BDO: The Second Questing

[Part of my Adventures in Black Desert Online]

Repeating the quests on my corsair has been a lot faster than the first time around because it turns out "knowledge", which is often required to be gained to complete a quest objective, is shared across your family (characters on the same account). Furthermore, this extends to the knowledge you gain by fight enemy types which make them progressively easier to combat. It's also interesting that there seem to either be new quests or quests I missed previously this time around, like this reliable source that Illezra isn't quite dead yet. Apparently she's fled into the new dungeon: Atoraxxion.

Anyway, my goal of getting her to level 61 (on par with my main) is now achieved. This is good, because she's currently stuck in both the O'Dyllita I (shadow wolves are annoying) and Dreighan main quest lines (which in turn blocks Star's End). All her big movements and super-armor moves don't help too much against Garmoth it seems. I'm also getting the inkling that the main game here isn't actually fighting monsters, but upgrading armor and weapons.

Apparently GM's here are winged plague doctors!

Insight: After your first time through, Valencia II and and the Chenga Tome quests are a breeze. Also, if you combo Mareca: Whale Song into Prime: Wipe Out there's a clothing glitch where the corsair decides to get naked, especially in areas of high particle effects. Even more noticeable if you are over burdened which makes everything you do move in slow motion.

Critical hit indeed!

BDO: Row Row Row, you're Sunk

[Part of my Adventures in Black Desert Online]

Not long after taking care of Illezra, I am asked to investigate a growing pirate threat in the nearby islands. Turns out there are A LOT of islands out there, and while some do have a few pirate scouts it takes awhile before I find the large land mass that holds their main base. They aren't pleased with me nosing around and promptly give chase and sink my rowboat with cannon fire, which I narrowly avoid by jumping into the water!

That's the end of that boat...

Luckily I have one of Ellie's magical maps to teleport me out of there as it would have been a long swim to anywhere. The Calpheon council is most interested in my reports and I am granted a two-cannon sailboat (which needs crew and supplies) to continue my efforts against the pirate scum.

The first thing I use the cannons on is a baby sea monster though, and it is really tough to man both the guns and steer the ship while in combat. I still win, and take my damaged vessel back to the pirate base where I kill a few of them while freeing some of their prisoners before taking refuge on a different island. Since there's a town here I put the boat in for repairs while I checkout a deep cave nearby full of mutated fish people "Prottys" whom I slaughter hundreds of, only to realize they are peaceful? Oops. They do make for a good grind spot though.

Apparently these folk were displaced by ancient weapons (golems) that crashed into the sea with that meteor. I swim down to their underwater city (which looks amazing and has air) to beat up a few of them before heading back to report. This earns me a shiny new cog ship which has no cannons but needs no crew and absolutely flies across the ocean - a big improvement from the slow sailboat! Alas, while doing dive quests I manage to get this speed boat sunk in a storm.

Insight: To reach the depth of the "air gates" of Sycraia you might need to get the 5 minute swim buff from the NPC just to the island on the beach just South of it. Fortunately, you can't actually drown - but running out of air forcibly makes you swim up.

BDO: Case Closed

[Part of my Adventures in Black Desert Online]

Thankful for my previous aid at the Northern wheat plantation, Elina Leight - who happens to be its owner and knows of my interest in Illezra, sends word via Nella that the Shen merchant guild is in possession of another of Illezra's "rings" and so I quickly buy it from Neruda Shen in exchange for a magical Dreighan blade (magical in name only I think). This one is the earth ring which I hand in again to the Tarif sorcerers who put me back on the case.

As they already found one in my absence I am sent to locate and retrieve the water ring from its ocean resting place (right beside Altinova) and then am sent to get the ring of wind from a very sneaky, and very strong, monstrous bandit who I can't seem to hurt! It turns out he is invulnerable to everything... except water balloons blessed by the Church of Elion. Yep, I literally use holy water balloons to win this boss fight, which is annoying since you can't dodge while holding them.

Handing these rings in reveals that the lead sorceress on this case is none other than Illezra herself, having used someone else's body to avoid detection. With all the rings in her possession, she turns into Captain Planet a huge skeleton/mud golem thing who is weak to one thing: easily craftable magic bullets. With rifle in hand it only takes three of these to end the miserable witch, and as a bonus the person she was hiding in is freed, unharmed and back to her younger self - with no memories of anything she had done. Probably the best result.

