Introduction

Heidel Ball took place on 24th September 2022 to showcase upcoming content and answer common player questions. This year the Heidel Ball was hosted by GM Lafi, CM Endlaive and GM Nox!

If you missed the presentation you can catch it at the following official links:

• Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/blackdesertgame
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyEY38uz7zY

Coupons and Gifts

Official Announcement Link
You can redeem coupons either by going to the Official Website Main Menu > Shop > Redeem Coupon Code, or directly in-game through the ESC Menu > Adventurer Support > Redeem Coupon Code

Coupons expire December 6th 2022

• MEMO-RIES-TOGE-THER
  • 500x Marni’s Unstable Fuel
  • 1x Weapon Exchange Coupon Box
  • 1x J’s Hammer of Loyalty
  • 2x J’s Special Box
  • 1x [Event] Today’s Fine Steed Training Box
  • 20x [Event] Shining Shakatu’s Seal
  • 2x [Event] Rare Courser Training Box
  • 2000x Loyalties
  • 10x Combat & Skill EXP 300% Scroll (60 min)
  • 1x [Event] Nostalgia Classic Box
  • 1x [Event] Premium Outfit Box
  • 2000x Cron Stone
  • 1x Advice of Valks (+150)
• HEID-ELIC-EBRE-AKER
  • 1x Advice of Valks (+70)
    
• HEID-ELBA-LL20-2209
  • Only available after September 28th
  • x1 Secret Scroll of Pure Equilibrium

Events

• Heidel Ball Hot Time Event – Official Event Page
  • 25th September to 12th October 2022

• Special Login Rewards – Official Event Page
  • 25th September to 11th October 2022
  • Total login rewards: Crons x2000, Shining Shakatu Seals x20, Shakatu’s Resplendent Box x1

Abyss One: The Magnus

• The Magnus is a central hub in another world (rift) that exists outside of the world of Black Desert
• Players can go to the Magnus by falling deep into one of the 9 wells around the world that serve as a connection between the two realms
• Once at the Magnus, you can select different locations to travel to and there are several different locations you can explore
• These locations inside the Magnus are separate from the Black Desert world and are not part of time and space – The locations are referred to as the “Abyss”
• The Magnus is a starting point for new content and each Abyss location has different challenges and adventures for players to complete. The first challenge, for example, is in the sea where the player only has a rowing boat and must find how to escape

• The Magnus has its own special quest line which reveals information about the main storyline. For example, you can learn about Hadum’s Realm, and Jordine can also be found inside the Abyss, but he is not the Jordine that we know from the Black Desert world (similar to a multiverse character)
• The Magnus can be accessed after completing the Balenos Quest Line (level 15) and does not require gear to complete
• The Magnus also allows players to fast travel between major cities but has a few restrictions
• Items cannot be taken into the Magnus other than the item “Shadeglow Pebble”. This item can be obtained in the Magnus and then used to access the fast travel abilities or exchange for other rewards
• Completing the Magnus unlocks another Rabam skill for your class
• 1 piece of PEN boss gear can be obtained by completing the Magnus questline (this boss gear cannot be placed on the market)
• When you complete the Magnus questline, the Black Desert world will change as all the locations connect through the Magnus. This will unlock the ability to move items from different storage remotely. Eg. You can move items from Valencia storage to Calpheon storage.
• PA have been working on the Magnus since last year and it is almost ready now which is why it is finally being announced. The Magnus will be coming very soon with a global release on 12th October

Dev Talk Q&A

There have been lots of QoL updates lately and various other content such as Mountain of Eternal Winter, and Arena Solare. PA would like to focus on core content experiences since there have been a lot of QoL updates throughout the year. They will be releasing new content updates for the rest of this year because they know that’s what players look forward to the most even though QoL is always appreciated.

