This Beer and Beginner Cooking Guide was originally written by Birdie, and was edited by me. It’s now kept current on GrumpyG. Thanks Birdie! ! I will update this Beer and Cooking Guide with any new BDO patches/changes. (Birdie currently enjoys cooking beer and feeding her hungry workers in Black Desert Online.)
Birdie’s Beer & Cooking Guide
Cooking in Black Desert Online is my favorite AFK Life Skill. It’s rewarding for a number of reasons. The biggest advantage Cooking brings, is that it rewards Contribution Points. It’s also a very easy Life Skill for beginners to BDO. Cooking ingredients are easily obtainable and it can even be profitable if done correctly. If you have a worker empire, you’ll soon find Cooking Beer to be a regular activity, unless you want to spend silver on buying Beer at the Marketplace.

BDO Beer Recipe (1 Batch of Beer) | Acquired By |
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![]() (you may substitute 2 high-quality grains or 1 special grain or 1 high-quality + 2 white grade grains) |
Nodes Farming Gathering |
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Vendor |
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Vendor |
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Vendor |



Grilled Bird Meat
2x

6x

2x

1x

NOTE: As of the July 18, 2018 patch, beginner cooks can make Grilled Bird Meat, which is also a good and inexpensive Stamina food for workers. Most players, who are interested in cooking, already send workers to the two Chicken Meat nodes outside of Velia, because they provide a valuable rare food of Eggs. Chicken Meat is also a good resource for making Imperial Cooking Boxes called Apprentice’s Five-Grain Chicken Porridge Cooking Box: 20 Five-Grain Chicken Porridges (Ground Bird Meat x2 + Mineral Water x2 + Grain x3)
Grilled Bird Meat Recipe: Chicken Meat x2, Deep Frying Oil x6, Cooking Wine x2, Salt x1
Chicken Meat Node List: Bartali and Finto Farms (Velia)

BDO Grilled Bird Meat Recipe (1 Batch of Grilled Bird Meat) | Acquired By |
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Nodes |
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Vendor |
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Vendor |
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Vendor |
Step By Step Beer Making Plan
1. Gather & Stockpile grains (or Chicken Meat if making Grilled Bird Meat)2. Purchase Residence in town
3. Purchase Cooking Utensil and Ingredients
4. Install Cooking Utensil in Residence
5. Get Cooking lots of Beer!
BDO Beer Nodes: How to Get Grain for Cooking Beer
Grain is a must have item, for not only beer, but also many other cooking recipes. Any grain will work for making beer. BDO considers the following crops as grain:





Grain nodes in Veila cost a minimum of 3+ Contribution Points: 2 points for the main farm node, and 1 point for each grain subnode. Each node needs 1 worker to work it and each worker requires 1 lodging. Your first worker in Veila doesn’t require lodging (he will work free, but you must feed him). So, to begin passively collecting grain on one node, you will need a minimum of 3 Contribution Points. To collect grain on 2+ grain nodes you will need to purchase lodging. You can have a total of eight workers depositing goods from 8 subnodes into your Veila storage. Please be sure there is enough space at your storage manager to hold the crops that the workers will be colllecting. You need 1 space for each type of crop.
Side Note: |
Velia offers a maximum of 8 workers, that cost a total of 6 Contribution Points in worker lodging. But, it is possible to assign workers from other cities to nodes around Veila if those nodes are connected to the other city. If you are just beginning your Node Empire though, you will not have enough Contribution Points to do that. |
Worker Lodging for Veila Workers:
Lodging Location | Lodging Building & Room Number | Number of Lodgers | Contribution Cost | Purchase Requirement Chain | Total Collected Contribution Cost |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Veila | Veila 1, Room 1 | 1 | 1 | none | 1 |
Veila 1, Room 2 | 2 | 1 | Veila 1, Room 1 | 2 | |
Veila 1, Room 3 | 2 | 1 | Veila 1, Room 2 | 3 | |
Toscani Farm | Balenos 6-1, Toscani Farm | 2 | 3 | none | 3 |
The most cost efficient grain node in Veila is Toscani Farm as it has two grain subnodes and connects to Bartali Farm which has 1 grain subnode. If you have enough Contribution Points, invest in Toscani Farm.
If you need help learning how to connect nodes and hire workers, please see our detailed Worker Guide and Node Guide.
Gathering Grain by Hand
Grain can be actively gathered by hand near farms.
Gathering takes 20 seconds for beginners who have no
access to Guild buffs or gathering speed items. (2 seconds is the lowest gathering time with +5 Gathering, a shining tool, and a Serendia Special.) Each time you gather, 1 energy is
used. Energy regenerates at 1 every 3 minutes while logged into the
game. To increase your energy pool, work on completing Knowledge categories.
Bronze Hoe is crafted at a tool workshop and can be purchased at the Marketplace for 30,000 silvers. It has 60 durability and shaves 4 seconds off your gathering speed.
Gathering by hand, without a hoe equipped, will mostly yield weeds. Don’t vendor the weeds! They are used in Alchemy. Buy a hoe at the <Material Vendor> Zaaira in Veila, or at the Marketplace if you have enough silver. To find Zaaira, click the NPC icon in the upper right of your screen and click on the material icon. That will draw a path straight to her. Press T button to autopath. She sells Old Hoe for 55 silver, but it only has 10 durability. You will only be able to gather 10 times with it before it breaks and needs to be discarded. She also sells Improved Hoe for 50,000 silver with 30 durability. Improved Hoe shaves 10 seconds off your gathering time, but is costly.
Grain Nodes and Gathering Areas near Veila:
Grain Node | Main Contribution Point Cost | Subnodes | Subnode Contribution Cost | Hand Gathering Fields Nearby |
---|---|---|---|---|
Loggia Farm | 2 | Potato | 1 | Corn Potato |
Toscani Farm | 2 | Corn | 1 | Corn |
Corn | 1 | |||
Bartali Farm | 2 | Potato | 1 | Potato Corn Corn also at Marino Farm nearby |
Finto Farm | 2 | Potato | 1 | Potato |
The image below shows the location of all the Velia grain/cereal nodes you can purchase to make beer. ( I obtained the map’s background from somethinglovely.net Thanks Fam! )

