Asmongold warns Lost Ark will lose players over “pay to win” Argos Abyssal raid

Smilegate recently added the all-new Argos Abyss raid into Lost Ark, but its supposed “pay to win” nature has enraged fans across Arkesia – including Twitch behemoth Asmongold.

As Lost Ark continues to snowball in popularity, Smilegate have been slowly adding new content for players to sink their teeth (or swords) into.

Accompanying the March update are a series of new quests, events (including the now fan-favorite Arkesia Grand Prix), and the fearsome Argos Abyss raid. The latter of these pits players against the traitorous stag-like Guardian in a battle for the ages, but you’ll need to have a pretty hefty Item Level to do so.

Players have been quick to criticize Amazon and Smilegate for effectively making the raid pay to win, and Twitch behemoth and OTK owner, Asmongold, has added his voice to the chorus.

Asmongold slams ‘pay to win’ Lost Ark Argos raid

To take on Argos, you require an Item Level of 1,370 minimum, which is pretty hefty given that Tier 3 gear (the level of items you’d need to fight this fallen warrior) is very difficult to upgrade.

As you continue to upgrade (called ‘honing’ in-game), the chance of your adjustments working falls, meaning fans have been forking out real-life cash in order to enhance their items. From 1,300 to 1,340 the process is relatively easy, but then it spikes up until 1,370; the entry requirements for Argos.

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While he notes that Lost Ark is “fundamentally a pay-to-win game,” in his March 14 video addressing the subject, Asmongold concludes “I think that whoever is in charge needs to do two things. Number one: increase the honing rates for Tier 3.

“Number two, and this is very important: make the other content that players have in Korea and Russia that allows them to get more resources without having to use alts – put those in the game. Put the Heroic Abyss dungeons in the game, put the Heroic Guardians in the game – these things are core to the everyday gameplay loop and I think it would make the everyday players’ experience better.

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“I hope that Amazon can get this message before the game attracts an even worse reputation,” he laments. “I think that every day this is an issue it will be bleeding players, bleeding respect, bleeding integrity, and the faster they stem that bleeding and start healing that wound, [the faster] we can have a better game.”

While Asmon will still be exploring the shimmering vistas of Arkesia despite these issues, it’s clear that the overly costly nature of Smilegate’s hack and slash extravaganza is aggravating the player base.

How the devs go about solving this remains to be seen, but hopefully, for the sake of Arkesia, it’s sorted soon.