Black Desert Online Knowledge Troll Siege Soldier

Best Beginner Class

Choosing the right class for you is a very personal decision. Do you like complexity or simple? Speed or slow and heavy hitting? What's important to someone else, may not be important to you. Ultimately, you will end up playing the class you enjoy the most, no matter what some guide tells you.

Is Witch/Wizard Class right for me?
For beginners to BDO, looking for the easiest class to play, most recommend Witch or Wizard. There are several reasons for this:

• Easy key combos: you can Chain Lighting all the way to level 50. (Hold Shift + Right button)
• High & Cheap Sustainability: Beginners have to worry less about using up precious silver and weight limits on buying and carrying Mana and HP potions. (Pots are very heavy.) They are more free to focus on obtaining loot and using silver for gear. They have several spells that almost instantly regenerate health and mana.
• Magic Lighthouse: a spell that turns a monster's attention away from you and reduces their defense. This can help beginners, who probably have lower gear scores and can't afford repair bills, pots, and too many deaths.

Another bonus for beginners who choose this class, is that it has a good reputation for being strong in both PVE and large scale PVP. Some people hate this class because they say it's boring, and others love it. I suggest you play a class that looks fun to you at least until level 56. At level 56, all classes change by getting a new set of combat skills after their Awakening. If you don't want to go through the leveling process to 56, you can test out a level 60 of that class on the test server.

BDO Family Name

<Guild Name>
Title
Family Name
Character Name

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 a Pearl Shop outfit called 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.

BDO Alerts and Notifications

When you are a beginner, the default window will alert you to many different things that occur in the game. These include Marketplace notifications and other things like when other players fail or succeed at enhancements.

If this feels like spam to you, you can customize the messages that are shown. Press Escape key > Settings > Display > General Settings > Alerts

Pearl Shop Basics

To purchase Pearl Shop (F3) items, you must first buy Kakao Cash via the official Black Desert Online website. Use the Kakao Cash 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 Kakao Cash. 10,000 Kakao Cash 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.

How to Give Money & Gifts

Silver can't be given. Player to player trade is very limited in Black Desert Online. Most things cannot be traded to another player and must be sold at the Marketplace. Some exceptions are Health and Mana Potions and some foods and drinks. Also, once these items are traded away, they are bound to that person and can't be re-traded or sold. You can, however, gift Pearl Boxes and a limited number of Pearl items, if you are level 50+.

Energy

Your energy pool and knowledge is shared across all your characters (Family). Each character contributes to the energy pool by completing Knowledge topics.

The easiest Knowledge to complete is Character, in which you have to talk to the NPC to gain the Knowledge. Talk to every NPC with a question mark on your mini map to discover them and gain Knowledge. This increases your energy pool, which is used for gathering, hiring workers for nodes, and many other things. Press the H key to see a breakdown of all the Knowledge to be gained.

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 1000 Loyalties (wait 10 days) or 1,250 Pearls. ($12.50). Small energy tonics cost 100 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.

Beginner Mounts & Navigation

Beginner Travel Tips
Right clicking anywhere on the World Map (M) or the mini-map will draw a path to that point. Press your T key to have the game auto-run there 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.

NOTE: This NPC finder tool will only show NPCs you have spoken to already. That's another reason to speak to each and every person when you arrive in a new place. The category buttons in the NPC Finder are the exception. (For example, Stable will take you to the nearest <Stable Keeper>, even if it's your first time in the city.)

Beginner Mounts
At level 10, Black Spirit will give you the quest, Big Fish in a Small Pond, in which you will obtain a donkey. He is adorable and soo lovable, but slow and hard to turn. Horses are faster and easier to handle, and most important, just as cute! Beginner Attendance Rewards will often give you a horse for free, but that might take too long for your liking. You can buy and sell mounts at the <Stable Keeper> (Lorenzo Murray in Veila).

You will notice that low level prices of even a tier 5 horse are fairly cheap. Perfect for beginners. The cheap ones go fast, so keep checking if you don't see anything at first.

If you bought the Traveler's Package or Explorer's Package, a horse is included. Claim your horse by logging into your account at the Black Desert Online website

While you are at the <Stable Keeper>, you may want to purchase food for your horse (carrots) and pets (cheap feed). Horse Stamina and Health can also be recovered cheaply by the Stable Keeper.

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. You can also retrieve your mount by remote collection at the <Stable Keeper> 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.

Your mount does take damage! He will loose health from monsters hitting him and from drowning and falling off high places. If your mount dies, recover him at the <Stable Keeper>.

You can only have one mount/wagon out at a time per character.

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 Rewards. Pets pick up your loot for you. The higher your pet's level, the faster it will loot. They also have 1 special ability and up to 4 skills. Pets level when they are fed. To level your pets faster put them on Agile 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 ability. It's skills, however, will still work.

Pet breeding is used to produce a higher tier pet, which is faster and has more skills. Talent % is also increased. Unfortunately, breeding pets (aka pet exchange) actually kills the parent pets. On the bright side, it has been reported by several players that T4 pets have 3 to 4 times faster loot speed.

Cheap Feed can be bought at the <Stable Keeper> for 3,000 silver and restores 12 hunger (pets have a max 200 hunger). Better food can be cooked or bought at the Marketplace.

