I think the main reason why we are where we are is because of the lifeskill ranking system. Early on we set our main goal to be at the top of the lifeskill rankings. Character and Guild wise. This was the spark that kept us going and persevered until we reached it! We did reach that goal and held it for 2 years. We had a slow start but grew with having a core community that supported each other in their endeavours. Doing lifeskill centered guild activities like whale-and khalk hunting kept the fun in.

I don't really know lol. I think it was mainly by me streaming and people seeing the positivity and coziness that many guilds do not have.   

No pressure or judgment, just a willingness to learn. 

When Life started, we had a good player base to kick-start the guild. We were around 20 members that migrated together from our previous guild. The first couple of months of Life were very rough. There was too much to be done in too little time. I remember how many sleepless nights I had especially when everyone was an apprentice and I was the only one able to take guild quests (maybe a suggestion to adjust the apprentice system for newly made guilds). I skipped my sleep for those 2 weeks and survived on power naps (don't try this at home) until my friends ended up doing an intervention to stop me. Seeing how it all paid off when we ended up on the top rankings within 3 months of creation and we claimed our #1 on our 1 year anniversary, it was all worth it.

We started as a Sailing guild, but after that content was fundamentally changed the guild started to accommodate for more than just sailing content. There was a brief period where we acted as a kind of "reserve" / Ingenium waiting list guild, but those days were very short lived. Slowly but surely we became more well known as a friendly, helpful, and casual lifeskill/PvE guild! 

We have worked hard to make everything in the guild work and to be a pleasant place for all of our cubs. The biggest spark for me to make this guild work was to try and create a safe place for lifeskillers while nurturing that bit of competiteveness and hunger for greatness. We are not only a BDO guild. We are a community and we have sprouted forever lasting friendships and even relationships within our guild. We chill in discord and enjoy our time together just doing other stuff as well.

We originally made it up to Medium and didn't really think to do much more than that. Then Calise hurled us into a guild recruitment event from which I'm still nursing scars. It was so hectic! But we took off after that, and we decided we really enjoyed having an active playerbase. It just makes the BDO grind a lot more enjoyable. So we try to keep our roster at least somewhat active, and discourage those who are only afk-active, to give ourselves and our players that important level of interaction. And as our officers like to point out, "Calypso #1 Community Guild!"

I founded the guild because I needed a fresh start, I had just sold my gear for the last bid event at the time and had to start the progression from scratch.  The guild was called Synthesia at the time, but we changed it in the fall of 2021 because of the guild ranking order. It froze at 2000 points, and the second criteria was the alphabetical order of the guild name.  After several tests of the Black Desert naming system, it turns out that A00 has priority over all other names. 

There's two ways to answer this question for us! The first, and most important one, would be that we became a fairly well known guild that's generally seen in a positive light! We've created a friendly and helpful community that a lot of people feel is their home. I would say that's something quite unique! The second being the fact that we, as a casual guild, managed to win a Siege on the Balenos territory! We were just dabbling in the PvP content for fun and we managed to have a crown over our heads while we were fishing for Koibois! 

Our biggest accomplishment, I would say, is that we reached and kept our goal of leading all lifeskill rankings for over 2 years pretty consistently.  

  

On top of that, seeing our guildies and ex guildies help other lifeskillers in the BDO community from answering questions in the game itself, to making whole websites and spreadsheets to help figure out lifeskilling.

  

We aim to support our guildies in their BDO progress. Mainly through lifeskilling of course. But we have all sorts of content lovers. There's always someone to give advice no matter what the type of content is. We try to offer members everything we can as a guild to help them, for example weekly Khan and Guildbosses, and to just be a fun place to hang out.

I think that would be the day we overtook the #1 lifeskill guild position and currently we are trying to claim #1 on all 11 lifeskills. I remember, during that day, I went through our #announcement channel, having a look at all we have been through. I could see the story of the guild as I scrolled down. I remembered old friends that left us. I remembered how I met new friends that became closer than I had thought they would. I remember having tears in my eyes looking at the fruits of all of our efforts in front of us. Despite all of the attacks and discouragements that we had and still have, we made it.

Another proud moment I had was last year when PA distributed Garmoth scrolls to guilds. (I don't recall the circumstances). I remember we had almost 50 members attending. It felt so warm to see the huge attendance that day. It was like looking at your child and admiring how much they grew.

That's a tough question! I would have to say the heavy duty packing cord for imperial boxes and the fact that we don't have to race someone at reset for the turn-ins.

I'm so glad that's not a thing anymore. 

Personally I would say that it feels fairly imbalanced to a lot of people. Not only is PvE content a better money maker 95% of the time, it also seems that at any given time there's one or two lifeskills that are "king" for a while, which then gets changed around. It's a bit like a cat and mouse game! In a more general sense I think most of the lifeskills are pretty well designed at the moment, especially hunting and bartering which are in a really good spot. I think trading could do with a rework, though.

We had some nice improvements to certain lifeskills recently. But there are still many lifeskills that feel lackluster or are outdated. So most people only stick to a few lifeskills and ignore the others sadly. For those that do all lifeskills it's more for a passion or for chasing ranks, not a way to make silver.

