Beginner/Returning Player Guide

Introduction

New and Returning players may feel overwhelmed and confused when playing BDO for the first time. The game is very in-depth and has a lot of complicated systems to get to grips with. There are lots of catch-up mechanics designed specifically for new and returning players, but the game does not advertise the help very well!

Following this guide will help you to find your way through your BDO journey and give you the best start towards endgame gear and content. If you need additional help, you can hop into our Discord Server to ask questions.

Find a BDO Mentor

There is currently an event taking place between June 26, 2025 (Thu) after maintenance – Nov 27, 2025 (Thu) before maintenance.

If you made your account after the June 5, 2025 (Thu) maintenance, you can be a Mentee and receive extra FREE rewards when you hit certain challenges in-game.

To get started, you need to find a Mentor to share a coupon code with you, and then activate the code in-game. More information about this event and how to find a Mentor can be found in our BDO Mentor guide.

Season Servers

The first objective is to make a season character so that we can play on the season servers.

What are Season Servers?

• Season Servers are special servers that only Season Characters can join. Season Characters can connect to regular servers as well.
• They are designed for new and returning players, but anyone can participate in Season by making a Season character.
• Season servers will give you catchup gear and introduce you to the game.
• You can make 1 Season Character at once and can progress in your own time. When you are ready to advance your character further, you choose to graduate and leave the season server.
• You keep your Season character and your gear when you choose to graduate from the season, and it becomes a “normal” character – losing access to the Season servers.

Why should I play Season?

• You can end the season with a full set of gear equal to TET boss gear. This is really good gear to get you started in the game and trying to get it without season is much harder.
• Lots of other rewards you don’t get on normal characters, such as extra inventory space and skill points.
• Season servers have a permanent Combat EXP +1000% and Skill EXP 50% buff
• PVP is disabled – except Guild Wars (unless you join the specific channel), so you can enjoy the game without any worries!

How to get started!

Make sure you select the “Season Character” button when you create a character

When you create your character, you will be asked which starting zone you would like to begin with. I personally recommend starting with the Ancient Stone Chamber zone because it is far less confusing and there are more resources online that are based on Ancient Stone Chamber, since this was the original starting zone. No matter where you start, you can complete both storylines at a later date.

The option to skip/complete the tutorial will appear when you first log into a new character. The tutorial takes approximately 10 minutes and gives a very basic guide to movement and key inputs so I would recommend to skip it. You do not lose anything by skipping the tutorial, and it is not very well designed!

Your Journey through Season

Level 1 to 55

• After creating your season character, follow the main story quests to level up. If you get confused at any point, open the quest log (by pressing O) and follow the quests under the “Main” tab.
• You can press the buttons in the quest log, or on the quest widget to autopath to the quest objectives.
• I also recommend turning ON all quest types at the bottom of your quest log (O).

• When you reach the first town (Velia) you will get the option to take the main questline or the simplified questline.

• You will complete different main storylines the first is Balenos, then Serendia, Calpheon, and finally Mediah. After completing these, the others are optional for now but give extra rewards.

• You will have a Season Pass to complete as well. The tasks on the Season Pass are important to complete and most of them don’t require any extra work. You can use them as a good guideline for what you should be doing next.
• Completing certain objectives in the Season Pass will give you [Season] Secret Book of the Misty Breeze. Just hold onto these for now and don’t use them yet.

• Around level 25 – 30, you will start to get Naru Gear and Beginner Blackstones from the main story questline.
• Right-click the Beginner Blackstones to open the enhancing window. Enhance your Naru gear as much as you can. You can do this by just spamming the Enhance button, don’t worry about failstacks, the gear is easy to enhance.
• Your Naru gear will go up to +15, after that, it goes PRI, DUO, TRI, TET and finally PEN.

• You can exchange your PEN Naru gear for PRI Tuvala gear straight away, by clicking the convert button in the enhancing window (see image below).
• Tuvala is a better set and what you will use for the rest of season.

• Keep following the questline and complete the Mediah main story questline – this should get you to around level 55.

Level 55 to 60

• You should have PRI Tuvala gear, so it’s time to enhance again!
• Tuvala gear is enhanced using Time-Filled Black Stones. You can enhance the Tuvala up to TRI straight away with 100% chance. Getting it up to PEN is a little more difficult and will take a while. Depending on how much time you have, it might take a few days for you to get everything up to PEN, but the goal is to finish the season will full PEN Tuvala Weapons and Armors, so that we can swap it to Boss gear when you graduate.

