Summer is upon us in Lost Ark with the next major update, Cool Retreat, going live on July 17. This patch has been a very long time coming, bringing one of the game’s most highly anticipated features—solo endgame raids and dungeons.
Also in the update, you can claim a Voldis Event Powerpass, join a new Super Mokoko Express, and experience all new festivals, events, and Echidna After Story quest.
Here’s everything included in Lost Ark‘s Cool Retreat patch notes.
When will Lost Ark’s Cool Retreat update go live?
Lost Ark will go down at 2am PT on July 17 so that the developers can implement the Cool Retreat update. The servers are expected to be down for six hours, so we should then be able to enjoy everything in Cool Retreat update from 8am PT on July 17.
Lost Ark July 17 Cool Retreat update: Full patch notes
Solo mode for endgame raids, dungeons
You can now finally enjoy four endgame raids and one dungeon solo in Lost Ark. I’m sure I’m not the only one thankful for this, especially because it means we can practice tricky raid mechanics without the usual grief and toxicity you can experience in groups.
Solo mode offers less gold and progression materials, but it shouldn’t be too much less to hinder your solo progression. Each class receives special effects to help them complete the raids, which is excellent for support classes. The Scale of Fate system is also applied. If you pass a certain item level, you won’t get gold or full progression materials, which means you’ll need to join group raids after these levels:
- Valtan and Vykas Legion Raids: Item Level 1,600
- Kakul-Saydon Legion Raid: Item Level 1,610
- Brelshaza Legion Raid: Item Level 1,620
- Kayangel Abyssal Dungeon: Item Level 1,640
Clearing these raids in Solo mode will earn you the new currency, Clear Medals, which you can redeem for items at the Solo Mode Exchange NPCs in large cities.
Voldis Event Powerpass, Super Mokoko Express, and extra endgame rewards
Voldis Event Powerpass and the Super Mokoko Express are now accessible, making it easier to progress as we head to Tier Four gear this year. The Powerpass must be claimed by Sept. 25, and your character will be dropped into Voldis at item level 1,520.
In the Super Mokoko Express, you’ll get discounted honing rates and gold requirements and earn honing materials more quickly to help you progress to item level 1600 much faster.
You can also receive extra materials, like leapstones and honor shards, by clearing the following events until Sept. 25:
- Kayangel Abyssal Dungeon Gate Three: Hard Mode
- Akkan Legion Raid Gate Three: Normal and Hard Mode
- Ivory Tower Abyssal Dungeon Gate Three: Normal and Hard Mode
- Thaemine Legion Raid Gate Three: Normal and Hard Mode
- Echidna Kazeros Raid Gate Two: Normal and Hard Mode
New festivals, rewards, update gifts, and shop cosmetics
A new, limited-time festival island, Maharaka Paradise Event Island, is located east of Luterra in the Sea of Gienah. Here, you can enjoy races as you transform into a pirate Mokoko. Like all island events, you’ll get tokens for participating, which you can redeem for rewards like summer cosmetics, trail effects, and transformations.
To keep with the summer theme, the store will sell Ocean Festival-themed cosmetics, including pixel weapons, a swing Ride mount, summer wallpaper, and swimsuits.
A new daily playtime rewards event runs until Sept. 25, where you earn rewards every 15 minutes you play (up to 90 minutes). These consist of silver, honing materials, event tokens, and honing fusion materials, which is a new and much-needed reward.
Everyone will also be sent a reward with progression materials for this update, including:
- An Epic Elixir Supplies Chest.
- A Legendary Elixir Supplies Chest.
- Five Wishful Amulet Chest.
- Five Hope Amulet Chest.
- A Dark Fire Chest.
- 15 Ancient Soundstone.
Progression updates
Progress updates have been implemented to improve leveling and progression to accompany the new solo raid mode. The key features include:
- Increased success rate for honing Brel gear.
- Engraving Support can be activated and used on all T3 characters.
- The cost of gear creation, set level upgrades, and ability stone upgrades reduced.
- Legendary Elixir Costs have now been reduced (only applies to newly created Elixirs).
- Weekly creation limit of Epic and Legendary Elixirs has doubled from 10 to 20.
- Cost related to Armor Transcendence has been reduced.
- Pheon costs have been reduced for T3 Gear amulets, accessories, and bracelets.
- Level five T3 bound gems will be granted to players who complete the Punika World Quest.
- Growth missions have been added to help players reach item level 1,600.
- T1/2 guardian raids will grant more materials.
Raid gold changes
As the gold cost has been adjusted to accommodate solo mode raids, the amount of gold players receive from raids and dungeons has also been reduced significantly, as has the extra reward gold. Due to the significant gold drop, I recommend you check out the full patch notes to see how much gold you’ll lose on your favorite raids. E.g., completing Brel on Hard mode will only get 5,600 gold across all four gates. That’s not a lot, and hopefully, the cost reductions the devs have implemented will make this seem minimal.
Echidna After Story quest
A new story quest, Lingering Red Scent, has been added this update. You can pick it up from the Luterran Messenger NPC in Elnead. To enjoy this Echidna After Story quest, complete the “Crimson Red Floral Scent of Temptation” quest and defeat Covetous Master Echidna in either Normal or Hard mode.
Cool Retreat looks like an incredible update for Lost Ark, and I for one am excited to level up an alt with the passes and enjoy the solo raid experience. See you all in Arkesia.
