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The Complete Guide to Making Money in Black Desert Online

As an avid BDO player for years having earned over 50 billion silver across various characters, I‘m often asked – "What‘s the secret to getting so rich in the game?"

There is no one easy trick. The key lies in mastering and efficiently utilizing a diverse range of money making systems tailored to your playstyle.

In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll be sharing all my hard-earned knowledge as a long-time player on how to setup multiple income streams. Follow these wealth generation strategies and you‘ll quickly join the silver billionaire club!

SECTION 1: Grinding – The Raw Silver Fountain

Without a doubt, grinding is hands down the most efficient way of generating tens if not hundreds of millions of raw silver per hour at higher gear scores.

By grinding I refer to repeatedly slaughtering monsters out in the wild for loot and silver drops. Now, new players may be tempted to just vendor trash everything they get. Don‘t! Many obscure drops can net big profits on the Central Market.

There‘s also intricate knowledge needed regarding optimal group setups, advanced combat mechanics, and specific attack rotations to maximize your per hour efficiency.

Lets delve into the specifics:

Finding The Sweet Spot Grind Zones

All grind zones are not made equal. You need to find areas that match your AP/DP bracket for maximum returns.

Here‘s a quick overview of some of the sweet spot zones for various gear levels:

200 AP: Valencia spots like Sulfur Mines and Pila Ku Jail

220 AP: Star‘s End, Thornwood Forest

250+ AP: Orcs Camp, Bloody Monastery

280+ AP: Gyfin Rhasia Temple

310+ AP Elvia Realm spots like Oluns, Crypt of Resting Thoughts

Ideally you want to tackle zones 5-10 AP above your current level as that poses a good challenge for your skill level while allowing efficient clears.

The All-Consuming Centaurs Zone

Now, through extensive personal testing across countless hours I‘ve found Centaurs to be the #1 raw silver grinding zone in BDO currently.

Located in Valencia, Centaurs Horde drops highly valuable materials like Black Magic Crystals, Caphras Stones, Sicil‘s Necklaces and Tungrad Earrings worth millions per piece. They also frequently drop Trace of Centaur blood worth 85k each and their trash loot vendors for a premium.

Here are the astonishing numbers from Centaurs:

  • Average Per Hour Income: 700 million silver
  • Top Recorded Hour: 1.2 billion silver
  • Drops: Black Magic Crystals, Caphras, Sicil/Tungrad accessories

With the right group composition of Wizards, Strikers, Lahn and Guardians – you zoom through the mobs while raking in insane silver/hour only matched in the Elvia realms.

Proving Ground: Pratuga Ancient Ruins

For those decked out in full PEN gear, the Pratuga ancient ruins located in Balenos offers a solid grind zone with rare artifact drops that unlock powerful account-wide stat buffs.

Income here comprises mainly of Caphras, Ancient Spirit Dust (600k each), Lunar/Solar tokens. While rng dependent, you can also get ultra rare drops like Shield of Pratuga, Orzeca outfit pieces worth billions!

Some key metrics from my team‘s Pratuga grind sessions:

  • Avg per hour: 475 million silver
  • Top recorded: 890 million silver
  • Drops: Caphras, Ancient Spirit Dust, Adaptation accessories

While less consistent than Centaurs, getting an Orzeca Helmet drop alone offsets dozens of hours worth of grinding! If you enjoy gambling and have geared alts, definitely give Pratuga a shot.

Sakraya – Pearl Abyss‘ Gift to Rangers

Sakraya presents another interesting high yield zone, accessible only by flying mount due to its island location. Mysterious/Frenzied monsters here have boosted rare drop rates making it very profitable.

By bringing rangers and witches, you can decimate whole groups quickly with AoE storms while hoovering up Frenzy Drafts, Specter Energies and Black Stones worth big money:

  • Avg Income: 520 million per hour
  • Top hour: 720 million
  • Drops: Forbidden Books, Black Distortion Earrings

While class dependent, Sakraya offers insane silver/hr rivalling even Orcs/BM due to tripled drop rates. Its a more PvP-focused spot so having a geared squad helps fend off griefers.

Join the Underground Cartel at Gyfin Rhasia

This ancient temple hosts one of the most popular high level group grind zones that‘s become heavily contested. Packed with elite monsters and traps, mastering Gyfin requires learning precise pull patterns and class synergy.