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 (averages about 3x the gatherables of someone that doesn't have this pet)	Life XP

Pet Talents & Special Abilities
When we look at pet talents and special abilities for T1 pets, we see that some pets, like dogs and birds are good for grinding while others, like cats and Hedgehog are good for Life Skills. Pandas currently have a strange mechanic, so you may want to avoid them, unless you think they are too adorable to pass up! (Which they are.) Their aggravate ability only works on one mob every 10 to 4 seconds and it has been reported that this animation takes priority over the pet's animation to pick up loot. (You can turn special abilities off.)

Which Pet is Best for Beginners?
Many players say the Hedgehog is the best pet in BDO. With my own testing, I discovered I gathered 3x less than my sister who has 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 as good for players who don't like to gather and craft. Both the Hedgehog and the Polar Bear have limited availability via game gifting or events. You have to gift a friend or yourself the Black Desert Online game and they must reach level 30. Gifting yourself another account might sound strange, but it has been ok'd by a GM on the official forum. According to their game gifting buy page: "The only restriction will be that you will need to own the game yourself and have purchased it before the first of this month." This means, as a new player, you would have to probably wait until next month to gift someone in order to obtain the Hedgehog or Polar Bear. Currently, you can buy the Gift Pass/Package here for $9.99.

Is BDO Free to Play?

There is no subscription fee for playing Black Desert Online. Many people consider this model free to play. It also has a 7 day free trial. However, you do have to initially make a purchase of at least $10 to continue playing BDO. This will give you the basic game without any extras.

Is Black Desert Online P2W? (Pay to Win)
This is a hotly debated topic, because everyone has their own definition of what Pay to Win means. But most people agree that you do have to spend more than $10 to make the game enjoyable.

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 of pets you have. 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:

• 1 pet: 1100 Pearls ($11)
• 2 pets: 2200 Pearls ($22)
• 3 pets: 3300 Pearls ($33)
• 4 pets: 4400 Pearls ($44)
• 5 pets: 5500 Pearls ($55)

Note: Recently, BDO has given players a pet Kuku bird and Penguin through Attendance Rewards. Attendance Rewards are game items you obtain every day just for logging into the game. Beginners to BDO will get the "Rookie" Attendance Reward. At the moment of this writing, that included a free Kuku pet. But this is something new they haven't done before and we don't know when or if they will give away pets for free again.

I would guess they normally do pet giveaways once every blue moon… maybe 6 months? All I know for sure is that it's usually a rare occurrence. Also, you will notice you can't have two of same Event pet out at the same time if they are the same kind. You can, however, breed them to create a better Event pet. Kuku birds breed together and Penguins breed together to create a higher tier Kuku or Penguin.

Beginner Quest Tips

If you enjoy questing, be sure to turn on 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, and other goodies helpful to Beginners.

Main Story Final Chest Piece (Level 56+)

The main story will lead to this upgraded version of Dim Magical Armor. Dim Magical Armor is upgraded 4 times via quests from the Black Spirit. The first of which is called, Magic Armor Exchange I and is given at level 53. There are also Roaring sub-weapons and accessories.

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.

Extra Storage

It will not take you long playing BDO, when you discover storage is a real issue. When you are first starting out, you may need 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 the 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 Anyone?
Make sure you always leave one empty space in your 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! LOL! Funny, but true.

Inventory Quests & Expansion Coupons

You begin with 20 Inventory slots, but you can raise that by 31 with quests for a total of 51 slots. To increase your inventory beyond 51, you will have to purchase inventory with Loyalties or Pearls. You receive 100 Loyalties each day you log in, allowing you to buy 1 inventory slot every 10 days. Or you can buy 8 slots for 800 Pearls ($8 or 16 slots for $14.50). 8 slots via Loyalties will cost you 2.6 months of waiting. Maximum inventory is 192 per character, so you can purchase up to 141 inventory slots.

Note: The inventory quests below will not work if you already have the maximum amount of Inventory. You can't exceed 192 slots.

Black Desert Online Inventory Quests
	Inventory Quest	Level	NPC	Node	Inventory	Description
Choose 1	Jarette's headache	1	Jarrett	Western Guard Camp	Bag space +1	Requires Gathering: Beginner 5
	Claus Can't Contain!	15	Claus	Western Guard Camp	Bag space +1
	Experience of the Ancients	1	Edan	Ancient Stone Chamber	Bag space +2
Choose 1	A Very Minute Flaw	1	Sealus	SE Velia	Bag space +1
	Eileen's Request	6	Eileen	SW Velia	Bag space +1
	Crio and Sandfish	20	Crio	Velia (docks)	Bag space +2	Have Fishing Quests turned on! Pre-requisite quest: Basic Fishing – A Fishing Rod. Make sure you don't have "Throw away useless items" checked.
	Military Power in Heidel	1	Jordine Ducas	Heidel	Bag space +2
Choose 1	Puia and the Wooden Box Design	17	Puia	Heidel	Bag space +1	Requires: Gathering: Beginner 6
	Techthon and Quality Iron	15	Techthon	Heidel	Bag space +1
	Donatt's Will		Cheremio	Glish	Bag space +2	Freharau storyline
Choose 1	Glazed Naga Oil	18	Seilane	Glish	Bag space +1
	Injured Adventurers…	20	Deborah	Glish	Bag space +1	Requires: Gathering: Beginner 3
	Trent Worker Experience	40	Spotty Troll	Trent	Bag space +1	Requires: Gathering: Beginner 2 Have knowledge on Chopping: Beginner
	Calpheon Military Representative	39	Norman Rate	Northern Wheat Plantation	Bag space +1	"Calpheon and Giant Trolls" quest line. Finish waragon questline or get 100 amity with Martha Kiyen(Northern Wheat Plantation), which unlocks Ruins Excavation Disruption
	Gift for Happiness	40	Soon-to-be Bride	NE Calpheon City (behind Skill Instructor)	Bag space +1	Uncheck auto-arrange: (Veil > Wine > Glass). Noble doesn't appear at night!
	Keplan, Free of Threats	47	Clam Cessory	Keplan	Bag space +1	Keplan main story questline

