Black Desert News

Greetings Adventurers,

This week, you will be able to add Blackstar Gloves and Blackstar awakening weapons to your adventurer’s equipement!

For more information about this and more, read on!




[h3][New Events][/h3]

• Fluttering Snowflakes
  
  • Event 1. Collect [Event] Snowflakes!
    
  • Period: January 21 (00:00 UTC)–February 9 (23:59 UTC)
    
    • Collect an [Event] Snowflake for every 30 minutes of gameplay then exchange them for awesome rewards.
      
  • Event 2. Finto's Cooking School
    
  • Period: January 20 (after maintenance)–February 10 (before maintenance)
    
    • NPC David Finto's cooking class is open! Follow his cooking advice and get rewards. The cooking class will continue over the course of 3 weeks.
      
  • Bonus! Snowfall and Auroras are Back
    
  • Period: January 20 (after maintenance)–February 17 (before maintenance)
    
    • Enjoy heavy snowfall during the entire day and beautiful auroras at night all over again!
      
  • Click <Here> for full details.
    

[h3][Ongoing Events][/h3]

• Old Moon Grand Prix Opening: Available until January 27 (before maintenance)
  
• Level Up Nova Again!
  
  • Event 1. Level Up Again!: Available until February 3 (before maintenance)
    

[h3][Ended Events][/h3]

• Nova Pre-launch Events
  
• Get a Young Ice Dragon!
  
• Create Now!
  
  • Event 4. Challenges for New and Returning
    
• Nova Launch Events
  
• Level Up Nova Again!
  
  • Event 2. Steel Nux Strikes
    
  • Event 3. Get a [Jukebox] Snow Flower
    
  • Event 4. Mysterious Knight is back
    

[h3][Reward Distribution][/h3]

• The number of Total Likes for all Chat Groups will be reset with today's maintenance.
  
  • Adventurers who own either gold, silver, or bronze Black Spirit icons in each Chat Group will receive a temporary title for 90 days for their diligent participation.
    
  • Please check the full announcement <Here>.
    

• Added Blackstar Awakening Weapon crafting quests.
  
  • The Blackstar Awakening Weapon crafting quests do not involve excavating Star's End with the archaeologist Martha Kiyen as the existing Blackstar gear quests do, but rather follow a different storyline of another faction seeking to uncover the secrets behind Star's End.
    
  • You can complete the Blackstar Awakening Weapon crafting quest series once per character.
    
  • To start the Blackstar Awakening Weapon quests, you will need the "Remnants of the Rift," which can be obtained at a low chance at Dark Rift, and "The Three Legendary Blacksmiths of Mediah" knowledge. In addition, to craft the Blackstar Awakening Weapon, you will require "Specter's Energy," a special ingredient which can be obtained at a low chance all over the world of Black Desert and at a higher chance from Thornwood Forest Monster Zone.
    
  • To learn "The Three Legendary Blacksmiths of Mediah'' knowledge, you will require a Lv. 56 or higher character who has already completed the revamped Mediah Main Quest series, then accept and complete the "The Three Blacksmiths'' quest from Tulem. Adventurers who've previously completed the quest can interact with Tulem to gain the knowledge.
    
  • During this quest, veteran adventurers can choose to face a mighty boss immediately, while normal adventurers can opt for a weakened version of the boss to complete the quest.
    
  • Changed the Blackstar gear's final quest from Dorin Morgrim to no longer be carried out in tandem with this quest series.
    
• Added Blackstar Gloves as a new defense gear.
  

• Added the Blackstar Armor 3-Set Effect "Debuff Resistance Against Monsters +10%."
  
  • Debuff Resistance Against Monsters and normal Resistance are applied separately.
    
• Added Blackstar Gloves crafting quests.
  
  • You can complete the Blackstar Gloves crafting quest series once per character.
    
  • To start the Blackstar Gloves crafting quests, you will need the "Remnants of the Rift," which can be obtained at a low chance at Dark Rift, and "The Three Legendary Blacksmiths of Mediah" knowledge. In addition, to craft the Blackstar Awakening Weapon, you will require "Specter's Energy," a special ingredient which can be obtained at a low chance all over the world of Black Desert and at a higher chance from Thornwood Forest Monster Zone.
    
  • To learn "The Three Legendary Blacksmiths of Mediah'' knowledge, you will require a Lv. 56 or higher character who has already completed the revamped Mediah Main Quest series, then accept and complete the "The Three Blacksmiths'' quest from Tulem. Adventurers who've previously completed the quest can interact with Tulem to gain the knowledge.
    
  • During this quest, veteran adventurers can choose to face a mighty boss immediately, while normal adventurers can opt for a weakened version of the boss to complete the quest.
    
• You can improve your Blackstar Awakening Weapon with the Inverted Heart of Garmoth or Heart of Karanda (just like you can for Dandelion and Dragonslayer Awakening Weapons).
  
  • ※ Changes in Max & Min Prices of Blackstar Gloves & Blackstar Awakening Weapons registered onto the Central Market will be reflected faster than other gear for a 2 week duration after the January 20 (Wed) maintenance.
    
• Old Moon Grand Prix
  
  • Added the race course "Calpheon: Anti-Troll Fortification," exclusive to the Old Moon Grand Prix.
    
    • The new race course crosses through Calpheon to the Anti-Troll Fortification, then returns to the capital city.
      
    • At the bridge cutting through Calpheon, you will need to dodge elephants on either side of the bridge. Racing through the Anti-Troll Fortification, you will need to steer your horse away from the stones thrown by trolls onto the race track. All of these obstacles will make this new race course truly an exciting one.
      

