Lost Ark has a variety of horizontal content that players can work towards to give their characters additional bonuses, such as stats, effects, skill points, fun toys and more. One of these is the Card System, which can provide bonus stats and effects when equipping Card Sets and completing Book Sets. Bonuses from collecting Cards may seem insignificant early on, but they will prove to be quite beneficial in the very late stages of the game. This article will go over all the fundamentals of this system and the notable Card Sets for end-game Raids.
How to Get Rare Cards
Cards in Lost Ark have five rarities: Normal, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, and Legendary. There are a multitude of ways to obtain Cards in Lost Ark, with the main way being locked behind the RNG of Card Packs. Individual Card Packs are items that contain a random Card based on the rarity of that specific Card Pack (e.g. Epic Card Pack will give a random Epic Card). The Rarity of Card Packs themselves are commonly obtained from ‘larger’ Card Packs that contain a random rarity of Card Pack. The odds for each rarity will vary depending on the type of ‘large’ Card Pack. For example, as the name implies, a ‘Legendary - Rare Card Pack’ will have a chance of containing a Legendary, Epic, or Rare Card Pack. The exact odds can be found by clicking the link at the bottom of the in-game Lost Ark Shop (default keybind F4).
Cards and Card Packs can be obtained through activities such as:
- Main Story and Side Quest Rewards
- The In-Game Lost Ark Shop (Including Mari’s Shop)
- Wandering Merchants
- Abyssal Dungeons/Raids
- Legion Raids
- Collectibles
- Stronghold Trade Merchants
- Rapport Rewards
- Adventure Islands
- Guardian Raids
- Field Bosses
- Achievements
- Peyto and Fermata Card Exchange NPC (Weekly Reset)
The Card Catalog
The Card Catalog can be accessed with the default keybind ‘Alt+C’ or through ‘Roster’ at the bottom right of the UI and clicking on Card Catalog. There are three main tabs in the Card Catalog: Equip, Books, and Enhance.
Equip
In the Equip tab, players can see the list of Cards and Card Sets available on the left and their various effects. This is also where players can create Card Decks, consisting of six Cards, as well as store their preferred Card Deck loadouts. As players can see from the ‘Set Effect Details’ next to each set, effects will only activate once a certain number of Cards from the respective set is equipped. Additional effects are also unlocked through the number of ‘Awakenings’ that players achieve within that specific set. We will go through what Awakenings are later in the Enhance tab. Players are able to mix and match different sets according to their preferences and needs. Effects that are active will be displayed on the right under ‘Current Card Effects’. The ‘Active Set Bonuses’ below the loadout helps to visually distinguish Cards of different sets that are equipped.
- Two Card Deck loadout slots are available for free, while additional slots can be purchased with gold and blue shop Crystals.
Books
The Books tab is another way for players to obtain additional bonuses for their characters. Unlike the previous tab, bonuses are not gained from equipping Cards, but rather the collection of Cards. All Cards in Lost Ark belong to sets called Books, with each set containing two to ten cards. Players can see the list of Books on the left and the Cards that make up those specific sets in the middle when selected. Bonuses are granted upon completion of a Book set, as well as the total level of Awakenings within that set. Bonuses obtainable for each set are displayed below the displayed Book set, under ‘Book Collection Bonus’. The total bonus that players have achieved can be seen on the right under ‘Total Books Bonus’.
- New players should not worry about this tab early on, as the small amount of bonuses should only be reserved for extreme end-game min-maxing. It is good to be aware of these bonuses, but it is absolutely not mandatory, nor recommended, to chase after them early on.
Enhance
The Enhance tab is where players’ Card Catalog is located and the place where Cards can be ‘Awakened’. The Card Catalog stores all the Cards that players have activated and collected, with each unique Card taking up a Catalog slot. Duplicate copies of Cards will stack upon the same slot, up to a total of 15 duplicates. The number of duplicate copies is indicated on each card with an icon of three blue cards. Duplicate copies past 15 will be converted into Card XP Enhancement Points. A new player has around 100 available slots to start off in this Catalog, with each additional 10 slots being purchasable through blue shop Crystals.
- Due note that only Cards that players have right-clicked and activated are stored in the Card Catalog. Players who do not wish to spend Crystals on additional slots can instead choose not to activate the Cards and store them in their characters’ Storages.
- Players can also ‘favorite’ cards by clicking on the star icon on the lower left of each Card. This can be done on all three tabs, however the Equip tab will require players to control+right-click a card in order to add to ‘favorites’.
Card Awakenings
Increasing the Awakening level of Cards allows players to gain access to additional effects of the sets those Awakened Cards belong to. Three things are required to Awaken a Card: Card XP Enhancement Points, Silver, and duplicate copies of the specific Card being Awakened. From the Card Catalog, players must right-click the Card they wish to Awaken and Enhance it with Card XP Enhancement Points, which will cost Silver to do so. Afterwards, players can Awaken the Card with duplicate copies, as well as additional Silver. Yellow hexagonal icons at the bottom of each Card indicate the level of Awakening that they currently have. A Card may only have a total of five Awakening levels, which will cost a total of 15 duplicate copies.
- The number of duplicate copies required at each stage is equal to the level of Awakening the players are trying to achieve. For example, to reach Awakening level three, three duplicate copies are needed; to reach Awakening level four, four duplicate copies are needed, and so forth.
