Lost Ark Engravings Guide

Introduction

Engravings in Lost Ark are of vital importance in the end game, once you have reached level 50. These effects will power up your character by providing buffs either permanently or in certain situations. Each engraving is unique, and there are many available to you along the way.

You can earn engravings mainly via Class Books or Battle Engraving Recipes; we will explore how to get these later in this guide. Engravings can also be found on accessories like rings, earrings, and necklaces in the end game, as well as ability stones. Some of these engravings have unique positive and negative effects, so they will be a trade-off in usefulness.

In this Lost Ark Engravings Guide we will explore all you need to know about the topic including how the system works, what the point levels mean, the how to get engravings books and recipes, and more.

How The Engravings System Works

User Interface

The first thing you should know is the UI of the engravings of your character. You can open your character info tab and navigate to “Engravings” on the top of the UI. The main engravings tab shows the engravings you already have unlocked either through your gear or your engraving books. Each engraving shows its current level[1] and blue gems[2] showing exactly how far along you are for that engraving.

In the following example, this character currently has achieved level 1 of Heavy Armor because he has at least 5 Engraving Points in this engraving. He has a total of 7 points (5 in the first section, and 2 more in the Lv. 2 section) and therefore needs 3 more Engraving Points to achieve level 2 Heavy Armor.

Each time you pass a milestone of 5 Engraving Points, you will gain a new level of that engraving. Until you pass this threshold, the extra points do not matter and will not affect your character.

• Level 1: 5 Points Earned
• Level 2: 10 Points Earned
• Level 3: 15 Points Earned

Engravings Sources

These engravings points come from three main sources which we dive deeper into throughout the guide:

• Engraving Recipes
• Accessories
• Ability Stones

Each source of engraving points adds up to the same table above. So you may have 3 points from Engraving Recipe books, and maybe you have 4 more points from accessories and/or ability stones. This would make up the total 7 points shown in the Heavy Armor engraving.

Accessories: Necklaces, Earrings, Rings, Bracelets

Accessories are a key factor in your engravings build in Lost Ark. These items can include increases to your combat stats just like your armor. They also will include random engravings when they are dropped as well. Depending on the rarity, an accessory can potentially have more engravings or even malus engravings. The Malus is essentially a negative engraving. You can think of engravings as a buff, and malus as a debuff.

The accessories rarity will determine how many effects it includes:

• Rare – Add 1 Random Engraving Point
• Epic – Add 1-2 Random Engraving Points and 1-3 Random Malus Points
• Legendary – Add 2 Different Engravings. One will add 1 Point, the second has a chance to add 1-2 points. Also will include a Random Malus of 1-3 Points.

As you earn Epic and Legendary accessories, you will have to be careful of the Malus you are accumulating. The Malus will negatively affect some aspect of your character, so it is important to check and ensure the positive engravings you have earned are worth it.

This trade-off also means that even if you have legendary accessories already, you should always be checking the new ones you are receiving from your Chaos Dungeons and Guardian Raids. New accessories may have not just better combat points, but also better engraving and malus effects.

If you look at the image of the ring, you can see the 2 engraving effects in yellow, and the 1 malus effect in red.

Another point worth noting is just because and accessory is not valuable to you, doesn’t mean it isn’t valuable to another class. If you are receiving accessories with engravings that are better for another class but not yours, you should consider posting them on the auction house to make some gold.

Ability Stones

Ability Stones in Lost Ark are essentially just one more item you can carry on your character that adds stats for you. Just like accessories, these are used in an equipment slot. You can earn these stones by completing Chaos Dungeons and Guardian Raids as your main source. They are also able to obtain them from Ghost Ship events and Field Bosses.

Find your Ability Stone slot on your character panel in this location:

When you complete dungeons and raids and earn Ability Stones, you will have to “identify” them at the Stone Cutter NPC in town. Once you have taken them to the stone cutter, you will be able to see the 2 random engravings on the stone, as well as a random malus. These will alter the Engraving Points you have overall for each engraving if it is equipped.

