Lost Ark is an expansive and constantly growing MMO, with independent systems and moving pieces keeping the virtual world and its mechanics afloat. It’s for this reason that, whenever bugs emerge, changes need to be made, or content updates get pushed into the game, developer Smilegate is obliged to take the game’s servers down for routine maintenance. While these maintenance periods happen regularly in Lost Ark, they can and will put dedicated players out of commission for lengthy periods of time.
How to judge the length of Lost Ark maintenance times
Under normal circumstances, Smilegate is most comfortable issuing server maintenance at around 7 AM UTC. Plenty of notice is given to players before maintenance begins, with in-game announcements and ticker text notifications warning players to plan for a logout in the hour leading up to Lost Ark’s servers being taken offline.
Related: Lost Ark players are waiting hours to log into the game
When it comes to substance, not all Lost Ark updates are created equal. The amount of work contributed during a maintenance period often correlates with the amount of time that the game’s servers spend offline. For example, simple housekeeping can take as little as 30 minutes to complete and ship, while adding new classes, continents, or raids may consume up to four hours of real time.
Fortunately, Smilegate is very vocal to its audience about its intentions with each passing update. On the game’s social media platforms, such as the official Lost Ark Twitter account, every in-game maintenance alert is accompanied by a tweet estimating the duration of the upcoming downtime. While this estimation may not prove entirely accurate in all situations, it comes directly from the development team, and therefore serves as the most accurate assessment of an update’s length. Looking for other methods of tracking Lost Ark server uptime? Try these strategies.
