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Regions
The lands and seas of the Black Desert world
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The world map, with the nodes of Balenos, Serendia and Calpheon From the Adventurer's Guide, Pearl Abyss
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| Starting region | |
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| Land regions | |
| Seas | Margoria, Ross Sea, Papua Crinea
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| Major powers | Republic of Calpheon, Mediah, Kingdom of Valencia, Kamasylvia, Drieghan, O'dyllita |
| First expansion | Mediah (2015)
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| Newest expansion | Edania (2025)
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| Map systems | Nodes, territories, Node War |
Regions are the large named divisions of the world of Black Desert, the online role-playing game developed by Pearl Abyss. Each region covers its own stretch of the map, with a distinct landscape, a ruling power, a handful of towns and its own range of monsters. Adventurers begin in the coastal forests of Balenos and work outward — through farmland, city, desert, forest and mountain — as their characters grow strong enough to survive the next region along.
Almost every region arrived as a separate free expansion, so the map has roughly tripled in size since the game launched in 2014. The most recent addition, Edania, opened in August 2025.
A region is more than a backdrop. Each one is also a territory, the unit the game uses to organize its map, and every territory is divided into nodes — individual farms, forests, mines, hunting grounds and towns.
Adventurers spend Contribution Points with a node manager to invest in a node. An invested node yields resources through workers, and a chain of connected nodes links a production site back to a city, which is what makes long-distance trading profitable. Territories are also the unit of large-scale player conflict: guilds fight Node Wars and Conquest Wars for control of nodes and, ultimately, of whole territories.
Control on the map and control in the story are two different things. Balenos and Serendia are ruled in law by the Republic of Calpheon no matter which guild holds their nodes, because the game's political map does not change.
Most of the world is a safe zone, where other players cannot attack you without your consent. A few of the harshest regions are not. The Valencian desert is lawless, and adventurers killed there as fugitives are jailed underground at the Roud Sulfur Mine. Two areas also switch the map off entirely — the Great Valencian Desert and the open ocean of Margoria — so travelers cross them by landmark, star and compass, and stock up before setting out.
Balenos is the game's starting region, a mild stretch of coast, forest and farmland in the west. The fishing village of Velia sits at its center, with the quiet town of Olvia to the north and Cron Castle on the cliffs above. Its monsters — imps, goblins and coastal beasts — are the weakest in the world, which makes it the region where most new adventurers learn the game.
Full article: Balenos
Serendia lies east and south of Balenos: rolling hills, farmland, mines and a large swamp. Heidel, built into a rock face, is its capital and the first real city most adventurers reach. Serendia was once an independent kingdom, but it now answers to the Republic of Calpheon, and the resentment that arose from that shows up throughout the region's quests.
Full article: Serendia
Calpheon is the largest of the western regions and the seat of the republic that shares its name. The city of Calpheon is the world's political and commercial center. Around it sit the mining town of Keplan, the timber town of Trent, the flower village of Florin and the port of Epheria, which handles most western sea traffic. Its outer edges are far less settled, taking in dark forests, the ruins at Hexe Sanctuary and the desolate cliffs of Star's End.
Full article: Calpheon
Mediah is the arid highland region northeast of Calpheon, reached through a long mountain pass. Altinova, its walled capital, is the great trading city of the east and the natural base for adventurers who have outgrown Calpheon. The surrounding country is rougher than anything to the west: abandoned mines, shrine ruins, the fortified Helms Post and the pirate-held Sausan Islands off the coast.
Full article: Mediah
Valencia is the desert kingdom that gives the game its name, and it is the single largest region on the map. Valencia City stands at its heart, with the oasis stop of Shakatu, the Sand Grain Bazaar and the port at Ancado Inner Harbor scattered across the sands around it.
The Great Valencian Desert, which fills most of the region, is the most hostile place in the world. The map does not work inside it, days are scorching and nights freezing, and adventurers need water, food and a warm cloak to cross safely. It is also lawless, so other players can attack without warning.
Full article: Valencia
Kamasylvia is the forest homeland of the elves, southwest of Calpheon and roughly the size of the Calpheon region itself. Grána, built among the branches of the Old Wisdom Tree, is its capital, and the Navarn Steppe, the Valtarra Mountains and the Manshaum Forest fill out the country around it. It arrived in September 2017 and was completed by a second part that November.