Black Spirit quests can only be completed in order and when your character obtains the correct level. Obtain Black Spirit quests by pressing the (,) key. Co-op quest bosses are challenging, but probably don't require another player. Do bring health pots though and fancy footwork!

Black Spirit Inventory Quests
Inventory Quest	Level	Node	Inventory
[Co-op] Black Spirit and the Giant Imp	15	Velia (NW beach)	Bag space +1
[Co-op] Here Comes the Goblin Chief!	17	Ehwaz Hill (E of Velia)	Bag space +1
[Co-op] Frenzied Altar Imp Captain	20	Northern Plain of Serendia	Bag space +1
[Co-op] Frog on Frog	25	Glish (Freharau storyline)	Bag space +1
[Co-op] Muskan of Madness	30	Bloody Monestary	Bag space +1
[Co-op] Org the Greedy	33	Orc Camp	Bag space +1
[Co-op] Biraghi Den Keeper	35	Bradie Fortress	Bag space +1
[Co-op] Kelcas, the Giant Khuruto	36	Old Dandelion	Bag space +1
[Co-op] Tower Offense	38	Bree Tree Ruins	Bag space +1
[Co-op] A Big, Smart Guy	39	Quint Hill	Bag space +1
[Co-op] A large living tree	42	Marni Farm Ruins area	Bag space +1
[Co-op] The Mad Scientist's Vestiges	44	Marni's Lab	Bag space +1
[Co-op] A possessed Giant	45	Gehaku Plain	Bag space +1
[Co-op] The Giant Queen	45	Keplan Vicinity	Bag space +1
[Co-op] Saunil Siege Captain	47	Trina Fort	Bag space +1

Item Rarity & Colors in BDO

Many item names and icon borders in BDO are color coded to help you determine how rare something is. Workers, Life Skill levels, and items are all colored by grade/rarity. Lowest is gray. Gray items are considered trash for the most part and most can be sold at the vendor. Many mob "trash drops" can be exchanged for more than vendor sell price if you have a large quantity of them and exchange them to a certain NPC that wants them. These vendor trash items are usually white grade. (Having a white colored name/title.) Right click the item to draw a path to the closest exchange NPC.

Gray |White | Green  |Blue |Gold |Orange

Some things also have a title, denoting level/grade such as workers.

1. Artisan
2. Professional
3. Skilled
4. Normal
5. Naive

We also see color grades reflected in Life Skill levels:

1. Guru
2. Master
3. Artisan
4. Professional
5. Skilled
6. Apprentice
7. Beginner

Beginner Gear Basics

BDO is a gear powered game and with the right gear, you can defeat enemies much higher level than you. Armor, weapons, and accessories can be enhanced to increase Defense Points (DP), Attack Points (AP), and many other stats. There are no level restrictions to enhanced gear. Even a level 1 character can wear the best PEN (V) gear.

Gear enhancements, in order of the best and most rare is:

1. PEN (V) +20
2. TET (IV) +19
3. TRI (III) +18
4. DUO (II) +17
5. PRI (I) +16
6. +15 to +1

Armor Basics:
The main benefit to armor is that it offers DP (Defense Points). But many armor pieces include extra stats like Evasion, Weight Limit increases, Damage Reduction, and Health Points. Armor can be shared between all your characters by putting them into storage at the Storage Keeper located in most major cities. You could also transfer gear to an Alt via a Farm Wagon (Just remember not to transport the wagon from one stable to the next at the Stable Keeper or your gear will be destroyed.)

Weapon Basics:
Weapons and Sub-weapons (aka Secondary Weapons) are class specific. Some mainhand weapons can be shared with more than one class. The staff, for example, is used by witches and wizards. Every class has their own unique sub-weapon that cannot be shared between characters of a different class. Awakening weapons can only be equipped by characters level 56+ who have completed their class specific Awakened quest line. These weapons also cannot be shared with a different class.

Enhancing for Powerful Gear
Most players recommend purchasing already enhanced gear on the Marketplace, since it will most likely save you time and money. This is especially true as you get into the higher levels of enhancement. This is reflected in the scarcity of good, highly-enhanced gear on the Marketplace.

If you can't find already enhanced gear on the Marketplace, start enhancing by focusing on your main hand weapon first. You can't fail upgrading weapons to +7 with Black Stone (Weapon) To start the enhancement process, right click the Black Stone, click the Black Spirit icon, or press (,) key and select Enhancement.

You will start to notice you need to upgrade armor after you venture into Calpheon Territory and are around level 40. You can use quested gear, but you will still need to eventually enhance your armor and weapons as you reach the more difficult areas in Mediah at around level 55. Enhance armor with Black Stone (Armor) up to 5 times without fear of failing the enhancement.

