Lost Ark’s Shadow Island houses Shadespire Tower is a mid-game boss rush challenge for solo players looking to put their character builds to a sink-or-swim test. Featuring 50 floors that scale in difficulty from floor to floor, each must be defeated sequentially in order for the player to reach the tower’s top.
Requirements: Building a One-Man Army
Despite Lost Ark being an MMO that caters toward party-based dungeon-crawling, Shadespire Tower is a challenge that must be attempted alone. As such, it is in the best interest of would-be climbers to use battle items that minimize their sole class’s weaknesses. More sluggish warrior-types could make use of marching flags to better avoid incoming damage, while squishier and more easily-bested supports can activate campfires to provide passive health regeneration.
Players must use a character at a minimum of level 50 with equipment totaling item level 302. These statistics will allow them to participate in Shadespire’s earliest challenges, although the item level required to proceed rises after every five floors. For example, players looking to complete the tower at floor 50 will need a total item level of 540.
Keep in mind that Shadespire Tower has no established skill ceiling. Players who control far better-equipped characters are encouraged to use them, where their higher damage output and incoming damage resistance will allow them to cleave through the tower’s early stages with relative ease.
Considering the often overwhelming amount of damage being flung the player’s way, it would be wise for them to bring as many healing potions as their consumable hotbar will allow. This includes, but is not limited to, stacks of several hundreds of Adept, Expert, and Super healing potions.
Related: Lost Ark Shadow Island Quest Chain Guide
Clearing Shadespire Tower: It’s the Climb
PvE content in Shadespire Tower takes one of three forms: multi-enemy wave survival, defeating elite versions of standard enemies, or, on every fifth floor, slaying a unique boss. The health bars will grow, and the attack cycles may vary, but the tower follows this general pattern from floor 1 to 50.
To clear a floor and progress to the next, players must defeat all enemies within the posted time limit, all without suffering a death. Should the player fail a floor by not meeting either of these conditions, they are not forced to retry previous floors, but must restart their current floor from its beginning.
Survival and elite floors challenge the player with a three-minute time limit, after which they fail their current floor. Boss floors, however, spare the player five minutes to determine the particular boss’s attack cycles and clear the room before failure.
Related: Lost Ark PvE Classes Tier List – The Best Characters for PvE
