In the world of Arkesia, ships are used for transporting your characters across the seas to new lands. There are many exciting continents and islands to explore, surrounded by 6 different types of hazardous seas: Kelp Beds, Sandstorm, Siren, Cold Snap, Tempest, and Dead Waters.
Currently, there are a total of 8 different ships you can acquire through adventuring in Lost Ark, each with different Resistances to hazardous seas, ship speed, and crew members. All ships are Roster-bound so every character you create that has access to the seas can use them.
Each of your characters will have their own ship ‘instance’, meaning they can apply whichever modications (different location, crew, skin, or sail) they want to their ship version and it won’t affect any other character’s ship ‘instance’.Â
After each ship is acquired, you can also use it in your Stronghold to send that ship out on dispatches – earning seals, pirate coins, and other goodies.
Your First Ship – Estoque
The well-rounded Estoque will be the first ship you acquire through the main questline, just before leaving Wavestrand Port in East Luterra and heading across the seas to Tortoyk.
At around level 36-40, you will finish questing in Wavestrand Port, and Blackfang, your new best matey, will reward you with the Estoque for helping her eliminate (kill) some dastardly Redfin pirates.
After landing your sea legs (har, har!), you may now, legally, call out, “Argh Matey!” whenever you feel like it. Send any naysayers Blackfang’s way; she’ll ‘appily carve out their ‘earts for ye! ARGH!
Please see this guide for upgrading the Estoque.
Your First Sailor – Eshu
Thanks to your gracious benefactor, Blackfang, Eshu is eager to be your first mate-maybe a little too eager-but beggars can’t be choosers! As a your first crew member, Eshu, is an easy addition to every beginner sailing mission as she has no negative resistances to any hazardous water types and will work on any ship.
As your sea legs grow, especially after level 50 and beyond the Wall of Procyon into west Arkesia, you will have the chance to acquire many different sailors with different stats. A few are gained through questing and rapport, but most are purchased with sailing coins from traveling merchant ships that dock at city ports.
Invenglobal has a great Lost Ark sailors compendium, sortable by sailor grade (normal-relic), which ship they’ll sail on, and to acquire them. You can also view each sailor’s stats and resistances.
Boarding Your Ship
Getting to your ship from land is pretty easy. While on any continent, simply press the Ready to Sail button in the bottom left corner of the world map. This will immediately portal you to the continent’s harbor, placing you into the ship you last used.
Or, if you happen to be in a port city, you can head to the docks and run into the floating anchor which will also place you on your ship.
To enter an island, press the G key to interract with the island’s floating anchor. To leave the island, interract with the floating ship icon to board your ship.
You can also play the Song of Escape (F2) from anywhere on the island to portal directly to your ship.
Tortoyk may look like an island, but it’s considered a continent. Use the World Map to portal to your ship.
Your Ship’s Docking Interface
Boarding your ship from land or pressing the Z key while in a docking zone will bring up the Docking Mode interface. Docking zones are located outside city ports, outlined by a dotted border and a radiating circle. See pic.
From here you can select different ships, crew, skins, and sails. You can also repair the durability on your ship, edit your ship’s name, and upgrade your ship.
Docking in open waters won’t allow repair or changes, so be sure to repair at port!
The Dock button will place you back on land, in the port city.
The Triport button will open the map so you can immediately portal to any triport you have opened on the nearby continent, but don’t expect to portal to Luterra Castle if you are docked at Port Changhun in Anikka!
You can, however, portal to other continents and places after setting sail by using Song of Return (F2 key) or the Bifrost.
Did you know you can set your Bifrost in open waters? Handy for event islands and sailies!
The Repair Ship button repairs the ship’s full durability with silver coin. Repairing durability whenever you dock at a port is a smart idea.
All ships start with 2 crew member slots. Upgrading your ship’s level increases the number of crew slots. You gain 1 crew slot at levels 4, 7, and 10.
Most sailors are ship exclusive, meaning they will only work on one ship. The Crew List button opens up a window showing all available sailors for the ship you currently have selected. Right click a sailor to add or remove them from the Active Crew roster on the left side of the Docking Mode interface.
Most sailors are purchased with sailing coins from merchant ships. You will begin to acquire different types of sailing coins and sailing coin chests through login rewards, seasonal events, scheduled events, and Una’s tasks.
Ship Skills
Every ship has 4 main skills: Treasure Salvage, Harpoon, Stun Harpoon, and Dragnet. These skills are used during daily sailing events (Sailies) to earn sailing coins.
Ship Stats
Base Sailing Speed
Base Sailing Speed is the ships normal speed. Base sailing speeds can be increased by upgrading the levels of your ship and by equipping sailors. Each sailor has it’s own speed stat. In the pic above, Relic Cals shows +2.2 Knots to sailing speed while Legendary Purpurring shows +1 Knots. Crew and Ship speeds stack. The Stat Window will reflect the totals of all increases.
