Lost Ark has an important feature to understand that will save you tons of time and money called Gear Transfer. So if you’re one of many players in the community asking what is Gear Transfer all about, this guide is for you.
If you haven’t learned about Honing items yet in Lost Ark, you may be a little too early to understand how this all works. However, it’s still extremely important to learn about because you may waste valuable materials without realizing it. I made this mistake early on, so don’t be surprised if you do too.
What is Gear Transfer in Lost Ark
Before you can use Lost Ark’s Gear Transfer system, you’ll need to have gear at item level 302.
As explained in our guide on Does Gear Quality Matter, the highest item level gear you can get without honing is 302. You can start getting this end-game gear after reaching the North Vern continent. Completing certain content like Chaos Dungeons and Abyssal Dungeons are a good way to get started.
The reality is, you’ll need to grind a bunch after getting your item level 302 gear so you can start honing/enhancing it. With each new level, your items will get stronger and cost even more materials to enhance. This is why it’s important to understand how the Gear Transfer system works to avoid honing different items.
Honing items in Lost Ark eventually becomes frustrating when you have a chance at success.
The way this system works is that you can transfer honing levels from one item to another. For example, you may have a Long Staff with 100 item quality and a +5 Long Staff with 50 item quality. The last thing you want to do is have to level up that 100 item quality staff to +5 and spend a bunch of fragments and Harmony Shards.
This can quickly get expensive and in reality, this isn’t how you’re supposed to play Lost Ark. Instead, visit the Gear Honing NPC in any major city (Luttera Castle, Vern Castle, e.g.). There should be a Gear Transfer button at the bottom of your screen that will open up a new window.
While you likely wouldn’t go from legendary to rare, this is an example of how it works.
This area will show all item level 302 armor and weapons that you have. Including what’s in your inventory, equipped, and even in storage too. You can sort this by using the drop-down menu at the top-left. Regardless, in this example, click the 100 item quality Long Staff. Then, the +5 Long Staff with 50 item quality will appear in the right column.
You can spend around a couple of thousand silver to transfer the +5 honing level to the other staff. This is a great way to save time without even having to pay too much. Before doing so, it helps to know that you will destroy the original item in this process.
Crafting set pieces can help fill in for the items you don’t have yet. Especially since you’ll need a certain amount equipped to gain each buff.
Another popular reason to take advantage of the Gear Transfer system is when you unlock set items. Completing the difficult Abyssal Dungeons will reveal items that have set bonuses when worn together. Regardless of their item quality, you may want to take advantage of wearing them for useful buffs like Attack Speed and Additional Damage.
A neat trick that not many players likely know about has to do with crafting your own set gear. You can spend materials like the Knight’s Oath to craft set pieces at the Craft Abyss Equipment NPC. However, you can also dismantle low-quality set pieces and gain the same number of materials required to craft them again.
Don’t waste you’re time leveling up a new item when you can simply transfer those gear levels to a different item instead.
While it can be expensive to keep dismantling and crafting repeatedly, it’s up to you. Tier 1 items in Lost Ark take from 1,000 silver to 2,000 to make. So if you’re doing this for every item in your set to get a high item quality, you may be here for a while.
With that said, that’s all there is to know about this Lost Ark guide on what Gear Transfer is. Make sure you use it, otherwise you’ll run out of Destruction Stone Fragments and Guardian Stone Fragments. Considering the amount you can get revolves around limited dailies, you won’t want to waste any.
Jeff is a journalist with over 10 years of experience writing, streaming, and making content about video games. With an associate degree in journalism, he’s a sucker for RPGs, survival games, roguelikes, and more.