Black Desert Free to Play & Price Guide (BDO 2019)

Is Black Desert Online free? This is a hotly debated topic in the player community, with some BDO gamers exclaiming that BDO is a P2W nightmare! How true are the claims that Black Desert Online has a free to play model? Or are the critics correct in bemoaning their Pay to Win troubles? Lets dig into BDO’s cash shop (Pearl Shop) and find the real price of playing Black Desert Online.

HAPPY Pearl Shop Dreams!!

NOTE: I tried to keep my opinion out of this article, but wasn’t too successful. It’s difficult because what I consider doable on a tight budget, someone else might abhor. So take this BDO Pearl Shop Price guide with a grain of salt, please. In fact, I’m sure there are a TON of wealthy oddballs out there… 🙂

Black Desert Free Vs Subscription Price

There is no subscription fee for playing Black Desert Online. Others consider this model free to play. It also has a 7 day free trial. However, you do have to initially make a purchase of at least $9.99 to continue playing BDO. This will give you the basic game without any extras.

Is the Value Pack a Subscrption Fee?

Value Pack Silver Benefit:
Some players say that the Value Pack (30 Days) is the same as a Subscription fee in other games. The most P2W aspect of the Value Pack is the significant boost to Silver you get from Marketplace sales. You get 30% back after tax, which amounts to you getting 84.5% with a Value Pack. Without this item, you will only get 65% of everything you sell. That’s a difference of 19.5%.

Value Pack Silver Example: TRI Weapon: 300,000,000 Silver

• With Value Pack: 253,500,000 Silver
• No Value Pack: 195,000,000 Silver
• Lost Silver: 58,500,000 Silver

For a 1.2 billion silver item, it’s a loss of 234 million. It really starts to matter as the price of gear increases.

Are Value Packs Worth the Cost?
Value Packs that last 30 days cost 1,500 Pearls, which is about $15. You can purchase them on the Central Market, if you don’t mind waiting until someone lists one for sale. Lately, I’m seeing a trend of the Value Pack having an increasing number of Pre-orders up for the Max Developer Price of 88 million Silver. With such a high cost, this item would not be a wise purchase for those who sell less than 569,000,000 worth of items every month.

Break Even Point of Value Packs: Total sold items equaling 569,000,000 Silver within 30 days.

You will earn the cost of your Value Pack back, after selling 569 million worth of items.

Value Pack (1 Day) Loyalties Cost: 1,400 Loyalties (14 days)

The Loyalties cost of a Value Pack is high, considering it only lasts one day. But, it might be worth it to you, since it doesn’t cost Silver, and you can wait to collect Marketplace Silver until after everything has sold. (You don’t have to put on a Value Pack before listing any items to get the tax break. Just make sure you have the VP buff when you click the button to collect your Silver.)

My 2 Cents:
You don’t HAVE to purchase a Value Pack to enjoy Black Desert, but it really hurts if you don’t have one, when it comes time to collect Silver from the Marketplace. If you need to pinch real life pennies, you may have to wait to obtain one until the Pearl Shop has a sale and it’s more enticing for players to buy it for the purpose of selling in on the Marketplace.

Before you place a Value Pack Pre-order, make sure you will be selling enough items to make it worth your while. (569 million silver is the break even point.)

Value Packs used to be one of the easiest Pearl Shop items to obtain on Central Market, but the last time I checked, there were 3,000+ Pre-orders up. Keep your eye on sales in the Pearl Shop.

Black Desert Free to Play Tips

It’s possible to play Black Desert Online with very little money. The main problem you’ll have is the monotony of picking up loot in later levels. Every monster you fight will drop loot and they are bunched into groups of 5+. Groups are quickly dispatched, often with 1 single hit, depending upon your gear and level. This means you will spend more time mashing the pickup button (R) than actual fighting.

Playing free, after your initial game purchase, can be done, but in my mind, pets are required in later levels. There are free pets available, but only one seems readily available and easy to obtain. (Kuku)

Free Pets

• Kuku: Event Pet Type. Currently given with “Rookie” Attendance Rewards (Historically: Guild and Loyal also)
• Penguin: Limited Pet Type. Currently not available for free. This pet has been given in the past for free. (Attendance/Loyalty Reward)
• Challenge Reward Dog/Cat: Classic Pet Type. Challenge Reward for 5,000 hours of play.
• Young Crimson Dragon: Special Pet Type. Obtained via a rare boss drop. Pre-order price is currently 850 million Silver.

