BDO's Endgame Progression: Disappointing Reality Check

The brutal reality check in BDO's endgame progression in 2024 reveals a lack of purpose and fun, causing frustration and disengagement among players.

### Black Desert Online: The Disappointing State of Endgame Progression in 2024
* 😕 Many recent gearing changes have significantly altered the **endgame progression** in Black Desert Online.
* 📉 Starting with the introduction of Capotia accessories and the Fallen God armor, the game seemed to be heading in a **positive direction**.
* 😕 However, with the addition of the **Deve's Encyclopedia gear** and the **Dr gear**, the progression has become **stagnant and unexciting**.
* 🔮 The game's heavy reliance on **cron stones for enhancing gear** has shifted the focus away from **self-earned achievements** and towards **pay-to-win mechanics**.
* 🌂 As a result, players feel like they are being forced to follow a **narrow path of progression**, with **limited choices** and **little sense of accomplishment**.
* 🔨 The recent introduction of J's Hammer of Precision has created a **temporary workaround for enhancing gear**, but its impending removal has caused **uncertainty and anxiety among players**.
* 🎯 Many players feel that the game's current state is **bland and boring**, especially in terms of **PvE content**.
* 💸 The game's focus on new and mid-game players, who are more likely to **spend money**, has led to a lack of **meaningful content** for veteran players.
* 🌟 Overall, the player base is hoping to see **meaningful and enjoyable content** that provides a **sense of achievement and progression**.

you're being force-fed Jay's big hammer. And let me tell you, this thing doesn't fit. This don't fit no matter where I put it. Vessel Vision endgame progression in 2024, a brutal reality check. Now I recently made a hot take video that seemed to be pretty well-received, and I'm interested in hearing what other people's perspectives are on this case scenario in endgame. I'm interested in hearing what you guys also think as well. Vesso is, I would say, a veteran in this game as well. He is very PVP-focused oriented, and I feel like he does a pretty good job trying to see the Silver Linings and things. But I imagine that his opinions will also come from his heart as well. So let's see what he's got to say. I'm here to bring you a brutal reality check. There's been a lot of gearing changes lately. Break it down for some people that are kind of newer. They can expect what to see in the future. And I'm going to explain a little bit in the

past it all started with actually only plus 15. It all started with plus 15 weapons, yep, and they were actually much like this celest battle hand. In fact, this celest was a weapon from the beginning of the game. It's from Calon. Originally, you just had plus 15 gear. You didn't have boss gear. They added boss gear right before they added Valencia. So plus 15, I believe, was the best ERA in the game. The reason being you were just getting the plus 15 and it seemed like a herend this deal, but it took like a week. I really wasn't in the plus 15 phase. I started playing this game when Striker released, so Valencia was already in the game. Boss gear was already a thing, but people were pushing for tet boss gear in some cases pen. But uh, and like TR accessories, that was the typical soft cap where people were making like 30 to 50 mil an hour. Like people making 100 m an hour at that time was insane unless you were getting like good drops in the

hour as well. This was also in the old Marketplace system when bidding was a thing. Anytime you can get the max weapon, your max weapon in a week, you're good, right? Like, we hated it when it first came out, but it was wonderful. And then boss gear came out, memory fragments were absolutely deplorable. I thought it was all over for me before I could even get plus 14 on my bags. And then someone had to point out I don't even have plus 14 bags. I felt like a demigod at that time too, with that disparity in gear, 'cause it was like, man, this is so hard. I can't believe I'm spending billions of silver doing it. And then other people were like, I don't even have that. Do you have billions? You know, it felt good. But when they came out, PEN was literally unobtainable. People were trying to TETs at first. Some of us got a couple TETs the first day, and that was what was special about PEN back then. It was just

like that was the thing you were not supposed to get. The more realistic standard for a hard grinder or an everyday person as well was even just that tet or try like not going past that pen was just seen as an a power of God guilty guilty. I've always been geared up until a certain point. I'll mention when I uh stopped. I've pretty much been close to hard cap or hardc U most of this uh session and I'm arguably closer now I would say so. This is up until the Kama era. It was really nice and then they came out with something called cfis chapter of K Sylvia that was like the best opening in Era in progression for me when cuz I started in the bosier era and then kaffas with K syvia was such a fun release wonder what he's going to say but then they came out with cafis and originally they called cafis Kon energy and it was their idea was you would just buy cron stones and fail over and over again but that felt too

