BDO Node Investment Guide

List of Main Nodes:

1. Town Nodes: Where every sprawling node empire must have its humble beginnings… Every node you purchase, must be connected to a town or city that has a Work Supervisor (most do). Town and city nodes are usually given for free and provide one free worker (free means no Contribution Point cost). Invest energy into town/city nodes to lower starting interest and favor of NPCs in that city/town. Useful for acquiring amity with those obstinate NPCs!
2. Gateway Nodes: these expensive nodes cost too much Contribution Points, but help you connect to more important nodes further away from town.
3. Connection Nodes: produce goods or sometimes just help you expand your empire and connect to other resources and cities. Purchase with Contribution Points or level them up with energy to gain an item drop buff for the enemies you kill around the node’s location.
4. Dangerous Nodes: Be careful when you visit these as they are usually smack dab in the middle of mayhem. Just like connection nodes, they can offer resources in exchange for CP and an item drop buff for your energy.
5. City Nodes: If you see one of these node icons, you’ve landed in the big time baby! Congratulations. 🙂 They are the same as towns in function, but have more lodging for your workers, which you will soon need so you can overthrow the world with your node kingdom.
6. Trading Post Nodes: very similar to connection nodes and usually have Trade Managers with a few housing and production options.

Sub-node List:

• Farming/Production Nodes: starting out, you will want the nodes that produce starches/grains, so you can craft beer AFK to replenish the stamina of your workers.
  • Starch/Grain Node List:
    • Corn: Toscani Farm (Velia)
    • Potato: Bartali, Finto, Loggia Farms (Velia)
    • Sweet Potato: Shuri Farm (Tarif)
    • Barely: Northern Wheat Plantation (Calpheon City)
    • Wheat: Costa Farm, Moretti Plantation (Heidel) + Northern Wheat Plantation (Calpheon City)
  • Crafting beer also provides a secondary item you can turn in for more CP! If you find you enjoy cooking, there is great opportunity to purchase more food nodes and earn silver. For example, the grape node outside of Olvia is one of the few fruit nodes. It’s the cheapest and easist. (Delmira Plantation has grapes and there are strawberries atop Valtarra Mountains. Yeowoo Pass and Hanji County in LoML have Wild Berry.) Alejandro Farm, which produces Cooking Honey, is good for Cooking as well.
• Mining Nodes: Most ores are in high demand, often have cheap CP costs, and are used in allot of crafting recipes, like the popular +AP Grunil armors. There are many cheap ore nodes around Velia that also offer a secondary item (crystals/powders) besides ore that are used in Alchemy.
• Timber Nodes: Most timber has high value even unprocessed. Some players, who have high enough processing skill, level their processing and make extra money by buying timber and ore directly from the Marketplace and processing it for resale. Timber usually has good demand at the Marketplace. Boat crafters will love you. Sailing, anyone? 🙂 Note: always check pricing before buying to resell.
• Fish Drying Yard Nodes: dried fish is great for people who enjoy cooking, but don’t like to fish! Works wonderful in making Good Feed for pets. Dried fish stack in the bank and your worker does the drying for you. Just selling the dried fish uncooked isn’t very profitable atm, so Fish Yards are only recommended for people who like to cook. Because of their long work cycles and distance, use goblin workers, who have the highest Workspeed/Movement Speed. I recommend Randis Island, just NW of Port Epheria because it yields Seafood along with fish. It costs only 3 CP for the node chain and you get a free worker.
• Excavation Nodes: these little gems are often tricky, but worthwhile to purchase. For many of them, you have to visit the Node Manager and spend Energy (-35 Energy) to open up a sometimes secret Excavation sub-node. Excavation nodes give Trace of Nature. When used in crafting recipes, Traces have a good return. Use goblins in excavation nodes because of the very long work cycles and distances.
• Investment Bank Nodes: Click on a city/town node to view available bank nodes that you can invest gold bars in and possibly earn interest from. Gold bars are purchased at the Storage Keeper for silver. But you must have a rank 1 residence and that could cost real cash. According to Balzor, a few investment banks pay 125 million silver per month, but only if you plan on spending hundreds trying to outrank the current #1 ranking resident. That means buying the newest/smallest furniture from the Pearl Shop. And newer/smaller furniture with better Interior Points are constantly being added to the shop. View Balzor’s Bank Node Guide
• Specialties Node: Like Investment Bank Nodes, these require you to purchase a residence with CP and obtain a rank 1 house where the specialty is located. Rank 1 requires filling your residence with items that have high Interior Points. (could mean buying furniture with real cash.) Takes six hours to craft one item for free that is worth 6k to 50k at the local Trade Manager.