Pet Name	Special Ability	Talent	Sellable	Acquired By	Notes
[Event] Penguin	Auto-fishing Time Reduced	Life EXP Boost +1-4%	NO	Previous Attendance/Loyalty Reward	Limited Pet Type
Young Crimson Dragon	One Random: Heat Stroke/Hypothermia Resistance, or Auto-fishing Time Reduction, or Taunt Monster, or Hostility Detection, or Finds Rare Monsters	HP Buff: Tier 1: 25hp Tier 2: 50HP Tier 3: 75hp Tier 4: 100hp	YES	Defeat Garmoth. Obtain rare Garmoth’s Horn. Exchange horn to Gerson in Duvencrune (Gerson is near Trade Manager Tikara)	Special Pet Type. Currently, it can only be Exchanged with another Young Crimson Dragon. Can only have 1 Dragon summoned at once.
[Event] Kuku	Hostility Detection	Knowledge +5-20% and Higher-grade Knowledge Gain Chance Increase +1-4%	NO	Attendance Reward	Event Pet Type. Currently, it can only be Exchanged with another Kuku. Can only have 1 Kuku summoned at once
[Event] Cat or Dog	Dog: Hostility Detection Cat: Detect Resources	Dog: Combat Skill Exp Cat: Life Skill Exp +1-4%	YES	Challenge Reward: 5000 Hours Playtime (7 months of 24/7 staying logged in)	Classic Pet Type

Black Desert Online Price

When I first began Black Desert Online, I chose the highly priced package and regretted it. If I had to do it all over again, I would have bought the cheapest package and invested the left over money into pets before anything else. You need at least 5 pets, and probably more in later levels, as you begin to get more loot and even 5 Tier 1 pets aren’t fast enough to pick up everything.

To get faster pets, you have to Exchange pets, which can really increase the costs of BDO. I have mostly Tier 1 pets and can enjoy the game just fine. (My Kuku is Tier 3.) But, for those who need the absolute best, meaning every last loot piece is picked up, without waiting, they will have to fork out around $100 for a single Tier 4 pet. For more details about Tier 4 pet costs, read the pet section at the end.

Minimum Cost: $45.99

• 5 Pets: 1 free Kuku pet. 3,600 Pearls for 4 more pets. ($36)
• Starter’s Package: $9.99
• Bare Minimum Cost: $45.99

This is the lowest price for playing Black Desert, unless you get everything on sale. Pets sometimes have about 20% off and the game itself (game packages) sometimes go on sale as well. Lowest I’ve seen for BDO Packages is 50% off. During their Shadow Arena promotion, you could quest for a free Starter’s Package. That was the first time they offered the game for free in North America, so I wouldn’t count on it happening again any time soon.

$100 Pearl Shop Recommendation

• 5 Pets: 1 free Kuku pet. 3,600 Pearls for 4 more pets. ($36)
• Starter’s Package: $9.99
• Weight Limit +200: 1700 Pearls.
• Weight Limit +150: 1350 Pearls.
• Storage Maid: 1200 Pearls. (Transfer 100 LT every 20 minutes.)
• Transaction Maid: 1200 Pearls. (Transfer 100 VT every 20 minutes.)
• Total Cost: $100.49

After you buy pets, I highly recommend you purchase Weight Limit and then some Maids. These will really help you grind for longer periods of time. Lets face it, running back and forth every 20 minutes to sell because you’re over weight isn’t much fun.

$200 Pearl Shop Recommendation

• 5 Pets: 1 free Kuku pet. 3,600 Pearls for 4 more pets. ($36)
• Starter’s Package: $9.99
• Weight Limit +200: 1700 Pearls.
• Weight Limit +150: 1350 Pearls.
• Storage Maid: 1200 Pearls. (Transfer 100 LT every 20 minutes.)
• Transaction Maid: 1200 Pearls. (Transfer 100 VT every 20 minutes.)
• Weight Limit +100: 1000 Pearls.
• Weight Limit +50: 600 Pearls.
• 5 Additional Pets: 4,500 Pearls. (Exchange for a chance at Tier 3 with 3 second loot speed. Increased buffs.)
• Inventory Expansion +16: 1450 Pearls. (Helpful for fishing and Life Skills.)
• Canape Outfit Set: 2200 Pearls (Normal outfit buffs with bonus Cooking boosts. Ex. +10% combat exp, +15% Cooking Exp, -2 seconds Cooking Time)
• Total Cost: $197.99

If you can afford to spend $200, then additional weight and better pets always comes in handy. The chance of getting a Tier 3 pet from pet Exchange is 55%, but if you don’t get Tier 3, you will get Tier 2.

Canape Costume is considered an excellent outfit because it offers some Cooking boosts as well as the normal outfit bonuses.

Do Loyalties = Free Pearls?

