Black Desert Online December 6 Update: Full Patch Notes Listed

PvP players rejoice, we’ve got winter events out the whazoo and a new way to kill your buddies. Here’s the Black Desert Online update for December 6.

Black Desert Online (BDO) December 6 Update: Full Patch Notes Listed

If you ever wanted to kill a stranger, then BDO has you. In its continuing bid to improve the quality and diversity of PvP, we’ve got an entirely new anonymous server that will allow you to kill anyone you come across. Plus, quite a few adjustments to classes and the nitty-gritty on the winter events that will be hitting the game. So, let’s dive right in.

Arsha: Anonymous

We’ve added the new Arsha: Anonymous server. On this server, all adventurers will be displayed as Hardened Adventurers, as all other personal info will be hidden away and only revealed between party members, encouraging an atmosphere solely focused on freely engaging other adventurers in combat. There’s no need to activate Forced PvP mode here, and even guild members won’t be able to discern fellow guildie from foe. All other adventurers on this server are free game. This is an Arsha server with a new set of rules. On Arsha: Anonymous, you will be free from the constraints of worrying about your opponent’s name, which guild they hail from, or if you’ve remembered to activate Forced PvP this time. We anticipate in seeing how this server will grow as a zone where only pure PvP goes. The pre-existing Arsha server and its rules will remain untouched. Do note, however, that there may be changes depending on how the server plays out.

• Added the Arsha: Anonymous server, which is an Arsha server with a new set of rules. The pre-existing Arsha server remains the same as before.
  • All Adventurers in this server will only see “Hardened Adventurer” displayed for both Family & Character names in all relevant UI.            
    * Your character’s Journal and the End Game window will display “?” instead.            
  • Typing in chat will also reveal your actual name.
    • Logging into this server will be displayed in the Guild Members tab of the Guild UI.
  • All other Adventurers minus those in your party will be treated as enemies on this server.
    • Platoons are unavailable on this server, and you will automatically leave a platoon upon switching to this server.
    • Fellow guild members will also be displayed as a white square (□) on the minimap like any other Adventurer.
    • Hovering your mouse over the white square (□) of an Adventurer will display them as a Hardened Adventurer.
    • Typing in chat will not display speech bubbles for your character.
    • Skills that buff allies will only work between party members.
    • Guild skills (both active and passive) will work in the same manner as before.
  • Kills/deaths inflicted between members of warring guilds on this server will count towards the total guild kills/deaths.
  • Adventurers of all levels can attack and be struck by other Adventurers (minus those in their own party) on the Arsha: Anonymous server.

• Changed the following due to the addition of the Arsha: Anonymous server.
  • Changed Season-6 server to Arsha: Anonymous.

Events

Afuaru’s been busy hoarding loot!

• Dec 6, 2023 (Wed) after maintenance – Dec 20, 2023 (Wed) before maintenance
• Rewards: Cron Stone x 100, Memory Fragment x 50, Item Collection Increase Scroll, Caphras Stone x 3-4

The Plump Gizzard Shad has arrived!

• Dec 6, 2023 (Wed) after maintenance – Dec 20, 2023 (Wed) before maintenance
• Rewards: [Event] Gizzard Shad, [Event] Plump Gizzard Shad

Wintertime Warmth Challenge!

• Log in during the event period to receive rewards!
• Dec 7, 2023 (Thu) 00:00 (UTC) – Dec 20, 2023 (Wed) before maintenance
• Rewards: Advice of Valks (35-45), [Event] Someone’s Sack

Who left this box behind…!?

