The State of Black Desert Online - Should YOU PLAY in 2023?!

Apart from the tent, it's pretty easy to get by as a free player. PA gives out free stuff quite often like maids and inventory expansion as well as pets and costumes. Also the Value Pack and weights as well as character slots can be bought from the loyalty shop without paying irl money.

I haven't spent a dime on this game yet and I'm doing fine. After watching this video its clear to tell even after the work you put into this game you know nothing still. Progression is definitely not tied to spending boat loads of cash.

As a beta and long time bdo player , i can tell you this game is like red wine , getting better and better every patch

I think you'd actually be surprised that the mobile version actually had a lot of quality of life functions that weren't in the console or PC version. It took them a long time to add them into the other versions like the 3v3 arena and fast travel. The development teams are completely different

2:26 There are 48 classes as awakening and succession are usually considered separate classes 9:05 You can customize the UI entirely to your liking by clicking the 'edit UI' button at the top on the Esc menu. You can also remove things like the camera shake during battle in the settings and it's highly recommended to do so. 13:05 The game is pretty much tutorial until you reach lv60 and finish the story up to Valencia. Once you start doing areas like the Elvia Realm and PvP you have to use full combos. Also as a grinder MMO you goal is to kill mobs as quickly as possible to increase loot gains. 13:19 Knowledge has no affect on damage to enemies. It serves as a way to increase your innate drop rate buff or the rate at which rarer items drop when you kill mobs. Each grade C-S give a different amount of points and once you hit a point threshold you gain a higher drop rate bonus. 14:01 For skills you don't have to put them on a hot bar (some exceptions) as you use a key combo to use them. Clicking on the little arrows on each of the skill cards increase or decrease the skills level depending on which you click. Exiting the skill menu should automatically save any changes you made. Learning or increasing the level of skills require skill point which you obtain by gather skill EXP when you kill mobs. 18:55 P2W player here, The only thing you really need to get in the pearl shop if you intend to play seriously are, Value Pack, Naphart Campsite and the lifeskill costumes, everything else is entirely optional and in a lot of cases you can get them for free or with in game silver from the player market (CM). The only time you will really have an issue with the open PvP is if you go or try to grind at the late/end game spots and that's the only time I have any trouble with it. But even then there is this feature called marni realm which gives you an isolated instance of the area for you to grind privately away from other players for 1 hour per day. All the PvP heavy areas have one of these zones. I'd also like to mention the only way to "buy gear" in the pearl store is to spend truly ludicrous amounts of money on outfits to break down for cron stones. Only the richest streamers and ppl with high income can really do that though so I tend to see it as a non issue. Even with spending the amount I do on this game I certainly can't afford to go that route. Once you hit 301k+ it doesn't matter if you a Elon Musk spender or not it won't give you an edge in PvP. I'm only 279k and only ever have an issue with PvP when I go to the mainstream heavily contested grind zones like Orcs. I think saying stay away from the game because of this is unfair to game as it's no where near as bad as you make out, of course that could just be because you haven't spent enough time to get to the end game content. I would like to note I do not usually participate in the PvP side of the game due to being disabled and thus being at a major disadvantage in this particular game, I do however do a lot of PvE and Lifeskill grinding. The game often has free to play weekend and such where you can pick up the game for free and if you reach, I think it's level 50, you can keep the game. Level 50 can be obtained in about 15 minutes if you just ask in server chat, usually someone will be happy to let you leech some exp. The community is fairly chill for the most part and some guilds like my own are entirely geared towards new or returning players and are very welcoming and patient with players just starting out. Though I do sometimes forget newer players don't know all the lingo causing them to have big '?' in chat.

Not to be a total dick, but if you're trying to live as a content creator you have a responsibility to make sure the information you're passing around is accurate. Its irresponsible to play the game for an hour, look up some other opinions about the game and then present that information as though you are an authority. Your integrity as a reviewer is your sole lifeline and really the main currency on offer here, so take it seriously.

I actually got this game for free, they give free stuffs from time to time like costume and value pack depending on the event.. never spend a dime and I think my progress is not that bad. It's about rng and hardcore grinding, doesn't matter how much you pay, if you have a life outside then you'll have a slower progress unless you got rng carried.. The open pvp is not a concern for newbies specially if ur on a guild bcuz pepos won't just pk you for no reason, there's a pvp server for that.. that's base on my experience of course maybe different from other regions.. and if you got bored or burned out you can always come back after a month and they'll give u a returnee reward.

I did past that lvl 50 PvP mark recently and I find it people tends to leave you alone. I've never fought anyone or got attack. I've witnessed PvP once or twice. If you open world game just to explore, this is a game for you. The world is huge and fun to discover new things. When it comes to premiums. There's also enough promo and giveaway that you can manage to play with the subscription "value pack" for a long enough amount of time as long as you give the game a break.

