Black Desert Online: how to make silver fast
You're going to need a lot of silver in Black Desert Online. Here's how to coin it in.
Alongside the different types of experience (which are explained in detail in another section of this guide), Silver is one of the most important resources in Black Desert Online, with almost everything you do in the game costing you this in-game currency to some degree or another.
Some people will try to advise you on in-depth setups to make a lot of money in the late-game, but what about if you don’t have the time or the resources for those complicated, partly automated setups? What’s the best way to make money if you’re new to the game? We’re here to help.
One key thing to understand is that most of these methods of making Silver require Contribution Points, which are limited. We explain how to grind out more contribution Points in the EXP section of the guide, so if you haven’t and you’re a beginner we suggest reading that first.
With that said, here are some of our favourite methods to make some in-game cash:
Complete Quests
This might seem obvious, but let’s get the truly obvious one out of the way first: you gain quite a bit of silver for completing quests. That doesn’t just go for the core quests that sit at the centre of Black Desert Online, but also for many of the side quests.
Doing quests will also reward Contribution EXP and other things vital to progressing, so don’t underestimate the power of simply grinding side quests for a while.
Grinding Monster Mobs
Black Desert Online is a vastly populated game, and the enemies out in the world have a generously speedy respawn rate, making it quite easy to stand in an area and farm enemies. We’ve got some recommended areas for farming enemies for EXP elsewhere in our guide – they may well be a good place to start.
A basic enemy will drop some sort of silver as standard, but in addition if you’re lucky you’ll find enemies drop equipment that can either be used or sold and tokens. Tokens can be traded to an NPC interested in that specific type of token for silver coins. The rewards are large, and this is how I afforded my first Mount.
In order to find out where to go in order to trade these items, open our inventory and right click them – the game will show you the path to the nearest vendor of interest. This strategy carries through even to the late game, with tokens from later enemies selling for ridiculous amounts.
Fishing
While perhaps one of the more boring methods of earning money in just about any MMO, fishing is a more hands-off and relaxed way to grind out some levels. In order to fish, you’ll need to get a fishing rod from a merchant or craft one, which is easy enough.
Next to any deep body of water, hit the space bar to start fishing. Then… you wait. You can even leave the computer at this point; without your interaction your character will still catch fish, just at a lower rate. The better quality the rod you use, the more quickly you’ll catch fish.
Fish can then be sold for a profit. You can cook them, but be sure to do all this in good time, as fish will go bad over time and thus not be worth selling. Keep in mind that the location where you fish will help determine the value, and heavily populated fishing areas will result in slower catching than an area where nobody is around.
Trade Routes
Trading is an easy way to make money, but is a little less approachable and takes a little longer to get going thanks to high initial costs. However, over time it can pay off significantly and become a little money-making empire. This trading doesn’t involve other players, either – just you and NPCs. You’re essentially buying from one NPC and selling to another, at a profit. Simple.
In order to trade, you’ll need to get your hands on a node. The easiest way to do this is to find the nearest city on your map, right click the node on the map, and then auto-run there. It’ll lead you to an NPC – that person is in charge of the node-related shenanigans for that city. Ask that NPC about investing, and you’ll pay in contribution points.
Once you have two nodes that are a decent way from each other – vital for getting a good price - use the Node’s Trade Manager to find items that are needed. You want to look for things that are selling for less than their initial value – if you can grab an item for 75% of its initial value and sell it elsewhere for 105% of its initial value, that’s a solid profit. Prices can range hugely and fluctuate in real time, so it’s important to pay attention to what and where you’re buying and selling.
From there, it’s a simple buy-low, sell-high game. The more you invest the more cash you’ll have to buy and trade more expensive things with larger profits.
Crafting & Cooking
It wouldn’t be an open-ended MMO if you can’t use your skills to create items you can then sell. Just as you can sell loot gathered from enemies, Crafting things or Cooking them can increase the value of the base components, giving you something more valuable to sell on.
Better still, partaking in crafting grants various types of EXP also, so you’re grinding in more ways than one.
Horse Breeding
Another top way to earn a little bit of extra coin that doesn’t require much money is via your horse. Once you have access to a male horse, you can place them into the breeding market. Other players will pay to rent that horse and use it for breeding. The better your horse, the more money it will bring in.
If you’ve access to a mare, you can do the reverse – you can hire male horses to breed with, and then sell the resulting offspring for decent prices. If you build up a mini-stable, this can become a lucrative side business.