Can you add friends across servers in Lost Ark? answered

For a very popular MMO of its time, Lost Ark’s in-game server system is very clunky in execution. Instead of having players create a series of characters that can hop in and out of the game’s separate servers as they please, players must transfer a full roster of characters to a single server and play exclusively on that server for as long as those characters are in use .

If they want to join another server, especially one that their friends randomly play on, they’ll have to start over with new characters. Since this option is impractical for players wishing to participate in endgame activities with their endgame characters, many choose to simply assign themselves to a single server and thus often play the game alone.

Add friends across servers: A world apart

How does this design choice affect friends who just want to enjoy Lost Ark together? Aside from a handful of matchmaking systems, their options for cooperative play are very limited.

For starters, players cannot add each other to their friend lists on the game’s servers. Since each unique name for a character in Lost Ark is instantiated on the server where it is applied, the primary mechanism of adding friends by typing in their character name is useless for this purpose. For example, the name “Thirainfan56” may exist for a character in Aldebaran, but trying to search for that character in Rohendel will not find any results.

However, this does not make it impossible for players to play the game together from different servers. Events and activities that bring players together in matchmaking lobbies can actually connect players from multiple servers. Chaos Dungeons, Guardian Raids, Cube instances, and Boss Rush sessions allow the playerbase to mingle freely, though without the ability to add yourself to friend lists afterwards.

Related: How to fix unable to view party members problem in Lost Ark