BDO Trading Life Skill

BDO Trading is one of 11 Life Skills that allows players to profit by obtaining trade items and selling them to special NPC traders.

IMPORTANT UPDATE in Trading: Trade Manager items can no longer be purchased from Trade Managers and trading is somewhat disabled as they rework it. (Source.)

Obtaining Trade Items:

• Fishing Life Skill.
• Craft trade crates using workers and processed goods.

Trading Using Processed Trade Crates

Crate trading is the major form of trading available in the game.

There are many steps in creating trade crates:

1. Use CP to buy nodes and worker lodging.
2. Use energy to hire workers.
3. Obtain T1 materials and process up to T3.
4. Obtain Black Stone Powder. (Processing → grinding crystals or Black Stones)
5. Use CP to buy workshops for workers to package the materials into trade crates.
6. Transportation and delivery of crates via wagon etc.

How Profitable it Crate Trading?

The majority of profit from crate trading will primarily be obtained from gathering or worker nodes. More silver value can be added when T1 materials are processed into higher tiers. Finally, trading can add a bit more silver, but not nearly as much as workers and processing alone and selling on the market.

Typical Value Distribution from Profitable Trade Crates:

• Workers or Gathering: 56%
• Processing to T3: 39%
• Trade Crate Production: 5%

Silver from trading alone is only a small portion.

To view which crates are profitable, factoring in costs, see gpw’s Trade Crate Calculator pictured in this guide. Thanks for the awesome work gpw!

Trade XP Nerf for Mass Selling

Don’t mass sell your trade items at once recklessly.

Sell just enough crates to hit the next Trading level without selling too many to avoid XP loss. (https://youtu.be/gLuia2rGifk)

Origin & Node Connections

Trade items have an Origin that tells you where the trade item was obtained or in which city the worker who crafted it is from.

Origin is important for determining distance bonus and required node connections.

WARNING: If you attempt to sell at a location in which you haven’t purchased a node connection to, you will get a penalty, reducing the price to 30% of the Original Price.

Fish are excluded from this node connection penalty. You can fish anywhere and sell it at any Trade Manager.

Trade Item Transport

Stacks of trade items have high LT.

Place the trade items on a Mule, Horse, Wagon, or Elephant nearby to transport the trade goods.

You can transport Trade Goods via the Storage Manager’s Transport function. Make sure “Trade Wagon” is selected under “Transportation.” This will cost silver, depending on the distance.

Connected trade routes make transporting bank items via the Storage Keeper from city to city cheaper.

Storage Keeper Trade Wagon Limits:

• 15LT: 2100 trade items
• 30LT: 1050 trade items

Horse Trade Crate Overstacking:

• 30LT: 7157 trade items
• 20LT: 10736 trade items
• 15LT: 14315 trade items

WARNING: remote collection and mount death while transporting will destroy trade items. PVP can occur for characters level 50+

Bahar <Trade Manager>

For example, visit Bahar in Velia and select Trade option. Click on “Bargain Game” button on the bottom right.

Each Bargain attempt will cost 5 Energy.

Bargain attempts are limited to 3 before you have to pay more Energy. (Increase this to 7 if you have full Amity with Bahar. You can also get 1 to 3 extra bargain attempts from Luxury Vendor clothes.)

Available Bargain attempts are viewable as “Remaining x times” notice.

Increase Trading Level

Trading Exp can be earned through selling trade items and via quests.

The Leap Quests for Trading are available after you reach Apprentice 2 level.

They give anywhere from 20% to 80% of the level in their quest name.

Start the Trading Leap Questline: Quests (O key) → Suggested → [Life][Leap] Trading Guru.

Trading Leap Item Rewards

After completing the trading quest for Apprentice 10, you can pick up another quest for items. You can get more as you level up trading.

There are 5 Trading Quests at the following trade levels:

• Apprentice 10
• Skilled 5
• Professional 1
• Professional 10
• Artisan 10

These quests are easy, requiring you to speak to the quest giver.

Artifacts & Lightstones for Trading

Lightstones for Trading improve Trading Exp. Life Mastery has no impact on Trading unless the item has Life Exp on it. Trading Mastery is not available in the game.

TIP: You can also benefit from items that aid in horse training.

Trading & Training Lightstone List

Obtaining Trading Lightstones

Lighstone of Flora can be obtained in a variety of ways.

• Alchemy Life Skill with recipes using Imperfect Lightstones
• Simple Alchemy on Artifacts
• Turn Imperfect Lightstones into Lightstones via NPC + silver
• Give NPC 3 unwanted Lightstones for an RNG one.
• 1 time family quest line
• Rare drop from bosses and mid to high AP Grinding Spots (excludes Flora type)
• Guaranteed Resplendent Lightstone drop from a Guild Boss. (might not be Flora type)
• Marketplace

Sethra’s Trading Artifacts

* Many Life Skill activities can reward an Artifact that has Life Exp.

Trading Exp Artifact Combinations

Use Lightstone Combos to obtain some helpful buffs!

Lighstone Effects are added to the combos below.