• Winter Season
  
  • Added the following items to drop from defeating monsters of the Kuit Islands and Padix Island.
    
    • Time-filled Black Stone
      
    • Tuvala Ore
      
    • Refined Magical Black Stone
      
    • [Season] Rift Frostflower
      
    • Rift's Fragment
      
  • Changed the method for exchanging Tuvala Ore for Tuvala weapons from blacksmiths in Velia and other capital cities as follows.
    

• Removed the AP/DP restrictions for entering the season-only Red Battlefield.
  

[h3][By Class][/h3]

[h3]NOVA[/h3]

• Royal Fencing: Remise, Swooping Ring, Star's Call – You can now use Black Spirit's Rage for the skills.
  
  • Click either LMB or RMB in addition to the skill input to use Black Spirit's Rage at 10%, 25%, and 50%.
    
  • The Black Spirit's Rage iterations of the skills add special effects such as extra hits and increased attack range.
    
• Added Nova to the list of available Trial Characters.
  
  • You will be able to create Nova as a Trial Character from Friday, January 22, 1 month since Nova's release.
    
• Succession
  
  • Fixed the issue where Axian's summon duration would last for 30 minutes.
    
  • Succession: Quoratum's Opening – Fixed the issue where the skill would still be activated even after being locked.
    
  • Quoratum's Protection – Fixed the issue where the skill's All DP increase effect wouldn't apply after having learned Prime: Passed Pawn II,III.
    
  • Prime: Passed Pawn II,III – Fixed the issue where Axian wouldn't apply the HP & SP Recovery effects when using Succession skills after having learned these skills.
    
  • Quoratum's Protection – Fixed the issue where Nova's guards would not disappear when casting the skill after certain skills.
    
  • Prime: Passed Pawn – Fixed the issue where using a different level of the skill with Axian already summoned wouldn't reduce Nova's HP.
    
• Awakening
  
  • Command: Frozen Darkness I–V, Absolute: Command: Frozen Darkness – Fixed the issue where the skill could be set to the Quick Slot in Awakening even though the skill description stated otherwise.
    
  • Awakening: Rising Star – Fixed the issue where using the skill from the Quick Slot would cause Nova to appear unnatural.
    
  • You can now use the following skills through the Quick Slot.
    
    • Slicing Ring
      
    • Royal Fencing: Riposte
      
  • Royal Fencing: Remise, Royal Fencing: Fleche – Improved the skills to combo more naturally after their 1st hit.
    
  • Accel: Royal Fencing: Remise, Accel: Royal Fencing: Fleche – Changed the skills to now be activated in the direction the camera is facing while using them.
    
  • Frozen Ring I–IV – Changed the skills to now combo into Break Orbit while using them.
    

• Improved certain descriptions of the Mystical Fish to appear more natural.
  
• Made the Karlstein Classic Box to be openable by all classes except for Shais.
  
• Improved the [Event] Karlstein Classic Box (15 Days) item so Guardians and Hashashins can now open it.
  
  • Shais will obtain the [Shai] Whimsical Alchemist Classic Set (15 Days) from opening the item.
    
• Added Guardians, Hashashins, and Novas to classes who can open the Karlstein Classic Box.
  
• Added text to Marine Romance Outfit Box's item description stating that Hashashin and Novas cannot open the box.
  
• Added Guardian and Hashashin to classes who can open the Karlstein Classic Box crafted from the Old Moon Costume Mill.
  
• Fixed the issue with the Halloween Doll Workshop Prop Set where upon opening the set, the pop-up text was different compared to the actual contents.
  
• For details on the newly added Pearl Shop Update, please click < Here > !
  

• The Ancient Weapons in Sycraia Underwater Ruins (Abyssal Zone) have become more active.
  
  • Increased the number of Pirash, Lykin, Kureba, and Elmermol.
    
  • Moved or removed certain Eyes of the Deep Sea.
    
• Refined the warning alert system that is activated at a certain chance when defeating monsters in the Hystria Ruins.
  
  • Setting off the alert system will immediately summon a Watch Tower.
    
  • Once summoned, the Watch Tower will only keep an eye on intruders prior to being attacked.
    
  • Once the Watch Tower is damaged, it will begin to assess the threat level of the intruders.
    
  • Reduced the time required to assess the invaders and summon monsters.
    
  • Increased the number of monsters summoned during the alert's first to third stages.
    

[h3][Quest][/h3]

• Added the option to learn Nova Awakening skills by talking to Cruhorn Wyrmsbane If your Nova didn't learn Awakening skills even after completing the Nova Awakening quest series.
  

• Changed the mouse cursor for the following text input UI to indicate the function to input tex
  

• Changed the mouse cursor for the UIs where you can change their size to indicate the size change function.
  
  • My Information window
    
  • (New) Menu
    
  • Chat Window
    
  • Minimap
    
• Added an effect to easily find Saved Locations after having saved a location to favorites on the World Map when searching in the Find NPC UI.
  

• Fixed the issue with Valencia 17-2 residence where installing housing items on the 2nd floor balcony was impossible.
  
• Fixed the issue where entering the customization UI with a class whose Awakening contents were not released yet would prevent you from dying certain parts of this character's horse gear and campsite.
  
• Fixed unnatural wall textures in Muiquun.
  
• Fixed unnatural ground textures in Olun's Valley.
  
• Fixed the issue where the composer information of certain Composition Notes was displayed irregularly.
  
• Fixed the issue where you could not change the order of your pets.
  
  • If you had the issue where you couldn't change the order of your pets, we've reset the pet order based on the lowest tier, so you will need to reconfigure your pet order.
    
