The new player guide below is copied and published with the permission of Ja. Thanks Ja! 🙂 Keep the guides coming! 🙂 View Source Document.
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This was written for new players to get a better grasp of the game.
Message us at Ja#1234 (Dàgē Jia), Yue#3067 (Ambassador), or awakentheblades#1620 (Community Discord Helper) if you want anything added or have suggestions.
Join the official PA black desert discord through here.
Join the community black desert discord through here.
Join the bdo guide discord here to leave suggestions or just to say hi.
Massive thank you to Grumpy G, BDOFoundry, BDOWiki, and those who helped with suggestions/editing.
Feel free to share this.
Beyond the Basics
As you read this guide, this sign indicates (hyperlink you to another section) how you might learn more on the subject.
+ Signals a link to elsewhere in the document to go into a more detailed discussion or example
Before We Start
Basic controls:
WASD = move
Move mouse = look around
Tab = sheathe/unsheathe weapon
T = autorun
Left Control = free your mouse
Enter = open chat
K = open skill menu
Escape = open big menu
O = quest list
N = friends list
M = world map
B = mail and black spirit safe
P = character stats/menu
, (comma) = black spirit menu
Y = challenge tab, you claim rewards here
Early Inventory Management
Don’t claim every non-quest reward randomly, especially those from the “Y” and “B” menus. Make sure you read item descriptions so you know what they’re used for before you collect them. You’ll get a good number of inventory slots from the main story quests (can be done with each character), but claiming everything will clutter your inventory.
Is there fast travel? +
No. There’s no fast travel from town to town. You have to run or ride a horse back and forth.
What are pets? +
Pets pick up loot and provide additional small buffs for you. They are account/family wide.
What do costumes/outfits do?
Most costumes are mainly cosmetics. They typically add minimal buffs to your character while playing.
Some costumes are considered pay to win because of the buffs they give.
Example: Canape costume. -Cooking time, +cooking exp.
What server should you play on?
You should play on servers that benefit you the most. Olvia servers are for new and returning players. PvP is disabled in these servers. Elvia servers are servers where beginning mobs are significantly harder. Arsha servers are for PvP.
What class should you play?
Play whatever class you think will be fun – keep in mind classes change their playstyle at lvl 56 with awakening/succession. You can make up to 6 free characters – obtaining more characters is done with a cash shop item or through an ingame loyalty currency.
There are trial characters that you can create. After you pick which server to play on, at the top right of the character select screen is this icon . You can make a complete lvl 60 with all skill points available for a class you’d like to try. Keep in mind it takes a full 24 hours to delete a class… or search for some Youtube videos for gameplay of all of the classes.
What are season servers?
– SEASON SERVERS CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE
Season servers are servers made for new/returning players to help close the gear gap between them and veteran players. Enhancing is easier, and nothing costs silver. Seasonal characters can only equip seasonal items – Seasonal items have an icon at the top left of the equipment to indicate that they are equippable.
What kind of content does the game offer?
Black Desert Online is an MMORPG. It has some characteristics that differ from the generalized genre. The general consensus is that Black Desert Online is a self rewarding game – most of the current content is solo, but the game is slowly adding more group content. There is minimal trading – all gear is self obtained/enhanced or bought from the central market, meaning you cannot get “gear fed” from your friend(s).
WE’RE IN THE GAME
The Common Lingo
Succ = Succession
Awk = Awaken
K = Kutum offhand
N = Nouver offhand
Sheet = Your AP/DP when you open your inventory. We only reference these numbers for AP/DP.
Example: 269k succ = 269AP Succession with Kutum offhand. +
Brackets = A range of numbers for increased hidden AP/DP. Found here.
Memes = Memory Fragments
MSQ = Main story quest(s)
I made my character, what do I do now?
Do the main story quest (O -> Main) until you get to Valencia 1. When it asks you to pick a crossroad, pick any of them. The only one that will really matter is the Mediah crossroad. Do NOT pick “For Altinova” as it’s quite hard for a new player. Doing the main story quest will give you some Naru gear and beginner blackstones to enhance to PEN (, (comma) -> enhance -> click the Naru and enhance away). At PEN Naru, you can trade for Narchillan gear.
- Narchillan gear info can be read through here
If you’re playing seasons, you can now exchange it for Tuvala gear at Fughar instead.
