Black Desert/Bartering
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Bartering
the trade of the sea
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An island settlement of the kind barterers work from Detail from the Adventurer's Guide, Pearl Abyss
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| Type | Life skill |
|---|---|
| Practiced | On the islands north of the continent |
| Requires | A ship rated for the Great Ocean |
| Opened from | The Life menu, under Barter |
| Spent | Parley, and barter refreshes |
| Pays in | Crow Coins and ship materials |
| Feeds | Sailing and ship upgrades |
| Related | Trading, the land equivalent |
Bartering is the sea trade of Black Desert, a life skill in which an adventurer sails between the islands north of the continent and exchanges goods with the merchants stationed there.
Nothing is bought or sold for silver in the exchange itself. Each barterer wants a particular item and offers a better one for it, so the activity is a chain of trades rather than a series of purchases.
The chain exists to pay for ships, and what comes out of it at the top buys the hulls, parts and enhancement materials that make ocean travel possible. Bartering therefore funds sailing rather than making money on its own.
1 How it works✎
An adventurer loads a ship with land goods — things gathered, cooked or processed on the mainland — and sails to a barterer. That first exchange turns land goods into the lowest grade of sea goods, and every exchange after it trades a lower grade for a higher one.
The grades run from the first level to the fifth, and the fifth is where the chain ends. Level four and five goods are exchanged for Crow Coins, the currency the whole activity produces.
Each barterer accepts only certain items, and the Barter window lists what every island wants and offers. The window is reached from the Life menu, and a search tool inside it finds which island carries a given item.
2 Limits✎
The activity is deliberately rationed, which is why it rewards planning rather than time spent.
Every exchange costs Parley, a pool that has to be managed across a voyage. The number of trades per barter is capped as well: the first four levels allow ten exchanges each, while level five allows six near shore and only four out in the Great Ocean.
The routes themselves reset on a refresh that an adventurer triggers manually. Refreshes are limited to a small number each day, with a couple of hours required between them, and a Value Pack raises that allowance. Refreshing also restores Parley, so the two limits move together.
3 Routes✎
Not every island is available at the start; routes open as an adventurer completes barters, at set counts rather than at set skill levels, so the map of what can be traded widens with practice.
Material barters unlock the same way, exchanging goods for the components used in ship parts and upgrades rather than for coins. They are the reason a serious barterer keeps sailing after the coin routes are established.
4 What it pays for✎
Crow Coins buy ship upgrades and items sold nowhere else. Material barters and the lower grades supply Tidal Black Stones, the material ships are enhanced with.
Together those feed a progression of three vessels, of which the Bartali Sailboat is the first able to reach the barter islands and the Epheria Sailboat is the working upgrade. The Carrack ends the line, and it takes a considerable quantity of Tidal Black Stones to reach.
There is a shortcut: a seven-day quest line given by Ravinia lowers what the first upgrades demand. That is the usual route for an adventurer who wants a serviceable ship without committing to the full chain.