Depending on the rarity of the stone, the strength of the engravings and malus effects will differ. Here are the differences:

• Rare – Add 0-6 Random Engraving Points for 2 Engravings, and 0-6 for 1 Random Malus
• Epic – Add 0-8 Random Engraving Points for 2 Engravings, and 0-8 for 1 Random Malus
• Legendary – Add 0-9 Random Engraving Points for 2 Engravings, and 0-9 for 1 Random Malus
• Relic – Add 0-10 Random Engraving Points for 2 Engravings, and 0-10 for 1 Random Malus

Earning Engraving Points from Books & Recipes

Books and recipes are your main source of engravings where you may actually have a choice in the matter. Any engravings learned from recipe books are account wide. This means you can earn engraving points through your recipes and those engravings will be available on your other characters! To view which engravings you have already unlocked from Recipes, you can press escape and choose Engravings:

One you have clicked this, it will bring you to your Engraving master list. This list shows all of the engravings you have unlocked via Class or Battle Engraving Recipes.

As you earn engravings from recipe books in Lost Ark, they will appear in this section. You can see the score out of 20 in each engraving box. This score is how many recipes you have consumed for this engraving. You will need to consume 20 Engraving Recipes of a specific engraving before you gain a Tier. Each tier you gain will be worth 3 Engraving Points.

The Engraving Points you have already earned are indicated by the blue gem count below each engraving tile. In the image provided, you can see that this character has earned the first tier of the Ether Boy Engraving, and thus earned 3 Engraving Points.

There are 2 different class engravings per class, as well as 43 different engravings that are not class specific. This makes a total of 45 possible engravings to level up! When you choose which ones you want to use in your build, you will use the imprint on your character info tab in the bottom left corner.

Imprints Explained

Once you have learned engravings from the recipe books, you will need to Imprint them onto your character for them to become active. You can only have 2 engraving imprints active at a time. You can still learn more engravings from the recipes, but you will only be able to ever have 2 active at once.

To activate an imprint, open your character panel (default hotkey P). On the bottom left of your character UI, there will be two slots for imprints:

Once you click on one of these boxes, it will open your Imprint Engravings menu shown in a previous screenshot here. You can click and drag any of your unlocked imprints from this menu onto one of these 2 slots to activate them.

How Manu Engraving Recipe Books Do I Need?

You will need to first consume 20 of the lowest recipe tier to get to the next tier. After that, only the next rarity recipe will grant you more progress to the next tier. The following list is how you can gain engraving points for each engraving:

• Collect 20 Battle Engraving Recipes (Uncommon – Green Color) for a specific engraving.
  • This will bring that specific engraving to Tier 1. The bar around the engraving will fill up and you will now have a x3 showing under it.
• Collect 20 Battle Engraving Recipes (Rare – Blue Color) for the same specific engraving.
  • Brings you to Tier 2. You will now have a x6 under this engraving.
• Collect 20 Battle Engraving Recipes (Epic – Purple Color) for the same specific engraving.
  • Brings you to Tier 3. You will now have a x9 under this engraving.
• Collect 20 Battle Engraving Recipes (Legendary – Orange Color) for the same specific engraving.
  • Brings you to Tier 4. You will now have a x12 under this engraving.

Creating an Engraving Build

Every class has an optimal Engravings Build. We talk about these in each individual class guide on The Games Cabin. Here are some high level guidelines on how to approach your strategy for collecting the right engravings:

• Recipes – Focus on your main Class Engraving for one of your imprint slots. For the second one, focus on the most important Combat Bonus Engraving in your build.
• Ability Stones – Focus on whatever engraving your Class Guide suggests for your class build.
• Necklace – Keep necklaces that have your target Crit, Swiftness, and Specialty based on your class build. You should also focus on trying to stack the same engravings you are using for your Ability Stone. Whenever possible, use a necklace that also includes your Class Engraving.
• Other Accessories – All other accessories focus should be trying to stack the other engravings you have included in the first 3 points above. Try to get to the milestones for each engraving you are using at 5, 10, and 15 points.

Where to Get Engraving Books

There are many sources in Lost Ark to get Engraving Recipe books. Your main sources will be completing your Chaos Dungeons and Guardian Raids, as stated a few times in this guide so far.

Other sources you can get Engravings Books from, but much less commonly are:

• Certain levels of the Shadespire Tower event.
• Certain rooms in the Cube Event.
• From Secret Maps earned in Chaos Gates
• Some questlines from specific islands reward pouches to specifically choose the engraving you want. These pouches are also available to purchase from some island exchange merchants when they are active on their island.
• You can exchange Perception Shards once in Vern Castle to obtain and Engraving Pouch. You can earn these perception shards by farming Chaos Dungeons after your daily limit is already reached.
• Clearing Abyssal Dungeons.