  

I would like to see alchemy, sailing, bartering and trading get some love as well. Maybe a shift in the lifeskilling meta would be a nice challenge.

   

A lot of lifeskills could do with some simple QoL changes that don't really affect silver or xp per hour, but would make doing that lifeskill just more pleasant. For example, changing the taming minigame, reducing the time for wild horse respawns, stackable farming seeds in inventory, harpooning from carrack, stackable fishing relics etc.   

  

An extra reason to keep pushing in a lifeskill would be a good addition. At G50 the only reason to keep doing that lifeskill is silver. Adding lifeskill treasure items would be motivating for those already at the top to keep going and for others to keep lifeskilling to eventually reach that top.

The expectation of the players is turned almost exclusively on the economic side of things, which unfortunately makes the lifeskill a part of the game excluded from the progression of the players because of the gear value which is more expensive than those of combat for a much weaker result and there are no mechanics such as Narchillian, Capotia jewels or NPC Jetina to be able to experiment lifeskills correctly without investing money which would be more useful elsewhere.  

That's hard to answer! Maybe an artist skill? Things we can paint and put in our residence and the higher the mastery the better furniture buff it gives. That or animal taming and breeding. 

1) Archaeology/Excavation lifeskill: From what the members suggested, we want a radar, compass or maybe a map combined with hints from NPCs. We will ride our horses or sail our boats around the world to find treasures such as antique manor furniture that give special buffs that can be sold on the market place and maybe some gold bars. Of course the good hard working adventurers that find the treasures will be rewarded with a good experience.

  

2) Taming: This idea started as a suggestion to adjust farming by adding animals to be collected (example sheep/deer/wolves), but instead it can be a whole new lifeskill where you go around the world and capture animals to take them to your manor. In your manor you could have certain “stats” that determine the growth speed of your herd of animals and you have to craft certain furniture to change those stats. You can capture bunnies, have a bunny farm, and add some carrot related furniture to the house that you refill with carrots. Then, you get to collect bunny meat from it after some time.

 

3) Other ideas that were thrown around were wine brewing or printing/writing to craft buff items (drinks and scrolls) or a carpenter to craft furniture.

I would love a relic hunter job, archaeology style. Too many lifeskills require you to be on a rotation, a sector or a residence, but not really to be in exploration mode.  I know that with the Lakiaros in Kamasylvia and Drieghan, as well as the fairy rifts, there are already random harvest point mechanics. Making a system to detect random harvesting points throughout the map based on crafting levels should not be impossible in Black Desert.

While many people say the combat of BDO is the main draw of the game, I actually think the part of the game that is by far done the best is lifeskilling. I hope Pearl Abyss realises that for many players lifeskilling is main content and don’t consider it sidecontent, and therefore will keep putting in effort to improve it and keep it relevant.  

   

As for players that never tried lifeskilling or only tried the main three (cooking/gathering/hunting), I recommend you try going outside the box. You may end up loving it. This current lifeskilling season is a good time to try it. If lifeskilling seems too daunting, there are enough content creators, Discords and websites to help you out.

I would like to thank PA for this opportunity and we really appreciate you looking at the players' (especially lifeskillers') opinions and feedback. And I want to send love to all the lovely people I have met on my 40 thousand hour journey in Black Desert. This community has the ability to be so nice and immersive<3

I would like to express my gratitude to the developers for working on the game. I know it's a thankless job and that it's not easy these days to keep a game alive for as long as you have. I would like them to know that, despite the fact that you can't please everyone, their effort doesn't go unnoticed. Black Desert isn't just a game. It's an MMORPG, which means it's a place where people come together and meet friends. I've met some great people because of this game, mainly in the Ingen community, and for that I will always be thankful. 

I love lifeskilling and providing either the materials or the crafted items to other players. It doesn't make the same money as grinding mobs but I've gotten to see more of the game looking for different ways to lifeskill. I suggest spending some time lifeskilling!
-Twighlite 

  

Lifeskill is not a PA top priority. The combat system here is one of a kind and great but these new lifeskill changes have really helped and we hope that the changes to come will maybe close the silver-per-hour gap between the top end grinding and end game lifeskilling. Giving lifeskillers some group content like duo hunting spots would be amazing. And we hope we can turn in delicacies/catalysts/other byproducts with Liana soon, PLEASE. And MORE WAYS to get Iridescent Pebbles PLEASE!!
- Rogue_Coffee  

  

ADD LIFE CHURCH BUFFS AND LIFESKILL CUPS
- Qiywi

As for myself, playing since release and seeing the breadth and quality of changes being made in Black Desert Online, in every aspect of it, is one of the main reasons I am still compelled to immerse myself in the game and work to improve in most areas of interest. Constant events, QoL improvements, system overhauls, and new content additions are what keep the game from feeling hollow over time. Thank you for that and please continue to show lifeskillers that they're appreciated and are included as part of the playerbase! Even if they DO get feisty and protective of their milk spots!