Suggestion: Rework entire Knowledge System

Details:

Hello everyone,

With the recent addition of Edana Knowledge entries, many completionists have noticed that the drop rates for certain knowledges are abysmally low. This has sparked a growing agreement among long-time players that the current system feels outdated and unrewarding, especially since some knowledge pieces can take hundreds of hours to obtain.

It’s also worth noting that the Knowledge System hasn’t received a proper rework since 2017, even though nearly every other part of the game has evolved since then.

Currently, knowledge is obtained purely through RNG rolls. Each monster has a small chance to grant knowledge upon defeat, and that knowledge is randomly assigned a grade (C, B, A, A+, or S). For some monsters, the drop rate is already extremely low — and getting an S-grade is even rarer.

The system works like this:

1. The game rolls to determine if you obtain any knowledge at all.

2. If successful, it performs another roll to decide which grade you receive.
   
   

This formula has remained unchanged since 2016, while nearly every other aspect of the game has evolved, became more player-friendly, or introduced pity systems and progression mechanics. The only “update” the knowledge system ever received was the ability to overwrite existing knowledge by re-killing monsters. rather than having to manually delete each entry via the NPC at the Calpheon College Library.

Proposed Solution: Knowledge Pity System

Knowledge should receive a pity or progression system, similar to many other modern game mechanics.

A possible implementation:

• A progress bar could appear below each monster’s AP display (see example table idea below).
• This bar would show how much progress the player has made toward a guaranteed knowledge upgrade (e.g., from C → B → A → A+ → S).
• RNG would still exist, allowing for lucky upgrades, but consistent grinding would ensure eventual progress.
  
  

  Proposed changes to the monster HP bar UI

Monsters that could particularly benefit from this include Lekrashan, Kvariak, and Erebjork — all of which are notoriously difficult for completionists to obtain knowledge from.

Knowledge Gear Progression

I also believe we could expand on knowledge progression through specialized gear and items.
This could include:

• Knowledge Artifacts
• Reforge Stones
• Crystals
• House Buffs
• A permanent “Book Slot” item that improves the chance of obtaining or upgrading knowledge, or contributes extra “progress” toward the next grade after the proposed rework.
  
  

Currently, most completionists rely heavily on limited events or buffs that temporarily increase knowledge gain or grade chance. Having permanent, progression-based options would make this aspect of the game more rewarding and enjoyable.

It would also provide new goals to pursue, instead of spending countless hours farming the same monsters over and over just for a minuscule chance at a knowledge upgrade that, realistically, provides no tangible gameplay benefit aside from completionist pride.

UI Rework

The Knowledge Management UI is still using the old graphical interface from before the 2018 UI update — making it the only remaining system in the game that hasn’t been visually refreshed.

• The main UI update occurred in October 2018, with another overhaul around March 2020, but the Knowledge Management interface has remained exactly the same since release.

  	Equipment UI	Knowledge Management UI
  UI 2016 - 2018
  UI 2018 - 2020
  UI 2020 - today

This interface should be modernized and simplified.

Proposed Improvements

• Allow players to delete or manage knowledge directly from the “H” menu, without needing to go to the Calpheon College NPC.
• The Knowledge (“H”) menu itself should be reworked for better readability and usability.
  
  

Currently, this menu is cluttered, outdated, and difficult to navigate. Many categories are so overfilled that the UI becomes broken or unreadable. For example, the Manufacture category contains an enormous number of entries, making it nearly impossible to browse.

If the current UI structure were to remain, it will need additional subcategories to organize information properly.

Intended UI look	Actual UI categories

The new “H” menu could also display useful stats such as:

• Total energy gained from knowledge
• Active buffs affecting knowledge gain or monster ecology
• Completion percentages per region or category
  

Unobtainable Knowlege issue

There are still several unobtainable knowledge entries in the game, entries that either can’t be earned anymore or were never made available in the first place.
Example knowledge being First mate one even with the fact that actual First Mates are in game already but for whatever reason knowledge about them is locked without ever beeing released, yet Character category still remains white even if all Sub-categories are completed and Blue.

For a system that encourages exploration, discovery, and completion, having permanently locked or missing knowledges completely breaks the purpose of progression. Players spend countless hours chasing 100% completion, only to find that some entries are impossible to obtain, regardless of effort.

This should not be acceptable in a game that values achievement and discovery.

Every knowledge entry currently listed in the “H” menu should be obtainable in-game, either through proper mechanics, quests, or new content additions.

Making all knowledge accessible would not only fix completion barriers but also restore meaning to the knowledge and ecology systems as true measures of exploration and dedication.

Additinally Quest Obtained Knowledges that require players to re-run whole questline just for another attemp of knowledge should also be obtainable after completing the quest via NPC that gave us the knowledge in the given quest and not require player to run through example, Land of the Morning Light Questline on 30 different characters just to get one RNG roll per character to obtain one of the knowledges on the bosses. This is very big oversight that makes knowledge grind boring and tiresome in a lot of aspects.

Current Unobtainable entries include:
- Characters -> First Mate category
- Adventure logs -> Star's End Adventure Logs -> Altar of Blood category
- Adventure logs -> Hidden logs -> Forbidden Love category
- Adventure logs -> Hidden logs -> Roxanne's Curse (King Domongatt category)
- Learning the Ropes of Black Desert -> Fughar's Secret Method category
- Learning the Ropes of Black Desert -> Luis Pollak's Memories category

Possible Treasure Item

Given the massive time investment required to obtain all of the knowledge entries and S-grades, it would be fitting to introduce a special treasure-type reward for reaching major milestones.

For example:

• Reaching 11,000 total knowledge entries could grant one treasure piece.
• Reaching 12,000 Ecology Points could grant another.
  
  

These items could combine into a unique treasure item that provides small but meaningful buffs related to knowledge progression, without being game-breaking.

Possible buffs could include:

• Knowledge Obtain Chance
• Knowledge Grade Chance
• Amity Gain Buff
• Energy Recovery Rate Buff
  
  

Even if the buffs had long cooldowns or minor effects, such an item would be a perfect reward for completionists who dedicate immense time to knowledge collection.

(The treasure item idea is just that, an idea, it could potentially be any kind of different item we could obtain, my suggestion is only to give some kind of reward for the hard work completionsts do to discover every part of this game)

Final Thoughts

The Knowledge System has long been one of the most neglected yet beloved aspects of Black Desert. For completionists, it represents curiosity, exploration, and dedication, but in its current state, it’s outdated, RNG-heavy, and unrewarding.

A rework would not only modernize this system but also breathe new life into exploration and monster hunting, giving players more meaningful long-term goals and a fairer sense of progression.