Tip: Never Log Out

If you've been to the docks in Velia or Hiedel, you probably know that AFK fishing is pretty popular. However, you may not realize that many of these people are after more than just fish. You see, Black Desert wants you online. All. The. Time.

Next time you're ready to walk away from the computer, you might want to consider minimizing BDO, instead of logging out.

Why?

Workers

If you have workers gathering resources or crafting, and you log out, they'll continue working until they finish their current task. However, they won't start a new task! If you have a lot of short tasks queued or a lot of workers with queued tasks, you may be missing out on a lot of worker time.

Farming

Did you know your crops only grow when you are logged in? That's right. When your character vanishes, your crops all go into stasis until you return.

Energy

This is probably the most obvious item on the list, but your character recovers energy much faster when they're logged in. Ten times faster, in fact.

Not only that, but you can put your character to rest in a bed to further increase your energy recovery. A bed bought with silver will boost your energy regen to twenty times the offline rate. A cash shop bed will grant you 30 times the offline rate.

Some people love the AFK features of Black Desert, and some people hate feeling obligated to be online all the time. Personally, I'm on the fence. It's nice to come back to a little extra money after being away from the game, but it also makes it feel wasteful to just log out at the end of a night, without bothering to set up a character fishing.

One final word of warning: if you do keep your character logged on all the time, be sure to at least switch characters once a day, or the game may not give you your 100 daily loyalty points. It's easy to forget about them when you don't have the icon blinking at the bottom of your screen.

Is Fishing Badly Designed?

Fishing is obviously pretty popular in Black Desert Online. Visit any shoreline within sight of a city or town, and you'll find it packed with battle-hardened heroes who have swapped their weapons of war for fishing rods.

However, just because something is popular doesn't mean it's a good thing. Is the fishing system good for the players? Is it good for the game as a whole?

Before we get into that contentious question, let's talk about how fishing fits into the game.

• The act of fishing always consumes fishing pole items, and may also consume some other single-use items like food and paste bait. It's possible to consume energy while fishing, but I don't think a lot of people actually do.
• The act of fishing produces some vendor trash, which is sold for silver. It also produces fish, which can be sold as trade goods for a limited time, or used in crafting - mainly cooking. Like all trade items, fish do not stack in inventory, so they take up a lot of space.
• During fishing, there is always some amount of wait time, where nothing is happening. During this wait time, you cannot look at the knowledge screen, processing screen or map (and therefore you cannot direct workers). The wait time is increased in areas that a lot of people fish and is decreased by items that improve fishing skill, such as paste bait.
• There are two types of fishing: active (manually controlled) and passive (no user involvement). Active fishing requires the player to perform a 2-step quick-time-event to reel in the fish, but is faster. Passive fishing doesn't require the user to do anything, but adds an extra 3 minute delay to every fishing cycle.

The Good

Fishing ties into other BDO systems nicely. Fish make sense as trade goods, since they're caught in a variety of places, and they would naturally be worth more in distant lands where that type of fish cannot be caught. They make sense as a ubiquitous cooking ingredient.

Fishing also contributes to the feeling of realism in the world. Over-fishing legitimately affects the viability of fishing in many areas, and encourages people to seek out less popular fisheries. The limited time period where fish "go bad" also feels realistic, as well as the option of being able to dry the fish for a lower-quality, but more durable product.

Active fishing gives players a relaxing activity to pursue that demands much less attention than combat.

Passive fishing gives players the opportunity to walk away from the game while their character continues performing a viable money-making activity. However, inventory space limitations, fishing pole durability, and the extra 3-minute wait ensure that active fishing is more rewarding than passive fishing, which is fair.

The Bad

The mandatory wait time forces the player to do nothing during the majority of time spent fishing. Being unable to work on production, direct workers, or even plan your next move on the map means you're pretty much forced to just stare at the bobber and wait. This is not exactly an engaging experience. That may be fine for someone who wants to watch Netflix while they play, but for people who just want to get the fish they need for a quest or for crafting, this tedium does not improve their game experience.

The quick-time-events for actually catching the fish are complicated enough that you do have to pay some attention, but not really challenging for most players. You can't completely tune out, the way you might when clicking the bobber in World of Warcraft. You also can't feel any real satisfaction in the act of reeling in a fish, because it's too easy. And the occasional time when you do manage to mess up the quick-time-event feels extremely irritating, especially after waiting several minutes for a fish to bite.

