How to get to bdo
How to get to bdo
Introduction
What are Season Servers?
Why should I play Season?
Other things to know:
The current Season started on 27th July 2022 and is expected to end on 28th September 2022
This guide will be referencing our Season Server guide throughout. Click the links in the guide for more details.
If you are confused about anything in this guide or have any questions, check our Season Server FAQ to get an answer as quickly as possible!
Feel free to pop into our Discord server as well and ask questions if still are unsure!
How to get started!
Make sure you select the “Season Character” button when you create a character
Join one of the Season servers for extra benefits.
Season servers have a special icon on them so you can tell them apart from regular servers
Season characters cannot equip regular gear!
Fughar will be your best friend throughout your season journey! He can be found next to Stable Keepers in all towns and cities.
Your Journey through Season
Level 1 to 55
Level 55 to 61
Level 61+
How to Graduate (Early Graduation)
Graduating sounds really complicated and can be a daunting task, but don’t worry, we’re going to take you through it step by step.
The current season is ending on July 6th 2022. All characters will automatically graduate and obtain the graduation rewards on this date. You then have 1 week to convert all your gear. If you miss or forget to convert your gear, the highest enhanced Tuvala gear will be converted automatically.
What is early graduation?
Players have the option to graduate early if they want to. Graduating yourself allows you to receive all of the end of season rewards early and turn your charcter into a regular character, meaning you can now equip all other gear options and start working towards PEN boss gear. If you do graduate early, you cannot create another season character during the same season.
What do I need to do first?
If you haven’t used your Fughar’s Timepiece yet, it’s time to use it now!
Fughar’s Timepiece can be obtained from Fughar and we are going to use it to get a FREE level 61 character. This is going to COPY your current level and some skill EXP onto the character you choose.
Place all the season rewards in your storage, then go back to your original season character and do the rest!
Now that you are a normal character and no longer a season character, you need to convert your Tuvala gear so that you can wear it.
You will get Conversion stones from the Graduation rewards.
You can only convert one full set of Tuvala gear. Unconverted Tuvala gear will be deleted at the start of the next Season.
Exchanging Tuvala Gear for Boss Gear
After completing season, you have 2 options and will want to take advantage of both of them.
Option 1: Boss Exchange Coupon
Option 2: Jetina Boss Exchange
Use the coupon on the gear piece that you want to try to enhance straight away. A good piece to choose is the Kutum weapon, because then you can also get the Nouver from Jetina at a later date if you want to for a PVP offhand option. You may also want to choose the Dandelion or Kzarka.
The only thing I would recommend is that you acquire the Red Nose armor from Jetina instead of Dim Tree. This is because you will eventually be turning it into Fallen God Armor (BiS), and this is much cheaper with Red Nose.
At this point, you also need to make a decision whether to go for Damage Reduction armors or Evasion armors. The choice depends on your playstyle and class.
I recommend reading through our Damage Reduction VS Evasion guide/discussion to help you decide, which will also teach you how these important stats work.
To use the Boss Exchange Coupon, you must first make sure you have graduated and converted the tuvala gear to regular gear using the Conversion Stones. You cannot exchange Tuvala gear with a crystal inserted into Boss gear and must remove the crystal first by going to your Black Spirit > Transfusion > RMB the crystal.
Then go to Fughar and accept the quest for the gear piece you would like to exchange:
After accepting the correct quest, go to Tranan Underfoe (the blacksmith in Velia) and use the “Chat” option. He will exchange your gear for you.
Then follow our guarenteed PEN boss gear guide to exchange the rest of your gear and begin the journey to full boss gear!
Season Special Reward
When you graduate, or when the season ends, you will be able to go and collect a special season reward.
You can choose from any of the rewards below, as long as you have not already claimed them.
The only requirement for obtaining this reward is that you had a level 20 or higher character at the end of the season. So if you are a new player, it is worth creating a season character each season to collect all 3 Capotia accessories. These accessories are equal to TET accessories and will not be replaced for a long time.
| [2020 Summer Season] |  |
PEN (V) Capotia Earring
PEN (V) Capotia Ring
PEN (V) Capotia Belt
PEN (V): Capotia Necklace
Advice of Valks (+100)
I recommend selecting the PEN (V): Capotia Necklace for your end of season reward.
It is equal to a TET Ogre/Laytenn Necklace and has the highest silver value.
The Capotia Ring is also the better value option out of the Ring and Earring.
1 Run the downloaded BlackDesert_Installer_NAEU.exe file to install the Black Desert launcher.
2 Please start the game once installation is complete.
Announcements
Check out the short how-to guide below for starting the game using the new client, so you can jump right into Black Desert Online as soon as possible.
Installing the Pearl Abyss Black Desert Online Launcher
① On the official Black Desert Online website, go to Archive → Download and click the “ Download Client ” button.
③ Select your preferred language to use during the installation. Press Ok.
Please note that a Black Desert folder is created at the selected install location. You will not be able to modify this during this installation.
⑥ Select whether you want to create a desktop shortcut. Press Next.
⑦ Press Install to complete the installation.
⑧ Run the new game launcher to update the game to the latest version.
Beginners Sailing Guide – Black Desert Online [BDO]
The Great Expedition patch introduced a lot of new and interesting aspects to life at sea in Black Desert Online. In this BDO sailing guide, I will explain how to get your first ship, how shipbuilding changed, how the new barter system works, sailors and the new sailing skill, and more.
Getting Your First Ship
Before you start sailing you need something to sail. In the old days, we only had rafts, rowboats, and fishing boats. And while those boats are still slightly useful, the first ship you should now get is the Bartali Sailboat.
The best way to get the Bartali Sailboat is by starting the “[The Great Expedition] Oquilla’s Eye” quest chain. This quest chain can be started with the Black Spirit at level 50 with the quest “Vigorous Velia”. After a few quests, you get a free “Ship License: Bartali Sailboat” item. You can also buy the “Ship License: Bartali Sailboat” item from Proix in Velia for 10 million silver if you want to have more than one ship.
