Black Desert Mobile Gameplay and Commentary (Part 2)

Black Desert Mobile is a mobile Fantasy MMO based on the popular Korean MMO Black Desert Online.  Published by Pearl Abyss, the game does not have cross-platform play but instead seeks provide the Black Desert Online experience tailored for mobile.  My First Impressions and Part 1 are available below, and my FAQ will be coming out soon.

Upon opening up the game again the character will stare into the player's soul, as if she is silently judging you.  Even the little Black Spirit chimes in if you AFK to the point where the game goes into sleep mode.  Welcome back to the playthrough.  

Our tutorial guide Eileen talks about how we can craft things at a camp while our little spirit friend drops us foreboding foreshadowing about how strong he(?) can make us.  Eileen says if we impress people in high places, they will give us a camp. Without further ado, the game thrusts me into another kill-quota quest to kill 7 imps. Nothing personal, but I want my house.

I guess the imps didn't take it too personally either when we destroyed their defense towers as well, given how they remained passive after respawning.  Although the mission said I drove out the imps by killing seven of them, it doesn't seem like I really succeeded since they continued to spawn and exist.  Good, because I don't think players are prepared to accept responsibility for the systematic disenfranchisement and erasure of an otherwise peaceful race.

Well, time for a cabin.  Except not. I'm prompted to get a horse instead.  Wait, a horse? After (too easily) calming down the horse, we befriend and own it now.  Seems fair. Following this distraction, we are once more assigned to handle the impfestation with a requested kill count of… 10.

It's kind of funny to note that after calming the horse and bringing it to Incas, summoning your horse brings a completely different one instead, with the original one disappearing.  Afterwards can also see the original horse still getting spooked after riding around your tamed mount. I'd be spooked too if I were cloned and replaced and had to scream. But enough about the horse.  I want my house.

Actually, back to the horse.  I quickly found out you can use the horse to attack imps.  This led to a literal Imp stomping party. Unfortunately, it also took way too long for the damage done, so I brought out the good ol' EXPLOSIONS and carried out a hit-and-run on my get-away horse.

The next step in my impicide was investigating the Imp Hideout.  We are transported to a separate stage. The goal is to find a trade merchant.  And in the midst of battle, the Elite Imp Boss Spawned. It took some kiting and a bit more than just fireballs, but it looks like I managed to dispatch him just fine.  Except I could've sworn the NPC Merchant Mathias I was supposed to rescue was fighting the Imp at first and then he disappeared before the battle ended. Oops.

Well, it seems like Mathias hid in a trash can or something because he somehow survived after all.  My hopeful future benefactor then tells me to commit more acts of violence against the Imps, this time against Imps with steel armor.  In the spirit of capitalism and progression, I oblige. They drop fireball notebooks sometimes, which I eagerly use to level up Fireball. Out of ambition, I decide to fight a bit more to no avail.  At some point the Black Spirit makes a quip about Steel Imps, and how we should be called, "Steel Mymoney."

The rest of the fights before the next boss were pretty much as expected.  Freeze the imps, blow them up, fill a quota. Observing the imps, there's some interesting things they do, like worshipping an altar.  Or camping at a fire. Or going about their merry way when their comrades are getting frozen and blown up.

The game suggested to enhance gear and look for repeatable missions.  Unsurprisingly, the available mission involves more Imp Slaying, this time to run an ancient technology that effectively converts Imp Souls into quest rewards like Silver and Black Stones.  Grinding up to the required CP wasn't too troublesome, and I got a few goodies in the way as well, like Black Stones that were promptly used for Equipment Enhancement.

Black Stones are used in this game to enhance equipment, where higher levels of gear enhancement require more black stones or higher tier black stones to succeed.  At the cost of some silver, the equipment will receive better stats.  

After the usual RPG grind, we now have to fight the boss.  According to the mission screen, I didn't meet the proper CP for the boss, so I decided to play it safe and level up some more.  Afterwards, it was time to tackle the real first boss fight.

Yes, they did make a Rudolph reference in his description.  Now it is time to fight the big bad boss of this town - Red Nose.  The time for all players to feel like they've pulled a pro gamer move.  

The prelude to the boss wasn't too bad, with the game point out the optimal path to take and your character solo'ing the camps you come across.  Occasionally there will be areas that rain rocks, but they are easily overcome by destroying the imp tower or imp summoner in charge of the sneaky pebbles.

The actual boss fight consisted of Red Nose charging and trying to belly flop on players, with some melee attacks for variety.  The damage he does is sizable but not worrisome, especially when players have ample potions to chug. The battle really forces new players to learn the controls, by focusing on the boss and then making sure targeting and range are accurate.  I wasted way too many fireballs into the ground trying to snipe Rednose. The other major thing they soft-teach you is timed dodging. When Rednose attempts to bellyflop, the dodge button will glow bright red and start clicking at you to press it.  Time will appear to slow down, giving you a good chance to feel like a Platinum Games character while dodging an overgrown Imp.

The boss appears to have multiple hp bars for each phase, alternating between red and yellow with the number of remaining hp bars on the right side.  After depleting a certain number of HP bars, Rednose consumes dark energies but otherwise doesn't appear to change the battle much. At this point I got pretty used to dodging, and managed to finish him off decently easily.

I stroll into town, feeling somewhat victorious.  Better yet, I hear the next person in the questline will get me a camp.  There's the usual banter about how this person doubts my abilities, but I'm finally granted land.  Sweet. And two human workers (what). I haven't played too many MMO's, but the camp reminds me of something like Fallout's Settlement.  I can build buildings, and talk to workers. Cool.

The first thing I do is produce a refinery.  This generates Black Stones passively. In the menu, I see the names of my helpers: Eugenia and Stevenson.

The Black Spirit then convinces me to fight Red Nose again as part of the Boss Rush feature.  How many times do I need to teach this old Imp a lesson?  

This time, however, the fight seemed a bit harder.  I quickly learned that I am still trash at the game, and the HP and attack of all the enemies seemed to be higher.  To add insult to injury, I ended the bossfight with a C rank, granting me none of the coveted materials.

Upon beating the boss the second time, my game crashed.  I've been playing for a while, and it seems like that is enough for an early impression.  While there are still a lot of mechanics, gameplay, and the like not covered in these first impressions, the game has been out for a while in Korea, Taiwan, and Japan.  Thank you for sticking through the entire playthrough, and we hope to continue presenting relevant news and information for Black Desert Online!