• Fixed the issue with the placement of the quest UI when carrying out a guild quest.
  
• Fixed the Black Spirit's Rage 200% skills' cooldown to not reset when changing Skill Presets and/or resetting skills.
  
• Changed the Main Quest and General Quest widgets to no longer overlap.
  
• Fixed the Hide Sub-weapon button to appear correctly highlighted when having pressed the button while not in idle mode and the sub-weapon is already hidden.
  
• Fixed the Mysterious Knight to no longer appear walking on water.
  
• Fixed the Black Spirit to offer "[Season] The End of Strange Travels" immediately upon completing "[Season] A Back Bent by Time."
  
• Fixed the quest completion description for "[Season] The End of Strange Travels."
  
• Fixed the issue where after changing the Barter Info window on the World Map into Sticker UI mode, you could not leave the World Map even by pressing the ESC key.
  
• [Nova] Fixed the low quality resolution and graphical issues with the 14th hair option, and removed dark spots that appeared on her neck in Ultra mode.
  
• Fixed the issue of seeing an irregular page after clicking the Help UI upon entering the Old Moon Grand Prix.
  
• Fixed the Old Moon Grand Prix so you can no longer use trap items on the race course.
  
• [Mystic] Bloody Gloves – Added text explaining that wearing the gauntlet will make parts of the gloves invisible in the item description.
  
• [Musa] Karlstein Classic Set – Fixed incorrect text in the item description.
  
• Fixed the issue where attempting to repair max durability of the 5 green-grade [Race Horse] "Giorgiaro" horse gear pieces with Memory Fragments would incorrectly restore durability as if it were a white-grade item (10 per Memory Fragment), instead of restoring durability as a green-grade item (5 per Memory Fragment).
  
• [Shai] – Fixed the issue where wearing certain outfits would remove some of her lower teeth.
  
• Fixed the issue where after having created a Guild, searching for nodes in the World Map wouldn't change the mouse cursor when hovered over the text window to input the name of the specific node.
  
• Fixed the issue with the Old Moon Grand Prix notices where the text would spill out of the UI for certain languages.
  
• Prime: Fianchetto Issue compensation.
  
  • There was an issue with Nova's skill Prime: Fianchetto being learned with less skill points than the actual required amount. This issue was fixed last week but we found more skill points have been returned to certain players than intended. Thus with today's maintenance, we have reset the skill preset again and deducted any additionally gained skill points. To compensate for the inconvenience this may have caused, we will be distributing [Event] Secret Book of Old Moon (1 Day) x1 to those affected via in-game mail. Please make sure to claim it before February 20, 23:59 UTC or it will disappear.
    

-

Reach us on the »forums« to share your feedback, opinions, and suggestions.

[h3]Event 1. Collect [Event] Snowflakes![/h3]
Period: January 21 (00:00 UTC)–February 9 (23:59 UTC)

• One [Event] Snowflake is given every 30 minutes of gameplay, and you can receive up to 10 daily (5 hrs. of playtime) via the Challenges tab (Y).
  

• Exchange your [Event] Snowflakes with any of the following Skill Instructor NPCs to receive your rewards.
  

• [Event] Snowflake can be exchanged with the above Skill Instructor NPCs even after the event period ends.
  • In addition, you will still be able to claim any unclaimed [Event] Snowflakes from the Challenges tab (Y) even after the event ends.
  

[h3]Event 2. Finto's Cooking School[/h3]
Period: January 20 (after maintenance)–February 10 (before maintenance)

David Finto in Velia says that in order to cook, one must know the basics regarding ingredients. Follow his cooking advice and get rewards. Please note there will be additional cooking lessons!



[h3]Bonus! Snowfall and Auroras are Back[/h3]
Period: January 20 (after maintenance)–February 17 (before maintenance)

Enjoy heavy snowfall during the entire day and beautiful auroras at night all over again!


General Event Notice:

• Reward items given out during events can be bound or not depending on the items and some cannot be moved or restored.
  • Please refer to the individual item descriptions for more detailed information.
  
• Any exploit or abnormal ways of entering in-game events may result in the restriction of your account.
  
• Event period and specs may change with future notice.
  

Dear Players,

We will perform our weekly maintenance as follows:

[h3]Date: Wednesday, January 20th 2021[/h3]

[h3]Duration: 4 hours.[/h3]

• Global 9:00 UTC ~ 13:00 UTC
  
• Central (EU) 10:00 CET ~ 14:00 CET
  
• West Coast (NA) 1:00 PST ~ 5:00 PST
  
• East Coast (NA) 4:00 EST ~ 8:00 EST
  

[h3]Reasons:[/h3]

• Blackstar Awakening Weapon and Gloves crafting quests will be added.
  
  
• The race course "Calpheon: Anti-Troll Fortification" for the Old Moon Grand Prix will be added.
  
  
• Fluttering Snowflakes event will start.
  

[h3]Ending Events:[/h3]

• Nova Pre-launch Events
  
  
• Nova Launch Events
  
  
• Get a Young Ice Dragon!
  
  
• Create Now!
  • Event 4. Challenges for New and Returning
  
  
• Level Up Nova Again!
  • Event 2. Steel Nux Strikes
  • Event 3. Get a [Jukebox] Snow Flower
  • Event 4. Mysterious Knight is back
  

Follow us on Twitter & Facebook to stay up to date.

Thank you for your support and understanding.


Best regards,
BDO Team

Greeting Adventurers!

The Calphe:ON Ball offline event held in Korea was filled with excitement and rewards, not to mention the development plans for 2021.

Here's a recap of new updates to come in 2021 as announced in the Calphe:ON Ball. Let's check them out!

