▲New trailer for Vell the Heart of the Ocean

On August 9th, Black Desert Online’s future updates have been revealed via GM Notes. The updates include Rabam’s Enlightenment, aka Skill Enhancement, and a new ocean raid.

Other updates mentioned in the notes are Black Spirit’s Training, an akf exp farming system, new siege weapons, the Mystic’s Awakening, a new tutorial system, and new gears that have high base damage but cannot be enhanced.

Rabam’s Enlightenment was first revealed a few weeks ago and will be added to BDO soon. It is a system where you can combine two different pre-awakening skills to create a more powerful skill. Rabam’s Enlightenment is a system that will make pre-awakening skills more effective, and more skill combinations will be added later.

(Related post: Rabam's Enlightenmet aka the 2nd Awakening)

The class balance is another issue that the notes mentioned. The notes compared the K/D ratio revealed at the Fan Festival (held in April) and the current K/D ratio of each class. The revealed information showed that the difference in the K/D of each class was reduced by 0.23. The notes ensured that the devs will work towards the class balance with more balance patches.

Training Manual (Black Spirit’s Training) was an event-exclusive item that allowed afk exp farming. The GM notes said that this will be a regular in-game content. You will be able to purchase the Manual from Skill Instructors, and will gain exp by interacting with Training Dummies. It will give you less exp than grinding does, but will definitely help you level up more faster.

A new siege weapon will be the Siege Axe. The Siege Axe can damage Wooden Fences that are surrounding a Castle or Command Post. The damage that the Siege Axe deals is irrelevant to the character’s level or AP, so anyone can participate in the Siege War. Pearl Abyss is also planning to add Conquest War Shields for Conquest Wars. However, the development has not started yet and the developers are still debating on the mechanics.

The Mystic has been added to BDO KR a few weeks ago and her Awakening is coming soon. The notes said that her Awakening will not involve the Echo Spirit and will be different from the Striker’s Awakening.

The tutorial system will be reworked. Black Spirit will help the new players throughout early game and they will be albe to learn about the game step by step. New tutorial quests about life skills will also be added, so new players can learn about every fun that the game provides.

There will be more gears like the Asula’s Red Eyes Accessory Set, which were added last week. Asula’s Red Eyes Accessories have high base AP/DP and powerful set bonuses, but cannot be enhanced. More gears like them will be added in the future. They will have high base AP/DP, and will be obtainable in Mediah region.

(Related post: Asula's Red Eyes)

New exciting content will also be added. Vell the Heart of the Ocean, which was first revealed in April at the Fan Festival, is a gigantic ocean raid boss that looks like a combination of different marine animals. As shown in the trailer, Vell will be at least ten times bigger than a sailboat and rise from the deep sea with some submerged rocks.

The raid will fail unless the players work together. There must be multiple Epheria Sailboats and Epheria Convoys attacking Vell, and enough snipers to constantly shoot at Vell. Sailing is also important in the raid, and most importantly, everyone must cooperate.

Big rewards will be waiting for the players. The developers said that “the reward will be as huge as Vell itself.” One of the rewards include Heart of Vell, the best Alchemy Stone in BDO. Heart of Vell will be the first “orange rarity” Alchemy Stone. Heart of Vell will give all the buffs that yellow Sharp Alchemy Stone of Destruction gives and 3 AP. Further information on how to polish the Stone has not been revealed yet, but it has been confirmed that you will need some new items (“Vell’s Crystal Powder” and “Mysterious Spirit’s Powder”) to charge the Stone.

A new form of Marketplace, the Luxury Auction House, will be added also. Items that are not obtainable in the game or are extremely rare will be put up at the Auction House. The players can bid against each other and the player who bid the highest price will have the item.

The items that will appear on the Auction House include Exp Transfer Ticket, Arsha Weapons, Life Skill Exp Transfer Ticket, and other rare items. Exp Transfer Ticket will allow you to transfer one character’s exp to another character, which will be especially useful when you decide to reroll.

The Camping system will help your griding experience eve more exciting. There are times when you have no choice but to leave your spot because your iventory/weight is full or your gears are low on durability. The Campig system will allow you to set up a camp, and you will be able to repair your gears and buy potions at the camp.

The notes do not mention anything about weight capacity, but the developers mentioned that they will be adding more functions to the Camping system.

Other updates that are still in the pipeline include Airships and climbing. The notes said that Airships and climbing are absolutely new to BDO and there must be enough trials and experiments before they get released. The notes also mention that the devs are considering to add new classes with upper-level life skills, sound and graphics remastering, and donkey upgrades.

Lastly, the notes mentioned the issues regarding costumes. The devs were amazed by the quality of the costumes in the costume contest, and tried to add as many costumes as possible to the game. “Please understand that not all costumes in the costume contest can be added to the game,” they added, “We are aware of the fact that the costumes are being added very slowly. We will be recruiting more people to bring more costumes to the game.”

The devs assured the players that they are always welcome to feedbacks and suggestions, and ended the notes with a big thanks to everyone who enjoy Black Desert Online.