Class Balance and Skills

• Q: Can you balance classes faster and is there a schedule for class balance?
  • PA released a balance class covering many classes but felt there were some things that were insufficient. The developers explained that it is a constant process and on their minds 24/7. They see players saying “buff my class” or “nerf this class” all the time but balancing classes has always been sensitive. They want to check and analyze what they can improve on first.
  • For the future direction of balancing they want to try and balance classes faster. They are going to address the classes that need attention quickly rather than doing an overall balance patch at once. Since the class reboot, they’ve been trying to do large patches again, but this takes a lot of time.
  • There are a lot of issues at the moment, eg. Succession Wiz/Witch PVE/ Awake Maehwa PVP, etc.
  • They are aiming for a balance patch next week on Global Lab. Class balance patches also fill up the patch notes and are hard to follow so they are also looking for better ways to present the changes to classes in the patch notes.
• Q: Will there be new skills and updates for existing classes?
  • They want to use new skills for classes for balance purposes and give them to classes that really need more utility in their skill kit or lack a skill
  • They are planning to revamp unpopular skills as well since some players can find new skills annoying because of keybinds
  • The new Rabam skills that were announced today are going to be a bit different than other Rabams since they won’t be combining two skills. It will be more like how the Elvia skill works, but you can use the skill anywhere (not just in Magnus)
• Q: Will there be any updates to Skill Points?
  • With new skills, you also need more and more skill points which is annoying to new players. On average, players who complete the Season end up with around 1,100 to 1,300 skill points. Therefore they are reducing the average amount of skill points needed so that you only need around 1,000 skill points to learn all skills (for succession or awakening). The skill point change will be coming to Global Lab next week and everyone’s skills will be reset when this update comes through to live servers
  • They are still working out what to do with the remaining/leftover skill points. One concept is to add a new passive skill that you can keep leveling forever and it will increase your characters weight limit each time it is increased

PVE/Monster Zones

• Q: There is a lack of Elvia Servers, will you be adding more?
  • They are doing the finishing touches to “Parrallelvia Realm” which will allow you to move into Elvia’s Realm without being on an “Elvia” server. You will be able to channel a skill that will move you into Elvia’s Realm from any server, meaning you can go to Elvia monster zones on every server. It will still be an open world just like it is now (not like Marni’s Realm)
  • This has taken a while to develop but it is almost ready now! Planned to be coming on 5th October

• Q: Can you increase the daily limit time for Marni’s Realm? Eg. increasing time to 2h on the weekend?
  • They don’t want Marni’s Realm to be the main focus for monster zones since BDO is an open-world game
  • There is no plans to increase the time at the moment
• Q: Are you going to improve Monster zones?
  • After looking at the data, they noticed that Calpheon Elvia spots are not as popular now as they were on release
  • There are plans to increase the uses for Scorching Sun Shards and other materials gained from Calpheon Elvia spots
  • Basic silver income will be increased for Calpheon Elvia: Saunil, Giants, and Rhutum
  • Padix Island and Polly Forest were also mentioned for monster zone updates
• Q: Can you increase the drop rate of the Cup materials?
  • They will be adding a new way to get all of the materials back from the cups so that you can swap the cup from one accessory to another if you have already collected the materials once before

Atoraxxion Dungeon

• Q: New Atoraxxion WHEN?
  • Pearl Abyss expected the question today and has an announcement ready to show the players
  • Atoraxxion – Yolunakea was actually originally going to be previewed today and is the 3rd area, which is in a forest biome
  • Boss Teaser Video Link
  • Amarilos is the final boss and every time the boss dies it revives and comes back in a stronger form
  • The difficulty will be around the same as Sycrakea (gear requirements). They felt the difficulty was hard enough and there is still a final 4th biome where players will face Illezra which will be the most difficult fight. The difficulty will come through the mechanics and puzzles instead of just gear requirements
  • Since there are now 3 different biomes, they are going to reduce the time to clear the dungeons and get to the final bosses faster. Talibre’s Tear will be removed as well so there is no cost to enter
  • They are increasing the initial and repeat rewards for the normal difficulty to encourage more players to try Atoraxxion. You will also be able to complete the questline solo for just the story
  • Atoraxxion – Yolunakea is now in the final stage of development – Expected Global Release in November 2022

