Black Desert Online Beginner’s Guide

Black Desert Online Beginner’s Guide by Havoc

This is my beginners guide to BDO.  If you have not played the game yet, or have just started playing, this will be a helpful resource of all things you should know!  This answers many questions that are spammed in Channel chat all the time. Some things are explained well by the in-game tutorials (like movement and combat), some are not (like nodes, workers and real estate).  This guide is everything “I wish I knew” playing the game for the first time.

Helpful Basics:

Move with WSAD. Tab switches between combat ready and travel ready stances.

RMB (right mouse button) click on any location on the map, or quest entry, and hit T to auto-run to the destination.

Can’t find an NPC?  Click the Magnifying Glass button in the top right and select what you are looking for (stable, vendor, etc.) and hit T to auto-run to the nearest one.

Combat Basics:

Enemies take more damage when attacked from behind or when knocked down.

Dodge enemy attacks using SHIFT or by using skills that move you (ex: ← + LMB)

Most skills can be performed using the action control keys (WASD, LMB, RMB, Q, E, F, SHIFT) or alternatively, can be activated by placing them on the skill bar (1-9 keys).

Quest Basics

Quests are obtained from many NPCs, as well as the Black Spirit companion.  To obtain or complete a quest from your Black Spirit companion simply hit the comma (,) key when prompted on your screen.

Easily find your quest task destination, or the NPC to turn in a quest once completed, but RMB clicking on the quest in the quest tracker at the right side of your screen or in your quest log (O).  Once selected, you can hit T to auto run to the destination.

Quests provide important rewards like gear, items, inventory expansion and energy / contribution points (described later).  Some quests also reward XP and gold, however most XP and gold can be obtained simply by killing enemies wherever you find them and selling the loot to vendors.  This means that if you simply want to maximize your XP gain or find loot, you do not necessarily have to be questing all the time.

Additional quests can be given by NPCs if you make them like you.  This can be accomplished through the conversation mini-game available at most NPCs.  To succeed at the conversation mini-game you need knowledge of people within that town.  Talk to the various vendors and important NPCs around a town to gain knowledge of them and they become available for use in the conversation mini-game.

Crafting / Economy Basics:

Every location (town, camp, guard post etc.) on the map is called a node.

Energy: A resource used to perform crafting / economy related tasks (harvesting resources).  Regenerates over time.  Increase your maximum energy by completing quests.

Contribution Points:  A resource used to invest in nodes, real-estate in towns and hire workers.  Can be refunded instantly at any time by relinquishing control over the investment.  Does not regenerate.  Increase your maximum contribution points by completing quests.

Every node has a node manager NPC that allows you to invest contribution points to unlock that node.  To locate the node manager NPC, simply RMB click on the town on the map and hit T.  The NPC you arrive at will be the node manager.

Nodes you have invested contribution points in will have an orange ring around them on the map.  To gain your contribution points back and un-invest in a node, simply click on a node on the map and select “Withdraw Contribution” from the top-left corner of the map screen.  This can be done anytime with no penalty and points can be spent elsewhere immediately.

Some nodes like large towns will have a worker contractor NPC where you can hire workers.   Remember to use the Magnifying Glass icon to easily find a worker contractor or any other NPC.  Browsing the workers available to hire costs Energy so do so carefully.   Workers are used to do harvesting, refining and crafting tasks.  To hire additional workers you can invest in real estate (described later).

To have your hired worker harvest resources for you at a resource node (such as a farm node, or mine node) you must invest in all the nodes connecting the town to the resource node.  Visit the node manager NPC at each node along the desired route, and invest contribution points.  You will see the orange ring around each node you have invested in, and orange lines connecting your nodes.

Once you have invested contribution points in all nodes connecting the town to the desired resource node (farm, mine etc.) you can select the resource node and select the hired worker you would like to harvest at it.  Please note you must also invest contribution points in the individual resource node itself (ex: node with a wheat or mining icon) to successfully bring up the option to assign your worker to it.

Real Estate

Selecting a town node on the map will bring up the real estate view.  Blue House icons are real estate you can buy for contribution points and/or gold.  When you select a blue house icon you can choose what function you would like that location to have.  In the NA version of Black Desert, real estate is instanced meaning you do not need to worry about other players buying up all the real estate and preventing you from getting any.  You can also change the function of a property you own by selecting it from the map view.  Similarly, you can recover your contribution points and get rid of a property you own at any time.

Residence:  Selecting residence will make the Blue House icon into a home for you.  You can decorate the home with furniture purchased at a furniture vendor NPC.

Lodging:  Selecting lodging will make the Blue House icon into housing for your workers.  This increases the number of workers you can hire at that town.

Storage:  Selecting storage will make the Blue House icon into storage space.  Your workers will automatically deposit their harvested materials into storage.  You may also place items from your inventory into storage by visiting a warehouse manager NPC in town.  If you select the town on your map, you can view all the items you have in storage there, as well as their estimated market value.

Refinery / Workbench : Selecting a particular refinery or workbench type will make the Blue House icon into the stated work area.  Once constructed, you can select “Manage Crafting” to assign one of your workers to complete recipes using materials from your storage in that town.

It is important to remember that workers cannot work at resource nodes, or other town nodes, that are not connected by nodes that you have invested contribution points into.