Lost Ark is the type of game that only "actually" starts after people reach the endgame. After players get to level 50 and beat the North Vern continent, there's actually still quite a large amount of the story left. And, the next step in this story is going to Rohendel, the home of the Slyvain. Rohendel is exactly like what anyone who is familiar with elves in fiction would expect. It's a place of unique architecture, a ton of magic, and of course a lot of lightly-dressed Slyvain Sorceresses and Bards.
Now, that isn't to say that Lost Ark's Rohendel region is boring or basic, rather than it takes this stereotypical concept and innovates on it. But, how long does it actually take to beat, and how many missions are involved? Well, let's take a look.
The Entirety Of Rohendel's Story, In Order
Not to spoil too much about Rohendel's overarching narrative, but there's a lot of running back and forth on this continent. Whether it's running errands for Aven, Ianna, or even Azena, the Sylvain will keep players busy. The first time through, Rohendel feels incredibly fresh, mechanically unique, and fun. But, when running this continent to get an alt character up to speed, all of these "once positive" aspects suddenly become negatives.
For example, scenery all starts to feel the same, the unique mechanics start to seem like they take too long, and it becomes a chore. While Rohendel isn't that much longer than the other Regions, the sheer amount of instance Dungeons and running back and forth are the primary reasons it's at all longer in general. So, let's take a look at all of its missions (of which it has more than even Yorn) in order to see just how much of a time investment this will be.
- The Port of Rohendel
- Bambiri Village
- Aven's House
- Toady and the Mage
- A Strange Sylvain
- Magical Investigation
- Into the Warped MAgick Rift
- An Audience with the Queen
- Rohendel's Queen
- Between the Sun and Moon
- Water Keeper Orelda
- The Eternal Curse
- Memories of the Forest. Dreams of the Wind
- Elemental Emergency
- Forest Keeper Digne
- Song of the Fading Wind
- A Fickle Wind
- A Veiled Wind
- The Sanctum of Wind
- Stormy Weather Ahead
- Wailing Wind
- The End of the Storm
- Into the Corruption
- The Shattered City
- In Search of Lenora
- Eruption's Aftermath
- Traces of the Flames
- Memories of Earth
- Gherdia's Tracks
- The Sylvains of Xeneela
- Dying Embers
- Rohendel's Research
- Fallen Flamekeeper
- Overflowing Flames
- Azena in Peril
- Journey to Elzowin's Shade
- A Curse Broken
- Elzowin's Nightmare
- Nightmares in the Forest
- The Reunion
- Aven's Whereabouts
- Protecting Aven
- Elzowin's Defender
- Dream-Stricken Elzowin
- Ratik
Do The Instance & Regular Dungeons Add That Much Time?
What exactly does it mean to use the term "Instance Dungeon". Well, Rohendel has two "regular" Dungeons, The Realm of Elementals and the Phantom Palace. Both of these Dungeons, the second one in particular, already take a fair amount of time. Then, add in all the Instance Dungeons, which are separate Dungeons that players teleport to exclusively for the main story content and don't reappear outside of that or play a part in any of the Abyssal Dungeons.
Every region in the game has at least one Instance Dungeon, even Punika, but Rohendel has more than three! Just to name a few, these are Lake Shiverwave, Temple of Storms, and Eizowyn's Shade, with the Temple of Storms taking about as much time as a Regular Dungeon all on its own. So, this is the primary area in which players feel like Rohendel takes forever on subsequent characters. Now, let's take a look at the content of the "regular" Dungeons specifically to see what it is that makes them on the longer side:
- The Realm of Elementals: An incredibly interesting dungeon visually and mechanically, as players steadily fight against a variety of different Elementals before ending things by subduing Ephernia before Azena shows up. But, it's long and has a lot of "Subdue percentage of enemies" or "protect certain NPC" segments, making it take longer than normal to complete at about 20 minutes.
- Phantom Palace: This is the big, bombastic story Dungeon that really cemented people's positivity on Lost Ark's Endgame content. The Phantom Palace has puzzles, a lot of bosses, a great aesthetic, and a mechanically complex final boss with Brelshaza that tests the player's combat knowledge. But, once again, it's all those same positive aspects that are negative if the topic is on how long it takes to get through. Surprisingly it's not too different from the Realm of Elementals, with most players getting through it between 18 and 25 minutes.
How Long To Beat?
Now it's the question that everyone has been waiting for, how long exactly does Rohendel take to get through? Well, that depends on a variety of factors such as skipping cutscenes, Side Quests (that shouldn't be skipped), and even interesting mechanics.
An experienced, veteran Lost Ark player completing this region on their alt can likely get through it between 2 and 3 hours, depending on what they're aiming for. It's just about impossible to get through this Slyvain land in under two hours, and three hours is about how long it takes if someone is enjoying all the lore in the cutscenes or clearing out all the Side Quests along the way.
Lost Ark is available on PC via Steam.