Lost Ark: Power Pass Explained

Let’s say you finished the main story in Lost Ark and fully leveled up your first character. What do you want to do next? If your answer to that question is “level up another character in less time,” you’ll be happy to know that the game fulfills your desire with the Power Pass.

As the item’s name suggests, the Power Pass is a rare consumable that, once used, ferries a character through an abridged retelling of the story that ends with them reaching level 50. The Power Pass is ideal for players who want to fill their character roster with max-level alts without wading through the same areas and cutscenes more than once. However, the Power Pass isn’t simply a skip button that bypasses all the work; it just makes the process a whole lot easier.

Here’s how Power Passes in Lost Ark work:

Lost Ark: Where Do You Get a Power Pass?

If you start your first character and scour the auction house for a Power Pass the first chance you get, you’re doing it wrong. You can only earn Power Passes, and you can only get them by putting in the effort.

You will receive your first Power Pass by finishing Lost Ark’s main quest, which ends with the mission “Ealyn’s Gift” in North Vern. The game will automatically send you a Power Pass token, which should be found in the in-game mailbox. After that, simply hand the token to the alternate character you want to power level and have them use it. But that’s not all, folks.

If you have yet another alt you want to expedite to level 50 (and why shouldn’t you since there are so many to use and plenty of builds to experiment with), Lost Ark has one more gift up its sleeve: a second Power Pass. Once you use your first pass, the game will send another to your in-game mailbox. However, you might want to hold on to the second Power Pass since it (for now) is the last one you’ll get. Lost Ark restricts two Power Passes to each account, so if you aren’t 100% sure which class you want to spend it on, don’t waste it.

Even though Lost Ark has a cash shop, Power Passes aren’t available through the store, at least not yet.

Lost Ark: How Does a Power Pass Work?

Many free-to-play games offer level boosters that let players skip the grind (for a fee, of course). Well, Power Passes are free, but they also don’t quite work the same way as similar items in other titles.

Instead of instantly shunting a character up to level 50 when used, a Power Pass unlocks the Adventurers Path: an alternate, expedited quest chain designed to get you to max level. As players progress down the path, the game walks them through an abridged retelling of Lost Ark’s main story without the cutscenes and grind. More importantly, the quests drill players on the ins and outs of their character’s class. Once the Adventurers Path is finished, players are rewarded with equipment appropriate for end-game content.

Lost Ark’s Power Pass isn’t so much a power leveling service as it is a boot camp for players who want to jump into the deep end without feeling overwhelmed.

Lost Ark: Why Should You Use a Power Pass?

At first glance, the question of why anyone would use a Power Pass seems pointless. Why would someone who spent hours leveling up one character want to take a shortcut with another character?

Well, since Lost Ark is a Diablo-like ARPG, endgame content revolves around the never-ending cycle of improving a character’s damage output and survivability via loot. While you could always keep searching for new items, upgrading equipment is arguably more reliable, especially after you obtain the strongest armor and weapons in the game. However, Lost Ark utilizes an upgrade system that requires more and more materials for ever-dwindling upgrade success chances. If an upgrade fails, a player needs to farm more materials to try again. In the endgame, these reagents are primarily stored in Chaos Dungeons, Guardians Raids, and other areas that test players’ strength and skill.

In many games, you could just keep delving into those locations until you have enough materials, but you can only challenge a Chaos Dungeon or Guardian Raid twice per day per character. That right there is the biggest reason to use a Power Pass: The more max-level characters you have, the more chances you have to venture into endgame dungeons for upgrade material.

Of course, if you play Lost Ark for the adventure, you might get less use out of a Power Pass than others will.