It’s a confusing system, but mastering nodes and workers is key to earning money in Black Desert Online. We’re here to help.
Investing in Nodes and then having Workers do their thing within those Nodes is a vital way of making money and other resources in Black Desert Online – but it can be a slightly obtuse system to newcomers. How do you get workers? How do you invest in nodes? Here’s what you need to know:
Once you are familiar with the basics of the Black Desert UI, it’s time to explore. Two very useful menus are the main game menu (Esc) and the hotkey guide (F1). The main menu lets you access a ton of other menus and options, including the pearl shop, crafting, mail, and pets. If you only learn one hotkey, learn (Esc) to access the main menu.
Investing in Nodes
Nodes are essentially spheres of influence that you can ‘invest’ in with Contribution Points. Doing so will open up options within that node such as buying houses, crafting, gathering, and setting up trade routes. Almost all of these things can be used as a route to better equipment and a better character, or at the very least a lot of money that you can spend.
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There’s no cap on how early you can start getting into the node game – as soon as you reach the first major city, you’re able to begin if you’re so inclined. The rewards are small to begin with, but grow significantly larger as time passes.
In order to get your hands on a node you’ll need to find the nearest city on your map, and then find the node. 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 to do so in contribution points. This NPC is also used to level up nodes.
Connecting Nodes
Nodes only cover the space around their city, and though they can be upgraded to widen their (and therefore your) sphere of influence by spending energy, the ultimate goal is to be involved with multiple nodes and then connect them. You must work out from your first node, sequentially connecting them.
All of this can be easily seen on the world map. Nodes that are connected are lit up in yellow, and nodes that are not connected are white. Nodes that are too far from your current node empire are represented with no line at all – simple.
Once Nodes are connected, you can trade between them, buying and selling items and resources, as detailed in our guide on how to make some fast money. However, you don’t have to do this alone…
Hiring Workers
Once you have nodes, the next step to maximize your money-making potential is to bring on some workers to do some of the hard work in your stead. Capitalism! I love it.
Hiring a worker costs 5 energy and around 3000 silver – if you need tips on how to get hold of those, check our EXP guide and money guide.
In order to start hiring, you’ll need to find the Worker Supervisor in that node. While in the city, use the ‘Find NPC’ button, and hit the Worker button – it’ll lead you right to them. The Supervisor will allow you to pull a random person – and then you can hire them.
There are three types of worker – Goblins, Giants, and Humans. Goblins work fast, but have low stamina. Giants are the reverse, slow but long-lasting. Humans are between the two. There’s also special boosted workers – ‘Skilful’ or ‘Artisan’ workers – that appear at random. If one of these crops up, hire them immediately.
The more workers you hire, the more space you’ll need to lodge them – houses can be purchased within cities for yourself, then set as ‘lodging’ in order to house your workers.
Getting to Work
Once you’ve got workers, you can set them to work by heading to the Node Manager for the area you’re in – the same person you used to set up the node – to instruct them to focus on certain areas. This’ll cost contribution points.
Workers can do a number of things for you – they can Craft, Gather and Trade – and they do everything automated while you’re out in the world doing what you need to do to feel a hero. As such, workers are a great way to make money – and if you keep expanding with more lodging and food in order to hire more workers, you’ll have a trade empire in no time at all.
Let us help you in this classic fantasy role-playing game.
Black Desert Online is the smash hit Korean MMORPG that has finally received a western release courtesy of Daum Games.
It’s an epic fantasy RPG and that means it comes with many deep systems, some of which are baffling at first but a revelation when you finally understand how they work and make your character build better.
We’ve started a Black Desert Online guide and will be updating it regularly over the coming month, adding pages that cover the most essential parts of the game. From character improvements and levelling to which class to choose and the best quests for loot.
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If there’s something specific you want more clarity on, leave us a message in the comments section below and we’ll try our best to help you out.
