You’ll be given a ship

Before you give up on Lost Ark and move on to Horizon Lost Ark Gold Forbidden West, Elden Ring, or The Witch Queen this month, take my advice: keep going until you get to Mokoko Village. The entire Tortoyk storyline has some of the best surprises and tilesets that Lost Ark has to offer, and if you’ve spent any amount of time enjoying the combat and exploration, you owe it to yourself to play through at least this far. It single-handedly reignited my passion for Lost Ark and pushed me through to the end game, and it might do the same for you.

Around 20 hours into Lost Ark, you’ll be given a ship and sent out to explore the world beyond the southern continents of Rethramis, Yudia, and East and West Luterra. The first place you’ll sail to is a small island called Tortoyk, which we discover is actually built on the back of an ancient rock giant. Tortoyk is quite a bit different from any of the places we’ve previously explored, which becomes apparent as soon as you finish the first zone, Seaswept Woods, and enter the Mokoko Village.

The Mokoko are a race of tiny, Minish-like people that live in a hidden village in the forest. To access it, you have to drink a special red cactus juice native only to Tortoyk and shrink yourself down like Alice in Wonderland. Mokoko Village is a perfect tiny town. Their homes are tree trunks, their tables are mushrooms, and their markets are made out of twigs and blades of grass. To get around, they ride on ladybugs across roads made of roots and vines. The kids play on slides and swings made out of leaves, and the farmers domesticate bugs like cattle. The village is dense with personality and unique features, like the staircases made out of layers of flat cap shrooms and the decorative archways made from bent flower petals.

Outside of the village, the miniaturized world gets even more inventive. Instead of the normal monsters and cultists you’re used to fighting, the nearby Sweetwater Forest is filled with aggressive ants, acid-spitting moths, and crows. Just giant crows. The sense of scale is so well done in these zones. The background is full of lost and discarded objects like boots and lanterns that have been overtaken by growth and become part of the forest. The spines of books are bridges and old playing cards are ramps. You can fly around on dandelions and ride your own ladybug - the first mount you ever get following the horse given to you in the tutorial. It’s a whimsical Lost Ark Gold for sale, wonderful world that’s more fun to explore than any other previous zone in the game.