The Best Lost Ark VPN in 2022: 5 Free & Paid VPN Options
Few games can say they rose to popularity as quickly as Lost Ark, a Korean MMORPG that took the world by storm. However, as is the case with any online game, staying secure while you’re gaming is crucial, which is why you should be using a Lost Ark VPN.
Making a massively multiplayer online action role-playing game (MMORPG) that people actually want to play seems like an easy recipe, and yet so many development studios have gotten it wrong. Smilegate and Tripod Studios definitely got it right, though, as Lost Ark has become an incredibly successful MMORPG ever since it was released over two years ago. If you want to play it via a secure internet connection, you should do so with a Lost Ark VPN.
Key Takeaways:
- Playing Lost Ark with a VPN adds security to your connection, keeping you protected from DDoS attacks and ensuring your user data doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.
- The best Lost Ark VPN is ExpressVPN, combining excellent speeds with low latency, great security and a solid overall feature set.
- NordVPN comes in second, but aside from the inconsistent speeds, it’s just as good as ExpressVPN.
- Surfshark, CyberGhost and Windscribe are more affordable options, but compromise in the speed and latency departments when compared to NordVPN or ExpressVPN.
Initially, the game was only available in South Korea, and players quickly got access to a Russian server list, as well as a list of servers in Japan. Users outside of these regions had to use a VPN to be able to access the game, but it’s now available in many new locations, so you can expect the player base to grow even further. That being said, using a VPN to play Lost Ark is still a good idea considering there are plenty of locations where you can’t play it yet.
Tunneling through a VPN gives you features like a strong encryption, split tunneling, a kill switch, and a strict no-logs policy, to name a few, which all go a long way toward keeping your internet connection private and secure. ExpressVPN is the best VPN for online gaming, but it does have some competition, so read on to see which VPNs you should add to your short list.
While it was initially only available in North Korea, Japan and Russia, as of February 11, 2022, Lost Ark is available in almost 90 locations throughout the world.
Yes, playing Lost Ark with a VPN is even recommended because it secures your connection and keeps you protected from DDoS attacks.
Yes, NordVPN is a great Lost Ark VPN, coming second to ExpressVPN only in the speed department, but not by a lot.
The Top VPNs for Lost Ark
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- : Credit card, Google Pay, AmazonPay, ACH Transfer, UnionPay, Crypto Currencies, PayPal (via Paddle)
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- 3
- : PayPal, Credit card, Google Pay, Amazon Pay
- : Unlimited
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- : PayPal, Credit card, bitcoin
- : 7
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- 5
- : PayPal, Credit card, bitcoin, Paymentwall
- : Unlimited
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What Makes the Best Lost Ark VPN: Unblock Lost Ark
Securing your connection is easily done with a VPN, but not all VPNs are equal when it comes to performance and features. The providers below check all the necessary boxes, and let you connect to Lost Ark servers through a secure VPN connection.
- ExpressVPN — Lightning-fast premium VPN
- NordVPN — Low-latency VPN with great security
- Surfshark — Value VPN provider with optional static IP address
- CyberGhost — Very affordable VPN with specialty gaming servers
- Windscribe — Versatile VPN with a build-a-plan option
Playing online games like Lost Ark depends quite heavily on your internet speed, and routing your connection through a VPN server will impact speed. With a good VPN, though, that impact will be negligible, and you’ll be able to enjoy Lost Ark without waiting forever for the map to load.
Latency is just as important as speed, especially in fast-paced battles where every millisecond counts. A high latency means that the signal takes too long to reach Lost Ark’s servers and get back to you, and this has quite the impact on your gaming experience. A low-latency VPN is crucial for playing online games like Lost Ark.
Last but not least, choose a VPN that has good security. It will keep your connection encrypted and features like split tunneling and a kill switch that keeps you safe from DDoS attacks. It should also have a strict no-logs policy, so you know your user data is being kept private and away from prying eyes.
The 5 Best VPN Services to Play Lost Ark
By using the criteria above, we picked five contenders for the best Lost Ark VPN, but we also took into consideration their overall feature set and their subscription prices. With that in mind, these are the best VPNs you can use to play Lost Ark.