• Who left their box behind at Finto Farm?! What’s in the mysterious box? Send a worker over to find out!
• Dec 6, 2023 (Wed) after maintenance – Dec 20, 2023 (Wed) before maintenance
• Rewards: [Event] Someone’s Box

Class Changes

Sorceress

We’ve spent a long time adjusting the damage of various Sorceress skills beyond Violation to enhance her PvE efficiency. Despite initial PvE improvements with the Skill Add-on system revamp, the Awakening Sorceress remains less efficient than expected, especially considering the difficulty of her Awakening form, which should offer equivalent rewards. In today’s update, we’re increasing Violation’s damage. However, to promote the use of other skills, its damage during cooldown remains unchanged. In addition, the Awakening Sorceress previously couldn’t sustain combos using only Awakening skills in PvE, even if she was actively using Cartian’s Nightmare. The limited PvE skill options, due to PvP-focused skills like Nightmare and Flow: Requiem, also posed a challenge. To address this, we have improved the possible combos and damage of Flow: Vile Plan so that it can be used between skills, which we hope will reduce her reliance on main weapon or enhanced (Rabam) skills in PvE.

Awakening

• Violation
  • Changed the skill damage.
  • Damage during cooldown remains the same as before.
• Removed mention of any text related to the skill usage during cooldown in the Black Spirit version’s description as the Black Spirit skill cannot be used during cooldown.
  • Improved to now spin your character smoothly with the same direction as the camera before the down slash attack.
• Performing the skill backwards by consuming Shards of Darkness remains the same as before.
• Blade of Darkness
  • Improved to combo more smoothly into other skills.
• Flow: Vile Plan
  • Changed the skill damage.
  • Removed “when using Fragments of Darkness” but made attack 2 always deal the enhanced version of the attack.
  • Matched the attack area of attacks 1 and 2 with the largest area.
  • Improved to now combo from Grim Reaper’s Judgment, Swirling Darkness, and Blade of Darkness.
  • Fixed the issue where Air Attack would be applied only once during attack 1.
  • Improved to now combo into Flow: Soul Reaper.
• Core: Grim Reaper’s Judgment
  • Fixed the issue where the extra charged attack damage didn’t apply during Grim Reaper upon learning this skill.

Musa

For Succession Musa, today’s update removed attacks 1 and 2 for Prime: Gale, which had been rather inconvenient to use, and now only attack 3 will be performed. The Succession Musa primarily utilizes combos with Prime: Gale and Prime: Blooming. However, in this update, we’ve tweaked the cooldowns so the Prime: Rising Storm – Succession: Rising Storm: Blaze combo can be used more frequently.

Main & Succession

• Prime: Gale
  • Removed attacks 1 and 2. Changed to only perform attack 3.
  • The Floating on attack 1 hit debuff has been removed accordingly.
• Rising Storm: Blaze, Succession: Rising Storm: Blaze
  • Changed the cooldown: 25 sec → 15 sec
• Prime: Carver
  • Reduced the damage during cooldown for PvE only due to the increase in PvE damage.
  • Fixed the issue where damage with Tiger Blade drawn wasn’t being applied.

Awakening

• Inferno Slash
  • Changed the cooldown: 10 sec → 7 sec
  • Changed to now allow for Tier 2 Skill Add-ons.
• Eradicate
  • Improved to now combo smoothly from backwards Chase.
  • Changed the damage of the following skills.

Maehwa

Awakening

• Black Spirit: Petal Swirl
  • Fixed the incorrect All Accuracy Rate +20% to +15% in the skill description.

Striker

The Succession Striker, while lacking Critical Hit Rate buffs from skills like Prime: Crimson Fang, Prime: Somersault, Prime: Roaring Tiger, and Prime: Rage Hammer, could still deal high damage under the Critical Hit Rate buff from Bloody Fang. However, when initiating a combo, the Striker’s priority lies in obtaining the Attack Speed buff from Crouching Wolf immediately upon collecting 3 Martial Spirits. Thus, quite often you’d have to wait after you’d achieved the buff first by using your major skills before attempting to gain the Bloody Fang’s Critical Hit Rate buff with 3 Martial Spirits. Therefore, now when you consume 3 Martial Spirits and perform Flow: Prey Hunt, you will gain the Bloody Fang’s Critical Hit Rate buff, thereby increasing the means of acquiring this important buff at the combo’s start. Also, the Succession Striker had a narrower attack area compared to Awakening, but the damage didn’t match this limitation. Therefore, we plan to increase his PvE damage to better align with his attack area constraints.

