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Grinding vs. Questing

Grinding without a doubt is the fastest way to level in black desert, the only downsides are that you miss out on some bag space, energy/spirit and contribution points. However, you can always go back and do some quests for these. We have a guide that lists all of the bag space quests. There are also many 50 quests and repeatable quests that will give you the contribution points you lack.

Introduction

Before we get started I do recommend you follow the tutorial quests up to around level 16-17, this way you shouldn’t miss out on backpack space or a donkey mount. All the leveling spots have been tried and tested by myself twice over as of 05/05/2015. My total time taken from 1 – 50 was around 18 hours 15 minutes. This is with a bit of afking and travel time, it could of been much faster if I had a pet to pick up for me and if I knew ahead of time which spots were worthwhile.

I’ve marked the map with two colors Orange and Red, Orange spots are optimal zones where you will get the best experience possible. Red are either spots recommended by other people, OR a zone I recommend you move to ahead of the guide. These may be too difficult for you depending on your class.

Once again, I recommend leveling from 1 – 16 or 17 via quests. Also, if the monsters become green and too easy try moving ahead of the guide to the next spot. I wouldn’t recommend picking up loot until around level 27 unless you really need the money or want to rush to buy a horse.

Click the map to view it full size

1. Level 1 – 5 B atalri farm, Ballet

Monsters: Fox, Weasel & Full-Beetle

Just kill them as fast as possible don’t waste any time trying to pull them together to AOE them.

2. Level 5 – 10 Ahgeuriseu Altar

Monsters: Imp soldiers, Imp Conjurer’s steel shortage, Imp warrior, Magician.

Just kill them as fast as possible don’t waste any time trying to pull them together to AOE them.

3. Level 10 – 14 Western camp guards

Monsters: less full-grown tree spirits, tree spirits mature, gray wolves, wild boar, such as gray

Just kill them as fast as possible don’t waste any time trying to pull them together to AOE them.

4. Level 14 – 18 Heidelberg northern quarry

Monsters: Imp mine, mine Impreza wagon, mining towers Imp

If you go to the north of the quarry you should see a slope leading up to a mine. From the bottom of the slope all the way up to the top is a great place to make around 1 – 3 AOE pulls, just rinse and repeat. The best way to pull a pack is just to run in the middle of them, simple really.

5. Level 18- 23 Moretti huge farm

Monsters: Wheat keepers, scarecrow specter

Go to the farm on the right (the one with a big tree on it), here there will be more than enough mobs for you to make your own AOE pulls. I recommend just going around a huge circle.

6. Level 23 – 26 Al rundi Castle Lung

Monsters: assault bottles, bottles start, wizards, etc. rebel watchtower

Head into the camp. Once in there you will be able to find more than enough mobs to round up and AOE.

7. OPTIONAL/ FILL ZONE – Level 27 – 30 S outh Swamp

Monsters: visible tentacles, giant pogeon swamp, bog pogeon Fortune Teller, swamps pogeon

I wouldn’t personally recommend this spot as I feel its not really necessary as you can skip it and just head straight the the Blood Monastery. But it’s a nice spot to hunt in if you are finding it hard at the Blood Monastery. I wouldnt say you can AOE much here as well. The only place I’ve found where you can reliably round mobs up is on the center island. Also be careful of the giant tree as elite mob spawns nearby.

8. Level 27 – 33 Blood Monastery

Monsters: fanatic, fanatic warriors, giant warrior zealots, fanatics Shaman

Go inside the castle to the yard. There are hundreds of mobs there you can AOE. It literally is my favorite place when leveling up because its so easy and fast here. You don’t really need an explanation on how to AOE in this place. Move to “Kurume-Sat cave” if you are finding this place slow or too easy at level 32. I found this is always a populated zone so make sure you swap channels if there is someone hunting in the same zone.

