A preview of the major updates that will be coming to Black Desert Online on April 12th has been released in the BDO KR official website.

First, a new stat called Combat Power will be added. The Combat Power is the sum of your character’s main-hand AP, Awakening AP, and DP. If your Combat Power is over 680, you will get 5 DR as a bonus stat. You will get 5 additional as your Combat Power goes up by 10, and the bonus DR will be accumulated. For example, if your Combat Power is 779, you will get 50 bonus DR.

There will be 8 tiers in the Combat Power, and your tier will automatically go up when your Combat Power reaches a certain point. The tier will appear as an icon next to your character’s name. The term for each tier and the exact value of Combat Power to reach each tier will be revealed on April 12th.

A new system where you can Enhance your gear to the next level with 100% success rate will be added. You can add Cron Energy to your gear by spending Cron Stones, and if your gear has the maximum Cron Energy, you can Enhance your gear to the next level via the “Unleash” system. The “Unleash” will not fail, so if you add the maximum amount of Cron Energy to your TRI gear you can Enhance it to TET by “Unleashing” it.

Currently, there are four levels in Cron Energy. More Cron Energy Levels will be added, so more Cron Stones will be required to get the maximum amount of Cron Energy. There will be additional item effects for each Cron Energy Level, and the Cron Energy Level will be refreshed to zero if the item is “Unleashed”.

Also, Cron Stones will be craftable. A new item called “Ancient Spirit’s Powder” will be obtainable by grinding, underwater gathering, mining, and collecting fluid in Valencia, Kamasylvia, and Drieghan. You can craft Cron Stones by mixing Ancient Spirit’s Powder and Black Stones via Simple Alchemy. The price of Cron Stones in NPC shops will remain the same.

Lastly, AP efficiency in PvE will be the same as AP efficiency in PvP. With this change, grinding efficiency in the grind spots after Valencia will increase even more.

PvE balance will change as well. Monsters in the grind spots after Valencia will have more AP and HP, and will give more exp and increase item drop rate as well. Pearl Abyss mentioned in the preview that the PvE balance is meant to “prevent high-AP players from taking the entire spot.”

Pearl Abyss also mentioned that the gameplay might feel somewhat different after PvE balance changes have been implemented, but the devs will try to keep the gameplay consistent and improve PvE balance in the future as well.

The preview on Conquest War Season 5 and the Union system will be released on April 11th.