1. ExpressVPN
More details about ExpressVPN:
- Pricing: $6.67 per month for the yearly plan, plus three months free
- Provider website: expressvpn.com
Pros:
- Excellent speeds
- Minimal impact on latency
- Easy-to-use Windows app
Cons:
- Expensive
ExpressVPN is on top of our list of best VPNs, so seeing it top this list as well isn’t too much of a surprise. It has better speeds than any of the other VPNs, which is why it also tops our fastest VPN list. These two things, as well as the excellent security and feature set, make it the best Lost Ark VPN, and you can read more about it in our ExpressVPN review.
To say latency was impressive would be an understatement — routing our connection through ExpressVPN’s servers only resulted in a 3ms latency increase, from 23ms to 26ms. To make things even better, we got these results consistently during testing when connecting to nearby servers. Farther away servers gave us slightly worse results, but that is to be expected with any VPN.
Blazing Fast Speeds With the Lightway Protocol
ExpressVPN built its own Lightway protocol from the ground up, using the wolfSSD cryptography library. The protocol is a mere 2,000 lines of code, which is extremely lightweight and allows ExpressVPN to get better speeds and lower latency than any other VPN on our list. If you want to play Lost Ark, this is perfect.
ExpressVPN’s only weakness is its price. Though you can get a better deal by subscribing for a year, this is a VPN that comes at quite the price premium. You do have a 30-day money-back guarantee, though, in case you change your mind.
2. NordVPN
More details about NordVPN:
- Pricing: $3.71 per month for the two-year plan
- Provider website: nordvpn.com
Pros:
- Low latency on nearby servers
- Great security
Cons:
- Inconsistent speeds over OpenVPN
- Important settings hidden in menus
NordVPN comes in second, but close on the heels of ExpressVPN. With excellent speeds and a strong focus on security features, it falls somewhat short when it comes to latency and performance consistency. Using it to access Lost Ark with the NordLynx protocol resulted in a 12ms latency increase, and we would suggest avoiding OpenVPN as it is wildly inconsistent.
When it comes to features, NordVPN doesn’t cut any corners. You get a solid no-logs policy, DNS and IP leak protection, split tunneling, a kill switch and a server network that just keeps growing. The desktop app isn’t exactly intuitive, though, with some of the settings being buried deep within menus, and you can read more about this in our NordVPN review.
Play Lost Ark With an Obfuscated Server
Lost Ark doesn’t take too kindly to players using VPN services to access the game, but NordVPN’s obfuscated servers hide the fact that you’re using a VPN. Routing your connection through one of them will add security to your connection without the Lost Ark game engine detecting that you’re using a VPN.
Though there are cheaper services on our list, NordVPN is certainly a more affordable choice than ExpressVPN. Subscribing for two years gets you an even better deal, and if you don’t like how it performs, you have a 30-day money-back guarantee.
3. Surfshark
More details about Surfshark:
- Pricing: $2.30 per month for the two-year plan, plus two months free
- Provider website: surfshark.com
Pros:
- Multi-hop servers
- Unlimited simultaneous connections
- Static IP address
Cons:
- Pricey monthly subscription
Many VPN providers, both free and paid ones, impose some kind of restriction on your usage. Unlike most VPNs, Surfshark goes against the grain and gets you unlimited data, unlimited speed and best of all, unlimited simultaneous connections. In addition, you can use a static IP which would reduce the chances of Lost Ark flagging your account for sharing.
Another great addition are the multi-hop servers, which route your connection through two VPN servers rather than one, adding extra security in the process. This will introduce a touch of additional latency, but even despite that, Surfshark gets you a stable connection and latency low enough to game with comfortably. You can find out more about it in our Surfshark review.
Unlimited Number of Simultaneous Connections
If you don’t want to pay for a subscription all by yourself, Surfshark lets you use a single account from as many devices as you want simultaneously. This makes it a perfectly suitable VPN if you have multiple family members playing Lost Ark at the same time, or if you want to share your account.
Surfshark’s pricing is affordable, provided you stay subscribed for a while, and you can make it even cheaper if you share your subscription. To add to this, the 30-day money-back guarantee has you covered in case you find Lost Ark slow to connect.
- : Unlimited GB bandwidth,Unlimited devices
- : Unlimited GB
- : Unlimited
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4. CyberGhost
More details about CyberGhost:
- Pricing: $2.15 per month for the three-year plan, plus three months free
- Provider website: cyberghostvpn.com
Pros:
- Specialty gaming servers
- Affordable pricing
- Huge server network
Cons:
- Mediocre speeds & latency over OpenVPN
CyberGhost is incredibly affordable if you’re comfortable with long commitments, but that’s not the only reason it’s on our list. It comes with a massive server network that includes gaming-specific servers optimized for latency, as well as the option to use a dedicated IP address. You can read more about it in our CyberGhost review.
