If you’ve spent any time grinding your stronghold in Lost Ark, you’ve probably hit the annoying roadblock where you can’t unlock higher-tier research, craft better potions, or access endgame stronghold features because you don’t know how to get Lab Level 2 in Lost Ark. I remember being stuck on this for three days when I first started my main, wasting resources on random upgrades that didn’t move the needle, so I put together this guide based on my own playthrough and testing with 3 different alt accounts to cut through the confusion. Lab level 2 isn’t just a throwaway base upgrade either. It unlocks a ton of quality of life features that make your entire Lost Ark experience way smoother, from faster crafting times to exclusive honing material research that saves you thousands of gold long term. Even if you don’t spend a lot of time in your stronghold, this upgrade is worth prioritizing before almost any other stronghold improvement.
Prerequisites You Must Meet to Get Lab Level 2 in Lost Ark
You don’t just unlock this upgrade by grinding random stronghold XP. There are 4 non-negotiable prerequisites you have to check off first, and I see most new players miss at least one of these when they first try to upgrade. First, your stronghold needs to be at Level 3 minimum. If your stronghold is still level 1 or 2, you won’t even see the Lab level 2 upgrade option pop up in your stronghold management menu, no matter how many resources you have saved. Second, you need to have completed the “Castle, Under Siege” stronghold quest line. This quest unlocks automatically once you hit level 50 and gain access to your stronghold’s first batch of management features, but a lot of players skip side stronghold quests to grind chaos dungeons first, which locks them out of higher upgrades for days or even weeks.
Third, you need to have your default Lab level 1 fully upgraded, with no pending research left in the queue. I made the mistake of leaving a low-tier health potion research running when I first tried to upgrade, and the game wouldn’t let me start the Lab level 2 process until it finished, so make sure you clear your research queue first to avoid waiting extra time. Fourth, you need to have at least one free upgrade slot available in your stronghold. If you’re already upgrading your workshop or barracks, you’ll have to wait for that upgrade to finish first, or cancel it if you want to prioritize the Lab upgrade.
Exact Resource Costs for Lab Level 2 Upgrade
A lot of outdated guides list old resource costs that don’t match the current live version of the game, so I double checked these numbers on both NA East and EU Central servers last week to make sure they’re accurate. You don’t need any rare premium currency for this upgrade, all resources can be farmed for free through regular gameplay. If you’re gathering resources specifically to get Lab Level 2 in Lost Ark, prioritize farming stronghold XP first, since that’s the hardest resource to come by for most new players.
- Stronghold XP: 12,000 – You can earn this by completing daily stronghold missions, sending your dispatch crew on runs, and turning in unwanted trade skill materials to the stronghold vendor.
- Silver: 80,000 – This is easy to farm through chaos dungeons, guardian raids, and selling unwanted gear to NPCs, so you probably already have enough saved if you’ve been playing for more than a week at level 50.
- Oreha Fusion Material: 15 – You can craft these in your stronghold once you unlock the recipe, or buy them from the auction house for a very low cost if you don’t want to wait for crafting time.
- Iron Ore: 200 – Farm this from any tier 1 mining node, or buy it from the trade skill market for a few hundred silver total.
If you’re short on stronghold XP, the fastest way to farm it is to send your highest level dispatch crews on 4-hour long missions that reward stronghold XP specifically. I’ve found that these give 3x more XP per hour than shorter 1-hour missions, so it’s worth waiting a little longer if you’re in a rush to hit the required XP threshold. Don’t waste gold buying stronghold XP potions from the cash shop, they’re wildly overpriced for the small amount of XP they give, and you can earn the same amount of XP in 2 normal dispatch runs for free.
Step-by-Step Process to Complete the Upgrade
Once you have all the prerequisites and resources gathered, the actual upgrade process only takes a few minutes to start, and 2 hours to finish. First, open your stronghold management menu by pressing Ctrl+1 while you’re inside your stronghold. Click on the “Lab” tab on the left hand side of the menu. If you’ve met all the prerequisites, you’ll see a bright yellow “Upgrade” button at the top of the Lab menu. Click that button, confirm you want to spend the required resources, and the upgrade timer will start immediately. You don’t have to stay in your stronghold while the upgrade runs, you can go grind chaos dungeons, do guardian raids, or even log off and the timer will keep counting down in the background.
Pro tip: Start the upgrade right before you log off for the night, so it will be finished by the time you log back in the next day, and you won’t have to waste any playtime waiting for it to complete. Once you finish the upgrade process to get Lab Level 2 in Lost Ark, you’ll immediately gain access to 12 new research slots that were locked behind level 1. I recommend checking the new research tab immediately, you’ll find a recipe for 20% faster honing success rate bonuses for tier 1 gear that saves you hundreds of destruction and guardian stones early on, which translates to thousands of gold saved over the course of your character progression.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Unlocking Lab Level 2
Even with a clear guide, a lot of players make avoidable mistakes that add hours or even days to their upgrade time, so I’ve listed the most common ones I’ve seen in my time playing and helping new guild members. First, don’t waste resources upgrading other stronghold buildings first before you hit Lab level 2. A lot of new players will upgrade their workshop or barracks first because they think those are more useful, but Lab level 2 unlocks research that makes every other stronghold upgrade cheaper and faster, so it’s always the best first major upgrade to prioritize. You’ll end up saving more resources long term by getting the Lab upgrade done first, even if you want to unlock more dispatch crew slots right away.
Second, don’t forget to clear your research queue before you start the upgrade. Like I mentioned earlier, the game won’t let you start the Lab upgrade if there’s any active or pending research in your Lab queue, so make sure you either cancel low priority research or wait for it to finish before you try to upgrade. Third, don’t buy resources from the auction house unless you’re really in a rush. All the required resources for Lab level 2 can be farmed for free in less than an hour of casual trade skill grinding and daily missions, so there’s no need to waste gold on overpriced listed materials. That said, if you only need 10 more Oreha Fusion Materials and don’t want to wait for crafting, buying them from the auction house for 50 gold total is a reasonable expense to save time. Never spend royal crystals on any of the required resources, they’re not worth the real world cost for this upgrade.
Unlocking Lab level 2 is one of the most impactful early endgame upgrades you can get in Lost Ark, and it’s well worth the small time and resource investment to get it done as early as possible. Once you know how to get Lab Level 2 in Lost Ark, you can unlock all the hidden quality of life and progression bonuses that make the rest of your grind way more efficient, and you won’t have to deal with the frustration of being locked out of higher tier research for weeks like a lot of new players do. If you run into any snags during the process, double check that you’ve completed all the prerequisite quests and that your stronghold is at the correct level, 9 times out of 10 that’s the issue holding you back. You can also ask your guild mates for help if you’re still stuck, most veteran players have gone through this process dozens of times across their alts and can point out what you’re missing.