Good morning everyone!

Have you ever noticed that when you start a new game, there are so many buttons and menus that it feels overwhelming and confusing?

Sometimes, it even makes you too lazy to learn because there’s just too much to take in

That’s why I’m here to explain it in a simple, clear, and straight-to-the-point way!

Here, I believe this is what you see when you look at it for the first time.

Let’s break it down into three categories: 1, 2, and 3.

First, in Category 1, you’ll see the following:

▶ PvP Indication: This is the inactive state , and this is the active state , indicated by a burning aura. You can toggle it on and off by pressing Alt + C. When activated, this allows you to force PvP / PK (Player Killing) other players in normal world map areas outside of PvP/war content. You need to be level 50+ to participate in PvP content. If you are level 49 or below, you cannot engage in PvP and are even protected from forced PK.

▶ Your level (which is 62 in the picture) and your experience percentage below it (42.577%). To level up from 49 (100% EXP) to 50, you must complete a specific quest from the Black Spirit.

▶ The HP (Health Points) bar – 3875/3875, which indicates your current health. The MP bar – 703/703, which represents your resource for abilities. This can be Spiritual Power, Magical Power, or Willpower (SP/MP/WP) and may also have different colors depending on your class. For example, a Valkyrie has SP (white), a Warrior WP (yellow), a Witch MP (blue), and a Ranger MP (green), etc.
These are used during combat similarly to "mana" and you can replenish it with the following potions: normal HP/MP potions, which you can buy from city NPCs or the central market. Alternatively, you can use Infinity Potions—Ornette’s Spirit Essence for HP and Odore’s Spirit Essence for MP. These are treasure items that originally had to be obtained through grinding but are now also available on the central market at a reasonable price. The details of these potions might be explained in a different section.

▶ The Black Spirit’s Rage (BSR) gauge (its the bar under the MP/SP/WP with 100% value) is a special resource that allows you to activate enhanced skills for increased power. It automatically regenerates over time every 10 seconds and fills up faster when you kill mobs.
Certain skills consume different amounts of BSR—either 10%, 50%, 100%, or 200%. You can lock or unlock all skills from using BSR by pressing Alt + B. And if you lock it, you can use it as a buff by pressing Z.
You can only accumulate 100% BSR by yourself. To reach 200%, you need another player to transfer their BSR to you. If you want to give your BSR to another player, you can target them and press X.

In the orange section, you'll find quick information about your AP, DP, Energy, and CP.

▶ The AP and DP shown there are the same stats you see in your equipment window (which you can open by pressing I). Just like in other games, AP (Attack Power) represents how much damage you can deal to your opponent, while DP (Defense Power), similar to armor, indicates how strong you are at taking damage.
This only displays the base AP and DP from your gear and does not include bonus stats from buffs, logbook passives, and other sources.
If you want to see your total and detailed stats, you can click "My Stats" below it.

▶ Energy is mainly used for gathering (lifeskill), conversing with NPCs to increase amity, investing into nodes to level up grind nodes (for bonus drop rates), production nodes, and cities/towns (for amity bonuses). It’s also used to talk to NPCs or interact with certain objects to unlock knowledge, as well as for quests and many other activities.
Energy recovers at a fixed rate over time, and you can use buffs to increase its regeneration rate. Maximum energy can be increased by acquiring knowledge. You can check the details by pressing H.

▶ CP (Contribution Points) are also used to invest in houses in every city or node, allowing you to rent a residence where you can enter, store items, decorate, and perform cooking or alchemy. Additionally, houses can be used for city storage, worker lodging, extra horse stable slots, and various workshops for furniture, tools, weapons, and armor.

CP can also be invested in production nodes to enable your workers to gather resources or in grind nodes, where you can use energy to level them up and gain extra drop rate buffs while grinding in that area. Furthermore, CP allows you to rent portable storage boxes for your residence, fences for farming life skills, or even combat gear from NPCs.

You can hover to see a quick overview of where your CP is distributed or click it for more detailed information.

In the yellow section, from the left to the right icons, you can see their buffs as follows.

▶ Happy Black Spirit represents the permanent buffs as Black Desert Online reaches its milestones.

▶ Value Pack is a paid buff that you can purchase from the Pearl Shop (by pressing F3). You can also obtain it for free through coupon codes, events, or by participating in certain events or contests held by BDO.

▶ Appearance Change Coupon and Merv's Palette are also included in the Value Pack. This allows you to change your character's appearance/customization (by pressing F4) and dye your outfit (by pressing J) whenever you like.

▶ The Node Investment Benefit shows whether you have invested in the node of your current area and its benefits, such as drop rate boosts or amity bonuses.

▶ EXP buffs and drop rate buffs are event buffs in BDO that activate at specific times. These events usually last for a week or a couple of weeks. Additionally, there is a 200% EXP buff available on weekends.

▶ Agris Fever is a drop amount buff that gives you extra loot for each mob you kill. It regenerates daily at 6 AM GMT+8. You can increase the maximum Agris points you can store and the regeneration amount by completing certain logbooks.

▶ Kamasylvia's Blessing and Book of Old Moon are paid buffs available in the Pearl Shop, similar to the Value Pack. Kamasylvia's Blessing mainly enhances drop rates, loot benefits, and warehouse capacity, while the Book of Old Moon focuses more on providing various EXP buffs and other advantages.

