Black Desert

Bobbybick said:

Is there ever a reason to group up in this game or is it just solo grind mobs till your eyes bleed so someday your gear will maybe be decent enough to pvp?

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If you're not a fan of grinding, I'd immediately quit BDO. The game not only requires it, but is basically centered around the idea of it (combat, lifeskilling, gear, etc.). I find the concept/idea of grinding extremely fun and relaxing. Maybe it was EQ, maybe it was Diablo 2, 3, and PoE. But, I absolutely love just turning on some music or a TV show and chilling during a long ass grind.

Kirun said:

If you're not a fan of grinding, I'd immediately quit BDO. The game not only requires it, but is basically centered around the idea of it (combat, lifeskilling, gear, etc.). I find the concept/idea of grinding extremely fun and relaxing. Maybe it was EQ, maybe it was Diablo 2, 3, and PoE. But, I absolutely love just turning on some music or a TV show and chilling during a long ass grind.

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Very, very true. Basically everything in the game is centered around the idea of doing something in the thousands. Likely hundreds of thousands. It's the ultimate grind game.

So i made a seasonal Nova - whats fastest way to lvl and get all the Tuvala gear? hoping to get it all done today and tomorrow.

Xexx said:

So i made a seasonal Nova - whats fastest way to lvl and get all the Tuvala gear? hoping to get it all done today and tomorrow.

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Basically, just follow the main story until you complete Mediah, at which point you'll have a shitload of beginner enhance stones. Just keep tapping your Naru gear until it's PEN - don't bother wasting Crons or Valks at this stage. Just fingerblast that shit to PEN. If you get super unlucky, just exchange your stones for gear to repair durability. Once you're done with that, turn them into Fuhgar (he's at basically every stable master in the game) for full Tuvala gear. I'd recommend trading in your time-filled stones for the refined stones or whatever they are called that allows you to get to TRI: Tuvala at 100% success. Do all of Fuhgar's quests to get some extra valk scrolls and then the grind to 61 and PEN begins!

EDIT: I'm dumb and hit reply instead of edit.

Bobbybick said:

Is there ever a reason to group up in this game or is it just solo grind mobs till your eyes bleed so someday your gear will maybe be decent enough to pvp?

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There are group activities currently, namely Altar of Blood (horde mode, 3ppl, last as long as you can) and Altar of Valtarra (up to full group, I believe its a weekly thing). Then you have several spots that require 2-3 people in full TET+ or full PEN. Sometime this year they are planning on a new group area for variously geared players (not just top enders) called Ataraxia:

You'll zone into a large public dungeon type area with rooms that require 2-5 people to hunt in, and if I'm not mistaken, there will be events which players can trigger if they work together (as in the various groups reach some goal while grinding the rooms they went too). You will never see a typical dungeon like you'll see in WoW, the combat system just isn't designed for that. The dev know the playerbase wants more group content, but they also do not want to create group based content that will make people feel the "need" to do it. They want players to play BDO however they like.

There is a ocean based boss called Vell, which will have people make "Platoons", which are 4 full groups, to go shoot cannons at it. Then there are 4 Guild bosses that guilds can summon after getting the necessary items.

Also later this year, they plan to have a 10 vs. 10 pvp arena (two 10 player squads, but with only 7 of each team on the field at once). The description of this sounds like its for pre made teams only.

Here is a link to what PA has planned for 2021+, goes into slightly more detail on stuff mentioned at the latest Ball:

The Acclaimed MMORPG | Black Desert Online

Zindan said:

They want players to play BDO however they like.

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This is honestly what made me return to this game and why I realized I love it now that they've "fixed" the most annoying aspect of it to me (RNG on the gear grind - yes, I know it's still "there", but shit like Crons and Naderr's Band basically took away the most ridiculous parts of it for me). There is a veritable fuckload of things to do in this game and you can literally play it however you want. Want to just be a trader and chat all day? You can do that. Want to play Farmville and manage your crops every few hours? Sure! Want to be Jack Sparrow? Yup, got that too. Like smoking a joint late at night and grinding for hours while listening to tunes? It's here! Love PvP and GvG style battles? You got it!

Honestly, the possibilities are almost endless and if you complain about "nothing to do" in BDO, it probably just isn't a game you're interested in. As soon as one aspect gets boring to me, I just move my focus to something else and it totally revitalizes any sort of "boredom" I felt.

Thanks for the detailed responses. I reinstalled it last night and am going to give it a try again, I was just curious what kind of incentives there were to player interaction and it seems like there is at least some level of it. Was worried I was in for another POE-type grind where there's technically group content but 99% of people never use it which I can accept in an ARPG but not in an MMO.

Bobbybick said:

Thanks for the detailed responses. I reinstalled it last night and am going to give it a try again, I was just curious what kind of incentives there were to player interaction and it seems like there is at least some level of it. Was worried I was in for another POE-type grind where there's technically group content but 99% of people never use it which I can accept in an ARPG but not in an MMO.

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Understand that unless you have friends or join a guild of like-minded players, a lot of that content still isn't "used", per se. Gone are the days of "LFG for disco PST!" and such in MMOs - something a lot of MMO boomers seem unwilling to accept (back in my day!!). Most players are going to take the "solo" route if it's available. But, if you have a group of friends playing the game with you or a guild that likes doing that type of content, it is absolutely, 100% available and Pearl Abyss has said that more is on the way - they just don't ever want it to feel forced (like it was in EQ and others).