Guild and War Content

• Q: Will you be making any updates to Guild functions?
  • There have been a few updates to guilds lately, such as Guild ping, finding parties, and other updates.
  • One planned update is to reduce the time it takes to be upgraded from Guild Apprentice to a normal member. This will change from 2 weeks to 1 week. The Apprentice role will also be able to use guild vendors and install traps
• Q: Can you make guild bosses worth doing again?
  • Khan raid is going to be changed so the monsters are only visible to guild members and players cannot be attacked when battling Khan. This update will be coming between October to November
• Q: Are there going to be any changes to Field Bosses?
  • Field bosses are going to be changed so the rewards are more worthwhile again
  • Garmoth difficulty will also be corrected
• Q: What is the future direction for Node Wars?
  • The Node war change was focused more on big guilds than small guilds
  • The current (newer) rules for Node wars will be removed and the old rules will come back with improvements
  • The vision they had for node wars did not work as intended once it was implemented
  • With the return to the old rules, there are some concerns, such as Snipe guilds appearing again
  • There will be changes in place to minimize snipe guilds as much as possible. Eg. one concept is to add a system to limit the amount of times you can participate in a node war, if you don’t attend and only snipe the node, then you dont get the participation refunded, but if you participate fully by fighting in the node war, you will be able to participate again without any limit

Life Skills and QoL

• Q: Exchanging Flora (Life) light stones is annoying, can you improve it?
  
  • PA will be adding a UI so you can exchange these light stones quicker and easier
• Q: Can you add a skip function to the Alchemy Stone Growth UI?
  
  • Yes, that will be added!
• Q: Can you increase max quests from 30?
  • This is something they want to do. However, its difficult for them to implement at the moment because it effects performance and server performance
• Q: It is time-consuming to retrieve furniture from your manor, can you improve this?
  • There is a function where you can retrieve all the furniture to your storage
• Q: Upgrading workshops take a long time, can this be changed?
  • PA will be updating this so you can level workshops straight to max level without waiting for each upgrade
• Q: After the monster zone update, Life skill profits have been underwhelming. Will you be updating Life Skills?
  • They want to increase the profit of all life skills and have been making small changes on Global Labs recently to improve life skills over time
  • Training and Fishing have recently been changed and all other life content will be improved slowly as well
  • There are more updates planned, for example the spawn locations of Truffle mushrooms for the gathering will be improved
  • Agris fever points are also being changed so you can use them for gathering as well
• Q: Will you add Crystal Presets?
  • Pearl Abyss has already started developing a crystal preset system
  • However, is going to take a while to develop (approx 3 months) because of the structural changes due to the way crystals need to be socketed into gear
  • Once it is ready a new UI is going to be created for a combined UI for artifacts/light stones and crystals
  • When the preset system is ready, PA wants to create a system so that you have your PVE/PVP setup and it will automatically switch for you depending on what content you are doing

Previously Announced Contents

Pearl Abyss admitted that in the past they were so excited to announce new content but it was often announced too quickly and too early in development. Now they are announcing content when it is much further along in development so that players are not disappointed.

• 10 vs 10 crew battles – canceled
  • They are improving the Arena of Solare instead because they want to add new features and make sure it is polished. New features such as replays are planned to be added eventually
• Blackstar Raid – indefinite hold (has not been canceled)
  • They want to focus on improving other bosses first, such as Nouver and Kutum
• Terror of the Abyss – canceled
  • It was developed but was not fun when internally tested and found to be too difficult. PA wants to allocate their resources and time back into improving existing monster zones instead
• Age of Trade – on hold
  • Server sync on prices and other things made it hard to implement and design so they are still working out the concept
• Snowboarding – canceled
  • Snowboarding was fun the first time but they don’t want to release content that does not add meaningful gameplay

Land of the Morning Light

• The next region has been officially renamed Land of the Morning Light (previously Land of the Morning Calm)

Teaser Video:
https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkxz5x8f6qZ1CoyhjRiJIYbqWLuPY6cBkCk

• It is still being developed at the moment and the release date is not set at the moment, they have the goal to announce it this winter but there is no guarantee. Scheduled to be released before spring 2023
• This new region is inspired greatly by Korean folklore, mythology, architecture, and vegetation
• Artwork Illustrations as shown in the teaser will appear in cutscenes for the main story
• The main story will be inspired by the mythology and stories
• The content will be carefully localized to convey and represent the Korean mythology and folklore

Gear and Costumes

• Q: When will the other Fallen God pieces be added?
  • They are aiming to release the gloves and shoes this winter – gloves will be coming with Land of Morning Light
  • There will be 2 different pieces you can switch between (like bhegs/leeburs)