Guide Beginner's Guide to BDO

Beginner's Guide to GamezBDO
Started on the server and do not know what to do? New to Black Desert Online? Not getting questions answered in a proper manner? In this guide, you will learn about the classes of BDO, gearing process, and tips on starting out.

Server Rates:​

• Monster exp rates: 10x
• Monster drop rates: 10x
• Life exp rates: 5x
• Horse exp rates: 5x
• Explore exp rates: 5x
• Tendency exp rates: 5x
• Fitness exp rates: 5x
• Guild skill exp rates: 5x
• Skill exp rates: 5x
• Fishing drop rates: 10x
• Collection drop rates: 10x
• Steal drop rates: 10x

1. Classes
In BDO, there is no holy trinity compared to MMORPGs such as TERA and WoW. There is no need to follow the traditional healer, tank, and DPS format as all classes have the abilities to heal themselves. From level 1 to 56, classes start out as their primary specialization (pre-awakening). At level 56, all classes can partake a quest to awaken their secondary specialization (awakened).​

1a. Current Classes​

• Warrior: A traditional knight class that utilizes a sword and shield. Upon awakening, he is able to wield a greatsword through the teachings of Goyen.
• Valkyrie: The female counterpart of the Warrior who also utilizes a sword and shield. Upon awakening, she obtains the knowledge to wield a lance of holy strength.
• Berserker: A giant brute from Drieghan who utilizes dual axes. Upon awakening, he obtains the Iron Buster after learning about the past of the Giants and Tantu.
• Tamer: A young girl from the Far East who utilizes a shortsword and summoner of a friendly beast. Upon awakening, she is able to wield a Bo Staff.
• Ranger: A Ganelle Elf from Kamasylvia who utilizes a bow. Upon awakening, she is entrusted dual daggers from completing a Kamasylven trial.
• Sorceress: A dark mage who utilizes an amulet on their wrist to channel dark energy into offensive abilities. Upon awakening, she obtains a giant scythe to cut down her foes.
• Musa: A warrior from the Kingdom of Haso who utilizes a blade and a horn bow. Upon awakening, he is given the knowledge to wield the Crescent Blade of fiery properties.
• Maewha: A female warrior from the Kingdom of Haso who utilizes a blade and a horn bow. Upon awakening, she is given the knowledge to wield a Kerispear of ice properties.
• Ninja: A ninja from the Kingdom of Haso who utilizes a shortsword and is skilled in the arts of ninjitsu. Upon awakening, he obtains the hidden Sura Katana.
• Kunoichi: A kunoichi from the Kingdom of Haso who utilizes a shortsword and is skilled in the arts of ninjitsu. Upon awakening, she obtains the hidden Sah Chakram.
• Dark Knight: A Vedir Elf from Kamasylvia that has given up the arts of the bow in exchange for the Kriegsmesser. Upon awakening, she is given the Vediant in search for more power.
• Striker: A young man from Calpheon who utilizes a gauntlet. Upon awakening, he obtains the knowledge of summoning a Fiery Echo Spirit and uses a Gardbrace.
• Mystic: A young woman from a village in Calpheon who utilizes a gauntlet. Upon awakening, she obtains the ability to summon a water dragon and uses a Cestus.
• Wizard: A mage from an unknown world who utilizes a staff. Upon awakening, he gains the trust of two elementals (Fire & Water) and uses a Godr Sphera.
• Witch: A mage from an unknown world who utilizes a staff. Upon awakening, she gains the trust of two elementals (Earth & Lightning) and uses an Aad Sphera.
• Lahn: A female songstress from the Kingdom of Haso who is equipped with a Pendulum and Blade. After the dark energy consumes her pure soul, she obtains a set of dual blades filled with lust for bloodshed.
• Archer: An elven archer known as the legendary Luthragon by Kamalsyvian inhabitants. A legendary elven archer that utilizes a crossbow and a gauntlet. When his memory is fully recovered, he obtains the knowledge and manipulation of the Greatbow of Light.
• Shai: An adventurous young girl who possesses a unique talent of utilizing a boomerang in combat. Through experience, she is able to share her musical tales to those around her through scriptures of Sol.
• Guardian: Hailing from the region of the Giants, this woman of brute strength wields a Hatchet and Shield. Once awakened, she is able to carry the Greataxe of Jordun.
• Hashashin (Future Class): After years of battling against demonic forces north of the Valencian Continent, the Blade of Aal (Hashashin) set out on a journey to strengthen his soul. Equipped with the Shamshir and Jambia, the young man vows to find great power to rid the Demons of the North. Once the Blade of Aal discovers this power, he obtains the knowledge of wielding the Spear of Aal which allows him to channel the sands to vanquish his foes.

