Black Desert Online is no exception when it comes to the game’s 23 different classes.

With a base skill tree as well as two additional specialized skill trees in Awakening and Succession, things can get a little confusing at first glance.

So what separates the two? How do players gain access to them, and which is ideal to take with you into battle?

In this guide, we give you all the information you need regarding these two systems.

Table of contents

• What is Awakening
• How to unlock Awakening
• What is Succession
• How to unlock Succession
• Should you choose Awakening or Succession

What is Awakening

Awakening has been a crucial part of class evolution since Black Desert Online initially launched close to a decade ago, but what exactly is it, and how does it affect gameplay?

Prior to players unlocking Awakening in Black Desert Online, they would be utilizing their base skill tree while simultaneously upgrading whatever weapon their class initially started with.

However, once players unlock the Awakening skill tree, they will gain a whole new set of skills as well as a blue-grade weapon.

Awakening is a system in Black Desert Online that gives players access to a new skill tree, which allows them to unlock more skills.

At this point, they can switch back and forth between their Awakening and pre-awakening weapons while also upgrading their new combat skills tree.

How to unlock Awakening

Once a player reaches level 56, they receive a quest from the Black Spirit that unlocks Awakening.

Once you’ve completed the quest, you unlock the Awakening system.

Furthermore, you receive a blue-grade weapon as a bonus reward.

You must be of level 56 or higher to access this quest, but you do not need to complete any other missions as a precursor beforehand except the game’s tutorial mission.

Once players unlock Awakening, they can also unlock core skills at level 60.

These skills serve as the Awakening skills tree’s variation of each class’s absolute skills.

Players should also keep in mind that switching from Awakening to Succession will require players to reset their class’s skills in order to learn the Succession skill.

What is Succession

Succession was unveiled in the EU and the United States in 2019 for the ranger and warrior class.

Since then, it has been expanded into 16 other classes as of now.

Succession is essentially Pearl Abyss’s way to make non-awakening combat more evenly matched to combat with awakened weapons and skills.

It is less of an overall class upgrade and more of an alternative way for players to upgrade their base combat skills and weapons.

How to unlock Succession

To unlock the Succession system, you must complete the awakening quest given to you by the Black Spirit upon reaching level 56.

Once this quest is complete, you can then continue on with the Succession quest line to finish unlocking the Succession skills tree and begin upgrading it.

Is Succession in any way tied to a class’s Awakening weapons and skills once it is unlocked? The two are linked to a degree.

A percentage of a player’s awakening weapon AP will be added to their succession weapon AP when switching over.

Beforehand, however, keep in mind that switching from Succession to Awakening will require players to reset their skills in order to unlearn their Succession skills.

Should you choose Awakening or Succession

The Succession skill tree does admittedly have fewer skills available for players than the Awakening skill tree.

Succession does, however, provide players with more balance across the board while also providing a substantial boost in overall power.

Awakening, on the other hand, offers a much more robust skill tree with far more skills to choose from.

Think of Awakening as a way for players to evolve their combat skills while also expanding their weapons arsenal.

Succession, on the other hand, takes players back to their original weapons while upgrading their overall power and adding some new skills to utilize in the process.

Finally, it’s important to remember that players cannot switch between Succession and Awakening when fighting.

In a game like Black Desert Online, customization is at the heart of everything.

With this in mind, there is no one answer when it comes to which skill tree players should focus on.

Awakening and Succession affect each class’s skills and combat styles differently when one is chosen over the other.

When making a decision, players should keep in mind that both are viable options, and ultimately the final decision should be made with their own playstyle, class, and weapons preference in mind.

That’s the basics of the Awakening and Succession system in Black Desert Online!

Have any input or suggestions for this guide? Let us know in the comment section below.

Yet, with so much to purchase and invest in, silver and pearls aren’t the only options to go about your business.

Instead, Black Desert Online offers players another option in contribution points. What are contribution points? How do players acquire them, and what can they be used for in the game?

Contribution points are a point-based currency that players can earn by completing quests or farming for byproducts in Black Desert Online.

They can be used to rent items, invest with, and collect and craft various resources.

Table of contents

• Completing quests
• Farming for byproducts
• Best way to spend contribution points

Completing quests

The main questline in Black Desert Online is the first place players can start earning contribution points in the game.

