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hey everyone welcome back so I don't
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know if you know this but I actually
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started playing Black Desert online all
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the way back in early 2016. this was
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during the beta testing for the Western
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release of that version of the game and
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let me tell you I played it a ton I sunk
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like a few hundred hours in in those
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first couple of months now since then it
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has been one of the many MMOs that I
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like to revisit from time to time
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jumping back in to just see what's new
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and in the case of BDO things have
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changed quite a bit over these past
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seven years while the base of the game
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had a lot that I really enjoyed between
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its combat the life skill system and the
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overall sandbox nature instead of being
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sort of on Rails guiding you through an
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experience it's kind of a game that once
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you've figured it out and got your
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bearings lets you just kind of do
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whatever you want a lot of times it
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meant grinding and engaging in the
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combat but since the combat's fun the
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grinding but in turn is also fun but
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anyways yes I played a lot of BDO and
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I've gone back to it over the years as
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well because there's a lot about it that
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I really enjoy however there were the
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same time and have been over the years
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some major pain points especially around
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the monetization and quality of life
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features that you felt like you had to
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pay for mainly that was a thing without
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spending extra oftentimes it sort of
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felt like you were at a bit of a
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disadvantage with things like the
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Looting carrying capacity and storage
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space well in addition to various other
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updates that have come to the game
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adding a bunch of new content continents
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and characters to play over the years
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they've also made some fairly big
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recently quality of life features now
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offering for free things that they used
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to charge for in the past which I just
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think has been like a major Improvement
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and step up for a game that already had
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stuff about it that I enjoyed so Pearl
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Abyss reached out recently wanting to
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sponsor a video they specifically
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basically just wanted me to talk about
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their most recent content update the
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land of the Morning Light tell people
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about it let them know what's up and I
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am going to do that I will get to the
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new stuff later in this video but
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frankly having Revisited the game again
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I'm I'm kind of just interested in
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talking about those changes and the
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improvements that have happened over the
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years almost as a PSA in case you have
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played BDO in the past or I've kind of
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shied away from BDO because I think the
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improvements they've made to quality of
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life for the low or no Spenders Beyond
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like the base cost of the game a really
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nice positive change a really good step
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in the right direction and a lot of this
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has happened after the shift of
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separating from cacao their previous
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publisher and pearl Abyss now kind of
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being just off on their own so before we
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talk about the new update let's talk
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about the stuff that was kind of a pain
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in the past but is much less so if not
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not a pain at all in the current state
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of the game so there were a few sort of
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pay for convenience things that cropped
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up or in the early days back when I
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first started playing those seven years
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ago and they were carried with the game
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throughout the years and those main some
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of the main issues revolved around the
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silver the inventory the pet system and
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the way the game handles costumes so for
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the silver side of things silver is the
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main currency in the game and how to
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weight associated with it and it was
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really really heavy so basically what
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would end up happening is that as you're
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out there grinding for gear and
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materials and stuff you're also
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accumulating silver and you want that
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silver because you need it it is that
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main base currency but it weighed a lot
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and it would fill up your carrying
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capacity very quickly and then once that
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capacity was full you basically could
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just barely move I mean it was like a
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massive encumbrance to you so the result
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was you would be constantly regularly
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going back to town to deposit the silver
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into your town storage or the other
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option was that you could buy a weight
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limit increase in the game's cash shop
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then also sort of along those same lines
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was the how the inventory system worked
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you had a set number of inventory spaces
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they would fill up with items and back
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then and through a lot of the lifespan
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there was just very little stacking of
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those items so sort of similar to the
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silver this means that your inventory
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would constantly be filling up as you're
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out there grinding which resulted in you
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having to go back a town to deposit
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stuff into your town storage or you
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could buy in the cash shop the inventory
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expansion stuff and then there was the
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pet system so the way pets work in this
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game is it's not just like a cute little
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character to follow you around it
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basically functions as the game's
