BDO Basics - Level Without Questing

Introduction

If you're new to Black Desert, you might not know that you can level up just by grinding

• Black Desert is a sandbox game, questing isn't the only method to level up for new players
• Leveling by questing might be more efficient as it offers rewards and content that you'll want later
• You can revisit quests when your character is stronger to complete them faster anyway
• Forcing yourself to quest when starting the game might turn away combat focused players

 

Most of Black Desert's End Game consists of grinding and leveling in this way gives a sample of that. 

Helpful In game Buffs

In Black Desert there are plenty of ways to increase Combat Exp, here are some of the basic, main ways to do so:

 

Mercenary's Experience (60 min) - 200% Combat Exp buff that can be converted to a 600% scroll by following the instructions on the item's tooltip. 

 

Combat & Skill EXP 300% Scroll (60 min) - stacks with the above scroll and provides more exp, there's also a 530% version you can grab from the free loyalties store (F3) 

 

Blessed Message Scroll (120 min) - Another 200% buff that stacks with the previous buffs. 

 

Book of Combat (1 Day) - The book provides a lengthy timed buff that stacks with the rest. 

 

 

[Fame] Combat EXP +100% (60 min) - A buff collected from the Rewards (Y) window that requires Fame score, may be unavailable to new players with low fame score.

 

Lightstone of Wind: Alert (Combat) - 4 of these placed into your artifacts grants a total of +400% Combat Exp 

 

 

Show / Hide Options 

When first starting Black Desert, there can be a lot of announcements or UI elements that may be a little overwhelming. 

Don't worry, you can show and hide whichever you like in the settings menu. Hit Esc and open up the settings menu using this button: 

 

You might see a different menu when you hit Esc, as you may be using the old UI. To change it just click the new menu button. 

 

 

Then once you're in the Settings menu you can customize the nofitications and alerts however you like: 

 

 

You can turn off the notifications that pop up at the top of the screen in the Alerts section. 

 

 

Starting Out

When you first create your character (It's best to create one on the Season server for additional benefits) I'd recommend doing the first initial questline that takes you to the city of Velia. 

 

Make sure you're logged into one of the Season servers so that you're able to get the bonus Combat Exp. You can change channel in the top right.

 

 

 

The initial quests are part of a short questline that will introduce the game, some combat, give you some basic beginner gear and provide you with 8 days of a Value Pack. 

 

Once you get to the "Choose Your Path" it's quicker to do [Crossroad] Only Fear Reveals the Truth

 

 

All you'll have to do is destroy some carts, then you can progress on the quest. If you want to choose the other path you can, it's not a huge deal. 

 

Once you've defeated Red Nose you'll be asked to goto Velia, before you do that, talk to your Black Spirit (.) and select the [Special gift] Traveling Light I quest. 

 

 

This will provide you with a 1 day Value Pack which is one of Black Desert's subscription items. Use the 1 day VP and then talk to the Black Spirit again to grab a 7 day Value Pack. 

 

The Value Pack gives a bunch of benefits, they're mostly self explanatory, but the one we're worried about is the extra Exp for now. You can only do this questline once per account.   

 

 

Next you can head over to Velia as your quests suggest (You can check your map with M) once you're in Velia you'll want to head to the storage keeper. 

 

 

If you're a little lost or aren't sure where to find the Storage Keeper (or any other NPC you might want to locate) you can use the Find NPC system in the top right corner.

 

 

You can click the Storage icon in the NPC finder to set an auto path to the NPC, just hit R and you'll start auto-pathing. 

 

 

The reason why we're stopping off at the Storage keeper is to use the Currency Exchange, this is because we got five  
Gold Bars 10G as a quest reward. 

 

 

Selling these will give you 5 million silver, which we'll use to help level up a little quicker. Head over to the Central Marketplace by using the NPC finder. 

 

 

Once you access the Central Marketplace, you'll have to deposit your silver. Click the "Manage Warehouse" button. 

 

 

After, you'll see some new UI. Click the Deposit button on your inventory and place at least 500k in the Central Marketplace.

