From the very first time we tried our hand at Pearl Abyss’ Black Desert Mobile, we were sold on the way that our character’s abilities felt, looked, and behaved. The playful interactions with our Black Spirit were the icing on top of a delicious cake. Now that the game was globally released, we wanted to see whether it kept any of that initial thunder that really got us hyped. Although some changes have been made throughout the beta early release, you can rest assured that the game is every bit as good as its praise. If anything, the thunder is even more majestic.

In our guide to BDM’s classes, we promised a guide to the way fighting works in this cutting-edge mobile MMORPG. Behind all the beautiful animations, immersive character creation screen, and the host of sales pitches and vanity items lie the mechanics that make possible all of the in-game interactions – the way you pick things up, hit monsters, mount, run around, and get hit. Some might not notice these finer details to begin with, but veteran gamers have an eye for spotting very specific aspects of combat in order to improve their performance.

Auto-Battle vs. Manual Overkill

If there’s one thing that is common to all your BDM characters it’s whether you chose to streamline your experience with the auto-combat or go through every engagement on your own terms. While it will be extremely satisfying to kill monsters in your first few hours of the game, the routine will soon get tedious. From level 15 onwards, the true grind begins. In this regard, the game closely resembles some of the most famous MMORPGS ever made, such as FF, The Elder Scrolls, Lineage 2, or WoW.

Since you don’t get the auto-battle feature until you reach level 13, we figured out a workaround for those who want to start a second or third character. All you have to do is play Black Desert Mobile on PC with BlueStacks and check out our levelling guide. As you progress through the game, the strengths and weaknesses of your choice of class become more and more obvious. The only disadvantage we see with auto-battling is that you’ll miss out on some good loot.

Once in a while, monsters will drop spoils of battle (marked by a white, glowing chest icon), which can contain upgrade stones, pieces of gear, and even skillbooks. Sometimes, their rarity is Green, Blue, or even higher, depending on what you’re killing, so you really don’t want to miss out on anything good. Your pet can pick them up once in a while, but the cooldown of the auto-collect is too great to be something you can rely on.

The best way to do it is to check the screen yourself once in a while and make sure that those spoils don’t go to waste. We cannot stress how much of a difference they can make, especially when it comes to skill books. You can only acquire the latter by completing select quests, paying exorbitant marketplace prices, or from spoils. If you’re looking to farm specific mats, the scroll and magnifying glass icon next to your map will give you more information about which enemies you can hunt in your current area, as well as what they’re likely to drop.

Fight on Your Own Terms

The first thing you’ll notice about BDM’s classes is that they all have their unique playstyle. Getting to know your character’s pros and cons will ultimately lead to a better, more enjoyable playthrough, while also increasing your chances of killing strong enemies, such as Rush Bosses. What we do love about the latter is that they’re strong enough to take you down, while also being designed in such a way so as to give astute players ways to defeat them. With BlueStacks’ Keymapping Tool, we’ve managed to bind all our actions to keyboard and/or mouse shortcuts. We can now dodge Red Nose’s telegraphed attacks without even breaking a sweat.

Ultimately, it will become apparent that each class fits best with a certain type of approach to combat. Warriors and Giants fare much better when they get up and close to their enemies, while Rangers and Witches are much more effective with a hit and run strategy. Don’t be afraid to just go out into the world and test some of these assumptions by fighting mobs that have a CP close to your own. Use all of the abilities you currently have available and look over the ones that you’ll get when you become stronger.

In the case of our Witch, everything points to the fact that she’s a glass cannon. What this means is that we may be able to dish out a lot of burst damage, but we won’t be able to take many direct hits from strong opponents. As such, we have a lot of raw damage skills, mostly AoE, such as the Fireball or the Arcane Bolts and a host CCs to help our survivability. Frigid Fog, for instance, has a 100% chance of freezing all enemies it hits, while Whirlwind inflicts the Knock-up effect. Naturally, we’re going to use the latter abilities to run circles around our opponents and kill them as fast as possible.

Another combat mechanic you ought to look out for is the possibility to chain certain abilities in order to obtain an effect that is stronger than the sum of the two. Some of these might not be available yet, so you’ll have to have a bit of patience until your character grows some more and you get access to them. For our Witch, we can now use Entangle and Fireball together. If you put them on the same action bar, it’s likely that their effect will be triggered even when auto-battling.

Battle Better with BlueStacks

One thing that might be easy to forget when you play Black Desert Mobile on your PC is that combat in this MMORPG is potion-based. In other words, you’ll want to have tens (rather hundreds) of health pots in your inventory to keep you going, especially since healing abilities are few and far in-between. If you’re also playing a fairly squishy class, such as the Witch, make sure to set the game’s pot trigger at a percentage higher than half your health, so that you don’t get one-shot by stronger hits. You can do this by going to Settings, then Convenience tab, and then HP Potion.

If you happen to run out of pots, sooner or later you’re going to die. If you’re interested in combat tips for the PvP aspect of BDM, you can go ahead and jump right here. Nothing is more satisfying than seeing enemy players succumb to a flawless combat strategy. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we have some leveling to do. That level 31 Thunderbolt is not going to just make itself available to our bunny-eared weapon of mass destruction.