Virtually every questline assigned by the Black Spirit awards you with a varying number of contribution points upon completion.

This includes the game’s side quests to rank up your equipment and weapons, some of which can even be repeated to gain double the points.

Outside of the game’s main questline, players can also earn contribution points by completing daily quests throughout Black Desert.

Unlike the main questline, these refresh every 24 hours and are typically clustered together throughout the game’s major cities and nodes like Mansha Forest and Calpheon City.

Daily quests range from sweeping chimneys to capturing vagabonds, making them quick and easy to complete to rack up extra contribution points.

Finally, players can also gain contribution points by exploring new areas throughout Black Desert.

This will inevitably be achieved while completing the game’s main questline and daily quests spread out from Valencia to Kamasylvia.

Farming for byproducts

Another option outside of the game’s questlines is farming for byproducts in Black Desert.

Farming covers three different methods players can choose from to acquire contribution points:

• Crafting and gathering resources
• Cooking
• Alchemy

Depending on which you prefer, each offers a viable reward.

Crafting/Gathering

Gathering and crafting resources is an essential part of Black Desert and is heavily reliant on investing in nodes throughout the game world.

Essentially players will hire workers to manage the nodes they have invested in, who will, in turn, collect resources from them to then be crafted.

Nodes can hold a variety of resources ranging from timber and iron to barley.

Gathering and crafting are highly effective given that they can be done AFK and bring in a large number of contribution points in the process.

Cooking

Cooking is a multi-purpose asset in Black Desert that is fairly easy to master and can reward players with a decent number of CP while being AFK all the while.

It’s split into two categories – simple and advanced cooking.

The first requires no utensils and only two ingredients, while the second requires utensils as well as residence to execute.

Beer is by far the easiest and most effective cooking option.

With only four ingredients, it can be mass-produced, making it a viable option to replenish your node worker’s stamina as well.

Alchemy

Alchemy is another option to gain contribution points by collecting or purchasing ingredients to turn into potions.

However, alchemy is usually not the best way to gather CP.

Recipes often require rare ingredients that are difficult to find and expensive to purchase, making cooking the cheaper and more readily available of the two.

Best way to spend contribution points

In Black Desert Online, contribution points are a pivotal part of gaining resources, which is crucial for ranking up your gear and classes.

With this in mind, the most common use for CP is investing in nodes to gather those valuable resources.

Nodes can feel daunting at first, but at their core, they are various trade routes and economic niches that can be interconnected across the world of Black Desert Online.

Investing in nodes will increase the number of rare loot drops in the surrounding area.

Furthermore, players can gather valuable resources like iron ore and crude oil.

Depending on the node and the area, almost any resource can be farmed and collected.

The essential concept behind nodes is the more contribution points you invest in your nodes, the more contribution points you will earn back in return.

Keep in mind that managing your node empire will require you to hire workers, buy housing for them, and invest in workshops to teach them to build armor and weapons.

Outside of nodes, players can also use contribution points to rent items such as armor and weapons and buy housing to expand their overall storage.

Contribution points are a great way to begin building your resource pool and improve your gear, and while it can feel like a grind to collect at times, the reward is well worth the effort!

That’s how to get contribution points in Black Desert Online as well as how you should spend them!

Have any input or suggestions for this guide? Let us know in the comment section below.

Black Desert is certainly no exception, and with a game world as large as Black Desert Online, they are definitely critical with no fast travel to get around.

So, with horses being an essential part of traveling in Black Desert Online, how do you find and acquire them?

There are three different ways to obtain a horse in Black Desert Online: taming, breeding, and purchasing.

Depending on whether you want to save the silver, go in search of a stable master, or breed your very own, here are the three different ways to get a horse in Black Desert Online.

Table of contents

• Where to start
• Taming
• Purchasing
• Breeding

Where to start

Before you set out to tame a horse in Black Desert Online, keep in mind that players must reach training level 5 first.

You can achieve this by riding either a horse or a donkey until they level up your training experience.

How do you find a horse or donkey? You can acquire a donkey from the town chief in Velia after completing the Black Spirit quest ‘Big Fish in a Small Pond’.

However, you will need to reach level 10 before you can access this quest.

The alternative option is buying a horse from a stable keeper.

