Energy - Everything You Need to Know

This is a post in the "Everything You Need to Know" series. These posts dig deep into core topics of Black Desert Online to show you exactly how they work. If I've missed anything, please leave a comment or send me a message through the sidebar, and I'll update this post.

What is it?

Energy is a very important resource in Black Desert Online. It is like a limited currency that can be spent on different things. Unlike contribution points, each character on your account has their own energy points. This means each character you create will give you more energy to spend at any given time. Energy naturally regenerates, so if you find yourself running low, you can always wait a few minutes to get some more.

How Do I Increase my Maximum Energy?

Acquire Knowledge. You can gain knowledge by exploring new areas, killing different types of monsters, talking to NPCs, and many other things. (View your knowledge with the H key, or from the Esc menu.)

Your maximum energy is increased by filling up knowledge "groups". These groups consist of related pieces of knowledge - like all the different types of imps in an area, or all the interesting NPCs in a town. Your maximum energy will increase when you finish a group, and often it will also increase when you get the group half-complete.

Be aware that you can only unlock each piece of Knowledge once per account (not per character). However, maximum energy is shared across all the characters on your account.

How Do I Gain Energy?

1. Natural Regeneration - Any character that is online will regenerate 1 point of energy every 3
   minutes. Characters that are offline will regenerate 1 point of energy every 30 minutes.
2. Sleep in a Bed - Beds can be deployed in a house that you've designated as a residence. Sleeping in a bed bought with silver will regenerate 2 points of energy every 3 minutes. Cash shop beds will regenerate 3 points of energy every 3 minutes. Offline characters cannot sleep in a bed, so they can't get the increased regeneration bonus.
3. Complete Quests - Many quests reward energy upon completion.

How Can I Spend Energy?

NPCs:

1. Dialog options - Many NPCs (and even some objects in the world) have dialog options that cost some energy and reward you with a piece of knowledge.
2. Conversation mini-game - When talking to an NPC, use the "conversation" option to start the mini-game. This will give you the opportunity to discuss bits of knowledge that you've acquired that are interesting to that NPC. Starting the mini-game costs energy, but continuing through multiple rounds once you've started does not cost additional energy.
3. Theft - Some NPCs have a "theft" option that allows you to attempt to steal from them. The attempt will cost energy (regardless of whether it was successful or not).
4. Greet an NPC - Any NPC with an amity rating will have a "greet" option. This allows you to spend energy to slightly increase their amity value. This is usually not a good way to spend energy, as you can get much more amity through the conversation mini-game, once you have knowledge that the NPC is interested in.
5. Bargain with a trader - For 5 energy, you can attempt to increase the price of items you are selling.
6. Proof of defense - Sometimes a settlement will come under attack from monsters. These monsters will drop a "defense token" item, specific to that settlement. These tokens can be traded to an NPC (in their item description). The NPC will have a dialog option that costs 3 energy and several tokens, but rewards you with contribution experience.

Gathering and crafting:

1. Gather resources - Resources like wild plants, trees, and ore can be found throughout the world. Gathering from these costs 1 energy.
2. Crafting - Different crafts cost varying amounts of energy to complete.
3. Go fishing - If you hold down the spacebar while casting, you can cast further. Going above 10 on the meter costs energy, but will improve your chances of catching something good.
4. Farming - Each time you plant or gather crops from a farm plot, it costs 1 energy.
5. Milking a cow - Milking a cow costs 5 energy.

Nodes and workers:

1. Node investment - Once you've activated a node, you can invest energy into it. This will increase the loot drops from monsters killed in that node's area.
2. Contract workers - Every time you ask a work supervisor NPC to show you a new worker for hire, it costs 5 energy. 

Other:

1. Speak in world chat - Yes, that's right. Every time you talk in global chat, it costs you energy.
2. Learning skills - When you learn skills from a skill trainer, it's free. If you learn them out in the field (away from skill trainer), it will cost you energy.