1c. Classes (Summarized)

• Caster
  • Witches
  • Wizards
• Ranged
  • Ranger
  • Archer
• Defensive / Burst
  • Valkyrie
  • Warrior
  • Dark Knight
• Melee
  • Berserker
  • Guardian
  • Tamer
  • Striker
  • Mystic
  • Lahn
• Stealth / Crowd Control
• • Hashashin
  • Kunoichi
  • Ninja
  • Musa
  • Maewha
• Hybrid Melee / Mage / Ranged Classes
  • Sorceress
• Support
  • Shai

​

2. Starting Out
At this point, you selected a class to immerse yourself in the world of BDO. Upon logging in, you will be given a basic tutorial to familiarize yourself with the camera and UI. Follow the tutorial and start talking to all the NPCs in Olvia to gain knowledge. As a beginner, knowledge is important to get as it increases your energy cap. Energy is necessary for performing gathering, node investment, talking in server chat, and Night Vendor. You might be like: "What is node investment/night vendor?" We'll get to that in a later part. Quests are not a required task in this game. However, you can gain contribution EXP from them. Contribution points are needed to buy housing, certain workshops, and linking nodes.

2a. Questions? Should I?

• The first way of leveling up. You can level up while doing the main storyline as it takes you around the regions to grinding spots. You also gain skillpoints, inventory expansion slots, and armor to help you out.
• Alternatively, you can grind to level which may ruin your experience as you will not have the time to learn your class at its full potential.
  • Grinding to Level
    • Level 1 to 24: Beginner Quest up to Ancient Stone Chamber
    • 24 to 35: Bloody Monastery
    • 35 to 42: Masked Owl Forest / Contaminated Camp (NW of Calph)
    • 42 to 50: Catfish / Manshas
    • 50 to 56: Helms
    • 56 to 60: Combat Promotion Quest (with full EXP buffs) / Valencia grinding spots / Sausans
    • 60 to 63: Valtarra Scroll Quest Completion (with full EXP buffs) / Desert Nagas or Fogans / Crescent Shrine / Pila Ku / Sulfur / Drieghan
    • 63 to 66: Gyfin Rhasia Temple / Kamasylvia grinding spots / Manshaum Narc Scrolls
  • Efficient Way to Level Gathering
    • From Beginner 1 to Professional 1
      • Butchering Sheep by Lynch Ranch
      • Gathering Tulips by Northeastern Wheat Plantation
      • Gathering Potato by Velia
    • From Professional 2 to Master 1
      • Polly Forest Mushrooms (Recommended)
      • Pilgrim's Haven
    • From Master 1 to Guru 20
      • Pilgrim's Haven
    • Why Guru and not Master?
      • The higher your Gathering level, the chance to loot Hards and Sharps increase and energy consumption is lessened. It is imperative to get to Guru if you wish to reap profits off the marketplace.
  • Contribution Point Leveling
    • Complete the main storylines (Balenos, Serendia, Calpheon, Mediah, Valencia Part 1, and Kamasylvia Part 1
      • You will be around 200 ~ 230 CP.
    • If you decide to finish off Valencia Part 2 & Kamasylvia Part 2
      • You should be around 250 ~ 290 CP.
  • Boss Spawns
    • Boss Locations (Credit to Urza)
  • Downgrading Armor / Weapons
    • You will need a character below -300,000 Karma to downgrade armor and weapons.

​

2b. Character Stats

• Enhancement (Ability in later patches)
  • Attack Speed: The higher your attack speed, the faster your melee skills speed up.
  • Cast Speed: The higher your cast speed, the faster your magical spells speed up.
  • Movement Speed: The higher your movement speed, the faster you move.
  • Critical Hit: The higher your Critical Hit Rate, the more critical damage you deal to mobs/players.
  • Fishing Speed: Increases the rate of catching a fish.
  • Luck: The higher your luck, your item drop rate chance increases.
  • Gathering: The higher your Gathering speed, the time to gather is decreased.

