Lost Ark has seen an explosive launch, with millions of players flocking to the game. This has caused some issues, however, with extended queue times plaguing players. Queue times are especially bad in Europe and Amazon and Smilegate have opted to add a whole new Lost Ark Europe west region to get more players into the game faster.
What Is Lost Ark’s Europe West Region?
Europe west is a brand new region added to Lost Ark. This will allow more players from Europe to get into the game, with the current Europe central servers being massively overloaded. Currently, players can see queues up to six or more hours when trying to access Lost Ark in Europe during peak times.
Due to technical issues, Europe central cannot support any more servers, thus the need for Europe west. This does cause some issues, as we’re seeing a whole new region added, rather than a server.
A new region means players in Europe will be totally split up. Currently, the game allows for cross-server play, meaning you can meet and trade with players from any server in your region. However, Europe west will split up players who choose to play there from the current playerbase.
The new region means in-game items like mounts, pets, crystals, and gold aren’t carried over. Similarly, players from Europe west can’t queue with players from Europe central, and the auction houses are also region specific.
All in all, it will provide a solution to the queue problem plaguing Lost Ark, but at a cost of a split playerbase.
Lost Ark Europe West Release Date
Europe west is set to go live on February 17 at 18:00 CET (17:00 GMT) according to the official announcement. It will feature 8 servers:
- Rethramis
- Tortoyk
- Moonkeep
- Stonehearth
- Shadespire
- Tragon
- Petrania
- Punika
For players moving to Europe west, you won’t be able to keep progress and most current items. However, you can keep Royal Crystals and Crystalline Aura. Additionally, all Founder’s will receive an additional pack, so it can be used on Europe west for any players that wish to move.
Rewards For Switching To Europe West
It’s not too hard to imagine that most players will want to stick to Europe central. This is where everyone started their adventure and player’s either already have characters or friends playing there.
As such, Europe west would be most appealing to new players, but even then, it will have a lower population, which is a noticeable drawback.
We very likely can expect Amazon to try to motivate players to switch regions with some rewards. At the very least, you’re able to transfer your Founder’s Pack content over, but there will hopefully be other benefits too.
We’ll keep you up to date with the Lost Ark Europe west release date and any rewards for switching.