If you’ve spent the first few weeks of your Lost Ark playthrough grinding through the main story and hitting level 50, you’ve probably hit that frustrating tier 1 wall where progression feels like it slows to a crawl. A lot of new players waste dozens of hours on low-reward activities that don’t move the needle, and end up quitting before they ever get to the far more engaging tier 2 content. Figuring out how to progress to tier 2 Lost Ark doesn’t have to be a soul-crushing grind, though. I made every possible mistake on my first run through tier 1, so I’ve put together all the tips I wish I’d known when I started to help you cut your grind time in half.
How to Progress to Tier 2 Lost Ark: First, Hit the Required Gear Score Thresholds
Before you can even access tier 2 zones and content, you need to hit a specific gear score benchmark, and it’s easy to waste materials chasing a higher score than you actually need. The minimum gear score to access tier 2 zones is 600, though many veteran players recommend hitting 620 before you make the jump to avoid getting stuck on early tier 2 dungeons that require higher damage output. You don’t need to hone every piece of your tier 1 gear to +15, contrary to what some outdated guides might tell you. That old requirement was from the game’s launch, when honing success rates were much lower, but current patches let you hit the 600 threshold with most of your gear at +12 to +13, which saves you a ton of materials and silver. If you’re stuck below 580 gear score, focus on completing your epic tier 1 set first before you worry about honing past +10, since the base stat boost from epic gear will get you a bigger gear score jump than honing rare gear.
Prioritize These High-Reward Activities to Skip Unnecessary Grind
The biggest mistake I see new players make is running every single side quest and open world activity they stumble across, just because it’s marked with an exclamation point on the map. Almost none of those activities give you the honing materials you need to raise your gear score, so you’re just wasting time that could be spent on activities that actually get you closer to tier 2. Stick to this short list of high-reward activities to get all the materials you need in half the time:
- Chaos Dungeons (run 2 per day on your main character for maximum tier 1 honing shards, leapstones, and random gear drops)
- Guardian Raids (run 2 per day, focusing on the highest level Guardian you can beat, for core honing materials and rare accessory drops)
- Una's Tasks (pick daily and weekly tasks that reward tier 1 leapstones or silver, skip any that only give reputation or XP you don’t need)
- Abyssal Dungeons (run both tier 1 variants once per week to get epic tier 1 gear sets that reduce your honing requirements by 10%)
- Low-effort Island Tokens (run islands like Panda Island or Totopia for free honing material chests that require little to no combat to unlock)
You can skip 90% of open world side quests once you hit level 50, since they give almost no progression materials, only small amounts of silver and XP that won’t help you raise your gear score. If you have alts, you can run their daily Chaos Dungeons and Guardian Raids and send the unbound honing materials to your main, which cuts your grind time almost in half. Just make sure your alts are at least 302 gear score first, so they can access tier 1 endgame activities.
Avoid These Common Mistakes That Slow Down Tier 2 Progression
Even if you’re sticking to the high-reward activities, small mistakes can add days or even weeks to your tier 1 grind. The most common one I see is players wasting honing materials on low-level accessories, which give almost no gear score gain compared to armor and weapons. Honing your armor and weapon set gives 3x more gear score per material spent than accessories, so hold off on honing accessories until you get to tier 2, when you’ll find rare and epic accessories with better stat rolls anyway. Another mistake is ignoring the honing pity system. If you fail a honing attempt 10 times, you get a guaranteed success, so don’t switch to a different piece of gear if you’re already at 9 fails, stick with it to get the free success and save materials. Never spend real money on tier 1 honing materials, they’re extremely overpriced in the in-game shop, and you can get all the materials you need for free just by completing your daily and weekly activities. If you do need to buy extra materials to fill a gap, wait until early morning server time to buy them from the auction house, prices are 20-30% lower than peak evening hours when most players are online.
What to Do Right After You Reach Tier 2 to Stay On Track
Hitting 600 gear score is a huge milestone, but you don’t want to jump straight into tier 2 content without wrapping up a few loose ends first. First, finish any remaining tier 1 weekly tasks that give you unbound honing materials, then sell all your leftover bound tier 1 materials to a vendor, and unbound ones on the auction house for extra silver you can use for tier 2 honing. Don’t hold onto your tier 1 epic gear once you get your first set of rare tier 2 gear, the base stats on tier 2 gear are far higher, even if it’s a lower rarity. The first thing you should do when you enter tier 2 is run the first two Chaos Dungeon tiers to get your initial tier 2 gear set, then swap out all your tier 1 gear as soon as you can. Adjust your Una's Tasks to focus on tier 2 leapstones and materials instead of tier 1, don’t waste your daily task slots on low-reward tier 1 content anymore. If you’re part of a static group, schedule your first tier 2 Abyssal Dungeon run within the first two days of hitting tier 2, that lets you get the epic tier 2 set fast and reduces your honing needs for later tier 2 content. You can also take a break to run a few fun side activities once you hit tier 2, you’ve earned it after all that grinding.
At the end of the day, figuring out how to progress to tier 2 Lost Ark is all about working smarter, not harder. You don’t have to play 8 hours a day to hit the threshold in a week, even if you only play 2 hours a day, sticking to the high-reward activities and avoiding the common mistakes will get you there in 2-3 weeks tops. I’ve helped 4 of my friends get through tier 1 in half the time they thought they would, just by cutting out the useless side quests and low-value activities they were wasting time on. Don’t forget to have fun along the way, take breaks to run a silly island event or do a PvP match if you’re burnt out on honing, the tier 2 content will still be there when you come back.