Do you need to pay for Black Desert Online?

Modified Jun 07, 2024 12:53 IST

Players are looking for ways to buy Black Desert Online. — Players are looking for ways to buy Black Desert Online (Image via Pearl Abyss)

Black Desert Online is a Korean Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game developed by Pearl Abyss. Since it offers a seven-day trial, new players are often confused about whether a monthly subscription service or a one-time purchase is needed to play Black Desert. This fantasy MMORPG set in a sandbox environment was released on July 14, 2015, in Korea and made its way to different platforms worldwide between 2016 and 2019.

Although the game is free to play only in certain regions, it follows a pay-to-play model in most regions across the world - including all the English versions.

Is Black Desert Online a paid game or free-to-play?

Black Desert does NOT require a subscription service to play (Image via Pearl Abyss)

Black Desert Online will require a one-time payment to purchase the game - with three regional exceptions. For players in Korea, Japan, and Russia, Black Desert Online has a free-to-play model. In the rest of the world where the game is available, it has to be bought first.

Regions where Black Desert Online is a paid purchase include Europe, South-East Asia, both Americas, China, and Taiwan.

In these regions, several purchase packages are available for the game. All of These offer the base game, while the upgraded editions offer added benefits that aren't a necessity but a welcome bonus.

To get only the base game, one can avail of the Traveller Edition of Black Desert from the game's official website or Steam (if available in their region).

Note that on one particular account, only one package can be purchased. After getting one game package, players can transfer the bundled items from the game's web storage to a character on the game servers of their specific region. Players are recommended to double-check the server they choose for their character before transferring any items from Web Storage.

Is a monthly subscription necessary to play Black Desert Online?

No. A monthly subscription is not necessary to play Black Desert Online.

Black Desert Online's monthly subscription service only offers bonus benefits, which isn't a necessary purchase for new players.

Some Black Desert Online features to take note of upon purchase

Black Desert allows players to engage in an active combat system (Image via Pearl Abyss)

The combat is action-oriented, with manual aiming and free mobility akin to that seen in third-person shooters. The game includes housing, fishing, farming, and commerce. There also are massive player-versus-player siege events and castle warfare that MMORPG fans are well-versed in.

Black Desert has several tools that help with its immersion aspect, such as the dynamic and global weather system. It affects gameplay via large-scale weather phenomena. The combat system in Black Desert necessitates accurate manual aiming, dodging, and combo usage which is different from the general tab-targeting style of MMORPGs.

The skills in Black Desert can be activated by using combinations to attack, dodge, or block. Players can obtain mounts via taming in the wild, and players may breed unique mounts by cross-breeding different types of mounts. They do, however, require food and maintenance and need to be well taken care of since they can be killed.

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Edited by Angad Sharma