Processing Guide – Black Desert Online [BDO]

Processing in Black Desert Online is at its core a rather simple process. In this Black Desert Online processing guide, I will go over the steps needed to access all the processing tiers, how to raise your processing skill quickly, and what gear helps with processing.

To start processing you only need to press the L button, which opens up the processing screen. On that screen, you have the choice to select which type of processing you wish to conduct, such as heating or chopping. When you select a processing type it highlights in your inventory which items can interact with that processing action. For example, you can heat ore into melted shards.

Processing in Black Desert Online

Processing can be split into three separate tiers. You start at tier one and need to complete quests and gain certain minimal skills to advance to the next tier. This bit goes over the steps needed to gain access to all the processing tiers.

First Tier Processing

When you begin playing Black Desert Online you can perform a first-level process. Heating ore into melted shards and chopping timber into planks is an example of first-tier processing. While this tier is great to start gaining experience, it is rather poor as a money maker. Getting access to second-tier processing is essential if you intend to make processing your main or even secondary money maker.

Second Tier Processing

To be able to process the materials further you need to get certain knowledge. When you complete certain quests and gain the knowledge you can start doing second-tier processing of that knowledge type. Heating melted shads into ingots and chopping planks into plywood is an example of second-tier processing.

If you have your gathering skill at apprentice 4 you can go directly to Ficy in Heidel to start the “Learning Higher Knowledge” quest.

Alternatively, you can complete a quest chain that is rather long and starts as you enter Heidel. The black spirit takes you to Jemkas Wyrmsbane which has the quest “Because I like you”. To start this quest you need either to have your gathering skill at Beginner 7 or complete the quest “Go to the Northern Quarry”. This quest chain shown in the first column in the image below will ultimately take you to Ficy in Heidel.

After speaking with Ficy you can start your next quest chain which is shown in the third column. The first quest starts with Ornella which asks you to make 2 polished rocks. These are made by grinding 20 rough stones. When you have the rough stones press L, select the grinding tab, right-click the rough stones, and press start. When completed you can turn them in and complete the quest. This rewards you with Grinding: Beginner

The next quest starts with Flaviano. Buy 10 empty bottles, go to the river and fill the bottles with water. You do this by right-clicking the bottles in your inventory while standing in water. When you have the water press L, select the heating tab, right-click the water bottles, and press start. When completed you can turn them in and complete the quest. This rewards you with Heating: Beginner

The final quest in this line starts with Leybos. He needs you to make three ash planks. Start by cutting down ash trees with a lumber ax and gather 15 ash timber. Press L and use the chopping function to process the ash timber into 3 ash planks. When completed you can turn them in and complete the quest. This rewards you with Chopping: Beginner

After these three quests you can do the next three in any order you wish. The final three quest givers can also be found in Heidel. Techton gives you the quest Need Soft Hides which rewards you with Drying: Beginner, Lara gives you the quest Toys (?) for Kids which rewards you with Shaking: Beginner and Dora Fonti gives the final quest which rewards you with Thinning: Beginner.

Third Tier Processing

To be able to perform the last processing tier you again need to get certain knowledge by completing quests. When you complete the required quests and gained the knowledge you can start doing third-tier processing of that type. Processing ingots into pure crystals and plywood into Sturdy Plywood is an example of third-tier processing.

To start the quests which reward you with the knowledge to perform third-tier processing you need to have your gathering skill at skilled 10 and processing at professional 5 (artisan 1 is better). To start this quest path you need to find a villager in Keplan which will give you a quest leading you to Vatudun in Keplan Mines. He is located behind Andria the blacksmith in Keplan as shown in the image below. Note: You have to have gained all the beginner knowledge for this NPC to offer the quest.

When you speak with Vatudun he will send you on a chain of quests which will ultimately reward you with Heating: Skilled. This will allow you to make pure metal crystals by heating together metal solvent and metal ingots. After the quests, he will send you on to Murghed.

Murghed will give you two quests to complete, rewarding you on completion with Chopping: Skilled. He will then send you on to Likke Behr.

Now things get a bit muddled as you need to have Shaking: Skilled to complete the quests given by Likke Behr. To get Shaking: Skilled you need to reach processing artisan 1. The knowledge is part of the achievement award for reaching that level. If you don’t yet know about the achievement awards press P, select the task tab from the top and then reward from the lower bar.

Likke Behr will give you two quests to complete before rewarding you with Drying: Skilled. Here the quest chain ends and you need to find the final two on your own.

To get Grinding: Skilled you need to find Geranoa in Calpheon. He is located in the Merchant quarter of Calpheon shown in the image below. Geranoa will give you a total of four quests before rewarding you with Grinding: Skilled. He will then send you on to Matheo at Oberon farm.

Matheo will then give you four more quests before finally rewarding you with the last piece of knowledge, Thinning: Skilled.

Effect of the Processing Skill

Raising the level of your processing skill is really important if you intend to process a lot. At the beginner level, you usually only get a single item from each processing action. At artisan 1 you get the maximum amount for every first and second-tier processing action. I addition you can get a second-tier item (such as an ingot or plywood) directly from the basic materials (ore, timber). At processing level master 1 you get an average of 2 third-tier items from each processing action. It is unknown it this raises to the general 2.5 average for first and second-tier items at higher processing skills.

Fastest Way to Level Processing to Artisan

The single fastest way to level your processing skill up to artisan levels is to process flax into flax thread by heating it. Flax is a raw material that you can first get with workers at the Costa Farm just southwest of Heidel. You can also buy it from the marketplace if available. For some reason this tier 1 processing rewards as much experience as some second-tier processing, such as making ingots. If you are able to perform tier two processing you can then grind the flax thread to make flax fabric. This again gives higher experience than expected from this tier of processing. To see the experience earned for each form of processing you can look at this table here made by Incendar.

Clothes That Help With Processing.

As with all life skills, there are silver embroidered clothes sets. The main benefit from the silver embroidered craftsman’s clothes is in the experience bonus it gives. A basic set gives you a +5% to your processing experience and at an enhancement level of +2, you get +15%. You do not gain any increased success from wearing processing clothes, but it does reduce the total processing time as it reduces the chance of “failures”. A failure in processing only means that you need to redo the processing, not losing anything.

There is also the craftsman’s clothes which you get as an achievement reward at processing level professional 1. This clothes can be turned into an outfit with an Equipment Tailoring Coupon and worn as well as the silver embroidered clothes, giving you an extra 10% to experience earned.

Pearl Store Items

There is a single pearl store item that helps enormously with processing. This item is often called the maid’s/butlers outfit but its official name is the Venecil Dress for female characters and the Karki Set for male characters. What makes this item so great is that it allows you to process items directly from your storage into your inventory. Since you no longer need to hold the heavier raw materials this results in longer processing sessions.

You will still need to invest somewhat into your weight limit as the processed materials end up in your inventory and you stop processing when you reach max weight. If you are having problems due to your weight limit you can read about how to increase your weight limit in this guide.

Why Should You Level Processing

Processing is a great skill to level. When you hit artisan 1 you will see that you are now able to process materials you buy from the marketplace and sell them back with a profit. If you have a worker empire to build on then processing can be a major form of income, perhaps rivaling end game grinding. And although it is a time intensive task, it can be done mostly AFK.

Now if you liked this Black Desert Online processing guide then be sure to share it with your friends and allies and feel free to check out my other Black Desert Online guides.