2c. Handy Functions

• In-Game Commands:
  • ".rescue" takes you to Olvia. You can use it as much as you want if you get stuck or need to go to world bosses.
  • ".drop" Premium Members have access to this filter. They can filter from 0 being white drops to 4 being orange.
  • Available commands for premium user drop filter:
    .drop filter 0 (white)
    .drop filter 1 (green)
    .drop filter 2 (blue)
    .drop filter 3 (yellow)
    .drop filter 4 (orange)
    Add - at the end of the command to not pick up silver
    Type the command in /s (Say). Note that this determines what drops & not what you actually loot.
    
    Items Ignored By Drop Filter
    Design: Edan's Travel Wear, Spirit Pouch of Ferocious Beast, Pure Forest Breath, Rainbow Gem Fruit, Breezy Conch Seaweed, Deep Blue Hoof Root, Ancient Relic Crystal Shard, Forbidden Book, Scroll Written in Ancient Language, Awakened Ancient Relic Crystal Shard, Manshaum, Voodoo Doll, Mark of Shadow, Basilisk's Pieces, Monastery Boss summon scroll, Goblin Chief, summon scroll, Hunter's Seal, Memory Fragment, Soiled Items, Filthy Necklace
• Discord Commands:
  • If you send a Direct Message to the GameZBD bot:
    • ".online" shows you how many players are on each channel.
    • ".boss" shows you the boss timers of each boss on each channel.
    • ".link" will link your game account to your Discord account. It allows you to be notified what has been sold in the marketplace and offline whispers.
    • ".time" shows you the server time.

3. Energy, Nodes, and Contribution
As said before, energy is very important to have. Without a high energy cap, you will be unable to perform tasks such as gathering for extended periods. It is crucial to gain knowledge from books, monsters, and NPCs. Some NPCs require Amity to gain knowledge. At the moment, some aspects of the Amity minigame is not functioning. It is recommended to wave at them for points rather than performing the minigame. Obtaining knowledge also increases your ecology which merits for higher drop rate & passive increases your energy gain by +2 or +3.

Creating multiple characters is a definite plus for mass energy consumption.

Nodes require energy to invest into. Investing in a node increases the item drop chance in the node area. Your node needs to be connected first in order to invest Energy into them. You need Contribution Points to connect nodes. For an example: From Velia, you can connect to Finto Farm. You can earn Contribution Points from doing quests, turn-in cooking materials, or the dailies from RBF and your Black Spirit.

The Night Vendor (Patrigio) is a vendor that has a chance of selling goods like Dandelion Awakening Weapon Boxes, Boss Armor such as Giath and Muskans, and very often: Bags of Armor / Weapon Stones for a discount. The Day Vendor, Morco, has a chance of selling goods such as Magical Tools for Gathering for a discount. Both vendors require 50 energy to use each time.

4. Life Skilling
In GamezBDO, there are 9 life skills working on the server: Gathering, Processing, Cooking, Alchemy, Training, Fishing, Hunting, Farming, and Sailing.

• Gathering: As you level up Gathering, you decrease the durability use of your tool while also increasing a small chance of getting hards and sharps.
• Processing: You can perform Processing by hitting L and selecting what you want to process. As you level up Processing, you get more items back from each session. This type of life skill is considered one of the AFK skills.
• Cooking: Like processing, you get more food items as you level up Cooking. Cooking is one of the most useful life-skills as it provides buffs such as Life/Combat EXP or All Attack +5/All Damage Reduction +5 upon creation. Food itself persist through death.
• Alchemy: Just like Cooking, it is one of the most useful life-skills as it provides extra buffs such as HP decrease -5 or Extra Back Attack Damage via elixirs. Unlike food, elixirs do not persist through death.
• Training: Taming and riding horses around will level up this skill.
• Fishing: Fishing with Fishing Rod will level up this skill. Unfortunately, Fishing goes hand and hand with Trading. Trading is not functional at this moment.
• Hunting: You can level up this skill by using muskets against Hunting mobs such as Deer, Alligators, Whales, and Khalk.
• Farming: Leveling Farming will allow you to consume less energy when tending to your crops. It will speed up harvesting your crops, breeding your plants, pruning, and killing pests.

