Zero To Hero

Zero to Hero
A Black Desert Online Progression Guide

By ACanadianDude - Discord
On very super rare occasions I stream - maybe once or twice a year.

You should check it out when I do.
https://twitch.tv/acanadiandude
https://mixer.com/A_Canadian_Dude
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9PzNCN6-1TxhlioulAFGDQ
Adaptations to other languages are pre-approved as long as the original document is linked and included for accuracy, and credit given.
Table of Contents
Introduction 3
“Zero” - Very Early Game (<Lv51) 4
Starting Gear (Lv 51 - Entering Mediah) - 106AP/139DP 5
Generals Accessories 6
Mediah Quest Gear (Lv56) - ~140AP/205DP 7
Save Your Yona Fragments for Capotia Accessories 8
Adventure Journals 9
Entry-Level Enhancing Guide 10

Enhancement Table 10
Building Starting-Level Failstacks 11
Recommended Failstacks for Enhancing 11
Weapons and Armor 11
Blue-Grade Accessories 12
Yellow-Grade Accessories 12
Repairing Maximum Durability on Weapons and Armor 13
Upgraded Green Gear (Lv57~58) - 170AP/222DP 14

Recommended Main-Hand Weapons Comparison 15
Magic Crystals 17
Akum Armor vs Boss Armor 20
Boss/Akum Gear (Lv59~60) ~178AP / 293DP 21
Moving on from Asula (Lv61) - 216AP / 286DP 22
Time for TET (Lv61) - 243AP Nouver, 231AP Kutum 23
Soft-Cap (Lv62) - 261AP Nouver, 249 AP Kutum 24
Post-Softcap AP Brackets - 265+ AP 25

Kutum vs Nouver in PvE at Post Softcap 26
TET Basilisk Belt, Vell’s Heart- 270AP, 273AP 27
TET Ogre, TET Tungrad Earrings - 265, 269 AP Kutum 28
“Hero” - 283 main AP, 285 awaken AP, 325 DP, Evasion 29
Coming Soon 30
Infinite Potions 30
_________________________________________
Here’s a list of grind spots to try out as you advance.
https://www.reddit.com/r/blackdesertonline/comments/c1eslw/crude_list_of_grind_spots_prioritizing_money_for/
Introduction
Black Desert Online is a challenging game to get into. There isn’t much the developers of the game inform
you about when you start off. For some, figuring out the game’s mechanics yourself is all part of the fun. For
those that don’t want to spend time experimenting and just want the most effective way to get to end-game
as possible, don’t worry. I’ve got your back.
That said, there are some things I won’t be covering in this guide as it is specifically meant to show you how
you should be gearing up for combat. This game has tons of content that doesn’t revolve around
combat. I want you to remember that. If at any point during your progression you get burnt out and feel like
you don’t want to continue and everything seems futile, I want you to remember that grinding monsters for
hours and PvP is not the only thing this game has to offer.
For example you can fish from rivers and the ocean, and once your fishing is high enough you can go out in
a boat and explore the sea looking for fishing hotspots (seagull swarms) to get higher quality fish worth
more money. You can build an empire of workers that collect resources for you using contribution points
(CP) granted from completing quests, or you can go out into the wild with tools and gather resources
yourself. You can refine the resources you gather into more valuable items that can be directly used for
crafting. You can turn the game into a farming simulator. You can also capture and raise the best
race-horses and awaken a mythical pegasus or unicorn if you’re persistent enough. This is just scratching
the surface of the game; there’s a ton of things you can do. That said, I will be focusing on combat
progression here. I just wanted to make sure you are aware of this content if combat progression becomes
too tedious.
For newer players just getting started with BDO combat, I would recommend purchasing at least three (3)
tier 1 pets from the pearl shop or sniping them from the marketplace. You need five pets for looting when
hunting monsters, but you can get two from attendance rewards. The penguin pet shows up in attendance
rewards during the holidays from time to time, and you can get a Kuku bird from joining a guild. Just ask in
server chat (Alt + 2 in the chat window) for a new player friendly guild that will help you get those first-time
attendance rewards.
Aside from pets, I would not advise purchasing anything else until you advance further in the game and are
sure you’ve had your money’s worth. Only once you’re in the later stages of the game would I advise
purchasing a tent for remote repair, storage, and the ability to buy potions and combat buffs from (almost)
anywhere on the map; or upgrading the tier of your pets for faster looting speeds. Only spend what you’re
comfortable with spending.
Oh, and one big recommendation before we get started. Focus on your own progression. You want to get
better, and use experiences where someone dominates you in PvP as motivation to get stronger rather than
focusing on what they have that you don’t. With that said, I will include level references with each step of
gear progression in this guide, so you can expect what level to be when you have the money for that gear.
_________________________________________
“Zero” - Very Early Game (<Lv51)
For the most part, when you are leveling your first character you want to just use the equipment the Black
Spirit (BS) gives you during the main questline. The monsters in Calpheon do not require very good gear to
be able to kill them effectively, and the gear that the BS gives you will be good enough in most situations.
Combine this gear with some base level Bares’ accessories, and you will do just fine up to Catfishmen.
Make sure you complete every quest in the main quest chain leading up to the Mediah quests, so you can
have access to the next set of gear.
_________________________________________
Starting Gear (Lv 51 - Entering Mediah) - 106AP/139DP
Change the weapons to match your class.
By defeating monsters in the Calpheon region you can get your first set of gear to prepare yourself for lower
level Mediah content like Abandoned Iron Mines, Manes’ Hideout, Wandering Rogue’s Den, and Helms’
Post.
The Ultimate Delphad Castillion’s weapon comes as a gift from the BS after completing the While preparing
for Mediah… quest (reaching level 51). You will get an alloy that you can melt together with the regular
Delphad Castillion’s weapon to upgrade it. The Roaring Magical Sub-weapon is the final upgrade of the Dim
Magical Sub-weapon given to you as a gift as well.
You get the helmet and rings from Mansha Forest, the earrings and shoes from Catfishmen, the gloves and
belt from Rhutums, and the necklace from Treant Forest.
It is important that you don’t throw the Delphad Castillion’s weapon or the Dim Magical Armor away,
even if you find some interim upgrades.
_________________________________________
Generals Accessories
General’s accessories become available starting at level
53. You will be given a quest in the Unstoppable Thirst for
Power series, and once you complete it you will receive a
base level Generals accessory.
The General’s accessory can be enhanced using Fierce

