Pearl Abyss has officially answered questions about hidden options and other related issues.

The features that will be changed in the following update will be:

- Values of accuracy, evasion, and damage reduction for characters and items
- Description of hidden options
- Improvements on vague descriptions such as “slight”
- Increased chance of obtaining items depending on the level of a node
- Prompt and correct notice when the change in values and chance is made

Below is the full text posted on the official Black Desert Online Korea website.

Greetings,

My name is Jae Hui Kim;  I’m in charge of the BDO Online Development Studio.

First off, I would like to apologize, as a person in charge of the development, for confusing adventurers due to the leak of closed game information and losing your trust in our studio.

While maintaining our original intention of design, we are planning to fully dedicate ourselves to reducing the information gap by quickly and continuously revealing hidden and omitted information through improving item descriptions, which would help adventurers make better decisions.

1. Distinct reveal of information in regards to accuracy, evasion, and damage reduction for characters and items

Many have suggested it and we have been internally reviewing and developing the feature, but it was difficult to choose the right time to reveal such details. It may still not be enough, as the development process is incomplete, but we’ll reveal values of accuracy, evasion, and damage reduction in the following updates as soon as possible, and supplement any faults that come up later on.

2. Descriptions of hidden options

There were many concerns for making an item concept for Kutum, the item added to act as a counterpart for Nouver, since the early stage, because it had to be an attractive item without harming the value of Nouver.

During the process, the item was designed to be a balancing type along with the corresponding DP, but it was considered not good enough, and was thus launched with a hidden AP option against monsters.

The item’s hidden option was implemented in order to apply a distinctive feature to the relevant item while maintaining its basic stats as best as possible, and we thought that it is more meaningful to select an item that is most suitable for each player after you actually use them.

A similar case is the main weapons of Kzarka. All Liverto and Kzarka weapons have a hidden option of additional AP against all races. However, this went against our intention and resulted in a gap between adventurers who were aware of it and those who were not. Thus we have decided to reveal it through additional developments after the reveal of accuracy, evasion, and damage reduction. We apologize once again for not clearly revealing this information in the item description.

All relevant hidden options will be in the item description in order to help adventurers select more suitable equipment, and prevent any more prospective confusion.

3. Improvements on vague item descriptions

In the past, the calculation of elixirs was changed and the partial effect of them was nerfed as a result. During this process, we marked the change as “slight” instead of accurate values in the item description. We apologize once again for delivering vague information with fear of the public being negative about the downward adjustment. We will gradually improve this vague item explanation from the next week’s update onward.

4. Increased chance of obtaining items depending on the level of a node

The node level is a supplementary system developed for providing a slight merit to adventurer’s favorite areas and a way of consuming the energy retrieved from the knowledge. The chances of obtaining items increases as the node level increases, but the value was set much lower than an existing item that increases the chances of obtaining items.

The original purpose was to offer a bit of fun and incentive to favorite areas for adventurers who have been playing for quite a long time.

However, we recognized that there is a major difference between the values we have set and what adventurers really want from the node level, and we are considering the follow-up measures that we should take. Although it is not possible to dramatically increase it, we will gradually increase the chances of obtaining items depending on the node level and make the node level system more meaningful.

5. Prompt and correct notice when the change in values and chance is made

We will deliver a correct notice, just like how we’ve been doing so far, if there is any change in relation to values and chance such as stats of items and characters, the probability of obtaining items, and the probability of enhancement, even though it is a nerf.

This is the most fundamental promise we need to keep with you who enjoy BDO.

As many of us are adventurers before we are developers, we often experience the same issues as you do. There have been occasions where we failed an enhancement too many times, and when we obtain items that we couldn’t have for the whole one week, in a few minutes.

We thoroughly examine these occasions by checking updates, any bugs in the calculation, or changes in the probability, whenever these occur. We will put forth our best effort with continuous tests to prevent any random changes in the value and probabilities.

6. A comment about not marking the damage value and character stats

During the design phase, the dev team of BDO decided to not show the damage value directly in the game, because the game focuses heavily on the action with a keyboard and mouse, and has adopted the TPP shoulder-view.

We believed that the direct display of damage on the screen disrupts concentration on combat and action, leading to a bigger side effect as a result.

We do not want the adventurers of BDO to have gameplay that strives to achieve only high specs. We will continue to hide the damage value shown on the screen as we want all of you to find your own way of having fun by playing distinctive features in the BDO world.

Moreover, the randomization of stats for each character does not exist, as the last update fixed all HP, WP, and weight to be the same when characters level up. The leaked data including different information for each class - for example, strength, agility, intelligence, and willpower - had all been discarded before the CBT and is no longer used.

The balance of PvE and PvP are in continuously undergoing adjustments with Awakening, upgraded pre-awakening skills, and Rabam, and we will do our best to adjust the balance in various ways.

The BDO dev team continues to develop and complement mechanisms that would allow pleasant gameplay even though your character does not deal tremendous damage, or has the highest AP. This is the team’s philosophy: offering adventurers diverse gameplay. We will continue to brainstorm ways to further improve the title.

Lastly…

We would like to apologize one more time for the concerns that you might have.

For 3 years of service, we truly think that BDO still exists because many adventurers actively gave feedback, even though the title has encountered various issues in the past. We will continue developing BDO and keep it prosperous by constantly asking ourselves how we can make it better.

Please share your feedback if you have any questions or suggestions, and thank you for reading this long post.

Yours Sincerely,

Jae Hui Kim, the manager of BDO dev team