*Please note the dates mentioned are for the Korean server and global release dates may differ.

[h2]Node War Revamp[/h2]

• Just like the improvements announced in the Black Desert Global Labs, the main brunt of the revamps for Node Wars will focus on turning it into a form of warfare where adventurers could expand their territory by conquering and protecting nodes, involving more active combat and bolstered rewards.
  
  
• We plan on changing from the current system where Nodes are designated on certain days of the week, to expand to warfare on a regional scale.
  

[h2]Main Server System and Server Wars[/h2]

• Soon all Guilds in Black Desert will be able to designate one server, out of many, and gain certain benefits from playing in that specific server.
  
  
• We’ll make sure these benefits aren’t too generous, so adventurers never feel forced to tie themselves down to one server.
  
  
• One of these benefits will be moving between different numbered servers under the same name without any cooldown time.
  
  
• We are also developing minor and major contents to tie in with main servers, of which is Server Wars.
  
  
• Server Wars is an upgraded version of World Conquest Wars. Once activated, servers will be placed within the camps of Calpheon and Valencia.
  
  
• Once every month, or some other preset period, guilds of each camp will either invade the opposing server or defend against the invading camp, leading to a gigantic war.
  
  
• Since we plan on developing this content so most guilds will be able to participate, we expect the scale to be much larger than our World Conquest Wars. With more adventurers participating, we will continue developing it so multiple skirmishes will take place in different areas around the world of Black Desert.
  

• Also, to add a strategic element, we are developing guild campsites and tactical elephants that will serve as headquarters on the front during these local skirmishes.
  
  
• Despite the “war” aspect, we don’t want those guilds with mightier battle prowess to use this format to pick fights with smaller guilds, and we are seeking to develop it so that guilds placed in their respective camps will cooperate and protect each other during the war.
  
  
• Guilds with stronger members in their ranks would head to the frontlines, while other guilds would strategize with indirect skirmishes or supplying the war effort from the rear. We will do our best to develop this content with the MMORPG format in mind, where adventurers will be able to help each other and receive help from others through means of play that they enjoy and excel in.
  
  
• Relating to the Main Server content, we seek to expand it to include PvE or Life skill-based content to encourage competition within server camps.
  

[h2]10 vs 10 Crew[/h2]

• Unlike guilds, 10 vs 10 Crew is for those adventurers who commit to PvP, and group up with like-minded comrades-in-arms to form a crew to compete against others.
  
  
• Crews will consist of 10-person teams (each being a different character) with 3 people in reserve. Regarding the arena, we are thinking of offering a variety of options such as the traditional Capture-the-Flag format or the more Black-Desert style of mini-Seige Wars.
  
  
• Also, we hope to host these Crews in a global tournament, like a Champion’s League of sorts, along with plans on implementing a rank system fit for the crew Champion’s League.
  

• While not solely PvP-related, we would like to address the growing gap in gear levels between adventurers. When the Fallen God Armor was first introduced to the Korean servers, this led to a large demand for Caphras Stones that is yet to be fulfilled.
  
  
• As of November, there are countries, like Russia, whose markets are stocked with Caphras Stones, while, at the same time, there is a growing number of countries whose supplies are slowly being depleted.
  
  
• We sought to address this issue by providing a variety of new ways to acquire Caphras Stones, but the supply still could not meet the demand, especially since most of these routes involved Life skill content such as Farming. And so, to support our adventurers in their growth, we’ve come up with an entirely new way to obtain these stones.
  

• First, we’re implementing additional enhancement levels to Blackstar defense gear. After tapping a Blackstar to TET, most adventurers felt weary of trying the low success chance of enhancing PEN, which halted any room for further growth. After this new update, you’ll be able to improve your Blackstar defense gear in several stages. The stats of the gear will increase once you improve your TRI or TET Blackstar gear. You will also be able to tap for a PEN, even after the gear is improved.
  
  
• Materials required for improving and enhancing the Blackstar gear will mainly be through the Possessed in Hadum hunting grounds on the special server as revealed in the Black Desert Global Labs. Since this will be the way to obtain the best-in-slot gear, you can be assured that these hunting grounds will be quite the challenge.
  

• Also, we’ve laid out plenty of ways to acquire Caphras Stones, but we will continue to find more routes for you to acquire them. Specifically, we are planning to have Caphras Stones as a basic reward for PVP contents.
  
  
• Once the improved Blackstar gear update goes live, we expect Caphras Stone supply to recover, but if necessary, we are examining means of adjusting the maximum prices on the Central Market.
  
  
• Caphras Stones have a direct relationship with the growth of our adventurers. We will continue to make adjustments based on accurate data to provide a better path for our adventurers to become stronger, and thereby help narrow the gap between the gear levels of all our adventurers.
  

[h2]Blackstar Raid[/h2]

• The true nature of the ominous meteorite floating above Star’s End is none other than the new World Boss itself.
  
  
• We plan on adding features to the encounter that will allow adventurers to hit the meteorite, which will continue to spawn Incarnations of Corruption. To take down this boss, adventurers will need to take up different roles and work together. Also, one of the main drops from the boss will be materials needed to improve Blackstar gear.
  

[h2]Epic Quests[/h2]

• Some time ago, one adventurer on the Korean servers completed the mystical fish content to summon Vell. The mystical fish content was content we felt that we could develop because this was an MMORPG, and we hope to expand in our offering of such challenging contents.
  
  
• We hope to maintain the idea that such contents are challenging, so upon completion, the partaking adventurers will feel great in their accomplishment and be well-deserving of their fellow adventurers’ praise.
  

