Blog post - 14 August 2024 09:03

Lost Ark “Calm Before the Storm” August Update - New Island, Bound Gold System & More

The August “Calm Before the Storm” Update arrives in Arkesia today. Downtime will begin on August 14 at 12 a.m. PT (7 a.m. UTC) and is expected to last 6 hours. The Calm Before the Storm Update is packed with changes built to make everyday life in Arkesia better! Dive into the full list of new content, events, skins, and other changes in a new episode of "Patch Notes with Henry", or read through all the details below

Indigo Island

Indigo Island is located off the coast of the Kurzan Continent in the sea of Gienah. It has incredibly beautiful underwater scenery, and will open up for players at item level 1600 to explore. Indigo Island will include a quest that can be completed to access the single-player Sea Cave dungeon, which contains three paths. You can begin the Indigo Island quest and dungeon after interacting with the "Someone's Voice" quest near the island entrance. Successful completions will award "Luminous Coral Stone", which can be exchanged for progression materials, including Potent Elixirs (using Silver instead of Gold) and more — so you’re definitely going to want to venture to this new island. The dungeon splits when you reach a three-pronged road when entering, and at the beginning, you can only enter the leftmost road. Clearing the dungeon repeatedly allows you to venture down a different path. The dungeon can be completed once a day per roster, and the opportunity to enter will be exhausted when the boss is defeated and rewards have been granted. Indigo Island also includes:

5 Mokoko Seeds
Indigo Island Soul
2 new achievements
5 new structures that can be earned from the island exchange
Indigo Island Soundtrack

Bound Gold Introduction & Uses

Bound Gold will be added as a way to grant Gold that can be used exclusively in progression systems. Two current systems will be updated to provide Bound Gold instead of ‘Tradeable’ Gold; the gold reward chests from Una’s Tokens, along with Solo Mode Raids. We’re excited about the opportunities introduced by Bound Gold, and we will continue to evaluate the system and look for ways to reward players with Gold and help progression without negatively impacting the in-game economy. Bound Gold can be used in the following systems:

Gear Honing
Advanced Honing
Quality Upgrade
Legion Commander Gear Crafting
Set Effect Upgrade
Ability Stone Upgrade
Elixir Crafting and Cutting
Stronghold Research
Knowledge Transfer
Bonus Rewards
Gold Exchange Shop
Ancient Soundstone Purchase
Transcendence
Stronghold Crafting (Farm only)

With three types of Gold, the order in which Gold will be used in systems that accept all types will be Bound Gold first, then Deposit Gold, followed last by Tradable Gold.

Solo Mode Bound Gold Rebalance

With the introduction of Bound Gold, the Gold granted by Solo Mode Raids will be swapped to Bound Gold and increased to better support player progression. Find the rebalanced values in the table below.

Chaos Dungeon Purification System

Chaos Dungeons will receive a new “Weekly Purification” Mission System. When playing through Chaos Dungeons with Aura of Resonance active, you can earn weekly Purification Points. These points will accumulate, culminating in earning reward chests. Silver and Honor Shards received from Chaos Dungeons will be removed and replaced with set reward chests containing them in the Purification system. Players can fill up 50 points on the Purification Meter for each Chaos Dungeon run, with max rewards earned at 300 points (6 runs in a week). Rest Bonus will not affect the Purification Points.

This system will function very similar to Una’s Tokens, and is built to give players more agency surrounding when they want to do their Chaos Dungeons throughout the week, to limit fatigue. Accompanying the launch of this change, a special event will be added to further bolster the rewards received. Learn more in the Events section of the Release Notes.

Ebony Cube Adjustment

There will be some small changes that will speed up Ebony Cube playthroughs, such as updating the scaling of enemies’ HP based on the number of players.

Chaos Dungeon Purification Event

A special Chaos Dungeon Purification Event will accompany the launch of the Chaos Dungeon Purification System. The event will run from August 14 to September 25, but the Chaos Dungeon Purification System will continue after the end of the event. The event is built to give additional rewards as we head toward the launch of Tier 4, to ensure that you are rewarded for playing with helpful progression materials.

During the event, bonus reward chests will be granted when reaching the 100, 200, or 300 Purification Point thresholds. The chests include honing materials corresponding to the level of the cleared Chaos Dungeon, such as Destruction/Obliteration Stones, Guardian/Protection Stones, and Tier 3 Leapstones. Each chest also has Purification Tokens, which can be spent at an event shop for additional rewards, such as Transcendence Restoration tickets, Honing Support chests, Fusion Materials, and more!

General

The Maharaka Festival will continue with the ‘Set Sail, Mokokos! Pirate!’ mini-game, exclusive event shop, and a new daily quest.
New Monthly Fever Time Event has been added.
The Daily Log-in reward track has been updated.

Neria’s Wardrobe

Whether you’re feeling edgy or preppy, Neria’s Wardrobe has something to fit your style. Find the newest Neria’s collection showcased below, available for a limited time.

Runner Skins

Add to your athleisure collection with these new runner skins. Find the collection showcased below, which will stay in the in-game shop as an evergreen item.

Omen Cosmetics

The Omen cosmetic collection will also return as an evergreen item in the in-game shop, with options added for the classes created after its initial launch.

General Updates

Character Name Reset
- Character names will be freed up from some inactive accounts who have not logged into Lost Ark in over a year and are below Combat Level 50.
Endgame Content
- A UI window will pop up when users attempt to terminate the connection and change the character during endgame content.
- Adjusted the waiting times for Dungeon Quit vote.