Main & Succession

• Flow: Prey Hunt, Bloody Fang
  • Improved Flow: Prey Hunt to now activate Bloody Fang at the same time when used in Succession.
• Wolf’s Explosive Fangs
  • Changed to now become empowered when under Flow: Prey Hunt’s effect.
  • Fixed the issue where attack 2 hit wasn’t recovering WP and Martial Spirit Shards.
• Prime: Roaring Tiger
  • Improved to deal Discharge Energy damage when used after consuming Martial Spirits.
• Prime: Rage Hammer
  • Changed to now perform a leap attack when comboed from Flow: Back Step.
• Succession: Flow: Savage Fang
  • Improved to deal Discharge Energy damage when used after consuming Martial Spirits.
  • Fixed the issue where you would deal less hits.\[Enter your work phone number here]
• Rising Blast Combo
  • Fixed the issue where the wrong skill guide was displayed.
  • Changed the damage of the following skills.

Hashashin

For the Succession Hashashin, using large-animation skills to gain effects like DP Decrease and AP Increase was burdensome. To ease this, we’ve shifted the DP Decrease effect from Prime: Dune Slash to Prime: Purge, and moved the All AP Increase effect from Haladie Throw and Aal’s Command to Prime: Dune Slash, simplifying the setup process. We also reduced the cooldown of Prime: Ridge Reaver for smoother combos with Prime: Purge and Prime: Dune Slash. The cooldown of Beckoned Blade has been aligned with Prime: Descent of the Apostle, enhancing cyclone summons and damage output. Lastly, we’ve adjusted Prime: Quicksand’s PvE damage to support continuous combos and consistent damage.

Main & Succession

• Prime: Ridge Reaver
  • Changed the cooldown: 8 sec → 7 sec
• Prime: Chosen Blade
  • Changed the cooldown: 13 sec → 12 sec
  • Changed the Skill Add-on tier from 3 to 2 accordingly.
• Prime: Dune Slash
  • Changed the on hit effect: All DP -20 for 10 sec on hits → All AP +20 for 10 sec on hits
  • Moved the All DP reduction debuff to Prime: Purge.
  • Removed the All AP increase buff for Aal’s Command.
  • Changed so Arid Assault will still activate without the AP buff when comboed with a skill.

Awakening

• Serpent’s Coil (I to III)
  • Changed the cooldown: 15/14/13 sec → 12/11/10 sec
  • Changed the Skill Add-on tier from 3 to 2 accordingly.
• Retribution
  • Changed so the last attack applies the same regardless of the location performed.

Maegu

We’ve adjusted the duration of the Critical Hit Damage Increase effect from Maegu’s Awakening passive, Twirling Crane, for easier maintenance. Additionally, we’ve fine-tuned the PvE damage of certain skills that were underperforming. Given that Maegu’s Awakening skills lack Increased Accuracy and Decreased Evasion effects and have low skill Accuracy rates, we’ve added an Evasion Reduction effect to Foxflare Cleave. This change is intended to compensate for the insufficient Accuracy.

Awakening

• Foxflare Cleave
  • Added the effect All Evasion Rate -9% for 10 sec on hit.
• Twirling Crane
  • Changed the duration of the Critical Hit Damage Increase passive effect: 20/10/5 sec → 30/20/10 sec.

Contents

Black Shrine

• Improved the bosses in the Black Shrine as follows.

Arena of Solare

Arena of Solare Practice Match

• Improved matchmaking in Practice Matches to pair you with other waiting participants more quickly.

Arena of Solare Custom Match

• Added Arena of Solare Custom Match where you can enjoy the Arena of Solare with friends.
  • You can access this through the ESC menu – War (F7) – Arena of Solare Custom Match button.
  • Custom match can be created through the Arena of Solare UI, where you can directly invite participants to join the game and assign teams.

* Arena selection and spectator features in the Arena of Solare Custom Match will be supported in the future.

Green Artisan (Green Thumb) Gathering Mini-game

• Adjusted the difficulty of the Green Artisan (Green Thumb) gathering mini-game to make it easier to play.

