Individual Battle, a new PvP mode, was added to Black Desert Online on January 24th. 10 participants are divided into two teams of 5, and players from each team engage in 1-on-1 duels.

You can participate in the Individual Battle from the ESC tab, and once you enter, you’ll be put in a queue until 10 players are matched. You cannot attack while in the queue, and you can see how many players there are and who has been matched so far. However, you cannot switch gear once you enter the queue, so you must finish your preparations before you actually enter the queue.

Once all 10 players are matched, a message saying, “The Individual Battle will begin soon.” will pop up and the players will be divided into two teams, ‘Black Desert Team’ and ‘Red Desert Team’. The team matching is based on the total sum of AP and DP from the players in each team, and each team will be matched to have similar AP and DP. The player with the highest sum of AP & DP will be selected as the leader. You can see which team you are placed in from the ‘Your Team’ label placed under the team name on the scoreboard inside the battlefield.

MORE BDO: BDO KR Patch Notes Jan 25th: More damage for 160-243 AP Players, New Guild Raid, New Life Skill Quests

After players have been placed in teams, they will be moved to each team’s waiting room, where they prepare for the actual battle. There are 3 rounds in Individual Battle, and while the 1st and 2nd rounds are 1-on-1 PvP battles, the 3rd round is a 5-on-5 team battle. First, the leader of each team will pick a player to fight in the first match during the 1st and 2nd rounds. Whoever wins will continue fighting in the next match, while the losing team will pick another player to fight next. Players who have lost cannot fight again in the same round, and once a team no longer has any players left to fight that round, they will lose. If one team wins both 1st and 2nd rounds, the Individual Battle will end with their victory, but if each team wins one round during the 1st & 2nd rounds, all players will have to fight in a 5-on-5 team battle.

Once the 1st round begins, each team leader will pick the first player to fight. They are each given 1 minute to choose, and meanwhile, the rest of the team members can gear up by buying Battlefield HP potions from the Battlefield Manager in the waiting room or repairing their gear. Once each team is done picking their 1st fighter, a 20-second countdown will begin and players will be able to see the fighting player’s name and class.

After the countdown, another 2-minute-and-2-second countdown will start and the entrance of the waiting room will open simultaneously. Players fighting in the current matchup will be teleported to the battlefield and a message will pop up that says ‘The battle will start once there are 2 minutes left’. Once the countdown hits 2 minutes, the battle will begin; whoever manages to kill the opponent or has higher HP than their enemy once the timer runs out will win.

If the battle does not end with one team’s victory during the 1st and 2nd rounds, then the players will proceed to the 3rd round. In the 3rd and final round, victory goes to whichever team manages to eliminate the opponent players within the time limit or has more survivors on their team at the end of the timer. It will be a draw if both teams have the same number of survivors at the end of the timer. Spectators can wander about freely during the matchups, and they will also be able to watch from the participant’s perspective if they press F5.

Each team leader will need to take great care in selecting their players during the matchups since the player who wins in a match will keep playing in the next matchups until they lose. The team leaders will need to take player classes, levels, gear, etc. into consideration and pick the player who is most likely to win against the enemy player. Also, the battlefield is not that big, and players who move outside to where the guards are will lose the round.

Once the battle ends, a message declaring your victory or defeat will show up and players will be teleported where they originally were before joining the Individual Battle. There are no separate rewards for the Individual Battle, and you can check your battle records on the bottom right part of the Individual Battle tab.

MORE BDO: New Eckett Costume pieces added to BDO KR for the Sorceress! From leather pants to hot pants