Obtaining Grain with Farming
Farming also yields grain. You need seeds and a fence to start farming.
Seeds can be acquired through gathering vegetation, the Marketplace, and
seed vendors. A Withered Seed, sold by vendors, is the lowest quality seed,
which will not yield very good results. But the good news is that you can breed them and sometimes obtain better seeds, which produce better crops. The next tier after Withered Wheat is the normal white grade Wheat Seed, which after about 5 hours from planting, will yield an average of 70 wheat. Camelia Loggia at the Loggia
Farm in Veila sells Withered Wheat Seeds for 220 silver each.
The image below shows the location Camelia Loggia, who you can purchase Withered Wheat Seed from. It also shows the location of a Small Fence vendor, Martina Finto. ( I obtained the map’s background from somethinglovely.net Thanks Fam! )

Fences are rented from NPCs with Contribution Points. When you return the fence, your Contribution Points are refunded. Each fence type has a limited number of spaces for seeds. A small fence has 4 grid spaces. Grain seeds only take up 1 space each, so you can plant 4 grain seeds in 1 small fence.
Fence Rental NPC Locations & CP Costs:
Fence | Number of Spaces | Contribution Cost | Vendors That Rent Fences | Vendor Location | Nearest City |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Small Fence | 4 | 3 | Martina Finto <Node Manager> | Finto Farm | Veila |
Enzo <Node Manager> | Dias Farmr | Calpheon | |||
Plain Fence | 7 | 6 | Finlin <Material Vendor> | Tarif | Tarif |
Paola Toscani <Farm Vendor> | Toscani Farm | Veila | |||
Norma Leight <Node Manager> | Northern Wheat Plantation | Calpheon | |||
Mercianne Moretti <Node Manager> | Moretti Plantation | Heidel | |||
Mayeri <Furniture Dealer> | Trent | Trent | |||
Goolie Gianin <Node Manager> | Gianin Farm | Keplan | |||
Strong Fence | 10 | 10 | Flaviano <Material Vendor> | Heidel City | Heidel |
Geranoa <Material Vendor> | Calpheon City | Calpheon | |||
Lashir <Material Vendor> | Altinova City | Altinova | |||
Shabby Fence | 1 | 0 | Quest reward from Jemkas Wyrmsbane: Because I Like You (Requires Gathering: Beginner 7 or quest chain) | Northern Guard Camp, north of Heidel | Heidel |
Click on the Farming Icon in the upper left of your screen to assign a worker to your fence for automated weed and pest control. Weeds and pests will slow down the growth rate of your crops if not taken care of. Weeding yourself, however will increase your farming skill. With normal quality seeds (white), you can expect to gather normal quality grain, and rarely high quality crops. You can gather your crop when it’s done growing after 100%. If you decide to breed your crop, keep in mind that seeds do not stack, so have plenty of space in your inventory. Five normal quality grains = 2 high quality grains = 1 special quality grain.
How to Cook Beer: the Very Basics of Cooking
After you have amassed a nice stockpile of grains, you are finally ready to get cooking (literally)!

