Stronghold

Housing features and benefits

STRONGHOLD

Housing can be unlocked shortly after completing the epic war scene from retaking Luterra Castle through the main quest The Glorious Wall around level 25-28. Open up the quest journal and accept the quest [Clerk Theo's Invitation] under the tab labelled Guides.

We'll receive a teleportation song upon completion. This house is a large estate located on a private island near the beach. There are special merchants, crafting stations, access to the bank and much more!

⚖️ Merchants

Our estate hosts a variety of merchants! It's also worth noting that accessing common services is much easier and faster through here than, let's say, riding a horse back to the nearest city (the teleport is also free). This gives quick access to the mailbox, storage and equipment repairer.

Common services

Craft station 
Mailbox 
Market broker 
Pet management
Repairer 
Skin modding
Storage

Housing exclusives

Crafting recipe exchange 
∙ Exchange currency earned from dispatch to get crafting recipes

Dispatch station 
∙ Send out sailors on a mission. They'll come home with loot and currencies

Farm manager 
∙ NPC within the farming area

Feast menu 
∙ Used to host a delicious meal that can be shared with everyone visiting our house. The feast gives temporary stat bonuses for a limited time. Very useful before heading out to a difficult dungeon or raid.

Jukebox music exchange
∙ Offers a quest to unlock the jukebox and sells stronghold music

Manor management 
∙ Prompts UI for stronghold management

Research lab
∙ Prompts UI for stronghold researches

Roster resource exchange 
∙ Exchange high quality gathering resources for lower quality ones (but receive a generous quantity). Can also exchange for and use trading skill powders.
 
Special exchange 
∙ Exchange currencies obtained from dispatch for materials to host a Feast and rare crafting materials used for decor. We can also trade the dispatch seals for different seals (ie, give 100 adventurer's seal to receive 65 victory seals)

Structure exchange 
∙ Exchange currencies obtained from dispatch for decor!

Trade merchant
∙ Exchange currencies obtained from dispatch for various items. There's a new trader each day with new items and, sometimes, they will bring extras for our friends to buy. Be sure to visit your friend's strongholds for more items :)

⚙️ Manor management

Our stronghold can be leveled up and everything that we do on the island will consume "act. energy." The amount remaining is located just above the exp bar at the bottom of the screen. This quantity regenerates slowly throughout the day. As we'd expect, the higher level the stronghold; the more features and recipes becomes available.

To access the manor management menu, press [B] to shuffle through the skill bars until we can see these icons: (the shortcuts may be different if we've changed the defaults)



The [music sheet], [mount] and [trading skills] work just as we'd imagine so we'll skip these for now and focus on the housing specific options...


Management
Allows to fully manage all interactables within the island without having to walk and talk to each NPC individually. This includes: research, crafting, dispatch, manor buffs, etc

Placement
Opens the decor vault and toggles decorating mode

Wardrobe
View, purchase and equip different outfits for NPC rapports placed in the stronghold

View far / View close
Change camera view to far or default

⛏️ Farming

Once the stronghold is level 10, we can complete a quest to gain access to the farm. We can select [Farm] from the stronghold's management UI and assign nodes of our choice for npcs to gather over time. Claiming the items delivered by the npc will consume durability on our tools.

These materials differ from what we'd normally gather in the open world: wood from stronghold is different than wood gathered elsewhere. The majority of materials gathered at home are also used for crafting different items.

The farming area has various merchants where we can purchase basic trade skill tools and exchange our gathered-at-home materials for powders and higher grade ingredients. Kindly note that the materials gathered at home are not tradeable in the marketplace or auction house.

⚒️ Crafting

At last, we can craft things! The process is pretty simple: talk to the NPC and click [craft]. This will consume certain materials, currencies and stronghold action points. Then we wait x minutes for the NPC to complete our request.

Materials
This is mostly gathering materials obtained from trade skills. Some items are acquired through exchange at the various npcs located near the daily trader in our stronghold.

Currencies
Sometimes silvers, sometimes gold. Gold can be obtained as quest rewards, but also from selling things in the marketplace. A large variety of craftable items can be traded, so it's possible to turn them into profit :)

We can expand our repertoire by purchasing recipes from exchange traders within the Stronghold, and sometimes through npcs out in the world. Leveling up the crafting workshop and stronghold can also grant more options, as well as more slots in the crafting queue.

Crafting UI

The left panel shows the crafting queue -- As we can see, crafting isn't instant. This is a request we ask of our talented NPC. It takes time for items to be ready. There's also a limit as to how many items they can work on at once. This can be increased as our stronghold levels up.

The middle panel is where we can browse our recipes...

