Before we will be diving into this buyers guide I'd like to point out few things:
- This guide was mainly inspired by multitude of recent answers on reddit, where I can see people suggesting new players to focus primarily on purchases, which in my opinion are totally wrong, so new players end up spending their limited cash on things they'll later regret, but more on that later. New players join this forum as well, so it might be helpful for you.
- In this game things can change rapidly, so do your own research before committing to any purchases. Don't forget to check the date of this guide and feel free to ask me in this thread if it's still relevant or any other questions related to this guide.
- Follow cash shop (Pearl Shop) news of your server, from time to time you can catch up some nice discounts, especially during celebrations days of server's birthday, New Year, etc.
- Don't forget, that in the end, what you want to purchase depends on you. For example if you're sure that you'll never focus on Processing then you'll never need Karki/Venecil costume.
- I'm playing on JP server, so few things will be different for you (prices/names/items availability), if you're on another server (I'll try to point those out, but still keep this in mind and double-check things in your Pearl Shop).
Let's firstly start with the Mileage/Loyalty section. You get 100 Mileage (Loyalty) daily for logging into the game; players with Premium Pack (Value Pack) receive additional 100 Mileage (Loyalty) each day. Those points can be used to purchase things from the dedicated section of Pearl Shop (Mileage or Loyalty depending on your server). What you can get from this part of the Pearl Shop is highly dependant on your server and vary more than all other sections across all servers, so it'll be best to read this whole guide before committing to any purchases, as it might contain "important" products that will be mentioned after this part of the guide.
One more thing I'd like to mention is that a while back Pearl Abyss (developers) had plans to remove Mileage/Loyalty points in the future, later on they removed Mileage from KR server (KR players were given full month to use their remained Mileage) to rework it and add it back (as of the time of posting this guide - KR Mileage is NOT back yet) + added back Mileage icon and counter in Inventory window (it was removed in favor of displaying Ocean Coins, now called Crow Coins, a while back), so they either changed their mind or it was a misunderstanding from the very beginning, or...in either way - Mileage/Loyalty section most likely is not going away any time soon.
With that^ out of the way, Mileage/Loyalty shop is mainly split on F2P and B2P (Free to Play; Buy to Play) servers, albeit not only by that factor.
- B2P
We'll look on EU/NA as a primary example of such server. I DO NOT play on EU/NA, so I can miss few things here, but I'll mention every useful thing that I'm aware of and would consider myself.- Value Pack (aka Premium Package)
This is the #1 consumable cash shop item, and is always a good investment, but don't get crazy over it. Just don't get me wrong - it is a very useful item, let's take a look on what it gives to you (periodical benefits applied to all your characters):- Inventory Slot +16
- Storage Slot +16
- Combat/Skill/Life/Mount EXP +10%
- Distant Node Investment (Consumes 10 Energy)
- Weight Limit +200 LT
- +30% Marketplace Sales upon Silver Collection (Excluding Pearl Items)
- Unlimited use of Merv's Palette
- Unlimited Beauty Salon
- Barter Refresh Count +1
- Required Parley for Barter -10%
- Allows you to remotely check or skip Special Barter
If you login to the game each day - you should have more than enough Loyalties to cover your "Value Pack needs", unless you're the type of person that wants those extra EXP percents to become top 1 player in whatever Combat/Life Lvl, or you're the Captain that sails in Black Desert all days long to be able to cover that sweet 4th Barter list, or you can't live without changing your hairstyle/costume colors each day.
You can get them sometimes from various events or rarely purchase on the market.
When you'll be done with those permanent things below - you'll be able to invest in Value Pack more often. - Character Slots Expansion
This game has many mechanics that involve your alt-characters, I won't go through all of those in this guide, but the basic point here is that you want to have as many characters as possible, you'll definitely find them necessary at some point. Make this your #1 priority in Loyalty section, after meeting your needs in Value Packs. Unlike Value Pack this is a permanent investment. - Warehouse (aka Storage) Slots
This is another permanent investment, which will be useful for most players, with the exception of those that sell everything they come across.
You can expand Warehouse slots via Contribution Points (points you get for questing and other activities), but you can use those Contribution Point for other useful things as well (Workshops, Workers Slots, Connecting Nodes, etc. etc., believe me you'll definitely find things where to invest those in), and you won't have "enough" of those ever, so the less you need to spend on Warehouse slots = the more you can spend on other things you need. Moreover this investment is shared by all your characters. - Weight Limit
Another permanent investment, which will be useful for most players, with the exception of those that like to reroll to other classes and switch characters in no time. This is pretty straight forward, the more weight - the more things you can carry. Must-have on your main character (that is, if you have one). Can be mitigated with the help of Maids/Butlers, more on that later. Is not an extreme necessity, so I'd advice to invest in those over time. - Inventory Slots
Another permanent investment, which will be useful for most players, with the exception of those that like to reroll to other classes and switch characters in no time. This is also pretty straight forward, the more slots - the more different things you can carry. Buy only for your main character (that is, if you have one). Can be mitigated with the help of Maids/Butlers, more on that later. Inventory slots expansions are obtainable as the rewards of game quests and are given out during various "Big" events. Realistically you won't feel a need for more than ~100 slots (max cap is 192 slots, you can't go over the cap), with the exception of those who plan to AFK-Fish all the time, so I'd advice to invest in those only if you have some extra points lying around. - Artisan's Memory
Consumable. Increases item's Max Durability repair x5. Can be useful for those players that enhance often, will save you some silver on repairs. It is not necessary. - Blessing of Kamasilve
Another useful periodical consumable, like Value Pack, but not quite as, let's take a look on what it gives to you (periodical benefits applied to all your characters):- Energy Recovery +2
- Item Drop Rate +20%
- Central Market Warehouse Capacity +2,000 VT
- Transaction Maid Volume Limit +100 VT
- Storage Transport Weight Limit +1,500 LT
It is good to have, but is not necessary, with maybe an exception of 24/7 Gatherers. Often given out during various events. Don't buy it, if you don't have an "infinite" supply of Value Packs. - Elion's Tears
Consumable. Allows you to resurrect without penalties (no EXP losses) and resurrect in place (where you've died). You can get those during various events, and the amount you need can be reduced to an extent by the Fairy (if she has Fairy Tears skill). Buy those only if you don't have them. Use them when you die from mobs while on the character that you're levelling up (debatable for characters below Lv.58, unless you have a lot of those tears) and/or when you die from characters/players in some areas that don't have a "nearby resurrection spot" (all have one, but for some it's not really nearby). Must have for those that are all into 24/7 PvP for fun. - Event things
From time to time you'll see some useful items added during various event campaigns. For example as of the time of posting this guide you can purchase Combat/Skill EXP scrolls for 1 Loyalty each - you definitely want to buy those.
- Value Pack (aka Premium Package)
- F2P
We'll look on JP as a primary example of such server, just because I play on JP, but I'll also mention other servers, since JP has one of the worst Mileage section.- Event things
From time to time you'll see some useful items added during various event campaigns. For example as of the time of posting this guide you can purchase [EV] 555% Combat & Skill EXP Scrolls for 1 Mileage each - you definitely want to buy those, as of now there is no sale end date, but so was with the previous 530% EXP Scrolls, so just keep your eyes on the news if you don't plan to use them in the nearest future and don't want to carry them around in your inventory. We used to get Character Slot Expansion Tickets with the addition of some of the new classes, but we did not with more recent ones, so who knows if we will in the future. Very rarely few other useful things, but the point is - keep your eyes on the cash shop news, as there's really not a whole lot of useful things to spend Mileage on otherwise. - [ML] Elion's Tears
Consumable. Allows you to resurrect without penalties (no EXP losses) and resurrect in place (where you've died). You can get those during various events, and the amount you need can be reduced to an extent by the Fairy (if she has Fairy Tears skill). Buy those only if you don't have them. Use them when you die from mobs while on the character that you're levelling up (debatable for characters below Lv.58, unless you have a lot of those tears) and/or when you die from characters/players in some areas that don't have a "nearby resurrection spot" (all have one, but for some it's not really nearby). Must have for those that are all into 24/7 PvP for fun. - [ML] Sealed Patricio's Costume Inventory
Can be used to store costumes, but mainly to quickly swap between costumes (e.g.: Camo and Normal, or Normal and Life, etc.). Is not necessary nor extremely helpful, but if you've played on JP server for a while, what else to spend those Mileage points on? World Chat Tickets? I have bought 1 Patricio's Costume Inventory, but I also have extra 163k Mileage points, so yeah...not advised, but might get handy. - [ML] Old Moon rescue signal flare
Consumable. If you got your ship destroyed in ocean, and you don't have usable map, and there are no "taxi" ships nearby, then you might find it useful. Haven't had the need to use one myself, but it's not like there are many useful things in JP Mileage section. - [ML] Energy Tonic (Small)
Complete waste of Mileage, but if you have tons of Elion's Tears and Mileage points and you're into 24/7 gathering then you might find them useful. - Crystal Extraction Tools
Consumable. Not present on JP server. On par with Elion's Tears for those servers that have them. Can be used to extract crystals from equipment. Useful when you want to swap PvP/PvE crystals without destroying them, or when you change your equipment and want to sell or reuse those crystals you have now, etc. - Blessing of Kamasilve
Not present on JP server. Useful periodical consumable, like Premium Package, but not quite as, let's take a look on what it gives to you (periodical benefits applied to all your characters):- Energy Recovery +2
- Items droprate +20%
- Marketplace Capacity +2,000VT
- Trade Management Maid/Butler capacity use +100VT
- Loadable Transport Weight +1,500LT
It is good to have, but is not necessary, with maybe an exception of 24/7 Gatherers. Often given out during various events. It is probably a #1 all time available thing to spend your Mileage on, if you have it on your server. - Guild skills reset
Consumable. Not present on JP server. Can be useful if you've bought a guild from someone, that don't have enough guild points for all skills and want to swap some skills here and there. - Unknown Dye Box
Consumable. Not present on JP server. Get random dye to dye your costume/equipment. Just for the looks.
- Event things
Pearls.
- Napalet Camp
This is highly debatable, but in my opinion as of 2020 Napalet Camp is basically the #1 thing I would get if I had nothing at all. Why debatable? It's not that useful for players that do exclusively Barter in this game, or you might debate that Maids/Butlers are a bit more necessary (but those for example were given during few events), so it's like #1, but not for 100% of playerbase. There is a way to use Camp by purchasing normal parts via silver, but they are expensive, expire fast (Napalet doesn't expire, it's permanent), more costly to use and most importantly - do not allow you to use the #1 feature of Napalet Camp, normal camp is basically a joke, forget about its existence. So what's so good about this Napalet Camp? It allows you to:- Use Villa and Camp buffs.
Technically you can use Villa buffs at Villas in Valencia, but they are periodical and you would need to physically run to those Villas in Valencia, so that's not really an option outside of Valencia, and even in Valencia you don't want to jump outside from Histria and then search for the portal back...
This is that #1 feature of Napalet Camp, that is not available in Normal Camp. The reality of it is that those who have Napalet Camp - run with those buffs, those that don't - don't.
Boost from those buffs is not huge e.g.:- Energy recovery +1, Amity gain +10%, Life EXP +10%
- All AP +10, All DP +10, Max HP +200, All resists +10%, Ignore All resists +5%
- Skill EXP +10%, Combat EXP +10%, Heatstroke/Hypothermia resist +40%
- Items Droprate +50%
If this was the only feature of Napalet Camp it would be already enough. - Repair.
Repair anywhere, any time you need. Saves time. Also extremely useful in areas where the nearest repair NPC to mobs is so far away that you'll need to spend few minutes to get there and back, so once again - saves time. - Shop.
You can buy potions here. Potions are heavy, you can't carry a whole lot of those, they'll either get used up quickly (at war) or they'll be a burden (during mob grinding sessions). It's useful to not carry a lot and be able to buy more quickly, when/if needed. It can be mitigated by the use of Maids/Butlers and more importantly - you can completely avoid the need by using newly released infinite potions, although you'll need to obtain those firstly.
Buy Gold bullions, which you might need for some quests, Barter, to get buffs from various NPCs. It was more useful, when Silver had weight attached to it, but now it can be used exclusively to avoid carrying Gold bullions when you think you'll need them. - Warehouse.
Has its own small warehouse. Not that useful, but is a small bonus.
- Use Villa and Camp buffs.
- Pets
Pets are in no doubt one of the most useful and must have things in this game, but I've put them after the Camp only because of certain pets, not all of them. Most of the time you'll see people suggesting to spend all your cash on pets, but that's totally wrong thing to do, unless you have A LOT of cash to spend on this game, in that case - sure, go ahead, they're useful.
You can have up to 5 pets summoned at the same time. Pets have Tiers (aka Generations), they range from 0 to 4, albeit these days you probably won't find Tier 0 anywhere. Each pet has 3 key features (apart of appearance and common skills):- Collect loot
Gather loot dropped by monsters you've killed, so that you don't need to manually collect it. Saves a lot of time and is the primary feature of pets and why they're deemed by many players as #1.
Some of the flying pets have a bit higher range (distance from you) at which they can collect loot, in comparison to other pets, and focus on collecting the furthest loot from you. Purely for loot collection flying pets are best of the best, but the difference is not substantial and you should not make your choice based on this factor. - Unique skill
There are various unique skills for you to choose from, they are tied to the pet appearance (when exchanging pets, which appearance you set - that unique skill you'll get). I'll list few:- Increased Chance to Get Knowledge & Increased Chance to Get Top Knowledge
- Combat EXP
- Skill EXP
- Life EXP
- Durability decrease resist
- Weight Limit
- Droprate increase
- Max HP
Max HP is given by the Young Red Dragon pet (2nd best pet), which is not purchaseable in the cash shop (obtainable as a rare drop from Gamose World Boss) and is limited to 1 being summoned at a time, hence why I've mentioned only 1.
Droprate increase is given by the Arctic Fox pet (3rd best pet), which is limited to 1 being summoned at a time, hence why I've mentioned only 1. - Special skill
There are various special skills for you to choose from, but they are a bit dodgy to choose, since they are not tied to the pet appearance. You do get a certain one with certain pet, but it might change when exchanging pets to get higher tier pet. I'll list few:- Find rare monster
Highlights rare monsters. Can be handy. - Find resources
Highlights resources. Pretty useless. - Detect hostile adventurers
Highlights hostile players (Red adventurers, Warring Guild members). Can be handy against players in camouflage. - Desert disease resistance
Heatstroke/Hypothermia resistance up to +35%. Has a very limited use case for desert activities with a very limited benefit. - Monster Taunt
Taunt monster. Pretty useless. - Auto-fishing time reduced
Auto-fishing time up to -20%. Purely for AFK-Fishing. - Auto-gather
Uses your Energy to auto-gather, and it won't include gathering boosts from your gear, so for Gatherers it's more harmful than useful. Can be useful for players that don't spend their energy on something useful. - Increase Gathered Resource Amount
Up to 50% chance to double-gather. What does double-gather means? It means that you'll get an extra copy of what you've gathered, but it's a bit more complicated than that - double-gather is calculated for BASE of your gathered resources, so that doesn't include Proficiency (aka Mastery) and things like that, regardless of that it's still a huge gathering boost (estimated by some top gathering players to ~40% boost, then again that depends on player's Proficiency, etc., the less you're boosted from those - the more noticeable boost you'll get from double-gather). Hands down best special skill, but useful only for players that Gather and Hunt (if you're into Gathering/Hunting/Cooking/Alchemy; directly influences Gathering and Hunting).
- Find rare monster
Now that you have an idea of what pets are - there is only 1 pet that feels like a must buy for Gatherers/Hunters, which you've probably guessed already - Hedgehog with "Increase Gathered Resource Amount", which also happen to come with a handy Life EXP unique skill, just make sure to get the correct one. It is rarely sold on all servers. On JP we used to get them in a form of Edan's Treasure Box (Gacha/RNG Box), but now that we were transferred to Pearl Abyss - who knows in what form/price we'll see them in the future. Also keep in mind that while technically Hedgehog is not limited to 1 being summoned at a time - their effects do not stack, which means that you'll end up with a maximum 50% chance (Tier 4) regardless of how many Hedgehogs you'll summon, so it's actually bad to have more than 1 Hedgehog, unless you can't help yourself and you're into those little Hedgehogs (but once again - remember, that you'll miss on other unique skills you could have had instead).
There is also that Arctic Fox, which I've mentioned above^, that can also be called "must buy", albeit more arguably, as it can boost you up to a maximum of +4% Droprate (Tier 4), which will surely be noticeable in the long run, but is not a huge boost in the short period of time. And don't forget that you can summon only 1 Arctic Fox at a time, so there is no point in getting more than 1.
Other than those 2 arguable pets - get yourself whichever ones that you find more useful for things that you plan/want to do in this game, there are no other pets (other than those top 3 pets, which I've mentioned previously) which are a clear "winners" over the other, each one has its own use case.
And finally, the reason why I've written that it's totally wrong to spend your limited budget on pets (once again, if it's not that limited - go ahead and buy at least 5, you'll end up buying even more): you can get 4 pets through quests, you can sometimes get them from events (for example you could get free Tier 4 pet on JP server for transfer completion prior to 2020.04.24 23:59, we also have them very often as one of the rewards for new/returned players daily logins, etc.) and you can buy them from other players on the Market for silver. Getting 5x Tier 4 pets, without cash investments, is not that difficult, it'll take you some time and efforts, but if you plan to play this game for a long time - you'll get there eventually, if you don't - even more reasons to not spend your cash on them.
If on contrary you have a lot of cash on your hands and not that much time - buy a lot of pets, preferably wait for some shop events that include pets, like X pets bundles for less, pets discounts, etc., you'll need quite a few to make them Tier 4, you might also want a different sets of pets and any extras you can always sell on the market to get some silver. - Collect loot
- Premium Package (aka Value Pack)
Here we go again. This is the #1 consumable cash shop item, and is always a good investment, but don't get crazy over it. Just don't get me wrong - it is a very useful item, let's take a look on what it gives to you (periodical benefits applied to all your characters):- 16 slots Inventory Expansion (It doesn't duplicate authorized PC Cafe bonus)
- 16 slots Warehouse Expansion (It doesn't duplicate authorized PC Cafe bonus)
- Combat/Skill/Life/Mount EXP +30%
- Connecting remote Nodes (10 Energy consumption)
- Weight Limit +200LT
- Market receipts +30% (Except Pearl shop items)
- Items droprate increase scroll (Delivered daily through challenge)
- Additional 100 Mileage points
- Includes Pallets of Merv
- Free use of Beauty Shop
- Barter List Updates +1
- Required Bargain Power -10%
- Immediately check Special Barter and skip it if needed
On servers where you can't get "Value Pack" using Loyalties (e.g.: JP) Premium Packages are scars and hard to obtain without cash, so you need to think twice when to use them, even if you're the type of person that wants those extra EXP percents to become top 1 player in whatever Combat/Life Lvl, or you're the Captain that sails in Black Desert all days long to be able to cover that sweet 4th Barter list, or you can't live without changing your hairstyle/costume colors each day, and plan to buy them from time to time, that is, unless you have a lot of cash to spend on this game and can keep Premium Package running 24/7.
You can get them sometimes from various events or rarely purchase on the market.
Use them during the day, NEVER at the beginning of day, this will allow you to collect extra 100 Mileage points and Items droprate increase scroll (e.g. using 1 day Premium Package you can get those extra rewards for 2 days, as they are delivered daily through challenge).
It is more important to buy some permanent cash shop products, but when you have pre-sold items for hundreds of billions sitting on the market and/or want to sell some very expensive items + you need that silver for something + you don't have any Premium Packs lying around -> you simply have to get one, as timely used Premium Package will make you more silver than any other consumable or any other cash shop item that can be sold on the market, regardless of their prices, so you either have to get used to properly manage your Premium Packages (with good management you can get through it, without purchasing even a single one using your cash) or simply accept them as a permanent expense in this game. You might not feel the need of it as a new player, so it's even a good idea to keep any that you get for the future, but you will eventually reach that point when it'll allow you to print a lot of silver out of thin air.
Before we'll move to various permanent investments I'd like to take a look on the other 2 consumable periodical items, that often come with Premium Package in a form of various bundles. - Old Moon Book
Useful periodical consumable, like Premium Package, but not quite as, let's take a look on what it gives to you (periodical benefits applied to all your characters):- Combat EXP +100%
- Skill EXP +50%
- Life EXP +50%
- Reset Skills/Skill Deepening freely at any time
- Specialize skills freely at skill instructor NPC
- Use Villa Scroll functions
- All Areas Stables 1 slot Expansion
- All Areas Wharfs 1 slot Expansion
Resetting and specializing skills without any extra costs is useful for new players that don't have enough of skills points to learn all skills and are not quite sure which skills they need and which ones they don't, for veteran players it's not that important, although you can re-specialize for PvP and PvE if you want to min-max damage of your skills.
1 Slot Stables expansion will be nice if you're completely into Horses (Training, Breeding, etc.).
And finally one of the most important benefits (apart of EXP) is the ability to use Villa Scroll functions in your Napalet Camp. You heard it right - once again we return to Napalet Camp. Old Moon Book allows you to use buffs in Napalet Camp without the need to visit the Villa every 7 days to purchase a 7-days entry, saving both your time and silver involved in purchasing the entry, moreover it's harder to forget as you'll have a glowing icon on your screen.
It is good to have, especially if you own Napalet Camp, but is not necessary. Rarely given out during various events. Can be bought from the market. - Blessing of Kamasilve
Useful periodical consumable, like Premium Package, but not quite as, let's take a look on what it gives to you (periodical benefits applied to all your characters):- Energy Recovery +2
- Items droprate +20%
- Marketplace Capacity +2,000VT
- Trade Management Maid/Butler capacity use +100VT
- Loadable Transport Weight +1,500LT
It is good to have, but is not necessary, with maybe an exception of 24/7 Gatherers. Often given out during various events. Can be bought from the market. It used to be more useful, when Shadow Arena was a part of the game (gave extra rewards on Shadow Arena), Shadow Arena was never removed from the game (it's just locked-out), moreover new "Heroes" and other things, that were introduced as a part of separate Shadow Arena game - are also added to Black Desert client, so we might eventually see its return, if Shadow Arena will not be able to stay on its own. Basically where I'm leading to is that if you got few from events and don't need them at the moment - you might as well just save them for the future, instead of using them to free slots. - Warehouse/Trade Management Maid/Butler
Maids and Butlers are extremely useful, you'll never have enough of those, but generally speaking for comfortable play you'll need 3 Warehouse and 1 Trade. So what do they do?:- Warehouse
Can be summoned in any territory on order.
Allows you to either deposit or withdraw 1 type of item to/from warehouse in the main city of the current territory.
Has a Weight Limit of 100LT and a Cooldown of 20 minutes.
It is extremely handy in everyday tasks, it'll save you a lot of time. It's also very useful when farming mobs (store loot from slain monsters, primarily to free your weight) and gathering resources (store gathered resources, primarily to free your weight). Can be used to replenish your potions supply, throw items into the warehouse of territory that you're barely passing by, without the need to visit main city, etc. etc. - Trade
Can be summoned in any territory on order.
Allows you to either deposit or withdraw 1 type of item to/from Marketplace warehouse.
Has a Weight Limit of 100VT and a Cooldown of 20 minutes. Weight Limit is expanded by another 100VT during active Blessing of Kamasilve.
It is also very handy, but not everything can be stored to the Market Warehouse, so apart of moving your gear between characters, its primary use is limited to retrieving items from Market Warehouse. You can buy some thing that you need asap on the Market and get it immediately, no matter where you are. For example it might save you a lot of time and money if you're in a middle of ocean with ship that run out of provision - just get it off the market and replenish your food supply. If you don't have one you can pre-store food in Rat Port and get it using Warehouse Maid/Butler, so overall Warehouse are more useful, but having at least 1 Trade is very handy for those "emergency" situations you might encounter during your gaming sessions.
- Warehouse
- Character Slot Expansion Ticket
This game has many mechanics that involve your alt-characters, I won't go through all of those in this guide, but the basic point here is that you want to have as many characters as possible (there is limit that gets expanded by 1 with each new class release), you'll definitely find them necessary at some point. This is a permanent investment and a beneficial one, but if your budget is very tight then I'd advice to skip this, even though that Character Slot Expansion Tickets are quite cheap in comparison to other products. - Warehouse (aka Storage) Slots/Worker Hostel Slots/Stable Slots/Wharf Slots
This is another permanent investment. You can expand Warehouse/Worker Hostel/Stable/Wharf slots via Contribution Points (points you get for questing and other activities), but you can use those Contribution Points for other useful things as well (Warehouse, House, Worker Hostel, Workshops, Connecting Nodes, etc. etc., believe me you'll definitely find things where to invest those in), and you won't have "enough" of those ever, so the less you need to spend on Warehouse/Worker Hostel/Stable/Wharf slots = the more you can spend on other things you need. Moreover this investment is shared by all your characters.
Now which ones to buy and which ones to not is totally up to you and if you feel the need to expand mentioned thing via Contribution Points, for example most players will find Warehouse Slots expansion useful, with the exception of those that sell everything they come across, while there are probably only a handful of players that will find Wharf Slots expansion useful, as the base one is enough for most players. The idea here is - if you have some extra cash that you can spend and you need to expand slots somewhere, instead of spending Contribution Points you can spend your cash and save those Contribution Points for something else. - Costumes
This is a huge section, I don't even know where to start here.
Costumes can be divided onto costumes for Character and costumes for Mounts. Mount costumes are not very important, so let's start with Character costumes.- Character costumes.
Character costumes can be further divided onto Costumes and Accessories.- Costumes
Costumes consist of 8 parts. Costume sets can contain various amount of parts (from 1 to 7) and some parts can take multiple costume slots.
Apart of the costume pieces giving certain effects, amount of costume slots equipped with costume parts will give you "Costume Slot Effects", all of those can be read on costumes, and vary, which brings us to yet another division onto Normal Costumes, Functional Costumes and Underwear.- Normal Costumes
Normal Costumes are your general costumes that you can see being sold on the market (they are always sold in large quantities and apart of looks can be used to obtain Valks Shouts and Cron Stones, which are useful for enhancement) and those that can be crafted in the game using game means. They include Helmet, Gloves, Armor, Boots, Primary Weapon, Secondary Weapon, Awakening Weapon. Some of them may take several slots, some may have weapons, some may not, etc. You can mix them in any way that you like - set effects will be applied regardless of which costume part you use, as long as you fill all of the required slots. - Underwear
Underwear gives +1 Luck and is an 8th piece required for the 8 parts costume slots effects of Equipment durability consumption -10 and Death penalty -10%. Underwear was given out in a single event on JP server in an entire time of its existence, and not so long ago, it's also not sellable on the market, so the chances to get it without paying is rather slim. Neither of all of those effects are necessary. Luck can be risen to cap without underwear. - Functional Costumes
This is the point where costumes start to shine. These are the costumes that give some more specific effects (and some also give normal costume effects on top), few examples:- Pavilla
Alchemy EXP +15%
Alchemy time -2 sec - Canapés
Cooking EXP +15%
Cooking time -2 sec - Venecil Dress/Karki Suit
When worn, allows to process items in warehouse and rises processing success rate +3%.
Processed warehouse item result will be placed in the character's inventory. - Shark Fishing Diving Suit
Dive time +30 sec & Swimming speed increase +90% & Decrease stamina consumption during swimming
Set Effect: Swimming speed increase +59% - Teombeongteombeong Fishing
Nearby fish won't run away.
Fishing Speed +1 & Swimming speed increase +90% & Decrease stamina consumption during swimming
Set Effect: Jumping height +80cm & Swimming speed increase +59% - Venia Riding Attire
Additional 20% Mount EXP. - Treant Camouflage
With camouflage clothing suitable for grass, it is difficult to distinguish you from grass beetle when lying down.
3 Set Effect: Gathering +1.
4 Set Effect: Hides character name. - Desert Camouflage
Camouflage clothing suitable for desert.
Equipped Armor: Desert disease(Hypothermia, Heatstroke) resist +50%.
3 Set Effect: Hides character name.
- Pavilla
- Normal Costumes
- Accessories
There are 3 types of accessories:- Head, Ears. Mostly earrings.
Chance to Get Advanced Knowledge +5% - Eyes. Mostly glasses.
Chance of getting knowledge on monsters +50% - Nose, Mouth, Chin.
Nothing.
- Head, Ears. Mostly earrings.
- Costumes
- Mount costumes.
Mount costumes are not necessary, but can be bought to primarily increase the speed of your mount a little bit, be it Horse, Camel, Donkey, Elephant, Boat or Ship (each mount type has different costume sets, but those sets are not bound and can be swapped between same type of mount). Mount costumes are rarely given out during some events, most of the time periodical versions, but very rarely even unlimited.
- Character costumes.
- Weight Limit
Another permanent investment, which will be useful for most players, with the exception of those that like to reroll to other classes and switch characters in no time. This is pretty straight forward, the more weight - the more things you can carry. Will be useful to have on your main character (that is, if you have one). Can be mitigated with the help of Maids/Butlers. It is not an extreme necessity. - Inventory Slots
Another permanent investment, which will be useful for most players, with the exception of those that like to reroll to other classes and switch characters in no time. This is also pretty straight forward, the more slots - the more different things you can carry. Buy only for your main character (that is, if you have one). Can be mitigated with the help of Maids/Butlers. Inventory slots expansions are obtainable as the rewards of game quests and are given out during various "Big" events. Realistically you won't feel a need for more than ~100 slots (max cap is 192 slots, you can't go over the cap), with the exception of those who plan to AFK-Fish all the time, so I'd advice to invest in those only if you have some extra extra cash lying around. - Costume Exchange Ticket
Use it to exchange production clothes on costume with the same appearance.
Exchanged costume will be equippable in the costume slot.
※Check the information on exchanged costume in the description of specific production clothes.
You can use it for some extra Life EXP of your choice, but most players will only need 1 to turn the resulted costume into one of the 3 Crystals, that can be Transfused into Normal Costume and will grant (depending on your choice):- Movement Speed +2
- Attack/Casting Speed +1
- Critical Strike Chance +1
- Black Spirit Essence
This is basically a Pearls version of Crystal Extraction Tools.
Consumable. Can be used to extract crystals from equipment. Useful when you want to swap PvP/PvE crystals without destroying them, or when you change your equipment and want to sell or reuse those crystals you have now, etc. - Artisan's Memory
Consumable. Increases item's Max Durability repair x5. Can be useful for those players that enhance often, will save you some silver on repairs. It is not necessary. - Item Brand Spell Stone (aka Item Imprint Spell Stone)
Branding the equipment will decrease its repair cost by 33%, and the durability consumption by 50%. Quite useful, especially for your main endgame Weapons, as those break (wear-out) faster than anything else, that is if you play correctly. Item Brand Spell Stones are sometimes given out during events, so you might wait for them, they are not necessary, but will increase the amount of time you can run around without the need to repair, which you might find very useful for lengthy sieges and grinding sessions. - Sealed Morco's Costume Inventory
This is basically the same thing as Patricio's Costume Inventory, except that it is usable for normal equipment and clothes.
Can be used to store clothes, equipment and items, but mainly to quickly swap between equipment sets (e.g.: Combat and Life, or Defensive and Offensive, etc.), other than that it can be used to reduce the use of Warehouse Maids/Butlers and/or Warehouse/Inventory slots, as it takes only 1 space. It is not necessary, but can be helpful, especially to quickly swap your gear sets. - Teia's Bead
Consumable to change Fairy's skill. Use it exclusively on Tier 4 Fairy, with good skills, if you want to save yourself a lot of time and silver, when rerolling Fairy to get the perfect Fairy with perfect skills. You can reroll Fairy by non-cash means, so it is optional, but realistically speaking, when you have Fairy with 3 perfect skills out of 4 - you don't really want to reroll it, just use this consumable on the 4th skill instead. Can possibly provide nice permanent upgrade to your Fairy, but is RNG-dependent, and is not of extreme need, when you already have a descent Fairy with descent skills (if you don't - then it's better to reroll Fairy, instead of rerolling single skill). - Fairy Queen's Power
Consumable to reroll your Fairy. Use it exclusively on Tier 4 Fairy, if you want to save yourself some time and silver, when rerolling Fairy for skills that you need. You can reroll Fairy by non-cash means, so it's very optional. - Trainer's Flute
Allows you to call your ground mount within 500m range. It allows you to call your mount from noticeably further distance than without it, but this item is definitely not necessary, and is more of a small QoL improvement. It can be bought from the market.
There are few more things some players might be interested in, and those are:
- Dyes, which you can use to permanently dye your costume/equipment (specific dye can be bought from the market and Dye Boxes can be obtained from Black Spirit's Adventure, but still if you have nowhere else to spend your money...).
- 12 Black Spirit's Emojis (Unlimited)
Inexpensive permanent Emojis for you to express yourself.
Prior to ending this guide I'd also like to point out that there are, almost constantly, some forms of various products discounts. They come in different forms, like direct discounts, discount coupons, various bundles, events, etc., so don't forget to follow the cash shop news, especially if you plan to buy any products in the nearest future.
This guide turned out quite lengthy, even though that I tried to make it quite rough, in order to reduce its length, to the point that it might be a bit hard to comprehend here and there, so if I've missed something important - let me know and I'll make sure to add it. Also feel free to argue about necessities. I wonder if someone will manage to read through all of it in one go