View the often recommended beginner gear on BDOPlanner.com (Grunil Armor set) or beginner gear with Heve Armor set –>

You can find cheap, green grade, crystals to place in gear sockets for added Attack and Movement Speed.

Best Weapons for Beginners

Focus on getting a +7 main and sub weapon before armor so that you can kill monsters faster. If you can dispatch a group of thugs in one hit, who needs armor? 🙂 For main and sub weapons, most players recommend those with the highest AP.

Highest AP Sub Weapons (Green Grade for Beginners):

• Axion Shield: Warrior/Valkyrie
• Steel Dagger: Witch/Wizard/Ranger
• Jubre Talisman: Sorceress
• Oros Ornamental Knot: Berserker/Dark Knight
• Needle Trinket: Tamer
• White Horn Bow: Musa/Maehwa
• Estique Kunai/Shuriken: Kunoichi/Ninja
• Scale Vambrace: Striker/Mystic

Mainhand
Yuria used to be the favorite, but nowRosar is the most recommended mainhand weapon in BDO for beginners. So try your best to nab one off the Marketplace ASAP. You will not have to replace this until you are rich enough to afford Boss Gear. Rosar provides 2 crystal slots and has the highest AP of all the green grade weapons.

Rosar is popular, so if you can't find any on the Marketplace, there are cheaper alternatives that might be available.

Mainhand Recommendations (best to worst):

1. Rosar: Highest AP, 2 Crystal slots
2. Azwell: Medium AP, 1 Crystal slot, +20 Accuracy
3. Krea: Medium AP, 2 Crystal slots
4. Yuria: Lowest AP, 1 Crystal Slot, Increased Damage to Humans

Best Beginner Armor

Armor pieces can be upgraded to +5 without chance of failure. Grunil and Heve are the most recommended armor sets and it's easy to see why.

Grunil Armor Set:

• 2 Crystal Sockets:
  Allows you to socket higher attack speed, movement speed, and evasion.
• Powerful Set Effects:
  2 piece set effect: +5 AP
  3 piece set effect: +150 HP
  4 piece set effect: +2 AP

Heve Armor Set:

• 2 Crystal Sockets:
  Allows you to socket higher attack speed, movement speed, and evasion.
• Powerful Set Effects:
  2 piece set effect: +250HP
  3 piece set effect: +50HP

NOTE: You can replace your chest piece with Roaring Magical Armor, which is possible after completing the main story quest. At level 52, the Black Spirit will give you the quest Magic Armor Exchange I, which is the first in a series of 4 upgrade quests for your Dim Magical Armor. Roaring Magical Armor is like having a DUO Ultimate chest and comes with 2 sockets, +50 HP, Accuracy: 20, Evasion: 100, Damage Reduction: 38.

Beginner Accessories

For beginner accessories, it is recommended that you prioritize AP over everything else. Wait to enhance accessories because accessories are destroyed when enhancement fails and it's expensive to fill all 6 accessory slots. Your first good accessory set will probably be Jarette's via the free Rookie Attendance Rewards. This is a nice beginner accessory set, focusing on AP. While you wait for these, just use the best cheap AP ones available (Bares). Don't get too hung up on accessories as a beginner. They don't have much bang for their buck. When you are ready to head into Mediah, at around level 51, your accessory set will soon be replaced by the Asula Accessory Set. This is the best unenhanced accessory set in the game and will last a long time. You can obtain them via questing in Calpheon, but it's more work to do it that way.

BDO Leveling Guide

There is no level cap in BDO. However, there is what people call a "soft cap", where it gets to be nearly impossible to obtain a certain level. You see this refected in the image I obtained of one of graphs available on Smite Datamining, which shows the amount of xp needed per level. As you can see, the xp needed for level 63 is much more than the amount needed for level 56. Getting to level 56 is fairly quick, but after level 61, leveling gets extremely difficult.

BDO Gear AP/DP by Hunting Area

One great resource for finding gear AP/DP recommendations is somethinglovely.net, which has a nice node map, with grinding locations and recommended AP/DP/Levels. Just check the "Leveling Areas" box in the filters section:

There is also Inochii's Valencia grinding map and Inochii's Mediah grinding map (older maps)

Below, you will find Oweia0's (u/oweia0) gear recommendations for grinding locations with opinions on Xp and Silver/hour, edited from his helpful Reddit post.