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version of Auto loot the pets would
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manually loot stuff for you or you would
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have to click on each individual enemy
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that you kill by yourself now because
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this game it has a lot of focus on
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grinding and a lot of AOE grinding where
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you're Gathering up these groups of like
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seven or so enemies and then using
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cleave and AOE attacks to bring them
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down and then moving on to the next well
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if you had to constantly loot every
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single one of those enemies over and
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over again manually this just creates a
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massive time sync and a big hindrance to
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like the efficiency of your grinding and
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again this is a game that a lot of the
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focus is around grinding or can be
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around grinding it can also be around
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life skills and doing the exploration
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all that stuff but Grant make no Combs
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about it grinding is a big part of BDO
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and so when you had to manually click on
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everything that was a big pain so in the
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past pets were basically primarily
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purchased in the cash shop free ones
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were rarely available and difficult to
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come by and you would never get like
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it'd just be unreasonable to think you'd
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get the max number of pets but for free
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because you could have five active pets
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at any given time which pretty much
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meant that after you got your free one
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you would be then purchasing the
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additional four in the cash shop in
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order to loot as quickly as possible
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which as we've reiterated is pretty darn
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important and then there were the
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costumes so costumes are cosmetic
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outfits they would sort of replace the
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visual appearance of your base gear but
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much more so than that is they had
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Associated uh improvements things like
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extra experience gain reduction to the
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death penalty and even suits that would
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hide your name plate in PvP which would
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be a pretty big advantage in those open
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PVP zones so those were some of sort of
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the the biggest what I would call pain
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points in the playing experience that
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really sort of incentivize advised you
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to open up the wallet and step into the
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cash shop and these major issues have
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pretty much entirely been addressed uh
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in recent years so for example silver in
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the game no longer has a weight
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associated with it so you don't have to
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account for that anymore when it comes
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to reaching your weight limit but on top
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of that the weight of items that you
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pick up in the game has seen a reduction
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in its numbers in a lot of circumstances
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so now not only could you carry more
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than you could previously basically you
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also no longer have to account for that
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silver weight similarly with the
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inventory many of those items that
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you're going to be out there grinding
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for now we'll be stacking instead of
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each taking up an individual space in
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your inventory which greatly reduces the
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desire to purchase more inventory space
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same thing with the pet system free ones
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are now frequently available while
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playing in fact while playing through a
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seasoned questline you're actually gonna
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have access to more than the five cap
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that the game has so you can get for
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free pets that you would in the past
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have to have purchased and then as for
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the costumes in the game while they
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still exist and they still give their
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bonuses but now can just be bought
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outright in the game shop with silver
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from other players who purchase it from
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the cash shop so there'll be people out
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there spending real money to get these
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costumes but then they will sell it to
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people who don't want to spend real
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money and instead want to buy it with
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in-game currency that they got from just
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playing so these are some pretty big
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improvements and then there's also a few
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other quality of life things that have
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come to the game like the Magnus storage
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that makes it so they can access the
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local storage from anywhere in the game
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without having to actually go to those
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individual towns the game basically has
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localized storage where you'll have one
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town and a storage there so if you're
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grinding you go to that town you put
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items in that storage in the past you
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would have to go back to that town and
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physically actually take it out yourself
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or set up these trade routes would which
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would then take some time as items were
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transferred from one area to the other
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now with Magna storage you can just grab
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items from anywhere that you have them
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stored within the game a massive quality
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of life Improvement and then there's
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also the contribution point system a lot
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of players in the past you you have
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these contribution points and you'd
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acquire them throughout the course of
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playing and then a lot of times you
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would want to focus on using them on
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workers that way you could use them for
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things like Gathering resources for you
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just passively then that would make it
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so that when it comes to things like
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storage in the town where you'd want to
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use a need to use cp4 people would then
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go to the cash shop well now it's really