Black Desert Online: 10 beginner’s tips
What is Knowledge and how to gain it
How to get EXP and level up quickly
Black Desert Online: how to make silver fast
A guide to all classes, stengths and weaknesses
How to use nodes and workers to earn money
What is Knowledge and how to gain it
How to get EXP and level up quickly
Black Desert Online: how to make silver fast
A guide to all classes, stengths and weaknesses
How to use nodes and workers to earn money
General tips
The closest thing to Fast Travel
Black Desert Online has no fast travel equivalent, but there is a way to travel around that’ll save you from sitting and walking from one place to another – and that’s the ‘auto run’ system. Pressing the T Key at any point will make your character automatically run straight forwards – which is useful – but there’s a trick to make this more useful still.
Open your map and right click anywhere – this will lay a breadcrumb trail on the map. Hitting T will now make your character run all the way to that marker on the fastest possible route, making all efforts to avoid obstacles on the way. I’d keep one eye on it, but you can use this to take your hands off the keyboard and let the game take you somewhere with little to no input, saving some effort.
Explore the world with Spectator Mode
While not massively useful, Black Desert Online has a short-range spectator mode that’s ideal for getting a view of the surrounding area outside the confines of character movement. To use it, sit down or lean against a nearby wall with the R key – this’ll detach the camera and let you explore with it.
Remember that you can disable the game interface by pressing Ctrl+U – making this detached camera ideal for taking awesome screenshots of your character and the Black Desert Online world.
Eating food has great benefits
In-game food actually gives you experience points towards the skill that determines your overall health level – so try to eat food as often as possible. Often food has additional benefits such as combat buffs, too – so it’s well worth buying food or getting into cooking in order to have access to good stuff. Potions are good, but food is often even better!
In-game food actually gives you experience points towards the skill that determines your overall health level – so try to eat food as often as possible. Often food has additional benefits such as combat buffs, too – so it’s well worth buying food or getting into cooking in order to have access to good stuff. Potions are good, but food is often even better!
Idling can be a good thing
Black Desert Online puts a great emphasis on being logged in as much as possible. While logged in there are AFK tasks that the MMO actually encourages you to partake in such as fishing. Energy, a vital resource that you’re constantly using, also replenishes more quickly when logged in and idling than it does when logged out.
Attempt to minimize the game and it’ll even offer to go into a slightly powered-down state that’ll use fewer PC resources but maintain a connection – handy.
Mounts are good, but not needed right away
While Mounts are cool, don’t rush to get your first horse – walking around on foot will have a positive effect on your character stamina, and you won’t gain this bonus while riding a mount. You can also game this system a bit by using the auto-walk function, described in point one, then heading AFK.
Remember that pressing Shift will allow you to sprint, though this is limited by your stamina. As with walking, the more you sprint, the better your stamina will become.
Make use of the NPC Finder
We mention this on some of our other guide pages – the world of BDO is packed with NPCs, and many of them serve no purpose other than window dressing. It can sometimes be hard to find the NPC you need – but it needn’t be.
Next to your map in the upper right you’ll see a magnifying glass. Click it and it’ll bring up options of NPCs; select what you’re after, and it’ll drop a waypoint to that person. You can either follow it manually or auto-run right to them.
Create extra characters
Because it doesn’t have a subscription, there’s no cost or punishment to making multiple BDO characters. Even if you don’t plan on playing them seriously, it’s useful to have extra characters – many things are shared across your characters, so you can switch character to do something different while your main character is tied up for one reason or another, then transfer back at ease.
Knowledge is Power
In many ways ‘knowledge’, a specific type of progression in BDO, is even more important than your actual character level. Talk to NPCs and explore as a habit absolutely, as raising your knowledge will help with everything from conversation with NPCs to dishing damage out to enemies. There’s more about knowledge in the page of our guide dedicated to that.
![Keys Keys](http://i.imgur.com/4fYWAhW.png)
Be aware (and beware) of the night-time
Be aware: enemies are worth more experience points at night. But also beware: enemies also become more powerful and dangerous at night, so tread carefully.