Kinda sad I don't get to fight her white witch form...

Insight: The holy water balloons and magic bullets are only useful in their respective quests. I tried them on random wild life afterwards and they did zero damage.

BDO: The First Ring

[Part of my Adventures in Black Desert Online]

Back in Altinova Neruda Shen is purely focused on getting the arena up and running again which puts him at odds with the Shroud Knights who are struggling against the influx of Sausan reinforcements who bought into a lie sold to them by the Crow merchant guild on how to resurrect their leader. It's up to me to push them back and this time it's a breeze (as long as I stay away from the elite camp) easily killing hundreds of them and their allies - the barbarians, orc helms and Elric cultists.

While I'm at it I also clear out a second laboratory of mutated experiments and help out the sorceresses at a failed expedition in a mountain ruin filled with ancient weapons (golems) and taking the survivors back to Tarif. In town I chance upon a book that speaks of "The Five Rings" of Illezra, who were actually the henchmen of the witch. I manage to track down the remains of the first one a fire bender and hand his magic ring to the Tarif authorities before being summoned back to Calpheon for a mission from the council.

For some reason they have chosen me to be their delegate to the Southern elf lands of Kamasylvia meaning my search for Illezra will need to be put on hold again. At least I get to ride a balloon over the mountains and straight to their capital of Grana where I quickly learn that all elves are female? :O  

Thanks to the fish costume I suppose that makes me a flying fish?

Insight: You can buy inventory upgrades at the loyalty shop! Cool! Weight bonuses are particularly handy.

BDO: Robber Team

[Part of my Adventures in Black Desert Online]

A small group from the excavation team are unhappy that the King won't be paying their full fee due to the locked door remaining so (thanks to my lie), and so recruit me for a money making enterprise (I'll call us the robber team) which involves stealing from city folk, visiting ALL the pilgrimage sites in the desert while digging random sand dunes for treasure, and learning how to read texts of the ancient.

To break up the monotony I also chase down a criminal hiding with Gahaz's bandits (who turns out to be dead, but Gahaz the psycho only tells me this after I kill a hundred more of his gang), kill a lot more nagas at their temple and also an army's worth of their sworn enemies the Egyptian desert fogans, scout a dried up river which is now a monster nesting ground, do some swimming/diving jobs for Shakatu and Princess Saya (rafts are slow, fish suits are awesome), and encounter a few of the Aakman desert wanderers who are doing a poor job of protecting the ancient weapons (golems) of the desert as some are very much active, and hostile.

AOE attacks are great.

Since the robber team eventually tries to rob from me too, I rob them in return - taking the huge stash of ancient royal relics that I've been digging up for them back into my possession and handing it over to King Sahazad Nesser explaining that I had infiltrated the group to gather evidence of their crimes. As the King is super gullible he praises my actions and sends out Katar soldiers to arrest the rest of the robber team.

With this task complete I can finally get out of this god damn desert... because screw finding Illezra. That quest line was painful.

Insight: The Valencia II quest line sucks balls, mainly because of the heavy energy use. Energy regains 1 point every 3 minutes log in or 3 hours logged out. It takes 12 energy to attempt to steal and you'll be doing this a lot as there are multiple items that might require multiple attempts. Thieving past 10PM in game time seems to net more favorable results.

BDO: Desert Tourist

[Part of my Adventures in Black Desert Online]

For a big "empty" desert, the Black Desert actually has a lot of stuff in it. Tiny ruins with pilgrims (NPCs playing ATITD no doubt!), little oasis camps and of course the massive city of Valencia which is easily spotted from very far away.

In the tale of "Curiosity killed the Cat", don't be the cat.

I spend a few days there, lending a low-key helping hand for their eternal balloon festivals and carting various things around (like poop. I literally carted camel poop to the herbalist), but find no trace of Illezra so I continue East to the opposite end of the desert and find the small tropical beach town of Arehaza which is another cute retirement spot.

Clearly having hit a dead end in my search, I opt to retrace my steps and while doing so, rescue a merchant whose caravan was raided by basilisk men. Since the goods were meant for the Valencian Royal family I get to meet Prince Barhan Nesser, who is stationed at the Sand Grain Bazaar to report the theft. The Prince is thankful and subsequently requests my aid in getting his Katar soldiers to withdraw from the centauran conflict.