Once you have gotten your hands on a ship license you need to go to a Wharf Manager, such as Croix (they’re brothers) in Velia, where you use the license to get your ship. After you’ve registered the ship you can take it out. Try it and see how you like it.
Sailing Your Ship
Controlling your ship is pretty straightforward. You steer it with the WSAD buttons or with your mouse like normally. The only thing you need to keep in mind is whether your sails are folded or not. If you are sailing against the wind you want to have your sails folded, but when you have the wind in the back you want to have your sails unfolded. There’s not much you can do about the sea current, but going against it will slow your ship down.
Tip: If you get your ship stuck it sometimes is enough to release the steering wheel (“R” button) and take control again for the ship to come unstuck.
Ship Info Screen
On the ship info screen, you get all the information you need to see how your ship is doing. To access the screen you can either use the F5 button or the R button depending on where you are standing on your ship.
Ship Stats
Ship Gear and Their Benefits
You can also equip ship gear on this screen. There are five types of ship gear with two tiers, green and blue. As usual, the blue grade is more expensive but gives somewhat better stats. There are also two versions of each blue grade gear and then there is separate gear for sailboats and frigates.
The Bartali Sailboat uses the Epheria Sailboat gear so be sure to buy that from the Wharf Manager.
Types of the Epheria Sailboat Gear and the Basic Stats They Give
| Type | Green Grade Benefits | Blue Grade Benefits |
| Cannon | Julia Cannon + 1000 Durability +300 extra damage to sea monsters +100 extra damage to ships | Elena Cannon + 5000 Durability +1000 extra damage to sea monsters +1000 extra damage to ships |
Elise Cannon
+ 5000 Durability
+ 500 extra damage to sea monsters
+ 240 extra damage to ships
+200 rations
+2% turn
+10000 rations
+4% speed
+2% turn
Blue Wind Sail
+10000 rations
+2% turn
+150LT weight limit
+100 LT weight limit
+2% speed
+150 LT weight limit
Lightweight Black Plating
+200 LT weight limit
+1% speed
+10000 rations
+ 4% speed
Sea Dragon Prow
+10000 rations
+2% speed
+150 LT weight limit
Green grade gear is purchasable from Croix the Wharf Manager NPC in Velia. To get your hands on blue grade gear you will either need to make it yourself or buy it from the central market. To craft blue ship gear you need to have a level 4 ship gear workshop. There is one like that in Port Epheria.
Ship Abilities
Finally, you can see the extra abilities you get with your ship once your sailing skill reaches a certain point. A lot of players aim for skilled 1 as that lets them use the Breezy Sail skill which increases the ship’s speed.
The next thing we need to know is how sailors work.
Sailors
To hire your good sailor you need to buy a “Sailor Contract Certificate”. You can buy them from Philaberto Falasi in Epheria, Islin Bartali at Velia’s Inn, and Criox at Velia docks. Once you have a certificate you need to find and talk to a sailor looking for a job and hire them through the chat interface.
To find the location of sailors looking for a job you can talk to Philaberto, Croix or Islin and ask them about hiring sailors. This will show you the location of sailors looking for a job, which is the beach in Epheria, inside Velia’s Inn (not the one at the docks) and at the harbor in Iliya.
Sailors looking for a job have a tag above their head which tells you what type of sailor he is. The table below has all the starting stats on each type of sailor you can get so you should refer to it when you are getting yourself a new sailor. Now as your sailors gain experience these stats will also improve to some extent.
| Type of Sailor | Speed | Acceleration | Turn | Brake | Appetite | Cabin Cost | Weight | Location |
| Ambitious | 1.6 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 150 | 10 | 200 | Velia and Epheria |
| Born-in-the-sea | 2.0 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 150 | 10 | 500 | Iliya |
| Calculating | 0.3 | 1.2 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 150 | 10 | 300 | Velia and Epheria |
| Confident | 0.3 | 0.3 | 3.0 | 0.6 | 100 | 5 | 300 | Velia and Epheria |
| Diligent | 0.3 | 0.3 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 80 | 10 | 100 | Iliya |
| Enamored | 0.2 | 1.6 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 150 | 10 | 150 | Velia and Epheria |
| Experienced | 1 | 1 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 150 | 10 | 250 | Velia and Epheria |
| Honest | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 120 | 7 | 200 | Iliya |
| Innocent | 1.2 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 150 | 10 | 200 | Velia and Epheria |
| Powerful | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 150 | 8 | 500 | Iliya |
| Smart | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 100 | 5 | 500 | Velia and Epheria |
| Strong | 0.5 | 0.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 100 | 8 | 250 | Iliya |
| Tenacious | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 4.0 | 100 | 5 | 300 | Velia |
| Tough | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 3.0 | 100 | 5 | 300 | Velia and Epheria |
| Treasure-Seeking | 0.2 | 0.2 | 4.0 | 0.8 | 110 | 5 | 300 | Velia and Epheria |
Which type of sailor is best depends entirely on what you intend to do with your ship. If you are going to use it for trading and bartering then sailors with speed boosts and low weight are best, such as innocent and ambitious types, while if you intend to use your ship for combat situations of some sort then sailors which give your ship better turn, break and acceleration become more important.
Sailor Stats Explained
In the image above you can see the sailor interface. The first stat is the sailor’s appetite which is the number of rations the sailor consumes each cycle and cabin cost is the cabin space the sailor needs. Weight is also important as this number is redacted from the total carrying capacity of your ship. So having a heavy crewmember reduces the weight of goods you can carry without slowing down.
Next are the sailor’s abilities. The first four abilities of the sailor are Endurance (Speed), Wits (Acceleration), Awareness (Turn), and Strength (Brake). The sailor’s ability with these skills is added directly to the respective ship’s stat.
The later four abilities are only gained when the sailor reaches level 10. Seasoned Sailor reduces the negative effects of sea currents, Son of the Wind reduces the effect of sea storms, Abstain reduces the number of rations needed each cycle and Natural Born Soldier gives your ship extra resilience.