Loyalties can help you with any F2P goals. Inside the Pearl Shop, there is a section called Loyalties, where you can purchase a select amount of Pearl items for free. These Pearl Shop items can be a bit gimped, when compared to the normal Pearl items. But, who’s complaining? It’s free!

The wait time for free Pearl Shop goodies can be up to 50 days for 1 Pearl item. So you do, indeed, have to be “Loyal” for “Loyalties.”

You earn 100 Loyalties by logging in every day for one hour. There are also special one-time Challenge Rewards for Loyalties.

Challenge Rewards Giving Loyalties:

• Play 1 Hour: 100 Loyalties
• Play 7 Days: 200 Loyalties
• Play 30 Days: 300 Loyalties
• Play 50 Days: 500 Loyalties
• Play 100 Days: 1,000 Loyalties
• Play 200 Days: 2,000 Loyalties
• Play 300 Days: 3,000 Loyalties
• Play 400 Days: 4,000 Loyalties
• Play 500 Days: 5,000 Loyalties

View all Loyalty Challenge Rewards by pressing Y key.

Best Loyalty Reward Purchases

Weight Limit is what most players recommend buying with your earned Loyalties. Weight is often more limited than Inventory. Junk loot is heavy, and Inventory can be quested, unlike Weight Limit. There are only a few ways to increase Permanent Weight Limits. Strength Training only gives a Maximum of +40LT at level 30 Strength. Adventure Journals help a tiny bit: +25LT for full completion. Both options take time.

The Loyalties cost for Weight Limit is expensive, but I think it’s worth the wait. +50 LT costs 3,500 Loyalties, which is 35 days of logging in. You are also limited to buying a maximum of 200LT per character.

Total Time Cost for +200LT: 140 days/4.6 months

Most Useful Loyalty Items: Loyalties Vs Pearl Cost

It’s interesting to look at the Pearl vs Loyalties Cost. Some of the Loyalty items have a shorter version than the Pearl Shop version. For example, the Value Packs purchased with Pearls are 30 days vs the Loyalties Value Pack, which is 1 Day. For items like these, I divided the days to make them equal.

Loyalties Icon	Loyalty Item	Pearls	Loyalties	Icon	Days Waiting
	[Loyalties] Character Slot Expansion Coupon	600	5000		50
	[Loyalties] Weight Limit +50LT ♦ Max 200LT per Character	600	3500		35
	[Loyalties] Armstrong’s Skill Guide (1 Day) ♦ Unlearn skills for 1 day. Applies to all characters.	500	2000		20
	[Loyalties] Value Pack (1 Day)	50	1400		14
	[Loyalties] Inventory +1 Expansion Coupon ♦ Max 192 Inventory Slots per Character	150	1000		10
	[Loyalties] Blessing of Kamasylve (1 Day) ♦ Energy Recovery +2, Item Drop Rate +20%	84	1000		10
	[Loyalties] Sealed Book of Combat (1 Day) ♦ Combat EXP +100%, Skill EXP +50% for 24 hours	84	1000		10
	[Loyalties] Mount Skill Removal Coupon	250	700		7
	[Loyalties] Balenos Storage Slot +1 ♦ +1 storage slot (Velia, Olvia).	50	500		5
	[Loyalties] Serendia Storage Slot +1 ♦ +1 storage slot (Heidel, Glish).	65	500		5
	[Loyalties] Calpheon Storage +1 ♦ +1 storage slot (Calpheon, Keplan, Trent).	105	500		5
	[Loyalties] Mediah Storage Slot +1 ♦ +1 storage slot (Altinova, Tarif).	65	500		5
	[Loyalties] Valencia Storage Slot +1 ♦ +1 storage slot (Valencia, Shakatu, Sand Grain Bazaar).	90	500		5
	[Loyalties] Kamasylvia Storage +1 Expansion Coupon ♦ +1 storage slot (Grána, Old Wisdom Tree).	65	500		5
	[Loyalties] Artisan’s Memory x1 ♦ Increases Max Durability recovery amount by 4 times.	50	400		4
	[Loyalties] Old Moon Flare ♦ Ship Transport to Port Ratt and Lema Island.	–	300		3
	[Loyalties] Elion’s Tear ♦ Instantly resurrect and restore lost Combat EXP	50	100		1
	[Loyalties] Valks’ Cry ♦ Valk’s Enhancement Chance +1 (Limit: 5/Week)	–	100		1