You will have two base options to choose from when you first access the stable keeper’s inventory: Horse Emblem: Beginner’s Brown or Gray Horse.

These horses are relatively slow and devoid of any major skills but will level you up nonetheless to reach training level 5.

Taming

Now that you’ve reached training level 5, you can go out and tame a horse, but what will you need?

Where will you go, and how do you do it? To capture a horse, you will need two different items before you set out on your journey.

To capture and tame a horse in Black Desert Online, you’ll need a capturing rope and lumps of sugar.

Typically, players should have at least 3 lumps of sugar.

However, the safest number to bring is 4 to 5.

Players can purchase rope from any stable keeper, but they will need to craft the sugar lumps themselves.

To get the ingredients needed, go to the nearest cooking NPC.

Cooking vendors are located in all the game’s cities.

Once you find one, you will need to buy raw sugar and mineral water to craft the sugar lumps.

Each one will require 10 raw sugar and one mineral water to craft.

Once the sugar lumps have been crafted, you can go in search of horses to tame.

Keep in mind there are no specific places to find them in the world of Black Desert.

They spawn all over the game’s world, but once you find a horse, what happens next? You have to tame it, of course.

Here are the steps to taming a horse in the game:

1. Move your sugar lumps and capture rope from your inventory to your hot bar.
2. Sneak up on the horse slowly without spooking it.
3. Equip the capturing rope from the hot bar, and aim at the horse. Keep in mind that you move slower with the rope equipped.
4. Similar to the fishing game in BDO, left click to throw the rope when you’re fully lined up. Then press the spacebar when your meter reaches ‘good’.
5. Move towards the horse. Each time it lifts its front hooves, you will need to rapidly press the spacebar for 10 seconds to keep it within the ‘win’ section.
6. Once you get close enough to the horse, a circle menu will appear above its head. At this point, you can choose to either try mounting it or feed it sugar lumps.
7. Feed the horse between 3 to 5 lumps to calm it. 4 to 5 is the recommended amount.
8. Once this is done, you can mount the horse and take it back to the nearest stable to register. Keep in mind that you won’t be able to gallop back to the stable, so try picking a location close to a stable to make things quicker.

Taming horses is by far the cheapest way to get a horse in Black Desert Online.

The one downside to taming is that you can only tame horses that are tier 5 or lower.

The upsides? Taming allows players to pick their horse’s color and even its tier as long as they know what to look for.

Purchasing

Purchasing a horse in Black Desert Online is by far the quickest way to acquire one.

Furthermore, it’s arguably the most efficient way if you are looking for a higher-tiered horse with a specific set of skills.

Purchasing does cost quite a bit of silver and pearls, but if you’re not tight on cash, it may be your best bet.

Where can you find horses to buy?

Players can buy a horse from stable keepers, which can be found by clicking the hourglass in the top right of the game’s menu.

Once you click the stable icon, the game will place a waypoint on your map showing where the nearest stable keeper is.

To unlock the entire horse market, players will have to reach training level 5 first.

Before doing this, you will only have access to two horses:

• Beginner’s Brown Horse
• Beginner’s Gray Horse

Both of these horses are relatively slow and primarily for leveling up your training level to unlock taming and the full horse market.

Once you reach training level 5 and open up the entire horse market menu, you can search by tier (1 through 8), specific skills, and gender, depending on what you’re looking for.

Upon purchasing a horse, it will appear in your inventory.

From there, you can click on it and navigate to your stable tab.

Once this is done, register the horse to ride and begin ranking up.

Breeding

Currently, in Black Desert Online, the highest tier horse you can tame is a tier 5, with some exceptions during special events to tame tier 6 horses.

Past those special events, there are only two ways to obtain a horse that is tier 6 to tier 8.

Firstly, by purchasing one from other players in the stable keeper’s horse market, which will cost quite a bit of silver.

Or secondly, through breeding.

You can only breed horses in Black Desert’s capital cities and Keplan.

Before breeding a horse in Black Desert Online, you need to make sure that you have an open slot in your stable.

Players also need to check their horses’ specs to see what their breedability is.

As long as the breedability of a horse is above 0, you can begin the breeding process.

To begin breeding, players will need to open up their stable menu and select a male horse to register for breeding.

