Black Desert/Hunting
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Hunting
the matchlock trade
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| Type | Life skill |
|---|---|
| Practiced | In the wild, and at sea |
| Requires | A matchlock, and a butcher knife for the carcass |
| Quarry | Deer, boar, bear, wolf, lion, elephant and goat |
| Cooperative targets | Blue whales and fugitive khalks |
| Yields | Meat, hides, trophies and rare crafting material |
| Supplies | Cooking and alchemy |
| Related | Gathering, which does the butchering |
Hunting is the shooting of wild animals in Black Desert, a life skill that needs a weapon nothing else in the game uses.
Ordinary swords and axes barely scratch a hunting animal. The work is done with a matchlock, a slow single-shot firearm that has to be reloaded between shots, which makes hunting feel unlike any other combat in the game.
It is also the only life skill with genuine boss fights. Whales and khalks are hunted by parties rather than individuals, and the largest of them are among the few targets in the game that a lone adventurer simply cannot take.
1 The matchlock✎
The matchlock is equipped like a weapon and fired a shot at a time, with a reload between each. Crouching extends the range and speeds the reload, so a hunter who takes the time to settle before firing does considerably better than one who does not.
Matchlocks come in grades from beginner up to master. Each grade needs a higher hunting level than the last and is built from crafted materials, so the weapon improves alongside the skill rather than being bought outright.
2 What is hunted✎
The ordinary quarry is land animals. Deer, boar and bear in the Balenos mountains are where most hunters start, and lions, elephants, wolves, foxes and goats are scattered through Valencia, Kamasylvia and Drieghan.
The water holds larger things. Humpback whales and freshwater crocodiles are taken from a boat, and both give a good deal more experience than anything on land.
3 Hunting bosses✎
Two targets are shared events rather than private kills. Blue whales surface in the coastal seas a few times a day on each channel, and fugitive khalks fly over land twice a day and have to be chased down on horseback.
Both are fought by many parties at once, and the reward is rationed accordingly: only the parties that contributed most are given the right to butcher the body. A blue whale returns molars, tendons, oil and meat, and those feed some of the better accessories and elixirs in the game.
4 Butchering✎
Killing the animal is only half the job. A carcass has to be worked with a butcher knife before it gives anything up, and that step is what returns both the materials and the hunting experience.
Better knives cut faster and last longer. Most animals give meat and hides, and some give a trophy head, which can be mounted in a residence for a lasting buff rather than sold.
5 Mastery✎
Hunting mastery raises how much a carcass returns and how often something rare comes out of it. It also loosens the weapon requirement, since sufficient mastery allows certain matchlocks to be used regardless of hunting level.
At high mastery the skill produces wildsparks as a byproduct, which are exchanged for enhancement materials and contribution experience rather than sold.