Sailor Condition and When Sailors Get Sick
A sailor’s condition can become worsened, for example, if you run out of rations while out on the sea. You need to feed your sailor with raisin bread to restore his condition. You can buy raisin bread from the same NPC’s that sell you a sailor contract or in the central market. If a sailors condition reaches 0 he becomes sick. To cure him you need to give him an Elixir of Regeneration.
How Sailors Get Experience
You sailor can get experience in the following ways:
Getting More Sailors
You start out with a single slot for sailors. To get more sailors you need to get “Sailor Oath’s” which are items that grant you extra sailor slots when used. The “best” way to get them is by continuing the Great Expedition questline mentioned before. The one that started with the Black Spirit at level 50 with the quest “Vigorous Velia”. This questline will, after you get Bartali’s Sailboat, also give you in total five sailor’s oaths. You can then use those oaths to expand your sailor slots.
Quests for a Sailing Career
There are a couple of quest chains that are great to complete if you intend on a life at sea. These are the [ADV] Exploring the Balenos Sea and [ADV] Exploring the Calpheon Sea. You can find them in your quest tab which opens by pressing the “O” button. Once you have completed these chains you will have discovered all the islands north of the area between Velia and Epheria.
After completing those two chains you could also bark upon “The Uncharted Sea, History of Margoria” questline and “Call of the Ocean: Journey to the Deep Sea.
Getting Sailing Experience
Now once you are familiar with your ship and perhaps even gotten yourself an Epheria sailboat it is time to start increasing your sailing skill to at least skilled 1.
To do this you sort of need to complete a few daily quests. You can just sail around in the Margoria sea, but that is a really slow way to get sailing experience.
Daily Quests which Increase Sailing Experience
The quests in bold are quests that you can easily do solo. The others are doable solo, but much harder than with a group.
Upgrading your Bartali Sailboat
The next step you can take is to upgrade your Bartali Sailboat to either an Epheria Sailboat or an Epheria Frigate. This step is important as it decides which ship path you take from thereon. The image here below shows you the upgrade path you can take from the Bartali Sailboat.
As a rule of thumb, if you want to emphasize bartering you go for a sailboat, but if you want to go sea monster hunting or take part in combat, then the Epheria frigate is a better choice.
Now to upgrade your ship you first need to get all of the ship’s green gear to enhancement level +10 (see my bdo enhancement guide). You also need to collect the required materials which are:
Materials Needed for an Epheria Sailboat
Materials Needed for an Epheria Frigate
Once you have then in storage at a town with a wharf you can bring your Bartali Sailboat there and use the wharf manager to upgrade your ship into either an Epheria frigate or Epheria sailboat.
The same method is then used to upgrade your ships even further, which means that you don’t need to constantly buy new ships, you can just concentrate on upgrading one or two of them.
Bartering
The bartering system is an interesting add-on for those of us that enjoy playing on the sea. In simple terms, it is a way to turn land-based resources into bartering items step-by-step from level 1 to level 5 and then turn the level 5 items into sea coins.
Why Bother With Bartering
Because bartering is the only way you can get some of the materials needed for the higher grade ships and ship gear. And unless you have no interest in Black Deserts Ocean content then you sort of need to get the better ships and ship gear.
Bartering can also be a way to earn some silver and even a decent way once you reach the higher tiers of bartering.
And finally, in my opinion, bartering is the best way to level up your sailors.
How to Barter
To be able to barter you will need to use a Bartali’s Sailboat or any higher-tiered ship. You cannot barter in a fishing boat or rowboat. You will also need to have the materials you intend to use for the barter in the ship’s cargo hold. You can load and unload a ship’s cargo hold at the wharf manager NPC.
To see what materials you need to start your bartering chain you can open up the bartering interface. There you will see all the bartering options you have available, regardless of wither you have discovered the island with the bartering option.
Completing a Bartering Chain
When you first start bartering you will only see a single bartering chain. My first one was 30 Clown’s Blood –> Golden Sand –> Cron Castle Gold Coins –> Old Hourglass –> Solidified Lava –> Azure Quarts –> Sea coins. Each step of the chain gives you either the same amount as the bartered item or more. This means that once you complete a bartering chain you will be left with surplus materials.
For this chain, I had the following items left once I completed the chain: 4 golden sand, 2 Cron castle gold coins, 6 old hourglasses, 8 solidified lava and four azure crystals. I could sell the higher tiered items for 44 million silver or keep them in the hopes of using them to complete another bartering chain faster.
Once you have completed a chain, you need to open the “Barter Information” screen to refresh the possible barters you can perform. You can refresh this earlier, but for your first run, I suggest completing the chain. As your bartering continues you will get access to more chains and a wider availability of bartering options.
So that’s about all you need to know to successfully start your sailing career. If you found this guide useful then please share it with your friends and allies in BDO. So good luck on the seas and by the way, I also have a few other guides you might find useful.
BDO Beginners Guide (Black Desert Online New Player Tips)
Last updated Apr 6, 2022 at 2:33PM | Published on Jun 1, 2020 | Beginner Guides & Tips, Black Desert Online | 8
Just like this cute little BDO baby, we all have to start somewhere. Playing Black Desert Online for the first time can sometimes be overwhelming for newbies. There is so much to learn, but also so many new sights and adventures to discover!
This Beginners Guide will help those just starting BDO and MMORPG fans considering a purchase of Black Desert Online.
Here you will find beginner tips I wish I knew before starting Black Desert Online. I hope they help you along the way.
If you’re looking for a humble opinion on the good and bad of Black Desert, please read my Black Desert Online Gameplay & Review. But if you want tips that are mostly non-opinionated, read below. 🙂
Best Beginner Class
Currently the top beginner friendly class, according to player polls is Guardian. I like things simple, and I have to agree. Guardian is my favorite class at the moment and easy for even my slow fingers to master. Ha!
