Ahead of its long-awaited arrival in the West, Lost Ark talk about him again by revealing his economic model and how to prepare for the closed beta scheduled for early November.
Having at heart to match its MMO hack'n slash free-to-play to a Western audience, Smilegate therefore presents different currencies which will each have a very specific purpose. This while trying as much as possible to limit the pay-to-win aspect. This economic model can be tested from November 4 to 11 during the closed beta, pending a final version postponed to early 2022.
An economic model not so lost?
In a blog post devoted to it, Smilegate details in particular the four currencies of the game and their respective role. Three of them, namely silver, gold and crystals, can be obtained simply by playing. Money, the most common currency, will serve for all daily uses. The gold will be used to obtain consumables, equipment or to modify it once at the maximum level. Crystals, the rarest currency, will allow you to have unique items, especially in Mari's Secret Shop. This store will be rotated every 72 hours to stock different items.
Finally, we have the Royal Crystals, this time only obtained using real money. These will primarily be used to purchase crystal packs, cosmetics, and other unique items. We can thus see that the crystals will inevitably be easier to obtain by paying than simply by playing. It is also possible to buy crystals with gold coins via an exchange counter between the different players.
Pets also see their functioning changed in the Western version of Lost Ark. These brought significant quality-of-life type benefits that could only be rented for a month. In this new version, these benefits can be acquired definitively, subject however to an investment in real money. Some of them that were previously paid for, such as automatic loot recovery, will however be available immediately.
Lost Ark's premium service, called Crystalline Aura, has also been redesigned to reduce the Korean version's pay-to-win effect. This will therefore no longer offer advantages such as increased movement speed or an experience bonus, but rather reductions on elements, such as transport from one city to another.
Lost Ark is preparing for the closed beta in the West
In addition to the business model of the Western version, Lost Ark is about to be accessible to Western players via a closed beta scheduled from November 4 at 18 p.m. (Paris time) to November 11 at 20:59 p.m. it is necessary either to register on the site of the game, or to acquire a Founder's Pack via Amazon or Steam.
Obviously, purchasing a Founder's Pack will ensure access to the closed beta, while registering on the game's site will only give one chance to be invited. There are four packs, each providing different bonuses, such as cosmetics or in-game currency, sold between 15 and 100 euros.
As for the content of the closed beta, it will ignore the specific prologues for each class to offer a more common one. Each new character will start at level 10, for a maximum level increased to 55, against 50 during the closed alpha. The proposed content will thus be rather generous, with in particular many dungeons and raids.
For more details in order to be ready to embark on the first Western closed beta of Lost Ark, we invite you to consult the dedicated blog article on the game's site (in English). You will thus have all the keys in hand to find out what awaits you from November 4 for the closed beta, while waiting for the official release in early 2022.
