Black Desert Online: Tips & What I wish I knew at the beginning:

 

This game is so vast and there is so much to do.  It really is impossible to do everything.

I have been playing for 2 years and have not even done a 1/3 of it yet.

Don’t get overwhelmed by it all and take it slow.

Trying to do everything at once will only achieve burn out.

Get a pet.

If you purchase anything from the Pearl shop, then a pet is a must.

Occasionally, you can get a free pet from the Daily attendance but it is not every month.

You have little hope of ever purchasing a pet off the marketplace.

You can have up to 5 pets out at one time.

Pets pick up your loot and give you bonuses for combat and life skills. (Loot = Money/Silver)

Pearl Shop is a rip off.

Everything is way over price.

Pearl shop does have sales and coupons every once in a while.

Try out different characters first to see which ones you like the best before buying character items in the pearl shop.

If you ever have to delete a character, some of those pearl items will not transfer to other characters.

Fishing

Fishing is the best way for a beginner to earn lots of silver.

You can AKF fish and still earn silver.

PVP

PVP begins at level 50.

You don’t have to PVP.

Other players can kill you in combat areas even if you do not have PVP activated. (Only after level 50)

You can lose experience when you die.

Some of the crystals might break in  your weapons and armor if you die.

Awakening

Awakening begins at level 56

You cannot add crystals to your awakening weapon.

Horse

Buy a horse as soon as possible. Does not need to be expensive or high tier.

It will be too difficult and time consuming to run everywhere.

Quests

Do the Black Spirit quests.

Those quests will reward you with inventory slots and combat experience.

Black Spirit quests need to be done in order to unlock other quests.

Do not sell!

Black Stones

Memory Fragments

You will need a shit ton of these to level up weapons and armor.

I do not recommend selling items from rewards or events until you are sure what they are.

Rewards

You are rewarded the longer you stay on the server even if you are AFK.

You are rewarded for having multiple characters.

These are actually encouraged in this game.

Characters

It is best to have one main fighting character and make the additional characters geared towards life skills.

Reason is because leveling up weapon and armor is very expensive and a long drawn out process.

Characters part two

Not all characters are created equal.

I do not recommend making the “Ranger” character your first one.

The “Ranger” is difficult to level up and cannot combat mobs like the other characters.

The ranger is a good character but it is not a killing machine.

Good beginning characters: Striker, Dark Knight, and Tamer. (Only my opinion)

Characters part three

Your character name can be important.  Depending on what you name your character will be the deciding factor whether you get killed a lot or not.

I named one of my character after a venereal disease and people are constantly trying to kill me.

There has been a few guilds that have refused to let me join over the character’s name.

Changing a character or family name will cost you actual money from the Pearl Shop.

So choose wisely! Unless, you like being verbally abused, trolled and even killed.

Pay to Win

BDO has a lot of high priced crap in their pearl shop but the game is not pay to win.

BDO is one huge sandbox and there is no winning scenario.

You can buy stuff that will give you extra boosts but you can also obtain that without spending real money.

High powered weapons, armor and other things, you will have to actually work for it.

Beginner Weapons & Armor

You will get beginner weapons and armor from starter quests.

Do not level these up.  It is a waste of black stones.

You cannot re-sell these on the marketplace.

Olvia servers (It is Olvia not Olivia)

You can only play on the Olvia servers if you are new and for up to 30 days.

Join those servers for the max allowed time.

Olvia servers give you extra experience that will help you level up.

Server Switching

You can switch servers every 15 minutes.

This is handy if you somebody is bothering you or you are in an overcrowded location.

Guilds

It’s not necessary to join a guild to play the game.

If you do join a guild – there are PVP and PVE guilds.

Joining a guild does provide you with extra perks and boosts.

Crystals

Grind unused cheap crystals and turn them into black stone powder.

You will need lots of this powder for various projects / crafting.

Chat

Some of the server chat is cancer.

You can turn off certain chats and even make the window smaller so that it is less distracting.

You can mute people in chat.

Notifications

There are a lot of notifications in BDO that automatically show up on default.

It’s annoying and distracting.  You can turn off the majority of them in your settings.

Family Funds

BDO gives you daily funds.

The amount of funds depend on all your characters combined combat, knowledge and life skill levels.

I have 6 characters between the levels of 56 and 59.  I get over million of silver per day.

Repair

If you need to repair your weapons or armor and there is not a blacksmith around, look for a stable.

Stable personnel will also make repairs.

Life skills

Easy life skills for beginners:  Fishing, Cooking, Alchemy, Farming, Gathering, Processing and Trading.

More difficult life skills: Horse Training, Sailing and Hunting.

AFK life skills: Fishing, Cooking, Alchemy, Processing and Horse Training.

Knowledge

Pressing “H” brings up your knowledge screen.

The more knowledge you obtain thru quests or other means will equal more energy for your character /family.

Contribution Points:

You need contribution points for a house, extra storage, worker crafting stations and unlocking nodes.