First, you will need to purchase a residence in town. There are many smaller homes for only 1 Contribution Point. Click on the Velia icon on the world map (M), then select “Residence” under the drop down filter. This will highlight all available Residences that you can purchase with your CP.
Click a blue house and a window will open for you to purchase the home. Click on “Residence” to make sure you convert your home into the correct type, so that you can place Cooking Utensils inside it.


Cooking Utensils:
Next, buy a Cooking
Utensil from a cooking vendor, the Marketplace, or craft one yourself at a tool
workshop. If you are new to the game with little Contribution,
money, and resources, just purchase a cheap Cooking Utensil from the
vendor. David Finto is the local chef at the inn in
Veila and sells everything needed to make beer except for the grain.
Major cities and towns will likely have a chef, cook, innkeeper, or
another vendor that sells cooking supplies and Cooking Utensils. Some
higher durability Cooking Utensils have a penalty buff that increases
cooking time and are best used for extended periods of AFK cooking or
overnight cooking. Each batch cooked will reduce the durability on the
cooking utensil by 1. A Balenos Traditional Cooking Utensil has 500
durability, so you can make 500 batches of beer before the utensil
becomes useless and needs to be discarded.

Cooking utensils can be sold by Innkeepers, Farm Vendors, Chefs and Material Vendors. To quickly find the nearest Cooking vendor, press the NPC button on the top right of the screen and then click the turkey icon labeled Cooking. This will create an auto-path so you can purchase the vendor supplies for beer making.
Cooking Utensils to Craft or Purchase:
Cooking Utensil | Durability | Buffs | Vendor Price | Crafted | Crafted Ingredients |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cooking Utensil![]() |
100 | 1,000 | Level 1 Tool Workshop | 15 Rough Stone 10 Melted Iron Shard 2 Black Stone Powder |
|
Balenos Traditional Cooking Utensil![]() |
500 | Cooking time increased by 5 seconds | 50,000 | Level 1 Tool Workshop | 8 Rough Stone 10 Melted Iron Shard 10 Black Stone Powder |
Intermediate Cooking Utensil![]() |
500 | Level 2 Tool Workshop | 25 Rough Stone 10 Log 15 Melted Iron Shard 7 Black Stone Powder |
||
Serendia Traditional Cooking Utensil![]() |
1250 | Cooking time increased by 6 seconds | Level 2 Tool Workshop | 15 Rough Stone 20 Log 15 Melted Iron Shard 15 Black Stone Powder |
|
Advanced Cooking Utensil![]() |
900 | Cooking time decreased by 1 second | Level 3 Tool Workshop | 20 Polished Stone 5 Usable Scantling 20 Melted Iron Shard 14 Black Stone Powder |
|
Calpheon Traditional Cooking Utensil![]() |
2000 | Cooking time increased by 7 seconds | Level 3 Tool Workshop | 15 Polished Stone 8 Maple Plywood 30 Melted Iron Shard 30 Black Stone Powder |
How Many Ingredients Should I Buy to Make Beer?
Buy and gather enough ingredients for several batches of beer. For example, if you purchased the cheapest and most economical basic Cooking Utensil for 1,000 silver, you will make 100 batches of beer because this utensil has 100 durability. Therefore, you would need enough ingredients for 100 batches of beer. For 100 beer recipes, purchase: 600 Mineral Water, 200 Leavening Agent, and 100 Sugar. You will also need to gather 500 grains.
Cooking Beer Produces Extra Goodies (Witch’s Delicacy byproduct)
While cooking beer, you will proc
an extra dish, called Witch’s Delicacy. It is turned into the cooking vendor in Oliva for milk, beer, or CP/Cooking Experience. To easily find the NPC, right click the dish and
select NPC Location. Autopath (T button) and done.
Witch’s Delicacy aka “the milk byproduct” has a 2% chance to be acquired each cook. That means every 500 recipes cooked, you can get 120 milk.
Read our guide on Witch’s Delicacy.
How to Place & Use a Cooking Utensil
After you have purchased a residence and gathered your beer making ingredients, go inside your Residence and use the placement button at the top of your screen to install the cooking utensil. In the placement window, your cooking utensil will be represented by a small icon at the bottom of your screen. All placeable housing items in your inventory will be listed here inluding alchemy utensils and house furnishings.