• Go speak to Fughar and collect the Enhancing quest rewards for some materials to help you enhance.
• I recommend checking our Basics of Enhancing Guide to help you get started. Failstacking can also be a complicated system to get your head around, so it’s best to look up some Youtube guides to help you with this.

• After enhancing your Tuvala Armors and Weapons to at least TRI, it’s time to grind to push for 56!
• Remember those [Season] Secret Book of the Misty Breeze we told you about at the start? Well just before you go grind, pop as many Skill EXP buffs as possible and then use all of your Misty Breeze books as well for a big skill points boost.
• At level 56 you get your class Awakening/Succession. These are questlines you need to complete to unlock the full potential of your class. You can find the start of the quest in your questlog (O) under Suggested.

• Now it’s back to the grind again! Grind up to 60 and keep enhancing your gear as you get more Time-Filled Black Stones. If you aren’t sure where to grind, start doing the Weekly quests and Regional quests for their rewards.

Level 60+

• Now that you’ve reached 60, you have just a few more things to complete the season!
• Finish your Season Pass tasks and take all the rewards.
• The Season Pass will ask you to complete 1 Season Weekly quest: [Recurring] [Season Weekly] Stronger Tuvala Gear

• After completeing the Season Pass, use the Frozen Tides Black Stone to enhance one of your Tuvala pieces from TET > PEN with 100% chance.
• Complete your weekly quests and regional quests for more Time-Filled Blackstones if you need them.
• Get all your Tuvala gear to PEN.
• Start going to World Bosses and LOML World Bosses in preparation for PEN Boss Gear once you graduate.
• Start working towards the “Free” PEN accessories.
• Keep grinding on season for the EXP benefits. If you have spare Time-Filled Blackstones you can exchange them for Item Collection Increase Scrolls at the Blacksmith.
• When you are ready, you can graduate from the season as long as you have full PEN Tuvala Weapons and Armors + at least 1 PEN Tuvala Accessory.

• You may also want to start unlocking additional features by completing the following quests:
  • [Suggested] [ADV Support] Fairy, Mysterious Companion questline – Unlocks the Fairy Companion
  • [Suggested] [ADV Support] Inventory Expansion! – Additional inventory space quests
  • [ADV Support] Pets, Loyal Companions – Free pet quests
  • [Suggested] [Lv. 58] Naderr’s Band – Unlocks Naderr’s Band for enhancing
  • [Suggested] [Lv. 60] Bag of the Stars – Unlocks the Family Inventory

Free PEN Accessories

There are a few free PEN accessories you can obtain:

Accessory	How to obtain
PEN Capotia Necklace	You can obtain a FREE TRI Capotia Accessory from your challenge (Y) rewards. It is recommended to pick either the PEN Capotia Necklace or Belt. Each day when you log in, you will get “Dreamy Crystal of Balance” x1 from your (Y) rewards. These can be used to enhance the belt to PEN. TRI > TET Enhancement – requires Dreamy Crystal of Balance x7 TET > PEN Enhancement – requires Dreamy Crystal of Balance x14
PEN Capotia Ring	You can obtain a FREE TRI Capotia Ring from your challenge (Y) rewards when you reach level 62 on a character for the first time. You can then fish in designated event zones to catch the “[Season] Coelacanth” and exchange these for more “Dreamy Crystal of Balance” to upgrade the Capotia Ring to PEN. TRI > TET Enhancement – requires Dreamy Crystal of Balance x7 TET > PEN Enhancement – requires Dreamy Crystal of Balance x14
PEN Capotia Belt	You can obtain a FREE PEN Capotia Accessory from the Season Servers Special Reward. This can be obtained by completing a quest at Fughar if your season character is level 10 or higher, or if you have already graduated from the Season Servers. For your first season, it is recommended to get the PEN Capotia Belt or Necklace (whichever one you didn’t pick from Y rewards) since you should have the PEN Capotia Ring from the other methods. You can also make another season character in the future if you would like to collect the PEN Capotia Earring as well.
PEN Ring of Crescent Guardian	You can obtain x2 PEN Ring of Crescent Guardian by obtaining Jetina’s PEN Accessories Every new and returning player should start working towards this as early as possible for a highly discounted PEN accessory. Once you have completed both of the rings, you can swap out your PEN Capotia Ring and change it into a PEN Capotia Earring or use it on an alt character.
Bronte’s Bolt	Bronte’s Bolt is an earring you can obtain by completing the Everfrost main story questline (Mountain of Eternal Winter). This earring can be equipped by season characters and cannot be enhanced, but has 12 AP as well as 28 Accuracy. This is just 1 AP less than a PEN Tuvala Earring or PEN Capotia Earring, but has much more accuracy, making it a great starter earring.