Some Hazardous waters will slow your ship down or even stun it temporarily!
Fast Sailing Speed
Fast Sailing Speed is activated while pressing the Space Bar while sailing. It’s a temporary speed buff that lasts a few seconds. In the pic above, the Fast Sailing Speed is an extra 10 Knots. It’s duration is only 5 seconds, and the rate of recovery is +72.
Durability Consumption
While out sailing, durability depletes at a set amount per tick (Durability Consumption), so that you need to periodically dock at a port or marina to repair. A ship’s max durability is increased by upgrading your ship. Higher durability allows you to sail for longer periods of time without repair. This ship’s Durability Consumption is -25, meaning 25 durability is used at each tick.
There are 6 different Hazardous Waters in Arkesia: Kelp, Sandstorm, Siren, Cold Snap, Tempest, and Dead. Each Hazard has 4 different levels, with level 4 being the strongest and doing the most damage to your ship. You can negate heavy durability loss by increasing the level of your ship and equipping sailors with strong resistances to the hazards you’ll be sailing in.
For more details on Hazardous Waters and resistances please see below.
Skins
The Skin List button opens a separate window that allows you to equip different skins. Ship skins add extra skills, bonuses, and hazard resistances to your ship while changing its appearance. The pic above shows the Estoque equipped with the Hermida’s Song skin which is sold at the Lost Ark game shop. Skins are shared between ships, meaning the same skin can be placed on the Estoque and the White Wind.
Sails
The Change Sail button allows you to change the appearance of your sails. There are several different colors immediately available. During the course of questing and adventuring, you can acquire sail glyphs like the crowned lion in the pic above.
Ships can be upgraded to the current max of Level 11. Ship durability, stats, and hazard resistances improve with each upgrade. Ships also gain an extra crew slot for sailors at Level 4, 7, and 10.
The first few upgrades are fairly inexpensive and the game itself likes to give free boxes of ship materials and sailing coins to new players. Most players will upgrade the Estoque ship first as it’s the most well-rounded in terms of Hazard Resistances which will be very important after you start traveling to western Arkesia and doing sailing events. Please see our guide on upgrading the Estoque.
After acquiring the materials for an upgrade, simply dock (Press Z key) your ship at any major city harbor. Push the Upgrade button at the top right of the screen, confirm you have all the materials necessary, then push the OK button.
Your Ship’s Sailing Interface
Hitting the Set Sail button (or Escape Key) will send you out to open waters and bring up the Sailing Mode interface.
The Sailing Mode UI is fairly simple. There are only a few functions and skills.
- T key enables Auto-sailing, just point your ship in the direction you want to go. Press T again to stop.
- Z key lowers the anchor, stops your ship from sailing, and opens the Docking UI. You can view sailors, stats, ect. but can’t make any modifications until you dock at a port.
- Space key enables Fast Sailing, depleting the yellow meter halfway. Meter regenerates over time.
- C key blows your ship’s horn. As far as I know, this is strictly for fun.
- M key opens the world map, allowing for Auto-route.
Every ship has 4 skills that are used during daily co-op sailing events (Sailies) to earn sailing coins.
- Q Treasure Salvage
- W Harpoon
- E Dragnet
- S Stun Harpoon
Durability is the ‘health’ of your ship. Each ship’s Durability depletes at a set amount while sailing. You can find this in the ship’s stats window while in Docking Mode. Sailing in Hazardous Waters depletes durability even faster, so be careful out there!
If your durability runs out while sailing in open waters, don’t worry! You won’t be able to use your ship’s skills, but you’ll still be able to sail back to port, dock, and repair. Your sailors will help you get there faster by temporarily increasing ship speed. Repair does cost more when repaired from zero durability.
After entering any Hazardous Waters, a Hazard Debuff will be placed on your ship and the glass Hazard Meter will begin to fill. When it’s full, a stronger debuff will hit your ship which usually includes a hefty durability loss. The rate at which the meter fills depends on how resistant your ship is to that Hazard. Leaving the Hazard waters will empty the Hazard meter, but timed debuffs will continue until time runs out.
In the picture above, the ship is Weak to Siren Seas which is shown by the yellow downward arrow and the pink fish icon.
Please see below for more information on Hazardous Waters Resistances. Or, for a more in-depth guide on Hazardous waters, the debuffs, and the math behind it, please see this Hazardous Waters guide.
Ships can Auto-route to their destination with up to 4 way points. Open the world map while on the seas, select a square to zoom in if desired, then Alt Left-Click the map to set a way point. If you need to pause along the way, Press the T key; press again to resume your route. To cancel your route, open the map and push the Cancel Route button.