[h2]New Region: Mountain of Eternal Winter[/h2]

• The new region is the home of the Guardian, it is a place buried in winter all year long.
  
  
• Due to the frighteningly cold weather, the region is susceptible to sudden snowfall, which will require adventurers to light a fire or seek shelter, lest they risk a frigid death due to hypothermia.
  

• Only Guardians who hail from this region will have resistance to hypothermia, while Shais can use buffs to protect their allies and themselves from the cold.
  

• In the image above, we see the Okjinsini who reside on the Golden Mountain, one of two new hunting grounds located at the Mountain of Eternal Winter. The “Okjin” in Okjinsini means “Snow,” and they boast both large physique and strength as masters of the mountain. Adventurers will face them head-on in one-on-one bouts.
  

• Second, we have the Murrowak Labyrinth, where you will find monsters inspired by pill bugs you may have encountered during your childhood. While their appearance may be akin to the pill bug, they’ll display behavioral patterns like ants, especially in how they live in deep holes beneath the mountain.
  
  
• If adventurers achieve certain conditions in each of these “ant” holes, the queen’s nest will be activated. While fighting the queen, countless Murrowaks will flood in from all corners, and we expect this fight to be truly chaotic. However, defeating the queen will award you with loot befitting the challenge.
  
  
• Also, here at the Mountain of Eternal Winter, the Golden Dragon lays in slumber. Expect the raid to show mechanics you’ve never seen before.
  
  
• We are developing the Mountain of Eternal Winter update to release next winter.
  

[h2]Hardcore Hunting Ground: Terror of the Deep Sea[/h2]

• Since a person can only run through the same location so many times before getting bored, we decided to create a hardcore hunting ground, starting with the Terror of the Deep Sea.
  
  
• This hardcore hunting ground will set you the adventurer to explore the Deep Sea ruins by yourself. We designed the place where the more monsters you kill, the difficulty level begins to climb. Monsters hit harder, or random bombardments, or elite monsters suddenly appearing are some of the ideas we’ve thought of so far.
  
  
• You may leave these hunting grounds with whatever loot you pick up, but if you die while in this zone, you will be forced to return with only half the loot you’ve obtained. This will bring more levity to your decision to further remain on these grounds to continue the challenge.
  
  
• As the hardcore hunting grounds are being developed with hopes to breathe new life into this content, we plan on placing a 2 week to 1-month time restriction for re-entering the grounds, whether you were killed or left voluntarily. Of course, we will make sure the loot that drops fit its difficulty.
  

[h2]A New, Grandiose Residence, the Mansion[/h2]

• If you invest some contribution points and achieve certain conditions in a city like Heidel or Calpheon, you will be granted ownership of land in the town and also the property deed for the Mansion.
  
  
• You can upgrade Mansions using various materials, and as they'll be quite spacious, you will be able to design the interior however you like.
  
  
• Also, we are planning to allow adventurers to customize the exterior of their mansions as well. You will be able to install trees, your very own garden, statues, and/or lighting outside the Mansion. We plan on implementing a whole variety of related furniture, too.
  

• This is not confirmed as of yet, but we are also thinking of adding a competitive rank system for Mansions. But it will be more than a means to collect expensive furniture. We are considering taking a new approach.
  
  
• We will do our best to create a space for our adventurers where they can actualize their artistic ambition and/or desires through the Mansion.
  

[h2]Co-op Dungeon: Ataraxion[/h2]

• We will be adding a new dungeon for those who want to play co-op with other adventurers, which won’t force those who prefer solo play. The name of the new dungeon is "Ataraxion."
  
  
• During the Valencia main questline, you will end up visiting the secret room within the Ancient Stone Chamber where you'll see a big entrance behind the Ancient Guardian. This is the gateway leading to the new dungeon.
  
  
• This dungeon is not a separate instance. As an open dungeon, you will be able to meet other adventurers just as you would in the Gyfin Rhasia Temple. It will be much grander in scale compared to the Gyfin Rhasia Temple, as certain chambers and structures of the dungeon will require 3 to 5 adventurers to cooperate
  

• Unlike the existing hunting grounds, this dungeon will require both long sessions of defeating monsters combined with strategic play, as there will be certain moments where each adventurer will have to play a certain role to complete the dungeon. This will be a uniquely "Black Desert-style” dungeon that will allow any class to complete by the use of mechanics and solving puzzles.
  
  
• Also, we are thinking of creating a special role for adventurers with lower AP and DP so that they too can participate in the co-op dungeon.
  
  
• As the main conceptual design is based on an ancient temple, you will be facing off a variety of ancient weapons, as we were able to fully flesh out some unique ancient weapon designs and concepts.
  
  
• Despite the addition of this dungeon, please note that we will continue to release new hunting grounds that stick to the current solo play model as well.
  

[h2]New Continent: Land of the Dawn[/h2]

• The Joseon Dynasty, the last imperial dynasty of Korea, will be the base of design for the Land of the Dawn, a new continent with central communal areas having ancient palaces designed after those in Korea.
  
  
• Here, the hidden stories of Musa, Maehwa, and Lahn, who crossed over to the lands familiar to our adventurers, will slowly unfold within the distinct eastern environment.
  

We hope you enjoyed the recap of the thrilling development plan for the coming year!

Please remember that the contents introduced above are subject to change in name, schedule, and form.

We will do our best to deliver a variety of updates for the remainder of 2020 for all of you to enjoy together. Thank you!

Greeting Adventurers!

Did you enjoy the roadmap presented in the other post Calphe:ON Ball article?

Here's another recap post on the keyword talk held during the Calphe:ON Ball. Read on below to see the keywords presented by adventures all over the globe!