Grind to lvl 56 if you aren’t level 56 by this point.
If anyone asks/tells you to get power leveled, we highly recommend not to. This game has a massive learning curve and getting power leveled at the start is extremely detrimental.
I reached level 56, what do I do now?
At level 56, do the awakening quest from the black spirit quest menu. After completing the quest, you can opt to do succession as well.
- Remember to trade in the Canon weapon for the Narchillan Awakening weapon.
Awakening: All of your pre 56 skills + a new skill list used with a different weapon. You can freely swap between pre 56 and Awakening skills.
Succession: Some of your pre 56 skills buffed, some may be slightly altered with 2 awakening skills.
You’ve now reached the real starting point. You can grind for better gear, do lifeskills, roleplay, or whatever you want to do. Your choice.
At level 56 (non-seasonals) you can currently buy gear from an NPC named Ellie. Ellie is next to the main stable manager in every major city.
How do I find x NPC?
At the top right of your screen right next to your minimap, you’ll find this icon . You can use this function to find specific NPCs.
Life skills
Press P -> Click the fish icon.
We’re not gonna explain what the different lifeskills do here as there’s too much to explain – there would literally be an additional 50 pages to this guide. Hit up this discord, look around for information, and ask your questions there.
Fitness levels
Press P -> Click the crossed swords icon
Leveling up fitness levels increase your weight, stamina, and max hp.
Weight is done from strength, stamina is breath, and max hp is health.
Strength levels are obtained through walking with a trade pack on. To obtain a trade pack, talk to a trade manager and buy an item from them to walk with. Stamina levels are obtained through walking/running in the game. Health levels are obtained from eating foods in the game.
Is x gear better than y? It’s more valuable? Do I sell it?
Best in slot gear is more expensive than other gear and may seem not worth it, but scale far better than normal gear.
For example (cost at the time of writing):
A TRI Ogre ring is 1.75B with 25AP.
A +0 base Capotia Necklace is obtained for free at lvl 61 with 25AP.
Do I still need the TRI Ogre ring? If you want to enhance your own TET Ogre ring, you would want to keep it.
Can I sell it? If you plan to buy a TET Ogre ring equivalent or better upgrade, you can sell it.
Enhancing?
Honestly… there’s no real solid ‘guide’ since enhancing is based on RNG (Random Number Generator). Every time you fail an enhancement, you get a failstack. Think of it like a ‘pity stack’ when failing enhancements. The higher your failstack, the higher % chance your next enhancement will be.
-Keep in mind, failing enhancements reduce your max durability on armor and weapons – accessories are destroyed.
Although there are failstacking charts, enhancing is more of a thing you have to get a feel for.
We recommend you buy gear until you understand how failstacking works.
Note: You want multiple characters or Naderr bands for failstacking as failstacks are character bound without Naderr bands. – Naderr’s band is a system that lets you store and move around failstacks – the first slot is free! The quest for Naderr’s band is received from the Black Spirit after reaching level 58.
Note: Advice of Valks are pre-prepared failstacks. Your current failstack must be at 0 in order to use them.
Enhancement Levels
Enhancement levels for armor and weapons go from base +0 to +15 and then Greek roman numerals PRI to PEN for a total of +20.
Enhancement levels for accessories go from base +0 to +5. Their upgrade levels are denoted by the Greek roman numerals PRI to PEN respectively.
What are cron stones?
Cron stones let you enhance gear without the risk of deleveling them.
Cron stones let you enhance accessories without the risk of them blowing up on failure. They still can delevel.
Keep in mind you need a lot of cron stones per attempt – not just 1.
You can buy cron stones from a blacksmith at 2m each or extract them from outfits/costumes at a blacksmith for roughly 1m each.
Recovering max durability?
You can use memory fragments or a base piece of gear of what you’re using to repair max durability with.
Example: I have a TRI Dandelion that I want to recover max durability on. I can use memory fragments to recover +1 max durability, or a +0 dandelion for +10 durability.
What are Artisan Memories?
Artisan memories are cash shop/event given consumables that let you recover max durability at 5x the normal rate per 1 item. (i.e. 1 Artisan per 1 Memory Fragment restoring 5 durability on yellow gear or 1 Artisan per 1 base copy of a gear piece restoring 50 durability on an equipment piece)
What is Energy?