To do this I am sent as an envoy to the Bashim clan to get them to attack the centaurans instead. These satyrs are very violent, and after killing a small army of them just to talk to their chief, I am tasked with killing that number again to prove my strength before they finally agree to commit troops to the centauran war front... because killing people is the best way to make friends.
 
Insight: Each of your mounts can carry stuff too! Might be an idea to store carrots on horses and acacia leaves on camels as those are the "stam refill" items for those mounts.

BDO: The Black Spirit

[Part of my Adventures in Black Desert Online]

While reporting to Neruda Shen about the imminent barbarian betrayal I notice that Prince Bareeds III advisor is acting super shifty, and pretty much goes on the run when Neruda decides to question him. I chase him and his slow donkey up the coast and when I finally run him down he admits to everything: organizing the assassination of the Sausan leader, manipulating the barbarians, and being the high priest of Illezra whom he calls "the goddess of darkness".

That's certainly the largest form it's taken to date.

From a magic gem he then unleashes the black spirit (which he managed to capture somehow) in its most powerful form yet - strong enough to manifest physically I finally get to battle it properly, and it is surprisingly easy to defeat. While doing this Captain Sarma apprehends the advisor and I use the gem to re-trap the black spirit, now reduced to its original cute chibi state.

With this victory Neruda somehow convinces the barbarians to remain loyal to him, and appeases the Sausan's by giving them the killer of their leader, but not before I question him as to Illzera's whereabouts. He claims she has gone further East to the great desert of Valencia, which is also known as "The Black Desert".

Insight: Inventory weight is a thing, which is why butlers and maids who can transport one stack of items every 20 minutes to your storage is super helpful. More so as you get a handful of them for free!

BDO: Sword on a Stick

[Part of my Adventures in Black Desert Online]

Since I've plateaued a bit with my sword skills, I decide to learn a new weapon: the glaive Crescent Blade (aka Sword on a Stick) and it is pretty awesome since it has a lot of strong knockdowns and area effect abilities. Then, while fooling around and still getting used to the weapon I suddenly run into... Illezra!?

She was in Velia the whole time.

Anyway, apparently she was impressed by the few seconds I fought the Kzarka and wanted to see how good I actually am which leads into a surprise boss fight out in the Velia village fields! Not against her of course, instead she summons a shadow clone of myself! It is an epic duel which I nearly lose, but still come out triumphant at the end. Erm. I suppose I technically punched myself in the face?

While this isn't enough to impress Illezra who simply leaves without saying a word, it gives me great confidence as I return to the Altinova-Sausan border where I proceed to totally wreck the Sausan forces with my new weapon. I am only stopped when Captain Sarma realizes the Sausan's are in league with the barbarians Neruda Shen hired (thanks to using the same weapons, and found correspondence between them), and they are now planning to take over Altinova!

Insight: In game you can pick between Awakening or Succession skills, one focuses on giving you a new weapon to play with based on your class (losing some other abilities) while the other focuses on building up your existing skills but no new weapon.

BDO: Shen Rising

[Part of my Adventures in Black Desert Online]

The arena battle is pretty cool as the death knight is the only enemy so far that can out pace me, but with potions and good dodging I still manage to kill him - which is bad because I forgot to ask about the white witch first. At least he gave me her name: Illezra.

After the match Captain Sarma Amin of the Shroud Knights and servants of the rightful lord Prince Barry Bareeds III, approaches and berates me for siding with the wannabe merchant despot, Neruda Shen. He is hurt by these accusations and so instructs me to assist the Shroud Knights in an effort to extend good will.

When player guilds can select their own emblems, you get funny flags.

Sarma is hesitant at first but welcomes the assistance as I take down a base of Illezra worshiping rogues and an army of manes (gnolls) threatening the small, sorceress filled village of Tarif. Thanks to my efforts, Prince Bareeds III (who turns out to be a kid) appoints Neruda Shen as Steward of Altinova while he seeks asylum at Valencia until he comes of age. Way to put off problems of the realm till later kid.

Neruda then asks I help the miners who are having horrible nightmares and after consulting with the sorceresses at Tarif, I am directed to find my old friends: the excavation dig team, who are now working on a ruin in this region! These guys certainly work fast!

Insight: My bonus beginner bag space ran out at this point, and if you are wondering - any items left at the bottom at the bag are now locked and held hostage until you can unlock more bag space, either through payment or by completing quests. I'm obviously going for the latter