Bobbybick said:

Thanks for the detailed responses. I reinstalled it last night and am going to give it a try again, I was just curious what kind of incentives there were to player interaction and it seems like there is at least some level of it. Was worried I was in for another POE-type grind where there's technically group content but 99% of people never use it which I can accept in an ARPG but not in an MMO.

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Make sure to join a guild, maybe start off with a casual / lifeskill guild so you can get yourself setup / ask questions. There are a lot of guilds like that around. Also, if you have some interest in PvP, you could probably find a Node War guild (T1, which is the lowest tier and their battles will have a gear cap for who can participate). There are probably Discords around for finding groups at the high lvl duo spots (once you're geared up).

I wish someone had told me not to bother with this Epheria Sailboat questline. What a fucking nightmare. Seriously, whoever designed this thing was an asshole. Let's start with the 45 minute boat ride just to get to the fucking place. And then you've got shit like diving deeper than you can actually go, sailing in unmarkable waters with 120 mph headwinds, and my favorite part which is where I am now, Nada Island.

This stupid fucking island that's impossible to get into, and then the quest giver likes to send you outside it so you can do it all over again! Oh, and now I get to fish (they didn't give me a fishing pole), and gather a bunch of shit with no hints as to where I can get them.

Entire thing makes me want to quit. And worst of all, it's for a piddly ass 5 plans, of which I need 20!

So you're telling us... it's grindy. Got it.

It's not necessarily that it's grindy, just obnoxious. Like, it's a quest because you can't sail for shit...so they make you sail back and forth to the furthest places in the game.

Or like I mentioned, you have to dive deeper than you actually can, even with the two crystals you get and potions. The only way to complete it is to change servers 3/4 of the way down to refresh your breath. I feel like the entire chain was implemented to be as frustrating as possible to sell you shit.

It's annoying, not grindy.

Gravel said:

It's not necessarily that it's grindy, just obnoxious. Like, it's a quest because you can't sail for shit...so they make you sail back and forth to the furthest places in the game.

Or like I mentioned, you have to dive deeper than you actually can, even with the two crystals you get and potions. The only way to complete it is to change servers 3/4 of the way down to refresh your breath. I feel like the entire chain was implemented to be as frustrating as possible to sell you shit.

It's annoying, not grindy.

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Wish I could help, but I haven't done any of the sailing shit yet. Is it a quest to get a sailboat? Or just to level up a skill?

There's a quest to get the Bartali sailboat which is okay, and that one is pretty easy.

The Epheria Sailboat is the tier 2 one. You need 20 "plans" to make it though, and you can get one a day through a daily. There's a quest that's "recommended" that gives 5, but it's once per family. Well, it's not fucking worth it. I'd rather just wait another 2 weeks.

Alternately you can upgrade the Bartali Sailboat to Epheria, but it requires maxing out the enhancing on 4 different boat parts to +10. That sounded awful, so I went with building it outright.

Gravel said:

There's a quest to get the Bartali sailboat which is okay, and that one is pretty easy.

The Epheria Sailboat is the tier 2 one. You need 20 "plans" to make it though, and you can get one a day through a daily. There's a quest that's "recommended" that gives 5, but it's once per family. Well, it's not fucking worth it. I'd rather just wait another 2 weeks.

Alternately you can upgrade the Bartali Sailboat to Epheria, but it requires maxing out the enhancing on 4 different boat parts to +10. That sounded awful, so I went with building it outright.

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Yeah, just looked up the quest. Fuck that. I'd either just be patient and wait it out or more likely just go grind/farm enough to buy it on the market.

Very few things are "worth" the investment of time in BDO, honestly. Sure, you are technically making a "profit" doing shit yourself, enhancing, etc. However, in comparison to things like imperial cooking, gathering, high-end grindspots, and bartering? Miss me with that shit.

Essentially, leave the inefficient grinds to the people who don't know any better or honestly enjoy that activity. Why the hell would I waste my time processing Ash Plywood for 12m/hour when I could go farm even something like Helm's Post for 30m/hour?

Well, my goal was to be able to barter. Apparently you need resources before you start (Epheria Sailboat's selling for about 550m right now).

I think my problem is actually more that I should be investing in the boat accessories to make it faster, and not the boat itself.

You can also just buy the boat from the auction house, I dont think its very expensive.

I decided to do all that northern crap one day to get more contribution. Just set aside a couple days iirc and drove around doing it. After Valencia II, It wasn't too bad, boring sure, but I basically watched a movie on a the 2nd monitor while auto patching everywhere, doing a obj, then pathing again.

Gravel said:

Well, my goal was to be able to barter. Apparently you need resources before you start (Epheria Sailboat's selling for about 550m right now).

I think my problem is actually more that I should be investing in the boat accessories to make it faster, and not the boat itself.

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You can totally ignore farming / questing for the Epheria Sailboat. It only takes 30 Shakatu Seals to get one from the seal vendor, ez pz. There are a couple quest lines that give you a temporary type boat which is a LOT faster than a base Epheria Sailboat, one is at the Grana Port, but I forget where the other one is located. Can do those to island hopping for whatever you might want to get rdy for Bartering. While you're waiting for the Seals, you could spend time with Cooking.