Black Desert/Maps
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Maps
the world map and how it is read
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The world map, showing nodes across the western regions From the Adventurer's Guide, Pearl Abyss
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| Form | A three-dimensional view, not a flat sheet |
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| Shows | Towns, nodes, hunting grounds and levels |
| Also shows | Weather and the time of day, as they happen |
| Navigation | Waypoints and automatic travel |
| Does not work in | The desert and the open ocean |
The world map of Black Desert is the interface an adventurer spends more time in than any other outside combat. It is not a drawing of the world so much as a model of it.
Rather than a flat sheet, the map is a three-dimensional view that can be turned and moved around. It carries live information as well as geography. The compass at its center shows the weather and the time of day as they actually are. Rain falls on the parts of the map where it is raining, and the sun and moon cross the circle around the character in real time.
That combination is why it doubles as a management screen. An adventurer plans a trade route, checks which nodes are connected and decides where to send workers here rather than anywhere else.
1 What it shows✎
The map distinguishes several kinds of place. Cities and towns offer the full range of services, trade posts a narrower one, and nodes are the production points an NPC manager sits at.
It also marks the dangerous ground. Monster zones, the gateways watching the frontiers and the recommended level for each area are all shown, so a player can see at a glance whether a stretch of country is worth entering yet.
Overlays control the rest. Quest markers, knowledge locations, gathering and fishing spots, transport and the Dark Rift can each be turned on or off, which keeps the map readable rather than buried in icons.
2 Finding things✎
Searching is built in, and the map searches nodes by name, crafted items by what produces them, and territories by which guild holds them, and selecting a result moves the view to it.
The map also points: translucent arrows around the character indicate nearby towns and more distant landmarks, and hovering over one names the place it points at.
3 Getting there✎
A destination is set by right-clicking it, which raises a pillar of light over the target and plots a route. The character then travels it automatically, and the behavior can be set separately for travel on foot, by mount and by boat.
Destinations can be shared as well as followed. A marker can be pinged to a party or to a guild, which is how groups coordinate without describing where they are in words.
4 Where the map fails✎
Two places switch it off. Inside the Great Valencian Desert and out on the Great Ocean the map stops guiding, and an adventurer navigates by landmark unless carrying a compass made for the purpose.
The restriction goes further than navigation. A character standing in either place cannot be moved by the family transfer that works everywhere else, so getting out is a matter of traveling out.