Pearl shop items are also listed and denoted with a P for Pearl Shop. Feel free to place Pearl Items to see what they look like. You won’t buy them unless you click the purchase all button at the right of the screen.
Approach the Cooking Utensil and press the R key to open up the cooking window. Recipes are only shown once you have discovered them, so use an online source to learn the ingredients or the ingame crafting knowledge (F2 button). Place the ingredients for 1 beer batch only in the cooking window, then choose the Continuous Production button to make more than 1 batch.

Once you have successfully learned the beer recipe, the next time you want to make it, all you have to do is select the Beer recipe in the drop down and the last 10 batches you made will appear in a new window. Select which batch you want to duplicate, and it will automatically add those ingredients to the cooking window for you.

At higher levels of cooking skill, it is possible to use less materials to make the same recipe, but the recipe is not guaranteed to succeed. When you fail the recipe, the ingredients are consumed in the process. Also the higher your cooking skill, the more procs you will make in one batch. After your cooking skill reaches Skilled level 1, you may crit on making beer and make Cold Draft Beer which restores 3 worker stamina.
Worker Stamina Recovery Food:
Icon | Stamina Food | Stamina Recovered |
Ingredients | Skill to Craft | Crit Version | Skill to Crit | Crit Stamina Recovered |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | Beer | 2 | 5 Grain, 6 Mineral Water, 2 Leavening Agent, 1 Sugar | Beginner Level 1 | Cold Draft Beer | Skilled Level 1 | 3 |
![]() | Grilled Bird Meat | 3 | Chicken Meat x2, Deep Frying Oil x6, Cooking Wine x2, Salt x1 | Beginner Level 1 | Steaming Hot Grilled Bird Meat | Skilled Level 1 | 4 |
![]() | Oatmeal | 5 | 9 Flour, 3 Milk, 3 Onion, 2 Honey | Apprentice 1 | Refined Oatmeal | Skilled Level 9 | 6 |
![]() | Fish Filet Chips | 5 | 2 DriedFish, 7 Flour, 3 White Sauce, 2 Salt | Apprentice 1 | Mouth-Watering Fish Fillet Chips | Skilled Level 9 | 6 |
![]() | Cheese Pie | 7 | 7 Cheese, 3 Butter, 5 Dough, 3 Egg | Apprentice 6 | High Quality Cheese Pie | Professional Level 3 | 8 |
Items That Decrease Cooking Time < Base beer cooking time is 10 seconds. >
Icon | Cooking Time Reduction Item | Decreased by: | Acquired By: |
---|---|---|---|
![]() | Teff Bread | 0.3 seconds | Cooking Utensil (Beginner Lv.6) Teff Flour x5 + Mineral Water x3 + Leavening Agent x2 + Salt x2 |
![]() | Teff Sandwich | 0.5 seconds | Cooking Utensil (Professional Lv.1) Teff Bread x1 + Freekeh Snake Stew x1 + Grilled Scorpion x1 + Red Sauce x3 |
![]() | Seafood Cron Meal | 0.6 seconds | Simple Cooking Balenos Meal x3, Calpheon Meal x3, Margoria Seafood Meal x1, Ancient Cron Spice x1 |
![]() | Advanced Cooking Utensil | 1 second | Tool Workshop Level 3 20 Polished Stone, 5 Usable Scantling, 20 Melted Iron Shard, 14 Black Stone Powder |
![]() | Alchemy Stone of Life | 0.5 – 2 seconds | Alchemy Tool (Skilled 5) 8x Shining Powder, 5x Blood of the Sinner, 6x Powder of Time, 9x Pure Powdered Reagent, 9x Clear Liquid Reagent |
![]() | Life Spirit Stone | 1.1 seconds | RNG drop from Kamasylvia mobs |
![]() | Verdure Draught | 1 second | Simple Alchemy Worker’s Elixir x3, Elixir of Swiftness x3, Elixir of Time x3, Tears of the Falling Moon x1 |
![]() | Silver Embroidered Cook’s Clothes (up to +5 enhancement) | 1-7 seconds | Costume Mill Lv.1 9 Cotton Fabric, 10 Powder of Earth, 15 Black Stone Powder |
![]() | Canape Costume Set | 2 seconds | Pearl Shop Outfit |