New to BDO in general.

Hi there,

I'm brand new to Black desert online but not new to MMOs.

I have to say this is the first game that really has my head spinning just being a few hours into the game.

any tips for a new player or should I just keep following the questlines in the stories until I get a hang of what the game is truly about?

 

...some community lol

 

The community is generally good and helpful here . I'd recommend joining the GameZ discord as well (I think the address is in the Help/Questions portion of the forums somewhere).
This thread has a lot of general stuff that is helpful too.
BDO has a LOT of things to do in it and everyone has their pet theory on how to progress in the game and it also depends a lot on your play style.
I think your idea to follow the quest-lines until you get a feel of what the game offers is not a bad idea at all as quests will often unlock other game elements that may contain chances to increase your knowledge (a stat which increases your energy; which in turn is a game mechanic that's used for a number of things from life-skilling, hiring workers and haggling with the Night Vendor for the chance of buying rare items).
Kill everything and talk to everyone. Do amity once you get enough knowledge of a zone. Be prepared to die when you run into a higher geared player and you're farming the same area.
Don't get sucked into feeling bad about gear disparity among players. It's an MMO and it happens, eventually you'll get there. It's a marathon, not a sprint .
It took me about a month initially to come to grips with what is out there; but once you understand the core game mechanics it's actually pretty easy.

Good luck ... and don't be too hasty.

P.S. GameZ is a good place to play BDO because so many of the cash gated options that happen in retail are open for you to explore here. It just takes patience and planning. In GameZ, BDO fulfills it's true design as an MMO in my opinion. Have fun.

P.S.S. There's a really COOL guy on the GameZBD discord called Goomanchu who will attempt to help with answers as long as you're nice and patient. If you can't get an answer to your issue and you've looked everywhere else, drop him a PM and I'm pretty sure he'll get back to you as soon as he can ... just realise he's an old bloke so keep that in mind.

 

Well yeah, if you are in a timezone with less active people then expect no response.

There's a lot of guides, join the discord as the guides that are updated are all there.