Read this.
What are Contribution Points?
Read this.
What are Nodes?
Read this.
What are workers?
Read this.
How do I get more storage space?
To obtain more storage space, you can use CP to buy ‘town units’. Simply open your map and click on the city you want more storage in. Blue houses indicate houses that can be bought, grayed houses indicate you need to buy certain houses prior, and white houses indicate you have already bought that house.
How do I get a horse?
You’ll get a tier 5 horse from the main story quest in the Calpheon region. You can also buy a horse from the horse market. Stable Manager -> Horse Market – Keep in mind you need to have the silver to buy the horse in your inventory or storage of the town you’re in.
What is a fairy and how do I get one?
Read this.
Where do I grind?
Click here – This is a guide Ja did for casual players. You’ll do fine for the most part as he used arguably one of the worst classes (Awaken Maehwa) to do ALL of the testing.
What are skill points?
Skill points differ from your actual character level. Upon killing monsters or doing certain lifeskills, you get combat and skill point exp for your character. To get more skill points, just kill monsters. Skill points are used for… upgrading skills. The amount of required skill points needed to upgrade skills differ for each skill. Press K and your skill points will be near the top right of the screen . The number on the left indicates how many you have free, the number on the right indicates how many total skill points you have.
I heard about the infinite horse stack, what is it?
Watch this.
Note: Ignore the video after 1:40
Rift Bosses
Read this.
Game Systems/Features
Pets
How do I get pets?
You get 1 for new being a new player through daily login rewards and 4 more through quests. You can upgrade pet tiers by combining 2 (or more) of the same type of pets. Example: 2 limited, 2 classic, etc. Wizard Gosphy’s are an exception as they can only stay tier 1, but upgrade any type of pet. You can obtain more pets through the cash shop or buying them from the central market.
To find the list, O-> Suggested, find this tab.
“No Fast Travel”
For 99% of cases, there is effectively no fast travel. The few mechanics that somewhat allow for it are as follows:
Mechanic 1: “Maps”
Regular and Oasis traveler’s maps are one-use consumables with a cooldown that transport you (and your horse if you’re riding on it) to a “nearby town” or selection of them based on what the game considers is valid. Basically, don’t expect to be able to return anywhere you want with these.
Regular maps can be bought on the central market, and for the duration of the Oasis event, a Traveler’s Map on a shorter, separate cooldown, can be purchased in the oasis vendor’s shop.
(bdocodex snippet)
The special Archaeologist’s Map is a farmable unique item. It has infinite usage, and shares a cooldown with the regular traveler’s map. It also allows you to teleport back to the original location you used the Archaeologist’s Map from so long as you’re within a safe zone and less than 30 minutes have elapsed from when you initially used the map.
Mechanic 2: Guild “Command to Gather (A.K.A. CTG)”
With some guild skill prerequisites and a minimal cost, a guild master can use CTG on an 11 hour cooldown. The CTG allows guild members on the same server as the guild master (prior to use) to move to the location that the guild master used the skill. It cannot, however, have a destination of defined Desert/Deep Ocean areas.
Mechanic 3: “Lafi’s Compass”
Lafi Bedmountain’s Upgraded Compass is a farmable unique item. The passive effect is to show your location in the desert and in the great ocean. The active effect of the compass is to summon your entire party to your location (does not have the Desert/Deep Ocean restrictions). It has infinite uses, with a 10 hour cooldown per character. Keep in mind it’s an item that sits in your inventory – if you want to use it on multiple characters, you have to put it in a storage and take it out on another one.
Rare treasures
Archeologist’s Map
- Allows you to teleport to a town and back within 30 minutes of initial use.
Lafi Bedmountain’s Upgraded Compass
- The passive effect is to show your location in the desert and in the great ocean. The active effect of the compass is to summon your entire party to your location.
Ornette’s Spirit Essence
- Infinite use hp potion.
Odore’s Spirit Essence
- Infinite use resource potion.
Rich Merchant’s Ring
- Permanent +5% silver collection amount from Central Market.
Each unique rare has multiple pieces you need to grind for, obtain, and put together in a specific order. Each piece has their own separate grind area with specific mobs needed for the piece. Here is a list of compiled information with the areas and the specific mobs that drop each piece.