Fighting Spirit Stones granted by the Unstoppable Thirst
for Power questline. The enhancement success rate for
this is 100% and does not require failstacks.
I recommend picking either the earring or the belt,

because the ring can be much more easily replaced by
better rings at the later stages of the game. A PEN
General’s earring for example is as good as a TRI
Tungrad Earring in PvE only, in many situations.
You cannot change your accessory type once

you’ve chosen. You don’t get another one if you
make an alt, either.
You will need to determine when the General’s

accessory is best for you to use. It’s as good as
softcap boss gear for PvE, but only in certain
situations.
If the difference in AP between the normal accessory

you’re using and the General’s accessory plus the
difference in bonus AP from your bracket ( hover over your gear sheet to see your hidden stats) is equal to
or greater than the monster damage on the General’s accessory, swap it out for your regular accessory.
For example, if I have a bracket bonus of 2 AP with the General’s belt on, and I have an Asula belt with 6
AP and 16 bonus AP from bracket with it on; I would not use the General’s belt in PvE because the bracket
bonus is higher than the difference in damage between the belts. I would put the General’s belt back on for
PvE though once I got high enough gear to get 16 AP or better from bracket bonuses with it on. Just keep
checking to make sure you’re maxing out your potential in PvE. Always swap out your General’s
accessory when fighting other players.
_________________________________________
Mediah Quest Gear (Lv56) - ~140AP/205DP
Adapt the weapons to match your class.
The next set of armor and weapons you will get from completing quests in Mediah and killing monsters in
the areas there. It will prepare you for areas like Sausans, Pirates, and Bashims. I recommend getting your
Asula accessories first; they will be with you for a long time. Get the necklace from Abandoned Iron Mine
first, then the rings and earrings from Helms’ Post. You’ll want to get some of the quest armor upgrades first
before heading to Elric Shrine for the belt though or it might be tough.
The Roaring Magical Armor is the final upgrade from the Dim Magical Armor after reaching level 56 and
completing the third quest in the “Thirst for Ultimate Power” series. The patch notes from December 6th,
2017 explain how to get the Mediah quest armor and Black Abyssal Weapon. Scroll down to the item
changes section. The Katan awakening weapon is a BS gift after completing Bashim’s Answer in the
Valencia pt 1 main quest line.
Please note some of the quest gear has been renamed and moved to the main quest series. See
December 17, 2019 patch notes for more information on what the changes are.
You can skip to the next section and ignore this if you want to avoid doing quests and just go straight into grinding. I do
recommend getting the helmet though as it’ll serve very well as a good leveling helmet with some XP crystals inside.
_________________________________________
Save Your Yona Fragments for Capotia Accessories
With the gear from the above section in this guide,
you are prepared to go to some of the lower tier areas
of Valencia such as Bashims, Nagas, and Fogans.
These areas drop Yona Fragments which I highly
recommend you start collecting now.
You can also receive Yona Fragments from melting

golden tier accessories with knowledge obtained from
the Valencia Arms Dealer Ossa Dilla NPC.
Depending on the prices of the accessories and how
many Yona Fragments they provide, this may or may
not be worth it. A general rule of thumb is that
accessories that provide DP are usually economical
to melt as they fetch a lower price than accessories
that provide AP, but when you’re just
starting out you may want to sell all
accessories for silver. That is up to you.
I RECOMMEND SAVING YONA

FRAGMENTS OBTAINED AS DROPS
EARLY ON. DO NOT CRAFT BASE
LEVEL ACCESSORIES WITH THEM
EXCEPT CAPOTIA.
When you reach level 61 and 62 later on,

you can use these Yona Fragments to
craft powerful Capotia accessories that
are equivalent in power to TRI best in slot
accessories such as Crescent Rings and
Tungrad Earrings. You will also be given
one of each for free upon reaching those
levels. I do not recommend enhancing
them as it is not cost efficient.
_________________________________________
Adventure Journals
In the Adventure Log section of the main
menu, you can find a bunch of logs with
tasks to complete, sort of like a challenge
system.
By completing these logs, you earn

