Lost Ark has many unique features and mechanics that can aid players' progression while exploring Arkesia. One of these features is sailing, which lets them travel between islands and continents on the open waters.
Sailing is an essential requirement in advancing throughout the game as it opens up the vast world of Arkesia through exploration with quests, events and other activities to complete. This guide details how to unlock sailing in Lost Ark and everything they need to know, including ship selection, crew, stats and attributes, and more.
How to unlock sailing in Lost Ark?
To unlock sailing in Lost Ark, players will need to reach Level 35, for which they'll receive the "Set Sail!" Quest. This quest is a helpful tutorial for learning the basics of sailing, as players will need to travel to Wavestrand Port in East Luttera to begin the quest.
Through sailing, players can readily navigate between locations and continents during their journey. While Lost Ark includes a Fast Travel system called Tripods, it only allows travel between two points within an area and not from continent to continent.
The basics of sailing in Lost Ark
The "Set Sail!" Quest will provide players with important information and sailing mechanics to aid them in their adventures. As players will be in control of their ship, they will need to manage its stats and attributes, crew and, more importantly, its health or strength.
In Lost Ark, there are eight types of ships with base stats, attributes and features that can benefit the ship when sailing across the seas. These fleets can be upgraded to increase your ship's stats and attributes, including speed, durability, and grading.
The eight ship types available in Lost Ark are:
- Brahms
- Tragon
- Astray
- Eibern's Wound
- Estoque
- White Wind
- Sturmbreecher
- Eurus
One of these attributes is the Hazardous Waters Resistance that determines the ship's defence against various threats and elements. Each effect can impose a danger or hinder your progress while depleting its HP when entering these waters.
The longer they remain sailing on the seas, the more HP they'll lose, so upgrading the resistances can prevent its effects from hampering your ship. Additionally, having the best crew on board can be beneficial in increasing your ship's attributes, as each type of sailor comes with its unique stats and features.
There are also certain types of sailors that can grant your ship special abilities or bonuses that may help during your adventures. Likewise, specific sailor types can only be available for a particular kind of ship, so do look out for them.
Sailors can be acquired using a variety of currencies available, including Pirate Coins, Gienah's Coins and Sceptrum's Coins, in exchange for their services at trading ships.
Pirate Coins is more commonly used in Lost Ark, which can be earned by completing quests and other sailing activities. Gienah's Coins and Sceptrum's Coins can also be earned, which can be traded for Pirate Coins to upgrade your ship's stats, change its appearance or acquire more crew.
Sailing activities available in Lost Ark
Through sailing, they can access multiple islands with detailed history, quests, interesting NPCs, and more. Completing various quests and other activities will grant players rewards that can be traded for rare ones.
There are four types of activities players can complete while sailing, which is as follows:
- Fishing
- Loot recovery
- Treasure hunting
- Locating sunken ships
These activities can be found on your mini-map and easily marked off for players' convenience. The mini-map will also help players navigate their ship through any dangers they may encounter en route to any of these activities, especially Hazardous Waters resistance areas.
If you're looking to battle-test your ship, there are timed-sailing events to participate in, which can be accessed through the clock menu in the top left corner. Click on the mini gear icon to bring up a pop-up menu and scroll down to "Sailing" to find all the available sailing events to complete for rewards and Pirate Coin.
Once players have mastered sailing, the world is undoubtedly their oyster with plenty of activities and exploration to complete. As there are rewards to be earned and coins to collect, we're looking forward to our next adventure on the open seas.
Featured image courtesy of Smilegate & Amazon Games.