Outfits & Costumes
Last Edited on : Oct 11, 2024, 14:05 (UTC)
In Black Desert, alongside normal equipment, there are outfits and costumes that change the visual appearance of your characters and may grant you additional benefits.
When looking at your character's equipment window (hotkey: I), you can see that the equipment slots (outer circle) and the appearance slots (inner circle) are separate.
When you equip an outfit or a costume, and you also have a normal equipment piece equipped for the same body part slot, only the outfit or costume will be visible by default.
Outfit? Costume?
Both outfits and costumes can be equipped in your equipment's appearance slots. While they may offer special effects, they are mostly decorative and a great tool to visually distinguish your characters from those of other Adventurers.
An outfit is generally obtained in the Pearl Shop, though you may also receive them from events and gifts. All of them share individual item special effects that depend on the type of body slot they are for, and a set effect. The more outfit pieces you wear, the greater the benefits of the set effect. You do not need to wear all pieces from the same outfit set to receive the set effects.
Outfits can also be extracted at a blacksmith in a town. From the extraction, you can choose to obtain either Valks' cry or Cron stones.
Additionally, outfit armor pieces can be enhanced with a black spirit's claw to create a magic crystal socket on them, unlocking an additional magic crystal slot.
➤ For outfits obtained outside the Pearl Shop, please check the [Special Outfits] page.
As for costumes, there are two types. Those you can obtain from the Pearl Shop, called functional costumes, and those you can craft yourself, called non-functional costumes.
The ones in the Pearl Shop, such as the treant camouflage set or the canape set, grant you useful special effects when worn. For example, a splat fisher's clothes set will allow you to swim faster, and give you a small bonus for fishing. A da-dum da-dum diving suit set lets you dive for longer. The canape and pavilla costume sets allow you to perform cooking and alchemy at a faster rate.
Meanwhile, the ones you can craft yourself can only be obtained via a process described in the section Costume Exchange below.
They give less special effects, cannot be extracted for Valks' cry or Cron stones, and cannot be sold once obtained. On the other hand, they can be heated to obtain special ancient spirit's crystals which can then be infused with the magic crystal slot socket you unlock for an outfit armor piece.
Costume Exchange
Unlike costumes and outfits, generally obtained from the Pearl Shop, crafted equipment usually goes into normal equipment slots. However, some of these can be turned into costumes that can be equipped in appearance slots. Make sure to check the tooltip of these crafted pieces of equipment to see if they can be turned into costumes or not! If you find a piece of armor that you would like to turn into a costume, you will need an equipment tailoring coupon. These can be obtained in the Pearl Shop, the Central Market, or from events.
Right click an equipment tailoring coupon in your pearl inventory, and select the armor you want to turn into a costume.
Please keep in mind that only a select number of equipment pieces can be turned into costumes. You can find the list in the equipment tailoring coupon tooltip.
Please keep in mind that only a select number of equipment pieces can be turned into costumes. You can find the list in the equipment tailoring coupon tooltip.
The costume made using the coupon keeps the original item effects the crafted armor had. In addition, the costume gains a new item effect. These can also be found in the equipment tailoring coupon tooltip.
Black Spirit's Claw
You can create a magic crystal socket to infuse a crystal in when enhancing the armor worn in the armor appearance slot with a black spirit's claw. Wearing an outfit with this crystal socket unlocks the middle slot in Transfusion UI.This way, you can receive additional beneficial effects from magic crystals, and choose more diverse and strategically the crystals to be equipped in general equipment slots.
◈ Making Black Spirit's Claws
To craft this item, you need three black spirit's claw pieces. These in turn can be obtained by defeating monsters in several monster zones, such as Wandering Rogue Den in Mediah, Gahaz Bandits' Lair, Roud Sulfur Mine, and Pila Ku Jail in Valencia, and Padix Island at sea off the coast of Calpheon. Alternatively, you can purchase them from the Central Market if there are any on sale.
If you have obtained three pieces of a black spirit's claw, open "Yaz's Combinables Pouch" in your inventory 
and then move the items in here in a "ㅡ" shape. Once this is done, a "+" shape is displayed in the first of the items in the row.
If you click the "+" shape, the three pieces will disappear and a black spirit's claw will be created.
and then move the items in here in a "ㅡ" shape. Once this is done, a "+" shape is displayed in the first of the items in the row.If you click the "+" shape, the three pieces will disappear and a black spirit's claw will be created.
◈ Creating a Socket
A magic crystal socket is created by enhancing a non-functional outfit with a black spirit's claw.
Summon the black spirit (hotkey: , ), and select the Enhancement option.
Summon the black spirit (hotkey: , ), and select the Enhancement option.
This enhancement has a 100% success rate, and even if it succeeds, the accumulated enhancement chance will not be consumed.
The new crystal slot will be found in the center of your Magic Crystal Preset:
◈ Create Crystals to Equip
Not all crystals can be equipped in the outfit crystal slot you have now unlocked.
You need to go through a special process to craft an ancient spirit's crystal to infuse in this slot.
First, you need a non-functional costume, such as a Calpheon noble suit or dress. These can be purchased at the Central Market as normal armor equipment in the Crafted Clothes section, or can be made using workers at a town's costume mill.
If you want to craft it yourself, the costume mill must be at least level 2, and you will require a design blueprint. You can purchase the design from Calpheon's famed tailor, Merv, when your amity with her is 400 or higher.
➤ You can read more about town workshops in the [Crafting] page.
Once you have a Calpheon noble suit or dress ready, you can use an equipment tailoring coupon to exchange the armor piece for a costume. As said in the previous section, these coupons can be obtained from the Pearl Shop, the Central Market, or from events.
Right click the coupon in your pearl inventory, and select the Calpheon noble dress to exchange it for its costume iteration.
Please note that when exchanging equipment this way, the existing clothes in the normal inventory will disappear, and a new Calpheon noble costume will be created in the pearl inventory.
Finally, if you heat the Calpheon noble costume through processing (hotkey: L), you will obtain an ancient spirit's crystal - swiftness. This, when infused, will increase your movement speed by +2.
Note that other costumes may give you different crystals, depending on each costume's special effect. For example, a shroud knight armor (costume), when heated, will be turned into an ancient spirit's crystal - viper, which when infused will grant you +1 attack speed & casting speed.
◈ Infusing Crystals
First, open your inventory (hotkey: I) and press the Crystals button at the bottom. Right click the ancient spirit's crystal you have obtained, and add it to your crystal inventory.
Then, equip the outfit with the socket, which unlocks the outfit crystal slot.
After this, summon the Black Spirit (hotkey: , ), and select the Transfusion option.
Press the empty crystal slot in the middle, and select the ancient spirit's crystal from the list. All other options will be grayed out.
Then, equip the outfit with the socket, which unlocks the outfit crystal slot.
After this, summon the Black Spirit (hotkey: , ), and select the Transfusion option.
Press the empty crystal slot in the middle, and select the ancient spirit's crystal from the list. All other options will be grayed out.
Once this is done, your outfit magic crystal has been infused.
Please remember that unequipping the outfit piece with the crystal socket will gray out the outfit crystal slot, and you will lose its effects until you equip an outfit piece with the socket unlocked once again.
➤ You can read more about this feature in the [Magic Crystals] page.
* The content of the game guide may differ from the actual game content, depending on the update and content changes.