So I'm enjoying the game, my Zerk is lvl 43ish and im progressing well.  

-How do I use the chat function?!? Can't figure out how to talk to anyone outside of /General people right next to me.

- Mounts they seem useless...like they are slower than running....should i invest any time into them.

- I'm a pvp oriented player and tried Red Battlefield last night, got completely obliterated.  I'm assuming i should turn gfx settings to minimum, so I can actually see something.

- Can i get into the Teir one Guild fight thing immediately at 60?  

- I'm not planning on buying anything, just planning on grinding silver for this guy casually....what is with pets?  And why did I read I need them to grind?

Thanks in advance

- For chat, I am assuming you are not in a guild.  You can whisper to an individual by selecting "Whisper" beside the chat typing area, typing in their character or family name.  Other options are there as well, such as world, guild, and chat group (if you are in those).

- What Tier is your horse?  T1-4 are quite slow, especially at lower levels.  T5+ are quicker, and get faster as you level them up.

- At lvl 43, you are really low for doing pvp content such as RBF.  But it will come in time and with better gear.

- T1 nodes are likely similar issue to RBF for you right now.  You could probably have a guild take you to one at lvl60, but don't expect to be able to do much fighting.  A friendly guild will likely take you and you can run some of the defence gear, but you wouldn't likely be able to do much actual fighting outside of that without basically insta-dying.

- Pets make it easier to grind as they pick up the loot for you.  Otherwise you have to stop at each monster you kill and grab the loot yourself.  You can have up to 5 out at a time, and if you just keep playing the game and quests, you will likely have more than that within a few months.  There is some pay-for-convenience within the game, but you can accomplish alot without spending real world money if you have time and patience.

As a word of advice, find a good, friendly guild to join.  They can walk you through a lot of this stuff, give you advice on what gear to do and train you on how to use your class.

Thanks for the response.  I was refering to pvp at 60, the leveling is so fast, I'm expecting to be 55+  by the weekend.

-It seems like mounts require some time investment, so i'm not sure I care enough to do them.

- Ahh pets pick up loot!  That's kinda cool!  Although I'm a Giant and probably won't run around with 5pets out because thats....not for me.

-  I'm to casual for most guilds so I'm planning on lvl capping and just trying to farm silver i guess....because apparently thats how you get gear.

-  I guess I won't be able to compete in pvp for a long time?   We'll see how it goes.

Thanks again for your time!

- For mounts, you get a free T5 (I think) just after the Calpheon quest completes.  Just ride it around.  It will be a bit slow initially, but will speed up as it levels up.  You can do AFK training if you want, but you don't really have to worry about it too much.  Also, if you have a season character, you can trade in 30 of the snowflowers? for a manos riding crop.  That will speed up your horses as well (if it is worth getting for you vs the other things you can trade those for).

- If you aren't running all 5 pets, you will be missing out on a lot of silver.  As you either have to skip grabbing loot, or have to stop and grab each pile manually, which slows down your grind.  If you don't want to see them, I think there is an option to turn off displaying them in the game settings.

- There are guilds that take more casual players, a lot of life-skiller guilds tend to do that.  Some of the pvp-oriented guilds also take on casuals or newbies so we can train them, and get numbers up for doing guild missions.  We've got a few casuals in ours right now.  They can also help you level and gear faster, so you would be able to get into pvp sooner.  We can get you to 56/57 in about 1 hour, 60 is doable in under a day.

Ahh Cool, a free mount is right up my Alley!  And I can hide pets!  Perfect!  I think i already have 2...   

So the leveling slows down then 55+? ok thats fine.  I might take you up on the guild offer, really it would help me to learn my way around.

Thanks kindly again for the insight, I appreciate it

The leveling slows down at 55-56 if you are going solo and doing the story line. If you are running all the possible xp buffs like 530 scrolls, daily hot time scrolls for 200%, there is even a hottime event going on for 1000% xp during certain times. You could definitely hit level 60 in an hour or less if you have a guild that will help you level. There is no level cap though and it isnt required for most aspects of the game past level 60. 

As far as mounts go, yes you can get a t5 for free with the questline and it comes with instant accel, it wont be the fastest horse but it will help you get by. (But zerker running can be quite a bit faster than a t5) We did recieve alot of shining shakatu seals for the transfer and if you are willing and have 50 of them you can trade those in for a t8 horse that comes with S: Instant Accel. Its going to be around the fastest you can get until you are ready for dream horses in the future. 

While pvp is gear and level related there are certain ways around that. Seasonal characters will allow you to pvp on certain open world channels with other seasonal characters and there are even RBF instances for those types of characters, everyone starts fresh each season. So if you create one at the beginning of the season and work on your gear there you will be able to compete with others that are doing the same thing. 

The 2nd way for some pvp fun are trial characters, you can create those in the character creation menu. It is a tab on the top right of your screen in that menu. That character comes with level 60, and all the skill points you could ever want. The gear for it can be bought at the vendor in the battle arena for 1 silver and it is viable to practice or fight most people in any battle arena. Alot of the people in those will also use trial characters to practice or try out new classes. 

I would also recommend joining a beginner friendly guild. While there are several ambassadors around now due to the server transfer like myself who will always be more than happy to answer any of your questions. Having people you can rely on in game for information or any kind of in game help is fantastic and makes the game alot more fun. 

If you have any other questions about any other aspect of the game, please feel free to contact any of the ambassadors in the black desert official discord for a more immediate response or you can dm me in game or on discord. 

My family name is ChefDaemon and I am usually around. My discord is also Daemon#6790

Welcome to Black Desert Online and I hope you continue to have fun!

Awesome guys, thanks for the responses!  Level 50 already after a few days of playing!  

So my Zerk is 55 and I gotta say, I really enjoyed the leveling. 

-Very streamlined, I'm not sure how to check /played, but I don't think it took more than 8 hours.  I know there a sharp curve +55 but I can see myself getting it easily.

- Finally had a chance to try Red Battlefield and some arena on my Zerk and a trial Archer.

- Everyone is warping around and I can barely see what is happening, before I instantly die from who knows what.

-. Turn all my settings down and everyone looks like a muppet, but no real difference.

-. I'm reading there are optimization issues..... especially in pvp with lower speeds....

-. I'm running on a 20mbps connection....I'm assuming this means I won't really be able to pvp at all?

That would be unfortunate....I'm going to look for work arounds.

Any responses are helpful!

You can view how long each character has been logged in by pressing "P", all of your character details are in there.

For RBF, some of that depends on who all is in there at the moment.  If everyone is higher level, and using classes that are jumping in and out, it could look like that, and you would die quickly if you don't know what you are doing.  You can try jumping into the battle arena and just asking in general chat if anyone would be interested in sparring with you so you can practice, get used to how pvp works before jumping into the fire.

Yeah its really not anything but an optimization issue as far as I can tell.  I've read up on the fps issues within pvp here on the forums.

Unfortunately pvp is my main interest, and if its unplayable, well...

Maybe in the future they can work it out.  For now I am out, but I did enjoy the gameplay immensely.