permanent stat boosts to all the characters in
your family. Some of these include extra
carry weight, more max HP, more accuracy
and evasion; but some of these challenges
provide you with more sheet AP and DP
which is very important to have, as they can
push you ahead in brackets to get you even
more damage and defense.
Currently you can get 1 DP from reaching

level 56, 1 DP from completing Igor Bartali’s
Log Chapter 5, 1 AP from reaching level 60,
and 1 AP from completing Igor Bartali’s Log
Chapter 6. You can also get 3 AP and 1 DP
from Bartali chapters 11-15, as well as 1 AP
from Deve’s Item Encyclopedia.
You can also do Dorin Morgrim’s Journal, however it costs quite a bit to get the 1 AP and DP from that so it
might be more cost effective to wait until you’re higher gear - at least above softcap.
Here is a guide for completing chapters 1-8 of Igor Bartali’s Adventure Log.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-qkE8uYb6Y - Secret Cave Locations (Thanks Qivine for
sending me this when all the links in the guide above were taken down.)
Here is a guide for completing Deve’s Item Encyclopedia.
Here’s a checklist for Deve’s so you can keep track of what you have.
Here is a guide for completing Dorin Morgrim’s Blacksmith Journal.
Upcoming Favion’s HP Journal (600 HP Reward!) | Caphras Journal | Alustin’s Journal
_________________________________________
Entry-Level Enhancing Guide
For the next level of gear we’ll be pushing for, you need to know how to enhance your gear effectively as it
won’t be coming from quest rewards.
The pointers given in this guide are from my personal experience and may differ from someone else’s
experience. Ask your fellow players if you have a question or concern as to what may or may not be the
most effective method of enhancing.
Enhancement Table
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MMqCHANq0tsQqNy6a6CkLEhwb_lWXdflJlFwr037wEU/edit?usp
=sharing Use this for determining enhancement failstack efficiency.
_________________________________________
Building Starting-Level Failstacks
Alternatively to this personalized guide use this failstack optimizer if you’d like.
Failstacks are essentially how many times you’ve failed at enhancing. Each character has their own
failstack. Having a higher failstack increases your chances of succeeding your next enhancement. As such,
we should try to build failstacks as cheaply as possible before trying to enhance our actual gear; as failing
an enhancement causes the gear to lose maximum durability which can be costly to repair.
Before building failstacks I recommend getting a Reblath Armor to +14 by just slamming stones into it until it
successfully enhances. I would also recommend getting a Militia weapon to +14 as well, in case you run out
of Black Stone (armor). These items are available from the Blacksmith and Arms Dealer in Velia.
Building a failstack of 1-5, you can simply buy cheap green-level accessories from the marketplace and
slam them together. This will save you the cost of black stones at very low failstacks. You can then build a
failstack as high as 25 (some people go even higher) with your Reblath armor and Militia weapon. If an
enhancement succeeds and your Reblath/Militia goes to +15, you will have to downgrade it at the town
priest for 100K and start your failstack over again. This happens all the time, don’t get discouraged.
For failstacks higher than 25, you may need to buy green level weapons and armor from the marketplace
and fail enhancement levels PRI, DUO, TRI, TET, and PEN based on the failstack you need to make.See
the Recommended Failstacks for Enhancing - Weapons and Armor section for when you should start with
these stacks, and when to stop.
Recommended Failstacks for Enhancing
Weapons and Armor

