Lost Ark: Max, Sum, Union, Reset — the four merge rules that will decide your roster's fate on August 26 and September 2

On Wednesday, August 26, and Wednesday, September 2, 2026, Lost Ark is putting its Western servers through the wringer. For anyone who only plays on one world, the operation will simply amount to a name change. For everyone else — a character opened on a second server, gold sitting idle on a spare roster — four rules decide what gets combined, deduplicated, or reset from scratch.

They're called Max, Sum, Union, and Reset. This is the scale Amazon Games applies system by system: you just need to know which rule a given possession falls under to know what will happen to it.

Amazon Games has not published a French version of the merge document, and the client has had no French localization since May 2025. We're therefore keeping the English terms for "Universal Character Storage," "Character Chronicle," "Express Event," and "Ark Pass." On the other hand, the auction house, Currency Exchange, Training Camp, Bifrost, and Ignea Tokens do have official English labels inherited from the client.

Two Wednesdays, not one: August 26 doesn't close the operation

The merge unfolds in two waves and only affects two regions, NA East and EU Central: no other server is affected. Phase 1, on Wednesday, August 26, 2026, merges three servers on NA East and two on EU Central. Phase 2, on Wednesday, September 2, completes the operation: only five worlds will then remain — Inanna, Vairgrys, and Thaemine on the North American side, Elpon and Arcturus on the European side.

Hence a point that has gone largely unnoticed: the final state is only reached once the second wave is complete. An account moved on August 26 can be moved again seven days later, and go through the scale twice. The server-by-server breakdown can be found in our guide from August 5.

The scale: what Max, Sum, Union, and Reset actually do

Max: the better of the two, never the sum of the two

This is the most frustrating rule for anyone who has genuinely played on two servers. Two roster levels don't add up: the higher one is kept, the other disappears. The same treatment applies to Rapport level, Life Skills, and Honor. Note the nuance with ships: only the ship's level falls under Max. The ships themselves, their skins, and their crew fall under Union and are combined: whatever your secondary roster unlocked at sea is not lost.

Sum: everything that's counted is combined

Gold, currencies, storage items: these simply add up. It's the only rule that leaves you better off, and the reason you should absolutely not "empty out" a secondary roster as a precaution before August 26.

Union: your collection gets completed, your duplicates don't survive

Cards, collectibles, and ships are combined and then deduplicated. A player who had started two different collections comes out ahead: every item obtained on one side and not on the other stays theirs. A strict duplicate, on the other hand, yields nothing. That's the whole difference with Sum: a duplicate currency gets added together, a collectible does not.

Reset: it's not a loss of content, it's work to redo

Reset affects card deck presets. Your cards fall under Union and remain yours, but the arrangement you had made of them is wiped: write down your deck compositions before August 26, nothing will restore them for you.

The training camp in your Stronghold also falls under Reset: its progress is cancelled, and the publisher asks that you collect its experience before the merge. So this isn't an August 19 deadline, but a task to complete by the 26th.

On first launch, your characters are in the "Universal Character Storage"

After the merge, all of your characters are placed in the "Universal Character Storage". A contextual guide will appear on the character selection screen, and you'll be able to move them in and out freely. No data is lost: it's a holding area.

The number of character slots returns to its default amount, and all previously purchased additional slots are returned to you in the form of Character Slot Extension Tickets: your purchase isn't lost, but it isn't automatically reapplied.

The guild is the only feature that goes through the merge untouched

Your guild information is transferred to the merged server, and each character's membership is maintained. Communities aren't disbanded: they just change address.

Bifrost: slots are recalculated based on roster level and Ignea Tokens

Two separate things happen. Bifrost slots are reset: your saved teleport points don't carry over, everything has to be reconfigured.

Their number is recalculated based on two values, and this is the detail that most summaries leave out: your roster level — the one retained by Max — and your total number of Ignea Tokens. Now, Ignea Tokens count among the collectibles, so they fall under Union: those your second roster had that your first one didn't get added to the total. A player whose second roster was less advanced could therefore gain slots from this even though their roster level doesn't change.

"Character Chronicle": snapshots are recreated, some dates will be wrong

"Character Chronicle" snapshots are recreated on your first login, and some will display the merge date instead of the actual date obtained. This is cosmetic but irreversible: if the timestamp of an achievement matters to you, capture it before August 26.

Two deadlines not to confuse: August 19 and the day before the merge

This is where the summaries get it wrong, dating everything to August 19. The publisher only sets this date for three items.

What closes on Wednesday, August 19, 2026:

• the Kazeros Challenge Express and the “Express Event,” whose rewards must be claimed;
• the Twilight exchange shop;
• the Mokoko Bootcamp.

What runs until the merge on August 26:

• the “Ark Pass,” whose season closes before the merge, with no later distribution;
• the card XP, lost if it has been invested in a card that becomes a duplicate;
• your Auction House listings, canceled and returned by mail;
• your orders on the currency exchange, canceled and refunded;
• your training camp experience, to be collected before it's canceled.

No daily login event in August: it returns in September

One last, calendar-related consequence: there is no daily login event this month, the merge having absorbed the calendar, and the publisher announces its return in September. On the content side, “The Bitter Cold,” rolled out with the August 12 maintenance, remains the main focus of the period.

The calendar to keep in mind

• Wednesday, August 19, 2026 — end of the Kazeros Challenge Express, the Twilight exchange shop, and the Mokoko Bootcamp.
• Tuesday, August 25 — last useful day for the “Ark Pass,” card XP, and training camp.
• Wednesday, August 26 — phase 1: three servers on NA East, two on EU Central.
• Wednesday, September 2 — phase 2: consolidation across five worlds.
• September 2026 — return of the login event.

For a player present on two merged servers: your gold and your stockpiles add up, your best roster level is kept while the second one doesn't count, your collection and your fleet are completed without duplicates paying out, and your decks as well as your Bifrost slots will need to be redone. The guild, on the other hand, stays as is.