Welcome, adventurers! If you’re just getting started in Black Desert Online (BDO) and are curious about which life skills offer the best progression and profit, you’re in the right place. In this guide, we’ll explore the top life skills for new players in 2024, from the simplest to the most challenging, with tips on gearing up, making silver, and maximizing your efficiency.

Getting Started: Essential Tips for Beginners

Before diving into specific life skills, keep these tips in mind:

• Season Channels: Safe zones for life-skilling without PvP.
• Family-Sharing Tools: Gathering tools are now shared across your family of characters, making it easier to switch between life skills.
• Gear Access: Magic tools and TET Loggia gear can be obtained through loyalty points or purchased on the Central Market.

Top Life Skills for Beginners

1. Gathering

• Difficulty: Easy
• Profit Potential: High
• Recommended Gear: Magic tools (pickaxe, axe, fluid collector)

Why Start with Gathering? Gathering is the backbone of most life skills in BDO. Resources like meat, blood, and herbs are always in high demand, and you can quickly sell them on the Central Market for profit. Complete the beginner quest line in Velia to get started with basic tools.

2. Fishing

• Difficulty: Easy
• Profit Potential: Moderate to High (with AFK potential)

Why Fishing is Popular: AFK fishing is one of the most effortless ways to earn silver passively. Fish in Velia or Altinova to catch valuable fish, which can be sold for silver or traded for enhancing items.

3. Processing

• Difficulty: Easy
• Profit Potential: Moderate

Key Tips: Processing is essential for turning raw materials into higher-value goods. It’s also an excellent AFK skill—set up batches of logs or ores for processing and let it run while you’re away.

4. Farming

• Difficulty: Easy to Moderate
• Profit Potential: High

Getting Started:

• Obtain your first fence from the quest “Because I Like You” outside Heidel.
• Grow crops like carrots and onions for cooking or sell them on the Central Market.

5. Cooking

• Difficulty: Moderate
• Profit Potential: High

Why Choose Cooking? Cooking not only allows you to create powerful self-buffs but also to craft Imperial Cooking Boxes, which can be sold for a stable income. Use resources gathered by workers or farmed yourself to maximize profits.

Advanced Life Skills

6. Training

• Difficulty: Moderate
• Profit Potential: Moderate

How to Start:

• Capture wild horses using ropes and lumps of raw sugar.
• Train horses for breeding or sale on the Horse Market.

7. Alchemy

• Difficulty: Hard
• Profit Potential: High

Key Benefits: Alchemy is essential for crafting elixirs and purifying alchemy stones. Although costly to level, it pays off with valuable Imperial Medicine Boxes.

8. Sailing

• Difficulty: Hard
• Profit Potential: Very High

Getting Started:

• Build or buy a ship, complete the Great Expedition quest for a free Bartali Sailboat.
• Focus on Margoria for the highest XP gain.

9. Bartering

• Difficulty: Very Hard
• Profit Potential: Extremely High

Key Tips:

• Requires a Caravel or Carrack for efficiency.
• Plan routes to maximize profit per trip.

10. Hunting

• Difficulty: Very Hard
• Profit Potential: High

Why Hunt: Hunting is profitable due to rare drops and materials used in Alchemy and Cooking. Focus on whales and Khalks for the most valuable loot.

Conclusion

Life skills in BDO offer diverse paths to wealth and power. Start with easier skills like gathering and fishing to build your income, then gradually progress to advanced skills like bartering and hunting for massive profits. With the right strategy and persistence, you’ll master life-skilling in no time.

Happy life-skilling!