 

 

This is so that we can purchase some buff food, we'll be buying a Simple Cron Meal to buff our stats. It'll provide a pretty big benefit at this point as we have basically no gear. 

 

 

You can use the Search function to search for the meal, then click the meal icon. Click on the Buy button like below:  

 

 

After you've bought it, you can close this window. Head back to the "Manage Warehouse" button and right click your meal to put it in your inventory. 

 

Right click on the Simple Cron Meal to use it, the food buff will let you clear most early game monsters easily.

 

You can also try to grab a Destruction Spirit Stone now that you know how to use the Central Marketplace but there may not be any available. 

 

 

To use the stone, open your Inventory (I) and click the Shortcut (U) check box, it will automatically re-apply a buff to your character. 

 

 

Head over to the Goblins, near Cron Castle it's close by to Velia. Get to level 16 then head back to Velia. 

 

 

When you go back to Velia, you can talk to the Stable Keeper NPC Lorenzo Murray and pick up a Traveler's horse. 

 

 

Click on the Traveler's Horse button, and you'll rent out a free horse which you can use to run around on for the time being. 

 

Here's some basic controls on how to use horses in Black Desert, it'll just make getting to the grind locations a little faster. 

 

Sprint 

By holding down (Shift) + (W) while riding your horse, the horse will run faster and then maintain this higher speed. 

 

 

Instant Accel 

While you're sprinting, you can press (F) to use instant accel for a burst of acceleration. 

 

You can also hold down (F) while sprinting which will cause the skill to be used as soon as its off cooldown. 

 

 

Drift

Drift allows you to do exactly what the name suggests. The horse can drift either left or right. 

 

To use Drift use (S) + (A / D) depending on the direction you would like to drift. But there is another important use for Drift. 

 

When you use Drift on a horse, it will reset the cooldown of Instant Accel, helping you gain even more speed. It's recommended to use Drift at the end of Instant Accel's animation. 

 

 

If you need a reminder of the controls in game or simply want to view what skills your horse has available press (P) while mounted. 

 

Early Game Levelling 

We're going to head over to Altar imps, a grind spot near Heidel, one of the most popular cities.

 

If the location is greyed out on your map, don't worry, you can just right click the location and you'll be able to auto-path there. 

 

 

At the location, we're going to pop some EXP buffs that you can obtain through Loyalties.

 

Hit (Y) to open the Rewards tab, you'll then see the Loyalties which you can claim: 

Once you've got the Loyalties you can open the cash shop (F3) and then goto the Loyalties section of the store. Then you'll want to buy the 530% EXP buff scrolls. 

 

 

Once you have the scrolls, just use 1 of them. The exp boost along with being on the Season server will make this really quick. 

 

It shouldn't take long to hit level 18, once you've hit level 18, we'll move on to Swamp Nagas. 

 

 

Before you move on to Swamp Nagas, you can grab yourself a loot pet if you'd like to. It will give you some item drops as you grind.

 

If you want to do this, goto your Season pass in the top right, it flashes yellow so it's hard to miss. 

 

 

After level 18 you'll unlock 20 x [Season] Summer Seal. Right click the item and it will auto path you to the exchange NPC where you can hand them over for a pet.  

 

For the grind spot, you'll want to stay at Swamp Nagas til level 21 then move on over to Swamp Fogans which is just nearby to the east. 

 

 

We can stay at Swamp Fogans until level 25 then we can head over to Orc Camp, we'll have no problem staying there all the way to level 31. 

 

 

After we're done with Orc Camp, we'll move to Khuruto, it's not too far away and we can stay there until level 38-39. 

 

 

Once we hit level 35 we will unlock our Black Spirit Rage, once you do, hit Alt+B to lock it.

 

Once it charges to 100% you can hit "Z" to gain a powerful buff which will be important to for our kill speed. 

 

 

When we're done with Khuruto, we're going to head south to the Saunil Camp, another spot with good mob density: 

 

 

Stick around Saunil camp until around level 45 - 46, then make your way over to Rhutum Outstation. We'll be able to stay there until level 50. 

