Black Desert Mobile guide - 7 practical tips
It's a huge game that a lot of new players might find intimidating at first. This guide covers all of the conundrums that you might have about Black Desert Mobile.
World Of Warcraft will never be overthrown from its MMORPG throne, but some titles continue to putter along in the background. One of the biggest strengths these lesser-known games have is the fact that they're willing to make mobile ports for greater accessibility, while WoW doesn't even seem to be interested in that. It has the stylized lower polygon graphic style that could run well on many mobile devices while other MMORPGs try to be a bit fancier and HD. You can see this for yourself by checking out the long-standing Black Desert Mobile, which is just waiting to be explored.
The premise is kind of mysterious despite it looking similar to an anime-style game. You play as an unknown stranger who washes up on the shore with little to no memory of how they got there. At least you're not alone, because you've been possessed by the ominous-sounding Black Spirit, a legendary entity that only attaches itself to a certain kind of person. With little direction, you decide to get stronger, help the people along your way, slay some monsters, and feed the spirit's power. It might seem straightforward, but a lot is being thrown at you at once, so it's good to have some guidance points.
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Tip #1 - Start With a Less Complex Character
An impressive element of Black Desert Mobile is the large number of classes you can choose from when creating a character. Although you can't do extreme fine-detailing in character customisation like other less serious games, you can do enough to make the character feel like your own. However, don't get hung up on the visuals because each character has a defined role to play and you need to decide whether that fits in your play style. There is a lot of gear clicking in BDO, so start tinkering with the more straightforward classes before you experiment with the experimental.
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Tip #2 - Don't Get Lulled by Auto-Play
With the conversion of the PC version to a mobile platform, the game has been condensed to be lighter and more casual. There may be tons of UI and progression elements to keep track of, but overall, the game wants to give you a more friendly approach to its huge world. After you're introduced to the most basic of the basics, you get access to Auto-Play. This lets your character follow the shortest path to their destination, perform mission-specific tasks, and fight enemies all on their own. It can be very effective, but don't get complacent. Auto-Play tends to spam skills and items at the drop of a hat, so make sure you're there to grab the hat when a situation requires a bit more tact.
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Tip #3 - Learn and Do Everything You Can
An interesting part of the game is the Knowledge mechanic. It's established early on that your character is pretty much a blank slate, which means their mind is just waiting to be filled. Doing anything has a high chance of increasing your knowledge. From farming to mining to slaying and even just exploring regions, these will help you learn new things. The more you learn, the more bonuses you get and therefore the more strength you get. In this world, Knowledge is quite literally power and you can wield it for the people against evil…or just keep it to yourself.
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Tip #4 - Practice Skill Combos
Each character starts with a set of four skills and depending on their typing, these skills can have varying applications. Some classes will build up skills that are all about causing damage while trying to increase your resistance, while other skills may be all about keeping enemies at a distance and you out of harm's way. No matter if you're a melee or ranged fighter, you need to learn how all of your skills feed into each other. Study their effects and see how they stack so that you're not wasting their potential. You'll gain more as you level up, so finding good synergy is ideal.
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Tip #5 - Always Check the UI for Goodies
Like many games of its kind, BDO wants to build a community and culture around itself. As such, it will continuously introduce new events as time goes on. Some of these will be unique to the game while others will be based on holidays or other media. Either way, each one serves as an opportunity to earn more experience for your character and get unique treasures. As you play and participate, you'll end up building a lot of UI reserves. Quests, tasks, challenges, news, and mail can all hide valuable rewards that just need to be collected, so remember to check.
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Tip #6 - Remember the Black Spirit
Despite what may be malevolent intentions, the Black Spirit is the closest thing you have to a constant companion. It's always there to chime in with a comment and ask for your help to increase its power. This is related to the main questline where the more ancient places you visit, the stronger the spirit gets. As long as you're bonded, the spirit will lend you its power in both a passive and active way. You just need to remember to feed it special stones and energy as well as any gear you don't want. It also offers its own specific quests that you do with the intent to boost its power and your own as well.
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Tip #7 - Don't Get Torn in Too Many Directions
The way BDO on mobile is structured is quite convenient. Many of the actions can be automated and this is largely thanks to the quest tracker. All of your active quests will be listed in the top left corner of the screen being marked with different coloured tabs (blue typically representing the main story). Since this is an online game, sometimes quests will just be assigned to you, but try not to get distracted. Some of the best rewards in the game come from following a questline to its fruition. If you do decide to pursue a different quest, make sure you stick with it for a while to get the most that you can out of your time. Another way to get rewards without any effort is to redeem coupon codes for Black Desert Mobile.