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just not as big of a deal it's a far
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less of far less of an emphasis on that
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within the game and because storage is
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now also not as big of a deal if it's
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not as cumbersome basically there's a
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lot less of a incentive to actually have
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to purchase just all around a lot of
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really positive just a lot of really
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positive quality of life changes that
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have come to the game with recent years
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and again a lot of this has happened
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host the separation from their prior
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publisher cacao into sort of doing their
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own thing taking the reins on the game
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and how the monetization is handled and
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all around I think it just made for a
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much better experience for players now
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there's definitely still some pretty big
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quality of life stuff that you can buy
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in the shop there are things like the
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value packs which will boost your
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inventory storage XP gain and a few
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other things this is kind of just like a
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a grab bag of different nice things to
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have and then things like the campsites
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which allow you to repair and buy
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potions out in the field instead of
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having to return to town although to be
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honest as new players if you're just
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starting the game you're going to get a
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few few months of value pack Buffs
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through the game's various unlocks so
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it'll be some time before you feel the
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need to buy it and the campsites will
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only really matter once you get into
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like the hardcore efficiency grinding
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which at that point if you're playing
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for a few months and you've used up all
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of your free value pack Buffs and you're
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to the point where you're doing like end
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game efficiency grinding and needing
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campsites at that point it's probably
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worth the uh the amount of money the 30
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or so dollars that you want to spend on
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those extra things but as I mentioned
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there are so many other layers that had
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you going to to The Shopper so sort of
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pushing you towards the shop in the past
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which are just no longer there and these
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changes along with others that have been
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made over the recent years I've just
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been really great in my opinion and I
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just think because of that the game is
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in a much better place than it's ever
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been now as mentioned earlier there's
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also a lot of other things about BDO
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that I've just always liked I've talked
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about in the past and my various bits of
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coverage but as a recap I think it's got
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some of the best action combat in the
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genre and and especially with the input
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method that kind of reminds me and it's
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always reminded me a lot of like
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fighting games so basically I play
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optimally you'll use these combinations
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of inputs with shift the directional
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keys and left and right Mouse click
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instead of just hitting the keybinds so
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for example to use an ability while you
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could just hit number one on your
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keyboard you click that the ability
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happens but instead there will be these
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input combinations like say one one
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example is one of my abilities I have to
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hold down shift and W and then left
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click and then I can alternate that with
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different inputs and going back between
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these will come combo and all of this
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just makes for because it's more
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involved it makes for like a much more
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satisfying combat experience than just
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spamming one and spamming two and why
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would you go through this extra effort
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instead of hitting one or two to
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activate a skill doing these inputs well
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basically doing so will add benefits
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like increasing the damage and reducing
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the cast time and or resources of your
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abilities so if you want to play
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efficiently and get the most out of your
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combat you'll do be doing these inputs
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instead of just hitting keybinds and
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combat just feels great and because the
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game has a big focus on grinding you're
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constantly engaged in that combat
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they've also got some rather in-depth
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and interesting life skill systems which
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are basically the game's version of
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professions you know it's got the basic
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stuff like farming fishing cooking and
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processing but how they actually handle
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this with various mini games associated
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with them just makes them a bit more
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engaging there's also all these
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management systems that that
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contribution point system that I
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mentioned earlier you get these points
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and you use them to essentially manage
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towns like increase the storage and pick
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your housing thoughts you've got workers
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they'll go out to harvest resources for
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you that you'll use for crafting food
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and things and Buffs and all that
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connecting trading routes between these
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different towns and ferrying items from
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one location to the other it's also in a
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seamless massive open world with no
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loading screens between the zones
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there's very limited fast travel in the
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game all of which I always felt has made
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for some great immersion and the world
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is pretty populated obviously you know
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other players in the game but also the
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density of enemies out in the field and
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towns that are full of NPCs walking