Node Connections

After you have discovered an area and removed the fog over the map, node connections show as thin white lines that curve between the map icons. If you own that connection, it becomes a possible trade route and turns yellow. All your invested node icons are highlighted in yellow as well.

Nodes have to be connected to each other in a chain from a city or town that has a Work Supervisor.

Usually, the CP cost of nodes increases as you move into higher level territories, but you will also obtain new resources, which are used in higher tier recipes.

If you are investing in a node to collect its resources, you will need 1 lodging per worker and enough storage space for the main resource, but also it’s secondary resources. For example, timber often has a smaller yield of an alchemy ingredient along with the timber.

How to Invest Energy in a Node

Open the world map (M) and LMB a node. Click “Invest Energy” button.

Which Node Do I Invest Energy In?

Some grinding spots have multiple nodes. However, only one node needs to be invested in for each grinding spot.

Cooking Nodes

Beginner Friendly Nodes:

I recommend the following nodes for those just starting to Cook. These locations are easy to get to on a low level character and will allow you to cook some basic dishes that will level your cooking and feed your workers.

Cooking Node List

The cooking nodes below are listed by highest silver value per CP. I only included a few important fish nodes. There are many fish nodes in the islands surrounding the mainland.

Node Investment for Alchemy

Herbs, mushrooms, and traces can be obtained by investing Contribution Points in worker nodes.

TIP: To begin, prioritize Alchemy nodes that give Sunrise Herb and Silver Azalea in Balenos and Serendia.

Alchemy Node	Ingredient
Gavinya Coastal Cliff, Valencia Gervish Mountains, Drieghan Cron Castle Site, Balenos Balenos Forest, Balenos	Sunrise Herb
Lynch Farm Ruins, Serendia Northern Plain of Serendia, Serendia	Silver Azalea
Karanda Ridge, Calpheon Longleaf Tree Sentry Post, Calpheon Ancient Fissure, Mediah	Silk Honey Grass
Tshira Ruins, Drieghan	Dry Mane Grass
Ehwaz Hill, Balenos Coastal Cliff, Balenos	Fortune Teller Mushroom
Elric Shrine, Mediah Epheria Valley, Calpheon	Sky Mushroom
Glish Swamp, Serendia Southern Cienaga, Serendia	Cloud Mushroom
Glutoni Cave, Calpheon	Emperor Mushroom
Ivero Cliff, Valencia (T1 to T3) Forest Of Plunder, Balenos	Arrow Mushroom
Kamasilve Temple, Mediah Bree Tree Ruins, Calpheon	Tiger Mushroom
Marie Cave, Calpheon	Ghost Mushroom
Northern Cienaga, Serendia	Dwarf Mushroom
Polly’s Forest, Kamasylvia	Blue Umbrella Mushroom
Rhua Tree Stub, Calpheon	Emperor Mushroom
Weenie Cabin, Kamasylvia	Volcanic Umbrella Mushroom

Excavation Nodes for Trace of Nature

Excavation nodes are important, if you enjoy crafting and like to maximize your income potential by creating stuff with workers or your own skills. Excavation nodes produce a bottleneck item for many recipes, which is called Trace of Nature. If you do not plan to craft, then you might want to avoid excavations, as their node chains can be expensive and the work cycles are too long to make good money. However, if you do craft, you can at least double the Trace’s value, if not more. Be sure to check Marketplace prices before attempting any crafting! Game updates and supply/demand can change a recipe’s value.

Many Excavation nodes are hidden and have to be purchased in person at their Node Manager, even with a Value Pack buff on. This often requires you to purchase the main node first with CP, then you will see an option to spend Energy at an NPC. Energy cost is usually 35… don’t be surprised if you pass out from utter exhaustion for speaking so effusively to your sneaky Node Manager. 😉

IMPORTANT: Be sure you have plenty of space in your worker’s storage location! Many Excavation nodes take up to 5 slots because they produce at least two vendor sell items along with Trace of Nature.

The excavation nodes below are listed by best silver value per day at the top, taking their CP chain cost into account.