predatory. So they changed the name from cron energy. They called it Capris. You were just going to get it after you used cron stones. And like that would be pay to win. Wouldn't want it be too pay to win. Now would we? Hence, Capris. I'm just going to throw this out there. Drieghan was the worst expansion in the entire game. Yes, you guys think we're getting screwed on the end of the morning light. At least they're doing something. Drieghan came out. There was nothing to do for an in-game player except for hope that a dragon was dropping you a Garmoth. So true. Oh my god. I've only actually had one Garmoth drop ever in the entirety of playing this game. I still have been doing my 3-weekly and everything like that. I've had two Vells drops in the entirety of this game. And some people going years in this game without even receiving any and also actively going. But Drieghan was an empty canvas. It was like PA handing us a white piece of paper and

just going here you go. Draw Something, use your imagination. I don't know, there's nothing on this, there's nothing to do, but hey if you draw some circles I mean there's some circles. Everyone like C, you like circles, we all like circles, circles are good, exactly, exactly same look yep, everyone shares the same opinion as you. For people who have been around at that time may take the cake as the most lackluster region release ever. I think it would have been a bit more exciting had they come out with the potion pieces right away and the treasure items away, that would have add something a bit more interesting to it. It still would have probably got [ __ ] on because there was just no, I think for us it was like there was just the want of a challenge, the want of something new, the want of risk. Videoo has done a good job offering risk and rewards in certain chapter releases but dran was just nothing, there was no risk, there was no reward, it was just something to look at.

in the distance while you were still grinding the same spots. No one else got it so after the CIS garmoth era, then they initiated the newest part of where we're at. It seemed like a really good direction 'cause it was a great ketchup mechanic. I still like the ketchup mechanic Fallen God that when turos was a hot time too. That was the chapters of odita, that was a fun chapter, that was a fun territory when it first released had some underwhelming to it but overall I felt like odad was pretty solid only level 10 cais which is I think beautiful the armor not a bad step in the right direction so I think this is probably one of their best steps in progression when you think about it. It helped everybody in game, it gave you men minuscule stats to the higher ranked players, it made money for the investors right, it made their money right 'cause people bought cronson. So when you think about it fall God overall was probably some of their best gearing like that.

they'd ever done for peys. I'd have to agree in terms of just like the progression hit of dopamine, it was absolutely a piece of content that had like hope behind it, and something you looked forward to working on. It was a fun piece of gear. Fallen God and leesa were probably the two only fun pieces of fall of gut armor, and then once getting the silent Dawn gloves, that was a very underwhelming experience in my personal opinion. And then ater shoes, honestly I feel like it would have been more fun had there been more brackets that were caught up to this and caught up to the state of DP when people were progressing through the game. Now it's just like, I don't know what to tell you now. After foga came accuracy accessories. Fun fact about accuracy accessories is they were really powerful because people slept on evasion so long. Oh God, this hurts to see. Evasion was a genuine problem, and I felt like accuracy being put uh into the game more through accessories as well as artifacts was a

solution to that counter it was a direct solution and it started to make the evasion defensive statistic completely fall off in its own way. The only way it would start working is if you had a monstrous amount of evasion and it still works only in that category which is the very very very few. These came out and people realized that you could kill people with a lot less AP if you actually hit them mhm and they were just so strong you needed the accuracy at one point. So it was the Fallen God an accuracy accessory meta and and and that was not that bad because there was there was building there was counter. This is kind of the second golden age of of of of bio's gearing and then now we're in what I call the Dark Ages today's brutal reality check we're in the Deo art right yep arguably the worst chapter of progression that this game has seen so far for such a monstrous goal that requires such a caliber of effort it offers so much nothing in return.

just the most unexciting piece of gear to work towards. And you look at this and you know it. And I think the one thing that people want to see is that power creep and feel that power creep. And sadly for such a tall goal, it just doesn't offer it in the way that people want to feel it. I think I was like, I'm not even going to get deos. And I went from being top geared, the most geared person in the game, first person to make a yellow destruction respondant Stone North America, that type of stuff. To I think your gear lit like, that's how big uh deal deos were. Luckily before the Dr changes, there was so much like AP in general in the game that like deos didn't change anything if you were a good player. And you could just get accuracy accessories for a little cheaper. And you would bang out objectively like I did not need these until a certain level of gearing. You want my hot take on it? You only start working on deos in my opinion when you

