If someone's spamming !!!!! in Lost Ark, they might just be buffing themselves!!!!!

A crowd of dancers
(Image credit: Amazon Games)

Wow, this story means I can use as many exclamation points as I like!!!!! I'm making myself more powerful!!!!! Super saiyan writer mode—max verbiage!!!!!

OK I'll stop. If you're ever playing Lost Ark and come across something like the above in battle, however, it may just be a player being annoying: Or it may be that they're applying a damage buff that can reach quite extreme levels.

Among Lost Ark's many items are stones of birth, which come with an engraving that grants a particular skill. One of these dropped for a player called Tlim, and the engraving on it was called 'Sight Focus.' The in-game text on this reads: "Lv. 1 (Nodes 5): When "!!!!!" is outputted in normal chat, Sight Focus is activated for 6s. Once after the effect is activated, the used offensive skill's damage +8%." As it levels, the buff increases.

The 'Sight Focus' engraving in Lost Ark

(Image credit: Smilegate)

"At first, I thought there must be an error in the translation," writes Tlim. "Maybe I read it wrong...? Surely such a ridiculous skill doesn't exist, right? Wrong. With this engraving, if you put a message in chat that ends with "!!!!!", the damage of your next skill is increased. It's on a 30 second cooldown. It works with text macros built in to the game. It can be any sentence—'Believe it!!!!!', 'KAMEHAMEHAAAAAA!!!!!', 'I have the power of god AND anime on my side!!!!!'. Whatever you believe will extract maximum cringe from your group."

So choose your text macros wisely. Get over here!!!!! You're not Alexander!!!!! I wish I was playing Diablo 4!!!!! That last one was a joke!!!!!

The only issue Tlim ran into was that, unsurprisingly, folks in their party didn't know about this mechanic and so gave him some hassle for apparently spamming chat. When in fact they were simply playing as the developers intended.

"So just remember," writes Tlim, "the guy spamming anime quotes MIGHT just be the annoying weeb or maybe he's just helping you clear the content faster."

Rich Stanton
Senior Editor

Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."

Read more
Believe it or not, this is a screenshot of World of Warcraft Classic, though it's rendered completely incomprehensible by over 3,600 UI addons.
'Game has become mahjong': WoW Classic player installs over 3,600 addons in a bout of eldritch madness, somehow only needs to remove 20 to get it to 'work'
A cat gets an affectionate head-scratch in miHoYo's Zenless Zone Zero.
Zenless Zone Zero developer finally embraces its divine domain as the god of jiggle physics, goes mad, adds them to cat balls
Alma, the handler from Monster Hunter Wilds, closes her eyes and looks a little disappointed.
This impractical method of getting a 1-second capture time in Monster Hunter Wilds can make you the fastest hunter alive—on paper
A party of runescape adventurers
Old meets new as classic MMO players worship a famous Vtuber via gifts of bones so she can max out the Prayer skill
A Path of Exile 2 sorceress wearing robes and conjuring hourglasses with her hands on a purple and blue background
'I'm so sorry Imagineddy': Path of Exile 2 players unite to shower gifts on a poor, sweet soul who got yelled at for trying to buy a quiver
A goblin with sharp teeth, wearing goggles, lets out a mischievous cackle in WoW's latest patch: Undermine(d).
The hooligan hacker guild that tore up WoW's newest raid (twice) just posted video evidence of the whole thing, and it's got me feeling weirdly nostalgic
Latest in Action
Assassin's Creed Shadows promo image
Ubisoft scores a legendary ratio against Elon Musk on his own platform—which hopefully marks a final end to all the Assassin's Creed Shadows' culture war nonsense
Assassin's Creed Shadows immersive mode - Naoe holding a tanto in her hand as two guards fall to the ground behind her.
Assassin's Creed Shadows' first hotfix addresses stability issues and a photo mode crash
A plastic duck dressed like a circus weightlifter
The 5th highest-rated game on Steam in 2022 is back with a multiplayer sequel
Ragnarok Battle Offline
After punishing my graphics card with Monster Hunter Wilds, I've returned to the rock-solid frame rates of my old hunting grounds: Windows XP
A unique aspect of Japanese architecture turned out to be a key reason the Like a Dragon games can reuse assets so effectively—and deliver more compact, memorable open worlds than western cities
Naoe looking at the wrist blade in Assassin's Creed Shadows
Ubisoft says don't compare Assassin's Creed Shadows' success to Valhalla: The latter launched in Covid's 'perfect storm' and feedback on platforms 'less affected by review bombing' is stellar
Latest in News
Assassin's Creed Shadows promo image
Ubisoft scores a legendary ratio against Elon Musk on his own platform—which hopefully marks a final end to all the Assassin's Creed Shadows' culture war nonsense
Tzarina Katarin Bokha, the Ice Queen of Kislev
Total War: Warhammer 3 rolls out a cool Kislev overhaul, changes befitting Tzeench’s magic, new projectile units and creakier skeletal horses
An image of a golden first place award from Geoguessr
'We're actually getting GeoGuessr on Steam before GTA 6': the Google Street View puzzler arrives on Valve's platform this April
Napster client circa 1999
Former music-pirating platform Napster to be reborn rather ironically as a metaverse for musicians to connect with their fans after $207 million deal
The snazzy red and black HyperX Cloud Alpha wireless headphones float in a teal void. The microphone is attached to the headset.
The best wireless gaming headset is now even better in the Amazon Big Spring Sale, boasting a more than $50 discount
A chip being held up in an Intel fab
Intel is reportedly 'working to finalize commitments from Nvidia' as a foundry partner, suggesting gaming potential for the 18A node