Like in real life, you also can't get far in Black Desert Online without Life Skills. You can try, but you'll be confined to one money-making method which is violently culling half the indigent monster population for scraps of silver. That can get old and repetitive. So having some Life Skills in-game to develop serves as an icebreaker and respite from all the violence.
Most Life Skills in the game are peaceful activities, after all, and usually won't expose the players to the dangers of open-world PvP. Just like in real life, some Life Skills are more profitable or more enjoyable than others. If you're here looking for efficiency or wanting to get the most out of your grinding time, then these are how the Life Skills in Black Desert Online measure up.
Updated On February 23, 2022 by William Quick: Black Desert Online is a huge online fantasy world that is more than just slaying monsters. You can aim to carve out a life for yourself so make sure you develop the appropriate skills to do so.
10 Hunting - Simple To Pick Up
- Low barrier to entry
- More leisurely than profitable
- Safe
If you prefer to channel your inner Pokémon master than being a businessman, then Hunting might be the way to go. It's simple enough to understand: purchase a gun or matchlock in the Marketplace (or craft it yourself), look for wild and rare animals, and then shoot them.
You gain profit by selling their skins and other materials you obtain from their carcass. There are also nuances in the hunting methods such as tracking and being stealthy to avoid startling your prey, but it's pretty straightforward compared to other Life Skills. It's also one of the least profitable in the game.
Developing Mastery in Hunting will increase your chances of getting more items from slaying mobs. This will help you get even more rare materials, so you can craft higher quality goods and net a fair profit in the market if you decide to sell.
A quick way to raise your Hunting is to undertake hunting quest lines.
9 Training - Safe, But Tedious
- Low barrier to entry
- Takes a lot of effort
- Horses sell well
- Safe
In addition to feeling like a Pokemon trainer, Training is another Life Skill in Black Desert Online that lets you feed that urge. Like Hunting, it's uncomplicated. You just need to look for some horses out in the open world and then catch them.
After that, you'll have to train the horse by riding them and teaching them some skills in the process. Once they're maxed out or become useful in combat or racing, you may then sell them. However, the effort to profit ratio here might not be fairly proportional, so the Training Life Skill isn't something you'll want to designate as a main silver-making activity.
Reach Mastery in Training greatly improves your chances of capturing wild horses and boosts the EXP you gain from mounting. You'll also be more likely to get a higher-level horse from breeding and training.
8 Sailing - Perhaps Too Dangerous
- High barrier to entry
- Dangerous
- Makes decent silver
Sailing might sound peaceful as a Life Skill and activity in Black Desert Online, but it's actually an Excel spreadsheet simulator due to how elaborate it can be especially for new players. For starters, you'll need a good boat, a cheap one won't do if you want to make a competent amount of silver while Sailing.
Building that boat is a complex process in itself, buying one can be expensive; pick your poison. Second, the act of sailing itself can be a chore with the wind and water current considerations. You gain silver through Bartering which is also an activity that requires an organizer and some notes (unless you're good at organizing your thoughts and at memorization).
It's worth it to reach Mastery in Sailing since its raises the stats of your boats including speed, turning, and braking.
Aside from completing Sailing quests, you can gain quick experience from doing Sailing dailies.
7 Processing - An Excellent AFK Option
- Low barrier to entry
- Can be AFK
- Connected well to other Life Skills
- Safe
Processing is another easy Life Skill to perform and can be hands-off as you only need space for your character and their processing tool which is automatically included upon selection of the processing type. In fact, you'll probably see many players processing their life away in Heidel's riverside dock.
In a sense, it drives the economy since many of the needed materials in other Life Skills are processed goods. Hence, processing commodities such as cooking ingredients can go a long way though it's not quite as profitable as other Life Skills due to the lower required capital.
To greatly improve your efficiency in Processing, you'll need to gain a Mastery in it. Once you do, you'll be able to use a Processing Stone to mass process multiple items at once.
Cloth is easy and fast to make which can earn you easy EXP.
