If you have some knowledge of the MMORPG world, you know that Black Desert is primarily known for its grinding, alongside its combat system and beautiful graphics. However, the new expansion Land of the Morning Light aims to change that. Our author Mark Sellner has already had a chance to play it and reports on how this is achieved.
What’s new in Land of the Morning Light? Land of the Morning Light is the new expansion for the MMORPG Black Desert. It will be released on June 14 and brings the eponymous area into the game world of the MMO.
From the outside, Land of the Morning Light is so strongly oriented towards South Korea that even the local tourism is advertising it. In terms of gameplay, the expansion aims to introduce entirely new elements to the sandbox world of Black Desert.
In this brief overview, you can look forward to the following new features:
- A completely new region with new enemy types
- 2 new houses and many new furniture items for housing
- A new ship
- A new mini-game for the life skills
- New endgame gear
- Challenging boss fights in the new “Boss Blitz” mode
I had the chance to test all of this, and I can already tell you: it’s going to be really good. But let me also tell you why.
The story is a major highlight in the new expansion
How did I play? At an event in Amsterdam, along with 9 other European colleagues and the developers themselves, I had three full hours to get a taste of Land of the Morning Light.
There were no limitations. The entire expansion was open to me, and I could do whatever I felt like. I was provided with a character that, according to the developers, “had about the best gear currently available.” I chose a Drakania and off I went.
By the way, you don’t need an endgame character to play the new expansion. On the contrary, Land of the Morning Light is a completely new starting area, provided you own it. So you can start right into the expansion with a fresh character if you wish.
What did I play? Being nearly overwhelmed by the total freedom, I wanted to get as comprehensive an overview as possible and make my three hours as efficient as possible. After following the main story of Land of the Morning Light to the first city, I decided to explore one of the 8 stories extensively.
As in the last expansion Eternal Winter, they are almost fully voiced and contain over 100 minutes of cutscenes total – nice!
I was free to choose which of the stories I wanted to tackle first. The developers assured me that all of them work independently, but they are also interconnected. Ultimately, they tell you more about each of the eight bosses you can take on.
How good are the stories? At this point, I obviously don’t want to spoil anything, but I can tell you that the story I played absolutely surprised me. While it initially seemed rather slow and predictable, it caught me off guard with exciting twists, strong characters, and relevant decisions.
Some decisions you have to make will even determine how the quest continues and what your next task will be. These are made uniquely for your character and cannot be changed. This increases replay value with a different character.
Since I wanted to take my time, follow the dialogues, and actually experience the story, I spent about 1.5 hours on one of the 8 storylines. Besides these, there is also a main storyline in Land of the Morning Light, which you can follow as well.
Extremely tough bosses in a race against time
How do the bosses work? After my story outing, I spent all my remaining time on the bosses. You can select and start them directly from the menu, as long as you are near the corresponding quest.
Eight different bosses await you, each in 10 different difficulty levels. You will fight the tough opponents alone in an instanced area. The quicker you can take down the nasty foes, the better. This way, you automatically enter a leaderboard that is divided by difficulty level, boss, and your class.
Although you fight alone in your own area, you do not use up your fever here, which is your hour a day that you can slip into your own farming spots. Instead, the bosses are limited in number. You can kill a total of 5 bosses per week per account.
What’s particularly exciting is that your gear doesn’t count for much in these challenging fights. According to the developers, your gear score is only about 10% relevant for your damage and armor in the fights.
You can gather certain “orbs” through various tasks in the expansion, which give you an advantage against each of the bosses and are relevant for the remaining 90% of your damage. Thus, players starting in Land of the Morning Light and veteran players with years of experience can play on a closely matching level and have similar chances for the top spots on the leaderboards.
How do the difficulty levels work? As already mentioned, each of the bosses comes in a total of 10 different levels. The first 5 simply increase the bosses’ stats and can be played from the very start.
However, levels 6 to 10 introduce new mechanics to the boss fights and are not immediately unlocked. The unlocking process works a bit oddly, but I will try to explain it to you in a short sentence.
Let’s say you are at difficulty level 6, then either you or another player of the same class as yourself playing on the same server must complete difficulty level 6 to unlock level 7. The 7th level is then unlocked for all players of the same class on the same server.
This also means that while the 5 weekly kills are counted across the account, the unlocked difficulty levels function per character.
Bosses require skill and mechanics
How difficult are the bosses really? During my play session, I fought against a total of 5 bosses. It stands out that all of them bring their own setting and a fitting atmosphere.
They also require you to adapt quickly and learn their attack patterns and mechanics, or they will wipe the floor with you in no time. The difficulty levels scale upwards very quickly and present problems earlier than I initially thought.
I could still handle the first level bosses reasonably well by the 2nd or 3rd attempt. Most of them have wipe mechanics that you must understand first, or you will quickly find yourself stuck at level 1. But once you understand them, there is hardly a challenge in level 1.
But that changes quickly. At level 3, I could only defeat 3 of the 5 bosses, and at level 5, I couldn’t defeat any. I would like to mention again that, although I had no orbs collected, I had an absolute endgame character that was practically equipped for every challenge in Black Desert.
In level 5, every move must be precise: Nevertheless, the bosses were already brutal at level 5. Here, I had to not only understand and play the mechanics but also memorize the normal attack patterns. If I didn’t dodge before the boss got me, those nasty critters knocked me back to reality with just one or two hits.
One of the present developers told me that he is stuck on level 7 privately and can’t seem to progress further. The bosses are indeed tough and require learning.
But the reward is new endgame gear and other rewards that slightly differ depending on the boss. Plus, there is a lot of fun to be had in the challenging battles that you shouldn’t miss out on. However, you should bring some tolerance for frustration.
Conclusion
After three hours of Land of the Morning Light, I really wanted to stop hardly at all, even as quite a “Black Desert” newcomer. Even though I’m not the biggest fan of the Korean setting, the story managed to completely captivate me.
Beyond the successful story, bosses await me that I couldn’t seem to get enough of. The level 5 bosses already evoked a kind of Dark Souls vibe in me, true to the motto: “I can do this, just one more try, please!” But then, the three hours were already over.
Land of the Morning Light feels like a well-executed expansion after three hours, capable of exciting both veterans and newcomers. I already look forward to the release on June 14 and can’t wait to experience the remaining 7 storylines and at least tackle one of the bosses on level 6.
Mark Sellner
MMORPG expert at MeinMMO
What do you think about it? Do you think the same way I do, or do you disagree with what you read there? Are you a veteran and annoyed that your equipment is less “valuable”? Or are you looking forward as a newcomer to show the veterans who’s in charge without eternal grinding? Feel free to let us know in the comments here at MeinMMO.
MMORPG Black Desert is hosting its first major community event in Europe – I was there.
