How to increase your item level

Once you reach level 50 in lost ark, a vast endgame experience will open up to you. Chaos Dungeons, Guardian Raids, Island Quests and more await. But before you can dive into any of these activities, you’ll need to make sure your item level is up to par with the content you’re dealing with.

Related: Lost Ark: 1-50 Leveling Guide

Just like your character, the items you find in Lost Ark also have a level tied to them, called an “item level” or “ilvl”. Increasing your item level is a simple but important aspect of the endgame grind. Let’s explore what Item Level is, how to increase it, and some tips on how to quickly increase your Item Level.

What is Item Level?

In Lost Ark, all weapons and armor you obtain have an item level. This number is used to determine how powerful your character is and what types of endgame content they can participate in. The higher your character’s overall item level, the more activities they can do and the more high levels of content you can drop. Increasing this number once you reach level 50 is paramount to unlocking most of the late game content in Lost Ark.

Initially, items have an incredibly low item level. As you level up your character in Lost Ark, you’ll receive items with higher item levels, granting your character more powerful stats and even ability-focused upgrades when you reach endgame You’ll start the endgame at around 250 item levels, the first stopping point for clearing Chaos Dungeons and Guardian Raids. Through the break-in system and end-game rewards, you’ll be able to increase your item level above 1,000 and access T3 content, the toughest Lost Ark offerings currently available.

If you reach level 50 and don’t have level 250 gear, complete the Shushire questline at the northern end of the map. This will give you gear with a high enough ilvl to start clearing Chaos dungeons.

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Increase your item level

Your primary source of item level will be upgrading your gear. When you first hit level 50, you’ll need to do a few runs in Chaos Dungeon to get your first piece of gear. With this gear, you’ll want to talk to a break-in vendor in your town’s crafting district. In Vern, it is located at the southern end of the castle core.

Sharpening an item requires three materials to start with:

• stone fragments
• Harmony Jump Stones
• Shards of Harmony

Only weapons and armor can be perfected. Jewels and Ability Stones do not contribute to your item level, instead granting engraving progress and character stats.

The type of Stone Fragments you will need will depend on the item you are trying to upgrade. Weapons take Destruction Stones, while Armor takes Guardian Stones. Harmony Leapstones and Shards are used for all weapons and armor. When you reach T2 and T3 content, the material types also change. Stone Fragments will simply become Stones, Harmony Fragments will become Life Fragments, etc. Clearing content at your character’s max item level will ensure that you receive the correct upgrade materials to perfect your gear.

When you enter the refinement UI, you will see an “upgrade” button under a percentage orb. This orb tells you which change your upgrade will succeed. Yes, upgrading your gear has a chance of failing, consuming all resources in the process. A run-in failure not destroy the object you want to improve, only the materials you have used. Failing will also increase your chances of passing the break-in system, exemplified by the energy of that item’s craftsman.

To increase this chance, you will need to invest Harmony Fragments. Investing the maximum amount will ensure a successful upgrade for the early break-in levels. However, once you exceed a certain number of upgrades, your upgrade chance will no longer be guaranteed, even if you invest maximum Harmony Fragments in an upgrade. This is where additional enhancement items come in. Items such as Star’s Breath can further increase your leveling success rate, reducing the chances of your leveling attempt failing. Items can reach up to +20 ranks before needing to be replaced in their entirety, though most will replace their gear at +15. Even when this happens, save your upgraded gear set for gear transfer (explained later).

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Related: Lost Ark Class Guide – Which Class Should You Play?

Obtain honing materials

Your main sources of break-in materials are Guardian Raids and Chaos Dungeons. Clearing either activity will grant break-in materials in decent amounts, so be sure to complete two of each activity each day. If you complete your daily runs of both activities, you can mine Chaos Dungeons for Vendor Currency which you can use to purchase additional break-in gear, up to a weekly cap.

However, for beginner players, we highly recommend completing the island quests to refine the materials. You’ll get hundreds of Stone Fragments and dozens of Harmony Leapstones from these quests, so they’re definitely worth the effort. The Lost Ark community has created a great resource that showcases every island reward you can see here. To start, we recommend clearing Glacier Island and as much of Shadow Island as possible. This should give you more than enough materials to reach level 400+. When you complete these island quests, you’ll have to rely on daily clears from Chaos Dungeon and Guardian Raid.

You can also purchase break-in gear from other players in the Auction House or Mara’s Secret Shop in the Lost Ark in-game store. We don’t recommend using either method unless you absolutely have to.

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Using Speed ​​Transfer

Of course, you are going to find better items while playing Lost Ark. You can invest thousands of materials into upgrading an item, only for a better option to become available to you. In these situations, you can use the gear transfer system to transfer upgrades from one item to another, allowing you to upgrade your gear without worrying about lowering your item’s level.

Using the Gear Transfer System is incredibly simple:

1. Visit your city’s local honing supplier.
2. Click on the “equipment transfer” tab at the bottom of the dialog menu.
3. Select the item you want to upgrade.
4. Select a compatible and upgraded item.
5. Transfer levels to your best item, destroying your upgraded item in the process.

This process is incredibly cheap and has no chance of failingso be sure to switch gears whenever you find better items for your character.

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Related: Things We Wish We’d Known Before Playing Lost Ark

Item-Level Farming Tips

• Complete the island quests once you reach level 50. These quests cover you with upgrade materials. You can find a breakdown of rewards for them here.
• If you’re short on time, send your Fortress crew to complete a daily Chaos Dungeon or Guardian Raid for you.
• Always invest the maximum number of Harmony Shards in the break-in process. This maximizes the chances of the upgrade not failing.
• Whenever you find a higher quality weapon or piece of armor than you are using, use the equipment transfer system to transfer your upgrade process to the best item.
• While not directly related to ilvl, be sure to only replace jewels and ability stones when they have better stats or engravings. They don’t give ilvl.

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Next: Lost Ark: Full Guide & Walkthrough

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