6 Gathering - Large Investment With A Good Payoff
- Low barrier to entry
- Takes considerable effort
- Connected well to other Life Skills
Gathering is pretty similar to Processing in that it's also interconnected with many other Life Skills that are more profitable. Unlike Processing though, Gathering is more active and cannot be done AFK unless you count your worker empire which still requires some top-ups.
In any case, Gather is also elementary and only requires gathering tools that are obtainable through vendors or the Marketplace. You can mine ores, collect tree saps, or even bottle up some water to sell or turn into Alchemy or Cooking ingredients.
By gaining Mastery in Gathering, you'll raise the effectiveness of buffs used to gain more items. It will not only allow you to gather more items at one time but also increase the chance of gathering higher quality items.
Get some Empty Bottles then go and continuously collect water from a river to gain quick levels.
5 Farming - RNG Based
- Low barrier to entry
- Requires attentiveness
- Profit is based on RNG
During your first few hours or minutes into Farming, it might seem like a boring and futile Life Skill, but then you suddenly get a Hard or Sharp Crystal Shard while cleaning up one of the carrots you planted. That's an easy 2-4 million silver, depending on the market.
Farming also doesn't require much initial investment. All it takes is a few crops or seeds, some pre-packaged garden plots, and a bit of attentiveness in order to prevent your growing crops from wilting.
Mastering Farming will allow you to do more of it which will raise your production. Essentially, it lowers the amount of energy needed to farm while speeding up activities such as breeding, pruning, killing pests, and harvesting.
4 Fishing - RNG Based, But AFK This Time
- Low barrier to entry
- Can be AFK
- Decent profit but depends on RNG
Fishing is by far one of the most painless and accessible Life Skills in Black Desert Online. It doesn't ask much from you either; you'll only need a fishing rod and an extra budget for electricity in case you want to leave Black Desert Online on while your character fishes as you work in real life.
This is the most rewarding method for fishing. You get paid in the form of Ancient Relic Crystal Shards. These sell for hundreds of thousands/nearly a million silver depending on market saturation. That or you can use them yourself as they're rather important for late-game gear upgrading.
Developing Mastery in Fishing significantly raises your chances of catching a super rare fish that you can sell for a ton of silver.
3 Trading - Great Profit With Potential Dangers
- Moderate barrier to entry
- Potentially unsafe
- Semi-AFK
- Good profit
Now, if you want to make a profit that's not too dependent on the player-driven Marketplace then Trading is the way to go. It makes players take advantage of the Trade Goods system of the in-game merchants.
Each of them has a specific demand or wants crates of goods that can only be obtained in far places. The farther the place it came from, the higher they'll pay for the goods. Players will need good horses and a large wagon, otherwise, the returns will be negligible. There's also an occasional chance of getting attacked on the road by rogue PvP players.
Spending time developing your Mastery in Trading will let you reduce how much it costs to parley with merchants.
2 Alchemy - For Those Who Want To Be Merchants
- Moderate barrier to entry
- Good profit
- Safe
There are many ways you can bend Alchemy to your will in order to have competitive income in Black Desert Online. You will have to compare them in order to determine which one will work best.
For Alchemy, you'll need a workbench and a home in order to mix and concoct alchemical goods. Once you get your Alchemy high enough, you can start mixing for the Imperial Alchemy Delivery where NPCs will purchase crates of alchemical goods off of you.
When you reach Mastery in Alchemy, you raise your chances of brewing rare items, and you'll also get more per alchemy session.
1 Cooking - An S-tier Skill
- Low barrier to entry
- Good profit
- Safe
Finally, perhaps the most enjoyable low-effort money-making Life Skill in the game, Cooking. It's a skill and profession as old as humanity itself, and you can make big bucks with this in-game that is comparable to mob grinding.
The best way to do it is to level your Cooking high enough until you're ready for Imperial Cooking Delivery. After that, it's a matter of cooking in bulk in order to appease daily orders from NPCs. The ingredients are also more affordable compared to Alchemy, and you'll be able to brag to your grandma about your cooking skills.
Once you reach Mastery in Cooking, you'll have a better chance of cooking quality food. You'll also get access to Cooking Quests and a chance to activate Mass Cooking every time you use the kitchen.
You can gain fast EXP by cooking Byproducts and Worker Food.