BDO Grinding/Leveling Areas Sorted by Highest XP
Grinding Spot	Level	AP/DP	Silver/Hour	EXP/Hour at lvl 56	Notes
Sausans (solo)	53	150/140	4 – 12 (8)	7.72 – 9.74 (8.73)	heavily contested
Pirates (solo, M2)	56	160/200	6 – 15 (10.5)	7.84 – 8.22 (8.03)	red and blue coral earring
Bashims	55	160/200	3 – 8 (5.5)	7.05 – 8.10 (7.58)	heavily contested, Yona's
Gahaz Bandits	55	180/220	4 – 12 (8)	6.97 – 7.42 (7.20)	contested, Yona's
Pirates (party, M2)	56	160/200	6 – 15 (10.5)	6.43 -7.80 (7.12)	red and blue coral earring
Cadry	55	160/220	5 – 9 (7)	6.32 – 6.84 (6.58)	cadry ring, Yona's
Shultz Sausans	56	180/220	4 – 12 (8)	6.23 – 6.52 (6.34)	shultz belt & necklace
Desert Fogans	55	170/200	5 – 10 (7.5)	5.61 – 6.33 (5.97)	seraph necklace, Yona's
Crescents	55	170/240	4 – 11 (7.5)	4.26 – 6.76 (5.51)	crescent ring, Yona's
Desert Nagas	55	160/200	5 – 10 (7.5)	5.15 – 5.70 (5.43)	Scroll Written in Ancient Language, Black Magic Crystal – Swiftness, Serap's Necklace, Yona's
Pila Ku	57	210/270	7 – 12 (9.5)	4.83 – 5.86 (5.35)	sicils necklace, Yona's
Sausans (party)	53	150/140	4 – 12 (8)	4.97 – 5.52 (5.25)	heavily contested
Basilisks	56	180/240	4 – 12 (8)	(5.15)	Scroll Written in Ancient Language, Basilisk's Belt, Black Magic Crystal – Assault, Yona's
Sulfur Mines	56	200/250	6 – 11 (8.5)	4.80 – 5.13 (4.97)	arch. & travel maps, sicils necklace, Part for Explorer's Compass, Yona's
Hasrah	53 – 57	130/180	3 – 10 (6.5)	(4.80)	Forbidden Book, Ancient Weapon Core
Elrics	52 – 56	100/140	3 – 10 (6.5)	(4.50)	Forbidden Book, Asula's Crimson Eye Belt, Outlaw's Ring
Helms	50 – 55	80/120	3 – 7 (5)	(4.20)	Forbidden Book, Ancient Guardian's Seal (Golems & Cave), Asula's Crimson Eye Earring & Ring, Scarla Necklace
Rogues	52 – 56	110/140	4 – 10 (7)	(3.90)	Forbidden Book, Belt of Shultz the Gladiator, Necklace of Shultz the Gladiator
Manes	52 – 56	100/140	3 – 10 (6.5)	(3.80)	Forbidden Book, Belt of Shultz the Gladiator, Necklace of Shultz the Gladiator
Soldiers Grave	53 – 57	110/140	3 – 11 (7)	(3.70)	skill exp, Forbidden Book
Catfish	43 – 52	60/90	2 – 6 (4)	(3.20)	Ancient Relic Crystal Shard
Saunil	36 – 46	45/70	4 – 10 (7)	(3.00)	Ancient Relic Crystal Shard

Making Money In BDO

Making money when you first start BDO can be challenging. Attendance rewards that can be sold at the Marketplace help offset the costs of upgrading armor and weapons.

The easiest and cheapest way beginners can make money right away is with afk fishing. Equip a fishing rod, walk towards the water, press your space bar. That is all you have to do to afk fish. Set this up over-night. Be sure to check the throw away junk box.

The <Fish Vendor> Crio, sells fishing rods with 30 durability for 500 silver each. Better fishing rods can be crafted and sold at the Marketplace, but it will be hard for new players to get them. Many fishing rods have a skill level requirement. Read the fine print!

Like many things in BDO, fish have different quality levels. White is the lowest quality and worth the least amount, followed by green, then blue, and lastly gold. Besides fish, you can rarely catch silver keys and ancient relic crystal shards. Current selling price for ancient relic crystal shards are 1.4 million silver. (Price varies with supply and demand.)

Fresh fish steadily decreases in value the older it gets. After 24 hours, your fish will be useless. If your fish is almost expired and worthless, dry it. Open the processing window (L key) and select the fish icon that represents the drying process. Insert fish, dry, and you'll have your fish forever. Dried fish can be sold at the Marketplace and used in cooking. One fresh fish = 2 dried fish in recipes.

Beginner Fishing Hot Spot
West of Veila, along the beach, near where you defeated your first summoned boss, you will find a small group of players fishing all together. This fishing spot is well known for catching higher quality fish (gold and blue). Karon, the <Imperial Fishing Delivery> NPC on the dock in front of the <Storage Keeper> in Veila, will buy blue and gold quality fish at 250% of their base value, but he only buys a certain number of each type of fish during a set period. After his fish quota is filled, he will no longer buy your fish. Always try to sell your fish to him first, then sell what is left over to the <Trade Manager> Bahar. Use the NPC finder to locate him.

Nodes & Hand Gathering
Selling raw produce from nodes and hand gathering can net you a good amount, but processed materials are inherently worth more. (Most of the time.) Study the Marketplace under the Materials tab and discover what products sell the most and the price they sell for. Items in BDO have a set value range determined by the game developers. Each item has a minimum and maximum it can be sold for.

Some crafted items like Beer, a worker stamina regeneration food, and Good Pet Feed will be in high demand. They have always been profitable, but that could change if the developers decide to update the price. You can also find items in which too many crafters have flooded the Marketplace and the price has dropped to the Minimum. Keep in mind that many items are not profitable to make! You can actually loose money crafting vs selling the processed goods on the Marketplace. It's important to do research before diving into a Life Skill or crafting.

Rulupee Travels & Her Goody Bag
After you reach level 30, you will be able to talk to Rulupee (Southern Heidel inn), who will give you a series of quests. Each of her quest series has a goodie bag at the end, which is very nice. For more details, view our Rulupee Travel Guide. Here is the end reward bag for the first two quest series.