Aside from excess duplicate copies past 15, Card XP Enhancement Points are mainly acquired from Soul Leaf (Uncommon: 500 XP), Eternity Essence (Rare: 1500 XP), Creation Fragment (Epic: 3000 XP), and Menelik’s Tome (Legendary: 9000 XP). These items can be acquired from activities such as:
- Cube
- Field Bosses
- Tea and Libra Guild Vessels
- Treasure Maps
- Ghost Ship
- Adventure Islands
- Endless Chaos Dungeons (Non ‘Aura of Resonance’ Runs)
- Tower (First Character Clear Only)
Accumulation of Card XP Enhancement Points can be quite slow relative to the amounts needed for enhancing Cards. It is recommended to only Awaken Cards necessary for players’ desired end-game sets due to the extremely high Enhancement Point and Silver costs. Even common early game Card Sets should not be Awakened as their base set effects will suffice.
Early Game Card Sets
In general, sets that provide increases to Max HP and reductions to all incoming Elemental Damage serve as great early game Card Sets. These effects work well across a wide variety of content and are readily available without Awakenings. Max HP sets work especially well for support classes and can often be used even in end-game content due to many of their abilities scaling off Max HP. The following sets can be mixed and matched depending on what is available for the player.
Max Hp Sets:
Field Boss II (7 Cards)
2 Set: Max HP +4.00%
4 Set: Max HP +4.00%
6 Set: Max HP +4.00%
Farewell, Weapon (6 cards)
2 Set: Max HP +4.00%
4 Set: Max HP +4.00%
6 Set: Max HP +4.00%
All Elemental Damage Reduction Sets:
Trixion (6 Cards)
2 Set: All Elemental Damage Reduction +5.00%
4 Set: All Elemental Damage Reduction +5.00%
6 Set: All Elemental Damage Reduction +5.00%
Cherish Your Books (4 Cards)
2 Set: All Elemental Damage Reduction +5.00%
4 Set: All Elemental Damage Reduction +5.00%
Fate of the Lazeniths (2 Cards)
2 Set: All Elemental Damage Reduction +5.00%
Best End-Game Card Sets for Raiding
Lostwind Cliff
The Lostwind Cliff set is what most damage dealers will strive for first, due to its most important effect, +7.00% Crit Rate, locked behind only 12 Awakenings. This set is considerably ‘easier’ to get than Light of Salvation but will still require quite some time to obtain. The reason why this set is often targeted first is because the majority of the 12 Awakenings can be obtained without too much RNG. For support classes, the 30-piece Awakening effect is the ultimate end goal since it synergizes with damage dealers that have Light of Salvation.
Armen:
Only obtainable through Card Packs, Abyssal Dungeon/Raid drops, or Legion Raid drops.
Seria:
Seria has a good chance of appearing on East Luterra’s Wandering Merchant, Burt, for purchase. Five Awakening levels for this set can easily be achieved through Seria.
Solas:
Reward for completing the main story quest ‘Holy Inquisitors’ in East Luterra. This quest can be repeated on different characters, but will take about four hours, on average, each time. Although there is no RNG involved, repeating this process can be quite tedious, so it is up to players whether it is worth their time.
King Thirain:
One copy is rewarded for reaching Trusted Rapport with Thirain
Kharmine:
One copy is rewarded upon completing the achievement, ‘Start of Endless Chaos’, for clearing 100 Chaos Gates.
Delain Armen:
One copy is rewarded for collecting 10 Ignea Tokens.
Light of Salvation
Light of Salvation is currently the best damage dealing set for end-game raiding content. Many of the bosses in future Legion Raids will have Dark attributes, making this Card Set extremely powerful. On top of its Dark Damage reduction, the Holy Damage it gives allows players to deal extra damage to many of the Legion Raid bosses. This set will take players an extremely long time to collect and Awaken. Acquiring duplicate Cards in this set relies heavily on RNG and luck. Many players in Korea have reported taking over a year to achieve 30-piece Awakening.
Note, this set is not worth equipping until players have reached at least 18-piece Awakening and are facing Dark attribute bosses in Legion Raids. Lostwind Cliff at 12-piece Awakening will be better until that point.
Shandi:
Only obtainable through Card Packs, Abyssal Dungeon/Raid drops, or Legion Raid drops.
Azena and Inanna:
One copy is rewarded for reaching Trusted Rapport with Azena.
Nineveh:
One copy is rewarded for reaching Trusted Rapport with Nineveh.
Kadan:
One copy is rewarded for completing the quest ‘Tears of a Bird’ on the island, Isteri. This quest is locked behind 14 days of Una’s Task, ‘Peering Into Chaos’. In order to unlock this Una’s Task, players must complete the quest chain starting with ‘The Quest for Kadan’. To begin ‘The Quest for Kadan’, players must have completed the following quests: ‘Let There Be Light’, ‘Start of Our Story’, and ‘End of the Trials’.
Balthorr:
One copy is rewarded upon completing the achievement ‘The Show Must Go On’. This achievement involves completing the two-part quest chain ‘Let There Be Light’.
Thirain:
One copy is rewarded for completing 80% of East Luterra’s Adventure Tome.
Wei:
One copy is rewarded for collecting 36 Masterpieces. Another copy is rewarded for completing the achievement, ‘Boss Hunter: Expert’, which involves killing bosses in Island of Time, Spida Island, Alakkir, Erasmo’s Island, and Forpe. Additionally, Wei has an extremely rare chance of appearing on Mac, the Wandering Merchant in Anikka.
Lost Merchants is a great third-party tool that allows players to report sightings of Wandering Merchants and the items they are selling.
Conclusion
The Card System is a way for players to min-max and improve their characters at the later stages of the game. While the bonuses are nice to have in the end-game, players should not stress out about collecting Cards or feel the need to rush. Collecting Cards is an extremely long-term goal that players can progress on slowly just by playing the game regularly. There is no sure-fire way to speed up the process, even when buying Card Packs from the in-game shop, as it is mostly down to luck.