Great Ocean

Many captains are completing daily quests in Oquilla’s Eye to obtain materials for building their very own carrack, but they were slightly difficult for new and upcoming captains to manage on their own. So we’ve added the Young Sea Monster Habitat and decreased the HP of sea monsters to help rookie captains complete related quests even when doing them alone. And of course there are veteran captains helping others to do these daily quests. To make sure you feel more rewarded in doing so, we’ve changed the rewards for defeating large sea monsters from carrack materials to those more useful and added weekly quests on top of the daily quests so that you can obtain more rewards on a weekly basis. We’ve also added titles for defeating sea monsters, which could serve as an extra goal for sailing out to the great ocean. We’ve issued a new Oquilla Coin with fewer coins required to exchange with various items. This should shorten the period required to gather materials. Also, you can exchange the coins for items such as Luminous Cobalt Ingot, Great Ocean Dark Iron, and Cox Pirates’ Artifact (Parley Beginner) which you cannot obtain from daily quests. The number of exchanges required to unlock Brilliant Rock Salt Ingot and Brilliant Pearl Shard have also been greatly reduced, allowing for a much more pleasant process of gathering materials for a carrack. Beginner captains also needed Sea Monster’s Ooze to build Epheria Caravel/Galleass from Sailboat/Frigate, but it was difficult for them to catch up to fast moving sea monsters. To mitigate this, we’ve added Diseased Hekaru, which does not move about as much. We hope this helps you to better gather Sea Monster Ooze’s and fulfill your dreams of sailing the great ocean.

Great Ocean Monsters and Sailing Quests

• Decreased the HP of the below monsters by 80%.
  • Hekaru, Ocean Stalker
  • Young Candidum, Young Black Rust, Young Nineshark
  • Young Hekaru, Young Ocean Stalker
•  Added titles for defeating the below monsters certain number of times.

• Added titles for defeating the below monsters certain number of times.

• Added Young Sea Monster Habitat to the north-west of Oquilla’s Eye.
  • Young Candidum, Young Black Rust, and Young Nineshark can found at the Young Sea Monster Habitat.
• The following quests can now be accepted from Ravikel:
  • [Weekly] Old Moon Guild’s Candidum Hunter
  • [Weekly] Old Moon Guild’s Nineshark Hunter
  • [Weekly] Old Moon Guild’s Black Rust Hunter

* These are weekly quests and can be accepted again every Thursday at midnight.

* Weekly and Daily Old Moon Hunter quests can be done at the same time.

• Changed the accumulated number of trade requirements for the appearance of Brilliant Rock Salt Ingot and Brilliant Pearl Shard.

• Changed the how to obtain description of the following items from [Daily] Ravikel’s Test to [Daily] Lively Iliya Island I.
  • Pure Pearl Crystal, Deep Sea Memory Filled Glue, Bright Reef Piece.

Oquilla Coin

• Issued a new Oquilla Coin.
  • The new Oquilla Coin, which can be obtained through quests at Oquilla’s Eye, can be exchanged for additional types of goods with fewer quantities.

* With the existing *Oquilla Coin, you can only proceed with the [Daily] Small Repayment from the Old Moon Guild I, II quest as before, and you cannot exchange for items with Herrad Romsen.

* The existing Oquilla Coin that is not used now can be sold for 1 Crow Coin per piece.

Sailor EXP

• Increased the amount of EXP that can be obtained based on the number of sailors boarded on the ship.

* If more than 11 sailors are on board, the obtained EXP will be multiplied by 400% and then distributed equally among all the sailors.            

For example, if there are 30 boarded sailors, the obtained EXP x 400% is equally distributed to the 30 sailors, each receiving approximately 13.3%.

Old Moon Grand Prix Matchmaking

• Changed the Old Moon Grand Prix to recruit participants through matchmaking.
  • Click on the Race Info button to the left of the Minimap to begin matching, or via ESC Menu – Life (F6) – Old Moon Grand Prix – Select Racetrack – Select Enter.
  • Upon successful matchmaking, you will automatically enter the racetrack and the race will start after approximately 1 min of preparation time.
    • However, if the minimum number of participants is less than 5, the race will be cancelled, and you will leave the racetrack.
• Changed the operating hours for the Old Moon Grand Prix to from 10 AM to 1 AM (GMT+3) daily.

