derived from Class Books or Engraving Recipe Books. Both cases require you to consume 20 instances of the item before you can upgrade the Engraving by 1 tier.

There are four rarity tiers (Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary) for Engravings, each of which will give you 3 Points worth of progression. Note: you cannot jump tiers, and you must unlock the Engraving in this order.

Once the Engraving is unlocked, you can visit the Engraver Crastsmen NPC in any major city to purchase it.

If you're confused, don't worry -- Engravings is a complicated system that can even baffle the most experienced of MMO players. First, I want to thank the Legacy Gaming YouTube channel for their detailed explanation of Engravings. Also, thank you to the Fextralife Lost Ark Wiki for their detailed guide on Engravings.

I would encourage you to check out those resources if you'd like to learn more. Otherwise, you can watch Legacy Gaming's YouTube video above for a visual demonstration.

• Read more: Lost Ark Gear Honing guide: How to unlock, upgrade gear, more

Featured image courtesy of Smilegate and Amazon Games Studio.