Before moving forward, click into the horse sub-menu and select the recover button to ensure that its stamina is full (make sure to do this with all the horses you will be breeding).

At this point, players must go into the breeding market and maneuver over to their horse list and to a female horse to breed with.

You can also breed with another player’s horse in the breeding market. However, there is an extra fee to do this.

The final step is to request breeding.

Breeding can take between two and six hours to complete depending on your horses’ tiers.

Players can choose to bypass this by spending pearls upfront.

The final result of the breeding depends on the male and female horses you’ve selected.

From tiers and levels to the colors of the bred horse, everything is ultimately decided by the parents when configuring the final results.

The higher you rank up your horse’s tiers prior to breeding, the better odds you’ll have of breeding a horse with a higher tier.

This can get somewhat confusing, but luckily there is a calculator that players can use to determine the best horses to use to maximize their breeding results.   

One last thing to keep in mind if you don’t want to tame, breed, or even purchase a horse is there is one other option to avoid all three.

Once you have fully completed the game’s main questline, you will receive a free tier 5 horse with decent skill specs making it a viable fourth option.

That’s how to get a horse in Black Desert Online!

Have any input or suggestions for this guide? Let us know in the comment section below.

In the game, you can redeem codes to get useful rewards and items.

Redeeming codes can, therefore, help you progress in the game and become stronger.

In this frequently updated codes list, we post all active Black Desert Online codes for you to redeem in the game.

We recommend that you check back for new codes once in a while as the developers continue to release them for new updates and events.

Table of Contents

• Black Desert Online Codes
• How to redeem codes in BDO
• What are redemption codes
• How to get more codes

Black Desert Online Codes

To ensure active codes work, type them in, in the exact same capitalization as shown in the list below.

By leveraging the rewards of these codes, you can speed up your progress.

If you get an error message when trying to redeem a code, it means that you’ve either typed it in incorrectly, that you aren’t eligible to receive it, or that it has expired.

If you notice that any active codes listed below have expired, please let us know in the comments.

Codes are usually issued by the developers of Black Desert Online when big updates are released or for holidays, celebrations, and promotions.

We are adding all new active codes to this list as soon as we find any or are notified of new ones.

Therefore, we recommend you come back to this post every once in a while to check for new codes.

We always appreciate it when readers share new active codes they find with us or if they let us know that an active code has expired.

Active Codes

The following codes have been confirmed as being active as of the 6th of March 2024.

• XBPS-GAME-RSUN-ITED
• NAIT-SABA-RROW-ROLL
• GMCH-ADAR-TENJ-OYER
• EUYO-USHA-LLNO-TPAS
• BD8T-HANN-IVER-SARY
• HUNT-INGC-REAT-OR24
• JR3Y-BIRT-HDAY-2024
• VELI-ASVO-GUE2-4VRT
• DAVI-NABD-AYDE-BUTE
• FOUR-YEAR-TOGE-THER
• VELI-ASVO-GASI-AVRT
• VELI-ASVO-GUEE-UVRT
• VELI-ASVO-GUEN-AVRT
• CAPT-URET-HEMO-MENT
• 2023-WITH-CALP-HEON

Expired Codes

All the following codes have previously worked but have now expired.