Training Lightstone Combos

Luxury Trader’s Clothes

Purchase Trader’s Clothes at any Luxury Vendor in a major city.

You can use an Equipment Tailoring Coupon from the Pearl Shop to turn it into a costume. This will free up your armor slots so you can wear Silver Embroidered Clothes with it.

	Trader’s Clothes	Buffs
	Apprentice Trader’s Clothes Requires Trading Beginner 7	1 extra chance at Bargain mini-game Luck +1
	Skilled Trader’s Clothes Requires Trading Apprentice 5	2 extra chances at Bargain mini-game Luck +1 Trading EXP +5%
	Professional Trader’s Clothes Requires Trading Professional 5	3 extra chances at Bargain mini-game Luck +1 Trading EXP +10%

Trading Crystals

Trade items can get heavy. Crystals may help you squeeze more into your inventory as you make a delivery.

There are many crystals that add +15 to +75 LT (ex. Gervish).

NOTE: certain trade items held in your inventory will cause you to carry a backpack and slows movement speed, no matter how much LT your character has. However, other trade items don’t have this effect.

Life Skill Crystal Mat

100 Magical Lightstone Crystal is required to make 1 Life or Vital Crystal.

More powerful Life Skill Crystals were introduced with the Land of the Morning Light patch.

• Life Crystal → Life EXP +5%
• Vital Crystal → Life Mastery +10

NOTE: Life Crystal and Vital Crystal do NOT have a crystal group and have no limit!

Forest Crystal

1 Forest Crystal is used to craft 1 Life Skill crystal that buffs +5% Life EXP or +10 Life Mastery.

Obtain Forest Crystal:

• Sniper hunting in Land of the Morning Light – about 1 every 1.5 hours.
• Send worker to Dokkebi Forest node – 1 every 2 to 3 weeks.
• AFK Fishing in Land of the Morning Light – 1 every week.
• Special Barter – is this real? Not in my experience, but I have proof it exists.
• Exchange 1000 Sangpyeong Coin to Hyunyong in Moodle Village.

Magical Lightstone Crystal

100 Magical Lightstone Crystal is also required to craft a Life Exp or Mastery Crystal.

Obtain Magical Lightstone Crystal:

• Exchange Imperfect Lightstones or Lightstones you no longer need to Dalishain the Wandering Alchemist.

Trading Mounts

Forest Path Wagon is considered the best mount to use for trading because it has an unlimited lifespan and many other benefits.

Forest Path Wagon Benefits:

• Level 4 horses at once.
• Best Inventory and Weight Limit.
• Unlimited Lifespan (It never needs to be replaced.)
• Wagon Gear to improve stats.
• The skill Forest Rush is a special ability like sprint for horse. Press SHIFT key to consume player stamina to temporarily speed your wagon.

Archive of Old Trading System Using Trade Manager Goods

The content starting here to the end of the guide is temporarily disabled as it is reworked. Sorry folks! (Source.)

↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓

Specific node locations outside major cities have NPCs like Node or Trade Managers that offer trade items for sale.

To start trading, interact with the trading NPC and click “Trade” button.

Each NPC gives you access to a seperate storage that holds up to 20k LT of trade items purchased from their shop.

• NPC trade items weigh 300 LT and have a 7 day time limit.
• Each node storage has 5 slots that will stack 5 different trade items.
• Trade items with different names or different time remaining occupy different slots.
• You can store a total of 66 trade items inside each node storage.
• A maximum of 50 of the same trade item will be available to purchase at one time, and you can’t switch servers to buy 16 more of the same.
• Some trade items require a Trading level to purchase.

Trading Order Contract

Each trading node has their own seperate “storage” for trade items with up to 20k weight and 5 slots.

This “Order Contract” storage is viewable at the Trade Manager NPC after purchasing a trade item.

Withdraw Trade Items:

You withdraw trade items from the Order Contract by right clicking them. Make sure you have a horse or wagon nearby. Trade items that go into your inventory greatly slow your movement speed and you can NOT use a mount with a trade item on your back.

WARNINGS:

• Trade items withdrawn from an Order Contract can NOT be put back inside the Order Contract.
• Withdrawing a trade item from the Order Contract storage will give the trade item a 3 hour time limit.

TIP: You can purchase items to put inside the Order Contract at any time, but be sure to come back later to transport them with a mount.

Original Price

Original Price is the price of the item at 100% and never changes.

Original Price can be viewed whenever you hover your mouse over the item.

The Original Price is in the item detail window in yellow color.

Purchase Price

Purchase Price is the price at which you originally purchased the trade item for.

The Purchase Price will never change.

It can be viewed inside the trade item’s mouse hover window and also as a blue number in the Order Contract storage.

Current Price

Current Price is the price that you can sell the trade item for currently in any major city of a different region than where you purchased it.

Current Price can fluctuate from 30% to 300% of the Original Price. This price fluctuation is seen beside the Current Price in parathesis in many trade interfaces.

Trading Reset Times:

Current Price updates every 4 hours at 02:00, 06:00, 10:00, 14:00, 18:00, and 22:00 (UTC).