The best beginner class is probably the easiest class to play, but maybe you’re up for more of a challenge! Do you like simple controls or enjoy mashing complex key combinations? Do you like heavy hitting attacks or speedy finesse? What’s important to you? It may not be to someone else.
Is Guardian Class right for me?
For beginners to BDO, looking for the easiest class to play, most recommend Guardian. This class boasts several benefits to beginners trying out BDO.
For more info on available classes, with an overview of their rankings, strengths, and weaknesses, visit BDO Class and Character Creation Guide. Or you can also view current class tier lists.
Some people hate Guardian because they say it’s boring and slow, and others love it. To me, it’s not boring at all. I suggest you play a class that looks fun to you at least until level 56. At level 56, all classes can change their play style by using a whole new set of skills.
Trial Characters
Testing Out a Class
Trial Characters allow you to try out a class to see if you will like it near end game.
BDO Family Name
New Adventurers will have their Family Name displayed as ‘Rookie Adventurer’ upon entering the game for the first time. You can choose your Family Name in-game by entering the chat window (press Enter).
* You cannot join a guild if you do not choose your own Family Name.
When you have successfully chosen your Family Name, you will be reconnected to the game. After about 20 seconds on the reconnection screen, you will finally be able to play with the Family Name of your choosing.
All the characters that you create on your account will have the same Family name. This Family name will be visible text above your head to players who run into you. It will also be visible in chat. No matter how many different characters you make, you will always have this name. In BDO, you can’t role play and experiment with having different characters in different guilds. Each character is tied to the Family name, which you can’t hide. (Unless you purchase and put on Pearl Shop outfits called Treant/Desert Camouflage.) When you join a guild, all your alts join as well.
Players can switch between viewing Family or Character names in chat, by clicking the gear icon on the chat tab.
To hide other players family names and the text and icons above their heads, press Escape key > Settings > General > Show/Hide
This only shows/hides names in your User Interface. Other players will still be able to see your names, title, and guild if they have this setting turned on.
Rookie Attendance Rewards
Attendance Rewards are game items you obtain every day just for logging into the game. View them through the Escape Menu.
You also get another reward for logging in, called “Loyalties”. Loyalties are used to purchase Cash Shop items (F3). For more info about playing F2P with the BDO Loyalty Shop, visit our Loyalties Guide.
Typical Beginner “Rookie” Attendance Rewards:
Collect your Attendance Reward goodies via the “Safe” icon located at the bottom right of your screen.
Sometimes Guild and other special event Attendance Reward tabs open up. Returning players (who have not logged into their account for 30 days) also get a special tab.
Notice that Attendance Rewards are only available for a limited time. “Loyal” Attendance Rewards normally only have a short monthly window. “Guild”, “Rookie”, and “Returning” player tabs usually have a broader time frame to collect.
Season Servers
Season Servers are available during a limited time to Season Characters only. When season servers end, all Season Characters graduate and can’t re-enter those temporary servers.
—- If you are allowed to create a Season Character, do so. —-
Season Servers are a great benefit to new players for several key reasons:
New Olvia Servers
Olvia Servers are only available to New and Returning players for a 30 day window. These servers give more Exp in combat and life skills.
| NEW Olvia (Novice only) | Adventurers who have logged in within 30 days (720 hours) of creating their Family Name. Also those returning, who have a character total level of less than 150. |
| NEW Olvia – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 | Adventurers who have not logged into the game or used the Web Central Market in the last 30 days (720 hours). |
Olvia Server Buffs:
| Benefits | Buff Details |
| Combat EXP | 150% |
| Skill EXP | 50% |
| Max Growth Level | Lv. 61 99.999% |
| Life EXP | 100% (up to Artisan 1) |
| Contribution EXP | CP 0-99 : Contribution EXP +150% CP 100-199: Contribution EXP +100% CP 200-249: Contribution EXP +50% |
There is an Olvia server icon which is displayed for new and returning players.
BDO Alerts and Notifications
The UI can alert you to many different things that occur in the game. These include Trade notifications and other things like when other players fail or succeed at enhancements.
You can customize the messages that are shown. Press Escape key > Settings > General > Alerts
Chat Filters & Censors
BDO has two separate settings for “Chat Filter”. Although they are called the same, they are completely different and have unique chat filtering behaviors.
Chat Filter with *** Replacement
BDO has a very strong offensive language censor, that often filters out terms it shouldn’t. For example, it will show “so****ing” for the word “something” and “good ***ht” for the words “good night”. You can turn off their offensive language censors by going to Esc > Community > Language. There isn’t a way to fine tune this. It’s either on or off, and the developers decide which terms are offensive.
Press Esc > Community > Language.
Chat Filter with Complete Removal
BDO has a separate option, in which you can input your own term, and it will completely remove the entire chat. This can work together or separately from their native censoring. Chat Filters you add in here do not replace the word with ***. It completely removes the player’s entire message, as if they never sent a chat in the first place.
Press Esc > Community > Chat Filters.
Like all MMORPG games, BDO has its share of people advertising this or that. With Chat Filters, you can completely remove those types of ads. But you have to remember, if you put “.com” in this Chat Filter, you will have to delete the term to ever get a website recommendation from a friend, for example.
The following gets rid of many gold sellers as well as people spamming chat with memes, annoyances, etc.
Thanks to bdoparadise.blogspot.com for sharing this chat filter example!
Pearl Shop Basics
To purchase Pearl Shop (F3) items, you must first buy Acoin (Abyss Coin) via the official Pearl Abyss website. Use the Acoin to buy a box of Pearls at the Pearl Shop in game. The Pearl box will go into your Pearl Inventory. Access the Pearl Inventory by clicking on the Pearl button at the top of your main Inventory window (I). Right click the box to collect your Pearls. Now you can buy items from Pearl Shop with Pearls.
$100 American dollars buys 10,000 Acoin. 10,000 Acoin can buy a Pearl box with 11,500 Pearls (10,000 base pearls + 1,500 extra)
A limited number of Pearl outfits, pets, and horse gear can be sold at the Marketplace. Always double check that the Pearl item has a Marketplace Value if you plan on purchasing Pearl items to sell on the Marketplace.