Up to +15: Up to +12, start with a failstack equal to the next enhancement level. Enhancing gets a bit less
likely to succeed at +13 and above. So start at 15 failstacks for +13 and above, and continue building a
failstack until it reaches 30 or succeeds. You will use the 30 and higher stacks for TRI enhancing. If you
already have some 30 stacks, it can save you money to just Force Enhance it to the next level, or use
Stabilized Black Stones from boss drops. This mostly concerns boss weapons and armor. Green level
weapons and armor though, you can just slam stones into them until it succeeds at this level as their repair
cost is not very high.
PRI: I recommend a failstack of 15 or higher to enhance to PRI on green and boss gear, stopping and
building a new stack if it goes up to 26.
_________________________________________
DUO: I recommend a failstack of 15 on green gear and 22 on boss gear to go up to DUO, stopping and
making a new stack if the current stack goes up to 35.
TRI: I recommend a failstack of 30 on green gear or 35 on boss gear to attempt TRI, stopping and making a
new stack if the current stack goes up to 50.
This is as high as you will be attempting to enhance green gear. Practically, you’ll have moved on to boss
gear before attempting TET enhancements and above. Keep your green gear though as a method of
building failstacks at this level without incurring the memory fragment repair costs of repairing boss gear.
TET: I recommend a failstack of 50 (plus 10 Valk’s Cry if you have them) on boss gear to attempt TET,
stopping and making a new stack if the current stack goes up to 100.
PEN: I recommend a failstack of 100+ on boss gear, either with a backup weapon or cron stones as
PEN is very difficult to achieve and will set you back greatly if it fails.
Blue-Grade Accessories
PRI: I recommend starting with a failstack of 18.
DUO: I recommend starting with a failstack of 30.
TRI: I recommend starting with a failstack of 40.
TET: I recommend starting with a failstack of 60.
I do not recommend going for PEN on blue-grade accessories.
Yellow-Grade Accessories
These accessories are VERY EXPENSIVE to replace if they fail. As such you should use the maximum
potential stack for the enhancement level you’re attempting, unless building a higher stack costs more than
the enhancement itself. A personal exception to this rule I make is the Serap’s necklace. I follow the
blue-grade rules with it.
PRI: Use a failstack of 18.
DUO: Use a failstack of 40-43.
TRI: Use a failstack of 44-50.
TET: Use a failstack of 85-110.
PEN: Use a failstack of 150 or higher.
_________________________________________
Repairing Maximum Durability on Weapons and Armor
To repair weapons and armor at green or blue grade, it is most effective to use base level versions of the
same weapon or armor piece to repair 10 durability. For boss weapons and armor though, you need to use
memory fragments (obtained by running scrolls made from Ancient Relic Crystal Shards, Forbidden Books,
or Scrolls Written in Ancient Language) to repair 1 durability at a time.
Artisan memories are a cash-shop item that makes memory fragments repair at a rate of 1 memory
fragment to 4 durability instead of 1:1. They can be used for green and blue gear as well but I heavily
recommend against using them for this purpose. I also don’t advise purchasing them unless you have a lot
of disposable income.
For some gear, one good way to repair it is to buy one base version of what you’re trying to repair, and one
loyalty Artisan Memory from the Loyalty Shop (F3) for 400 loyalties to repair 40 durability at once. Make
sure you check twice to make sure this is cost effective compared to buying Memory Fragments.
_________________________________________
Upgraded Green Gear (Lv57~58) - 170AP/222DP
We’re now enhancing our own gear to go above and beyond what the quest gear in this game can give us.
Don’t be fooled by the yellow coloring of the gear. It uses the same enhancing rules as green gear as it is
green gear, just upgraded using Ultimate Weapon/Armor Reform Stones.
Ultimate Weapon Reform stones are made by Heating (Processing - L) ten Grade 3 Weapon Reform stones
with a Sharp Black Crystal shard. Likewise, Ultimate Armor Reform stones are made by heating ten Grade 3
Armor Reform stones with a Hard Black Crystal shard.
Get a Yuria/Elsh/Rosar/Krea/Bares main hand weapon, as well as a green-level awakening weapon and
green-level AP off-hand for your class. I recommend using three pieces of Grunil armor with your Roaring
Magical Armor for the best of all the set effects combined.
_________________________________________
Enhance each piece up to PRI, then DUO; one piece at a time. Then you’ll want to enhance the weapons up
to TRI. If you fail enhancing going to TRI and up, the weapon’s enhancement level will decrease one stage
as well as the durability going down. Enhance your weapons one at a time, falling back to the previous set’s
weapons if the durability is too low or the stats are lower than the previous set from the enhancement level
decreasing.
This will prepare you to be efficient for areas like Gahaz, Fogans, Nagas, and Cadry Ruins.
You’ll be going for boss gear after this. So start bidding on the marketplace, rolling night vendor, and going
to world and field bosses to try to get your boss gear.
Recommended Main-Hand Weapons Comparison
Zoom in to see stats on each recommended main-hand weapon at TRI.
Stats such as accuracy and any passives are used in both pre-awakened and awakened forms, and your
awakened skill damage does use a small portion of your mainhand AP as well. That said, I’ll be looking at
these weapons from an efficiency perspective.
A lot of people recommend using Rosar or Krea weapons because they have the highest AP out of all the
green-level weapons and two crystal slots instead of just one. And for a general purpose they are the best to
go to.
_________________________________________
However, I personally recommend using the Elsh/Bares or Yuria weapons ahead of using the Rosar or Krea
weapons.
For Elsh (most recommended), it has the same accuracy and damage to all species as a Kzarka boss
weapon. The fact that its AP is lower is not that much of an issue because you will primarily be using your
awakening weapon (if you’re not a Ranger, or succession user) and using the awakening damage instead.
The accuracy and species damage will make you do more damage with your awakening. It also has a nice
healing passive. Elsh weapons are very difficult to get though from the marketplace, as they are only
acquired through a quest reward and can not be obtained through monster hunts.
Bares was brought to my attention by AirLeaf on Reddit. It has slightly more AP (2) over Elsh, while having
36 less accuracy at TRI. However it also has 7 more all species damage at TRI compared to an Elsh
weapon and is much more common and readily available. If you cannot get an Elsh weapon I would
recommend this or a Yuria weapon afterward. Definitely recommend Elsh over this though for the accuracy
you are desperately missing at this gear level.
Yuria being next on my recommendations list, has the same accuracy and 1 AP less than Rosar or Krea
weapons. It may also only have one crystal slot, but the human damage will make you do more damage at
places like Gahaz, Pirates, Sausans, and Wandering Rogues even with your awakening weapon. It also