*** Rulupee's Lightweight Adventure Bag ***

This daypack contains items handy for first time adventurers.
Right-click to obtain:

Beginner Grinding for Silver
You will often hear players say that grinding is the best money per hour. This is true for most. But for beginners, grinding is a bit more complicated. Grinding for loot is heavily dependent upon how fast your pet can pick up loot. Many beginners won't have 5 pets and are trying to do their best with Level 1 and Tier 1 pets. Newbies don't have the best, already enhanced gear like veterans. You will probably start making good money by fightingSaunils around level 36. You may have noticed that the silver per hour is reported as being 4 to 10 million per hour. When compared to some of the higher level areas, this is good money for a level 36 hunting zone.

Hunting for Money Tip: I found that theGiants hunting ground is even better for loot than Saunils. So migrate there as soon as you can. (In my own experience.) Somethinglovely.com recommends level 44 forGiants, but do try it at earlier levels if you're feeling adventurous! 🙂

Buying Silver with Real $$$
For super fast money, you can always sell a limited number of Pearl Shop items (Outfits, Horse Gear, and Pets) at the Marketplace. Double check in the lower left window of the Pearl item you are considering. Hover over the icons to make sure they have a Marketplace value. If they don't have a Marketplace value, they can't be sold on the Marketplace and will be bound to you once purchased.

You can register up to5 Pearl Shop items at the Marketplace each week per account. This is reset every week, on Saturday.

• 12:00 am CEST on Saturday for EU
• 12:00 am EDT on Saturday for NA

PVP & PVE Death Penalties

Characters of level 49 and under are safe from PVP, but player versus player combat is enforced at level 50 and beyond (it can not be turned off). After you complete the quest that lets you move past level 49, another player can "flag up" and attack you at any time, except in safe areas like cities and towns. Unwanted PVP occurs most often because of hunting territory squabbles. If you don't like PVP, stay away from other player's "rotations" for popular grind spots. You will still get occasionally PVP'd while grinding, when someone wants to take your spot, but it's not an every day occurance. Switch channels when grind spots are full.

Some players just enjoy playing the bad guy and having negative Karma (aka red Karma). Negative Karma occurs when you "flag up" and keep killing players that aren't flagged for PVP (have a red name) and your Karma points sink below 0.

PVP & PVE Death Penalties Depend Upon Karma:

• PvE Death (you have 0+ Karma): Chance to lose crystals + guaranteed exp loss
• PvE Death (you have negative Karma) Guaranteed exp/crystal loss + chance to degrade gear.
• PvP Death (you have 0+ Karma): nothing happens
• PvP Death (you have negative Karma): Guaranteed loss of crystals (usually 5 max) + guaranteed XP loss (more than Elion's Tear can recover) + chance to degrade gear if it does not have slotted crystals.
• PVP Death in Desert (you have negative Karma): Jail time only: sentenced according to Karma (30/50/60 min.) Desert area is in Valencia whenever you can't view yourself on the World Map. You will see a desert icon on your minimap.

PVP penalties do not apply during node war, RBF (Red Battlefield), guild war declarations, duels, or arena.
PVE Penalties don't apply for boss deaths.
Arsha is a special PVP server that removes any Karma penalties, and also increases loot drops for level 50+ players.

Guild Benefits

Joining a guild has tangible benefits besides socializing and group activities. Guilds can earn points though guild quests and player advancement that they can spend on passive buffs to stats like Gathering, Fishing, and AP. There is also a daily contract payout amount that starts low and increases with time.

Also, joining a medium or larger guild gives an extra daily attendance reward.

NOTE: Guild pay outs coupled with active sea monster hunting is very popular right now because of the high silver rewards that are achievable to guilds that work together in vanquishing the terrors of the sea!

Summary of Life Skills

Pressing your P key will bring up a window with your character's information, including a list of Professions (Life Skills) within a tab window. There are 7 ranks for each Life Skill and 10 levels in each rank. Master has 30 levels and the highest rank of Guru has no cap that I'm aware of.

We see color grades reflected in Life Skill levels:

1. Guru
2. Master
3. Artisan
4. Professional
5. Skilled
6. Apprentice
7. Beginner

Gathering

Gathering is a profitable activity that lets you gather all kinds of crafting materials used in other Life Skills and worker workshops. In many quest lines, it's a requirement that opens up other Life Skill quests. Each gatherable resource requires it's own tool to gather. Buy gathering tools at a <Material Vendor> or on the Marketplace. Or purchase a Tool Workshop and have your worker craft them for you.

Gathering Tools
Axe	Use on trees to chop wood
Hoe	Use on vegetation to gather herbs, weeds, seeds, and flowers (Barehanded gathering without a tool will mostly reward weeds which are used in alchemy)
Tanning Knife	Use on animal corpes to gather hides and feathers
Butcher Knife	Use on animal corpses to gather meat (Also used in the Hunting Profession to gather multiple materials and Hunting XP)
Fluid Collector	Use on corpses to gather blood or trees to gather sap (which are used in Alchemy)
Pickaxe	Use on rocks, ore, and gem nodes to gather rough stone, ores, and gems
Empty Bottle	Use to gather river and sea water
Shabby Shovel	Use in the desert of Valencia to gather muddy water, vanadium and titanium ore and shards, blue and violet crystals

All gathering methods have a chance to proc the very valuable Hard and Sharp Black Crystal Shards which are used in enhancing gear.  Lucky and Magic Tools increase luck while gathering. There is debate on how much, if any, Luck plays in gathering Shards.

