Black Desert Mobile has just had its global release, so everyone across NA and European servers is trying to get ahead of everyone else. If this is also your goal, then the best thing you can do is to download the latest version of BlueStacks (4.150.10.1032) and play the game on your PC. This will not only optimize your XP grind, but it will also put a number of nifty tools at your disposal for better character control.

Once you’ve installed BDM on BlueStacks, you’ll want to go out into the world and start your adventure. As a new player, however, you might not be very familiar with the game’s progression and combat mechanics. While we have created separate guides for both of these aspects of Black Desert Mobile, we’d like to give you a quick selection of the most useful tips for beginners. This way, you can jump straight into the action without making too many costly mistakes on the way!

1 – It’s a Good Idea to Have Several Characters

BDM encourages players to level up at least three different characters. A family essentially includes all the characters you create on one server. If, for example, you complete a quest or defeat a difficult boss with one of your heroes, the others can simply skip this step while still getting the rewards.

In this game, classes are fairly unique and some are better suited than others to defeat tough opponents. For instance, most players start with a Warrior or a Giant, but there are a couple of bosses that deal heavy damage to targets in melee range. These can be very annoying for melee classes, but they become a breeze on a Witch or a Ranger. Most of the times, when you hit a progression wall, the game is simply telling you to switch to a different character (or invest real currency if this is something you’re willing to do).

2 – You Can Switch Gear Between Characters

Say that you’ve leveled your favorite class to 30 and you’ve hit a progression wall. Now you have to start a new character, but this doesn’t mean you have to take everything from scratch. For one, your Black Soul is shared across the entire family, which means that if you’ve upgraded it on your main character, your other heroes will benefit from the added CP.

In addition, once you unlock the Camp, you can visit the storage building and place all of your gear inside. Then, you can log in on your alt, take this gear, and equip it. Just like that, you’ve gained hundreds of CP points with little to no effort. Now you can focus on that nasty boss that’s been giving your main character a hard time.

3 – Always Complete Daily Achievements

Daily achievements are an excellent source of materials and currency. Because resources are such an important part of Black Desert Mobile, we’ve put together a separate guide to farming. For now, though, it’s important to remember that Daily Achievements are an important part of your character progression.

Most of them complete themselves in the sense that they ask you to do obvious things such as using potions a given number of times. Others, such as Camp-related or PvP achievements, will require a bit of involvement on your part. Generally, these achievements are very easy to complete and the rewards are always decent.

4 – Prioritize CP Boosts Over Specific Stats

At this point in time, CP (or Combat Power) is more or less broken in Black Desert Mobile. Regardless of your class or playstyle, the biggest boost you can give your character is to increase their CP. This is mainly because your hero gains +100 CP whenever they hit a new CP threshold, such as 1900, 2200, 2500, and so on.

In other words, it doesn’t matter if the stats on a piece of gear are rubbish. If the latter has higher CP than your current item, it’s well worth to swap it in. It’s also a good idea to focus on crafting purple gems for your gear, at least until you hit CP 2500.

5 – Add Plenty of Friends for Social Tokens

You can add up to 50 friends in Black Desert Mobile and you should hit this cap as soon as possible. Once someone has been your friend for at least 24 hours, you can Greet them from the social menu. This grants you a number of Social Tokens per Greet, which you can then use at the shop to purchase useful chests.

The chests you buy with Social Tokens (up to 20 per day) contain all kinds of useful things, from resources to pet food and even decent pieces of gear.

6 – Gain Knowledge from Every Town

Knowledge is an important way to gain more CP in Black Desert Mobile. You can gain Knowledge from different activities, such as meeting people, completing quests, defeating important bosses, or killing a certain number of specific mobs.

To avoid having to return to every town you’ve ever been to once you hit level 55 and want to boost your CP with Knowledge, you should always check the list of important people in an area before you leave. Any person in this list that has a little book displayed by their name will give you a bit of Knowledge if you talk to them.

7 – Let the Black Soul Do Some of the Work for You

In BDM, boosting your level is almost as important as enhancing your character’s CP. We talk more about this in our guide to leveling up quickly, but a few milestones are especially important. As you hit level 20, for example, you’ll be given a family quest that, when completed, will unlock the game’s “Black Soul Mode”.

This basically lets you continue to either farm XP, forage, or fish after you log out, which can be particularly useful for your progression. Just remember to log back in once every 3 hours (or 6, if you can afford to buy the Plus version of the Black Soul), grab the loot, and reset the timer.

8 – Explore the World

One of the many reasons why Black Desert Mobile is such a fantastic MMORPG is that it incorporates a number of mechanics that are simply meant to get you to explore the game world. For instance, there is not way to make your character auto-forage for resources. You just have to go out there and find rocks to mine, lumber to cut, and food to gather.

Similarly, you can have a great time looking for and taming horses, as well as talking to random NPCs that might give you interesting side quests and rewards. It seems that, whatever direction you go in, something might surprise you along the way. And isn’t that what makes an awesome MMORPG in the first place?