increases your damage dealt in PvP (though the all species damage from Elsh works in PvP as well).
If neither of these weapons interest you and you just want a general purpose weapon with two crystal slots
and the highest general AP, feel free to use Rosar or Krea weapons.
_________________________________________
Magic Crystals
When you’re first starting out, you’ll want to use cheap magic crystals that give effective stats for their cost.
Main-Hand Weapon
● Elkarr - BMC Precision crystals with 1% more hit-rate each. Best in slot, but very expensive and not
worth it until end-game.
● Black Magic Crystal - Precisions, grant you accuracy and the ability to ignore your opponent’s CC
resistance. These are best in slot crystals for your main-hand weapon for PvP.
● Power, high ranking of these crystals give up to 5 AP. Useful when you already have max attack
speed and want more damage. Great for PvE, but I’d recommend BMC Precisions for PvP.
● Carmae/Addis, these crystals grant attack/casting speed and critical hit chance. Use these if you’re
having a hard time reaching 5 attack/casting speed and crit.
● Absorption/Extraction, these crystals give you HP or MP regen on-hit. Use them if you’re playing a
resource demanding class like Ranger or DK and don’t want to use a lot of resource potions.
Off-Hand Weapon
● Valtarra Spirit’s Crystal, gives HP, hidden AP, and extra damage against monsters in Kamasylvia. I
only recommend using these in a Kutum as they are expensive and the extra Kama damage is only
useful for PvE (which you’ll be using Kutum for later on).
● Awakened Spirit’s Crystal gives HP and hidden AP. These crystals are expensive, but best in slot
aside from the Valtarra crystals.
● Red Spirit Crystal - HP and hidden AP like the Black Spirit Crystals, but with a little bonus human
damage. Useful in PvP.
● Critical Hit/Back/Down Attack crystals give 10% bonus damage on your crits/back/down attacks. I
recommend using the critical one if you can find one as your cheap crystal, as it gives you quite a bit
of damage with high crit. Arguably better than Awakened Spirit’s Crystals at high AP, but at a
sacrifice to your HP. Here’s a comparison between them.
● Corrupted Spirit Crystal - these crystals provide the most DPS in PvE and PvP by giving you both
AP and a stronger critical hit damage bonus. However, you lose some defense when using these so
keep that in mind.
_________________________________________
Chest Armor
● Magic Crystal of Infinity - Evasion, contrary to popular belief, these have nothing to do with
evasion but instead gives you a chance to nullify special attack modifiers. It can make crits not crit,
down attacks not do extra damage, etc. They are very cheap, and are arguably the best in slot in
the majority of PvP situations.
● Black Magic Crystal - Vigor, gives HP and stun resistance.
● Resonance, gives extra mana/WP/SP. Useful if you’re playing a WP based class with a limited
resource pool.
● JIN/BON Cobelinus - Gives HP and damage reduction. Best in slot (though special attack evasion
can be better in some cases), JIN gives more DR and BON gives more HP. Very expensive.
● Red Battlefield Cobelinus - Gives HP and human damage. You’ll get less defensive / utility stats
using these compared to something else, but it can increase your damage in PvP significantly if you
stack it with other human damage crystals.
Shoes
● Swiftness, you want to max out your movement speed. Buy these at blue grade, or get BMCs if you
want more CC resist.
● Adamantine, get these if you’re frequently grinding at places with monsters that knock you down like
Helms Cave, Crescent Shrine, or Gyfin. Or if you need knockdown resist in PvP.
● WON/JIN Hystria, basically swiftness crystals with stamina and extra weight limit. Very expensive,
but arguably best in slot on stamina dependent classes.
● Red Battlefield Hystria - Gives 1 movement speed and human damage. You’ll get less defensive /
utility stats using these compared to something else, but it can increase your damage in PvP
significantly if you stack it with other human damage crystals.
Helmet
● Agility, the yellow enchantment crystal for agility gives you 20 evasion. Useful for dodging hits.
● Intimidation, gives you knockdown resistance. Use these if you’re lacking CC resistance. Arguably
best in slot in some situations.
● Memory, 2 casting speed. Use these for casting speed classes for early game to max out casting
speed.
● JIN Harphia, 20 evasion as well as HP and some regen. Best in slot.
● Experience - the blue EXP crystals give 10% bonus experience per crystal in the helmet slot. Put
these in a backup helmet to use for grinding, not in your main defensive helmet.
● Red Battlefield Harphia - Gives HP, HP regen, and human damage. You’ll get less defensive /
utility stats using these compared to something else, but it can increase your damage in PvP
significantly if you stack it with other human damage crystals.
_________________________________________
Gloves
● Assault, gives 2 attack speed. Use these to max out your attack speed early game.
● Valor, gives 2 crit. Use these to max out your crit in conjunction with memories in your helmet on
casting speed classes, or carmaes in your weapon on attack speed classes.
● Dark Red Fang Valor gives 2 crit like Valor crystals, but also gives 5 hidden AP. Can be quite
strong in PvE if you don’t need the accuracy from JIN Viper or can’t afford them.
● JIN Viper, best in slot. VERY EXPENSIVE. Gives 20 accuracy, attack speed and casting speed. The
best way to get supplemental accuracy but I must reiterate very expensive. Only use these in Bheg’s
gloves or Leebur’s gloves when you have a Kzarka or Offin weapon at late-game.
● Red Battlefield Viper - Gives attack/casting speed and human damage. If you have 100% hit rate,
these crystals provide a lot of human damage to increase damage in PvP. But in most cases, the JIN
Viper’s 20 accuracy is better for you to get as much hit rate as possible.
Versatile
● HAN Hoom - new Drieghan crystals that have an amazing set effect to give yourself defensive stat
bonuses. Arguably new best in slot for helmet if you’re not stacking evasion. To get the 4 piece set,
some people put them in their boots or offhand as well.
● HAN Macalod - set effect crystals that provide hidden AP, more stamina, ignore resist, and accuracy
in their set effect. Useful for PvE mains that want to forego defensive crystals in favour of slightly
more damage and therefore more money per hour, or for stamina based squishy assassin type
classes for a tiny amount of extra burst or more stamina for i-frames in PvP.
_________________________________________
Akum Armor vs Boss Armor
While Akum Boots don’t provide a good value,
the rest of the Akum armor set provides very
good value. With TET Akum helmet, chestplate,
and gauntlets with TET Urugon shoes; you will
actually have the same damage reduction and
50 more HP as using TET boss armor (Griffon’s
Helmet, Bheg’s Gloves, Dim Tree Spirit’s
Armor). And at TET this comes in at a whopping
4 billion silver in cost savings, although you do
give up on 18 accuracy (about 4.5% hit rate)
which isn’t much compared to the cost savings,
although it is still significant. You also lose 20
evasion (4% dodge rate), but at this gear level
every decently geared opponent will have 100%
hit-rate on you anyway - even if you use boss
armor.
The value drops off at PEN however, as Akum

