Table of Contents
Introduction
Today I’m going to be explaining the different types of packages that you can purchase for this game to try and help you to understand what they do, and which one is going to be the best for you to purchase. People are asking me more and more “which package should I buy?” or “how much does this game cost?” So, before I start going through the different packages that you can get, let me first explain the business model that this game has gone with.
With MMO’s there are three types of models that are commonly used and they are; fighter play, free-to-play, and a subscription-based service. Black Desert west has opted for the buy to play model, meaning that you must only pay for the game once and there are no recurring costs, as a sub fee. There is a cash shop in-game, but with their recent announcements in the PM diary we can see that so far there are not any game-breaking items in the shop, which is great; mostly cosmetic and ease of access stuff.
So, now you understand the business model of the game, let’s get down to the different packages that you can get. As I go through each one, I will explain what you get and how they could benefit you in-game. There are four different types of packages that are currently available for purchase and they are; starter package, the travelers pack for 30 euros, the explorers pack for 50 euros, and then the conquerors’ package for 100 euros.
Starter Package
The starter package is just the base game and some guest packages which you can use to invite your friends to play. This is recommended if you just want to try out the game, but you’re not sure if you want to keep playing it.
Traveler Package
If you spend 30 euros on this game, you will be given access to BDO and get a bunch of extra goodies too. This means that you can give that pass to a friend to try out the game for a week, to try and get them involved and play with you. Now for all the extra content that you will receive when you get this package.
You will get three housing decks or coupons, which can be used to purchase housing decorations in the game, so you can pretend like you’re playing The Sims or something. You can get a pretty dresser, some fancy chairs, or even a table. Crazy stuff, right? And some of that housing stuff even gives you buffs in-game.
The second extra thing that you get is three unknown die boxes. Basically you can use these boxes to dye your armor. When you open each box you are given a random variety of colors that you can customize your gear with. You also get an appearance change coupon so that, on release, if you’ve made your character look bad, don’t worry, you can change it once. In Black Desert, you get combat skill points over time and invest them into your abilities, but once you’ve put them into your skill you cannot remove them. If you do want to change them then you must use a partial skill reset, which will reset that particular skill line. When you purchase the travelers pack you’ll get three of these.
The last of the extra content from this package is the steel toolset package. This will give you a full set of steel tools to go gathering with. They’re not really the most amazing tools in the game, but hey it’s better than nothing and it’s a pretty decent starting point.
Okay, so that’s the standard bits you get when you buy the pack, but if you pre-order it then you get some pretty cool extra things with it too. You will get a special in-game tile, a family name reservation meaning that you can reserve a name that you want and you’ll also be able to do this with a character name. Lastly, you will receive an additional character slot which is normally only obtainable through the cash shop.
Explorers Package
Next up is the Explorers Package. For 50 euros you get all the stuff you get in the first pack, but instead of one guest pass, you get ten.
You also get five housing decor coupons, five unknown dye boxes, and five partial scale resets. On top of all that stuff, you also get a Tier three horse, a horse whistle, and a pet of your choice. The horse whistle allows you to call your horse to come to you from a much greater distance than normal, which is pretty damn handy. (I’ll go into a bit more detail about the mounts and the pets in a minute, so hold on for that.) You also get all the other stuff for pre-ordering as you do with the traveler’s pack, but on top of that, you get an extra character slot and an exclusive weapon skin. Each class will have its own design for this.
Conqueror’s Package
So, finally, we have the Conqueror’s Package that comes in at 100 euros. Okay, I know what you’re thinking, this is a ridiculous amount of money to spend on a game. Well, you’re half right. Whilst I agree that it is very expensive, it does have some awesome content and it is only available for pre-order, meaning that after the game launches you can no longer purchase this pack or get its perks. So let’s go over what you get:
Ten housing decoy coupons, ten die boxes, ten partial resets and all the other stuff that comes in the other packs, but instead of a Tier Three horse you get a Tier Five one, and on top of all of that you get twenty-five hundred pearls, which is the cash drop currency with a value of 25 euros. As for the extra pre-order goodies, three additional character slots, and the exclusive weapon skin, as well as an exclusive costume with a unique look for each class.
Okay, so now you know about all the goodies that you’re going to get in the pack, but I wanted to go into a bit more detail of what seems to be most people’s concerns, and that is the horse and the pet that you receive from the explorers and the conqueror’s package.
So, first, off I’ll give you my faults on the horse. A Tier 3 horse really isn’t that big of a deal. Horses go from Tier 1, which is the worst, all the way up to Tier 9(dream horse). As their rank increases their looks change and they get faster. The only way to increase a horse’s rank is to breed them together to try and get a higher one. You can also catch up to a Tier 5 horse in the wild on career, but this could change in the EU. So, the idea of a Tier 3 horse for a pre-order pack is nice, but by no means will you hold on to that horse forever.
The Conqueror’s Package offers a Tier 5 horse, which is a lot better than a Tier 3, but it’s still not amazing. However, it will give you a good starting point if you want to breed or you could just keep hold of that horse for a while. There are nice additions to the pack but in my opinion, not the selling point.
Next up, our pets in this game. They are great pets, not only look awesome and follow you around. They also loot for you. You can have up to 4 hours any one time, so getting one for free is pretty damn nice. If nothing else it will save you a few quid on the Cash Shop come launch.
The Take Away Point
To round off this post, I believe that the main reason to purchase the higher end packages is because of the head start and possibly the extra character slots. These head starts are a huge ninety-six hours on a conquerors pack, which means that you’re going to have less competition on farming spots. You’ll have an easier time taming a horse, empty fishing spots, a chance to figure everything out.
In general that’s the reason that I have chosen this package, but if you don’t have the time to use the head start then maybe it’s better just to get the 30 or 50 euro package, and then use the spare money on pearls to get some cool pets or other items that you want.
I hope this article has been helpful for you guys and explained it all in a little bit more detail.