One of the many things that make Lost Ark an amazing game is its depth. There are a ton of small little things that you can spend your time doing. One of these is building your card deck to give your character a touch of extra power. Find out how these work in our Lost Ark card system guide.
What Are Lost Ark Cards, Card Decks, and Card Books?
Cards are a type of item in Lost Ark. You can collect cards and then use them to build a Card Deck which gives you benefits when equipped. You can collect cards from just about any activity in the game. Some are simply random drops, others come from quests, events, dungeons, or as mentioned just about any activity. Guardian Raid bosses also drop cards and you can generally only collect guardian raid boss cards from that specific boss.
Card Decks are the main benefit of cards. You can equip them in the Card Deck tab and gain some powerful benefits. Your deck consists of a max of six cards and you can put any cards in a deck. However, some cards pair together to make sets that are extremely powerful. You’ll see these on the left side of your Deck UI (see the image above).
For example, the ‘Cain’s Conspiracy’ deck gives bonuses when you have 2, 4, and 6 cards of the set in your deck. You can choose up to equip six cards from the set to max it out, or mix and match sets. It all depends on the bonus you want.
Finally the Card Books are a small focus for collecting cards. Simply put, Card Books grant you small bonuses just for collecting them. The second tab of the Card UI, Books, will list out all the Book sets that will provide you with a bonus. While these bonuses are not huge, they will go a long way when it comes to min-maxing your character’s stats. Additionally, these cards can also be Awaken for further bonuses.
Upgrading Cards and All Card Locations
You can upgrade, or level, cards in Lost Ark. generally starting at level 0 and can go all the way up to level 5, which is depicted by the gems at the bottom of each card.
Each card requires experience to be upgraded, which is gained by sacrificing other cards to that card. This is where experience cards come in – these are cards made only for leveling other cards and give no advantages, you should use these, although you can also sacrifice cards you know you won’t want.
Once you’ve maxed out the experience on a card, you’ll need more of the same card to actually upgrade the card. At level 1, you need just one of the same card, then at level 2, you’ll need two of the same card, and so on. The cards that you use as upgrade materials can all be level 0.
To find out where to get a specific card, all you need to do is open the in-game codex and search for the card name.
Popular Lost Ark Card Decks & Sets
In general, different classes will need different card sets and you can check out which is best for your class in our class-specific guides. However, here are some of the best decks and how to get them:
We’ll Meet Again & Forest of Giants
New Players/Learning Mechanics
The We’ll Meet Again and Forest of Giants are both 3 card decks that work well together. Additionally the cards from this set are fairly easy to obtain, making them great when starting in Lost Ark. Unfortunately, these decks are purely for survivability purposes and will only increase your DPS by keeping you alive. Meaning, these decks are only good when learning a fight, but useless after you can execute the fight.
| Card | First Time Obtain | Repeat Obtainability |
|---|---|---|
| Madnick | [Adventurer’s Tome] Shushire | Wandering Merchant – Jeffery (Shushire) |
| Vrad | [MSQ] Vrad’s Final Moments* | [Dungeon] Vrad’s Hideout |
| Sian | [MSQ] Daybreak* | Wandering Merchant – Jeffery (Shushire) |
| Mokamoka | [Collectible] Mokoko Seeds | Wandering Merchant – Oliver (Tortoyk) |
| Tir | [Achievement] Adventurer of Tortoyk | [Dungeon] Tortoyk’s Heart |
| Caspiel | [Achievement] Secrets of Tortoyk | [Field Boss] Caspiel |
Lostwind Cliff
Entry Mid DPS
The Lostwind Cliff deck can be a quick one to obtain depending on your luck with the legendary cards. The goal for this deck is to shoot for the 12-piece Awakening (7% Crit) by going for the Seria and Solas cards. Meaning you will only need one of each legendary card to build the deck. Additionally, you only want to use the non-selection Legendary Card Packs to build this deck and save the Legendary Selection Card Packs for better decks.
| Card | First Time Obtain | Repeat Obtainability |
|---|---|---|
| Armen | N/A | (Rare) Abyssal Dungeons |
| King Thirain | [Rapport] Thirain | (Rare) Abyssal Dungeons |
| Delain Armen | [Collectible] Ignea Tokens | (Rare) Abyssal Dungeons |
| Kharmine | [Achievement] Start of Endless Chaos | (Rare) Abyssal Dungeons |
| Seria | [Adventurer’s Tome] West Luterra | Wandering Merchant – Burt (East Luterra) |
| Solas | [MSQ] *Holy Inquisitors | [MSQ] *Holy Inquisitors |
Light of Salvation
Best for DPS
Do not lose sleep over not having this deck right away, as it is no simple one to obtain. The Light of Salvation deck is currently the best DPS right now due to fighting demons and their weakness to holy damage. Additionally, it provides a flat 15% damage bonus when you are just fighting normal enemies. This is the deck that is currently ideal to use your Legendary Selection Card Packs; however with all metas, this may change after we are done fighting demons (After Tier 3).
| Card | First Time Obtain | Repeat Obtainability |
|---|---|---|
| Thirain | [Adventurer’s Tome] East Luterra | (Rare) Abyssal Dungeons |
| Shandi | [Achievement] Coming Soon (N/A) | (Rare) Abyssal Dungeons |
| Wei | [Achievement] Boss Hunter: Expert | (Rare) Abyssal Dungeons |
| Azena and Inanna | [Rapport] Azena (Rothun) | (Rare) Abyssal Dungeons |
| Balthorr | [Achievement] The Show Must Go On | (Rare) Abyssal Dungeons |
| Nineveh | [Rapport] Nineveh (Whispering Islet) | (Rare) Abyssal Dungeons |
| Kadan | [Reputation] Guardian – Isteri Island | N/A* |
Three Umar Families (3 Cards)
Back Attack Damage – Situational / Class Dependent
For any of the classes that focus on back attack damage, this deck will be ideal for you. Sadly however, it is not as good as the Light of Salvation Deck. But, there is a chance this will become the best deck for back attackers after Tier 3 content is done. Additionally, this deck will take some time to fully Awaken due the limiting options of the cards.
| Card | First Time Obtain | Repeat Obtainability |
|---|---|---|
| Galatur | [Achievement] Legendary Pacifist | Secret Maps |
| Eikeer | [MSQ] With the Ancestors | [MSQ] *With the Ancestors |
| Naber | [Reputation] Ka-BOOM! | N/A |
That’s it for our Lost Ark card system guide. Thanks for checking it out and best of luck in Arkesia – hopefully, you’ll be able to find your card sets without too much trouble!