This article will show you what to do after reaching the 1490 Item level in Lost Ark and how to gear up to our current endgame at the 1580 Item level. And some awesome catch-up mechanics are going on with the release of Aromancer, so we will help break it down for you.
Gear + Learning Runs
Item level 1490 is a huge accomplishment as you get your first glance at endgame content. The first thing you will want to take note of is what gear you're wearing. If your gear is Chosen or Legendary quality, you need Relic gear to move on. If you already have your Relic set, you don't need to worry about this next quick part, but keep paying attention to obtain Relic sets.
You need to do a mixture of Valtan and Vykas legion raids. Press "Alt + Q" to bring up the menu of UI, and then click Legion raids.
I recommend finding a learning party for these for your first time and reading some guides beforehand, as they have a couple of mechanics you need to know and learn.
Valtan and Vykas give bones and wings, respectively, that you will trade into the Legion raids and NPC for whichever Relic set you'd like. The hard mode of these raids will give more wings, bones, and gold. So jump into those immediately if you can find a group.
Character Build
The next thing you should be doing is to find a good build. If you are using the Super Mokoko Express event with the recent Ocon patch, you'll have free engravings for the duration of the event and free drums to re-roll. So, set those up accordingly. Also, make sure to have the correct stats. Stats are very important, and you can equip the highest quality accessories you find without worrying about engraving since you have engraving support if you aren't using the Hyper Express. Here is the engraving calculator to start planning your accessories for your engraving build. This will take some time to save up, especially for legendary class and combat engraving books, but stick with it.
Tripods
Saving your tripods is recommended. Your build should tell you which ones are important to save. To do this, press "K," then go to settings and Mark all the tripods you want to level up. When you do Chaos Dungeons, you'll be able to see the little icon on any amulet with tripods you're tracking, so you can safely transfer them over at the tripod NPC.
Legion Raids
Next, you will want to start looking at the Brelshaza Legion raid. If you haven't already defeated the Kakul – Saydon Legion raid, go back and do this every week to upgrade your Relic set to level 2.
Brelshaza normal mode unlocks at Item level 1490, and it's where you'll get your next set of endgame gear: ancient gear. This legion raid has six gates, but let that intimidate you as they're split into different Item level requirements. Item level 1490 will get you into gates 1 and 2. Item level 1500 will bring you to gates 3 and 4, and Item level 1520 for gates 5 and 6. So you only need to worry about learning gates 1 and 2 until you get some of your new ancient gear honed. And gates 1 and 2 are relatively easy to learn.
Ancient Gear
You'll get a first-time Clear chest from Brelshaza, which will give you enough Phantom Intentions to craft your first ancient piece. Make sure you transfer your old Relic gear to your new ancient gear. Your goal for gear after this point will be completing your full ancient set and honing all of your ancient gear to plus 15, which will bring you up to 1540 Item level. This unlocks Brelshaza hard mode, the Kayangel abyss dungeon for your level 3 set, and Hanumatan, a fun new guardian raid.
Skill Points
If you're a new or returning player from Item level 1490 to 1540, you can focus on completing some Horizontal content. If you press "Alt + D" and type in "skill point," you will see all the different skill point potions you can obtain in the game. And they are very worthwhile to get started on. Collectibles like Giants, Hearts, and Omnium Stars are a good place to start farming skill points.
Bracelets
At Item level 1490, you also unlock a new accessory called Bracelets, a great way to help increase your stats. I recommend finding or rolling a bracelet with your main stat, such as Swiftness, Spec, or Crit, and ideally, your off-stats. Relic bracelets can have stat rules that go up to 100. So, the closer to 100 the stats, the better the bracelet is. The guardian raid Caliligos, your 1490 chaos dungeons, and the Brelshaza legion raid are all content you can farm to find relic bracelets.
Item Level 1540 to 1580
After you farmed your full ancient gear from doing Brelshaza, you will upgrade all of the pieces to plus 15 to hit Item level 1540. It usually takes time to save materials, but it should be much faster if you use the Super Mokoko Express Event. Your goal now will be to get from Item level 1540 to 1580. Honing your ancient gear to full plus 19 will finish getting you caught up to endgame content.
There are many ways you'll get the new materials to hone up to Item level 1580. You'll be able to do the Hanumtan Guardian Raid, which drops lots of Marvelous Honor Leapstones.
You'll also open your next Abyss Dungeon: Kayangel normal mode, which has four gates. It isn't a legion raid. It's a four-person dungeon that is relatively easy and fun to learn. So, you can give it a shot. Kayangel is also great because it gives you the materials you need for your level 3 relic set, so it's super worthwhile to start farming. But remember that you need to have your level 2 set from Kakul – Saydon on Legion raid before upgrading it to level 3.
Item level 1540 also unlocks Brelshaza hard mode gates 1 and 2. And this content is not required anymore to progress. I recommend at least learning the new Mechanics for Gate 1 and 2 hard mode since you make more gold running these over normal mode. And they can drop your ancient bracelets.
The rest of the gates for Brelshaza hard mode will open up as you progress to Item level 1550 for gates 3 and 4 and 1560 for gates 5 and 6. Again, you can learn these for fun and extra rewards, but you don't need to learn them to progress your gear.
Clearing the full gates 1 to 6 in hard mode five times will give you the following pet.
And then cleaning it 10 times will give you this pet:
From here on out, you will do legion raids weekly and daily to continue saving materials for the push to the 1580 Item level. This push is extremely expensive, so take your time with it and focus on one main character to push this far.
Once you've hit 1580 Item level, you've made it to our current endgame in Lost Ark. You'll have unlocked Kayangel hard mode, which can drop the beautiful wings.