Adventure Logs

Adventure Logs/Journals are once per family content/challenges you have to complete to unlock permanent stats and bonuses for your account. Some adventure journals give permanent AP and DP and are very important to complete as early as possible. There are several Adventure Logs in the game, and some can take a very long time to complete, so start to tackle these early on and work at them slowly over time.

Click the titles to view our guides on them.

The Magnus (Free PEN Boss Armor)

After reaching level 61, it is recommended to complete the Magnus questline to receive one PEN boss armor of your choice completely free.

• This questline takes around 3-4 hours to complete, but does not have any gear requirements and can be easily completed by a new or returning player. The only requirement is that you have completed the main story quest up to and including Calpheon.
• It is highly recommended to do the Magnus questline as early as possible because it gives several rewards including a new skill for your class and unlocking the ability to fast travel.
• To get started, talk to your Black Spirit to obtain the quest “[The Magnus] Nostalgic for Velia”

• Follow our complete walkthrough guide to help you with the different challenges

I recommend taking the PEN Griffon Helmet from the Magnus PEN Boss gear reward.

You cannot wear this gear yet as a season character, but as soon as you graduate you will be able to equip it.

Infinite Potions

Infinite Potions are treasures to collect in BDO which are basically never-ending potions. They cannot be bought from the Central Market, and are a rare grinding drop that takes hours and hours to collect. Most people start grinding for the infinite potions while on the Season Servers, since the grind spots are not too difficult, and the infinite potions are very important to collect.

Season’s Special Reward

• You can receive a special reward by exchanging the Season Special Gift Exchange Coupon at NPC Fughar
• The coupon is obtained from the Season Pass when you reach Lv. 10 on a season character.
  • If you have already graduated without exchanging your coupon, you can still go to Fughar to claim your reward

You can choose between any of the rewards if you have not already claimed them.

For your first season, it is recommended to get the PEN Capotia Belt or Necklace (whichever one you didn’t pick from Y rewards) since you should have the PEN Capotia Ring from the other methods (info about free PEN Accessories). You can also make another season character in the future if you would like to collect the PEN Capotia Earring as well.

Graduating from Season Servers

Unfortunately, your time on the Season Servers will eventually have to come to an end if you want to progress your character futher. This is referred to as “graduating” from the Season Servers, and this happens only when you are ready to leave the season. You can choose exactly when you want to graduate and leave the season server.

When your character graduates, it becomes a normal character, losing access to the Season Server channels and benefits. However, as a normal character, you can now equip more powerful gear, such as Boss Gear, Godr-Ayed/Blackstar Weapoins, and yellow-grade accessories (such as Capotia Accessories).

You will keep your Tuvala gear, and use them to help you upgrade to those better items.

For new players, it is recommended to take your time and stay on the season until you are sure you are ready to graduate. Even if you have completed the entire season pass and gotten full PEN Tuvala gear, you can still benefit from the season buffs and grinding on the season server. Selling any extra Time-filled Blackstones or other season materials will give you additional silver and can make a huge difference.

Remaking/Deleting your Season Character

If you don’t like the class you created and want to start again, you can delete your character and remake your season character. However, the Season pass will not reset and you will lose any character-bound items or Pearl Items (such as costumes and inventory space) that you have bought for the character.

Place all items that you can into storage before deleting and starting fresh!

Remaking your season character does not use up your Season Character Tickets. The ticket is only consumed when you graduate after completing the season pass, and when you graduate, your Season Pass will reset ready for the next season character you create.

You may want to consider holding on and finishing the season if you are near the end of the season pass. Alt characters in BDO are always useful and even if you don’t want to “main” that class you may still use it for other things such as life skills or as a boss alt.

Quitting the Season

You can also choose to quit the season, which will turn your season character into a normal character without needing to complete the season pass.

• Quitting the season will consume your Season Character Ticket
• Your character and tuvala gear will be converted to normal character/gear
• All other season items will be deleted
• You will no longer have access to the season pass, season server, or other season related content.

DEC Tuvala Gear for Endgame Gear

After graduating from the season, you can complete a once-per-family quest which will allow you to start enhancing 1 PEN Tuvala weapon and 1 PEN Tuvala Accessory, obtained from the Season Servers, up to DEC (X) enhancement level.