Please visit our Pearl Shop & P2W Guide for more details on the P2W gear you can purchase to make the game easier.
Pearl Shop Gifting
You used to be able to give Pearls and Pearl items to friends, but this was removed. BDO takes serious effort into quelling the actions of gold/account/power leveling sellers, but their ads are still visible in chat. You can use chat filters to block them.
Giving Money (Silver) & Game Items Away
The main game currency is silver, and it can’t be given to another player. Player to player trade is very limited in Black Desert Online. Most things like gear and accessories cannot be given or traded directly to another player and must be sold at the Central Market. Some exceptions are Health and Mana Potions and some foods and drinks. Also, once those items are traded, they become bound and can’t be re-traded or sold.
Energy
Energy is another type of currency in the game and has many uses, such as allowing you to use Life Skills like Gathering and Farming. Maximum Energy is increased when any character you play completes Knowledge topics. Your Energy and Knowledge gained is shared across all your characters (Family).
The easiest Knowledge topic to complete is the Character type, in which you have to talk to the NPC to gain their Knowledge. Talk to every NPC with a question mark on your mini map to discover them and gain Knowledge. Press the H key to see a breakdown of all the Knowledge to be gained. For a more detailed guide on Energy, please read our Energy Guide. There is also a Knowledge Guide and a Knowledge Locator to help you find the nearest Knowledge to your location.
| Passive Energy Restoration | Energy Restoration Rate |
|---|---|
| While logged in | 1 energy every 3 minutes (20 energy per hour) |
| While logged in and sleeping on a crafted bed | 2 energy every 3 minutes (40 energy per hour) |
| While logged in and sleeping on a Pearl Shop bed | 3 energy every 3 minutes (60 energy per hour) |
| While logged out | 1 energy every 1 hour (24 energy/day) |
| Alts logged out | 1 energy every 1 hour (24 energy/day) |
Energy can be actively restored through quest rewards. Energy can also be increased with potions and buffs; most notable is Blessing of Kamasylve, which increases Energy regeneration by 2. It costs 2000 Loyalties (10 days of logging in for one hour) or 1,250 Pearls. ($12.50). Small energy tonics cost 200 Loyalties.
Contribution
Your Contribution pool is shared across all of your characters (Family). Each character adds Contribution exp to the pool by completing quests. To gain more Contribution Points, finish as many quests as you can that award Contribution. (Most do.) As you gain knowledge and amity with NPCs, more quests will open up to you. You can also obtain Contribution through Alchemy and Cooking, which provide a byproduct that you turn in to an NPC. (You get about 1 byproduct every 5 crafts.)
Contribution has 2 main uses in BDO. Most people spend their Contribution on purchasing Nodes and building their “Worker Empire”. It takes Contribution Points to buy lodging for workers. Any kind of workshop housing will cost you CP as well. Renting weapons, armor, and storage space is another option for spending Contribution, for players that don’t like crafting or world building.
Combat Skills
Beginners have until level 57 to freely test out their class and change skills. Skill Points can be put into any skill to level those skills up and increase their strength. Spending Skill Points is limited by level, available Skill Points, and sometimes skill pre-requisites. The majority of Skill Points will be obtained via fighting monsters. There are some quests that give them as well.
Experiment While You Can!
Once you reach level 57, you will need a Pearl Shop (Secret Book of Old Moon) to reset your Skill Points. These cost at minimum 500 Pearls or 2000 Loyalties. You do get one for free for completing your Awakening quest line.
For more details on Skills, please view our Skill Guide.
Beginner Travel & Navigation
Beginner Travel Tips
Right clicking anywhere on the World Map (M) or the mini-map will draw a path to that point. Right clicking a node icon will take you to the Node Manager. Press your T key to have the game auto-run a path for you. Auto-path will follow the safety of roads as much as possible. Be careful when doing this outside of roadways, as your character can get stuck on trees and other objects. Not all roads are safe and sometimes auto-path takes overly long routes, so be watchful auto-pathing in areas you’re unfamiliar with.
To find merchants and other NPCs, click on the NPC icon in the upper right of your screen.
In the Search field of the “Nearby NPC” window, you can search using an NPC’s name or their title. Sometimes certain helpful words are included in the title. For example, the search term “fence” will give you all the NPCs that will exchange fences for Contribution Points, so you can start the Farming profession.
Beginner Horse
There are many more ways to obtain a horse. Read more in our horse guide.
Don’t be fooled by the Donkey, unless you choose the Shai class. 🙂 Donkeys are adorable and so lovable, but harder to turn. Horses are easier to handle and most important, just as cute! (Some players have been known to defend their donkey’s prowess to the death… beware of such players, as they are deluded.)
Get your rope ready for, Horse Taming!
If you lose your mount or forget where you left him (poor guy), you can locate him by right clicking on your horse icon in the upper left of your screen. A path will be drawn to your horse. Left clicking on the horse icon will call your mount to you, but if he is too far away, it won’t work.
Remote Collection:
You can also retrieve your mount by remote collection at the if he is not stabled in another city. If you left him at Toscani Farm, but you are near Heidel, go to the Heidel Stable Keeper and choose “Remote Collection”. If you do this, your horse will lose its health and you will have to pay silver or give him carrots to recover him.
Mount Transport:
For a more detailed guide about getting around BDO, pease visit the guide, Fast Travel.
We also have a beginner friendly guide on Training & Horses.
Pets for Beginning Players
You can have up to 5 pets out at the same time. Pets are bought at the Pearl Shop or given as Attendance, Challenge, or quest rewards. Pets pick up your loot for you. Pets have a max of 4 tiers and each tier has up to 10 levels. The higher your pet’s level and/or tier, the faster it will loot.
