Lost Ark Engravings guide and how to use Ability Stones

Lost Ark Engravings and the Ability Stone system are confusing, especially to new players. Engraving recipes are needed to upgrade Engravings, but they don’t give abilities unless you reach the first node, which can be obtained with the help of Ability Stones, but they need to be faceted using risk calculation- Wait… what?

Don’t worry, you’ll get the hang of it if you follow this Lost Ark Engravings guide. Here’s how to get the best Engravings and work those Ability Stones!

What are Engravings in Lost Ark

Simply put, Engravings are character buffs. By reading ‘Engraving Recipes’ or equipping ‘Ability Stones’, you can unlock special effects such as increased attack power, a reduced Awakening skill cooldown, or increased movement speed.

If you open the Roster menu in Lost Ark, you’ll see a tab that says ‘Engraving Effects’. It’s divided between the two class bonuses (exclusive to your current class) and 45 combat bonuses (available to the full Roster).

By hovering over the Engravings on this page, you can see their effects. Each Engraving has three levels, and you need to unlock five ‘nodes’ for each level. This means that if you’ve upgraded an Engraving, but you haven’t reached the fifth node yet, the effect is not yet active. It takes a lot of Engraving upgrades to reach this point, so it’s completely normal to lack active Engravings before reaching level 50.

How to unlock Engravings in Lost Ark

There are three ways to upgrade Engraving levels:

Engraving Recipes. Get them as quest rewards (especially Island Quests), Dungeon drops, and Raid drops. While most Engraving Recipe chests allow you to pick the Engraving of your choice, some are based on chance.
Ability Stones. They’re obtained from quests and events, and can only contain combat Engraving bonuses (no class-specific ones). You need to facet an Ability Stone at an Ability Stone Cutter’s station before you can use it (more on that below).
Equipment. After reaching Vern Castle, you’ll be able to get jewellery with Engraving effects.

You’ll get your first few Engraving Recipes by simply following story quests. Pick up the purple Adventure Quest called ‘Try Out Engravings’ after reaching Luterra Castle to get 20 Uncommon Engravings as a quest reward.

When using Engraving Recipes, make sure you click on the correct tier. You need 20 Uncommon Engraving Recipes to reach the third node, and then switch to Rare Engraving Recipes. Hover over the Engraving you wish to upgrade to see what recipe tier it requires.

How to use Lost Ark Ability Stones

Ability Stones seem incredibly complicated at first, but they’re quite easy to use once you get the hang of it. To get started, you need to facet your Ability Stones at an Ability Stone Cutter NPC. There’s one in the north-eastern part of the Luterra Castle map.

Interact with this NPC to see the ‘Facet Ability Stone’ menu. One the left side, there’s a list with Ability Stones in your possession. If you hover over them, you see two different Engravings, and one negative effect.

Here’s how it works: you need to facet the Ability Stone until every node is activated. Only when the faceting process is complete, will you be able to equip the Ability Stone on your character. That means you’re forced to not only increase the two positive effects, but also the negative one. Since you want as many positive effects and as little negative effects as possible, you have to choose the faceting order strategically.

In the upper right corner of the Facet Ability Stone menu, you’ll see the current chance of success. If it’s on 75% (the max), the next node you choose has a 75% chance of being activated. Naturally, you want to spend that 75% chance on the best Engraving effect.

While unsuccessful faceting attempts increase the next chance of success by 10%, successful attempts will decrease the next chance by 10%. If your chance of success is low (as in the picture), you should use it on the negative effect. Here’s a good strategy to keep in mind:

If the success rate is around 55%, use the attempt on the least important positive Engraving effect.
If the chance of success is 65% or 75%, use it on the best Engraving effect.
If it’s 45% or below, use it on the negative effect.
Besides that, consider the number of nodes you have left for each effect. For example, if you activate several positive Engraving nodes early on, you should be less prone to use your next chances on the positive effects, as you don’t want to end up with just negative nodes.
Consider the total amount of nodes you need to activate a certain Engraving on your character. Likewise, consider the total amount of negative nodes. Negative effects work the same way; it doesn’t matter if you have four Attack Power Decrease nodes, since it only activates at five. It’s better to have four Attack Power decrease nodes and four Attack Speed Decrease nodes, than to have five Attack Power Decrease Nodes. Try to spread the negative Engraving effects!
Remember that you still need to be lucky to get a good Ability Stone. Even a 75% chance might fail several times. If that happens, just dismantle the Ability Stone in return for crafting materials at the Ability Stone Cutter’s station.

Best Engravings in Lost Ark

There’s one question that we haven’t addressed yet: what are the best Lost Ark Engravings? Although you should also consider your personal build, the following Engraving effects are usually considered very powerful:

Awakening. No matter your class or build, almost everyone uses their Awakening Skill as often as possible. The Awakening Engraving can reduce the cooldown by a maximum of 50%.
Spirit Absorption. Increases Attack Power and Movement Speed by 15%.
Super Charge. Great if your character uses a lot of charge attacks. Increases charged attack speed by 40% and damage by 20%.
Ambush Master. Handy if you use a lot of Back Attacks: increases Back Attack damage by 25%.
Broken Bone. Increases damage dealt to staggered enemies by 40%.
Cursed Doll. This is a true glass canon Engraving, as it increases Attack Power by 16% and decreases healing by 25%, but it can be very powerful to experienced players.
Grudge. Another Engraving that’s great once you’ve mastered your class. Increases damage dealt to bosses by 20%, but also increases incoming damage by 20%.

Get yourself some Engraving Recipes and Ability Stones, and may the faceting odds be in your favour!