5. Gearing Process
In this game, the item rarity is white to green to blue to yellow. As a new player, obtaining Grunil or Heve armor pieces is recommended as these pieces have two crystal slots compared to Agerian and Taritas. Eventually, you should aim for boss armor pieces such as Giath, Muskan Boots, Dim Tree Armor, and Bheg Gloves.
Alternatively, you can choose to go for the Lemoria Set (blue grade) until you get boss gear.

• Weapons: Use a green weapon till you are able to get a Kzarka weapon from Kzarka (world boss) and Dandelion Awakening Weapon from Karanda (world boss).
• Offhands: Recommended to get both Kutum & Nouver. Kutum is more for PvE as it has additional monster damage while Nouver adds more AP and dishes out more damage against other players.
• Accessories: Use the Asula accessories for now. Save for Crescent Rings, Basilisk Belts, Tungrad Belts, Sicil / Seraps, Ogre Ring. Alternatively, you can go for Witch Earring / Mark of Shadow rings.
• Crystals: Build however you wish. Evasion or Damage Reduction builds. Do not build yourself around the meta.
  • The current meta is centered around Evasion builds. Accuracy is still in the works. Without a functional state of Accuracy, Evasion builds are difficult to fight against. However, it is not impossible to kill someone with a full Evasion build.
    • Players, in-game, will tell you that Evasion does not work to avoid the risk of having multiple players stacking Evasion in PvP.
    • Evasion may be worthwhile but AP beyond 250 is worth having.
    • Witches (Pure DP) builds excel in large scale PvP.
• Example Builds:
  • If you intend to build around Evasion, you will need these items:
    • Muskan's Shoes (Increases Evasion)
    • JIN Harphia Crystals (Max HP +50 & HP Recovery +5 & All Evasion +20)
    • Sicil's Necklace (AP & DP, Evasion, Hidden Evasion)
    • Bensho's Necklace (Pure DP, Evasion, and Hidden Evasion)
    • Centaur's Belt (Pure DP, Evasion)
      
    • Manos Ruby Earrings (Evasion with HP Increase, Pure DP)
    • Example: https://i.imgur.com/gCevS6v.png
  • If you ever intend to build around Accuracy, you will need these items:
    • Tungrad Earrings (Accuracy with more AP) OR Red Coral Earrings (Massive Increase in Accuracy, less AP than Tungrads)
    • Bheg's Gloves (Increases Accuracy)
    • JIN Vipers (Increases Accuracy + 20, Attack Speed & Cast Speed +1)
    • Ring of Crescent Guardian
    • Tree Spirit Belt / Basilisk Belt & Tungrad Belt & Valtarra Belt (If you have enough Accuracy)
    • Accuracy Offhand
    • Example: https://i.imgur.com/Yb507ZK.png
  • If you ever intend to build around Damage Reduction, you will need these items:
    • Urgon's Shoes (Increases Damage Reduction)
    • Token of Friendship (Pure DP)
    • Manos Topaz Earring (Pure DP, Stamina Increase)
    • Manos Sapphire Earring (Pure DP, WP/MP/EP +100 Increase)
    • Ring of Cadry Guardian (Pure DP)
    • Centaur's Belt (Pure DP with HP+50 Increase)
    • Rhutum Elite Belt (Pure DP, cheaper alternative to Centaurs)
    • Bensho's Necklace (Pure DP)
    • Example: https://i.imgur.com/pylRZF4.png
  • You can mix and match builds if you intend to play a hybrid.
    • Note: You do not have to follow the example builds. Build your own survival kit!

6. Enhancement Tips
Enhancing a piece of armor and weapon requires black stones. Armor requires Black Stone (Armor) and Weapon requires Black Stone (weapon). You can enhance Armor up to +5 & Weapon to +7 at 100% success rate. Beyond those numbers is a chance to go up.

