Lost Ark: Engravings, Ability Stones and Faceting Lost Ark guide, walkthrough

On this page of the Lost Ark guide you will learn what are Engravings, Faceting and Ability Stones and Imprints.

Last update: 18 March 2022

In Lost Ark, you can create builds and increase your hero's effectiveness using Engravings. On this page, you will learn what Engravings are, what Ability Stones are and their Faceting, and how Imprints and books work.

• What are Engravings?
• Engravings - Imprints and Books
• Engravings - Accessories
• Engravings - Ability Stone and Faceting

What are Engravings?

Engravings are one of the most important elements of the game. These are items that, when combined properly, allow you to unlock additional character improvements. They are divided into two categories Class Bonus and Combat Bonus. You can preview them in the Engravings Effects window by pressing Alt I.

1. Class Bonus - these are special Engravings exclusive to a particular class. In most classes, they can completely modify the gameplay by giving buffs to some skills, and blocking the Speciality gauge. They are the base for creating builds.
2. Combat Bonus - extra Engravings that you can unlock and customize to fit your play style. Some are compatible with Class Bonus, while others will allow you to improve designated character stats. For example, they can increase attack speed, mana cooldown, or offer random buffs to the hero/team.

Each Engraving has three levels and only works only when the blue crystals (nodes) on the meter are full for the level. There are also negative Engravings with red crystals that are active with the positive ones. To fill one level of the selected bonus, you need to get 5 nodes per level. You can do it using three ways:

1. Imprints - you can assign two to one hero, which will give 3-6-9-12 nodes per level (so they can activate one level of the chosen Engraving).
2. Accessories - an amulet, two earrings and two rings. Each can have nodes for selected Engravings, as indicated in the description of the item you have. The higher their Tier, the more nodes you will get (2 positive and one negative).
3. Ability Stones - you can carry one stone that has two blue and one red stat. You can create these stones by a process called faceting: if you have an unfaceted stone, you cut it to get random Engravings. They can range from 0-10 nodes per Engraving, depending on the stone used (it's class/level).

Accessories and Ability Stones will also create nodes for Negative Engravings - so-called Malus. As with positive, the negative modifier will only activate when Malus has at least 5 nodes.

It is worth noting that some Engravings are worthless at level 1. In most cases, you get a bonus at the expense of some character stats. As a rule, positive attributes increase with the level while negative ones remain unchanged.

Engravings - Imprints and Books

Let's start with the Books. At the beginning of the game, you will be rewarded with a green Battle Engraving Recipe Selection Pouch and similar Engraving Recipe Selection Chests. In the first, you will find Battle Engravings, in the second Class Engravings. Now what? Nothing complicated.

After opening the chest/pouch, you can select a book and read it to learn the Engraving of your choice. However, this is not enough:

1. To learn one level of the book, you have to read as many as 20 of them,
2. After reading 20 books, you get Engraving, which you can assign to a character. However, it only has 3 nodes, so it does not activate the first level of an Engraving (you don't get any bonus by having imprint of level 1 ).
3. To improve the imprint, you have to acquire more higher-level books (common, rare, etc.) and read 20 of them again. You will receive another 3 nodes for an Engraving.

To use an Engraving as an Imprint, drag its icon from the Engraving Effect panel to one of the two slots in the character menu, below the left gear column (screen above).

You can get Books and pouches/chests by completing missions and activities. You can easily get your first pouch by doing side quests and challenges on the next levels of the Shadowspire tower. You can also trade them in the Market for gold, but the most valuable books are very expensive.

Engravings - Accessories

Until you "polish" your build, you have to rely on the accessories you find during the game - especially in Chaos Dungeons and Guardian Raids. Each will offer a few nodes (initially only 1) for selected Engravings and so-called malus - negative modifiers. All you have to do is to collect accessories (and get rid of those that don't have the effect you're looking for) and fit them to your build based on both Engravings effects and Combat Stats. Accessories are available to trade at the Auction House for gold, where you can search for items you need later in the game.

Engravings - Ability Stone and Faceting

Ability Stones are stones that you can cut at the Ability Stone Cutter (the crystal icon on the map) to increase your Engravings level. A character can only wear one stone. Stones have different levels, so they don't have much value at first because it's hard to get a lot of nodes out of them - the highest classes have 10 each. The stones have two positive and one negative attribute you will be influenced by.

If you are not familiar with Engravings, just go to a Stone Cutter, where you can read the descriptions for each bonus. Moving on to the cutting the stone:

By clicking the hammer button to the right next to a given item, you have a percentage chance that a particular Engraving will receive 1 node. Of course, you want to get as many of them as possible. After each success, the chance of subsequent success decreases by 10%, when it fails, it increases by 10%, with a maximum of 75% and a minimum of 25% chances. As for red Maluses, use the hammer when the chance is low - this will decrease the chance of a red node and increase the success probability for positive traits. Some stones also offer an additional bonus for the number of blue nodes collected in total (yellow border on the screen).