Unfortunately, performance wasn’t all that good, especially when used with the OpenVPN protocol. Switching to IKEv2 gave us much better results, increasing latency by a mere 10ms (from 18ms to 28ms), which is absolutely respectable for playing Lost Ark
Play Lost Ark on a Gaming VPN Server
In addition to streaming-oriented servers, CyberGhost has a selection of gaming servers that are optimized for low latency. Each of the servers on the list will give you a latency estimate, which in most cases is very close to the real latency. The only drawback is that they are only available in Frankfurt, Paris, London and New York.
Pricing can hardly get any better, provided you go for the three-year plan. You also get three months free and a 45-day money-back guarantee, compared to the usual 30 days the competition offers.
- : Unlimited GB
- : 7
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5. Windscribe
More details about Windscribe:
- Pricing: Free plan;$1 per location per month, plus $1 for unlimited data
- Provider website: windscribe.com
Pros:
- Free VPN plan available
- Negligible impact on latency
- Built-in ad blocker
Cons:
- Poor speed performance
Windscribe is usually our recommendation for the best free VPN, but Lost Ark’s updates will easily exceed the 10GB data limit of the free plan. Instead, we’d recommend the paid plan, which gets you a rather standard feature set — split tunneling, kill switch, a solid no-logs policy, as well as an ad blocker. You can read more about it in our Windscribe review.
Performance with Windscribe was a mixed bag. The impact on latency was almost negligible when tunneling through a nearby U.S. server. Unfortunately, the gaming experience wasn’t ideal, due to the poor speed performance that was consistently bad across servers.
Build-a-Plan Option
Windscribe offers something no other VPN will get you — the option to build your own plan. You choose locations you want to connect to at $1 each, and then you pay $1 on top of that to remove the 10GB data limit. For example, if you find a server in the U.S. that’s close to you, you can get an unlimited data plan with all U.S. servers and the built-in ad-blocker, for just $2 per month.
Even though the free VPN plan Windscribe offers isn’t enough if you play Lost Ark regularly, you can build your own plan with unlimited data at a price more affordable than most competitors. We’d love to see Windscribe change the three-day money-back guarantee — it trails behind most competitors that offer at least 30 days.
- : Per “Pro” server location
- : 10 GB
- : Unlimited
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- : Unlimited GB
- : Unlimited
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How to Use a VPN to Play Lost Ark
Using a VPN to play Lost Ark allows you to focus on leveling up your character even if you’re in one of the locations where the game isn’t available yet — here’s how to do it.
- Install a VPN
Go to the ExpressVPN website and download the Windows app. Then, follow the install wizard instructions to install ExpressVPN.
- Choose a Server Location
Lost Ark is available in plenty of worldwide locations, but connecting to a server that is physically close to you helps maintain high speeds and low latency. Start ExpressVPN and connect to a server that is close to you.
- Play Lost Ark
Once you’ve connected to the most suitable server, start up and play Lost Ark.
Can I Play Lost Ark From Anywhere?
Yes. While Lost Ark is available almost everywhere in the world, if you’re in one of the few locations where it’s not, you can use a VPN to access Lost Ark servers and enjoy the game.
Final Thoughts
With Lost Ark being available everywhere, getting a Russian IP address or connecting to a South Korean server is no longer that important if you want to start playing. However, if you value your privacy and security, or you happen to be in one of the few regions where the game is still not available, playing Lost Ark with VPN is very much recommended.
The VPNs above are all excellent tools for the job. ExpressVPN combines excellent speeds and security with low latency to take the win. ExpressVPN opens up infinite gaming opportunities: it’s the best PUBG VPN, Call of Duty Warzone VPN and FFXIV VPN.
NordVPN comes in a close second as a slightly more affordable alternative. If you want to save even more, Surfshark and CyberGhost are both great options, and Windscribe lets you build your own plan.
Which one of the aforementioned VPNs is your favorite when it comes to securing your internet connection? Is it ExpressVPN’s premium quality and a premium pricing model, or do you prefer something more affordable? Let us know in the comments, and thank you for reading.