The payoff however are rather incredible:

  • Avg per hour: 550 million silver
  • Top recorded hour: 987 million
  • Drops: Tungrad Earrings/Necklaces, Black/Precision Magic Crystals

As the main source of endgame accessories outside enhancing, veteran groups run Gyfin daily fueled by perfumes/cron meals pulling consistent 800m+ hours. Its great money provided you come prepared with the right squad and combat mastery.

Grinding Guide Key Takeaways

  • Prioritize AP/DP efficient zones; don‘t waste time at low level areas
  • Stack drop rate boosters like Splat Fisher‘s Clothes, Villa Buffs, Verdure Draughts
  • Use Tent/Villa buffs, Perfumes and Cron Meals to accelerate grinding
  • Play classes with good AoE and sustain like Witch, Archer, Lahn
  • Joining an organized grind group will lead to vastly better income
  • Utilize spare character slots to run multiple daily grind sessions
  • Consider heavily contested zones during off-peak hours
  • Learn advanced skill rotations and animation cancels to speed up clears

Mastering combat, upgrading gear, pinpointing the best zones and partying up makes all the difference vs struggling alone. Use the benchmarks provided earlier to gauge your income expectations.

While active grinding demands great effort – you reap direct rewards limited only by your gear and skill. It offers unmatched raw silver generation critical for funding further progression. Time to put that expensive weapons and armor to good use!

SECTION 2: Life Skills – Set And Forget Income

Beyond slaughtering virtual creatures, BDO offers an entire life skill system withGathering, Processing, Bartering, Cooking, Alchemy and more. The idea here is to generate renewable resources, craft value-added goods out of them and sell for profit.

It takes some homework understanding the complex economics around supply/demand. But once streamlined, you can print silver automatically while afk!

Here are my top passive money makers:

Big Game Hunting: Tracking Kamasylvia Deers

We already covered the immense income potential of hunting as an active life skill. But even AFK hunting can generate hundreds of millions daily with proper node investment.

Here‘s a quick overview:

  • Invest in multiple hunting nodes at Root Forest and Loopy Tree Forest
  • Assign professional/artisan Hunting hunters here overnight
  • Wake up to items like Savage Rumbling Tree Lump worth 500k each!
  • Process items into profitable meals like Exquisite Cron Meal
  • Relax while your node empire prints 100-300m/day on its own!

With high hunting mastery, you return to piles of profitable materials from each overnight session. It adds up incredibly fast even while sleeping/working.

Reigning Over Your Node Empire

Similar to hunting nodes, the entire worker node system allows you to leverage NPC workers to automatically gather resources, craft intermediate materials and output finished goods for sale.

Here are the elements for setting up a profitable node network:

  • Hire Professional/Artisan goblin workers
  • Invest contribution points intomultiple nodes
  • Connect nodes for reduced workload on workers
  • Focus on timber/ore/plant nodes for materials like Trace of X
  • Upgrade nodes for increased rare item drop rates
  • Relax as workers generate millions of materials daily

Getting into node investment and optimizing your empire is deeper topic that warrants its own guide. But the returns are unparalleled for the amount of effort.

Here‘s a quick example from my own node setup:

  • Invested Points: 328
  • Number of Nodes: 47
  • Rare Item Output: Black Crystals, Scantling, Platinum Ore, Fir Timber
  • Avg Passive Income: 150-350 million / day

And this takes minutes to setup but keeps paying out every day whether I play actively or not. That‘s the beauty of passive income!

Life Skills Guide Key Takeaways

  • Focus on renewable resources: Timber/ore nodes, hunting
  • Use goblin workers for efficiency and node speed
  • Connect nodes to reduce workload requirements
  • Process materials into concentrated items before sale
  • Build Crafting Empire from multiple nodes and workers
  • Check market prices often and sell when values spike

Like managing a real world company, it takes investment to see returns. But once streamlined, you can walk away while your BDO business prints silver!

The game offers way more options like trading, farming, and bartering that introduce additional complexity. I may cover these advanced topics another time.

SECTION 3: Weighing Active vs Passive Income Methods

So we‘ve covered the two main means of money making – actively grinding vs setting up passive income through life skills and nodes. Both serve important purposes, but its important to weigh their comparative benefits.