Pets have 1 Special Ability, 1 Talent, and up to 3 Skills. Pets level up after being fed. To level your pets faster, switch them to Agile mode so your pet’s hunger gauge decreases faster. If your pet’s hunger level reaches 0%, it will no longer loot or use its Special Bbility. It’s skills, however, will still work.
Pet Exchange (aka Pet Breeding) is used to produce a higher tier pet, which is faster and is able to acquire more skills. Unfortunately, exchanging pets actually kills the parent pets. On the bright side, loot speeds are faster.
Cheap Feed can be bought for your pets at the and restores 12 hunger. Better pet food can be cooked or bought at the Marketplace.
Pet Talents & Special Abilities
Pet Talents and Special Abilities for T1 pets like dogs and birds are good for grinding. Other pets, like cats and Hedgehog, are good for Life Skills.
Best Pets for Beginners?
Many players say the Hedgehog is the best pet in BDO. With my own testing, I discovered I gathered much less than my sister who had a Hedgehog. This makes a big difference in the amount of time it will take to gather logs for ship building, for example. But Hedgehogs aren’t good for players who don’t gather and craft. Hedgehog has limited availability. To learn more, please visit our Hedgehog Guide.
| Pet | Pet Special Ability | Pet Talent |
|---|---|---|
| Cats Choppy | detect gatherable resources | Life XP |
| Crab | detect gatherable resources | item durability |
| Little Lamb | detect PVP players | Life XP |
| Young Griffon Turtle | detect PVP players | item durability |
| Dogs | detect PVP players | Combat Skill XP |
| Birds | detect rare mobs | Knowledge |
| Penguin Polar Bear | afk fish time decrease (Polar Bear: +20LT & +10 LT/tier) | Life XP |
| Pandas | taunts monsters (draws a mob to you) | Combat Skill XP |
| Desert Fox Snowkid Reindeer | resistance to desert heatstroke/hypothermia (up to 35%) | item durability |
| Hedgehog | extra gathered resources | Life XP |
This Pet Talent and Special Ability table is just a small list of available pets. To view all of them please visit our BDO Pet Guide.
Is BDO Free to Play?
Pets are a good example of what many consider P2W. They aren’t required to pick up loot, but if you don’t buy them, you will have to repeatedly mash the same pick-up button over and over again after every mob group that you defeat. Mob groups are usually 5+ so that’s 5x pressing the R button to do something that quickly gets boring and routine…. (So it’s basically, R + Wait for pickup animation… R + Wait for pickup animation… R + Wait for Pickup animation… Not very exciting.)
Even with the maximum of 5 pets, you may have to wait for pets to pick up loot, depending upon how fast you can kill monsters and what Tier and Level your pets are. In order to raise a pet’s Tier, you have to buy another pet and combine two pets into one, so that doubles the price.
Tier 1 pet costs:
BDO has been more generous giving players free pets lately. Beginners to BDO will get the “Rookie” Attendance Reward. At the moment of this writing, that included one free Kuku pet that is Level 1 and Tier 1. Penguins have been given in the distant past and are more rare. A limited amount of free pets can be obtained via Quest/Attendance/Challenge Rewards.
You will notice that two Kuku pets can’t be used at the same time. You can, however, Exchange 2 Kuku pets to create a higher Tier Kuku that has faster loot speed and better buffs.
Please visit our BDO Loyalties Guide for more info on ways you can use Loyalties to play for free. We also have a Pearl Shop & P2W Guide covering all the ways you can Pay to Win.
Beginner Quest Tips
If you enjoy questing, be sure to select All quests at level 20, so you won’t miss out on any extra quests and rewards. Certain types of quests, like Life Skill quests, will not even show up at the NPC if it is not turned on in your Quest window. Press the O key to open the Quest window.
Quests are important for beginners to BDO, especially the main story quest that is provided by the Black Spirit. It will give you a nice chest piece, Inventory expansions, 4 pets, and other goodies helpful to Beginners.
Main Story Chest Piece
Another reason to complete the main storyline is it’s required in order to obtain a Fairy, which provides a large variety of special buffs you can’t obtain any other way, like instant resurrection without death penalty and auto-consumption of health potions.
Crossroad Quest in Heidel, Serendia
After you complete the quest, ‘Paying Off Debts,’ to take money to Bobby Lauren in Heidel, you will have a window appear where you can select a Crossroad quest line of your choice. The window will not disappear until you make a selection of a Crossroad quest line. The Crossroad quest lines don’t impact the main Black Spirit quest line rewards. So you will still get the same inventory slots and Beginner gear, no matter which quest line you choose. They do have differing rewards for Skill Points and optional items like gold bars, Black Stones, etc.
You can choose and play through 1 among 3 dividing quest lines at Serendia. The quest you choose at Serendia will eventually join into one quest at Calpheon.
Each dividing quest line has its own story, and each has its own path of Monster Zones to go through.
① Crossroad I quest line starts with [Crossroad] The Lamenting Head of the League of Merchants. This gives a balance of quest amount, goodies, and combat.
② Crossroad II quest line starts with [Crossroad] Silence, We’re Done Here!. This choice is for players who don’t like questing, but still want the major main quest line rewards, like pets, bag slots, etc.
③ Crossroad III quest line starts with [Crossroad] Each of Their Reasons. This quest line is for the quest lover that doesn’t mind spending time doing lots of errands and gain more goodies.
Black Desert Online Storage
For hoarders like myself, it will not take long for you to discover Black Desert Online storage can be a real issue. That is, unless your plan is to buy Pearls with real cash to increase Storage. When you are first starting out, it’s not as bad. But expect to get much more loot after you hit level 51 and arrive in Mediah.
Most Life Skills require lots of storage. You may want to choose one Life Skill to focus on. For example, you might want to store Cooking ingredients only and sell Alchemy ingredients to make more room. Cooking is much easier for a BDO Beginner to get started with.
Most small towns and cities have a default storage of 16 slots each. This is where workers from that town or city will place goods they have gathered from Nodes. Storage is shared with all of your characters, enabling you to give gear and other items to alts.
