ARCANA

Arcana is simply a card system that gives you Stats and Skill Levels. There are currently 10 different types of Arcana Cards and 7 different sets. If this is confusing, just think of the Cards as Gear in most MMOs - you have different types of Gear pieces like Helmet, Chest, Pants…then you have set bonuses for those gear pieces.

Arcana Cards offer Pantheon Stats and up to 4 lines of Stats or Skills from a specific pool. Here’s all the Arcana Cards and what each can roll:

Chalice

Pantheon Stat

All Skills & Passives

Parchment

Pantheon Stat

Half of your Active Skills

Compass

Pantheon Stat

Other half of your Active Skills

Bell

Pantheon Stat

Half of your Passive Skills

Mirror

Pantheon Stat

Other half of your Passive Skills

Scale

Pantheon Stat

All Skills & Passives

Key

Offensive Stats

Hourglass

Defensive Stats

Dice

Offensive Stats

Lantern

Defensive Stats

Arcana Cards also have different “Set Effects” indicated by the left picture above. There are 7 different Sets available.

Global Launch will not have all of the Arcana Cards and Sets. Asia Launched with 5 Arcanas (Compass ~ Mirror) with 2 sets (Primal Vigore, Magic Armor)

Farming Transcendence Dungeons will give you Arcana Cards and Training Arcana. You can smash Arcana Cards into the one you equip or feed Training Arcana into it to level it up.

Each level will grant you +1 to a random Skill line you have on the card (or a random Stat by a little if there are no Skills). You can level a Card up to a maximum of level 5.

You can feed whatever Arcana Card you have equipped into a new one if the new one has better lines. However, when you feed it into the new card you will lose a % of the experience you pumped into your current one, the EXP does not transfer over 1:1 (it’s still often worth transferring). You also gain bonus experience for feeding the same type of Arcana Card.

You can also craft your own Arcana Card via the Transmute section. This allows you to choose all of your lines for most of the Arcana Cards at a cost. This is 100% worth doing and should be done if possible.

Crafting your own Cards will come at the cost of Crystals. Different Arcana Cards cost different Crystals. These Crystals can be Substanced Morphed by consuming Shard versions of the Crystal which are farmed from Transcendence Dungeons - different Dungeons giving different Shards.

It’s important to identify what your biggest value Skills are and which card they come from. You want to prioritize getting your key Active Skills to level 20 ASAP.

Depending on how content is released and your group, I would recommend using or putting together a cheaper Arcana set that may not be exactly be BIS lines but helps you get your Active Skills to reach level 20. Once you do this you can sit on it while you farm more Transcendence to craft your 4-line crafted Card.

Chalice and Scale has the most possible lines therefore it is the most difficult card to get perfect lines on. The other cards roll 4 lines from a pool of 6 meaning the likelihood of getting your ideal lines just from a dungeon drop or a yolo craft are pretty high. If you’re planning on doing a 4-line craft, craft the Chalice first.

Chalice and Scale have the biggest value considering you can roll any Active Skill or Passive Skill. Scale, however, is double the cost (it also won’t be available at launch).

There’s some flexibility with the early 5-Card setup. At this stage there are only 2 Set Effects, both being less value than the Pantheon Stats attached to the cards so we prioritize the Pantheon Stats. Parchment and Compass can be from either set but try to have 2 Primal Vigor (gold color set) to pick up the 2-piece passive. In a perfect world we go the following but it’s not a big deal if your Parchment and Compass are swapped

Primal Vigor

Set Effects

(2-piece) +60 PVE Attack when HP is 70% or more

Cards

Chalice (Time)

Parchment (Life)

Magic Armor

Set Effects

(2-piece) Restores 1,500 MP when MP is 20% or less [30s CD]

Cards

Compass (Death)

Bell (Destruction)

Mirror (Wisdom)

The 3 most important lines here are Chalice (Time - Combat Speed), Bell (Destruction - Attack Increase % ), and Mirror (Wisdom - Double Chance)

Punishing Overture

Set Effects

(2-piece) +5% Boss Damage Tolerance

(4-piece) +60 PVE Attack, +10% PVE Damage Boost when 70% HP or more

Cards

Chalice (Time)

Parchment (Life)

Key (Attack Bonus)

Hourglass (Defense bonus)

Protected Soul

Set Effects

(2-piece) +5% Restoration

(4-piece) +5% Weapon Damage Boost, Grants a Protective Shield that blocks 10k dmg for 5s when HP is 30% or less (CD: 2min)

Cards

Compass (Death)

Parchment (Life)

Bell (Destruction)

Mirror (Wisdom)

Scale (Destruction, Destiny)