gear gets less stats from being enhanced to this
level and cannot get as many stats from
Caphras stones.
Considering when you’re going from TET to

PEN it’s highly recommended to use backup
pieces anyway, I would highly recommend using
TET 3 piece Akum + Urugons over full boss for
new players just starting gearing up. You’ll save
a lot of money you can use to get expensive
accessories later on. Then when you’re ready
for PEN armor you can upgrade to full boss
gear.
If you already have boss armor, it’s not worth it to switch. But for newer players that are just starting out I believe
it’s much better to save 4 billion silver and spend it on AP instead so you can progress further and faster. If you
disagree with this sentiment, then by all means purchase a Griffon’s helmet, Dim Tree Spirit’s Armor, and Bheg’s
Gloves - but it is significantly more expensive to enhance or buy and will slow you down.
_________________________________________
Boss/Akum Gear (Lv59~60) ~178AP / 293DP
Starting with your weapons, you want to get boss gear and get it up to TRI, one piece at a time. I must
reiterate, one piece at a time, do not roulette your gear. The best way to progress is one piece at a time,
that way if you fail it doesn’t set you back too far. Once finished here, you’ll be prepared for spots like Blood
Wolves and Crescent Shrine. You can try Centaurs and Basilisks as well, but you probably won’t clear them
very quickly until 209 TRI Kutum.
You will probably have to take your boss gear as you get it, but preferably you want to get your boss gear in
this order: Kutum, Kzarka, Dandelion, Akum gloves, Urugon’s boots, Akum armor, Akum helmet, Nouver.
Nouver for PvP, Kutum for PvE; I prioritize getting a Kutum before Nouver so you can grind at better spots
sooner. Get your boss gear by going to bosses, bidding on the marketplace, & night vendor. Your Akum
gear can be obtained from grinding in Drieghan or buying from the marketplace.
Pro-Tip: instead of using memory fragments, it can be very cost effective to use base pieces of Akum gear
with 1 Artisan Memory (buy from loyalty shop or attendance rewards) to recover 40 durability when
enhancing Akum gear.
_________________________________________
Moving on from Asula (Lv61) - 216AP / 286DP
We’ll be enhancing some cheaper accessories. I say cheaper, but enhancing up to TRI is still a few hundred
million silver for each accessory slot. A lot of players will say that “blue accessories are a trap”, and some
are and some are not. Things like Marks of Shadow, Shultz Necklaces, those are not good as there are
better alternatives through questing and enhancing drops from grinding Fogans/Nagas. With the changes to
quest accessories, I recommend enhancing some Forest’s Eye Earrings which you can get from the
Kamasylvia main questline as these cost nothing but time and effort and don’t explode when they fail.
However, you will most likely not succeed your enhancements with best in slot accessories the first time and
it’s cheaper to have these accessories as your backup than it is to have to make another DUO BiS
accessory or purchase it from the marketplace. It is insanely important to have backups when you enhance
accessories, and you can always sell these in the future when you move on to best in slot accessories.
Do the quests to get the 11AP Ring of Power. The Ring of Power quest now rewards 8x 10G Gold Bars
instead of the ring. Best to enhance a Red Sand Crystal Ring to TRI instead which you’ll get during Valencia
main questline. Level to 61 for a free Capotia ring. This rivals a TRI Crescent Ring and is a softcap
accessory with 14AP. You can use the quest belt too, but I prefer the DUO Basilisk belt as it can become a
TRI Basilisk belt later on, a best in slot AP accessory.
_________________________________________
Time for TET (Lv61) - 243AP Nouver, 231AP Kutum
Prioritizing getting your weapons to TET (one piece at a time), then get TET armors. (Follow the failstacking
guide and take your time, TET takes a lot of resources and determination.)
Using the Yona Fragments you’ve saved up and those obtained from melting accessories, craft a second
Capotia Ring.
Make sure you’ve completed all the adventure journal chapters you can up to this point.
I recommend having at least 40 concentrated stones, and at least 200-300 Black Stones before starting an
enhancing session at this level. Stop before you run out of memory fragments so you can repair your
weapon. As such you should have at minimum 100 memory fragments before you start enhancing.
Now you’re prepared to be efficient in places like Roud Sulfur Mines and Pila Ku Jail. You can also attempt
places like Manshaums, though you may not be quite efficient there yet depending on your class. You can
also start doing Mirumoks in groups at this point, if they’ll take you. Some want 235+ but 230 Kutum is good.
_________________________________________
Soft-Cap (Lv62) - 261AP Nouver, 249 AP Kutum
Enhance yourself a TRI
Ogre/Tungrad/Laytenn necklace, and a TRI
Basilisk/Valtarra/Tungrad belt. Then get to
level 62 for your free Capotia Earring, and
then craft another one with Yona Fragments
you’ve saved or obtained from melting
cheap yellow accessories.
Slot your gear with best in slot crystals for

your build. I’ve listed the most common ones
up above but depending on your playstyle
you may want to change them out.
In the vast majority of cases though the JIN