9. Level 33 – 38 Kurume-Sat cave

Monsters: Sat projected Kurume, Kurume-Sat Elite bottles, Kurume Saturday Shaman, young Kurume-Sat

This place is literally a goldmine so make sure you are looting. The best place to AOE is in the center of the cave. The mobs have a fast re-spawn time so you can find a nice route. I found this is always a populated zone so make sure you swap channels if there is someone hunting in the same zone.

10. Level 38 – 44 R efugee

Monsters: wizard polluted, contaminated women, refugee jars, etc. contaminated giant

Most large packs are around the center. Don’t waste your time on less than 4 mob packs, always try to merge them so you have a nice big pack to AOE. These mobs have really slow movement speed and I would recommend not picking up any of the loot because I’ve found they drop nothing but trash and it just slows you down.

11. OPTIONAL/ FILL ZONE – Level 42 – 44 North Pit

Monsters: petrified miner, petrochemical dwarves

Head up into the center of the pit. That’s where I’ve found most packs to be. Don’t go into the mines, it may look like there is a lot of things to kill in there but there isn’t and it’s a waste of time.

12. Level 44 – 46 South Neil camp

Monsters: South Neil Heavy bottles, Elder Neal Southampton, Southampton gungbyeong Neil, Neil Siege Tower South, South Neil Flood Lights

Head inside the camp there are much more monsters inside, don’t waste your time with mobs around the road. There is a elite mob towards the north of the camp but he hits very hard so try to stay clear of him.

13. Level 46 – 48 OR 49 Gehaku plains

Monsters: spotted hyena, giants fighter, warrior giants, giants

Head inside the plains untill you see where I am on the screen shot below. Once there you can make a circle route and level very fast because of the density of the groups. If you don’t go to this area, I would say this zone is very mediocre at best.

14. Level 48 – 50 Crohn’s Castle

Monsters: Newbie soldier, veteran soldier, campaign staff, scouts

Head inside the keep, as outside of it has too many ranged mobs which become very annoying to deal with. I found this is always a populated zone so make sure you swap channels if there is someone hunting in the same zone.

15. Level 50 – 52 Manysha Forest

Monsters: Manysha Spearman

This monsters can be found all over the hills in Manysha Forest. They do spawn in large packs so they are easy to AoE. The mobs may hurt a bit if you haven’t been enchanting your gear. I would advise leveling from 50 to 60 casually because it can be quite a grind.

I would also advise viewing our “level 50+ farming and grinding spots” guide. The monsters mentioned in this guide do give less EXP but you can make quite a profit from farming there.

16. Level 52 – 54 Hammer Helm Mine

Monsters: Helm Miners, Hammer Helm Miners, Warriors

These monsters are quite hard and you do not want to go to this zone without decent gear. There is also an elite mob which you do not want to pull because he will do a lot of ranged damage. There is an area where a pack of 10-15 mobs will be but otherwise the packs are quite small. You can also go into the underground mines on the hill but there are lots of red/purple grade mobs which take a lot to kill. I wouldn’t recommend going to this area alone or without gear.

17. Level 54 – 56 Elric Temple

Monsters: priests, elric guards, elric warriors

These monsters spawn in packs of 4 – 6 and have high drop chances.These monsters can drop blackstones, Neil shoe trees and Creatinine weapons so you can make quite a lot of silver while you are leveling here. Most of the monsters are melee but the priests are ranged and can be quite annoying.

18. OPTIONAL/FILL ZONE – Level 53 – 56 Dissipation Post

Monsters: dissipation guards, guards, scout, assassin

This zone can be quite hard which is why it’s an optional choice. The monsters do have high damage and knockdown abilities so be careful when fighting them. The monsters have a change of dropping parts of the Hebe set and and can also drop Creatinine weapons, Neil of trees gloves and blackstones.

19. Level 56 – 60 Pirate Island

Monsters: Pirates

Pirates do spawn on two islands but you will need both a boat and gear to farm here. The mobs do hit quite hard and spawn in large packs so be careful.

Hopefully now you are level 60! if you found this guide helpful please leave a like and a comment below with your thoughts and how long it took you.