have nothing left to do. I'm talking about the pen grade though you're working on it just because. And me personally, I think just because isn't a good enough reason that we're at that gearing. And then they added in, guess what, the Dr. patch. Mhm. Along with the Dr. patch, I'm going to couple in, um, the thing that made evasion fall off even more. Even though the accuracy that got added to the game was a good solution for that problem, but now they've just, it's almost like they just want to narrow it down to one stat. Like there's no point in being evasion. That's why we see all the evasive accessories and things like that being at bottom price right now. These are basically two AP brackets that you can only find on deos. I think that they added one to Tong grad. It's minimal at best. Most of the time, it's better to have even T deos over anything else, especially if you have one or more Pand deos. So now there is no more building. We so much further.

away from class identity player specific identity. We're falling further and further away from roleplay in the sense of people playing specific roles. Everyone must build this way and be a DPS in its own way. On top of that, we have almost 30 champions in the game currently, and you can bet your ass that none of that shit's going to be balanced. In the process, even as imbalanced as it is, I would much prefer having some sort of class identity and hybrid options to allow that disparity and identity, rather than this one-track mind of thinking that I've talked about in the past. You're better off having even three accessories if you're going to go for the three set. It's either three accuracy, or it's going to be five deal one accuracy, or five deal one take-back. What I'm trying to say is there's not many options. It just falls away from that identity that I'm talking about between the deals and Drage. That's where we're at now. And the fun thing about

that is it's well welcome to boo progression 2024. We get to the rest of the fun part of the video. Oh, that wasn't the fun part. I'm ready for the fun part. Yo, video progression 2024, free Black Stars. Let's go. Seems like a good idea, right? Now think about this. I want you to think about the values that they're giving you and on top of that, the value in which they are giving you with the bar still not being raised. We are still in a chapter of BDO where Pen BlackStar is a hard cap item in that slot. You have to do nothing for it, not even through Jatina through like get some materials and whatever, and it'll cost you only 50 billion. You can do it once or something like that, you know what I mean. Discounted Pen Black Star can't sell on the market though. They just gave it to you and the bar hasn't even been raised. Usually when they want to give you that type of thing, right, there's more stuff.

happening also in the background because that finish line has been pushed just a bit further but none of that has happened and they're giving while you have already been running in the marathon they've given everyone some [__] steroids since they're starting the race late. If you're a decent player on a strong class as soon as you get out of seasonal um what is that H that go get your I I think I think that's pushing it but I absolutely see your point. I think it's a bit of an exaggeration but he's you know at the same time you're not wrong delos nerd y that's what they're saying there's still quite a few things to go for and still quite uh to work on and be able to be comfortable and cozy there not to mention like new players who don't understand the this game especially a fighting game are going to still go through that hurdle. Nonetheless we're getting people closer to the finish line through having to do nothing and as if.

they were trying to push you into buying getting your follow God and everything ASAP so you could spend more conston to tap. Then they're like, yeah, just finish your F God at seasonal, it's fun. They're trying to power jump you. They expect you, instead of believe me, man, everyone feels the S like that expression right there. This right here, that says a thousand words. Yeah, yeah, that. Listen, I feel my brain stopping in frustration, watching his brain stop in mid-frustration here. Believe me, man, the wheels stop turning for a lot of us up here crowning life gear as the last part of the stage. Now that they've added crowning life gear at this stage, M Crown stones are all you need. :) ;) That's our progression, that's it. Crownstone is King. First thing, not wrong, but the thing is, cron Stone's always been King. Crownstone was King as soon as we went into boss armor grade era, into pen, that's when that started, and it's just been going harder and harder.

harder ever since the game before cronston is the most fun part of the game th% because the progression was so much more self- earned it was so much more self- achieving it was a way better hit of dopamine the fun part of the game was like getting your plus5 green weapon and all that cuz then when you figured out you needed boss gear it was like a these are remember fragments so these are like they're getting out they're getting rid of that yeah not to mention all the routes that we have to take encourage the use of crownstone only like look at the Fallen God armors there's no way you would be raw tapping all the way to try let alone going all the way to T that's just crazy you wouldn't do that such an amount of profit and look at the the price point value that you have on the marketplace as well every bit about it encourages you to use crownstone only you go right into the hard part of the game you go right into ingate down also didn't

