Lost Ark island guide to every type and the best islands to start

(Image credit: SmileGate)

Lost Ark islands are everywhere. No, that’s not an exaggeration; the oceans are littered with these tiny mini-map challenges. Almost a hundred in total. So, once you’ve got your first ship, it’s time to start island-hopping.

Visiting one hundred islands may sound like a daunting task, but it’s a lot of fun once you get started. Every Lost Ark island is unique and (if you’re lucky) inhabited by adorable creatures, so this is one Lost Ark endgame activity you don’t want to miss out on.

As the game doesn’t tell you where to go and what to do, here’s how to discover the different island types, how to collect their Island Tokens, and an island route for starting sailors. Prepare to set sail!

What are Lost Ark islands?

After completing the main questline on the first continent in Lost Ark, you receive a ship. From that point onwards, you’re free to roam the seas as you like. However, before you enthusiastically set sail to the nearest island, it’s advisable to do the blue World Quest on Tortoyk (northeast of Luterra) first. This will help you gear up to item level 250, which is the recommended item level for the first Lost Ark islands.

Once you’re ready, hover over the islands on the map to see the recommended item level, the number of Mokoko Seeds, combat type (PvE or PvP), and whether or not you’ve acquired the Island Soul. Furthermore, you’ll see the island admission time. Based on this, we can roughly divide Lost Ark islands into four types:

Permanent PvE islands. The most common type; just visit them whenever you feel like it.
Time-limited islands. You can only access these islands at specific times. Hover over the island’s name to see the schedule.
PvP islands. They’re either permanently available or timed, but there’s always PvP combat on these islands. Recognize them by their crossed swords icon on the map.
Adventure islands. Special co-op events that appear only a few times a day.

Lost Ark island activities

So, you’ve arrived on your first tiny island. What now? Although every Lost Ark island is unique, they’ll usually open to one or more of the following activities:

Complete quests. Sometimes it’s an obvious exclamation mark on the map, but the quests can also be hidden.
Visit merchants and NPCs. Many islands are home to merchants and NPCs. The latter come with their own unique rewards, so don’t leave before you’ve had a look.
Collect Mokoko Seeds. Yes, you’ll find the little buggers on Lost Ark islands as well. Since the maps are small, there are usually between two and five Seeds per island.
Participate in PvP combat. As mentioned, some islands are open to PvP.
Collect the Island Soul. This is the reward you get for ‘completing’ an island. Sometimes that means increasing Rapport with a local NPC, other times you need to complete a quest line or do a PvP challenge.

Lost Ark Island Souls

Island Souls (also known as Island Tokens) are the main reward for completing an island challenge. You can learn more about the nature of these challenges by talking to Opher, who’s located on The Lonely Island northwest of Pleccia (right side of the map). After opening the dialogue window, find the category (such as ‘chest’, ‘adventure quest’, or ‘Rapport’) by hovering over the list with Island Souls.

Opher is also the NPC to talk to if you want to exchange your Island Souls for rewards. Sacrifice the Island Souls to the statue on the beach first (a little further east) and then speak to Opher to obtain the following items:

Emotes
Stat and skill increase potions
Masterpiece collectibles
Legendary stronghold items
Compass and compass upgrades
Secret Maps
Turtle mount and turtle ship skin

Lost Ark Adventure Islands

Adventure Islands are a daily endgame activity. To find one, open Procyon’s Compass and click the ‘appearance notification info’ button. You’ll see when and where the next Adventure Islands will appear. You can also see the recommended item level and the expected rewards.

Sail to the Adventure Island and wait for access. You can’t see the island yet, but you’ll know you’re in the right location when you see a maelstrom with a bunch of other boats clustering together. Once the Adventure Island appears, right-click to enter. The co-op quest starts automatically. Just follow the objective, and don’t be afraid to ask for help in the chat if the quest is unclear.

Best islands in Lost Ark: starter route

We recommend that you visit every single Lost Ark island eventually, but you might want to start with the easiest and most rewarding ones first. The islands on this list are either easy to complete, very rewarding, full of panda’s and turtles, or part of important larger questlines.

The Lonely Island. We’ve mentioned him a few times by now, but for the sake of keeping this list complete: be sure to visit Opher on The Lonely Island. You’ll be able to exchange your Island Souls for awesome turtle skins and more. You will also get a free Island Soul by simply talking to Opher.
Golden Wave Island. It’s an island full of loot chests. Stop by if you want lots of stuff (Pirate Coins, card packs, green engravings) for very little effort.
Panda Island. Don’t sail past this island if you like panda’s. Other than that, there’s a relatively short yellow and purple questline that rewards you with plenty of Silver, Weapon and Armor Crystals, Harmony Shards and Harmony Leap Stones.
Turtle Island. Completing the full questline not only rewards you with the Island Soul and valuable Jewel Coral, but also with a Turtle mount. You can even pick its color.
Serenity Island. In just a few minutes, you’ll get a nice stack of Weapon and Armor Crystals. On top of that, you’ll acquire a Skill Potion by doing the Stone of Power quest, which requires a rerun of the Morai Ruins and Tortoyk’s Heart dungeons.
Peyto, Glacier Island, Lullaby Island, and Dreamgull Island. Although it’s technically a boat, visit Peyto and do the island quests. Make sure to complete the yellow quest that rewards an emote and also get the Song of Resonance from Treasure Hunter Igran (you’ll need this for the other islands). Then, leave for Glacier Island and continue the quest chain. After that, go to Lullaby Island, do the quests again, and obtain the Forest’s Minuet song. Use the latter to complete Dreamgull Island. All this is going to take some time, but you’ll end up with four Islands Souls and heaps of upgrade materials.

Have fun on your island-hopping adventure in Lost Ark!