*Please remember that the contents introduced are subject to change in name, schedule, and form.
*Some of the content addressed below may not pertain to Black Desert Online serviced in every region.

[h2]New Class NOVA[/h2]
Nova is a new class that uses a one-handed blunt weapon and a large shield called Quoratum. The main weapon is literally called "Morning Star" in Korean. As a blunt weapon, it's mostly used for melee attacks but its head is attached to a retractable chain that can be extended for ranged attacks. So you could say that Nova is a mid-ranged class. The most distinct characteristic of Nova is in her shield and the Thornwood Guard spirits that dwell in it. These guard spirits will protect Nova when she shifts to a defensive stance and can be ordered to unleash attacks on her enemies. The Thornwood Guards can join Nova in her skills as well. The design concept of Thornwood Guards is based on chess pieces. They can be distinguished mainly from their two distinctive forms: infantry and calvary. Nova is a class where we've tried to implement new concepts into the battle so I'm sure adventurers will find it refreshing just as they did with the Hashashin.

Nova is the last remaining heir of the Seric Dynasty that once ruled the continent before the rise of the republic. She is the hidden daughter of King Dahad Seric the Conqueror, the sister of the poisoned King Guy Seric and Leonadro Seric who went to Olivia. Her full name is and she is also the mysterious figure of "S'' behind the secret invitation letters. Until now, playable classes such as Tamer, Musa, Maehwa, Lahn, and Striker had background stories that can be identified as a class rather than a specific individual. But for Nova, we've taken a step further and given her a name to develop a more interesting and personal story element. We expanded the storyline by writing about the secret of her birth, why she had to stay in a monastery all this time, and etc. We have prepared a lot about Nova for adventurers so I hope you have fun!

[h2]Balance[/h2]
We've also made quite a few rebalancing efforts in the 3rd and 4th quarter, but it seems most adventurers still thirst for more. Let's first take a look and compare the Succession and Awakening ratios.

Succession was very dominant at the beginning of this year, but numbers are showing a lot of progress. There is still room for improvement as there are characters with a slightly wider disparity between Succession and Awakening than others, but we plan to continue the rebalancing process until we've hit the right mark. In the broader sense of things, we plan to add another Awakening-only skill. Awakening tends to put a lot of pressure in swapping skills, especially so if the class is old, which results in lesser use of Awakening skills, so we aim to compensate for this avoidance by adding another Awakening-only skill. It's only one skill, but we want it to be meaningful. Of course, adding a new skill just on Awakening might be a little disappointing for our Succession users, so we'll add the so-called the C-skills to Succession as well. We also plan to add one more skill that can be used in conjunction with the Awakening Skill.

We've also tried our first Balance FGT in Korea and there were a lot of shortfalls that we weren't able to plan ahead. We would really like to take this opportunity to thank all the participants who helped us out in ironing out the details. We plan to continue the FGTs in the future and keep upgrading it as we go. There were a lot of requests from our servers abroad for the FGTs but we couldn't go through with it because there was difficulty in meeting offline. So we're trying to do it using voice chat. The purpose of FGT has always been to hear the voices of adventurers who have a remarkable understanding of how each class works. We would love to hear their voices and what they have to say on how to improve the game.

There were many voices saying that certain classes were OP. As we've mentioned in the Heidel Ball, it's important for us to consider how the users feel as well so we're trying to buff other characters instead of nerfing the powerful classes. Sometimes we'll need to nerf because of Conquest Wars and or other large scale battles as they have very different mechanisms but we'd like to keep the nerfing to a minimum.

We're mopping up on development for the elevation problems so we might be able to make it to next week's update if possible. It took us a lot of time trying to change the structure of action mechanics. I hope that Rangers and Wizards can find this update meaningful. That elevation problem with the clunky motion when riding horses? We're trying to fix all that as well.

For frame rates, I think we can only say at this moment that we'll try to optimize settings as much as possible. Black Desert emphasizes free movement and action as much as possible so framerates are going to be slightly different with each PC setting. A quick fix would be to fix all frame rates to 60 during PvP and this is an easy solution to close the gap but limiting frame rates will also influence strategy and gameplay so we're trying to avoid that. We'll try to optimize frame rates as much as possible.

[h2]Story[/h2]
We're trying hard to think of ways to include the story so that it fits in naturally with the gameplay. I want to be careful at this moment because nothing is decided, but some of the options we're considering are story dialogues through voice acting, more active role for NPCs, and story progression on the field instead of quests in front of NPCs. Our main purpose is to really do away with the RRR smash.

Recently, we've been experimenting with individual space without interruption of other adventurers for a more immersive story environment. Once fully developed, it'll be called the "Independent Story System". For example, in the Calpheon questline before renewal, there was a scene where Belmorn would lead the Shadow Knights and the Black Harpy Elites in the invasion of Calpheon. In our system, adventurers would be able to join that very invasion as a participant. I can't say when we'll be able to release this but we'll let you know as soon as we have news.

[h2]PvP Contents[/h2]
We've mentioned focusing on PvP contents during our Roadmap introduction, but we aim to focus on it until the beginning of 2021. I think we might've been too careful in approaching PvP content. We're reflecting on this and would like to change things by trying to be more active in renewing the Node/Conquest War first, then Thornwood Castle.

[h2]Season Server[/h2]
As we've said during our Roadmap, we'll be releasing the new class Nova with the Winter Season. The focus we've put on the Winter Season was new content exclusive to the Season Server and helping new adventurers get settled in to the game. One of the advantages of Season Servers is that people who started together can party up and have some fun. We're thinking of more Season Server exclusive content like Tuvala gears so we've made some improvements there.