How to obtain more storage in Black Desert Online:
Storage Bugs?
Make sure you always leave one empty space in the city Storage, or your workers will get severely confused and not work anymore until you free up a space. This occurs even if they are harvesting something that is already stacked inside that city’s storage. Poor workers! 🙁 To me, this seems like more of a game bug. Similar weird things can happen when your character has a full inventory. So, if you are getting weird errors, when trying to hire a worker, for example, always check to see if your inventory is full! They like to sit in your pockets? LOL! Funny, but true.
Inventory Quests & Expansion Coupons
You begin with 24 Inventory slots, but you can raise that by 33 with quests for a total of 57 slots.
To increase your inventory beyond 57, you will have to obtain inventory with Rookie Attendance Rewards, Loyalties, or Pearls.
1 Run the downloaded BlackDesert_Installer_NAEU.exe file to install the Black Desert launcher.
2 Please start the game once installation is complete.
Announcements
As we sadly say goodbye to the Summer Season, it’s time to say hello to Season+!
Season+ brings with it easier Tuvala enhancements and the ability to exchange all 7 types of Tuvala Gear for Boss Gear. If you want to learn all about Season+, make sure to read everything below!
Table of Contents
Season Server and Character
“Season Servers” are progression-focused servers that are available for certain periods of time. These servers are only accessible with a “Season Character.”
Creating a season character is super simple. Once you’ve logged into Black Desert, go to the Character Selection screen and press the [+] button to see all of Black Desert’s many classes. Once you’ve figured out which class you want to play, select it.
All that’s left is to customize your character to your liking, then check the “Season Character” checkbox and click Create!
Before you go, keep in mind that you can only create one season character per season.
Season Server and Character Perks
■ Season Character Perks
First of all, a season character is the only way you can experience the advantages of the season servers! Plus, season characters receive special level up rewards every time they reach a certain level.
That’s why the Season+ is one of the best ways to level up your character and receive a ton of rewards! Make sure not to miss out!
If you want to learn more about the Season Character Level Up rewards, check out the [Season+ Level Up Rewards] event page.
■ Season Server Perks
1) Boosted EXP Buffs
As the season servers are focused on character progression, they offer 24/7 EXP buffs without limitations on character levels.
Date/Time
EXP Buff
NA
EU
▲ Active on the season servers until the end of Season+!
Furthermore, we’re kicking off the start of Season+ with a Combat EXP +300% & Skill EXP +50% Hot Time event from September 15, 2021 (Wed) until the maintenance on September 29, 2021 (Wed)!
2) Season Pass
The Season Pass is meant to support our Adventurers as they progress in the season and is only available to season characters. You can access it from the Black Spirit button at the left of the minimap.
By completing the Season Pass Challenge, you can receive a Leveling Aid Box that will help you as your level up. You can open the Leveling Aid Boxes every 5 levels from levels 10 – 50, and every level from levels 50 – 61.
Here’s a look at two of the featured rewards.
Featured Season Pass Rewards
Description
Defeat the monster summoned from the “Rift’s Echo” to obtain the Frozen Tides Black Stone!
The Frozen Tides Black Stone is an enhancement material that has a 100% chance to successfully enhance season character exclusive Tuvala gear from TET (IV) → PEN (V).(Note: This item cannot be used to enhance Tuvala accessories.)
Complete certain main quests, defeat certain monsters, or reach Lv. 61 to obtain [Season] Sunset Maple Leaves!
Bring the [Season] Sunset Maple Leaves you’ve collected to Igor Bartali in Velia and exchange them for special items!
* If you progress through the simplified main questline offered by the NPC Alustin, you can talk to the Black Spirit to receive the “Normal Season Pass” rewards after completing the required quests. (Learn more about the simplified main questline below at [3. Available in the 2021 Season+!])
Upon Completion of a Simplified Quest Offered by the NPC Alustin
Automatically Complete the Season Pass Challenges Below!
Joy of Growing Stronger
Practice Like You Mean It
I’ll Do It My Way
Honestly and Appropriately
I Make the Decisions
You? You’re Too Easy
The Scent of Prey!
A Hero in Troubled Times!
Look For Those In Need!
See You Again Someday
Evil’s Descent? Not On My Watch
With Burning Passion
The Choice is Mine
Don’t Get Ahead of Yourself!
For A Satisfying Conclusion
Race Towards the End
3) Season Exclusive Tuvala Gear
Tuvala Gear is a special kind of equipment that can only be equipped by season characters. PEN (V) Tuvala Gear is similar in stats to TET (IV) Boss Gear. There are two main ways to obtain Tuvala Gear.
Method
What’s Required
How to Obtain
Enhance the Naru Gear you obtain from the main questline to PEN (V) enhancement level.
① Go to the NPC Fughar with the PEN (V) Naru Gear
Collect Tuvala Ore that is obtainable from defeating monsters in Valencia, Kamasylvia, Drieghan, and O’dyllita.
① Bring the Tuvala Ore to a Blacksmith in a major town/city.
② Exchange for your desired Tuvala Gear.
In order to enhance the Tuvala Gear, you will need the following enhancement materials: Time-filled Black Stones, Tuvala Ore, and Refined Magical Black Stone. You can obtain these enhancement materials from various sources, which include monster zones, the Season Pass, and more.
Additionally, we’ve increased the success rates of Tuvala Gear and Accessories in Season+ to help our Adventurers progress further! More details are below at [4. What’s Different in the 2021 Season+!].
4) Season Graduation Rewards
Adventurers who have finished their journey in the summer season servers can expect a special reward to prepare them for the normal servers.
The Season+ is a little special as you’ll be able to start graduating in 2 weeks starting September 29!
Before, let us introduce you to the rewards you can receive via the “Season Special Gift Exchange Coupon.”
Special Season Rewards
(Only One is Selectable)
PEN (V) Capotia Earring or
PEN (V) Capotia Ring
PEN (V) Capotia Belt
PEN (V) Capotia Necklace
Of course, if you’ve already claimed the special season reward previously, you are not able to claim them again since the rewards are limited to once per Family.