The fact that passive fishing (and other AFK money-making ventures) exist means a certain amount of guilt for any player who wants more silver, but doesn't leave their character fishing while they're away. Players who consistently fish while AFK will have a not-insignificant advantage in the long term. For players with limited time to play, setting up AFK fishing at the end of a session, and selling the results at the start of the next session can feel like an annoying obligation.

The Conclusion

So, is the fishing system in BDO good or bad? My vote is somewhere in the middle. 

I love the immersive details, and the way fishing fits so nicely into other systems like trade, cooking and knowledge. I like the extra silver. But fishing can also be incredibly tedious if you're not in the mood, and it can feel like an obligation sometimes. I'll admit that I've been forcing myself to occasionally just log out instead of setting up an overnight fishing expedition, to fight the feeling that I'm being wasteful whenever I'm not making money AFK.

What about you? Do you love fishing, hate it, or a little of both? Do you fish actively, or do you only take out your rod before you turn off your monitor for the night? Let me know what you think, in the comments.

Tip: The Best Ways to AFK

For better or worse, Black Desert Online is a game that wants you logged in as much as possible. It has several features that give you advantages for staying online, even when you're away from the keyboard.

So how do you get the most of your AFK time? Well, you have a few options.

Fishing

AFK fishing is built into the game, making it the most popular AFK activity among players. However, it's not entirely obvious to new players how it works. 

You have to equip a fishing pole and stand by the water, just as you would for normal fishing. Cast as normal. Then...just walk away. You'll get fish on the line, and eventually, if you don't do the fishing mini-game, your character will reel in the fish for you. AFK fishing is quite a bit slower than "active" fishing, so you won't catch fish as quickly when AFK.

Just like normal fishing, AFK fishing will use up the durability of your equipped fishing pole. It will eventually need to be replaced. You'll also want to have your inventory as empty as possible to hold all those fish.

When you first start, there is a check box to "Throw away useless items caught during auto-fishing," which you can use if you want to keep more inventory space open for better catches.

Resting

Your character can sleep while you sleep!

You can build a bed in a house you've designated as a residence. Using the bed will cause your character to rest (but only if they're logged in). Resting will improve your energy regeneration rate.

Beds bought with silver will give you energy regen of 2 points per 3 minutes.

Beds bought from the cash shop will boost your energy regen to 3 points per 3 minutes.

Crafting

Maybe your energy is full and you have lots of raw materials. Well, in that case, you might want to start your character on a production task, like heating ore, or a crafting task, like cooking a hundred plates of fried fish, or mugs of beer. You can never have too much fried fish and beer.

Of course, the larger your maximum energy, and the more energy and materials you have, the more effective your time will be.

If you're able to check in periodically, you can also alternate between crafting and resting in a bed to speed energy recovery.

Running

Any time your character runs, it will slowly level up your stamina. Thanks to the auto-run-to feature, it's easy to run your character around quite a bit without having to interact much with the game.

On the world map, pick a location that's far away from you, then right-click to set it as your navigation target. Exit the world map and press "T" to auto-run to your target. Now you can also walk away and do something else for a while.

If you'd like to automate the process even further, you can use macros or clever gamepad tricks, like the stuff described here. However, this is technically against the terms of service, so do this at your own risk! (Note: The A and W keys together will run you in a circle when you're holding a fishing rod.)

In some other regional versions of BDO, a feature has been added that allows you to set multiple navigation targets in a loop, but this feature is not currently in the NA/EU version. It is possible that it will be added in a future update.

More Running

Leveling your strength is similar to leveling your stamina. Instead of just running, however, you need to run around with trade goods in your inventory.

Unfortunately, trade goods make you a target for bandits. These are the little black and red icons on your world map, and if you run into their area with trade goods, they'll pounce on you, and when you come back to your keyboard, you'll be sad.

For this, you pretty much have to use macros or hardware shenanigans to level while AFK, at least for now. When the auto-looping features from other versions get added, this will be much easier.

Eating

Your maximum health is leveled up by eating cooked foods. The most effective way to level it up is to eat 30-minute foods every 30 minutes.

First, you'll need a supply of this type of food in your inventory. Again, you will also need a software program that can emulate mouse clicks. Open the inventory and set the auto-clicker program to click the food every 30 minutes.

This is a bit wasteful compared to simply using the food in the course of your normal play, but if you don't mind the cost, it will level your health quickly.