We've been analyzing the data constantly and we saw a lot of adventurers confused as to what they're supposed to do once the Season Servers were over. We definitely have plans to compensate for this by giving lots of rewards to warm the winter and help new starters settle into the game.

[h2]Co-op Contents[/h2]
The new dungeon, Atoraxion, that we introduced earlier is highly focused on cooperative play. The boss battle will require challenging tactical choices, straying away from the traditional “holy trinity” role system. In addition, there was a lot of feedback about wanting more guild contents, so we are also thinking of implementing this dungeon content for guilds. Either way, it will be a content that is well worth waiting for.

[h2]Existing Content Renewal[/h2]
The latter half of this year, we’ve made many small and big content updates, world and field boss updates, and the Old Moon Grand Prix update. We will also continue to improve and change existing contents in 2021. However, we will be putting more focus on improving trade. There’s still a lot to prepare, so I can’t go into full detail on what’s actually going to be made until sometime in the latter half of 2021. However, Jesang will tell you which direction we plan on taking for trade.

We also received a lot of feedback regarding rewards for existing content. We are looking into it and want to rebalance and change some of the current rewards. However, we won’t be applying this change to every content. This will cause an issue where people with less time might feel forced to play a certain content, while those who have a lot more time will end up profiting a lot more than others. So, we plan to group up a couple of contents for a specific reward and adventurers will be able to choose which content they wish to play to receive this reward. For example, let’s say we group up Savage Rift, Altar of Blood, and Altar of Training. Adventurers who play Altar of Blood will end up receiving the same reward as those who play Savage Rift.

Papua Crinea was created for adventurers who wish to just relax and explore new places. It wasn’t a necessary spot that you had to go to get stronger, so the rewards aren’t as good as other areas and we wish to keep it this way. However, we would like to add other attractive rewards for the many adventurers who do visit. You may not know, but many adventurers enjoy using stoneback crab or mischievous jack transformation scrolls. With this in mind, we want to diversify transformation scrolls and make Papua Crinea the transformation hotspot.

[h2]Life Contents[/h2]
I remember the open beta days. At that time, I remember working hard to get myself a noble wagon and doing only trade all day long. I really miss those days, so I want to somehow revive the trade content. However, rather than simply improving profitability, we are preparing to make a more detailed and advanced trade content.

To tell you a little bit about the current concept, you would join the Xian, Shen, or a specific region’s merchant guild and compete with each other. Our goal is to bring you this update sometime in the second half of next year. Oh, for reference, what I just said is only in the idea stage, so please note that it may change when it is released.

One of the mottos of Black Desert's development is to make it enjoyable and regret-free when choosing to play any of the numerous contents. We will work hard to make sure trade and hunting does exactly that.

[h2]Ocean[/h2]
We prepared new large ship designs. However, since existing ships are faithfully performing their respective roles, it is unlikely that the new designs will be released as new ships. We are preparing a variety of ways for you to obtain it, so get ready.

And I would like to take this opportunity to apologize for the update delay of the Great Expedition Part 2. In fact, the initial direction we wanted to take with the blue battlefield has completely changed and some of the plans for Great Expedition Part 2 has been moved to our Morning Country project.

The blue battlefield was initially designed as a team-to-team battle, like the red battlefield, but where each team would capture specific spots and protect it. After doing some internal tests, we concluded that it wasn’t enjoyable due to ship movement and cannon range limitations. Thus, we steadily improved the usability of cannons and later added a pirate system. If you are an adventurer who has been sailing steadily since the days of the sailboats, I think you will have felt that the use of cannons has become really easy. All this was done to turn the entire Black Desert sea into a blue battlefield. You might not have noticed the reason for these changes, since there really isn’t much need to compete with each other. In the future, small content updates like the addition of limited quantities of trade goods at sea nodes may be added to stir up some small competition.

However, we plan to maintain the stance that no advantage will be given to pirate adventurers. The fact that you can interfere with other adventurers is judged to work well as content, and we believe that the number of people who visit the ocean will steadily increase only when adventurers who play peacefully are given priority.

Also, we are preparing a supply ship for the convenience of those who enjoy sea hunting. You will be able to call the Old Moon supply ship anytime, anywhere to resupply on cannon shells and food. Of course, you already know that the Old Moon Guild loves money. It will be a lot more expensive than the price provided at the port.

[h2]Composition[/h2]
As someone who also enjoys the music composing content, I, too, feel frustrated because of this issue. It might take some time, but we are doing our best to solve it. Also, we are preparing more high-end instruments that can reproduce better quality sound. In addition to that, new methods and effector functions will be added to these instruments, allowing you to enjoy various performances with a much richer sound. Please look forward to it.

[h2]New Class[/h2]
I think I’ve fully explained our stance about creating new characters during the roadmap presentation. We are definitely willing to add a Dwarf and Papu character, but I can’t promise it. All I can say is that it will arrive one day. We've been thinking about more customization options, including hairstyles, but... I’m sorry. There are no plans of anything new being added during the first half of next year.

The image that you are seeing right now is a hint of the character that is planned to be released next year. It's still in development, so I can't give you a more detailed image, but I can tell you that it'll be a fun character to play. Also, we believe that the opinion of our adventurers regarding new characters are very important. For example, the concept of Hashashin first derived from your opinions. We created him, tested him and now he's live on our servers. In MMORPGs, our characters represent us or what would like to be. However, 20 characters are not enough. We would love to hear from you about what type of character you want to play and be. With enough data, we'll make sure to develop one with them in mind.