We know some of our Adventurers who’ve enjoyed all the seasons so far and received all their rewards might be a little sad to hear this, especially since we previously announced during the Summer Season that there won’t be a new special reward. However, we’re preparing a little gift for these Adventurers as appreciation for enjoying all four seasons.
The Boss Gear exchanged this way is Family bound, and you can enhance it, strengthen it with Caphras Stones, and even craft Fallen God’s Armor with it. However, you cannot list the Boss Gear obtained this way on the Central Market.
And unlike in previous seasons, Season+ allows you to exchange all seven slots of PEN (V) Tuvala Gear for TET (IV) Boss Gear! Check out the details below at [4. What’s Different in the 2021 Season+!].
Available in the 2021 Season+!
■ Simplified Main Questline (Existing Adventurers)
The “Simplified Main Questline” returns for our existing Adventurers. You can accept the questline from the NPC Alustin if you fulfill the following requirements.
Requirements Needed for Simplified Main Questline
— Playing a Season Character
— Completed “The Sage of Velia” quest
— Completed “[Pet] Bareeds’ Junaid” quest (acceptable once you’ve completed the Mediah main questline)
If you fulfill the requirements above, you will be prompted by a questline selection window to select either the original main questline or the simplified main questline. Keep in mind that once you pick a questline, you can’t change your selection!
* The simplified main questline is only available for season characters and can only be completed once per character.
* The simplified main questline can only be selected on a season server.
■ Season Character Transfer System
What if you created your season character as Class A, but now want to enjoy the season with Class B.
Don’t worry! Because the Season Character Transfer System is accessible in Season+ and allows you to use “Fughar’s Timepiece” to transfer your season character status and Combat/Skill EXP!
Item Name
How to Obtain
Can be obtained once per Family upon completing the [Season+] Fughar’s Special Timepiece quest with a season character that is Lv. 25 or higher!
* Adventurers who obtained Fughar’s Timepiece in the previous season are also able to complete the [Season+] Fughar’s Special Timepiece quest during Season+.
* Quests that are in progress or completed on Class A will not be transferred to Class B!
* The Class B character that you wish to transfer the season character status to must be Lv. 25 or lower to be transferrable.
* The Class A character must be connected to a normal server with all their gear unequipped.
Once you’ve used Fughar’s Timepiece, you will receive three exchange coupons (Tuvala Main Weapon Exchange Coupon, Tuvala Sub-weapon Exchange Coupon, and Tuvala Awakening Exchange Coupon) in the transferred character’s inventory after you’ve gone to the Character Selection screen. Use these coupons to change your Tuvala weapons to ones that are suitable for Class B!
■ Party Monster Zones
Want to play with your friends or guildmates during Season+?
The Waragon Nest, Basilisk Den, and Shultz Guard monster zones will be party monster zones during Season+!
Monster Zone
Recommended Number of Party Members
Recommended Equipment
* This applies to both normal and season servers. The monster zones will revert to their original state once Season+ ends.
What’s Different in the 2021 Season+
■ QoL Improvements (Updated September 15)
Found it difficult to manage your Inventory with so many items around?
We’ve made improvements by removing some of the items obtainable in Calpheon and Mediah, and changing some of the loot to be obtainable in an item box form. We’ve also added new loot to the Valencia region to improve the profit rate of monster zones there.
■ Easier Tuvala Gear Enhancements (Updated September 15)
To help reduce our Adventurers’ game progression, we’ve made it easier to enhance Tuvala Gear!
First, we’ve decreased the number of Refined Magical Black Stones and durability that was consumed by a guaranteed enhancement of Tuvala weapons or defense gear.
Number of Refined Magical Black Stones Consumed
Enhancement Level
Before
After
DUO (II) → TRI (III)
Amount of Durability Consumed
Before
After
Additionally, we’ve increased the successful enhancement rates of Tuvala gear and accessories as follows!
Tuvala Gear
Attempted Enhancement Level
Enhancement Chance
Original Success Rate
New Success Rate
Tuvala Accessories
Attempted Enhancement Level
Enhancement Chance
Original Success Rate
New Success Rate
We’ve also increased the chance of obtaining Tuvala accessories from Rift’s Echoes, so you’ll have more chances to enhance your Tuvala accessories!
All these changes come together to make it easier than ever to enhance your Tuvala gear and accessories during Season+!
■ Exchange All 7 Tuvala Gear for Boss Gear (Update on September 29)
Previously, you had to use a [Season] Boss Gear Exchange Coupon, which you can only use to exchange Tuvala Gear for one piece of Boss Gear. In Season+, there is no longer a [Season] Boss Gear Exchange Coupon; instead, you’ll be able to exchange all 7 equipment slots of Tuvala Gear for TET (IV) Boss Gear (that cannot be listed on the Central Market) once per Family. Please take note that this exchange will be available after the maintenance on September 29, 2021 (Wed).
This untradable TET (IV) Boss Gear has a new way to enhance it to PEN (V) with some steady efforts. Existing Adventurers who want to try to enhance a piece of Boss Gear to PEN (V) can exchange a tradable TET (IV) Boss Gear for an untradable TET (IV) Boss Gear once per Family. Existing Adventurers who want to try to enhance Boss Gear to PEN (V) this way can exchange tradable TET (IV) Boss Gear for untradable TET (IV) Boss Gear once per Family for each gear slot. (Last Updated: 09/21/2021 00:30 UTC)
Armor enhanced to PEN (V) this way can be used to craft the Fallen God’s Armor, which can also be listed on the Central Market!
■ Growth Pass Support
Worried about what happens after you graduate from Season+? There’s no need to worry because the Growth Pass will help you progress through Black Desert’s many contents! The Growth Pass will be made available to any Season+ server graduated character, free of purchase. Make sure to check it out on September 29!
▲ This image was taken during development and is subject to change before it officially releases.
We hope you feel ready to start your adventure on Season+!