And the last panel shows recipe information -- View material and resource requirements, length it'll take to craft the item. Also worth noting, crafting will give us Stronghold EXP.

🧪 Research

This ought to be one of the most important features of our island; as it enables us to improve and expand all other buildings. Similarly to crafting, doing research requires materials along with silver, gold or pirate coins, and stronghold action points. The research timer on these mostly varies between 20 minutes up to 12 hours.

The countdown continues while offline. So it's a wise strategy to research a big one just before logging out - and small ones while playing.

Pirate coins
This special currency is a reward from dispatch as well as quests from various islands visited with our personal boat. This boat is acquired some time after completing a quest to gain a Sailing License. More coins can be purchased from ship merchants out in the open seas.

Stronghold appearance
The looks of the buildings will gradually improve and become more sophisticated as each building is leveled up.

⛵ Dispatch

Because this is the main source of seals currency, the Dispatch Station is probably the 2nd most important tool of our stronghold. Here we make use of our sailors and tell them to go on an adventure on our behalf. Whenever they come home, there will be rewards to be had.

Normal missions
Basic adventures will be available as soon as we unlock the stronghold. They take between 2h to 24h to complete and rewards us with stronghold EXP, pirate coins and a variety of seals. Up to 3 boats can be out at the same time.


Adventure seals | Raid seals | Victory seals
All three of them are used interchangeably with the NPCs around our island to purchase furniture, recipes and materials.


Special missions
These missions are unlocked upon clearing certain activities for the first time; such as chaos dungeon, guardian raid, boss rush, cube and platinum field.

Sending sailors on special missions consumes one of our entries to said event (as if we actually participated.) Events listed also vary per character on the roster to match the content each one has unlocked.

Choosing sailors

Each adventure comes with challenges such as windy and icy weather. Stationing sailors who excel in these domains will boost our adaptation to these conditions - which in turn increases their chances to bring home higher tier loot!

NOTE: The adaptation % is only tied with the probability to obtain better loot. There is no fail rate on these adventures. Which means, a mission with 4% will still succeed. We may just get a few less pirate coins, for example. Whereas 103% would bring more coins.

A few sailors are unlocked through the beginner housing quest and then some purchased from the daily trader and ship merchants out in the open seas. Pets can also be deployed and they have weather resistance capabilities as well.

Ship maintenance

As time goes by, our ship will require repairs. This is as simple as clicking "repair ship" inside the usual dispatch UI. Looking into the "ship list" will reveal all the ships we have at our disposal. It's possible to unlock more with the combination of blueprints, research and the completion of special quests.

🕒 Craft, research & dispatch timers

Keeping an eye out for completed crafts, researches and dispatches is important and we can do so even while travelling all over the world of Lost Ark. Mousing over the little house icon in the bar at the very top of the screen will show if there's anything ongoing:

🪑 Decor

There are many ways to obtain decor for our beautiful island -- as Adventurer's Tome progression, quest rewards, crafting or purchased from merchants and the cash shop. Once the item is in our inventory, double-click to send it into the decor vault. To open the vault, press [B] to trigger the housing menu and then select [placement]


Jukebox
The music box is a feature unlocked from the Jukebox npc located at the entrance of the stronghold (near the daily trader). Placing this decor piece allows to change the ambiance music in certain areas of our house! The NPC stays afterwards and sells vinyls. More songs can be purchased from various sources such as ship merchants out in the open seas.


Decorating
Decor can more or less be placed anywhere within the island's boundaries. However, they cannot overlap one another (except with house building materials like walls, ceilings and the ability to put items on its floor). Items cannot be recolored or resized. They cannot be linked either, but it is possible to select multiple pieces at once by holding [ᴄᴛʀʟ] while clicking on them.


Decor types
Our items are automatically sorted into predefined categories:

Facilities
• Structures will have outdoor decor and small buildings like tents
• Furniture has indoor furniture (can be placed outdoors)
• Props will have smaller items like wooden barrels and wagons

Characters
• Roster characters and NPCs with full rapport can also be placed as decor items. They are animated as well, with "standby" motion.


Placement points
We've noticed that the counter indicating how much decor can be placed isn't relevant to the quantity of items placed - but rather, to the weight an item is taking. For example, vine hedges uses 3 placement points, whereas a watermill uses 28. This information can be seen from the vault by mousing over a decor piece and reading its description. The available quantity of points will increase as the stronghold becomes higher level.

Decor properties
High-grade decor identified as rare or legendary will also bring special properties such as passive buffs to decrease research time, etc. Only a select few can be activated at a time and this can be done through the [manor management]

Removing decor in bulk
There is an option to remove all decor at once. It's located at the very right side of the screen in the UI showcasing the unlocked areas and decor count available. There is a button beside each area to wipe only one area at a time -- and another button at the bottom of the list to wipe the entire stronghold.