[h2]Treasure[/h2]
Of course, new treasures will continue to be added. However, it is difficult to say what will be added as there is no confirmed content at this time. If you have any good ideas, please feel free to contact us through customer support. We will actively review it.

I also use some of my spare time trying to get myself a treasure. I have over 1 million sulfur in my warehouse but no treasure map pieces. This makes me want me to change the content so that you can get a treasure after reaching a certain requirement. But, that’s also when I’m reminded of Jaehee Kim telling me, “A treasure should be a treasure.” Just like in life, the charm and value of a treasure seems to shine even more when connected with the element of surprise.

We increased the role of Afuaru to give you a better chance, added scrolls to Dreighan to slightly improve the benefits from treasures… and we plan to continue releasing such updates one at a time.

[h2]Gear Enhancement[/h2]
For this part, I don't think there's anything else I can tell you, but good luck. I think there are areas that we can change and areas that we shouldn’t. Gear enhancement is an area that should never be touched. Instead, we will continue to review and improve ways to make preparation for the enhancement a little more convenient, such as Naderr’s Band or Stack Workshop events.

[h2]Mounts[/h2]
We are thinking and experimenting with many different ideas for a new mount. As you have suggested, snow bears and O’dyllita giant wolves are also included in our experiment. I can’t tell you when or what will be released, but once we finish testing and are satisfied with the result, we will make sure you know. Also, tier-10 horses, airships, hot air balloons, and water mounts are not going to be released in the first half of 2021. However, a fantasy version of Diné and Doom is planned for release.

First of all, in the case of Diné, we are developing a function where it can run on water. It's not 100% finished yet, but I'll show you a little.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
If you’ve seen or read martial arts novels, the first stage of flight and after that comes walking on water. I thought it would be really cool if Diné could run on water. Of course, that doesn't mean you’ll be able to run all the way Port Ratt. We’re going to make it so that you can easily cross to some extent.

[h2]New Outfit[/h2]
Jaehee talked about creating a Costume Task Force during the Heidel Ball. Soon after, we established it and got right to producing a variety of costumes and outfits.

I would like to show you a few outfits that are being prepared to make an appearance next year.

A couple of months have passed since the establishment of the task force and we are doing our best to make an efficient working process to maintain a steady production pace. Just know that TF is a work in progress and will continue to produce awesome costumes that will be to your taste.

[h2]Unauthorized Program/Macro[/h2]
Eradicating behaviors that negatively affect the game, such as usage of unauthorized programs and macros, is one of the major tasks of Black Desert. We have been detecting and preventing these problems through usage of security programs, 24-hour monitoring, adding a report function, and we even developed and applied our own macro detection program called "Pearl Protect”. We have had success in detecting and banning accounts abusing these programs. We are also reviewing and developing programs to block the movement of silver using the marketplace.

Before we had the current system, reports from our adventurers have been the biggest help. I would like to sincerely thank all our adventurers around the world for lending us your strength. I know that we will have to continue to improve in many areas. We will continue to improve Pearl Protect, and in addition to this, we will continue to strengthen our internal processes so that any abnormal play that may occur in the game can be detected and be taken care of more quickly.

[h2]Translation[/h2]
During the past two years, our company has been focusing much more on delivering quality translations for our titles.

We have made many changes within our company, Localization Center, and processes to ensure the quality of localized content, and we are continuing to work towards providing you all with the best content possible in your respective languages. Our localization specialists are hard at work reworking past and current game content to match your expectations, and to also provide you with better future content. So, although this is a priority for us, it is also a time-consuming process. We ask that you be patient with us as we work towards this goal.

[h2]Events[/h2]
We are trying by first making different variations. For example, this year, our usual Thanksgiving guest, Targargo, showed up with a mate, Halloween was dealt differently in Florin, and moles appeared in gardens. It will be difficult to change everything at once, but we will continue to make changes so that adventurers can feel that something was new and fun.

We believe that events are an invigorating factor in gameplay and an important factor that directly or indirectly influences growth. We have held a lot of events this year. For next year, we will avoid events with high difficulty, events that will make only some adventurers happy, and events that are difficult to participate in. We will solely focus on making events that are accessible by majority of the adventurers. Also, with the exception of special weeks like Christmas and other holiday seasons, there were weeks where multiple events were ongoing at the same time, while during some weeks, there were little to none. We will do our best to balance out and schedule the events better.

[h2]Communication[/h2]
We're constantly observing and listening to feedback from adventurers around the world, and yet, since we've mainly communicated through the patch notes, I feel there were some mishaps in getting all we wanted to say through to the adventurers. So starting from next year, we will create a new channel of communicating with our adventurers, that developers won't only be listening to adventures but can actively share their opinions directly, too.

Also, we seek to actively utilize the Black Desert Global Labs starting from next year as well. Currently, the Global Labs are used as teasers for upcoming content, but we mainly do this to also have adventurers try it out and give us their feedback. Currently, our only source of gathering your opinions on upcoming content is solely through the official website, and we seek to improve the Global Labs by creating a better means of collecting such feedback. As always, we will actively continue our efforts to update our projects currently underdevelopment, polish them as best we can before revealing them in the labs.

Content that's released in Korea usually is released globally as long as there are no issues, but sometimes there may be some delays in the release schedule. This may sound like an excuse, but... due to our weekly updates, we clearly have a tight schedule to maintain. Every week we have new deadlines to meet, and this includes localization and other translation work that factors into the release schedule. I'm always apologetic to our localization center, but we will do our best to develop our updates at a faster pace so that we can ship out our weekly content polished and on-time.


Thank you for your continuous support and interest as always.