Depleted In Stock Mechanic

If a trade item stays at 30% to 40% current price for more than 12 hours, it will be bought up by the “Huge Merchant Guild”.

The In Stock number will drop to 0 for 3 days. This means you will have a penalty preventing you from purchasing that item for 3 days.

After the 3 day penalty, the stock will return to 50 with a current price of 100%.

Because of this mechanic, you may want to frequently check trade item price fluctuations so you aren’t locked out of buying that item for 3 days.

Standby Fee

A Standby Fee of about 7k silver is charged immediately after purchase, and an additional fee is added every 4 hours from the time of purchase.

Standby Fee is deducted from your family silver when you retrieve the trade item from the Order Contract storage.

The Standby Fee is the number in yellow.

Remaining Standby Period:

• Each trade item has a 7 day time limit.
• Trade Items that are expired are worth 30% of the cost.
• A Standby Fee is charged every 4 hours during the 7 day Standby time.

3 Hour Price Guarantee

When a trade item is withdrawn from a Contract Order and put on a mount or character inventory, it is given a 3 hour time limit.

This is seen as the “Price Guarantee” whenever you hover your mouse over the item.

After the 3 hour time limit expires, the current value declines in increments to 30%.

Because of this trading mechanic, make sure you are ready to deliver your goods after you withdraw them from the Order Contract.

How Profitable is Trading?

Trading is profitable when you can purchase trade items at a low price and then sell them after one or more trading cycles if their price increases. (Within 7 days.)

But how can you guarantee a trade item’s price will increase with the next trading cycle?

Steps to Increase Trading Profits:

1. Read the Old Moon Guild Newsletter.
2. Confirm rumored price hikes by observing NPC chat bubbles.
3. Purchase the items if their value is between 125% to 200%.
4. Wait up to 4 hours for the next trade reset.
5. Sell trade items in a different region from the region it was purchased in.
6. Bargain before selling to the capital city Trade Manager.

Old Moon Guild Newsletter

Old Moon Guild Newsletter is used as a first step in determining upcoming price changes.

View Old Moon Guild Newsletter:
ESC → Life (F6) → Old Moon Guild Newsletter

Current Price updates every 4 hours.

• Normal Price Changes: 0% to 15%
• Special Price Changes:
  • HIKE: 200% (double the Current Price)
  • PLUNGE: 50% (half the Current Price)

Special price fluctuations are added to the normal 15% price changes.

WARNING: the price changes rumored in the newletter can be wrong or the opposite of what it says. That’s why it needs to be verified by NPC rumors.

Trading Rumors via NPC Chats

All the price change rumors inside the Old Moon Guild Newsletter need to be verified.

Verify price news by visiting NPCs inside the major city of each region.

IMPORTANT: What the NPCs say is ALWAYS what will happen, while the newsletter can be misleading.

• If the NPCs are not there, then the price will rise or fall randomly.
• NPCs can say the exact opposite of what is reported in the newsletter. A price HIKE specified in the newsletter may actually mean an upcoming price PLUNGE.
• Always believe the NPCs over the newsletter.

• Life Skill Discord has sub channels for community price rumor reporting.

Balenos Trading

Capital City: Velia
Capital City Trader: Bahar <Trade Manager>

NOTE: NPC trade items purchased in this region can NOT be sold to the capital city trader of this region. They must be delivered to a capital city of a further region.

Serendia Trading

Capital City: Heidel
Capital City Trader: Siuta <Trade Manager>

NOTE: NPC trade items purchased in this region can NOT be sold to the capital city trader of this region. They must be delivered to a further region.

Calpheon Trading

Capital City: Calpheon City
Capital City Trader: Harden <Trade Manager>

NOTE: NPC trade items purchased in this region can NOT be sold to the capital city trader of this region. They must be delivered to a capital city of a further region.

Mediah Trading

Capital City: Altinova City
Capital City Trader: Quina <Trade Manager>

NOTE: NPC trade items purchased in this region can NOT be sold to the capital city trader of this region. They must be delivered to a capital city of a further region.

Valencia Trading

Capital City: Valencia City
Capital City Trader: Yis Kunjamin <Trade Manager>

NOTE: NPC trade items purchased in this region can NOT be sold to the capital city trader of this region. They must be delivered to a capital city of a further region.

Kamasylvia Trading

Capital City: Grána City
Capital City Trader: Okiara <Trade Manager>

NOTE: NPC trade items purchased in this region can NOT be sold to the capital city trader of this region. They must be delivered to a capital city of a further region.

Drieghan Trading

Capital City: Duvencrune City
Capital City Trader: Tikara <Trade Manager>

NOTE: NPC trade items purchased in this region can NOT be sold to the capital city trader of this region. They must be delivered to a capital city of a further region.

Everfrost Trading

Capital City: Eilton City
Capital City Trader: Bollona <Trade Manager>

NOTE: NPC trade items purchased in this region can NOT be sold to the capital city trader of this region. They must be delivered to a capital city of a further region.