Lost Ark Engravings Guide: Recipes, Ability Stones, Rarities & Best Setups

Lost Ark engravings are an important system in the late game of Smilegates MMO Action RPG. See here how the engraving system works, how you get new recipes and ability stones and what the best engravings in Lost Ark are.

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Lost Ark engravings: Our guide tells you everything you need to know. | © Smilegate

Lost Ark is like a typical MMO, in that it throws system upon system on you. And some of them can just be a bit overwhelming or missed out on entirely in the endless sea of mechanics. Engravings might be one of those systems for you. They are difficult to understand, but once you get into them, they can completely change your gameplay experience in Lost Ark. Every class in the game has specific engravings, while there are also more general engravings.

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To help you get a grasp of this system, we will show you everything you need to know about engravings in Lost Ark.

Lost Ark: Engravings Explained

Engravings are buffs and special effects that you can equip to change the properties of your character. They are divided in two different categories: battle engravings and class engravings.

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Battle Engravings

Battle engravings cause general stat changes, like boosted damage or reduced cooldowns. Some are balanced out by negative side effects, like increased damage or reduced speed. So far, so familiar: battle engravings strongly resemble other systems in RPGs, like gems or runes in games like Diablo.

There are 43 different battle engravings in Lost Ark, and we will show you later in this article how you can get them.

Class Engravings

Class engravings are not as common as battle engravings. Every advanced class gets two of them, each of which changes the way you play that class. Paladins, for instance, can get Blessed Aura, which makes them better healers, and Judgment, which makes them better at dealing damage. You notice how we said "and", not "or"? You don't have to choose between one class engraving or the other, but can actually use and level up both.

Hot To Unlock Engravings and Get New Recipes in Lost Ark

Lost Ark Engravings Menu
Lost Ark Engravings have their own menu, where you can see your buffs and their different levels. | © Smilegate

You unlock engravings by completing the West Luterra portion of the map. Two engraving slots will become available. Press Alt+I to open the engravings menu and see all of your available ones.

There are three main ways to get new engravings, which we will show you in detail now:

Engraving Recipes

The most important way to get new engravings and improve your existing ones is by collecting engraving recipes. The tutorial quest for engravings will give you some recipes, and you get a lot of engraving recipes as rewards for sidequests in East Luterra, Tortoyk, Annika, and Arthetine. You receive recipes in pouches, and because this game isn't complicated enough, there are of course different kinds of those.

Engraving Recipe Pouches will give you random recipes, while Engraving Recipe Selection Pouches are much more valuable, as they let you choose what they will contain and are best saved for when you've decided on your build in Lost Ark. There are separate pouches for class and battle recipes, too. Yeah, I know... couldn't this have been simpler?

The recipes and engravings are split into different rarities, like items and loot:

  • Green = common
  • Blue = uncommon
  • Purple = epic
  • Orange = legendary

Per rarity level, you will have to activate twenty recipes to get three points for the engraving and to level it up. Then you will have to use 20 recipes of the next level of rarity and so on. It's a lot, but once you get the hang of it, it's actually a pretty neat and fun system! One engraving can have up to 15 points, with 5 points forming one level. Each rarity of the engraving gives you 3 points when you equip it, meaning that uncommon are 3 points and legendary give you 12 points.

Engraving recipes drop as loot or rewards in Lost Ark activities like Chaos Dungeons, Abyssal Dungeons or Guardian Raids,among others. The latter two will actually give you recipes specifically for class engravings, unlike the other activities. So keep that in mind!

Engravings from Accessories

Another way to get engravings is via accessories. In the late game, accessories like rings, necklaces and so on, will drop with random engravings on them. These can be either battle engravings or class engravings, and you can equip two rings and two earrings.

Engravings from Ability Stones

The last way to get engravings is through ability stones. They’re obtained from quests and events, and can only contain battle engravings, not class-specfic ones. Each ability stone will give you two engravings and one negative effect, to balance things out. Stones, just like accessories, will cost you gold, so make sure to check out our guides and farm plenty of it.

The tricky thing is, that you can't just pick up an ability stone and use it right away. You will need to visit an Ability Stone Cutter and have them facet the stone. You can find stone cutters in every city, like Luterra Castle. For this process, you will need silver though, so make sure you have enough cash in your pocket before you have your stones touched.

Lost Ark Keyart
Lost Ark engravings should be used by every player. | © Smilegate

Best Engravings In Lost Ark

What the best engraving in Lost Ark is, really depends on your personal preference. There is such a big variety in builds and in this system alone, that it would be impossible to give any objective answer. But, we have some of the most popular battle engravings here, including their description. So check these out and see if they fit with your class and playstyle.

Engraving

Level Description

Grudge
  • Level 1 – Damage increased by 4% to Boss or above monsters. Incoming damage increased by 20% from Boss or above monsters.
  • Level 2 – Damage increased by 10% to Boss or above monsters. Incoming damage increased by 20% from Boss or above monsters.
  • Level 3 – Damage increased by 20% to Boss or above monsters. Incoming damage increased by 20% from Boss or above monsters.
Cursed Doll
  • Level 1 – Outgoing damage increased by 10% of basic Move Speed bonus percentage
  • Level 2 – Outgoing damage increased by 22% of basic Move Speed bonus percentage
  • Level 3 – Outgoing damage increased by 45% of basic Move Speed bonus percentage
Awakening
  • Level 1 – Reduces Awakening skill cooldown by -10%, +1 Maximum Use
  • Level 2 – Reduces Awakening skill cooldown by -25%, +2 Maximum Use
  • Level 3 – Reduces Awakening skill cooldown by -50%, +3 Maximum Use
Raid Captain
  • Level 1 – Outgoing damage increased by 10% of basic Move Speed bonus percentage
  • Level 2 – Outgoing damage increased by 22% of basic Move Speed bonus percentage
  • Level 3 – Outgoing damage increased by 45% of basic Move Speed bonus percentage
Barricade
  • Level 1 – Damage to foes while you have a shield active is increased by 3%
  • Level 2 – Damage to foes while you have a shield active is increased by 8%
  • Level 3 – Damage to foes while you have a shield active is increased by 16%
Keen Blunt Weapon
  • Level 1 – 10% extra Crit Damage, but regular attacks have a chance to deal 20% less damage
  • Level 2 – 25% extra Crit Damage, but regular attacks have a chance to deal 20% less damage
  • Level 3 – 50% extra Crit Damage, but regular attacks have a chance to deal 20% less damage
Spirit Absorption
  • Level 1 – Attack and movement speed increased by 3%
  • Level 2 – Attack and movement speed increased by 8%
  • Level 3 – Attack and movement speed increased by 15%
Master Of Ambush
  • Level 1 – Damage increased by 5% for successful back attacks
  • Level 2 – Damage increased by 12% for successful back attacks
  • Level 3 – Damage increased by 25% for successful back attacks
Faris Delalic

Faris has been obsessed with gaming since his childhood and is now the Gaming lead at EarlyGame. He is a self-described FromSoftware shill, but also loves games like Tears of the Kingdom, Baldur's Gate 3 and Resident Evil 4....