• Enhancement Guidelines
  • PRI - 0 to 10 FS | Accessories: 12 to 24 FS
  • DUO - 10 to 20 FS | Accessories: 25 to 35 FS
  • TRI - 20 to 30 FS | Accessories: 36 to 45 FS
  • TET - 30 to 40 FS | Accessories: 46 to 64 FS
  • PEN - 40 FS and beyond | Accessories: 65 FS and beyond
    • Enhancement on GamezBDO is on a different formula versus the official BDO server.
    • Enhancement weekends increase success by 20%.
    • With Premium, your FS chance increases on all armour & weapons.
    • 100 FS does not constitute a 100% success.

7. Obtaining Special Crystals
There are special crystals that you cannot obtain during normal gameplay such as Black Spirit Crystal, Awakened Black Spirit Crystal, and Valtarra Crystal. These specific crystals are obtained via completion of the main storylines (Mediah, Valencia, Kamasylvia).

8. Useful References

• Obtaining the Compass (Credit to @Noyah)
• FPS Fixes & Tweaks (Credit to @Mav)
• Money Making: 300m ~ 500m per hour (Credit to @Vampyrism)
• Beginner Tips: For New Players (Credit to @loboram)
• Changing The In-Game Font to Custom Font (Credit to @Chiclete)
• BDOCodex
• SomethingLovely (Includes Horse Calculator too!)

​

*Note that this is an in-progress guide. I intend to work on it to further assist newer players.

 

I love your enthusiasm and the fact that you actually took the time to make this intro to BDO especially the Class descriptions.

I do however (as I think many people have their own playing style and wishes) want to make it clear that the Amity-minigame does work but only some aspects of it are working at the moment but in conclusion it is a lot more cost efficient to use the Amity-minigame for large Amity gains when the Character has the "right" AstrologySign/StarSign/Horroscope as this impacts which game hinderances are used and having three options in the mini-game for succeeding is better than using 3 Energy for 3 Amity.

Otherwise I think this is AWESOME! Keep up the great work

 

Need to add the .rescue command that teleports you to Ovlia when used. Very helpful tool I didnt know about for a week.

 

You forgot Cast Speed and the difference between it and Attack Speed.

 

Updated the guide with Enhancement Guideline (Armor/Weapon/Accessories), Useful Commands, and added Casting/Gathering/Luck to Character Stats, and Life-Skill details. Elaborated Energy / Contribution too.

I will be adding more information later this week.

 

3/16/2018

• Added a Build section for those wondering what build to start with or curious of Evasion/Accuracy builds.
• Added "Efficient Way to Level Gathering"
• Added Ways to Level Contribution Points

 

Energy gain - efficient ways beyond talking to everyone in the game, if you happen to know any tips/tricks? Lol I am a life skiller, so wind up exploring everything and never worried about efficiency.

 

I may add that but the simple thing is to open Ecology (via H) and use sites like SomethingLovely/BDOCodex to track down stuff or talk to NPCs / play Amity game with some of the NPCs.

 

A wonderful guide +1

Some common questions that I noticed get asked a lot in game are

• "How do you find boss timers"
• "Where are boss spawns"
  
  Maybe a section describing the discord commands and boss spawns to add to this, pretty amazing guide for newbie Aion players that want to try BDO out.

 

@KoroFish sadly most Amity games are broken atm.

@Villain there is a rather good map for all of the boss spawns, I suppose I will drop that in Koro's inbox later.

 

@DoomRabbit That would be wonderful. It's handy to have something to look at than to follow players to the boss locations all confused.
@Villain I will put a section on Discord details.

 

3/19/2018

• Added Damage Reduction Build Suggestions
• Boss Locations
• Discord Commands List
• In-Game Commands List
• Corrections on Enhancement Guidelines (Accessories)

 

3/26/2018

• Added Classes by Type
• Added Lahn description
• .drop filter descriptions (Credit to Lareldal)
• Gathering Information (Why Guru and not Master)
• Noticed a link difference between Evasion & Accuracy example build.

If anyone thinks something is missing or needs to be added, let me know.

 

• With Premium, your FS chance increases on "green" armour & weapons.

It applies to all armour & Weapons not just "Green"

 

Got it. Updated.

 

Thank you for this it helps alot!

 

Thanks for taking the time on this, great help.

 

I still really love this guide, and I would very much like to see it updated once the new update and patches are in place.

One thing I really am missing here is the server droprates; experience and so on rates.

 

Added Shai information and server rates.

 

But yoi forgot to add archer ^^