In the red section you will see the following:

▶ Horse icon indicates whether you currently have an active horse taken out. You can LMB (Left Mouse Button) to call your horse if it's nearby and RMB (Right Mouse Button) to locate it and display a guide path. If you have a Trainer’s Flute, you can call your horse from a farther distance, and with a Celestial Horn, you can summon your horse globally—except in restricted areas where horses aren’t allowed. Your horse’s stamina is shown as a yellow bar, its health as a red bar, and if your horse dies, you will see a Mourn Stone indicator.

▶ House/Residence icon displays the house you have rented as a residence in any city or region, along with its information, such as points and other details.

▶ Plant icon displays your plants' condition and other information inside your fence if you engage in farming life-skilling. You can rent a fence from specific NPCs using Contribution Points (CP) or purchase it from the Pearl Shop. Taking care of your plants requires Energy.

▶ Paw icon displays information about your pet, indicating whether it is active or not. Pets assist in looting trash items from mobs you kill, which can be sold to NPCs for silver. You can exchange/combine pets to reach higher tiers, granting better talents and skill buffs. Their activeness can be adjusted to green, yellow, or red, affecting loot speed in exchange for stamina consumption. Faster looting drains stamina quicker, but you can refill it with pet food, which can be crafted or purchased from the Central Market. You can also toggle whether pets use their special skills or not. You can obtain pets by completing quests, participating in events, or purchasing them directly from the Pearl Shop.

▶ Girl Hair icon shows how many maids you have and their availability. Storage Maids allow you to remotely store or retrieve items from storage, while Transaction Maids do the same for warehouses. You can obtain maids by participating in certain events or purchasing them from the Pearl Shop.

▶ Tent icon is used to set up your tent. You can obtain a tent by purchasing it from the Pearl Shop, and it’s almost a must-have if you plan to play the game long-term. Alternatively, you can get a basic tent from a quest. The tent allows you to buy certain buffs, basic potions, and other items, as well as repair your gear, rest to recover energy faster, and store some items.

▶ Butterfly icon represents your fairy, which provides special passive abilities. These include the ability to toggle Atanis Fireflies for lighting up your surroundings, automatically use potions to recover HP and MP, grant LT bonuses so you can carry more than 100% LT without penalties, improve breathing underwater, and more.

To obtain a fairy, you must complete a specific quest, but its skills are completely RNG, meaning you might get good or bad abilities. Each fairy has tiers that affect its level cap and skill effectiveness—lower-tier fairies have more restrictions. You can use Theiah's Orb (purchasable from the Pearl Shop) to reset your fairy's skills, but the new skills and tier will still be random. You can only have one fairy at a time, so if you want to change it, you must release your current fairy and obtain a new one.

▶ The Auto-Use Item icon is only available if you have a Fairy with the Continuous Care skill. This feature allows you to set which buffs—such as food, elixirs, draughts, and perfumes—to automatically renew when they expire.

▶ And lastly, the fish icon allows you to switch between combat mode and fishing mode, enabling you to equip your fishing rod and start fishing.

Secondly, in Category 2, you’ll see the following:

In the green section you will see see the icons for your active quests or events, such as the Black Shrine weekly quest, daily login rewards, and ADV Lesson quests.

On the far left, there is a chest icon (Manage Currency) that allows you to exchange certain event items like keys, coins, or seals for rewards. These items only appear in this menu and are not stored in your inventory, storage, or anywhere else.

On the far right, there is a magnifying glass icon to search for NPCs, and next to it, a headset icon that lets you adjust your in-game microphone and speaker settings.

In the light blue section, you can see your minimap, which displays your surroundings along with quick info about the region, such as whether PvP is allowed, if it’s a Node War area, and other details. It also shows active quests you’ve taken from NPCs, whether they are main quests, sub-quests, or region quests.

You can open the world map by pressing M and check quest details by pressing O. Additionally, your current server info and in-game time are displayed in the top right corner of the minimap.

In the blue section on the lower right of the screen, you will see various icons, including Box Reward and Mail, which you can also check and claim by pressing B. Most of these rewards come from daily logins, the dice mini-game, and various events.

There is also a Dark Rift icon, which shows the weekly mini-bosses scattered across the world map and their rewards.

Additionally, this section contains quick shortcut icons for accessing the Black Spirit, notifications, settings, and the Pearl Shop. You can also use keyboard shortcuts, such as "/" for Black Spirit, "Esc" for settings, and "F3" for the Pearl Shop.

Thirdly, in Category 3, you’ll see the following:

In the green section, you can see your in-game chat. There are up to five chat tabs, which you can customize by adjusting the font size, showing or hiding timestamps, and even changing the colors.

You can also filter chats by checking or unchecking specific categories in System Chat and General Chat. Each tab can have different settings, allowing you to separate and organize chats so you can easily find the information you need.

In the red section, you can see your current active buffs and debuffs from various sources, including food, elixirs, draughts, perfumes, and other consumable items. This also includes event buffs, church and villa buffs, skill add-ons, and skill-based buffs. Additionally, any debuffs inflicted by opponents will also be displayed here.

And lastly, in the purple section, you will find your hotkey bar. You can activate items or skills by pressing keys 1 to 0 on your keyboard or clicking them with your mouse. You can place active skills, consumable items, wearable gear, and outfits in this section for quick access.

Criticism and suggestions are very welcome.

Thank you very much.

Sincerely, 

Irishtia

your truly wholeheartedly supporter