If you would like to increase your Life Skills, I recommend leveling up your Gathering Skill to at least Beginner 7 ASAP. This is easily done via Empty Bottle gathering at the fountain in Heidel. Purchase 34 Empty Bottles at the Material Vendor near the fountain. Or you can use any river/lake for gathering water. I like Heidel because the Material Vendor is only a couple steps away from the water source.

Speedy Tip: Get to Apprentice 4 Gathering Skill to bypass 9 prerequisite Processing advancement quests. You may want to do them anyway, though, since they give you a free fence and other goodies.

Gathering level Apprentice 4 is a little more challenging to obtain. You will need about 274 Empty Bottles filled. If you do skip the prerequisite quest chain for processing, then you will miss out on the Shabby Fence and some housing furniture, as well as additional Gathering/Processing XP.

Processing

Press L to open the processing window. No tools are needed to process materials. Processed materials are inherently worth more than raw materials at the Marketplace (but this does not always mean they will sell well, if at all, on the Marketplace. Look at supply and demand before processing anything!). Processing, like fishing, is usually a good AFK way to generate extra income, after it is leveled up to Artisan level. (Always check Marketplace demand.) There is a questline to complete before you can process at higher levels. See our guide for the Beginner Processing Knowledge Questline.

Processing Examples
raw material		T1		T2		T3
timber		plank		plywood		sturdy plywood
ore		melted shard		ingot		pure crystal

In BDO, the Processing Skill allows you to chop, heat, dry, filter, shake, and grind resources into processed materials. These refined items are often used in higher level crafting recipes. Everyone is able to do basic T1 processing. However, if you would like to do the second level of processing, (to create plywoods, ingots, cloth, etc.), BDO requires you to obtain "Beginner" Processing Knowledge. There are up to three tiers of processing: T2 Beginner, T3 Skilled.

Cooking

Cooking is one of the first Lifeskills you will most likely level early on as you need to make Beer to feed your workers. Check out this Beer making guide, which also goes into greater detail on how to begin cooking. Cooking requires a Cooking Utensil installed in your residence. Purchase a Cooking Utensil from chefs or innkeepers. Utensils can sometimes be sniped on the Marketplace, or have your worker craft one in a Tool Workshop.

The image below shows the location of all the Velia grain/cereal nodes you can purchase to make beer. ( I obtained the map's background from somethinglovely.net Thanks Fam! )

Training

Riding and leveling your mount increases training skill. You need Beginner 5 Training Skill to capture a horse in the wild. Read a more detailed guide about training in our Training Guide.

Fishing

When I first started BDO, AFK fishing over night was the easiest way to earn money and it probably still is. To AFK fish, press Space Bar, and let it go. You will automatically loot the fish after 3 minutes. Catching rare fish levels your fishing skill faster. With better fishing skill, you can use better fishing rods. Active fishing takes more keyboard warrior skill. To actively fish, approach water, equip a fishing rod, and press Space Bar to begin fishing. After you get a bite, press Space Bar to reel it in. You must successfully complete 2 mini-games to loot the fish. If you fail either one, the fish gets away.

Hunting

You need a matchlock to hunt. To level your hunting skill, you need to butcher <Wild> animals with a butcher knife or do hunting quests. T

Farming

You need a fence and seeds to begin Farming. Pruning, killing pests, breeding, and harvesting crops increases Farming Skill.

Farming for Grain
Farming is another profession you can do as a beginner that will help you get grain for making worker food. There is a low level quest line which will give you a free fence, or you can spend 3 CP on a Small Fence. Seeds can be acquired through gathering vegetation, the Marketplace, and seed vendors. A Withered Seed, sold by vendors, is the lowest quality seed, which will not yield very good results. But the good news is that you can breed them and there is a chance to obtain better seeds, which produce better crops. The next tier after Withered Wheat is the normal white grade Wheat Seed, which after about 5 hours from planting, will yield an average of 70 wheat.

The image below shows the location of Camelia Loggia, who you can purchase Withered Wheat Seed from for 220 silver. It also shows the location of a Small Fence vendor, Martina Finto. ( We obtained the map's background from somethinglovely.net Thanks Fam! )

Fences are rented from NPCs with Contribution Points. When you return the fence, your Contribution Points are refunded. Each fence type has a limited number of spaces for seeds. A small fence has 4 grid spaces. Grain seeds only take up 1 space each, so you can plant 4 grain seeds in 1 small fence.

Fence Rental NPC Locations & CP Costs:

Fence	Number of Spaces	Contribution Cost	Vendors That Rent Fences	Vendor Location	Nearest City
Small Fence	4	3	Martina Finto <Node Manager>	Finto Farm	Veila
			Enzo <Node Manager>	Dias Farmr	Calpheon
Plain Fence	7	6	Finlin <Material Vendor>	Tarif	Tarif
			Paola Toscani <Farm Vendor>	Toscani Farm	Veila
			Norma Leight <Node Manager>	Northern Wheat Plantation	Calpheon
			Mercianne Moretti <Node Manager>	Moretti Plantation	Heidel
			Mayeri <Furniture Dealer>	Trent	Trent
			Goolie Gianin <Node Manager>	Gianin Farm	Keplan
Strong Fence	10	10	Flaviano <Material Vendor>	Heidel City	Heidel
			Geranoa <Material Vendor>	Calpheon City	Calpheon
			Lashir <Material Vendor>	Altinova City	Altinova
Shabby Fence	1	0	Quest reward from Jemkas Wyrmsbane: Because I Like You(Requires Gathering: Beginner 7 or quest chain)	Northern Guard Camp, north of Heidel	Heidel

Trading

Trading is the act of obtaining one Trade Good and selling it to a <Trade Manager>, (for, hopefully, a profit). Trading is often touted as a profitable profession in the game, but you can actually loose money doing it, if you're not careful. Before getting into trade, be sure to read up on it. It is not usually recommended for beginners.

