Adventurers,

May 30^th saw the first ever Black Desert Heidel Ball: AT HOME edition, where the future of Black Desert was revealed via stream.

For those of you who missed the Heidel Ball, below is the 2020 roadmap that was revealed by Lead Producer Jae-Hee.  

※ The roadmap below covers the future of Black Desert in general. The update schedules for both Console and PC may differ. Contents are also subject to change.

New Class - Hashashin

Aal’s warrior, Hashashin, is getting ready to storm the world of Black Desert. Armed with the Shamshir, Hashashin is adept at melee combat.

By manipulating sandstorms using the powers of the native Valencian god, Hashashin is able to quickly escape from danger as well as suppress his opponents. His mastery over the desert also allows him to run faster in the desert and have a higher resistance to desert diseases.

Once awakened, Hashashin’s faith in Aal grows stronger, allowing the warrior to receive the hidden power of the god.

Here is a sneak peak at one of Hashashin’s main skills, the Apostle’s Descent.

In addition, Hashashin is able to imbue the memory of a specific place into a sandstorm, which allows him to teleport to that place, given that he is not too far away. He can also manipulate sandstorms to chase enemies or ambush them from above.

As mentioned by Jae-hee during the Heidel Ball, most Black Desert content is released first on BDO KR, then to the global services of BDO [which includes Black Desert Console]. For the first time, Hashashin will be playable on Console after the BDO KR release, being the first out of all of the global services.

Siege of Thornwood

Thornwood Fortress is new content in O’dyllita, previously introduced as the Siege of Thornwood.

Five Adventurers will band together and for a team, then get randomly assigned to either the Ganelles or the Vedirs. Both teams will participate a PvP/boss-raid type combat. The team that defeats the final boss, Sephir Odore, will be determined the victor.

As each team moves towards their destination, they must react quickly to the given situations, balancing their plan of attack against monsters and the enemy team.

Thornwood Fortress is content that is founded on simple PvE rules with a dash of PvP. A variety of tactics and strategies will be required as Adventurers will need to communicate effectively with their team members if they hope to claim victory.

Grand Prix & Race Horses

Thanks to the donations of the Old Moon Guild, Gula, the Chairperson of the Riding Association, will be able to introduce new horse breeds: Brisa, Viento, Rafaga, and Tempesta. While similar in appearance to existing horse breeds, these new additions have different and unique skills.

According to Gula, these foreign Race Horses possess a type of stamina called the “Power of Wind.” This stamina is used when performing Sprint and Instant Acceleration during a race, slowly recovering while cornering or sprinting normally. The management of the Power of Wind and mastery over the course will be the deciding factors for Adventurers who want to be the best of the best.

Bounty

The addition of the Ocean content invigorated an interest in the high seas. New content such as bartering, sea monster hunting, monstrous threats (Khan and Vell), and more have propelled Adventurers to make ships and explore the vast waters. Adventurers who took to the seas have also engaged in PvP, which is a completely different experience from PvP on land.

We expect to see a variety of new systems that can be implemented, but amongst those, the idea of “Bounty” is something that comes to mind.

Adventurers who have been attacked by others in PvP will be able to place a bounty on the aggressors. Other Adventurers will be able to claim honor points proportionate to the bounty placed on an Adventurer if they take them down.

There is still a lot to discuss and improve upon as this idea is still in the early stages of development, but we believe this will off a new and fresh take on PvP.

Zodiac Signs?

Zodiac Signs are inherent to your character, allowing you to converse with NPCs with the same Zodiac Sign without the required level of Amity, as well as grant a slight bonus in the Amity game. While not having a great influence on the gameplay on a large scale, Zodiac Signs were rather a small form of in-game entertainment.

We thought long and hard about how to increase the impact of the Zodiac Signs. One idea is for your Zodiac Sign to influence your luck. For example, if today was the day of the Black Dragon, then all characters of the Black Dragon Sign would gain a 1% increase in item drops, +1 enhancement stack, additional EXP, an increase to their enhancement success rate, and other minimal yet fun effects.

We feel that this can add a little spice to your gameplay each day and later be developed into content such as Zodiac Tarot Shops.

New Challenge in Node Wars

Node Wars are still very popular across regions and platforms, but it isn’t quite the same as it used to be. There are a variety of reasons as to why, but we believe that the current situation calls for at least a slight change.

At the center of the proposed changes in Node War is a form of warfare where guilds can slowly expand their territory based on the initially acquired node by connecting nodes in order to conquer the next. Guild members must discuss which node to attack or which to protect in order to dominate Node Wars.

In addition to dividing it up into 3 stages, we have also been collecting feedback from Adventurers from all over, looking into feedback about the high barrier of entry for novice guilds, making mercenaries into permanent War Heroes, rewards for acquiring nodes and more. We will continue to look into each and every piece of feedback to improve Node Wars.

Global Arena of Arsha

With the increase in the number of countries that Pearl Abyss self publishes in, we believe that we can take new and novel approaches to running Black Desert as a whole.

That is why we are planning to select representatives from each region, invite them to Korea, and host a global Arena of Arsha tournament. At the moment, this isn’t possible due to the current pandemic, but we will as soon as it is safe to do so.

Specialized Servers

As Adventurers continue to progress, levelling up became a much faster task and the grind spots in the initial levelling routes are being forgotten. Fogans and the Red Orc regions in Serendia are only passed by once during the levelling process.

Here, we seek to develop a new system where in certain servers, the power of Hadum continues to grow stronger. In these specialized servers, monsters in lower level zones will become greatly empowered. As such, those forgotten areas will become dangerous once again.

The rewards will match the danger that Adventurers will face. We hope to provide powerful Adventurers a sense of mortality in these areas.  

This isn’t the End of the World

Currently, we are planning to develop a high-altitude region covered with snow that is south of Mediah. Legend has it that a gigantic dragon, different from Garmoth, resides in this area. At the moment, we are aiming for a Winter 2021 release.

Next is a region that was previously announced as the Land of Demons, located above Valencia. It is where Hashashin fought tirelessly against demonic foes. Adventurers can expect a different type of power and monster that inhabit this area.

What lies beyond the lands of the Kingdom of Haso? If we feel that we are limited by the current technology, we will seek out new means and techniques to introduce these undiscovered lands to all Adventurers.

During the remaining time of 2020, we will do our best to deliver a variety of updates that we can enjoy with our Adventurers together.