* You cannot use the Quick Hotkey while matchmaking for the Old Moon Grand Prix is in progress.

Old Moon Grand Prix Improvements

• Reduced the additional speed correction stats by half as the rank of the race horse decreases.
• Improved the rotation speed while sprinting or drifting to be faster.
• Changed so that the speed level will no longer decrease when using drift at a speed level of 4 or below.
• Fixed the issue where the Speed Limit Increase button (Q) was not immediately displayed even when the speed gauge was fully charged.
• Changed so that the speed gauge will no longer drop to the previous level when you do not press the W key while running.
  • However, the speed gauge is charged by holding the W key and the horse speed decreases to a certain extent when the W key is not pressed as before.
• Fixed the issue where the speed gauge was reduced to Level 0 when pressing the Q key before the Speed Limit Increase button (Q) was displayed while running.
• Changed the acceleration to the next level from speed level of 1-5 to be faster.

Old Moon Grand Prix Weekly Quests

• Added new weekly quests that can be accepted from Jetina, the Old Moon Manager.

* Weekly quests reset every Thursday at midnight and they do not count towards the completion of Rulupee’s Travels.

* The above quests, which allow you to obtain the Mythical Feather, have been added to the Quests (O) – Recurring – [Life] Steps to Mythical.

* The following two quests are now unavailable:

– Miles the Stable Keeper at the Old Moon Grand Prix Racetrack: [Daily] Grand Prix, Become the Best

– Gula at Stonetail Horse Ranch: [Repeat] Remembering the Grand Prix Champion

* If you have already accepted the above quests, they have been forfeited during the maintenance.

• Changed the Old Moon Grand Prix related item exchange NPCs from Gula in Stonetail Horse Ranch to Jetina.
  • Accordingly, updated the descriptions of the exchange NPCs for the High Wind Trophy, Windy Trophy, and Draughty Trophy.

Item

Shell Belle (Wipeout)

• Added Shell Belle Armor (Wipeout).
  • Changed so that Tranan Underfoe, blacksmith of Velia, can exchange Shell Belle Armor or Shell Belle Armor (Shucked) for Shell Belle Armor (Wipeout).
  • You can now freely exchange the three types of Shell Belle Armor with Tranan Underfoe.
  • All dye settings for the armor will reset upon exchange.
• Improved the descriptions for the following items by adding details on enhancement materials.
  • Loggia and Dostter Gathering Tools
  • Loggia, Srulk, and Manos Sailing Logs
  • Loggia, Izaro, and Manos Riding Crops
  • Loggia and Manos Clothes, blue-grade Life Skill costumes

• Added new crafting recipes of Honey Wine and Honeycomb Cookies, allowing the use of Cooking Honey as an ingredient based on its grade.
• Improved the Find NPCs function that can be used by right-clicking Latent Aura of a Boss, to guide you to the blacksmith of Asparkan when in Ulukita.

Monster

Crypt of Resting Thoughts

Previously, the Crypt of Resting Thoughts, unlike other Monster Zones in Black Desert, required high Accuracy, compelling Adventurers to either choose characters with high Accuracy or make additional preparations. With the latest update, we’ve made it more accessible for PvE, even for those with lower Accuracy, by leveraging Skill Add-ons and Crystals that increase Accuracy. In doing so, we’ve reduced the monsters’ Evasion and appropriately increased their HP, enabling various classes to participate in PvE. Beyond just balancing, we’ve also added more monsters to improve the chances of acquiring loot.

• Reduced Evasion of monsters by -16.4%.
• Increased HP of monsters by +24%.
• Added monsters to certain locations.
• Adjusted the placement of some monsters.

Mounts

When flying with a Mythical Arduanatt, particularly in highland areas like Mountain Sheep Summit or on a path from Serendia to Velia in Balenos, Adventurers encountered an issue where wings would intermittently disappear, causing unexpected falls. This problem was due to the topography verification for each location and it has been consistently reported over time. We apologize for the delay in resolving this issue, but are pleased to announce that it has been fixed in the latest update.