Vipers in your gloves are absolutely
mandatory. While things like grapple
resistance gems and hidden AP gems in
your gloves are nice in some situations, you
really benefit from the 40 accuracy the most
in the vast majority of them. That’s why
they’re so expensive.
Use Caphras enhancement to get your Kzarka up to level 4 for an additional 4 AP to hit the 261 bracket,
and get your Dandelion up to level 2 for an additional 2 AP to hit the 261 bracket. It’s not recommended to
Caphras-enhance TET armors because you gain very few stats from doing so - even if they get you a DP
bracket. If you want to save some money you can use a TET Offin with Caphras level 1 for the same AP,
but you will lose a significant amount of accuracy comparatively - I don’t recommend giving up on any more
accuracy if you decided to go the Akum armor route. Better to just pay the extra Caphras stones to level
your Kzarka up to 4, but that depends on your patience and class.
With craftable Capotia accessories and Caphras enhancement, we can now get more stats than before with
traditional soft-cap level equipment before we need to pay much higher amounts per upgrade.
You should be able to grind just about anywhere at this point, except Sycraia Abyss. Manshaums, Mirumok,
Aakman, Hystria… you should do quite well at these end-game spots. In the case that you can not get more
money at Hystria than your previous spots at this gear, you may need to wait until the next section.
_________________________________________
Post-Softcap AP Brackets - 265+ AP
When you go beyond soft-cap, the brackets that

provide you with bonus AP provide you with
much more than before. However, upgrades at
this level are very expensive, with the cheapest
often being over 4 to 9 billion silver.
Enhancing one TET Crescent/Ruins Ring will get

you to 264AP mainhand and 264AP awaken,
which isn’t quite enough to reach the 265
bracket. Enhance another TET Crescent/Ruins,
and therefore push yourself over the 265 bracket
in your mainhand and awakening.
At this stage, try your hand at Hystria Ruins.

If you couldn’t do it well at soft-cap, you can probably do it now.
You can also start trying out Star’s End at this point..
_________________________________________
Kutum vs Nouver in PvE at Post Softcap
Once you get to this point in your progression, the AP bonus level can make the total AP provided by
Nouver higher than the AP of your Kutum plus its monster AP. Once you get to 261AP with Nouver, your
total AP is higher when using Nouver in PvE than when using Kutum in PvE. Therefore at this stage you will
use your Nouver for everything - PvE and PvP.
Keep in mind though once you get to 261 with Kutum, Kutum becomes best again for PvE. But you need to
get 12 more AP past this point to make that happen, which is extremely difficult (273AP with Nouver).
Here’s a spreadsheet calculating the total AP you get including bonuses when using Nouver versus Kutum.
It’s actually just as effective to use your Kutum up until 265AP with Nouver. Notice how the difference from
249-252 with Kutum is only 2 AP in Nouver’s favour? Kutum also has 12 accuracy and 10% ignore
resistance over Nouver which makes it more effective until the AP gap becomes larger. This makes the
point at which you use Nouver much smaller as it’s just between 265 and 273 AP, if you’re below the bottom
end or above the top end of this bracket you would be better off using Kutum. Kutum is also a little better
defensively against monsters than Nouver, which means your Hystria grind will be slightly less scary.
_________________________________________
TET Basilisk Belt, Vell’s Heart- 270AP, 273AP
The next AP threshold for bonus AP

levels is at 269AP. Enhance a TET
Basilisk/Valtarra belt to reach 270 AP for
that sweet, sweet AP bracket. While 273
isn’t as big of an upgrade as 269, you still
want to push further, and get the big
brackets with a Kutum. Get yourself a
Vells heart to do this.
Vell is a world boss that spawns every

Sunday (once a week) out in the middle
of the ocean. Players head out in
platoons with their Epheria sailboats,
frigates, and guild galleys in order to
cannon down this boss for a chance at its
heart.
You can receive the heart in two ways.

First, as a drop directly. Second, you can
receive Vell’s Concentrated Magic. You
need to grind existing alchemy stones
until you have 1500 Alchemy Stone
Shard. Then you can use Simple Alchemy with the Vell’s Concentrated Magic to get Vell’s Heart.
At this point, your upgrade is guaranteed success with no chance of set-back. You just have to be lucky
enough to either get Vell’s Heart as a drop, or snipe / pre order it from the marketplace. As an
approximation, previous Vell’s Heart pre-orders used to be as high as 28 billion silver. More recently though,
pre-orders have fallen to around 7-8 billion silver for Vell’s Heart as of the time I’m writing this.
At this point you’ll start getting quite efficient at end game spots like Hystria Ruins. You’re also 261 AP with
a TET Kutum with this gear set, so you can go back to using Kutum for grinding.
_________________________________________
TET Ogre, TET Tungrad Earrings - 265, 269 AP Kutum
Enhance or buy a TET Ogre ring
to get yourself 266 AP with a
Kutum. This is huge for grinding.
Then you can enhance two TET

