Trade Skills in Lost Ark are essentially gathering professions that players can invest in and master. Trade Skills allow players to collect various materials and resources used in Crafting. Players will eventually have access to all six Trade Skills and are not limited in which they can use. However, leveling them up requires frequent use and investing in the various abilities each skill offers. This page covers information on all Trade Skills and related info.
- Trade Skills are unlocked as part of the Crown of Lakebar quest chain. Following the Main Story will take you to Lakebar in around 6-8 hours from the beginning.
- Using any Trade Skill will consume your Work Energy. This meter regenerates at a rate of 30 energy every 10 minutes, with a max cap of 10,000. Note that Work Energy is shared among all characters on the same account.
- Using a Trade Skill requires a Trade Skill Tool. These come in various rarities and can roll random special effects when obtained.
- Trade Skill Tools have a durability meter which depletes as you use the skill. You can repair tools at the cost of silver but this will also reduce their max durability by a small amount per repair. Tools can be sharpened using Crystals purchased from the Cash Shop to rebuild their max durability.
All Trade Skills in Lost Ark
Mining
A Trade Skill used to mine ore and minerals, useful for Stronghold upgrades and gear.
Fishing
A Trade Skill focused on gathering fish and other items from bodies of water. Materials are primarily used to make food.
Foraging
Used to gather plants and mushrooms. Materials are primarily used in crafting Potions and Bombs.
Hunting
Used to gather materials from animals such as meat and leather which can be used in cooking and crafting gear.
Logging
A Trade Skill focused on cutting down trees and gathering wood. Materials are used to upgrade your Stronghold and Ships.
Excavating
A Trade Skill focused on unearthing buried Relics and other treasure. Relics are used in the crafting of Tools and certain pieces of equipment.
Lost Ark Trade Skills Mechanics Overview
Trade Skills are special non-combat abilities players can acquire that serve as a means to gather materials such as plants, ore and lumber which will go towards building and upgrading structures in your Stronghold as well as Crafting, among other applications. Trade Skills are the primary source of obtaining materials to create Battle Items and Building Materials for your Stronghold so it is well worth investing in them to some extent.
There are six Trade Skills that players can learn, each specializing in a type of material. Trade Skills can also be leveled up by continual use and each is leveled independently. Reaching certain level milestones in a Trade Skill will unlock abilities within its tree. Some of these abilities are passive while some are active, granting effects such as allowing you to gather more types of materials, gather more materials at once or modify the way you gather materials.
After acquiring them, using Trade Skills requires two things: The appropriate Trade Skill Tool which is unique per Trade Skill — and Work Energy, a finite but slowly recharging resource that is depleted with every use of a Trade Skill.
How to Unlock Trade Skills in Lost Ark
Trade Skills are unlocked by completing a series of Tutorial Quests in Lakebar beginning with the Crown of Lakebar quest. Following the Main Story quest will lead you to Lakebar so you can't miss it. If strictly following the Main Story quest, you should arrive in Lakebar around 6-8 hours in. Completing the Crown of Lakebar quest will unlock the ability to purchase Trade Skill Tools, as well as grant you access to the Mining skill. From here, follow the quest chain which gradually introduces each Trade Skill to unlock them.
Using Trade Skills
To use Trade Skills, enter Trade Skill mode (default key 'B'). This replaces your Skill bar with Trade Skill abilities. Each skill has at least one active ability used to interact with material nodes and other points of gathering.
For Mining, Foraging and Logging, you can find their respective material nodes in an area. The type of materials available will vary from location to location. Material nodes can be viewed on the mini-map as well. Mining nodes are represented by a blue rock, foraging nodes are represented by a leaf and Logging nodes are represented by a wooden log. Use your default active skill to gather from a node.
For Hunting, players can use the Search active ability to mark game animals such as Rabbits. After marking, use the Throw ability to lob axes at your target. Once an animal is killed, you can skin it to obtain materials such as meat and leather..
The Excavating trade skill does not have any gathering nodes. Instead, you utilize a Sonar ability which creates a blue tracker above your character's head. The tracker beeps slowly at first, speeding up in tempo the closer you get to a buried relic. When you are close enough, you can use the Relic Search skill to reveal the location of a Relic in the area, after which you can walk over to unearth it.
Fishing can be done at any body of water marked with a Fish Hook icon on the mini-map. Use the Float Fishing active skill to cast your line in the water. After a brief moment, a fish will swim up to your lure. Once it drags the lure under water, press the skill again to catch the fish.
Trade Skill Tools
Trade Skill tools are special equipment required in order to use a Trade Skill. Each Trade Skill uses a different tool and they can be equipped in the Trade Skills Menu (default shortcut key 'L').
Tools all follow the same naming convention, with its quality followed by the tool type (i.e., Adept Excavation Tool). Tools can be acquired in many different ways including purchasing from Vendors, Crafting, or received as a reward from Quests and other activities.
When a Trade Skill tool is acquired, it will randomly 'roll' Bonuses which grant special effects when using the tool. Such effects include improved gathering speed, reduced chance for durability loss and increased yield for rare items. Each type of tool has a pool of 6 of these Bonuses that can be rolled, differing depending on the type of tool. How many of these Bonuses can be rolled onto a tool will depend on its rarity.
Similarly to all other items, Trade Skill Tools come in varying rarities: Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary and Relic. Rarity increases the amount of Bonuses that can roll onto a tool when acquired, starting from 1 Bonus with Uncommon tools and up to 5 Bonuses with Relic tools. Each Bonus also has a degree of effectiveness, which is also randomly rolled.
Each tool also comes with a Durability meter which is depleted every time its respective Trade Skill is used. A tool's durability can be repaired using Silver. However, this will also reduce its Maximum Durability with each subsequent repair. Tools can be sharpened to recover their Max Durability by using Crystals purchased from the Cash Shop. This is not recommended during the early stages and any Crystals you acquire should be reserved for when you get a higher tier tool that rolls great Bonuses.
Work Energy
Work Energy is a special resource that allows you to obtain gatherables or use Trade Skills. You cannot obtain gatherables or use Trade Skills when you do not have enough energy. It is represented by a green bar above your hotkey bar, at the bottom portion of your HUD.
Work Energy is depleted at varying rates with every use of Trade Skills. Certain Trade Skill abilities can drain Work Energy at a much faster rate, but this is usually compensated by one or more benefits from using the ability. Work Energy has a Maximum Capacity of 10,000 and regenerates at a rate of ~30 Energy every 10 minutes. When the energy is capped, you can no longer gain energy until you use some up. It is advised to never let your energy cap so as not to waste the recharge. This system is identical to a lot of mobile games that use a similar energy meter in order to limit activities.
Work Energy is shared across all of your characters on the same server which puts a limitation on farming materials with alt characters. However, your Trade Skill levels are also shared across characters so you only ever need to level them up once.
When gathering at Platinum Fields, Work Energy is not consumed.
Work Energy regeneration rate can be improved by using a Crystalline Aura buff which can be purchased from the Cash Shop.
Platinum Fields
Platinum Fields are special instances comprised of massive maps filled with Gathering Nodes of varying types.
- More info to be added
Trade Skill Notes & Tips
- Additional Notes & Tips go here
