After a very long wait,Lost Arkis now available to play in the west. The MMO-ARPG initially launched in Korea in 2019, but its taken three years and a partnership with Amazon for publishing to bring it to the United States and Europe. Despite the extra time for preparation, however,Lost Ark’s launch has not gone smoothly. Amazon even publicly acknowledgedLost Ark’s launch issues, not quite apologizing but offering a reward of Crystalline Aura to all players.The reward thatAmazonis offering to players is three days of Crystalline Aura. This reward can be claimed by allLost Arkplayers, but will only be available for a limited time. Players who log intoLost Arkbetween now and February 13 at 9:00 AM PT will receive the gift on login. That’s the only reward currently confirmed, but Amazon does ask players to watch for more updates should they be necessary.RELATED:Lost Ark Limiting New Characters on Some ServersAs for what Crystalline Aura is and whether it’s even valuable toLost Arkplayers, it depends.Lost Arkis free to play, and as MMO players know, many free-to-play MMOs from Korea are notorious for their egregious monetization. Crystalline Aura is one such way thatLost Arkmonetizes the game. It’s effectively a subscription fee, only instead of being required to play the MMO like withWorld of WarcraftorFinal Fantasy 14, it eases some of the barriers put in place to encourageLost Arkplayers to partake in various monetized systems.
More specifically, Crystalline Aura grants 7,000 free experience a minute, it gives players a pet that can repair and hold storage, it makes theTriport fast-travel systemfree, gives two free Bifrost slots for custom fast-travel points, recovers Life Energy (required for gathering) 10% faster than normal, and several other bonuses that can save players a lot of time and frustration.
It’s safe to say that for seriousLost Arkplayers, having theCrystalline Aurais required. Otherwise, they’ll be spending that much more time and effort doing the same tasks as those who do have the Aura.
As for whether 3 days of Crystalline Aura is actually very valuable, the answer is that, for most players, not really. Most of the systems the Crystalline Aura boosts aren’t valuable until later in the game. MostLost Arkplayers will never get much use out of the free reward. However, for those that do stick around, it may offer a brief look at what the subscription offers and whether it’s worth purchasing – andwhetherLost Arkis worth playing– going forward.
Lost Arkis available now on PC.
MORE:Amazon’s Lost Ark Offers Much More To Do Than Endless Combat