• 2401-31GM-EVEN-TTHX
• 3333-3333-3333-3333
• JONL-AW98-BIRT-HDAY
• 2024-NEWA-DVEN-TURE
• FATE-DTOB-EOLD-ER34
• GETA-TORS-SHOE-SNOW
• BANQ-UETF-ORTH-ANKS
• ARSH-ALEA-GUEN-A023
• ARSH-ALEA-GUEE-U023
• 1029-CHAM-PION-SHIP
• CHAM-PION-SHIP-1029
• HAPP-YHAL-LOWE-EN23
• GMHA-LLOW-EEND-RIPP
• MAST-ERAR-TIST-SGMS
• GHOS-TLYH-ALLO-WEEN
• TOUR-NEYH-YPEN-A023
• 2023-CHAM-PION-SHIP
• CHAM-PION-SHIP-2023
• ASIA-CHAM-PION-SHIP
• ARMI-NCEL-EBRA-TION
• SEEY-OUSO-ONEV-ERY1
• JINN-NAII-BIRT-HDAY
• CELE-BRAT-EFLO-WERS
• WOOT-HEWI-NNER-BDAY
• HPYB-IRTH-DAYI-GUTI
• TAST-EOFA-DVEN-TURE
• BDO2021
• BDO98DR
• BDO5F95
• BDO65FR
• BDONOXA
• BDO56TR
• BDOHPNY
• BDOKTW2
• BDOHMM
• BDOHLNY
• 2021-LUNA-RNEW-YEAR
• PEAR-LABY-SSST-REAM
• GREE-NTHE-MEBE-AMIN
• 0225-2021-ENDL-AIVE
• ENDL-AIVE-0225-2021
• 0225-WEAR-ETHE-ONE!
• FLON-DORG-OLDE-NEGG
• BDOT-RANS-FERT-WEET
• JKSC-OUPO-N50A-RTME
• 5YEA-RANN-IVER-SARY
• FIFT-HANN-IVER-SARY
• SPEC-IALC-OUPO-NDAY
• WHOW-ILLB-ENAC-HAMP
• WHIC-HCLA-SSAR-EYOU
• ARSH-AJAE-HEEK-GIFT
• ARSH-AKWO-NHOK-GIFT
• 2BSR-ADIO-ENDL-EMO2
• JULY-SUMM-ERSE-ASON
• AWAVE-OFCR-ONST-ONES
• ADVI-CEOF-HEID-EL21
• CHAM-PION-OFEU-WHOO
• WAVE-OFEX-CHCO-UPON
• SUMM-ER20-21SE-ASON
• SEEW-HATI-SWRI-TTEN
• ATHE1-00WA-SWOR-THIT
• 7YEA-RANN-IVER-SARY
• 7YEA-RBSA-DVEN-TURE
• 7777-DISC-ORDE-VENT
• SAIN-TPAT-RICK-2023
• PANS-YSNO-DEEM-PIRE
• BDOC-REAT-ORFI-ESTA
• SMAR-TERT-HANT-CHAT
• DONT-TYPE-RAPO-CODE
• ANDE-RSBI-RTHD-AYYY
• ERIY-ANBD-AYST-REAM
• TAKE-ACLO-SELO-OK41
• LOTM-LWIT-HOPH-ELIA
• PALA-CEIN-THEO-CEAN
• HAPP-YBDA-YMER-MAID
• CHOI-CE24-HOUR-BDAY
• RAID-ELOB-IRTH-DAY1
• ONEM-OREJ-HAMM-ER4U
• THAN-XBDF-ESTA-2023
• SUPE-RADV-ENTU-RERS
• FEST-AQUI-ZPRE-SENT
• JUNE-MORN-INGL-IGHT

How to redeem codes in BDO

To redeem codes in Black Desert Online, go to the official play website.

If you can’t see the menu at the top of the screen with Shop in it, press the Don’t Show For Today button on the right side.

You should then be on the regular page.

Hover over the Shop text in the top menu.

Select ‘Redeem Coupon’ in the drop-down menu.

Log into your Black Desert Online account using either Pearl Abyss or Steam.

On the code redemption page, type in an active coupon code, select your region, and click ‘Use’.

You will then receive the contents of the code in your in-game mailbox.

Check out the previous paragraph of this guide for active BDO codes.

What are redemption codes

Redemption codes are special codes issued by the developers of Black Desert Online for players to redeem in their game.

When you redeem codes, you receive the rewards of the code.

Usually, redemption codes are issued when new major updates are released, holidays come around, special promotions start, or other celebrations.

After a while, codes expire, so be sure to redeem them before it’s too late.

As codes can be announced on many different platforms, including the game’s own social media, it can be difficult to find them all in time.

To make it easy for you, we’ve created this codes list that gives you all active BDO codes in one place.

Players of the game can take advantage of these codes to progress faster, so check back from time to time to see if new codes have been released.

How to get more codes

There is only one way to get more codes in the game, and that is to wait for the developers to issue new ones.

As codes can be announced both on social media, in advertising, directly through content creators, or through other means, we’ve made this list to make it easier for you to find codes.

We will add any new active promo code we find to this list, so you can keep up with new codes by simply checking out this post once in a while.

That’s all the codes we have for Black Desert Online!

If you wish to improve our code list for Black Desert Online, please let us know in the comment section if you find any new active codes or if you notice any active codes expiring.