 

Make sure you're turning on your new Z buff and you should have no problems levelling up here. 

 

 

Once you hit level 49 - 100%, you'll need to complete a quest by talking to the Black Spirit (.) otherwise you won't hit 50.

 

 

Talk to the Black Spirit and accept the "Go Beyond Your Own Limits" quest and then chat to the Black Spirit. 

 

 

Once you're done, you're able to hit Level 50 and then you can move on to the next section. 

 

Level 50+ 

Head back to Heidel, we're going to use the money from our level up rewards (Y) to buy some more items to assist our levelling up past this level. 

 

And by now I'd also recommend you grab the loot pet from the Season pass method mentioned earlier if you haven't already as level 50+ spots will be worth at least some silver and drop items. 

 

 

Head over to the Central Marketplace and pick up at least 2 Beast's Draught which will serve as another way to self buff.

 

Then run over to the Skill Instructor NPC where we'll be able to pick up our first Skill Add-on. Since we have basically no gear, these things will help us to clear mobs. 

 

 

To choose a Skill Add-on, click the '+' button and you'll see a selection of skills, which one doesn't matter too much at this stage of the game. 

 

 

Just choose which that you're comfortable with and apply the +30 Monster AP to the skill. Here's an example. 

 

 

You can grab these every two levels if you're struggling. Before setting out I'd recommend taking some HP potions from the General Shop NPC Lara. 

 

For the next location, you can head over to Manes Hideout until around level 52, make sure you're using your Z buff and an EXP boost scroll if you need one. 

 

 

You can also kill Wandering Rogues or Abandoned Iron Mines instead and work towards getting the DUO Asula Necklace and DUO Asula Ring. 

 

 

If you only want to do one (as the gear will be replaced later) then work on the Asula Crimson Eye Necklace as it will give 11 AP and 4 DP since it comes enhanced to DUO. 

 

Because we have such limited gear, that's actually a decent upgrade for us and will help you work towards level 56 for your awakening or succession quest anyway. 

 

Awakening and Succession are class enhancements that unlock powerful skills after level 56.

 

 

Like the other two locations, you can also try out Helm's Post or Elric Shrine if you'd like, they each give their own Asula gear too. 

 

Don't get too hung up on getting the accessories though as they'll be quickly replaced, your main goal is getting to level 56, Sausans Garrison is also an option when you're closer to 56. 

 

 

This buff can be found in your (Y) window, it'll provide a small bit of extra exp if you'd like to use it to help get to level 56. 

 

Time Filled Black Stones

If you come across any Time-filled Black Stones while levelling, you can take them to a Blacksmith NPC to exchange them for the best Seasonal gear. 

 

Time-filled Black Stones will drop from monsters as loot while you're on a Season server, so keep an eye out for them. 

 

 

You'll want to grab the Main weapon first, then the necklace. Once you have the necklace, work on making the main hand +7. 

 

To enhance something, just right click on the Time-filled Black Stones you'll be taken to the Enhancement UI.

 

Right click the stones and the item you want to enhance, then click enhance, it's really easy.  

 

 

Since we're only worried about +7 for now there's no risk of failing on the main hand weapon.

 

After +7 you can fill out the rest of the armor set, it all just depends on how much Time-filled Black Stones you get. 

 

Level 56+ 

Once you've hit level 56 you can do your Awakening or Succession questlines by talking to your Black Spirit (,)

 

These questlines are mandatory and pretty short, make sure you have your potions and buffs ready if you still have no extra gear but the new skills will up your damage by a huge amount. 

 

After you've finished your questline, you can move over to Desert Nagas for level 56+ 

 

 

Make sure you're using at least one pet while you're here, as Time-filled Black Stones will drop a lot more often which will help you gear up. 

 

As you get stronger gear you can look around other Valencia spots, eventually making your way up to level 61. If you're using exp buffs it shouldn't take too long. 

 

Nagas is a great starter zone because it requires low AP (Attack Power) and drops a number of items that will help you progress into mid game. 

 

 

Have you tried levelling without finishing the main questline first? Let us know!

 

 

 

Why not check out some of our other guides while you're here?