In this guide, we are going over everything that is important for the Valtan and future updates in Lost Ark, and talk about what you should focus on the most and how you can prepare and make necessary investments now that will benefit you when Valtan is released.

How To Prepare For Valtan & May Update in Lost Ark?

What to do to get ready for the Valtan raid before May Upate? To get ready for the upcoming Valtan raid, you not only need to get your main class well-built and geared but also should stock some materials, and items for the new progression.  So first of all, let's share some useful tips for preparing your main classes for the new legion raid!

1. Get the Item Level of Your Main Class To 1415 & 1445

To prepare for the upcoming new content is Lost Ark, the most obvious one to focus on is the item level requirement to enter Valtan. Valtan has a normal mode and hard mode where the entry item level requirement is 1415 for normal mode, while the Hard mode is 1445. The difference between normal and hard mode is not big, aside from the obvious ones verbose has more HP deals, more damage, and has a slight difference in attacks and mechanics, the rewards also don't increase too much

The numbers for our version aren't 100% confirmed but you can expect to get slightly more gold few extra relic accessories and a relic ability stone extra materials to craft a relic gear set and extra honing materials with an increased chance of getting legendary engraving book. There is a big difference between your current legendary Argos set and the new relic set in the increased stats and gear set bonuses. The relic set also starts at 1340 transferring Argos set into Relic set will maintain the item level and honing level. The only real difference is that the relic set can be honed to +25 whereas Argos only goes to +20.

Keep note that you will only be able to craft half of the relic set from Valtan, the other half comes from materials after clearing Vykas which is the next legion raid.

Check our guide to learn:

Fastest & Cheapest 1370 To 1415 Gear Honing Methods

Fastest & Cheapest 1415 To 1445 Gear Honing Methods

2. 3x 3 Level Engravings is Enough for Valtan

Engravings are an important aspect of getting up your character to make it easier for you to clear Valtan, most people will tell you that you absolutely need 4 level 3 engravings but take it from someone who cleared Valtan on hard mode with only 3 level 3 engravings on Japan and Russia when it was initially released. So we suggest you plan on doing Valtan hard mode with purple accessories and only 3 level 3 engravings. You will swap those accessories for relic ones, as the base stats on the relic accessories is a massive increase compared to the legendary Argos ones. Overall the minimum requirement is 3 level 3 engravings for both Valtan normal and hard while anything higher will be an extra bonus.

3. 11x Level 6-7 Gems with Perfect Stats

Having an optimal gem setup is essential for clearing Valtan Normal and Hard. For normal, you will want to have at least 11 level 5 gems with all the perfect stats for your class and you will want to have at least level 6 and level 7 gems for Valtan hard mode. To compensate for your lack of 4 level 3 engravings and purple accessories, you can go with 11 level 7 gems with a perfect setup. So we suggest you invest a small portion of your gold into level 7 gems as gems are something you won't be replaced so easily and they never lose value, they benefit you more in the terms of damage than legendary Argos accessories which you will promptly replace with relic accessories.

4. Lostwind Cliff or Light of Salvation Card Set

We have honestly been showered with a lot of card packs through all kinds of events and southward story quests that you can repeat on every 13-14 plus alt and get the same card packs. The absolute minimum you will want to have the basic set of either Lostwind Cliff or Light of Salvation as they will give a decent amount of dark damage reduction which will benefit you in every legion raid. The big plus will be if you have been able to awaken your Lostwind Cliff Set to gain extra seven percent christians if you're a DPS class, and even for support classes you will benefit the most from the dark damage reduction compared to other defensive or supportive card sets. If you have been absolutely lucky and able to get 12 piece awakening on Light of Salvation then that will even further increase your damage and will be more than enough for Valtan. 

5. Stock Some Battle Consumables & Items for Raid

Battle items are also something that we have been given in large quantities through various events and contents, so there are no excuses that you don't have potions, grenades, and other useful battle items. The most important one will be Elemental HP Potion and if you are able to craft your own then Splendid Elemental HP Potion, they both heal the same amount and the only difference is that the Splendid ones have nine uses compared to the normal elemental potion which is seven uses. If you get hit a lot those two extra uses will come in clutch, you should have a lot of battle item boxes stacked up and ready to be used for various battle items that you will potentially need, these include Destruction Bombs, Veron Bombs, Time Stop Potions, Panacea and Sacred Charms. If you have a purify rune, it can be used instead Panacea or a Sacred Charm.

7. Make Sure Have Your Main Class with Level 4 Tripods Setup

When it comes to tripod levels, you should aim to have at least level 3 tripods on most of your important scales, and if possible add as many level 4 tripods at 14-15 plus item level, with Valtan release you will gain access to southwest Chaos dungeons that will have a chance of dropping relic gear with level 4 tripods, which means you successfully transferred will grant you a maximum level 5 tripod. Doing Chaos dungeon at 14-15 plus before you do your first Valtan run is beneficial, in case you are able to get a level 4 tripod that you want and successfully transfer it. Make sure you have the correct alert settings for these tripods, make sure you have the correct alert settings for this tripod setup for your main class so you can see when something that you want to drops.