Once you reach DEC enhancement, you can swap the weapon for a PEN Blackstar Weapon, and the accessory for a TET Kharazad Accessory. These are both endgame items. Take a look at our DEC Tuvala Gear Guide to get started.

I recommend enhancing your PEN Tuvala Awakening weapon and PEN Tuvala Belt up to DEC. This is because you will get a FREE PEN and TET Blackstar for the other 2 weapon slots.

Exchanging Tuvala Armors for Boss Gear

Once you have enhanced your PEN Tuvala Awakening Weapon and PEN Tuvala Accessory to HEX, you can go and exchange the rest of your Tuvala gear into boss gear at Jetina.

• Jetina Boss Exchange is can be done ONCE per account.
• You can exchange ONE FULL SET of boss gear.
• You can choose between the different boss gear options (eg. Kutum or Nouver)
• You CANNOT enhance this gear or put caphras into it.
• You can only turn this gear into PEN using the guarenteed PEN boss gear method.
• You cannot sell it the central market.

If you are a new player, you can ignore the boss exchange coupon, it is not really recommended to use it.  Instead, exchange all your gear at Jetina.

The recommended armor and weapons are shown below:

• Ultimately, Red Rose will be replaced by Fallen God Armor, Griffon helmet will be replaced by Labreska Helmet, Urugon’s/Muskan’s Shoes will be replaced by Ator’s Shoes, and Bheg’s/Leebur’s Gloves will be replaced by Dahn’s Gloves
• The reason you are recommended to take Red Nose Armor is because it requires fewer caphras to level up, meaning you will save silver when upgrading to Fallen God Armor

Damage Reduction Armors (recommended for new players)	Evasion Armors
⇒ Griffon’s Helmet ⇒ Labreska Helmet	⇒ Griffon’s Helmet ⇒ Labreska Helmet
⇒  Red Nose Armor ⇒ Fallen God Armor	⇒  Red Nose Armor ⇒ Fallen God Armor
⇒  Urugon’s Shoes ⇒ Ator’s Shoes	⇒  Muskan’s Shoes ⇒ Ator’s Shoes
⇒  Bheg’s Gloves ⇒ Dahn’s Gloves	⇒  Leebur’s Gloves ⇒ Dahn’s Gloves

Weapon Choices
Kzarka Weapon (recommended)	Offin Tett’s Weapon
Dandelion Weapon
Kutum Weapon (PVE Option – Recommended)	Nouver Weapon (PVP Option)

Once you’ve decided which gear you would like to select, begin the exchange at NPC Jetina. The newly exchanged boss gear cannot be sold on the central market.

Free TET and PEN Blackstar Weapon

All players can obtain 1 free TET (IV) Blackstar weapon and 1 free PEN (V) Blackstar weapon of their choice.

For new players, it is recommended to select the Offhand Weapon for your TET Blackstar choice, and the Mainhand Weapon as your PEN Blackstar choice.

The TET (IV) Blackstar Weapon Box can then be obtained from your (Y) Challenge Rewards.

You can select either x1 TET (IV) Blackstar weapon (main/awakening/sub-weapon) or x10 [Event] Dim Origin of Dark Hunger

Once you have selected the Weapon Box, it can be opened on any class to receive a weapon suitable for that class.

• Shai cannot open the TET (IV) Blackstar Awakening Box.
•  TET (IV) Blackstar weapons obtained from the box cannot be registered on the Central Market.
•  Only non-season characters can open the TET (IV) Blackstar weapon box and equip the claimed weapon.

▼ 4 Choices (Choose 1) ▼
TET (IV) Blackstar Weapon (1 Main/Awakening/Sub-weapon)			[Event] Dim Origin of Dark Hunger x10
TET (IV) Blackstar Main Weapon Box	TET (IV) Blackstar Awakening Weapon Box ※ Not recommended for Shai Class	TET (IV) Blackstar Sub-weapon Box (Recommended for new players)	[Event] Dim Origin of Dark Hunger x10 ※ For veteran adventurers who do not require TET Blackstar weapons.

The PEN (V) Blackstar Weapon Box can also be obtained from your (Y) Challenge Rewards.

If you selected the Offhand weapon as your TET Blackstar choice, I would recommend selecting the Mainhand weapon for your PEN Blackstar.

Example of Gear after Season

The gear example below is what you can achieve after graduating from Season and working towards full PEN Armors, the Jetina Accessories, and the DEC Tuvala Exchange. Once you are at this stage you can also put caphras into your Armors ready for the transition to Fallen God Armor. The gear below does not include any Adventure Journals, which will also add AP/DP stats.