Alchemy

Alchemy creates potions (most have a shorter buff than foods), magic crystals, and reagents for Skilled Processing (Plywood Hardener, Metal Solvent, Gem Polisher). Alchemy requires an Alchemy tool installed in your residence. Purchase an Alchemy tool from a General Vendor, or on the Markeplace, or have your worker craft one in a Tool Workshop. Alchemy isn't as easy to get started with as Cooking. All Alchemy recipes require rare materials that you have to gather yourself or rarely obtain through nodes. This profession will take lots of time to level up, but help boost your character's power in many ways.

Sailing

A beginner sailing boat can be purchased at the Wharf Master for 10k silver. You can sail at low levels to find fishing hotspots and other adventures, but it's not recommended to go too far out by yourself (Ross & Margoria Seas), until you have an Epheria Boat. Sailing is very slow and the waters that are far out have sea monsters that quickly destroy a slow and weak boat.

BDO Hotkeys (Default)

The image below shows the default Hotkeys or Keyboard Shortcuts for different commands in BDO. The one you will use the most will be the Escape key. Through this, you can pretty much do anything you want, including accessing a helpful crafting knowledge database (F2) with recipes and item drop locations.

One very handy tool in the Escape Menu is the Marketplace button. You can't actully purchase anything, but it's nice to be able to view markeplace demand on the go.

Links to Helpful BDO Sites

BDO has a great community of people. Many of whom have created websites and tools to help us in our adventures:

• bddatabase.net and bdocodex.com – almost identical websites, databases for everything Black Desert Online. Huge help to me!
• blackdesertfoundry.com – beautiful Black Desert Online guides. News and lots of great content.
• dulfy.net – lots of good guides. Comes out with allot of event guides in a speedy manner.
• Forums – I find allot of good info puttering around in the following forums:
  • forum.blackdesertonline.com – old official forum for bdo, still allot of helpful info there
  • community.blackdesertonline.com – current official forum for bdo, active and helpful community
  • reddit.com – has a helpful Black Desert Online forum
• somethinglovely.net – my goto BDO Map site when I get lost, used to look up not only nodes, but crate (trading) calculations and horse breeding calculations. Also has leveling/hunting zones with recommended AP/DP. Lots of goodies here!
• Incendar Gaming Videos – I enjoy listening to Incendar, who has a gaming channel and lots of videos with BDO Tips. (and runs incendar.com)
• invenglobal.com – helpful guides here. One benefit of this site is that they often have insight into what's currently happening on Korean servers, which undergo patches before we do.
• bdotools.com – Amity calculator that works good for most NPC's
• bdoplanner.com – BDOPlanner: awesome gear calculator. Plan and share gear builds.
• bdodae.com – has a very detailed node caclulator and alchemy/cooking recipe calculators
• blackdesertanalytics.netlify.com – helpful articles about Life Skills and Making Money
• urzasarchives.com – guides on World Bosses and spawn info.
• violetastray.com – wonderful guides on horse taming/training, clothing, and housing
• Failstack Chart (detailed)
• Failstack Chart (simple)
• Discord Channels: (live chat and talk web app that is a good source of info, help, and current events)
  • Class Discords:
    • Musa/Maehwa
    • Ninja/Kunoichi
    • Ranger
    • Sorceress
    • Tamer
    • Valkyrie
    • Warrior
    • Witch/Wizard
    • Berserker
    • Dark Knight
    • Striker/Mystic
    • Lahn
  • BDO Life Skills Discords:
    • Lifeskill Chat – for all Professions/Life Skills.
    • BDO Horse Community – horse breeding, training, T9 horses, and racing.
    • Sailing Dailies – Sailing dailies and Vell parties.
    • BDO Traders – Trading, resets, and leveling discussion for the trade lifeskill.
    • MaoMaoPrince Fishing Community – helpful fishing chat.
  • Other Discords:
    • Black Desert – General BDO Discord
    • BDO NA Fight Club – PVP match-ups.
    • Bellcord NA – Channels and time left for current Bell buffs on NA servers (+100% XP)
    • Bellcord EU – Channels and time left for current Bell buffs on EU servers (+100% XP)
    • BDO JP International Community – English-speaking community for BDO Japan.
    • Black Desert Xbox – for the Xbox One/X edition of BDO
    • BDO NA Bosses – for World Boss HP percents and timers
    • IHA EU International Hunters Association – for World Boss HP percents and timers, hunting groups (EU)
    • IHA MENA International Hunters Association – for World Boss HP percents and timers, hunting groups (MENA)

Black Desert Online Knowledge Troll Siege Soldier

Source: https://allpatchnotes.com/news/black-desert-online-the-complete-guide-how-to-start/

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