Lost Ark: How to change dungeon difficulty

From gear upgrades and skill levels to the min-maxing abilities of faceted ability stones, there are a plethora of ways to vertically advance a character's power in Lost Ark. With all of this power at the player's disposal, some may begin to wonder where the skill ceiling of Lost Ark lies, and where a character's skill level will have difficulties fitting.

Fortunately, some areas, particularly instanced dungeon raids, have an optional hard mode for players and up to three pals who want a bit more of a challenge than the MMO's isometric dungeon-crawling offers.

What is hard mode, and how do players find it?

Players are presented with a dungeon overview before entering a dungeon, and even before accessing the matchmaking menu required to form a dungeon-raiding party. The dungeon overview displays the potential loot as well as the recommended item level of an interested player's overall equipment.

However, at the top right of this menu, there are three square buttons, each with a helmet logo. The first two options are called "Normal" and "Hard," respectively, while the third choice is unlocked afterward. When the "Hard" option is selected, a statistically more challenging replay of the same dungeon is generated, replete with higher-level foes, a larger health pool, and increased damage output.

While the dungeon's difficulty may arise as a result of this, the recommended item level remains unchanged. This means that players who have built their characters' skills for PvE and bosses will not be overwhelmed by the hard difficulty's challenge if they are near or at the dungeon's expected equipment.

Why would players want to play hard mode?

While the recommended item level does not change across difficulties when viewing the dungeon overview page, the rarities and strengths of the potential rewards do, with hard mode drops proving particularly useful to a character's early-game progress. The appeal of loot in a dungeon crawler MMORPG will tempt new players if the added challenge of higher difficulty isn't enough to entice them.