Complete Loyalty Item Price List

Loyalties Icon	Loyalty Item	Loyalties	Icon	Days Waiting
	[Loyalties] Golden Bell ♦ Combat EXP +100% for 1 hour on current server.	5000		50
	[Loyalties] Character Slot Expansion Coupon	5000		50
	[Loyalties] Weight Limit +50LT ♦ Max 200LT per Character	3500		35
	[Loyalties] Splat Fisher’s Clothes Set (7 Days)	2800		28
	[Loyalties] Venia Riding Attire Box (7 Days)	2800		28
	[Loyalties] Karlstein Classic Box (15 Days)	2800		28
	[Loyalties] Lahr Arcien Classic Box (15 Days)	2800		28
	[Loyalties] Patrigio’s Costume Bag	2800		28
	[Loyalties] Armstrong’s Skill Guide (1 Day) ♦ Unlearn skills for 1 day. Applies to all characters.	2000		20
	[Loyalties] Pet Appearance Change Coupon	1400		14
	[Loyalties] Value Pack (1 Day)	1400		14
	[Loyalties] Monastery Boss Summon Scroll	1000		10
	[Loyalties] Dim Tree Spirit Summon Scroll	1000		10
	[Loyalties] Frightening Witch Summon Scroll	1000		10
	[Loyalties] Mount Name Change Coupon	1000		10
	[Loyalties] Inventory +1 Expansion Coupon ♦ Max 192 Inventory Slots per Character	1000		10
	[Loyalties] Blessing of Kamasylve (1 Day) ♦ Energy Recovery +2, Item Drop Rate +20%	1000		10
	[Loyalties] Sealed Book of Combat (1 Day) ♦ Combat EXP +100%, Skill EXP +50% for 24 hours	1000		10
	[Loyalties] Mount Skill Removal Coupon	700		7
	[Loyalties] Imp Captain Summon Scroll	500		5
	[Loyalties] Goblin Chief Summon Scroll	500		5
	[Loyalties] Altar Imp Captain Summon Scroll	500		5
	[Loyalties] Balenos Storage Slot +1 ♦ +1 storage slot (Velia, Olvia).	500		5
	[Loyalties] Serendia Storage Slot +1 ♦ +1 storage slot (Heidel, Glish).	500		5
	[Loyalties] Calpheon Storage +1 ♦ +1 storage slot (Calpheon, Keplan, Trent).	500		5
	[Loyalties] Mediah Storage Slot +1 ♦ +1 storage slot (Altinova, Tarif).	500		5
	[Loyalties] Valencia Storage Slot +1 ♦ +1 storage slot (Valencia, Shakatu, Sand Grain Bazaar).	500		5
	[Loyalties] Kamasylvia Storage +1 Expansion Coupon ♦ +1 storage slot (Grána, Old Wisdom Tree).	500		5
	[Loyalties] Artisan’s Memory x1 ♦ Increases Max Durability recovery amount by 4 times.	400		4
	[Loyalties] Max HP Increase Scroll ♦ Increase Max HP by +100 for 1 hour.	300		3
	[Loyalties] Max MP(EP) Increase Scroll ♦ Increase Max MP(EP) by +100 for 1 hour.	300		3
	[Loyalties] Extra Combat EXP Scroll ♦ Increases Combat EXP by +50% for 1 hour.	300		3
	[Loyalties] Extra Skill EXP Scroll ♦ Increases Skill EXP by +10% for 1 hour.	300		3
	[Loyalties] Extra Life EXP Scroll ♦ Increases Life Skill EXP by +10% for 1 hour.	300		3
	[Loyalties] Old Moon Flare ♦ Ship Transport to Port Ratt and Lema Island.	300		3
	[Loyalties] Tears of the Wind ♦ Dead mount is resurrected with full health/endurance	300		3
	[Loyalties] Unknown Dye Box	200		2
	[Loyalties] Tear of Repentance ♦ Karma gain +50% for 1 hour.	200		2
	[Loyalties] Bundle of 10 Elixirs of Oblivion ♦ Delete 1 Knowledge	200		2
	[Loyalties] Energy Tonic (S) ♦ Restores 15 energy.	100		1
	[Loyalties] Elion’s Tear ♦ Instantly resurrect and restore lost Combat EXP	100		1
	[Loyalties] Megaphone ♦ World Chat (1-time use)	100		1
	[Loyalties] Mount Resurrection Reset	100		1
	[Loyalties] Valks’ Cry ♦ Valk’s Enhancement Chance +1 (Limit: 5/Week)	100		1
	[Loyalties] Good Feed x5	50		.5
	[Loyalties] Flare x5 Those within range can’t hide for a time.	50		.5
	[Loyalties] Desert Disease Resistance Scroll ♦ Heatstroke/Hypothermia Resistance +10% for 1 hour	50		.5
	[Loyalties] Special Carrot x3	50		.5
	[Loyalties] Paste Bait x10 Increased chance of bite from fish.	25		.25
	[Loyalties] Thick Fishing Rod	25		.25
	[Loyalties] Elixir of Oblivion x1 ♦ Delete 1 Knowledge	25		.25
	[Loyalties] Atanis Firefly	10		.1
	[Loyalties] Bleach	1		.01

