There is a wide variety of experience buffs in Black Desert Online. There are four types of experience in Black Desert Online. Combat experience, life skill experience, skill experience, and contribution experience. In addition to this, horses and other ridden mounts also gain their own experience. Here is a compilation of all the ways to buff experience in the game, excluding pets as they are so variable.
Combat Experience Buffs
Probably the most sought after buffs are the combat experience buffs which increase the rate you gain combat experience. There are several ways to buff combat experience gains, but not all of them stack. Below is a list with a description of all the combat experience buffs that I know of.
Smooth Milk Tea and Simple Cron Meal
Smooth milk tea will give you an 8% boost to your life skill experience for 110 minutes. There is another variety called simply milk tea which gives the same benefits, just for a shorter time. The simple Cron meal will give you a 10% bonus to your combat experience, 5% bonus to your skill experience and a host of other benefits for 120 minutes.
Of these two the Cron meal is clearly the better option when grinding, but it is far more expensive than the milk tea. You can make them through cooking or just buy them from the marketplace.
Daily Grinding Hour and [Combat Reward] Faster Stronger II
If you press P on your keyboard, select the Task button and press Reward there you get a list of rewards. The daily grinding hour is a daily reward that gives you a few contribution points and 100% combat boost for two hours or a 200% combat experience boost for one hour depending on which you pick.
Another one is called [Combat Reward] Faster Stronger II and gives you a 40% combat exp boost for an hour. This reward is only available to characters at levels 15 to 56.
The Olivia Channels
If you are new to the game, you can play in the Olivia Channels. These channels give a permanent 100% combat exp boost. You can however only access this channel for 30 days after you start playing. If you, however, leave the game for at least 30 consecutive days, you can again access the Olivia Channels as if you were a new player.
A Complete Outfit.
By having a complete outfit, you gain a permanent 10% increase to your combat experience earned. You can get an outfit either from the market (which is hard) or by buying it from the pearl store. The added benefit of an outfit is a fine-looking character.
Splendid EXP Elixir
This elixir gives you a 15% boost to your combat experience earned for 8 minutes. It can be hard to get from the market, but it can be made with alchemy. Alternatively, you can use the EXP Elixir which gives you only a 10% boost to experience earned for 5 minutes.
An Active Value Pack
One of the benefits of a value pack is an extra 10% combat exp buff (as well as life, skill, and mount exp) as long as the pack is active. This coupled with all the other benefits of a value pack make it a great investment for your pearls. You can also try to get one from the marketplace, you just need to place an order and hope for the best.
[Event] Sealed Book of Combat.
This item is a truly useful one if you are grinding. By using it you get an item that is active for 7 days and on each use, you get a 24-hour window where you get a 50% boost to your combat experience earned. The problem with this item is that it is rare as it cannot be bought and is usually only rewarded through events.
A Golden Bell.
The golden bell is a curious item. When used the entire channel it is used on will get a 100% combat exp boost for one hour. Also, the name of the user is displayed prominently. It can be bought with pearls or with loyalty points.
Magic Crystal of Infinity – Experience
This magic crystal needs to be placed in a helmet slot. It gives a 10% combat exp boost. You can buy it from the marketplace or make it with alchemy.
The Weekend Experience Buff Event
Every weekend an event starts which gives everyone a 100% combat experience buff. This event can be canceled at any time, but it has been going for a long time now and will probably not stop in the foreseeable future.
Combat Experience Scrolls
These scrolls give you a 50% combat experience buff, but they do not stack with other buffs. Therefore, they should only be used if you are unable to get up to a 50% buff with some of the previous methods.
Thoughts on Combat Experience Buffs.
By using all the available buffs, you should be able to get (10+8+100+40+100+15+10+50+100+10+100)% = 6.43 times the base experience. This is however not a sustainable amount and a more reasonable goal would be 10+8+100+15+10+10 = 2.53 times the baseline amount, with a golden bell or the weekend buff making it 3.53. To get this you need a complete outfit, smooth milk tea, the daily grinding hour for 2 hours, splendid exp elixir, a value pack and the magic crystal of infinity – experience.
Life skill Experience Buffs
The second most in-demand buffs are the life skill experience buffs. They are not as numerous as the other ones but there are still quite a few. Below is a list and description of all the life skill experience buffs that I know of.
Healthy Sute Tea and Seafood Cron Meal
Healthy sute tea will give you an 8% boost to your life skill experience for 110 minutes. There is another variety called just sute tea which gives the same benefits, just for a shorter time. The seafood Cron meal will give you a 10% bonus to your life skill experience rate and a host of other benefits for 120 minutes.
Of these two the Cron meal is clearly the better option when grinding, but it is far more expensive than the sute tea. You can make them through cooking or just buy them from the marketplace.
You can also get some fresh whale meat salad, which will give you a 15% boost to life skill experience, but it is rarely on the market and a bother to make.
An Active Value Pack
As with the combat experience, an active value pack also gives a 10% life skill experience buff.
Functional Clothes.
These clothes can be bought from the marketplace or made with a worker. They are all called Silver Embroidered [Insert Trade] Clothes. The important bit about them is that they can be enhanced like accessories. While the base clothes only give you at most a 5% boost to life skill experience gains, the +5 version probably gives you +30% towards your life skill gains. When starting your life skilling career you should get a basic or even a +1 version from the marketplace for each of the life skilling paths you want to try. Once you have found which life skilling paths you enjoy the most you can start searching the market for a +2 or +3 clothe which correspond to those life skills.
Elixir of Flowing Time
This elixir gives you a 15% boost to your life skill experience earned for 8 minutes. It can be hard to get from the market, but it can be made with alchemy. Alternatively, you can use the Elixir of Time which gives you only 10% boost to experience earned for 5 minutes.
Extra Life Experience Scrolls
These scrolls give you a 10% boost to your life skill experience gained, but they do not stack with other buffs.
Pearl Store Costumes
I should also mention that the Canape costume gives a 15% cooking experience buff and the Pavillon costume gives a 15% bonus to alchemy experience. These costumes can only be bought from pearls in the Pearl Store, as they cannot be sold on the central marketplace.
Skill Experience Buffs
Skill experience is the experience needed to get another skill point for combat skills. There are very few items that boost skill experience.
Increased Skill Experience Scrolls
These scrolls give you a 10% boost to your skill experience gained, but they do not stack with other buffs.
An Active Value Pack
As with the combat and life skill experience, an active value pack gives a 10% boost to skill experience earned.
Horse Experience Buffs
As you probably know, your horse will gain experience as you ride it. There are a few ways to buff the experience gained by the horse which you are riding.
Pearls Store Costumes.
The Venia Riding Attire gives the horse a 20% experience buff.
Elixir of Training
Gives the horse an extra 8% experience for 5 minutes.
Contribution Experience Buffs
As far as I know, there are no items that buff contribution experience. Hopefully, some will be added later.
So that’s it. Now if you liked this Black Desert Online enhancement guide then be sure to share it with your friends and allies and feel free to check out my other Black Desert Online guides. Also if you know of any other buffs that were not mentioned I would appreciate it if you could comment and let me know.