Strongholds are a type of housing system for Lost Ark. Stronghold is also a category in the Codex and lists a variety of tabs related to the Stronghold.
Players can improve the Stronghold and it's look with various Structures, but its most important use is the production of key upgrade materials.
Unlock[]
Can be unlocked by completing Main Quests in East Luterra.
Stronghold Level[]
Your stronghold has its own level, which can be increased by completing stronghold-related tasks like sending ships on missions, completing weekly stronghold missions, and researching in the lab. To complete stronghold tasks, you need Action Energy, which replenishes at a rate of 100 per 10 minutes, and the maximum amount is limited by the upgrades and level of your stronghold.
Facilities[]
Lab[]
The Lab is a research facility, where you can perform one-time research projects which are necessary for unlocking most of the features of the rest of the Stronghold. Extra production slots, blueprints for items that can then be crafted at the Workshop and a spread of passives that can increase the efficiency of the various functions of the Stronghold are all present here. Many of the projects are level-locked, so you will need to keep levelling up your Stronghold to gain access to them.
Take note, virtually all of the research projects will cost resources obtained through Mining and Logging, as well as some Silver, and many will take Gold which can also be Bound Gold.
Workshop[]
The Workshop is where you can spend resources to fabricate a vast spread of items, and it is the single most important facility in your Stronghold for one key reason: many key materials needed to upgrade higher-tier Gear through Honing and to upgrade your Ships are obtained almost exclusively through production at your Workshop. Some prime examples are the following:
- Normal Ship Parts Material (Bound)
- Uncommon Ship Parts Material
- Oreha Fusion Material
Most of the other facilities in your Stronghold and most of the resources you obtain through all of the Trade Skills are designed to fuel either this workshop or the Lab.
Take note, nearly all of the production recipes will need Gold. This can be Bound Gold which can be earned for free throughout the game. For newer players, note that Una's Tasks are the earliest and easiest method of earning Bound Gold in the game. Also note, many of the recipes take resources exclusively produced through your Farm; while these may look identical to resources you can obtain through Trade Skills they are in fact a unique type.
CRITICAL NOTE: Crafting recipes that make Unbound (i.e. tradeable) objects typically cannot be crafted using Bound Gold, since bound gold is far easier to acquire. You will need standard Gold for these recipes, which can be difficult to visually tell from the crafting screen.
Station[]
The Station is a primary income source for your Stronghold, where you can deploy copies of your owned Ships and Stronghold-version Crew on different timed missions. The fundamental principles are as follows:
- Each Dispatch Mission has a set difficulty and mixture of a couple of potential environmental hazards.
- Each of your Ships, Stronghold Crew and Pets have bonuses against two or more of these environmental hazards. Ships start by being able to hold 2 Crew and 1 Pet, with more crew slots becoming available through research at the Lab.
- Every Dispatch Mission is guaranteed to succeed to a basic A-rank as long as the ship doesn't lose all of its Durability, but having a Ship and Crew with bonuses against its hazards increases the chance of completing the mission with an S or SS rank for bonus rewards.
- When selecting a mission, the system will automatically pick the best available Ship, Crew and Pet to get the highest adaptation to that mission's hazards.
- You initially start with 1 Dispatch slot for standard missions allowing for one mission at a time, and more slots can be unlocked through research at the Lab.
- Starting a Dispatch Mission takes Action Energy of the Stronghold.
The Station is the only permanent source of Stronghold XP you have access to that doesn't cost Bound Gold to use, making it your most vital method for upgrading your Stronghold. The income from the missions can be spent in the Market, and the Pirate Coins can also be spent at many of the travelling merchant ships found during Sailing.
Manor[]
The Manor is the centerpiece of your Stronghold. It is primarily used for decorations and aesthetic purposes, but it does also have a feature that can functionally improve your Stronghold's production capabilities: equipped Structures and Outfits.
- Some of the structures that you can build for decoration also have passive effects that can buff other facilities. This can be reduction in the costs of Crafting or Dispatches, speeding up their durations, or the like. Instead of being placed as a decoration these can be equipped onto the Manor in the management screens. The Manor initially starts with 1 Structure slot, and up to 2 more can be unlocked via research at the Lab.
- The Manor also has Outfit slots, initially starting with 1 and 2 more can be unlocked via research at the Lab. Special Outfits can be obtained once you have a Trusted status with NPCs via Rapport. Every relevant NPC has an initial default Outfit, some of which have no passive benefits, but many can have additional outfits purchased with Crystals which may have stronger effects. Just like Structures, these Outfits can have passives improving crafting/dispatch costs, times and the like.
Farm[]
The Farm is purely a resource production facility. It has a set of production slots, initially 6 with more unlocked through research at the Lab. Each slot can be set to 1 of the 6 types of Trade Skills (Mining, Logging, Fishing, Hunting, Excavating and Foraging); once a day each slot will produce a set of Stronghold-variant resources from the selected trade skill at a cost of Life Energy (the same as what you use for standard Trade Skills), at a mixture of different quality Tiers just like standard Trade Skills.
The resources obtained from the Farm are used almost purely for production in the Workshop. There is also an Exchange merchant at the Farm:
- You may find for a certain recipe at the Workshop you don't have enough of a particular Tier of resource, such as a rarer Ore. At the Exchange Merchant you can trade in an excess of a resource for Essence Powder, which can then be traded back to the Exchange Merchant for a different tier of resource.
- Each of the six types of resource has its own Essence Powder and only exclusively trades in that powder. You cannot, for example, trade in Logging resources to get powder to pay for Mining resources; they only trade within their same type.
Market[]
The Market is a site where you can spend a bunch of the resources you obtain, primarily through the Station Dispatches. It contains a mix of merchants offering different wares. Note that there is also one Exchange merchant much like the one at the Farm that allows for the exchanging of materials obtained through Trade Skills, which can be useful for obtaining enough of a key tier of resource needed for a recipe at the Workshop (such as those for the Oreha Fusion Material).
Pet Ranch[]
The Pet Ranch is where you can assign Pets to different stations for resource production or to provide buffs, or to train them in new abilities. Note, your actively summoned pet can also participate in all of these while still being summoned.
- Cookie Workshop: Pets assigned to this station will gradually produce Pet Cookies over time, at a cost of the pet's Morale which acts similar to energy meters for the Stronghold and Trade Skills. Pet Cookies can be exchanged at the nearby merchant for a spread of items from skins to card packs.
- Shelter: Pets assigned to this station will gradually restore their Morale over time.
- Training Area: This area allows you to train a pet in a secondary passive skill, which can affect a number of attributes typically around the effectiveness of your resource harvesting through Trade Skills
- Security Detail: This area allows you to place pets to have their passive skills go into effect (such as the ones learned in the Training Area). The Security Detail is broken into 3 different sets of 3 slots, and different pets are allowed into different slots. Note that a pet can be placed in the Security Detail at the same time as the Shelter or Cookie Workshop.
Trivia[]
- The Tune that the Mokoko Sing to when welcoming you to your stronghold for the first time is from the Popular British Nursery Rhyme "London Bridge is Falling Down"
Tips[]
- For Stronghold EXP gain, try to always have an active research and crew out on missions.
- For Stronghold EXP from crafting, obtain a structure crafting recipe that costs silver instead of gold such as Crafting Recipe: Dyorika Waterwheel from visiting Merchants.
Related[]
- Crafting Recipe
- Stronghold Crew Application Form
- Stronghold Gathering Material
- Stronghold: Other items
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