Trading - Money Making Guide

This guide is not about auction houses. It’s about trading with NPCs: you purchase items from one NPC and sell to another in order to make money. It’s similar to delivering trade packs in ArcheAge.

There are several ways to make money in Black Desert. Trading goods is one of them. Basically you are able to buy and sell items at different markets in order to receive profits. Market can be found in every city and village. Each market is independent and the prices are different. This allows player to purchase goods from one NPC trader and sell to other.

The system is very similar to what you see in real life: you visit a small village, purchase vegetables there, transport the vegetables to the big city and sell there. Such commercial operations may become great source of money.

This guide will tell you how to succeed in commerce.

Trade Routes

The first thing you must do is to connect a place where you buy goods with a place where you are planning to sell them. Open your map and you will see that every village is connected with city with special routes. Each route is locked by default but you can unlock it in order to use. You need to unlock these “waypoints” not for trading only. This will also help you in crafting.

You can unlock a new waypoint by talking with a special NPC there. You will need special “contribution points” for this. Your character receives these points while leveling. After you unlock new route you receive access to new market and opportunities.

Purchasing

After you unlock a trading route you may purchase goods from the local market. The assortment of NPC sellers is usually limited. Each NPC purchases and sells specific goods.

You can see the price for each good and the level of demand (if you buy) and level of supply (if you sell). Pay attention to these data. Other players also want to trade and the demand graphic displays the “popularity” of this particular item among traders. If the demand is growing the price becomes higher. This is how the game reacts. A player has to monitor prices and search for good opportunities.

It’s not a good idea to purchase goods if you see that the demand is very high. High demand usually means that you will have to pay high price. It isn’t great for commerce where your goal is to purchase goods when they are cheap.

Right now most of the goods that can be purchased or sold to NPC trader are used for commerce only. You can’t use these goods in crafting or somewhere else. But this may be changed in future.

Always pay attention to the weight of the goods you buy.

NPC trader will also ask if you want to place goods right on your horse. If your horse is close enough, your purchased goods will be placed on it. If your horse is far from trader you will have to carry goods yourself. A special backpack will appear on your character and you will have to carry it to your mount or to the other trader where you want to sell goods.

Delivering

Now you need to deliver your goods to the other market where you are planning to sell. Delivering process is simple. You just need to ride if you deliver goods yourself.

It’s not the best idea to carry backpacks between cities on your character’s back. The movement speed is slow and it will take a lot of time. Always use your mount for commerce.

There are different mounts for this in the game. But if you are new player, you will have to use your donkey for this. Donkey is the cheapest mount in BD and you can get it for free at early stages. After you collect some more money you may purchase a horse. Advanced trader will have to purchase wagon in order to transport large number of goods. There is a big guide about Mounts and you can read it for more information.

The game allows you to hire a special carriage which will deliver goods without your actions. Every town has independent storage / bank and your delivered goods will be placed there automatically. It’s comfortable if you want to trade but don’t have big wagon for transporting large number of goods.

Wagon costs a lot and you will most likely have to hire carriages before you will be able to purchase it. Carriages are for big trading operations only because the price for delivering is rather high. You will not be able to cover the cost of the hired carriage if you sell only 1 item.

Delivering goods is always risky. There are Player Killers and different robbers who always wish to take goods of other players. It’s great if you can travel with other merchant to protect your property from thieves.

Selling

All you need to sell is to talk with special NPC and sell your stuff.

Note: commerce doesn’t guarantee any profit. You may fail and lose money if you don’t investigate prices. If you see that a buyer offers low prices you may try to visit other market and try to sell stuff there.

Pay attention to expiration dates. Some packages have expiration dates and can’t wait forever.. For example if you want to trade eggs you need to keep in mind that they may become bad soon and you will not be able to sell them. So keep expiration dates in mind.

As you see the system of commerce in Black Desert is pretty similar to what you can see in ArcheAge. You make a package, deliver it and get money. But commerce in Black Desert is much more risky because prices may fluctuate. You may purchase goods at a high price, or the buyer will not offer you good price for the goods. You may also be robbed by PK and lose your items.

Such sandbox elements like commerce make Black Desert much more interesting. Hope this guide will help you to get more money from your commercial operations.