What's up everyone, Teddy from the Twighlite Family over on NA here with something I normally don't do. For everyone that knows me, knows I LOVE Lifeskilling in the game. For those who don't however, Lifeskilling has always been a great way to relax in Black Desert. From 2016 when I started playing to 2024 Lifeskilling has seen a TON of changes: some that were good and a LOT of nerfs.

This is not going to be a post about just increasing the Silver we can make which is the NOT the solution but rather point out the flaws and give some suggestions on making Lifeskilling fun. I'll try to be brief and not TOO in depth with this but if you just wanna listen to some points videos are down below :D

Lifeskill Levels

Starting off is the general Lifeskill Levels. Back in 2016 to 2018 these were the ONLY thing Lifeskillers had to really worry about which was fine. Most of the skills relied off of the level with Master or Guru offering end game content we could tackle once we invested all the time into. Now, with the introduction of Mastery A LOT of the lifeskill levels are meaningless and with every update. Take Fishing for example

Hitting Guru used to be an endgame goal JUST for the hotspot fishing and the Harpoon Fish. This was one of the reasons why I tried so hard to hit Guru Fishing but then the nerfs came to Fishing lower in the form of Mastery. On paper and the tooltip Mastery looks great but once you start fishing you quickly realize at +3 you'll find 1 Ghost Whale every 2 to 4 hours and the price of the ghost whale is abysmal. Prize fishing out in Margoria is no better with % not helping any leaving only AFK fishing during the events that were added AFTER the nerf to make Fishing "Feel Alive".. This was done for almost all the Lifeskills already WITH Trading being removed*

There's no longer "endgame" or Guru Content to play around with every activity being made easier with other activities. This even includes how they'd rather extend the same thing from g51 onwards at some point down the line like how Gathering no longer needs underwater gathering for Coral Crystal being replaced with SMH (sea monster hunting) alchemy rare procs, and the worker sacks even with Mastery "increasing the chances of gathering rare drops" which leads into the next issue. 

Lifeskill Mastery

Lifeskill Mastery is a complete joke. Introduced back in 2018 Mastery was supposed to give Lifeskillers more to do in the game and progress with. In theory this was a great idea and I remember the Community excited for it... until the update dropped and we got to see all the different ways lifeskills were made into a silver sink.

A silver sink? Really..?

I know a lot of you will are ready to start typing out to mob grind or play a different game but why does one activity have to spend so much silver JUST to play that aspect of the game? Example: Tuvula is handed out Free, Boss Gear from Oasis, Costumes, and 95% of the login designed for combat gear while Lifeskilling has to spend 150 bil for 1 PEN Manos IF someone is either brave enough to take the 5% FIXED chance on wasting the 20 Concentrated Black Gems worth 10-20mil each and 25bil Accessory. Then, you find out you didn't need PEN accessories because all the new events and items added gives you 2.1k Mastery while still using the 2 TRI equalivant Manos that can't be enhanced like almost all the free PVE gear.

Is it really worth the Trillions for all PEN when a lot of the Lifeskills aren't benefiting from it? No, most of us consider TET to be the best and PEN a complete meme. This doesnt have to be the case though, take Processing for example. We should be able to speed up how fast we can process the materials opposed to the amount of materials instead. The amount can easily be moved to the Processing Stones or the clothes like Processing Success Rate.

But I get it, they've already made Processing OP with being able to Process things from your Storage and its thrown into the inventory or how the Fairy has a Processing Costume but that leads into the next issue. 

"Needing" Real Money

Where to begin... lets start back in 2016 with the Treants Camoflage added to the Pearl Shop that included that +2 Gathering or the Splat Fisher that increases Fishing Level. I remember when this was considered sooo pay2win that people refused to play the game, talk about it, and this hasn't exactly changed.

When you look at Lifeskilling compared to PVE or even PVP you start noticing a glaring problem with the Pearl Shop. Lifeskilling "requires" real money. And, I don't mean we HAVE to pay to participate but just to keep up with all the other Lifeskillers in the game or you feel left out. $40USD every month for 3 different buffs that are 90% pertaining to Lifeskilling, needing a hedgehog/llama, 1 or EACH costume (for some multiples), Fairies, storage, maids, etc. 

Why is it all everything Lifeskilling is locked behind a paywall? Shouldn't we be allowed to buy things off the central market? This doesnt mean there's nothing for Lifeskilling from the Pearl shop on the Central Market but for most of the items its like trying to buy an PS5 and settling for a PS2: it plays games but theres better.

Solutions?

A quick solution could be changing some of the redundant bonuses for better more "pay2win" for the money we spend for them or give us some in game alternative to it. A great concept was the Artifacts and Lightstone Combinations being able to be right under some of the Costumes or in some cases better but falls into the issue of everything being phased out. Anyone remember the Donkey Costumes... no? Well, that leads into another problem.

Shai is What Now?

Once upon a time back in 2019 PA revealed the Shai. This class was the only support class able to Mob Grind, Heal others, AND boasted an "aptitude for lifeskill activities like Alchemy and Gathering."

Cool, new class that can also be used as a lifeskiller but most went to Mob Grinding. What did Pearl Abyss do?

Thus mob grinding for the Shai was limited and forced to either reroll your class (and all the pearls spent on that toon) or lean into Lifeskilling that was nerfed to make less money while Mob Grinding Trash had the value increase after. PA made a class to nerf into being a niche class then nerfed the role. Its bad enough we're excluded from almost all costumes that comes out, gender locked while other classes has an opposite, and the ONLY class that has Lifeskilling skills.

Why not add Otters, Papu, the Bunny People, Turtles, Tiger, DWARVES, or ANYTHING to act like an opposite or even just its own Lifeskilling class this way the Shai doesn't have to be changed more for something thats being nerfed more?

In Closing

Lifeskilling needs more love instead of constant nerfing to always be JUST a hobby you do when you're bored. Being a lifeskiller went from a fun experience trying to get those Ranks to living from Central Market listing to Central Market listing like we're the lower class workforce of Black Desert which I mean come on! Its been YEARS since most Lifeskilling (not JUST Hunting) was profitable. Now its all based around how AFK you can make it and how much can you spend to make that 1bil hou....day.

This is NOT to say Lifeskilling hasn't had some major improvements for the new player base and some even for the veteran players but when the motivation and incentive to do anything is being unified or simplified which results in the values dropping and forces us Lifeskillers to go seek it out elsewhere. 10% of the playerbase or not, PA can we get some type of hug or something to help make Lifeskilling meaningful in some way?