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around doing their different things and
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uh finally and this could be a positive
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or negative depending on perspective but
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the game basically has like infinite
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progression there's a soft cap as you're
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leveling up but you can kind of just
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keep on going so if you feel motivated
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to reach like the maximum Echelon of
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things that could be a bit much but for
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me it's always been kind of freeing
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because I'm like I'm not gonna grind
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that out so I'm just not even gonna
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stress about it I'm not worried about
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getting anywhere near any sort of cap
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soft or hard or otherwise there's just
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no rush over the years basically for
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that reason BDO has been one of my
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favorite MMOs to play casually kind of
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going on my own pace leveling up new
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characters exploring doing stuff not
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super concerned about the end game
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grinding spots and competing for those
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in PvP there's a big world combat's
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great and engaging and a lot of fun
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downtime activities and systems to mess
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around with and that's how I've always
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enjoyed BDO so I've come back over the
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years to check off various updates see
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the new content try the new classes as
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mentioned Pearl Abyss was sponsoring
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this video because they wanted me to
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tell you about their most recent updates
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so let's talk about that Land Of The
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Morning Light the most recent region
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expansion to the game first released in
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Korea back on March 29th and we just
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recently got the global release last
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week on June 14th now this opens up an
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entirely new continent to explore these
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were this area is inspired by Korea's
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last dynastic Kingdom and featuring
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terrain buildings and vegetation that
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will be reminiscent of that era along
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with this they're also taking a lot of
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inspiration from many Legends and
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folklore of the time now one big change
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with this update is unlike previous new
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regions that would add a bunch of new
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endgame grind spots this one's not
00:14:07
focused on that instead they've added
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various bosses with this Boss Rush
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system so there's nine different new
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bosses each with their own mechanics and
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strategies to take on each of these
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walls have 10 different difficulty tiers
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and as you move up those tiers you'll be
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introduced to new mechanics and attack
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patterns that you'll have to deal with
00:14:24
there's also these new Gathering
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mechanics called the green Artisan
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skills these add new mini games to
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various Gathering life skills that these
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will be triggering randomly as you're
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out there gathering in the world and if
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successfully done you're gonna use some
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more energy up but you will then also
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obtain a larger amount of materials
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there's also now the Marnie sniper rifle
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life skill which adds various
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improvements to sniper hunting in the
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game including dealing damage increased
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depending on the spot that you hit so
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for example the greatest damage increase
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comes from a headshot probably not
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surprising but there you go and then the
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quality of reward will depend on your
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accuracy and addition to this some other
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new stuff includes new quest lines and a
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fully voice active story there will be
00:15:04
new workers materials and nodes free to
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find all of this also accessible from
00:15:09
level one if you're a brand new player
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if you jump into BDO for the first time
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you don't have to level up before you
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get to check out this new area and this
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new content all of that combat
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everything about it is just scale to
00:15:18
whatever level you are I'll say
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personally also I just like how just
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like with a lot of the prior content
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updates land in the morning light just
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bring some nice new additions to the
00:15:27
game getting a brand new play Space is
00:15:29
always awesome obviously a new place to
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explore I think BDO does a good job with
00:15:33
its open world and it's been really cool
00:15:35
to go around checking out the new region
00:15:36
I like that they're doing something a
00:15:38
little different with the focus on Boss
00:15:40
Battles this time around instead of just
00:15:42
adding new grinding spots for players
00:15:43
some of these fights are really neat as
00:15:45
well I also really enjoy the Gathering
00:15:47
mechanics I know it's simple stuff but
00:15:49
how BDO does life skills I have always
00:15:52
enjoyed sort of gamifying the process of
00:15:54
gathering crafting just makes it a bit
00:15:56
more engaging all in all this update
00:15:58
just seems like another great addition
00:15:59
to the game so Land Of The Morning Light
00:16:01
the latest update as mentioned is now
00:16:03
available globally it is free for anyone
00:16:06
who owns BDO or if you pick up BDO you
00:16:09
buy the base version of The Game Land Of
00:16:10
The Morning Light is just going to be
00:16:12
available for you for free as well so
00:16:14
check it out you can go ahead and take a
00:16:15
look at the link in the description
00:16:17
below as with all of the major new
00:16:19
content updates it's cool to see the new
00:16:20
stuff but again I am really just really
00:16:23
happy to see some of those quality of
00:16:25
life improvements that they've made to
00:16:26
the game it's just was a it's a nice
00:16:28
surprise to having come back recently
00:16:30
seeing these changes from how it was
00:16:33
when I used to play seriously because
00:16:36
they're just big improvements you know
00:16:37
it doesn't feel like I am pressured into
00:16:40
those things anymore like it sort of did
00:16:42
in the past if you wanted to play
00:16:44
seriously dealing with the weight of
00:16:46
silver uh dealing with feeling like you
00:16:48
had to purchase those pets and weren't
00:16:50
giving enough for free dealing with the
00:16:52
inventory with little to no item
00:16:54
stacking and dealing with the fact that
00:16:57
costumes were almost a must buy all that
00:16:59
stuff has been addressed where you can
00:17:00
just kind of play the game and with
00:17:03
little to no additional purchases beyond
00:17:06
the base version of the game you can
00:17:08
just play and enjoy it and and kind of
00:17:10
not feel moved in that direction so yeah
00:17:13
I'm jumping back in I'm going to be
00:17:14
playing some more and checking out this
00:17:16
most recent update happy to tell you
00:17:18
about it though because as mentioned uh
00:17:20
videos just a game that I it's one of
00:17:22
the many MMOs that I'll come back to on
00:17:24
a regular basis and uh yeah I'm looking
00:17:27
forward to jumping in and maybe you'll
00:17:28
see another follow-up video outside of
00:17:30
this sponsored video here see another
00:17:33
one where I do some follow-up thoughts
00:17:35
after playing some more of this update
00:17:36
but that's it for me today hope you guys
00:17:38
enjoyed it thank you for watching I'll
00:17:40
see you in the next one take it easy