Smilegate and Amazon Games brought a lot to the table for Lost Ark’s November update. Feast With Friends—Lost Ark’s November 2022 update—has finally been released. If you look at the patch notes Smilegate, the latest content drop covers a lot of ground. From quality-of-life changes to progression events when you can farm Lost Ark currency, there’s something for everybody here. The downtime for the update began on November 16 and lasted for four hours. Some significant additions to Feast With Friends include revisions to the in-game economy to combat in-game cheaters, the much-awaited Reaper class, and major class balancing. Smilegate also introduced two new progression events, the Hyper Express and Punika Powerpass. We’ll be listing all the QoL improvements, balance changes, events, and other updates below, so if you’re interested in keeping up with Lost Ark’s latest trends, we got you covered.
Introducing the Reaper
Let’s get the main highlight out of the way. Lost Ark’s Reaper advanced class for Assassins is officially here! The Reaper is the third advanced class for the Assassin, and it has three identities that revolve around three varying attack modes, making it a class that makes farming Lost Ark gold fun. The Normal mode is its most basic mode, as it’s the one the Reaper starts with. While in this mode, its two meters—the Persona and Chaos Meter—start to fill up, depending on the factors. The Persona Meter is the more fluid of the two as it automatically fills up over time. You can speed up this process further by hitting the Reaper’s skills on a target. On the other hand, the Chaos Meter can only be filled up through the consistent use of Shadow and Dagger skills while keeping the Persona Meter full.
The Reaper’s second mode is Persona Mode, which you can activate with the Z key. When activated, you summon a Shadow Illusion and become stealthy, which lets you gain a 30% movement speed boost. This is especially useful if you’re trying to get behind enemies in an attempt to assassinate them. Note that your gauge will decrease when you’re in Persona Mode. Your Swoop Skills’ damage will also be increased by 25%, which you can stack up to five times. When it depletes, the Reaper goes back to Normal Mode.
The Normal mode is its most basic mode, as it’s the one the Reaper starts with. While in this mode, its two meters—the Persona and Chaos Meter—start to fill up, depending on the factors.
The Reaper’s final mode, Chaos Mode, happens once you’ve accumulated enough in your Chaos Meter. Not being able to activate it manually certainly limits it, but the Reaper’s Chaos Mode is crazy overpowered. This mode provides buffs to the class, including a 10% increased movement speed, a 15% increased critical rate, and a 10% increased attack speed. Since you can easily abuse its power, you can only use it for nine seconds, but it’s possible to extend this by utilizing the Shadow and Dagger skills to hit enemies.
Economy Changes Incoming
Smilegate adjusted how players farm Lost Ark gold to battle unauthorized purchases and botting, especially in the early game. As such, all Welcome Quests and Rapport Rewards will no longer reward you gold. Instead, the game will replace the currency with Amulets or Lost Ark items—these will be a part of the updated Tripod system. Moreover, Oreha’s Well Abyss Dungeons (Normal Mode) will also grant players less gold. To help the newer players in Lost Ark, the developers decided to use Silver instead of Gold when honing equipment up to level 1340. The game will also have a new merchant; this NPC will carry Lost Ark items you can only purchase with gold currency. This, in turn, will yield a money sink that players with excess currency can splurge towards. Since the NPC will only be in the game until December 14, check out their wares before they leave for good.
The Punika Powerpass and Hyper Express Event
To get the Punika Powepass, you’ll have to complete the roster quest “Berver’s Friend” beforehand. It functions similarly to the North Vern Powerpasses we’ve had before during Lost Ark’s launch, wherein after you’ve completed the storyline of a continent, you can then use the Powerpass to bring one of your alternate characters. You can receive the Punika Powerpass by receiving it through the in-game mail. Note that you must use it on one of your characters; it’ll expire if you don’t on January 18, 2023, should you choose not to activate it. Once used, the game will instantly boost your character to level 50 and a set of item level 1302 gear.
Meanwhile, the Hyper Express Event is available for characters with an item level between 1302 and 1445. This event will give you specific missions that yield honing materials upon completion. It’s also an excellent method to get to item level 1445, making it perfect for Vykas Normal Mode and Valtan Hard Mode.
To get the Punika Powepass, you’ll have to complete the roster quest “Berver’s Friend” beforehand. It functions similarly to the North Vern Powerpasses we’ve had before during Lost Ark’s launch, wherein after you’ve completed the storyline of a continent, you can then use the Powerpass to bring one of your alternate characters.
Players can complete the missions in the Hyper Express Event until February 8, 2023.
QoL Enhancements
There’s a whole smorgasbord of QoL updates for Lost Ark, but here are the most noteworthy ones that caught our attention:
● New Stronghold features are now available; you can finally enter your Manor
● You can easily distinguish battle Items with the icons that show their type
● Buffs will remain through the Chaos Dungeon stages
● A new gauge will show the remaining time you have to a combo using the Chain Skill
● Better controller support
● PvE’s Spectator Mode provides more information and can now be used even if you’re dead in an Abyss or Legion Raid.
On A Roll
Smilegate’s efforts to churn out new content and Lost Ark gear aren’t likely to slow down anytime soon. With the recent launch of the game’s Season 2 Ark Pass and the November update, the online community currently has a healthy number of players. As of November 15, 2022, almost 250,000 people are playing Lost Ark based on Steam’s API.
