The MMORPG Black Desert Online has released an official roadmap for the first half of 2020. It includes some class expansions, as well as new areas and a music feature.
What news is planned? For the first six months, the developers plan several updates for Black Desert. Most of them focus on the various classes in the game:
- On January 22, the new class Gardia will be released.
- On February 5, the awakening of Gardia will take place, along with an event.
- After that, the succession skills for some old classes will follow. The weapons will be strengthened before the awakening.
- The class Shai will also receive an expansion, where you can compose and play songs.
- A content update for the 1st quarter is expected to introduce us to the homeland of the Papus and Otters.
- For the 2nd quarter, another chapter in the story of the Children of the Goddess Sliva in the Odilita area is currently planned.
Is there any other content? According to the statement in the blog post, the above-listed content is guaranteed to be released in the first half of 2020 in EU and NA.
At the end of the roadmap, there is a box with a question mark placed. It is quite possible that more unannounced updates will find their way into the game.
Possible new content has already been presented in a roadmap for the Korean version.
Korea gets new updates significantly earlier
What content is missing from the list? At the end of 2019, there was a conference in Korea where Pearl Abyss talked about the development of Black Desert. A roadmap for the Korean version was presented:
- In this, the Odilita update was already announced for February. We will get it only in the 2nd quarter.
- Also announced for spring were Thorn Castle, a new PvEvP battleground, and the seasons for newcomers. Neither of these are mentioned in our roadmap for the first 6 months.
This is somewhat surprising since Pearl Abyss aims for a global version of Black Desert that brings updates at the same time in all regions.
This was even achieved with some new content in 2019. When the class Shai was released, there was only a week difference between Korea and us. However, this year, there seem to be larger gaps between the versions again.
How are players reacting to the roadmap? On reddit, the roadmap is viewed with mixed feelings. Many players are looking forward to the class expansions and the Odilita update.
However, the Papus and Otters are not very popular. Many would have preferred new PvP content and the quick release of Thorn Castle:
- Guan_Dao: “Can we remove the Papu content and get real PvP content like 1v1, 2v2, 3v3 or a new mode instead?”
- Sadduckissad: “I wish BDO finally gets PvP for fewer players, like 2v2 or 3v3. The game lags too much in mass battles.”
Players also speculate based on the roadmap that both Shai and the Archer apparently will not receive succession skills. This is probably because they were designed differently from the start.
However, Gardia will receive its update very early, still in the first quarter of 2020. This, in turn, pleases some players.
We have picked out 9 things you can aim for in Black Desert at the start of the new year:
