With the latest Mediah expansion more cosmetics have been added to Black Desert Online's much discussed cash shop. Naturally I went to check them out, if only to see what type of new looks have made it over from the Korean game. Once more, I was rather disappointed:
Whatever your stance may be on the cash shop items or pricing in Black Desert Online, the cosmetics themselves just aren't very exciting. Between chicken feather armor and wings that would make AION players jealous, the cherry blossom event outfit is probably my favorite despite a persistent absence of leg gear across the board. No matter how much detail has gone into some of these outfits, they basically look like lingerie and the overall lack of customization is annoying.
The chest pieces are tied with pants or more frequently with no pants. Gloves are not individual items either for many of the cosmetic sets, with exception of the ranger's Bern armor, for example. This limits player choices a great deal and results in dyeing being the only way to individualize your looks at least a little. What a pity!
Black Desert Online Craftable Gear
Cosmetic options being as limited as they are right now, craftable gear becomes a big deal in Black Desert Online. There are actually several great looks to be acquired through profession gear which is simple enough to make once you activate a costume mill in either Heidel, or Calpheon, through the housing system. These are the Silver Embroidered beginner chest pieces you can currently craft for yourself:
The chest pieces come with respective crafting bonuses and will unequip all of your armor. They're complete, non-dyeable looks and depending on how you play the game, you might actually prefer wearing these instead of your usual gear. I personally use the Alchemist's outfit for purely cosmetic reasons and only switch to battle gear when I'm actually killing stuff...which is like never.
A few more important facts about the profession gear:
The gear is also available from crafting quest rewards and certain vendors that sell them at high price. They come in 4 different levels (beginner, apprentice, skilled, professional). You can only craft the beginner ones for yourself.
Some of the higher level items vary slightly in color or overall looks.
There's a tooltip on apprentice level items or higher that mentions profession gear being convertible into real cosmetics, via exchange coupons. These coupons are currently not live in the NA/EU version of the cash shop but are likely to be added later on. Converting profession gear will make you lose the crafting bonuses on it.
Calpheon Noble Gear
Similar to profession gear, Calpheon Noble attire can be crafted with a level 2 costume mill in Calpheon. These chest pieces are class-specific and come in red for the ladies and blue for gents (non-dyeable). In addition to basic crafting materials, they require an additional item from tailor NPC "Merv" in Calpheon. You will need to raise your amity with him first, before you can buy them for 50,000 silver a pop. Wearing a suit or dress boosts your amity gain from conversations by +15%.
Sidenote: If you check out a level 2 costume mill, you will find the mysterious Garner Traveling gear among the Calpheon Noble items. It appears that this last gear cannot currently be crafted in the game (yet), as the required tailor item isn't sold anywhere.
Final Verdict
While Black Desert Online does far from great in the cosmetics department, I felt somewhat redeemed once I found out about the additional crafted options in the game. Quite a few of the profession items look much better than generic armor and they're certainly less flimsy than many of the cosmetics sold in the cash shop. It would be nice if we could just equip whatever items to our cosmetic slots but that would be way too easy and convenient now, wouldn't it!
Source: BDO-Fashion, BDO Fashion