• Mitigated the issue where the Mythical Arduanatt’s wings intermittently disappeared and caused a fall during using Wings of Swiftness while mounted.

Quest and Knowledge

• Improved the 22-hour recurring quests in the following regions in Balenos and Calpheon to reset at 00:00 (UTC) daily.

• Fixed the quest objectives of some Ulukita region quests to be more natural.
• Improved the cutscene that plays during the [Ulukita] Gearing Up and Good to Go quest.
• Fixed the issue where players who completed the Witch Awakening quest could not acquire three types of knowledge due to the temporary measure of making Terrmian Cliff inaccessible. Now, you can acquire these from the Black Spirit.
  • Once you have completed [Witch Awakening] Fulfilling the Aad Sphera, if you do not possess Witch’s Quality, Inquiry, Witch’s Quality, Purity, and Witch’s Quality, Intelligence, you can acquire them by talking to the Black Spirit.

NPC, Background, Sound

• Expanded the range at which Kariz, the Guard Captain of Papua Crinea Island, could detect adventurers disguised as a new Papu.
• The Black-Robed Man in Velia has quit the job of finding the location of online Adventurers.

UI

• Improved the Group Enhancement feature to be available for two or more Adventurers.
• Added guidance to the Silver (Church) Buffs when using Find NPCs function in the Land of the Morning Light.
  • Naye in Moodle Village, Ahryung in Byeot County, Hyang-goong in Beombawi Tavern
• Changed the design of the delete button for Recently Successful Alchemy/Cooking.
• Adjusted the UI to prevent text overlap in the Central Market window for certain languages.
• Removed the Monster Zone category from the Find NPC UI.
  • Changed the following aspects of the Find NPC function with the Gamepad UI:
  • Added a button that allows you to be guided to the locations of the Instrument Vendor, Black Spirit’s Training and Silver (Church) NPCs.
  • Changed the icons for the General Goods Vendor, Weapons/Armor, and Central Market.

System

• Changed the following due to the addition of the Arsha: Anonymous server.
  • Changed Season-6 server to Arsha: Anonymous.
• Activated the option to use LED Animation settings.
• Fixed the issue where the game would occasionally close with the Gamepad UI.

Modified or Changed

• Fixed the issue where monsters appearing in cutscenes occasionally remained even after the cutscene ended.
• Fixed the issue where furniture installed in the Calpheon Slum 2-3, 3F residence did not appear in the Visit mode.
• Fixed the issue where some weekly quests with stages (I-III, etc.) were not properly progressed or completed in certain situations.
• Fixed the navigation for the [O’dyllita] Sephir Odore quest.
• [Guardian, Corsair] Modified the shining effect of the weapons to be more natural.
• Fixed the issue where the DP of Adventurers participating in a Conquest War was not applied as 0 when they moved to another Conquest War area.
• Fixed the issue where the game would occasionally close when selecting the Furniture tab, a subcategory of the Interior tab in the Pearl Shop (F3).
• Fixed the issue where items did not stack and were awkwardly displayed when getting Eileen’s Travel Bag out of the storage and taking out tax-free items from it.
• Fixed the issue where sailors on a ship could not gain EXP if the number of sailors on board was more than 21.
• Fixed the issue where unacceptable quests were displayed in the Recurring tab of Quest UI.
• Fixed the issue where two Sirare were spawned during the Ulukita main questline.
• Fixed the issue where the Pit-A-Pat Mole did not appear occasionally in certain situations.
• Fixed the issue where the Skill Guide UI cooldowns were not displayed properly when the Skill Log was deactivated.
• Fixed the issue where the Fence of Abundance icon was not displayed.
• Fixed the issue where the actual quest title differed from the listed title in Quests (O) – Main Quest – [Ulukita] The Exalted Land, Ulukita.
• Fixed some of the quest summaries in the Ulukita main quests.
• Fixed the issue where the confirmation window for auto-rolling the Black Spirit’s Adventure dice could overlap with the Gamepad UI.
• Fixed the issue where characters who were in the middle of a quest prior to the improvements could not accept the Blackstar Armor crafting quest.