All im gonna say is there's a streamer called choice who made a "fresh start to 700 gs (1% of the player base) in 110 days" and the guy got there in 7 weeks only spending 60$ check his yt if you want. Dosent matter how hard he grinded cause everyone can get there at their own pace. The thing i like the most about bdo is that im not "forced" to do anything. i can grind when i want to, i can lifeskill when i want to, i can pvp when i want to. Not like Lost ark for example where i felt forced to do dailies and weekly raids or im falling behind.. Also there's alot of equalizied pvp modes in terms of nodewars (gVg) or Arena of solare (ranked 3v3 pvp) all equalizied gear given to everyone for free btw

As a BDO player with 7k+ hours and I would say I aggree with you mostly. Aside from p2w and extremely slow progression I think BDO is a great MMO with a huge potential.

That whole "GET OUT" line was honestly one of the best voice-acted screams i've heard in a game. Still impressed hearing it again here. haha

The visuals, the sound design, the immersion into the sandbox nature of this game. I fell in love with this game since release, for the simple reason that in the areas it excels in, it truly has no equal. Crank up the graphics to max, turn off the UI using the keyboard shortcut and sail around on the ship you'd spent the past month for to build, only then you'll truly understand what I mean. The combat, the fluidity, I've been searching since then, nothing comes even close, Lost Ark might be the closest in fluidity, though it has a top-down view and no button-combos. Vindictus was the only game close to the type of combat system BDO has, and it's an instanced-battle room game, not the giant open world BDO has. The PVP in this game is so intricate, you can spend 3h watching an introductory video to your classes PVP to get the learning ropes of how it might function. Class mastery is a big thing. Or it would be, if it wasn't for the sad sad reality of monetization. I've spent probably a total of around 800 Bucks in online-game transactions over the past 10 years, I ain't proud of it but there it is. About 500+ of those dollars went straight into BDO, because I loved this game so. goddamn. much. Not for buying skins and other "whaling" as you'd call it to progress you characters power directly, I'm usually a very reserved spender. I just bought the "take away the inconvenience" items one by one, so I could experience the game with as little pebbles inside the gears as possible. Spending half a thousand on an online game is absolute insanity, I'd say so myself, I would never do that, but I did. I enjoyed the ever living f*ck out of this game. I have somewhere close to 10k hours in this game. I still show up in the ranked list for life skills whenever I log in occasionally, even though I haven't played, even casually, for months, or let's say the better part of the last 3 years really. This was the only game since literally World of Warcraft release in 2004 that pulled me into its world so hard I didn't see the light of day for months. Those times have passed now too, but I still can't believe that for almost 10 years by now, there has been not even 1 release that came even close to BDO in the areas it really shines in. Except the monetization, of course, there's been plenty of games that have stepped up their game in that regard aplenty.

Great vid! One mistake - the only thing that you cannot get without donating - tent. Everything else you can buy for in-game money(silver) from auction from other players, and it doesn't cost that much. For example "monthly subscription" could be bought for 2h of grinding on mid-level spots. The only thing you are missing if not donating - some time. There are a lot of F2P players, that haven't donated at all. You can reach exactly the same gearscore and placing in the game as someone who donates. Even if you spent $100k in the game, good F2P player will still be able to kill you in 1v1 PVP pretty easy.

The costumes can also be bought with silver and its also given for free in a lot of seasons stuff too. The pay to win is no longer as bad as it used to be. You simply need to grind hard with or without money, a bit more without money due to buffs but you still need to get things yourself. Most of the things that you buy now are for convenience.

Black Desert definitely has its problems but I don’t know nothing I’ve found has a combat system that compares and that alone honesty I think is what keeps me in the game it’s truly amazing and I hope either another game takes after it or the devs work on the problems

Started playing the game during 2020 with 2 friends. Hopped on as a seasonal character. Backed then without the help of guild mates I was completely lost on what to do in this game given its a sandbox mmo. The only thing that was keeping me from playing the game then was the combat system. Progression wise I would say it’s relatively easy now to progress as compared to many years back. Full PEN tuvala at the end of the season plus a seasonal accessory of your choice puts you at 250ap+ . That well enough to grind minimally 300-400m per hour. Centaurs can get you 600m per hour easily if you are playing a mobile class and learn the proper rotation. Orcs camp which is somewhat considered a meta end game grind zone nets average players about 650m per hour. If you really are motivated to progress in this game it shouldn’t be too hard with the right knowledge on what you should be doing. Few years ago I believe that getting 269ap was the soft cap, but right now 281ap or even 289ap I believe is the new “soft cap”. Imchoice a youtuber made a video about reaching 700gs in a couple of months. I do not believe this is achievable by new players or any average players given he’s a veteran players who knows what he’s doing and he spends like 8 hours or more a day playing the game l. But if you are willing to spend 2 hours a day grinding productively achieving a similar gs to his is doable in less than a year. I’m playing at a SEA sever with very limited severs to grind in, the only problem I face is contested spots during peak hours. I grind 2 hours a day ( 1 hour marni realm ) and make about 1.4b a day. This is at a comfortable pace for my own gear progression. Monetisation wise the game has changed a lot during the years. You don’t really need to pay to progress. What I believe is more important is knowing what you’re doing and spending time on the game. Apart from the value Kama and old moon buff which they give out so frequently as login rewards, only useful item to get in the pearl shop is the tent, which can then be further discounted from coupons. Pets wise you realistically only need one tier 5 pet and four tier 3 pet which is so easy to get given the amount of free pets BDO gives to you. Spending money in game is really optional in my opinion. If you have a money and you enjoy the game go ahead spend by all means. I personally spent about a thousand maybe a little more in this game, and sometimes I don’t even know what to get with the extra pearls. If you want to be a mmo whale and spend money to progress in your gs I don’t really find that you are enjoying the game anymore, due to the lack of sense of progression. As many people say BDO is a marathon not a sprint. So in conclusion I feel the game has gotten a lot better throughout the years. I am enjoying the game now more than ever. Knowledge of game and spending time in game > spending real life money in game. What can I say you either really love or really hate this game there is no in between.