mention the free pen armor that you get from the Magnus. The discounted pens you can get through Datina, the discounted pen accessories that you can get through Datina. And I don't think there's a problem in that stuff. I don't think there's a problem in that stuff because there's enough ahead of you that you need to work on that that is somewhat warranted. But the pen black star is like the most absurd piece of freebies with the current existing content from the date of this video. You're here. Hope you can hit the 5% or spend $10,000. Well, not to mention they also want a quick transaction inventory waight because the most profitable customers are the new players. So fellow Servants of the Crownstone, how do you feel about this? I am absolutely elated if you can't tell. You want to know how I feel man? I'm [ __ ] bored in a game that I used to love so much and still do love but the love is more of just trying to give

myself more and more purpose for it, and that's why I've had no problem blowing up my account time and time again to give myself more to do. And I don't care about being at the Hard wall when they're capping so much. I just don't. I don't care anymore. The most fun is almost starting over and making challenge Accounts at this point. The freetop play aspect route it's even more powerful than ever since you can already go in and get a pen free pen black star. I'd love to have a sense of purpose with the content that comes out. Content that's more heart Feld gives us more sense of purpose to work on these things. As a matter of fact, I think we're going to go make sure our thing looks exactly the same color as a crownstone here. Cron Stone blue. Cron Vision no longer vessel Vision. It's actually so blue, and I wrote in blueing was the dumbest thing I could have done. Chrl what do we need to do so uh right now we

have a way around this vessel. I swear to God if you say roll back, everyone is blowing their money on all the Hammers in the game. That is only a thing until November 27th. Yep, as you can see right here and buy hammers. I mean the J hammers that they gave out for accessories. So everyone's saving money, they're buying Ted deos, and they're buying these J hammers of precision. And the hammer of precision, there's like so many of them, people can't even sell them. Obsessive speculation, it's kind of ironic. It's almost like they Li listed a bunch so so no one could make money off of it. Yeah, and what's going to happen when all of these don't sell eventually? Everyone's just going to use them on Pointless Stuff because they couldn't get a chance for these to go through. It's going to be chaos come November if this is in the current state that it's still in the state that it's in. They want you to tap with it, and they want

people to buy them. I don't know, it's very weird, it's very weird, the scenario. They all disappear on November 27th, yep. What is going to be the backlash of this once the Hammers disappear? The value of tapping without a hammer versus with is literally just not there. November 27th is fast coming and The Meta is just going to get worse. It's not fast coming though, there's nothing to do, there's not much new stuff for us to do other than look forward to, I guess, August, early August, when Korea gets Land Of The Morning Light part two first. Oh, hell yeah. Then I got two months of watch parties to watch over the Korean streamers that aren't on Twitch anymore. Right now we're basically grinding never-ending circles and we have been since Black Do It Online, but we have fewer choices so it's like very narrow-minded forced. Yep, you're being force-fed Jay's big hammer and let me tell you this thing doesn't fit, this don't fit no matter where I put it, it's almost like.

this let's draw an umbrella. He this umbrella is fun to be had, and the rain is all of our problems. The width of the umbrella, though, are things to do, and this determines the amount of fun that we have under this umbrella, avoiding all of the problems because there are no problems when you're having so much fun. But now the double grind has given us a very, very, very narrow umbrella, and you'll notice that the amount of things we have to do really determines the amount of fun that we have. And for some reason now all I'm doing is just getting soaking wet with all these problems. It's quite simple, you see. I think that the game seems bland. It's boring, that's at least the circular PVE gear part. So many people feel this way. I would feel so confident to say almost everybody. There's a small percentage of people that didn't mind having to work on this type of stuff. To the vast majority, yeah, it's you're not the only that feels this way, man. We all do. You really think

the developers are sitting through working on items like this actually feeling what the game feels like. No, dude. They're not going to go that deep into the rabbit hole that they've already dug. PVP players, we feel like console. Now we can scream as much as we, and they're like, That's great. We're going to smile in. Bro, it's always been like that. Console's just a different beast. It has always been like that. Just the PR statement of We hear what you're saying. We appreciate your feedback. We love you. Here's a couple codes. Fail a few more clicks and feel good for a couple more weeks until you're sick of this [ __ ]. Again, by the way, vroom vroom. I'm out of here with my Bugatti, you know? Like, so if all the big community PVP communities are dying, and that's the part of the game that seems fun, then there's just not enough incentive to play the game anymore. Yep, the eye-opening thing is that you're not the target for the

the profit in the margin new players spend probably way more than us. Mid-game players probably spend way more than us because there's a lot of veteran players now that just don't spend any more money on much because they've already spent that money to have that set up with what they already have. They always get so much more priority and focus because they're just a bigger profit margin. But I feel like the events and the way that they release content and also continue to make it more create that avenue for new players to kind of just skirt, skirt, just come way up ahead. Yeah, absolutely. So me personally, it's always going to have that target. My problem is that they don't raise that bar because you want those veterans telling those new players that you have things to look forward to. And you know, as of late, the discussion has been it'll be fun for now but eventually it serves no purpose because at the end of the day it's going to be not nearly as much fun.