When you’re too far from a port city, you can stop at a Marina to repair ship durability, swap out ships or sailors. Marinas on the world map are designated by a blue teepee icon. When approaching the Marina, stop inside the green square and press the G key to use it. Marinas in eastern Arkesia charge 150 Pirate Coins for 20 minutes of use. Marinas in western Arkesia, past the Wall of Procyon, charge 300 Pirate Coins for 20 minutes of use. After paying, press the Z key to dock and repair or modify.
Sailing Coins
Sailing coins are the preferred currency of every sea-loving swashbuckler, pirate, and merchant. They are used to buy ship upgrade materials, sailors, and other goodies. Besides the standard Pirate Coin, there are 5 other types of special sailing coins: Gienah’s, Sceptrum’s, Arcturus’s, Ancient and Sun.
After leveling to 50, upgrading your ship is one of the first things you’ll want to do so squirrel away every precious sailing coin until you’ve decided which ship to upgrade and what crew members you want. Plan ahead so no coin is wasted!
To view your buried treasure, open the Currency Inventory window by clicking on the treasure chest icon at the top left of your screen. Select Token Items, then Sailing tab to view the other 5 sailing coins.
Acquiring Sailing Coins
You will begin to acquire different types of sailing coins and sailing coin chests through login rewards, seasonal events, scheduled events like Sailies, and Una’s tasks.
Seasonal events usually last several weeks and can be accessed by accepting the event quest from an NPC in a major city like Luterra Castle or by going to that island. Look for a pink exclamation mark on the city map to locate the NPC.
Sailies (daily co-op sailing events) become available after you leave East Luterra for open waters. View these and other scheduled events by selecting the blue tab located at the top left of your screen. This window shows all the upcoming events happening in Arkesia every day.
Una’s tasks are repeatable daily quests that you will gain access to after you turn 50 and begin the North Vern main questline.
Special sailing coins, like Gienah’s, can be converted into Pirate Coins, but Pirate Coins cannot be converted into the other sailling coins. The Tea and Libra traveling vessel stationed at every city port will do the exchange for you.
Notice the conversion rate for each coin is different. Each Sun coin is worth 20 Pirate Coins, while each Gienah’s coin is only worth 10 Pirate Coins. When you run out of pirate coins, you’ll want to use Sun coins to trade for them. Keep this in mind when opening sailing coin chests.
Hazardous Waters
The waters of Arkesia are populated by hazardous seas. You can choose to safely sail around them but what kind of lily-livered swashbuckler would do that?? Instead, crew up, and tame those wild seas till they purr like Blackfang’s sword.
| Hazardous Waters Zones | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 |
Kelp Beds |  |
Cold Snap |
 |
Sandstorm |  |
Tempest |
 |
Siren |  |
Dead Water |
There are 6 different types of Hazardous seas–Kelp Beds, Sandstorm, Siren, Cold Snap, Tempest, and Dead Waters–and 4 danger levels for each hazard type.
The in game map is laid out in a grid format. Clicking on a square will zoom into that area. Kelp beds are a hidden annoyance, but other hazard seas are clearly defined.
The map below (thanks to Invenglobal) shows that level 1-2 hazards are found in east Arkesia, while level 3-4 hazards are found in west Arkesia beyond the Wall of Procyon.
The Wall of Procyon is a mostly invisible wall that stretches north to south between the continents. You won’t be able to cross it until your Equipped Item Level is 460+, then the main questline will take you through it to Rohendel, continuing your adventures into West Arkesia.
Hazardous Waters Interface
You can plan ahead if you know which level of Hazardous Waters you will be sailing in by hitting the arrow keys to the right and left of the Hazardous Waters level in the Docking Mode UI.
In the picture above, Hazardous Waters Level 3 is selected. This shows what the ship’s resistances are to each Level 3 Hazardous Water it may encounter on it’s voyage. Hovering your mouse over the arrow icons will detail how each resistance was calculated and how many points are necessary your ship’s safety levels.
For a more in-depth guide on Hazardous waters, the debuffs, and the math behind it, please see this Hazardous Waters guide.
Your Ship’s Safety Levels
Your ship has 5 arrow indicators for how resistant it is to every Hazardous Water type. A green upward arrow indicates your ship is strong in that Hazard. A double red downward arrow indicates your ship is in serious danger.
| Safety Levels | |
|---|---|
 |
Strong |
 |
Normal |
 |
Weak |
 |
Very Weak |
 |
Danger |
This ship is Strong in level 3 Dead Waters, but Dangerous in level 3 Tempest Seas. If I go into Tempest waters using this configuration, I would expect frequent debuffs with huge durability losses.
In the bottom row of the Hazardous Waters UI is an icon of the Hermida’s Song skin. The Hermida’s Song skin allows you to allocate 12 points to whichever resistances you want. The resistance bonuses chosen with this skin are: +7 in Siren and +5 in Dead. You can re-allocate your bonus resistance points but, it costs blue crystals each time you do it.