As a long time bdo player i fully agree on the monetization being a problem. Having said that, they have recently (in the past year or so) been making changes to lessen the burden on someones wallet which has been a big plus for me personally. As for what you could expect as a new player jumping into the game in 2023, you will progress quite rapidly especially if you start your first character as a seasonal character. You wont really notice the progression slowing down for awhile regardless of if you are paying or are free to play. One thing i wanted to warn players about if they are planning on getting into the game is that the box cost of 10 dollars and the 15 a month "sub" fee are not the only two things i would consider essential to purchase to get a good start but i also would like to make a comparison here. BDO box cost - $10 usd Sub fee - $15 usd Tent deployable - $50 usd (unless it is on sale) Expansion cost - $0 usd New class cost - $0 usd Total upfront cost $70 usd Now lets contrast this with another more mainstream western mmo ESO. Box cost $20 usd Expansion cost - $60 usd (to unlock all current content alongside a subscription to access all non chapter related dlc) and another $40-60 every time a new chapter drops Sub fee - $15 usd Total upfront cost - $95 usd + $40 for each future expansion I make this comparison to show that western mmos are more expensive to keep up to date with and also start with in comparison to BDO where the spending is all player choice and not forced via new expansions. If your goal is to enjoy BDOs unrivaled combat system and pve with friends or by yourself then there is no reason at all to ever pay especially with all the freebies they hand out all the time. If you wish to pvp there are areas of the game that can gear match both players to have an equal shot no matter whos been swiping more (trial characters, hardcapped stats on different node war tiers etc.) TLDR if your end goal ISNT to go around and be the biggest baddest mofo in town then BDO can be immense fun and quite rewarding. If that IS your goal then you should stay away from this game or if you have bad self control then you should also stay away from BDO. The only thing unachievable or unattainable in this game (BDO) without spending real money on it is the tent deployable which is a convenience item and has no use that the game does not already offer. As i said in the beginning however i do wish the monetization would lessen even furthur but at the end of the day, its the players choice to spend and you arent being forced to spend via DLC/Expansions like in western MMOs. In closing i would also like to say that p2w is present in every single game where trading or mailing is an option is present if you know how to use google. That includes ESO, WoW, FF14, Swtor, Lotro... all of those and all the others too which is sad but true. Anyways.... thanks for reading if you did 😂😂😅

Great video! I do have some stuff to add! At 22:20, they attempted to circumvent this somewhat, they added whats called "Marni's Realm" which is a 1 hour a day, any grind location, where YOU are the only on at a certain spot, so for casual players who want to get atleast an hour in of play, can do so, uninteruppted. They also have a "Karma" system in game, where if you instigate too much open world pvp, kill a player thats weaker than you etc. it will lower karma, it varies depending on your gear vs. theirs but negative karma is pretty much never good, not to mention if you get killed you can get sent to jail, which is an inconvience in its own, along with MANY other negative side affects. I would say open world pvp isnt too much of a problem, especially with the state of the game today, you'll still get the odd ball greifer everyonce in a while but otherwise (from my experience) its relitavly tame. Plus some people still have manners. And talking about gear, not to suck PA off here but props to them for making the game very fun for newer players and lowering the time it takes to end up getting at high gear while also providing extra content for long time players and endgame players to do. But to achieve good gear the P2W way, it takes A L O T OF M O N E Y to get to a point where you can easily clap someone with good gear, as its all technically RNG based, your still not guarenteed enchantments. Not to mention, and most would agree, it takes a lot of time (for most classes) to get good at and be skilled at, with the plethora of moves and learning keybinds and combos, being good at a class inst something you can really pay for, I've personally seen how someone with a lower gear score but excpetional mastery with their character can beat someone with a higher gear score with little mastery. With the addition of season servers, theres hardly any advantages that a player gets as everyone starts out the same and theres a hard cap on them as far as gear goes. And as someone who has been very on and off with the game, its really not all too time consuming to get to the end game, and only spending roughly 60$~ over 5 years isnt too shabby! Its got amazing potential and PA keep's rolling out QOL changes, improving things for both old and new player bases.

The QoL changes are amazing. Great price point, best graphics and combat, Time and knowledge is king. Haven't enjoyed the game more than now.

At the start u feel powerful but as u go along it get tougher