🏯 Manor buffs

As mentioned above, certain decor pieces can provide passive buffs to help us progress faster and more efficiently. The decor rapport NPCs may also bring extra outfits with them -- some of these may offer bonuses and they are activated the same way we would do for a regular piece of decor.

Here's an example with the fountain's bonus being activated:

👘 Wardrobe

The wardrobe is, unfortunately, not for us to play dress up with. It's a feature that can be used with the rapport NPCs we have fully unlocked. Once they come over to our island, we may place them wherever we wish - just like any other decor. Flipping through the wardrobe allows us to see if they brought extra outfits to wear. Clothes can only be worn by its corresponding NPC.

Access the wardrobe by pressing [B] to activate the stronghold menu, and select [wardrobe]

* This does not change their appearance in-game. Only in the stronghold.

🍜 Feast

Chef Hyde is located on the main island of our stronghold and loves cooking meals for us and our friends. Simply hand over materials and they will provide all we can eat! These feasts give 2h+ buffs to whoever eats it. Note that the serving table will disappear after a certain time (one hour?) even when there are still servings left to be eaten.

Chef Hyde also cooks BBQs we can carry on-the-go and use during Battle Workshops. This special table disappears 5 minutes after summon.

🐰 Pet ranch

The lovely pet ranch becomes available at stronghold level 15, after completing a research to unlock The Farm. Once these requirements have been met, our butler will offer the quest [Yay! Pet Ranch]


Putting pets to work

[Stronghold Management] > [Pet Ranch] > [Cookie Workshop]

From here we can easily select a pet and "place" it into the workshop. Arcane batteries can be used to enable the use of "booster" which increases the qty output of cookies. Some stronghold researches will be available to further increase how many animals can be placed

* Pets working can still be summoned in-game like usual


Pet maintenance

[Stronghold Management] > [Pet Ranch] > [Ranch]

The pet's morale decreases overtime as they continue working. For a quick recovery, we can give them food by opening the Pet Ranch UI and selecting the gift-box icon. Food can be acquired by exchanging cookies for a pet care box with the Cookie Exchange Merchant; or by trading unused rapport items with Minky the Vitameow Exchange. Daily login rewards occasionally offers food as well.

Alternatively, they can be "placed" into the Ranch for rest. This method gradually recovers a pet's morale over time, for free. All pets relaxing in the ranch will be visible in the stronghold's farming & ranch area; and can be interacted with to perform pet tricks; or to give food🐰



Biscuit exchange
This whole process rewards us with Jam Cookies which can be exchanged with the NPC Totocookie the Cookie Exchange Merchant, located in the farming & ranch area.

To claim cookies produced by work: open the UI [Pet Ranch] > [Cookie Workshop] > Cookies Obtained (x) [Obtain]

This merchant offers various pet care items such as morale food, pet exp, batteries, growth tokens, pet inventory expansion tickets and a pet appearance morph potion; as well as many cosmetics for our own character! Fox ears, shiba dog hats and masks, floating orb crowns, a fox on your head; and a special hoodie with wings.



Pet evolution
Pets will gain "expertise" while working and evolve into Legendary rarity✨ Legendary pets gain a bonus for dispatch accommodation%, as well as the ability to morph their appearance, unlocks a pet skill that can be used during combat, and also unlocks the ability to increase the pet inventory storage. Evolving costs Pet Growth Tokens (obtained from pet care boxes from the cookie merchant) and can be done from any Pet Management NPC, one of which is conveniently located at the ranch. This NPC can also reroll the skill...

⚔️ Training room & knowledge

If we suffer from alt-itis, as my friend likes to call it, the training room and knowledge features are definitely worth looking into. These dojo allows us to passively level up our alternative characters without lifting a finger. Both options use timers, so we should consider some light planning if we want to use x character for a specific event.

Training room
This dojo will train our alts up to two levels below our main. The remaining two levels have to be done the old fashioned way. (unlocked around level 52)

Knowledge
If we have extra gold to spare, this dojo will get any alts of our choice to level 50 without using the powerpass. (unlocked around level 50, take the stronghold quest [Nothing Is Impossible For Cykins] after completing the quest line in North Vern)

🎎 Friend's benefits

Now that we fully understand how this Estate functions, it's time to tweak some settings and invite our friends! The settings can be opened by clicking the cog icon in the stronghold info box. A pop-up opens with options such as who can visit, use our merchant and eat our feast.

