Black Desert Horse Racing Guide

A guide to the Horse Racing feature added to Black Desert Online with October 19 Patch.

Getting started

To do a horse race, all you need to do is to have a horse out of the stable and be on the first two channels of your server (Velia and Velia 2). That horse will be your race horse and that horse’s tier will determine which race you can do. Horse racing is divided into tiers based on the tier of your horse. A tier 5 horse can only race other tier 5 horses for example. Unlike Korea, there is no zero death requirement for your horse to join the race so pretty much anyone with a horse can participate.

There is no level requirement to join, as long as you own a horse.

Having good horse gear and horse skills such as Drift and Instant Acceleration will help a ton with placing at the top in races, guaranteeing you rewards.

Under the horse button on the top left of your screen you will see a new button called Race Information. Clicking on that button will tell you information regarding the next horse race. Pay attention to the timer and the tier displayed in that window. This timer either the count down to the next horse race registration or the count down to when the registration will close. This timer does not automatically update so you will need to open the race information and open it again for the timer to update.

You do not need to be near your horse to do the registration, your horse could be half way across the world as long it is not inside a stable.

If the registration button is greyed out and you see a red text the timer saying cannot register to the race, that means that you will need to for the registration to open. The timer will tell you how long to wait before the registration opens. Usually there is a timer of 1 hr after a race is finished before you can register for the next race.

When the registration opens, you will have 5 minutes to register and the Race Registration button will lit up along with a blue message. You will need to pay attention to the qualifying tier. You can only register for the race that is the same tier as your horse. If you have a tier 4 horse and try to register for a tier 8 race, you will get a message saying that you cannot register to the race. You will need to wait until the registration for your tier opens up. This can be a wait of several hours due to 1 hr cooldown between races since there seems to be only one race for one tier allowed at a time. If you have horses of several tiers, you can take out the matching tier horse and register for the next race without having to wait several hrs to get into one

Once you have registered for the appropriate tier, it will tell you how many other players have registered for the race. There is a maximum of 20 players per race so if a channel is overcrowded with racers you can move to another channel. Once the timer ticks down to 1 minute, you will get a message on screen that you will be teleported to the race start.

The Race

Video Demonstration

You and your horse will be automatically teleported to the horse race location shortly before the race starts. Your character will be surrounded by a red bubble that marks the starting location. Do not move out of the red bubble as that will automatically disqualify you from the race. The race takes place in the open world and you will see other players that are not in the race as well.

Once the race starts, you will see a timer on your screen and a trail leading to the next checkpoint. You do not have to follow the trail as it just point to the next checkpoint. You can reach the next checkpoint however you want, as long you reach it within 10 minutes.

The final checkpoint will be marked by a blue bubble, get inside it to finish the race and claim your reward. Make sure you have a free inventory slot when you finish the race or you won’t be able to get the seals.

At end of the race you and your horse will be teleported back to your character’s original location. This means that if you were standing inside a group of monsters while you got teleported into the race, your horse will be teleported back into this group of monsters as well. This something to be aware of.

Disqualification

You will be disqualified from the race for any of the following reasons

You exit the red start bubble before the race starts

You are dismounted for whatever reason during the race

You take longer than 10 minutes to reach the next checkpoint

Rewards

Depends on your performance during the race you will receive a number of Horse Racing Seals. The first player seem to get 5 seals while rest get declining number of seals (players not part of the top 4 may not receive any seals).

1st player get 5 seals

2nd player get 3 seals

3rd player get 2 seals

4th player get 1 seal

Horse Racing Seals can be exchanged for rewards at the Stable Keeper by Stonetail Horse Ranch in Mediah.

2x Horse Race Seal 1x Black Stone (Armor) 3x Horse Race Seal 1x Black Armor Stone (Weapon) 5x Horse Race Seal 1x Light Horse Gear Box 5x Horse Race Seal 1x Combat Horse Gear Box 8x Horse Race Seal Your choice of Combat or Light Horse Gear 20x Horse Race Seal 1x Storm Horse Gear Box 20x Horse Race Seal 1x Fighting Spirit Horse Gear Box 25x Horse Race Seal Your choice of Storm or Fighting Spirit Horse Gear 50x Horse Race Seal 1x Box of Race Horse Emblem 80x Horse Race Seal Male Tier 6 Horse with 2 Seater Skill 100x Horse Race Seal 1x Storm Horse Gear Box (Enhanced from +1 to +5) 100x Horse Race Seal 1x Fighting Spirit Horse Gear Gear Box ((Enhanced from +1 to +5)

Something to mention about the rewards is that the horse gear boxes you purchase at 5x and 20x seals are random in the type of horse gear they contain but if you need a specific piece you can talk to the NPC and pick the first option to spend a bit seals for a specific horse gear you need. The enhanced boxes contain a random Storm/Fighting Spirit horse gear of that could be anywhere between a +1 to a +5.

The Race Horse Emblems you get at 50 seals are a random horse of either Tier 6, 7, or 8. The appearance you get will be random. There is no exclusive horse racing appearance, that was a mistaken in translation on my part.