The Lost Ark Anniversary Update has arrived, celebrating a full year since the massively multiplayer fantasy RPG was released worldwide. While the game has been available the longest to Korean gamers, Amazon Games’ release has consistently been a hit in its first year, attracting large audiences with its combination of Diablo-style gameplay and fueled multiplayer experiences. by gaming community like World of Warcraft and FFXIV.
The first and biggest announcement is the arrival of the new Lost Ark continent, Rowen. Found in western Shushire, it is a war-torn land that is home to precious purple gems called Sylmael. You’ll need to be at item level 1445 to get there, in which case you can side with the order-loving Preigelli faction or the chaos-embracing Liebertane forces and partake in a variety of missions and PvP activities while fighting for control. the region.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a celebration without a party, so there’s a birthday event that involves collecting birthday cards from various endgame events, and a new mini-game based around hot springs. This thermal event takes place every two hours and sees teams of players take on hammer ducklings as they compete to collect the most rubber duckies and drop them into their basket.
There are double login rewards and two monthly login reward tracks, including a variety of cool “birthday gifts”, including a fancy Mirror Ball Bubble mount that places your characters inside a ball giant disco. There’s also a Fever-Time event from February 8-21, offering additional bonus rewards, and you can earn a free “Yearling” title to celebrate if you log in before March 10, 2023.
Ultra-dedicated Lost Ark players who have logged into the game every day for the past year are receiving an additional special prize: they will receive a “Trophy” fortress structure commemorating their achievement. Developer Smilegate notes that three days are exempt from the count due to maintenance downtime. Don’t be jealous if you don’t qualify, though: you too can earn the trophy in the future “just” by logging in for 365 consecutive days.
There are also some balance tweaks, with a number of changes being made to Caliligos Guardian Raid to lower its overall difficulty. As you’d expect, there are also plenty of cosmetic items available for purchase in the Lost Ark Shop to help you celebrate, so you won’t be short of colorful and stylish ways to dress up your characters for the party!
On top of that, Lost Ark Twitch Drops are available until February 27, allowing you to earn two separate packages to watch four and eight cumulative hours of saved Lost Ark streamers. Amazon Games says it will also be giving side gifts to 50 Lost Ark streamers during the February 8-18 timeframe.
The Lost Ark Witcher event is also underway, so if you haven’t met Geralt, Triss, Yenn, Ciri and Dandelion from the CD Projekt Red series yet, you still have until February 22 to do so. It will undoubtedly be a festive time in Arkesia, so if you wanted to reconnect with Lost Ark like me, then there is no better time than now.
Be sure to check out our Lost Ark tier list to find the best classes, as well as our handy guide on where you can find all Lost Ark Mokoko seeds. We’ve also curated more of the best MMORPGs for PC in 2023, for all fans of shared global experiences, and we’ll let you know when Diablo 4 is released if loot hunting is more your game.