Here‘s a quick pros vs cons breakdown:

Active Grinding

  • PROS
    • Direct Silver Generation
    • Hourly income potential in the billions
    • Funds gear upgrades
    • Loot drops fuel other systems
  • CONS
    • High effort and attention needed
    • Class/Rotation knowledge required
    • Heavily contested zones

Passive Life Skills/Nodes

  • PROS
    • Automatic, hands-free income generation
    • Renewable resources keep paying indefinitely
    • Profit margins often higher than grinding
  • CONS
    • High upfront setup time
    • RNG dependent drops
    • Impacts computer performance

As you can likely tell, active grinding produces direct income fast to fuel rapid progression. But passive systems takeover in the long run offering renewable resources.

My strategy utilizes both by aggressively grinding to fund better gear for faster clears. Then funneling silver into optimized nodes for large scale crafting and overnight worker empire.

This creates multiple income streams that keep paying out every day rather relying on just one approach. In the long run, creating this positive feedback loop leads to exponentially greater wealth generation.

The key things to remember are:

  • Active play to fund upgrades & progression
  • Automatic income to sustain long term gains
  • Reinvest profits smartly into incremental improvements

Getting stuck in a short term mindset leads to burning out from endless grinding. By combining active and passive play, you maximize profitability while keeping enjoyment high.

SECTION 4: Enhancing & Markets – Maximizing Gains

Until now we‘ve focused purely on raw silver income. However the biggest windfall profits in BDO come from enhancing gear combined with market mastery.

Enhancing refers to upgrading weapons and armor from PRI all the way to PEN (V) which dramatically boosts stats. To safeguard millions invested, players use failstacking, cron stones and other tricks manipulate success rates.

This allows veterans to tap PEN items relatively easily compared to newbies. These PEN weapons/armors sell for billions giving enterprising players huge payouts.

Understanding the Central Market fluctuations allows you to buy enhancement materials when prices crash during events, and hoard them until prices spike again due to scarcity.

Here are two examples from personal experience:

  • Invested 12 billion silver into discounted Caphras stones and Concentrated Boss Auras during Winter event
  • Sold back haul over next 2 weeks for 68 billion silver as prices rebounded

Similar story with holding onto concentrated crystals:

  • Sniped all Concentrated Magical Black Gem Fragments listed under 9 mil
  • Relisted them for 25 million each weeks later netting 4x profit

Not only does this generate profits on its own, you reinvest to further upgrade family gear getting closer to endgame PEN armors and weapons. This positive feedback loop leads to exponential progression.

Learn to master the Marketplace and Enhancing system gives you yet another tool to print silver:

Gambling Guide Key Takeaways

  • Upgrade during enhancement events for 20-30% rate boosts
  • Use excess stacks beyond 100 to tap PRI/DUO accessories
  • Funnel profits from grinding into cron stones
  • Preorder enhancement materials when MP flooded
  • Save and snipe outfits/costumes to extract crons
  • Study event cycles and enhance right before/after patches
  • Learn to stack failstacks efficiently on backup gear

While enhancing and playing the market adds complexity, the outsized profits compared to just farming silver makes mastering it worth your while.

Patience and self control is mandatory however not to gamble away your networth recklessly. But used judiciously, these systems will rapidly accelerate your progression.

Final Words: Pulling It All Together

We‘ve covered a ton of ground here dissecting the major money making systems and min/max strategies around them. Here are the core principles:

  • Keep gear appropriately leveled for targeted grind zones
  • Mix active grinding with afk node/life skill income
  • Funnel profits smartly into failstacking andenhancements
  • Master the marketplace buy low, sell high price swings
  • Reinvest to incrementally upgrade family power
  • Avoid gambling huge stacks without backup bankroll
  • Maintain real life responsibilities first

Getting rich in-game takes time and effort. But used wisely following these tips, you will find silver pouring in faster than you can spend it. Stay positive, be helpful to others and enjoy the journey!

With this roadmap, I hope new and experienced players can shortcut the learning curve on maximizing earnings, while avoiding common mistakes I see others make.

Let me know if you have any other questions in the comments section. For more BDO content be sure to subscribe! Thanks for reading and happy hunting 🙂