Benefits of sharing with friends
If our settings allows; friends and strangers can make purchases from our daily trader. We can also share a wonderful meal with them. This gives a temporary buff of 2h+ increasing the stats of all players who eat it. It's very useful before a difficult dungeon or raid.

Visiting a friend's stronghold
Simply right-click someone's name in chat and select [visit stronghold]. Alternatively, there is a button that can be pressed beside people's names in the friend list and guild roster list.

Unfortunately, there is currently no option to "search by stronghold name" or "visit a random stronghold." But if it is implemented in the future, everyone is welcomed to visit my house!💗
Stronghold name is: Wisteria

Resources

¹ ˢᶜʳᵉᵉⁿˢʰᵒᵗˢ ᵗᵃᵏᵉⁿ ᶦⁿ⁻ᵍᵃᵐᵉ ᵃⁿᵈ ᵉᵈᶦᵗᵉᵈ ᵇʸ ᵐᵉ
² ˢᵗᵉᵃᵐ ᵍᵘᶦᵈᵉ ᶦᶜᵒⁿ ᵐᵃᵈᵉ ᵇʸ ᵐᵉ
⁻ ᵀʰᵉ ˡᶦᵗᵗˡᵉ ʰᵒᵘˢᵉ ᶜᵒᵐᵉˢ ᶠʳᵒᵐ ᵃ ᵐᵒᵈ ᶠᵒʳ ˢᵗᵃʳᵈᵉʷ ᵛᵃˡˡᵉʸ ⁽ᴸᶦⁿᵏ⁾[www.nexusmods.com]
³ ᴵⁿᶠᵒʳᵐᵃᵗᶦᵒⁿ ᵇᵃˢᵉᵈ ᵒⁿ ᵐʸ ᵖᵉʳˢᵒⁿᵃˡ ᵘⁿᵈᵉʳˢᵗᵃⁿᵈᶦⁿᵍ
⁴ ᵀʳᵃᶦⁿᶦⁿᵍ ʳᵒᵒᵐ ᵃⁿᵈ ᵏⁿᵒʷˡᵉᵈᵍᵉ ˡᵉᵛᵉˡᵘᵖ ᶜᵒⁿᶠᶦʳᵐᵃᵗᶦᵒⁿ ⁽ᴸᶦⁿᵏ⁾[techraptor.net]
⁵ ᵀʰᵉ ᵐᵉⁿᵗᶦᵒⁿ ᵒᶠ ᵃ ᵖᵉᵗ ʳᵃⁿᶜʰ ⁽ᴸᶦⁿᵏ⁾[www.thegamer.com]

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[Ackerlight]

One feature is at stronghold level 35 you can begin researching XP bonuses in the Lab. These go in 50% increments up to a total of 150% XP bonus starting at character level 50-60. You will need to research up to 3x 50% bonus boosts per level. If you need to level up a character just from combat XP it is a major full-time and permanent bonus. This can help with combat levels and also helps with roster level advancement for characters above level 50.

[Metsushiro]

UPDATE
+ added info for the new pet ranch feature. Enjoy!

[Shishi]

Awesone

[Metsushiro]

UPDATE
+ note about building appearances changing as we level them up
+ Farming: better described how it works since they revamped it
+ Dispatch: tweaked information for accuracy
+ Decor: note about decor count, added how to select multiple pieces at once
+ Decor: jukebox info
+ Friend's Benefits: added how to visit a friend's house
- Friend's Benefits: removed "friends can gather our gathering nodes" since that feature no longer exists
+ changed some pictures for prettier ones... lol
+ added [feast] section

[Metsushiro]

Updated [Farm and cave] to reflect the changes applied by the newest update from May 19, 2022 - I think some of the decor in the farming area is for [Pet ranch] so we may or may not get that in the near future (???)

[Ash]

Awesome! Thanks, Organic.

[Organic]

@Ash, yes, keep upgrading your stronghold. The caps in each section increase as you build them out via research. My caps now are more than twice what they were at the start.

[Ash]

Great tip, thanks!

[Metsushiro]

Decorating is so awesome haha I'm trying to build a little garden near the dispatch house :D

Sadly i do not know of a method to increase the cap quantity. Some games i've played before had expansions in the cash-shop, so (maybe) we can expect some in the future if there's a lot of demand (?)

A trick though, could be to look at similar decor types and see if they vary in space-count. I noticed the other night that all vine hedges count for 3 slots; regardless if we use the small or giant one. So if you have multiple small ones side-by-side, you could free up space by replacing those with a longer one ^-^;

[Ash]

Awesome guide, thanks!

Do you know if it's possible to increase the amount of max placement points you have for an area? I've maxed out my main section, but only have decorated a corner. Guess I overdid it with the details :c