Lost Ark‘s Engraving system offers a robust way to customize your character and differentiate yourself from the competition. Its true benefits won’t be seen until you’ve reached endgame, but there’s no doubt you’ll need to take full advantage of it to conquer the game’s most challenging content.
Whether you’re a newcomer to Engravings trying to figure out how it works or you just finished the main campaign and are ready to fully invest in some nodes, here’s everything you need to know about Engravings, Ability Stones, and accessing their beneficial perks.
Further reading
What are Engravings in Lost Ark?
Engravings are passive skills that buff your character. That’s really all they are — the main reason the system feels complex is because of all the jargon that’s thrown your way. But cut through the fancy Arkesian language and you’ll quickly find the system to be both incredibly simple and supremely powerful.
Engravings are broken up into two categories — Combat and Class. Combat Engravings can be used by all characters, while Class Engravings are exclusive to a specific class. For example, the Igniter Engraving is only usable by the Sorceress class, and it gives them a unique perk that helps reduce cooldown times.
Once they’re unlocked, up to two Engravings can be directly equipped to your character, although more can be added using accessories and Ability Stones.
Leveling up and equipping Engravings
One of the great things about Engravings is that they can be leveled up to confer additional benefits. This is done by accessing nodes on your Engraving, which are depicted by small diamonds on theEngravingmenu (in the above image, Drops of Ether has six accessed nodes). Every five nodes you access will level up your Engraving — in other words, the more nodes you access, the more powerful the Engraving effect. In fact, yourEngraving won’t confer any benefits until it’s accessing at least five nodes.
To put it another way — Engravings contain 15 nodes, with every five nodes granting you additional perks. An Engraving with eight nodes has the same effect as an Engraving with five nodes, and an Engraving with 14 nodes has the same effect as an engraving with 10 nodes.
There are a variety of ways to access nodes on Engravings, and it’s important to take advantage of all of them. Here’s a quick look at all three:
How to facet Ability Stones
Ability Stones are one of the best ways to augment your Engravings. You’ll find them by defeating enemies, searching each map, or as rewards for finishing a variety of quests. Ability Stones are items that can be equipped to your character to access additional nodes for your Engravings.
Once you’ve found an Ability Stone, you’ll need tofacet it before gaining any benefits. Here’s how it works:
Ideally, you’ll access as many nodes as possible for the Engravings, while leaving the debuff with few accessed nodes. Unfortunately, it’s entirely up to chance, and you’re able to’t use an Ability Stone until you’ve made an attempt on every single node.
With a fully faceted Ability Stone, open yourInventoryandGearmenu. At the bottom right corner of theGearmenu, you’ll see a slot for an Ability Stone — simply right-click or drag the Ability Stone to the corresponding slot to equip it.
Once that’s done, head over to yourEngravingmenu to see how it’s altered your Engraving Effects. You’ll now notice a negative effect at the bottom of the screen, although it won’t be activatedunless it has at least five accessed nodes.
Lost Ark Engravings Summary
Engravings take a few minutes to fully wrap your head around, but the system eventually becomes second nature. Here’s a quick recap of the system, along with a few pitfalls to watch out for:
If you’re just getting started withLost Ark, don’t worry about Engravings too much. The system is primarily built for endgame players, and there’s a good chance you won’t need their passive buffs to complete the main quest. Until then, simply horde your Ability Stones, check out a few Engravings you think sound interesting, and slowly learn the intricacies of the powerful system.