Tungrad Earrings, or buy them, to
reach 270 AP with a TET Kutum.
Once you’re at this point, you’re

able to grind wherever you like
very quickly - although Sycraia
Abyssal Zone will give you some
trouble as the monsters there hit
very hard. You’ll have the
damage, just not the defense.
I’d recommend getting PEN

armors first, and maybe even
putting a few Caphras levels into
them before attempting the
Sycraia Abyssal zone.
_________________________________________
“Hero” - 283 main AP, 285 awaken AP, 325 DP, Evasion
The above screenshots are example builds only. End game builds are highly varied and it’s up to you to know what you want at this point.
Once you get a hold of a Garmoth’s Heart, and upgrade your weapons and armor to PEN, well done.
You’ve basically beaten the game (gear wise) at this point. All that is left to do now is grind at Sycraia Underwater
Ruins (Abyss) for Caphras Stones and side-grade gear such as defense, HP, or hybrid builds, or sacrificing some
defense for more AP by means of Black Distortion Earrings; as well as PEN accessories which are very rare.
I recommend using evasion gear on most classes when you get to PEN armors (one exception being maybe Berserker
as they have extremely low base evasion, but it’s still viable) as damage reduction has a soft-cap at around 310 points
(including base stats) where it’s not as valuable per-point after that. You can make up for this by getting evasion which
will make you significantly tankier than stacking DR past this point (But it’s very important to have more than 250 damage
reduction and be 250-310 DR, so don’t get evasion when you’re still at TET armors!) - the exception to evasion being
tankier is if you are hit with a 50% accurate skill such as Musa’s Blooming, Warrior’s Counter, most grabs, or most
commonly - Maewha’s Sticky Snowflake.
It’s up to you at this point whether you want to be tankier overall but dependent on RNG, or more consistently
defensive but less tanky overall. Some classes have huge amounts of bonus evasion, like Striker, Ninja, Kunoichi
Sorceress, Mystic, etc. as they get a large amount of bonus dodge rate percentage by stacking evasion buffs - evasion
is very highly recommended for these classes in particular - even more so than others. Here’s an accuracy
calculator. Keep in mind you can only have a maximum dodge rate of 90%.
Enjoy Caphras Retirement.

ere is what a very strong full PEN build with appropriate and “cost effective” Caphras levels looks like.)
(H
_________________________________________
Additional Content
Infinite Potions
Credit to WTFBloo for this guide to

infinite potions.
_________________________________________

Zero To Hero - BDO Progression Guide

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Zero To Hero - BDO Progression Guide

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

A Black Desert Online Progression Guide

On very super rare occasions I stream - maybe once or twice a year.

“Zero” - Very Early Game (<Lv51) 4

Starting Gear (Lv 51 - Entering Mediah) - 106AP/139DP 5

Mediah Quest Gear (Lv56) - ~140AP/205DP 7

Save Your Yona Fragments for Capotia Accessories 8

Entry-Level Enhancing Guide 10

Upgraded Green Gear (Lv57~58) - 170AP/222DP 14

Akum Armor vs Boss Armor 20

Boss/Akum Gear (Lv59~60) ~178AP / 293DP 21

Moving on from Asula (Lv61) - 216AP / 286DP 22

Time for TET (Lv61) - 243AP Nouver, 231AP Kutum 23

Soft-Cap (Lv62) - 261AP Nouver, 249 AP Kutum 24

Post-Softcap AP Brackets - 265+ AP 25

TET Basilisk Belt, Vell’s Heart- 270AP, 273AP 27

TET Ogre, TET Tungrad Earrings - 265, 269 AP Kutum 28

Change the weapons to match your class.

The General’s accessory can be enhanced using Fierce

I recommend picking either the earring or the belt,

You cannot change your accessory type once

You will need to determine when the General’s

If the difference in AP between the normal accessory

Adapt the weapons to match your class.

You can also receive Yona Fragments from melting

I RECOMMEND SAVING YONA

When you reach level 61 and 62 later on,

By completing these logs, you earn

Currently you can get 1 DP from reaching

Upcoming​ ​Favion’s HP Journal​ (600 HP Reward!) | ​Caphras Journal​ | ​Alustin’s Journal

Recommended Failstacks for Enhancing

Weapons and Armor

Recommended Main-Hand Weapons Comparison

Zoom in to see stats on each recommended main-hand weapon at TRI.

The value drops off at PEN however, as Akum

Considering when you’re going from TET to

Slot your gear with best in slot crystals for

In the vast majority of cases though the JIN

When you go beyond soft-cap, the brackets that

Enhancing one TET Crescent/Ruins Ring will get

At this stage, try your hand at Hystria Ruins.

The next AP threshold for bonus AP

Vell is a world boss that spawns every

You can receive the heart in two ways.

Then you can enhance two TET

Once you’re at this point, you’re

I’d recommend getting PEN

Enjoy Caphras Retirement.

Credit to WTFBloo for this guide to

You might also like

Upcoming Favion’s HP Journal (600 HP Reward!) | Caphras Journal | Alustin’s Journal