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Sailing ships, crews and the open water i
Type	Life skill
Practiced	At sea, on the Great Ocean
First ship	The Bartali Sailboat, bought at Velia
Crew	Sailors, hired on contract and assigned to stations
Upgraded with	Material won through bartering
Governed by	Wind, and the set of the sails
Combat skills	Ram, Focus Fire and Power Acceleration
Related	Bartering, which pays for the ships

Sailing is the seamanship of Black Desert, the life skill covering ships, the crews that work them and the ocean they cross.

It is the only life skill that needs a vehicle before it can begin. An adventurer has to own a boat, and improving that boat is most of what the skill amounts to, which ties sailing tightly to bartering, the activity that supplies the material.

The sea is also the largest empty space on the map. Crossing it is slow, the water holds monsters that a land character cannot handle, and a ship that sets out underprepared does not come back.

The progression starts small. The Bartali Sailboat is bought outright from a shipwright at Velia and is the first vessel able to leave the coast at all.

Above it sit the Epheria Sailboat and the Epheria Frigate, which are built or bought rather than sold from a stall, and which divide roughly into a trader and a fighter. The Epheria Carrack and its variants are the end of the ordinary progression, and the Panokseon, brought in with the Land of the Morning Light, is a vessel of its own kind.

Improving a ship means fitting it with gear and enhancing that gear. The material comes almost entirely from bartering, which is why the two skills are usually practiced together rather than separately.

A ship of any size needs a crew. Sailors are hired against a contract certificate bought at a port, and they are not cheap, so a full crew is a serious investment on top of the hull.

Where a sailor is stationed decides what they contribute. The sail station doubles their endurance and wits, the wheel doubles awareness and strength, and the cannon doubles focus, force and vision, so the same sailor is worth different things in different places. Deck and mess positions add durability and rations instead.

Crews wear down. A sailor's condition falls over a long voyage and is restored with food carried for the purpose, while one that falls ill needs proper medicine rather than a meal. Sailors also improve with use, gaining experience from bartering runs and from fighting sea monsters.

Three first mates are distinctive individuals rather than hired hands, recruited through quest lines and carrying bonuses no ordinary sailor has.

The wind is a real force rather than scenery. A ship sailing with the wind and its sails set runs noticeably faster than one fighting it, so a route that looks direct on the map is not always the quickest.

Rising sailing level unlocks handling and combat abilities. Power Acceleration gives a burst of speed, Ram turns the hull itself into a weapon, and Focus Fire concentrates the ship's guns. Together they make a well-sailed ship a match for what lives in the water.

• Black Desert
• Life Skills
• Bartering
• Great Ocean
• Margoria
• Home

• Sailing and Bartering — Adventurer's Guide
• Sailing — Black Desert Wiki (Fandom)