A darker mirror of the region, the Elvia Realm, was added later. It uses the same map with far stronger monsters and separate rewards.
Full article: Kamasylvia
Drieghan is the mountain country beyond Mediah, known as the land of dragons and described by Pearl Abyss as the ancestral home of the dwarves. Its capital, Duvencrune, sits in a high alpine valley, and the region's harder ground includes the Sherekhan Necropolis, the Blood Wolf Settlement and the Tshira Ruins. Its best-known resident is Garmoth, the crimson dragon, a world boss added with the region in November 2018.
Full article: Drieghan
O'dyllita is the home of the Ahib, the dark elves who broke away from Kamasylvia long ago. Its black-stone city, O'draxxia, sits behind the Thornwood Forest, and the region's monster zones — Tunkuta, Olun's Valley and the forest itself — were built for adventurers at the top of the gear curve. It opened in October 2020.
Full article: O'dyllita
The Mountain of Eternal Winter rises south of Drieghan under permanent snowfall. Frostbite is a real hazard here: adventurers who stay out in the cold too long take a draining debuff and must warm themselves to shake it off. Murrowak's Labyrinth, a flooded iron mine, and the Jade Starlight Forest are its main hunting grounds, and the region's rarest reward is Labreska's Helmet. It reached Korea in December 2021, the rest of the world in April 2022 and consoles in August 2024.
Full article: Mountain of Eternal Winter
Ulukita, called the Exalted Land, is an extension of southern Mediah rather than a separate country, and it is built almost entirely for end-game combat. It holds four hunting grounds: the City of the Dead, Tungrad Ruins, Darkseekers' Retreat and Yzrahid Highlands. Each rewards players who trigger the region's Essence of Ulukita buff by using the right skill at the right moment. It arrived on PC in August 2023 and on consoles in July 2025.
Full article: Ulukita
The Land of the Morning Light is the only region that is not on the main continent. It lies across the northern sea on Haso, behind the trade town of Port Ratt, and is the homeland of the Musa, Maehwa and Lahn classes.
The region draws on Korea's Joseon period, and Pearl Abyss built it in cooperation with around twenty Korean institutions, including the National Museum of Korea. Its bosses come from Korean folk tales and are fought at chosen difficulty levels in the Black Shrine. The region opened in June 2023, and a further expansion in September 2024 added a version of the old capital, Hanyang.
Full article: Land of the Morning Light
Edania, the Demon Realm, is the newest region, released on PC in August 2025 and on consoles that November. It is aimed squarely at veterans: the main questline, The Society of Equilibrium, requires a character at level 60 or above, and an Edania Adventure Log splits into seven branching storylines.
Its three areas — the Azure Battlefield, Nymphamaré Castle and Orbita Castle — each hold a regional boss. Defeating one earns the right to compete for the Throne of Edana, a weekly free-for-all between the ten strongest contenders.
Pearl Abyss announced a second part at its Heidel Ball event in California in July 2026. Edania Part 2 brings the game's first great story arc to a close, drawing together the figures of Elion, Agris and Aal. Its regions and bosses are due in August 2026, with the main quests following in September.
Full article: Edania
The ocean is a region in its own right. Margoria, the sea north of the continent, opened to western players in January 2017 and turned sailing into a full branch of the game. There are ships to build and crew, sea monsters such as Hekaru to hunt and the world boss Vell to bring down, with Oquilla's Eye as a waypoint in open water. As in the desert, the map goes dark once land is out of sight.
Later updates pushed further out. The Great Ocean added bartering between island villages, a slow chain of trades that turns cheap goods into valuable ones, along with the more distant waters of the Ross Sea and Papua Crinea.
Full article: Margoria
The dates below are for the global PC service. Korea usually received each region a few months earlier, and console versions arrived later still.
| Region | Added |
|---|---|
| In the game at launch | |
| 2015 | |
| 2016 | |
| January 2017 | |
| September 2017 | |
| November 2018 | |
| October 2020 | |
| April 2022 | |
| June 2023 | |
| August 2023 | |
| August 2025 |
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