Lost Ark Team Addresses Concerns About ‘Rushed’ Endgame Content, Says They Made A Mistake

Amazon Game Studios and Smilegate have released a statement in response to Lost Ark players’ concerns that they’re rushing the release of endgame content. These concerns arose following the release of the Hunt for the Guardian Slayer update last week which featured the new Argos Abyss Raid that apparently only a handful of players could beat.

“We never wanted players to feel rushed in their quest to hit item level 1370,” said the devs.

According to the team, they initially planned to have the raid available at launch but decided to save it for later as a stepping stone to more endgame content. Data from previous Lost Ark launches projected that a large portion of players should have reached the endgame by now. It turns out, however, that western players are taking their sweet time to enjoy horizontal content such as collectibles, exploration, and quests rather than focusing on item progression.

“We made a mistake releasing the March game update too quickly after launch. […] We overlooked certain variables, such as players spending more time on horizontal content and the price of honing materials increasing due to bots and real-money transactions. These factors contributed to a scarcity of T3 honing materials.”

In light of this, the dev team will be slowing down the pace at which they release new endgame content to focus on helping players get through existing content and give the in-game economy enough time to catch up.

“End-game content will be introduced, but players should continue progressing at their own pace. Our goal is to provide fun content for players, even if it’s at a higher level, while never making players feel pressured that they need to pay to progress. Flexibility has always been a driving force in the collaboration between our teams— as has ensuring that players are able to enjoy and play Lost Ark how they see fit.”

Amazon and Smilegate’s full statement can be found on the Lost Ark official site.