mhm playing the game anymore so they'll have way less players. They need to do something immediately cuz right now it's PA first player second. There's no node Wars unironically. This is the perfect time to shoot this video. This is NA. Yeah, we know AU is dead too. So maybe I'm just entirely Bas. Maybe it's just a brutal reality check for me. I think it's a brutal slap in the face to the player base that has given this game the lifetime that it has honestly had. And now it's falling into this pit of despair. The ultimate thing is that you want to see these things with purpose or these da hting goals have a reason of fun behind it or a better reason to do content that allows you to step into things that make you feel that sense of achievement for hitting that other than just watching it Go Ding and seeing a few Sparkles and some [ __ ] glitter on my screen. Everyone just wants this game to improve. Everyone just wants this to

be a better place to be. Sadly, I feel like we are taking big steps away from the fun that you should be having in this game. And a game that looks this good deserves to be talked about in that type of way. Not right now 'cause this current condition is a [__] joke. [Music]

The CURRENT STATE of Black Desert 2024 | FakeUni Reacts

FakeUni

The Evolution of Endgame Progression in Vessel Vision

Vessel Vision, a PVP-focused veteran, provides a reality check on the brutal gearing changes in endgame progression.

The game originally started with plus 15 gear, then evolved to the challenge of obtaining PEN gear, which was once seen as unobtainable for the everyday player.

The introduction of Kaphras and Cron energy brought a significant shift in the progression, marking a notable change in the game's era.

The Impact of Game Expansions and Updates

The introduction of Drieghan expansion was highly criticized for its lack of content and excitement.

The later introduction of the Fallen God expansion, with its ketchup mechanic and new challenges, was seen as a positive direction in the game's progression.

The Fallen God expansion not only offered in-game benefits but also proved to be a lucrative opportunity for investors.

The Evolution of In-Game Gear Progression

The speaker reflects on the evolution of gear progression in the game, from the excitement of certain gear pieces to the current "Dark Ages" of progression.

They discuss the impact of accuracy accessories on gameplay and the underwhelming experience of working towards the latest gear.

The speaker expresses disappointment in the lack of power creep and rewards in the game's current gear progression.

Critique of the Current Gaming Progression

The game's recent updates have led to a lack of diversity in character building and identity, pushing players towards a single-track mindset.

The introduction of Pen Black Star as a freely obtainable hard cap item has not raised the bar for progression, contributing to the game's imbalance.

The limited options for accessories and gear sets have resulted in a significant departure from the game's original identity and diversity.

The Impact of Crownstones on Game Progression

The game is now pushing players to rely heavily on crownstones for progression, causing frustration and a sense of forced advancement.

Crownstones have become the primary focus of the game's advancement, steering away from the self-earned progression and diminishing the fun element of the game.

The use of crownstones is heavily encouraged through armor requirements and marketplace value, leading to a significant shift in the game's dynamics.

Controversy Over Free Pen Black Star and Discounted Pen Accessories

Magnus offers a free pen armor, while Datina provides discounted pens and pen accessories.

The availability of the free pen Black Star is causing frustration and boredom for players.

The in-game economic changes and speculative buying of J hammers are creating uncertainty and chaos for the players.

Frustration with the Disappearance of Hammers in the Game

The upcoming disappearance of Hammers is causing concern about the game's future and the impact on gameplay.

Many players feel that the current state of the game is boring and lacks content, leading to widespread frustration.

The diminishing PVP community and the lack of incentives are contributing to a decline in the game's popularity.

The Impact of In-Game Spending on Players

Experienced players who have already invested heavily in the game are given priority, leading to a focus on new player spending to increase profits.

There is a growing concern that the game is prioritizing profit over the player experience, leading to a decline in overall enjoyment and potentially driving players away.

Many in the community feel that the game needs to refocus on providing a fun and rewarding experience to retain its player base and move away from its current profit-driven approach.