Today Black Desert Online developer Pearl Abyss and Publisher Kakao Games announced a brand new class and more upcoming content for the popular MMORPG.
The new class will be the diminutive Shai, who will be the 18th playable class included in the game. Her character pre-creation will be already available on the PC version of the game on June 19.
We’re also getting a new sea expansion named The Great Expedition and a new PvE experience titled The Altar of Blood. Below you can read the full rundown from the press release.
A New Class, Shai
Perhaps the most exciting reveal was the 18th new character class. The ‘Shai’ is a mischievous halfling from the forest near Florin, which lies north-east of Calpheon. Using her Boomerang and a variety of skills focused on both evading danger and aiding her friends, the Shai is quite unique compared to other classes. This is further emphasized by the fact that the Shai is the only class to start at ‘professional’ levels in the Alchemy and Gathering life skills.
Due to her small stature, the Shai prefers to ride smaller mounts such as the Donkey on her adventures.
Her unique class skills further offer new gameplay and tactical options. The Shai can fool enemy players by ‘Playing Dead’ but is also a very effective counter to other stealthy foes. Using her Lantern sub-weapon, a Shai can reveal hidden enemies around her, sneaking up on her should prove difficult. Another unique ability allows the Shai to create a protective barrier around her and her allies, making it an effective support class.
The preparation event for Shai begins today and pre-creation event will be available on June 19th until the official launch. Please check the event page for details on the pre-registration rewards.
The Great Expedition
A new expansion named ‘The Great Expedition’ will see the introduction of new wind and current mechanics to the ocean of Black Desert Online. Traversing the high seas will now become more rewarding to players that can skillfully utilize the winds and current to reach their destination more quickly.
The addition of new islands to the ocean and new ships will give players even more reasons to explore this new content. The new islands will have special trade mechanics and players can use one of the new trading-focused ships to transport goods between islands, making a nice profit in the process.
The new islands are easily distinguishable by their unique themes, but finding the correct one will require navigations mastery within the new current and wind mechanics.
A new PvE experience: The Altar of Blood
For players that are more concerned with the content on land, a new PvE experience will be added in the form of the ‘Altar of Blood’. This content will see three players defending their ‘sacrament’ from increasingly strong groups of monsters.
The ‘Altar of Blood’ demonstrates similarities with ‘Savage Rift’ but with the groups being smaller and players being able to utilize their class-skills. This new challenge will require solid tactics and cooperation to conquer the foes in the ‘Altar of Blood’. Thematically, ‘Altar of Blood’ is linked to the recently added ‘Star’s End’ update that was launched last week.
Balance Improvements
The producer of the game, Jae Hee Kim, also touched on more general improvements that are being planned for the game. The various grind spots in the Black Desert Online will receive a new balancing pass to make monsters more challenging. Furthermore, improvements to the Life Skills are currently in the works to make these systems more rewarding and engaging.
Improvements are also being made towards the user interface with the goal of reaching a more cohesive experience between the console and PC-versions of the game. These updates are currently scheduled to be released somewhere in summer.
We also learn that the O’dyllita region has been delayed because the developers need more time to give it a more unique spin. The new The Territory War content is almost ready, but Pearl Abyss wants to improve the current Conquest and Node War content before adding the new one.
You can check out a trailer focusing on Shai, another featuring the ocean expansion, and a batch of screenshots below.
Black Desert Online is currently available for PC via Steam or stand-alone. An Xbox One version has also recently been released, but that one is just named “Black Desert.”
Do keep in mind that the updates mentioned here are related to the PC version of the game, as the Xbox One version still has a lot of catching up to do. That being said, if you play on console, this is still a look at what’s coming down the line.
