Lost Ark: Best Trading Skills [Ranked]

The best trade skills In Lost Ark are the ones you should level up first. We would consider Excavating, Foraging, and Mining to be the most profitable trade skills in Lost Ark but just to be sure, we have ranked all of them in this guide.

All Trading Skills And Their Comparison

Trade Skills allow players to gather useful resources that can be used in crafting. There are six trading skills in Lost Ark.

Here’s a quick overview of each Trading Skill in Lost Ark:

Foraging

This Lost Ark Trading Skill allows players to gather materials that can be used in crafting and are primarily used to craft battle items such as potions. Before Foraging, players need to look for plant nodes such as the clusters of the Wolf Toadstools. A leaf icon represents these nodes. The rarity of the materials varies depending on the location. 

Foraging tools are required for foraging; therefore, they can be acquired by either crafting, you can purchase them from merchants, or you can get them as rewards for completing quests.

Normal Skills

• Level 1: Pick Plant (Basic ability to gather materials from plant nodes)
• Level 10: Botanist (Allows you to obtain materials from mushroom nodes)
• Level 20: Natural Tone 
• Level 30: Golden Finger

Mastery Skills

• Plant Appraiser
• Master of Plant Picking
• Master of Foraging

Logging

This Trading Skill allows players to gather wood from trees. The materials acquired can be used in crafting. In order to mine, players need to find logging nodes of special trees, represented by a log icon. The rarity of the materials varies depending on the location.

Unlike all other trading skills, The logging skill allows two players to cooperate and focus on a single tree which reduces the time it takes to cut down a tree, and both players get the materials.

Normal Skills

• Level 1: Cut Tree (Standard Skill used to cut down trees)
• Level 10: Lumberjack (Allows you to chop down Lush Trees)
• Level 20: Wild growth (Turns samplings into mature trees temporarily)
• Level 30: Kick Tree (As the name suggests, It allows you to kick a tree which gives special awards)

Mastery Skills

• Timber Appraiser
• Artisan Tree Cutter
• Master of Logging

Mining

Players can mine different materials such as ores and minerals through the mining skill. In order to mine, players first need to find mining locations or mining nodes. All mining nodes give common materials a small chance of getting something of a higher rarity. The rarity of the materials you gather also varies on location therefore, we have prepared this guide to inform you of the best mining spots in Lost Ark.

You also get bonuses depending on the rarity of the mining tools you are using, such as Increased gather speed, Increased basic reward drop rate, and Increased rare material drop rate.

Normal skills

• Level 1: Pickaxing (The basic ability which allows you to mine and gather materials from ores)
• Level 10: Perfect timing (There’s a chance for triggering a minigame during mining which increases your chances of getting rare materials if you win)
• Level 20: Moonlight Miner (An ability that increases your chances of getting rare materials but at the cost of consuming more work energy)
• Level 30: Mining Bombs (As the name suggests, it allows you to set a bomb that can destroy multiple ores at once)

Mastery Skill

• Gem Appraiser
• Master of the Pickaxe
• Master of Mining

Hunting

This trading skill allows players to hunt and gather materials from animals. The materials acquired are used in crafting. Unlike all the previous trading skills,

The hunting skill doesn’t have material nodes; instead, players have to look for certain locations where they can do some hunting. To hunt animals, you will first need to activate your Search ability. A marker will appear over all the animals that can be hunted.

Then use the Throw ability to kill the animal, then you can gather the materials. The rarity of the materials varies depending on the location.

Depending on the rarity of the tool, you may also receive bonuses such as Increased basic reward drop rate, Increased rare material drop rate, or Increased chance for special rewards.

Normal Skill

• Level 1: Search and Throw (The Search skill marks all the game animals within rage while the Trow skill throws an axe at the cursor’s location)
• Level 10: Hunter’s Eye (Causes animals to sometimes appear after interacting with gathering nodes from mining, foraging, or Logging)
• Level 20: Set traps (Allows you to lay traps in certain locations during hunting)
• Level 30: Track (Leads you to the hideout of special/ rare animals)

Mastery Skill

• Livestock Appraiser
• Artisan Carver
• Master of Hunting

Excavating

This trading skill is one of the best trading skills in Lost Ark that allows players to search for relics. Similar to the hunting skill, It doesn’t have material nodes; instead, you need to use the abilities Sonar or Relic Search to find Relics.

Sonar creates a marker on your head, which initially beeps slowly but starts beeping more frequently as you get near a relic, and then you need to use the Relic Search ability to scan for any relic within the abilities range and to dig it out.

You can only find relics in certain areas, as shown on your map. The rarity of the relics you gather varies depending on the location.

Normal Skills

• Level 1: Sonar and Relic Search
• Level 10: Loot Hunter (Increase the chance for a treasure chest to appear when relics are found)
• Level 20: Excavation
• Level 30: Sniffer Dog (As the name suggests, it summons a sniffer dog which increases the drop chance of rare materials)

Mastery Skill

• Relic Appraiser
• Master of Digging
• Master of Archeology

Fishing

Fishing trading skill in Lost Ark allows players to catch fish. Similar to the Excavating skill and the Hunting skill, fishing does not have material nodes. Fish hooks represent fishing spots on the map.

After casting your line, a fish will take the bait eventually, and then you need to press the skill button to catch the fish. The rarity of the materials gathered varies depending on the location and depending on the tool’s rarity, and you may also get bonuses such as Increased rare material drop rate and Increased Float fishing speed.

Normal Skill

• Level 1: Float Fishing (The basic tool that allows you to cast your line in the water)
• Level 10: Throw Bait (Increase the chance of getting a rare Golden Fish)
• Level 20: Barrel Fishing (Allows you to set Barrel Traps in water)
• Level 30: Net Casting 

Mastery Skill

• Fish Appraiser
• Master of Float Fishing
• Master of Fishing

Tips About Trading Skills

Excavating will allow the players to sell relics that can be very profitable and craft maps. We would recommend focusing on crafting maps that have a higher rarity level, and we would also recommend leveling up the excavating skill to Level 20 and getting a good shovel for it to be truly profitable.

We would recommend leveling up Foraging to level 30 as it offers some huge advantages for your character, such as

• Increased gathering speed by 50%
• Increased Rare Item drop by 100%
• Increased Movement Speed by 15%

And you will be able to get a lot of foraging materials and gold in a single platinum run.

As for mining, it allows you to gather materials that you can use to upgrade your strongholds, and as you level up in mining, you’ll get better and better materials which will allow you to create new buildings later on, and you will also unlock new crafting recipes.

We consider these the best trading skills in Lost Ark, but that doesn’t mean you should start ignoring all other trading skills since we have ranked all six of them accordingly. Every trading skill offers different materials, and all are worthy of your time and attention.

Next: Best Ship in Lost Ark