BDO Pearl Shop

The Pearl Shop in Black Desert Online uses Kakao Cash, which is purchased on the official website here. Use Kakao Cash to buy Pearl Boxes in the in-game Pearl Shop. You get free Pearls when you purchase Pearl Boxes that have quantities of 2000+

Free BDO Pearls with Kakao Cash Purchases

This table shows the free Pearls you can earn, if you stock up on your Kakao Cash and buy the higher quantity Pearl Boxes. Notice that the largest box gives 1,500 free Pearls. That’s like getting a free Value Pack (30 days), for spending $100. Nice bonus!

USD	Kakao Cash	Pearls	Price Per Pearl
$10	1,000	1,000	$0.01
$20	2,000	2,040	$0.0098
$30	3,000	3,200	$0.009375
$60	6,000	6,600	$0.009091
$100	10,000	11,500	$0.008696

Which BDO Game Package Should You Buy?

If you have the patience, you can buy the cheapest package now and wait until BDO Game Packages go on sale to “upgrade” your current package to obtain the extras. Packages and Package upgrades were 50% off during their Anniversary Sale. (But, predicting sales can be a shot in the dark, since moody price mongers can diverge at any time and surprise us.)

Starter’s Package – Price: $9.99

BDO Price: $9.99
Black Desert Online is only free in Korea, Russia, and Japan. Other locations require you to purchase at least a Starter’s Package, which costs $9.99. For years BDO has offered a free 7 day trial, but after that, it’s time to quickly decide if BDO is the right MMORPG for you. Is that enough time to decide? Leveling is quite fast in BDO, but 7 days should be enough to let you know if you enjoy the combat and complexity of Black Desert Online.

Tier 4 Pet Cost & How-To

Pet Loot Speeds
Tier 1 Level 1	10 seconds
Tier 1 Level 8	4.5 seconds
Tier 1 Level 10	4 seconds
Tier 2 Level 10	4 seconds
Tier 3 Level 10	3 seconds
Tier 4 Level 10	2.5 seconds

Pets are considered must haves by almost everyone that plays the game. You can get by with Tier 1, but you might loose out on some of your loot, unless you stand and wait for your little critters to get finished. Neither option is the most enjoyable. So, lets look at Tier 4 pets that have loot pickup speeds of 2.5 vs a loot speed of 4 seconds for Tier 1 pets.

Normal Pet Exchange:
(T3main) + T3 + T3 + T1 + T1 = 35% + 35% + 15% + 15% = 100% T4 pet exchange chance
(T3main) + T3 + T2 + T2 + T1 = 35% + 25% + 25% + 15% = 100% T4 pet exchange chance

Wizard Exchange: (T3main) + T3 + T2 + Wiz + Wiz = 35% + 25% + 20% + 20% = 100% T4 pet exchange chance

1 Tier 4 Pet = Max Price $121
Creating one T4 pet costs $121 Max price. (With Unlucky Exchanges, not buying Pearl Boxes in bulk, and purchasing pets that cost 1100 Pearls.) Buying expensive pet bundles that have extras will raise the cost even higher. Limited pets are often found in these types of bundles. If you buy Pearl Boxes in $100 increments, you get 1,500 extra Pearls. If you buy $600 worth of Pearl Boxes, it will give you 69,000 Pearls, which is enough to make 5 T4 pets.

Using Wizard Gosphy in Exchanges does not save money over normal Exchange with Premium pets, but he may help save you money, if you use him to upgrade Limited pets.

How to Save Money on T4 Pets:

• There is a 55% chance to obtain a T3 by Exchanging two Tier 1 pets. So if you are lucky, you can save some by mashing all your Tier 1 pets together and THEN try to put together T4 pets.
• When buying Pearl Boxes with Kakao Cash in $100 bundles, the price of an 1100 Pearl pet is $9.56. Total cost for really bad luck during T4 Exchange, (using 11 pets to make 1 Tier 4) would be $105.23
• You can also stick with the 900 Pearl pets, which are the basic cats and dogs. This would reduce your bad luck Exchange to $86.09
• Wait for pet sales (normally 20% off, very rarely up to 50% off)
• Stop at Tier 3, which gives 3 second loot speed. (Tier 4 only gives 0.5 extra loot speed)