8. Prepare Your Alts for Valtan

Alts despite what other people might tell you are not needed for progressing your main. Sure having alts will speed up the process but you will not be left behind if you only play one character. We know few people that have been item level 1415 for few weeks and pushing 1445 being free to play and only playing one character while having a PVP alt that is level 26, only farming PvP tokens each week for the materials from the PvP merchant. Having alts will benefit you, but it is not important. The question that we get asked the most is "How far do I progress my main before I start progressing my alts and how far do I go with my alts?" The answer depends on your play time amount of alts you have and want to push, amount of gold silver and honing materials, and your goals for your main character. Your absolute priority should be getting your main character to 1415 that will unlock so much new content that will benefit you massively and you should not spend any tradable materials on your alts until you reach 1415 on your main. If your goal is to do Valtan on hard mode on week 1, then you will want to push your main to 14 45 before you start working on the alts. For alts, the three best item levels where you want to park them are 1340, 1370 and 1415. 

Here is our preparation for the Alts: 

• Pushing your main to 1445 while you have your alts at 1340.

• Once you hit 1445, continue pushing your main but only with bound materials, while sell tradable materials depending if the price is good or keep them for the future use on alts 

• When it comes to your alts, keep all alts at 1340 item level until honing buffs arrive. Pushing your alts to 1370 will cause a lot of gold and a lot of materials, the 1370 alt could pay itself off in about 11-12 weeks with gold from argos and orega hard mode. But there is a high chance that by that time we already get the honing buffs and at that point it will be very cheap and easy to push all of your alts to 1450.

• At the end of the day, you can do whatever you want with your alts as long as it aligns with your goals, just remember that the absolute priority is your main at 1415. Everything else is optional and you should feel no pressure in progressing your alts if you don't want to.

What are the Best Items To Invest In For Valtan Before May Update Release?

Now that you are ready for Valtan with decent gear, it's time to talk about items and other stuff that have a very high chance of exploding in price on Valtan release and absolutely make you thousands of gold. 

1. Honor Pouches

If you are looking for an absolute 100% guarantee investment that will exponentially go up in price, then you might consider buying Honor Shard Pouches, right now in NA and EU servers, these are very very cheap and undervalued as the current need for them is very minimal and every two days we have a chaos gate that pumps up even more of these pouches daily. 

The main reason why this is a huge investment opportunity is simple: honor shards will always be needed to hone your gear, they are the only tier 3 honing material that doesn't upgrade to a higher version like leapstones, destruction stones and guardian stones. For reference, the current price of purple owner pouch in Korea and Russia is around 350 gold (around 250 gold for the blue one and 150 gold for the green pouch)

2. Powder of Sages

Powder of Sage is another item that could potentially increase in value, its main purpose is increasing success rate when transferring tripods. With the Valtan release, we get access to level 4 tripods which have a 5 chance of a successful transfer meaning everyone will want to transfer these level 4 tripods and they will need a lot of Powder of Sages. There are very limited ways to obtain Powder of Sage, you can farm them in infinite chaos dungeons, get limited amount each week from a guild merchant as a weekly drop from heroic guardian rates once it releases in the future, and crafting 5 per day in your stronghold if you have enough stronghold seals to buy the material needed to craft them.

3. Splendid Elemental HP Potions

Splendid Elemental HP Potions are something that has a potential to increase in price, as there will be the ever needed demand for highest potions available for legion raids. Ability to craft these potions could benefit you in two ways, either for your own personal use or selling them at marketplace. Currently, they are also very undervalued and there should be an expected 50 increase in price few weeks after Valtan and in the future when we get to other legion raids.

4. Fusion Mats & Fish

Leveling your stronghold is very important in Lost ark if you want to get ahead of the curve and have access to valuable items that you can craft. One of those items will be the next version of fusion materials which is needed to hone relic set, being one of the few people who can craft these on day one when they become available can make an insane amounts of gold, as these fusion materials are only obtainable through stronghold crafting or random events that might happen in the future. And you need them to hone your relic gear which makes the demand for them very high. This coincidentally will also increase the price of fish, as fish is one of the key materials needed to craft new fusion materials. Best way to get ahead of the curve is spending your life energy fishing and stacking up on fish without the risk of investing gold into, in case it doesn't go up in price and in a worst case scenario if you cannot craft new fusion materials yourself due to low stronghold level, you can always sell all the fish you stacked up once the price goes up.

5. Rift Fragments

Rift Fragments will be important once you get to 1415 Chaos gate. New chaos gate has a chance to drop a relic map as a normal drop but also in an auction for everyone to bet on. So being item level 1415 before Valtan release should be your main priority due to all the new content becoming available. You should not be spending your rift fragments with current map chests and stack as many of them as possible as, with the new chaos gate we also get new chests that have a higher level of a secret map which has even more materials and older pouches available than the current punica ones. Selling legendary map fronts could make a lot of gold but doing a rotation will bring you even more value in materials than just raw gold.

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