Anyone who has already put a significant amount of time into Lost Ark's horizontal progression knows that travel time is a huge time sink. If a player is working through Yorn's Story, and they want to work on their Anikka Adventure Tome, they literally have to cross two oceans. Of course, all the different Mounts help cut down on this time and there are the Ocean Liners as well as the Portal Statues players can attach their Song of Return to, but there are huge drawbacks to each.
Mounts can't cross the ocean, Ocean Liners drain Silver like crazy, and the Song of Return has a long cooldown period. So, how are players supposed to go all around the map to hunt down collectibles like the Mokoko Seeds or make it in time for Tooki Island? Well, with the Bifrost of course, Lost Ark's very own rainbow bridge teleporter.
What Is The Bifrost & How Does It Work?
The Bifrost is essentially an innate teleport ability everybody has in Lost Ark that players can set points for. In Norse Mythology, the Bifrost was a rainbow bridge that connected the world of the Gods and the world of men, and that's sort of the implication with its usage in Lost Ark, given characters like Beatrice and realms like Trixion. Basically, it's just another method for players to get around Arkesia quickly so that they're not constantly just a minute or two late for some scheduled event on the map.
Now, to use it, all players have to do is use Alt+W (by default) and it brings up the Bifrost menu. Then, once they're in a location that they'd like to save and teleport back to at some point, they just click on the "Save Location" button in this menu. Later, when they want to teleport back, as one would assume, all they have to do is click the "Teleport" button on that saved location in the Bifrost Menu, pay a small Silver fee, and they're taken right back.
Are There Any Drawbacks?
While the Bifrost sounds a lot more convenient than the Song of Return, they actually have a very similar drawback. Once a location has been teleported to with the Bifrost, that teleport is on cooldown for an hour. Additionally, if this player wants to save a new location over the old one, they'll have to wait a bit as there is a cooldown before a new location can be saved in that same slot as well.
Oddly enough, players can actually pay Blue Crystals to immediately use this Bifrost Slot again or save over it, but that's never recommended considering how expensive these Blue Crystals are and how many other, more beneficial, things they could be spent on.
How Are More Slots Unlocked?
For those players who are just starting Lost Ark and are noticing that they only have one Bifrost slot by default, this is by design. Players are meant to work to unlock the other two slots over time, while the two slots on the bottom of the menu are reserved for those who have the Crystaline Aura in effect.
- The Second Bifrost Slot: This is unlocked at Roster Level 60, which is usually obtained not long after or not long before reaching Level 50 naturally.This reward may come sooner than expected as things like clearing out Field Bosses for the Adventure Tome, cleaning up all the leftover Side Quests left sprawled everywhere, or climbing the Shadespire reward a ton of Roster EXP.
- The Third Bifrost Slot: Requires a lot more work, as it is the reward for getting a total of nine different Ignea Tokens, which are the one-hundred percent rewards for any continent's Adventure Tome. This means players have to clear nine of out the thirteen continents completely in order to unlock this slot.
Honestly, the additional two Bifrost Slots are sort of the biggest reason players might want to invest in Crystaline Aura, as just one extra Slot can really take a lot of busy work out of the leveling or starting 50+ experience.
What Is The Most Common Way The Bifrost Is Used?
Finally, people who aren't too far into Lost Ark yet or haven't even touched the game might be wondering how exactly the Bifrost is used in such a way that its one of the most important systems in the game in terms of convenience. Well, with that in mind, let's go over some of the most common ways longtime Lost Ark pros use their three to five Bifrost Slots:
- One slot at Lopang Island, and then one at each Port for the Continents they want to repeat these dailies for (the best are Arthetine, Shushire, and Vern). This is by far the best way to farm Silver in endgame.
- One slot on the opposite side of the world from where their Portal Stone is set so that any event is just a teleport and short sail away.
- Setting any number of Slots where Adventure Islands spawn, especially places like Shangra, Tooki Island, or Harmony Island so that they aren't waiting around for it to spawn or for people to shout out when they're up.
- Directly in front of the isolated Rapport target they're working on to get rewards such as Giant's Hearts. Examples include NPCs like Calvasus at Hypnos Eyes, Nineveh at Whispering Islet, or Blackfang at Blackfang's Den.
- Great spots in certain maps that have tons of interactable items for Trade Skills such as Foraging, Excavating, or Mining, (turn off the auto Trade Skill HUD too, by the way) so they can make a solid chunk of gold per day selling these materials.
- Islands that basically become daily tasks such as Kalhertz, Anguished Isle, or the Island of Time in the hopes that one day their Island Soul might drop so that players can turn those Island Tokens into fantastic rewards such as Skill Point Potions.
- Leaving a slot at certain World Bosses so that they can teleport right there when it's about to spawn or when the ones that spawn every thirty minutes, like the Plant Boss Rovlen.
Lost Ark is available on PC via Steam.