* Please note that the terms/names used in this article are not official and are subject to change when the associated update is released on the NA/EU server.

The first appearance of Vell, which was going to be the first ocean raid in Black Desert Online (BDO), has concluded in disappointment. All Epheria servers where the monster was expected to appear experienced connection issues, making the gameplay almost impossible. The monster then disappeared after an hour without players having a proper chance to engage.

Vell was announced to appear in Epheria 1, 2, and 3 from 22:00 to 24:00 on October 1st (KST). It appeared in the same way with Nouver - it howled first, and then appeared after 30 minutes. Countless players gathered to experience the very first ocean raid which would allow them to loot the tremendous item called The Heart of Vell if they were lucky.

When it was around 22:00, players began to switch their server to Epheria, found boats and formed parties. At 22:55, the howling of Vell that everybody was waiting for was heard, and all players excitedly headed to the spawning spot of Vell. At 23:20, Vell appeared, but there was no raid which they were expecting to face.

Moving the character and a boat, and even chatting were not available due to the connection issue at the time of Vell’s appearance in Epheria 2, and some boats and galleys lost their ways or were destroyed by sea monsters under the circumstances. Many players were cast away in the middle of the ocean and had to swim back to Velia.

Other servers were in no better situation. The server could not respond quick enough to countless players’ data inputs, and they experienced similar problems such as falling off from boats and being unable to control the character because of connection issues. Moreover, there were cases where Vell suddenly disappeared, or even recovered its full health in the middle of the fight. After that, Epheria 2 was fixed and players who were roaming around Vell finally grabbed a chance to engage, but it was impossible to make a proper engagement with less time and players by then. The circumstances in all Epheria servers were similar, and Vell eventually disappeared at 24:20.

There were similar cases in the past as well - Muraka and Quint. Pearl Abyss could have surely predicted how many players, and countless boats and galleys, would gather for this event, especially when they have announced the OP item called The Heart of Vell. Even though one can say that the content was made for the sake of players, it becomes pointless and disappointing when the gameplay itself was extremely difficult for players because of the server issue, just like previous cases with Muraka and Quint.

The compensation of the connection issues of Epheria servers occurred on October 1st will be given. Although it is not certain what kind of compensation it will be, it is still questionable as to whether it will truly compensate those who tried to participate in raiding Vell. Many players couldn’t even have a chance to see the monster’s figure, and it is even difficult and ambiguous to rate the difficulty of raiding, as the proper battle didn’t even last for an hour.

However, not everything seemed to be bad. The scenes of guilds preparing galleys, and many people gathering to form a party and having a chat, for a single purpose of raiding Vell were somewhat unfamiliar but friendly. Although the content may become as competitive as the whale hunt, it surely showed the possibility to become the PvE party play in a wide scope in which is not common in BDO.

The next raids will take place on October 8th. It is unknown as to how many boats will sail to the sea next time, but the system will surely be improved in one way or another. The improvement must be done in order to not make players experience the same disappointment for the second time.

The entertaining content is always welcomed. Not to mention the importance of an environment where players can enjoy the content smoothly. Of course, we do not know how the content will turn out in the future, but the content already showed its capability of the party play. Players are therefore expecting it to become much more solid and take part of the main content of BDO.

Greetings.

This is the MMORPG, Black Desert Online.

We would like to show our sincere apology for you having a trouble with gameplay, specifically the raids of Vell in the Epheria 1 to 3 on October 1st (Sun).

The server issue was caused possibly due to the sudden increase in the number of players simultaneously logging into the server at the time of Vell’s appearance, and the compensation for this matter will be given to those who have experienced it via the upcoming maintenance.

Please refer to the information below for more details.

Compensation of the Epheria server issue on October 1st (Sun)

The type of compensation will be announced in the near future, and given at the maintenance on October 12th (Thu).

Once again, we apologize for the inconvenience of the gameplay, and we will always do our best to provide you with the stable service.

Thank you.