First off, it can be so OVERWHELMING! I think for many people who don't have a lot of experience designing characters in games it can be really too much or too advanced and certainly takes a tremendous amount of skill and knobfawking.
First we have...
TEMPLATES
If this is just too much for you and you really just give up you can always find an amazing pre-made character template at:
You can still customize them to your own delight. There is NO shame in using a template that you like. That other artist just saved you a lot of trouble and you can still make something completely different than what they gave you to work off of.
But how do we use these templates?! I'm going to assume you have some working knowledge of a computer but if you really need me to hold your hand on how to find and save files you are out of luck.
1. Save the file from the site. They should have a DOWNLOAD button on each template.
2. You can really keep these files anywhere on your computer as BDO will allow you to search through directories and drives. However, I highly recommend saving them to the default folder where BDO keeps it's customizations. On a Windows Operating System it is generally in Documents>Black Desert>Customizations.
For example:
Mine is on my E Drive. So you would see...
E:\Documents\Black Desert\Customization
BDO also keeps your Screenshots you take in...
E:\Documents\Black Desert\Screenshots
Every computer is different though so I can't speak for everyone. But at least you have a good idea of where to find stuff.
3. Now that you have the file in the customizations folder or wherever you are comfortable with it go to the character customization screen.
4. What you want is under Customizing Info on the Bottom Left.
- Here you can see the "Creator" of the template's name
- You can "Temporarily Save" while you are working
- You can "Save" the file to your computer to use later or share with others
- "Load File" Allows you to select a customization template and brings up the "File Explorer" to search for and select the template.
- "Restore to Default" gets rid of any changes and makes your character the default one the game starts you with in character creation.
5. Select "Load File", search for the name of the template, select it, then hit "OK" and it will load.
*Important: You must use the template for the designated class or it will not work properly. Sorry, you cannot use that Giant Berserker template on the Elven Ranger! Just NOT happening! If you are making a Ranger you must use a Ranger template.
6. Now that you have your template loaded you can create your character or edit it further.
7. (Optional) If you wish to save your template for future use then click on "Save File", Name it, and hit "OK". Now you will be able to load it up later. Congrats you made a template! Although, unless you made it from scratch the original creator's name will show.
Character Creation
So, you want to tackle this thing on your own or simply edit a template? Then the rest of this guide is for you.
BDO Lore
The first thing I suggest before you create a person in this world is to learn about it first, especially if you are Roleplaying. Sometimes we rush into making a character with an idea in mind and it might not work very well. There are some limitations that you need to work with, especially gender locked classes.
If you want to learn about the Lore of Black Desert you can go here:
This game is very rich with lore but it's extremely easy to learn. For the more TL;DR version of it:
- The land is comprised of several nations/territories: Calpheo, Serendia, Balenos, Mediah, and Valencia.
- The Game is called Black desert as there is a large desert in the middle of Valencian Territory with the biggest deposit of Black Stone in the world.
- Black Stone is a very mysterious, if not sinister resource that the entire world seems to run on and tends to fuel the greed and wars. People use it for enhancing weapons to running their furnaces with it. It is the most valuable and primary resource available.
- Calpheon is much like the Roman Empire and extremely rigid. Many of them are very much like wealthy religious zealots who worship the primary deity named Elion. The poor are oppressed. It seems very similar to Roman Catholic Religion and can have its good and corrupt followers. It has been used for politics and to fuel wars. Wars have been waged for the wrong reasons, including in the name of Elion over Blackstone. The King was a major jerk who became too greedy and was assassinated via poisoned drink. After that a Parliament Council was formed.
- Serendia was invaded by Calpheon over the Black Stone Extraction Mill. The King of Heidel, capital city of Serendia was taken hostage and returned only on the terms of giving Calpheon control of the extraction mill and they could not form a military anymore. They're pretty salty because of this.
- Balenos is pretty much like Switzerland. They didn't even want to put up a fight and seem very passive. They are the least rigid of the nations.
- Mediah is full of nomads and barbarians with a very Arabic style setting. Altinova is the youngest of the capital cities. It has a very Middle Eastern feel with a primitive splash of Orgimmar. They walled themselves off for a while from the rest of the Western continent as they were sick of political plays by Calpheon to blame them as an excuse to go to war for their black stone supply. But eventually trade agreements were formed.
- Valencia is mostly desert and still very much a mystery as the expansion hasn't been released yet.
Races/Classes
There's several playable races, humans being a majority of them. You also have the female Elvish Ranger. There is also a male Giant Berserker.
It may seem a bit limiting with the classes and races that are available but I have seen people come up with some really creative characters. There are more classes coming out in the near future such as Blader, Plum, Ninja, and Kunoichi.
The best thing I can suggest is to think of the type of character you want to make and work around that. These classes seem to be good for specific archtypes:
Warrior: Old or young human male. I have seen some half-elves running around with slightly pointed ears.
Valkyrie: More or less the female version of the warrior but more similar to a holy knight or paladin. A true Valkyrie according tot he lore attends a college in Calpheon and are part of an elite unit. Their hair is dyed bright red, probably as a tribute to Calpheon as it is the city's color. Nothing says you can't play a plain old female warrior with no affiliation to the college, though.
Berserker: Male giant race. With a lot of skill you can make one look very handsome and refined, but for the most part they seem to be big brutes. You will be ducking under a lot of doorways.
Sorceress: The sultry and sexy succubus of a woman. I'm not sure if it's possible to make them NOT sexy. They are quite a vixen and will claw your face off with black magic. They are really the "witches" of Black Desert. You can possibly make them older or young.
Tamer: Cute young girl that commands a giant demon-dog-bear-thing made of black magic. It's very difficult to make one look mature. Most of them come out looking like young girls.
Wizard: Old man who stands back and nukes you. It's tremendously difficult to get one to look any younger than 40. By default the faces come with lots of wrinkles, especially around the eyes. Their bodies are very thin also.
Witch: You can go many ways with this. Mature or young. They are essentially a wizardess that stands back and nukes you.
Customization
So now that you have an idea in mind pick a server and a channel. The Orwen Server and Calpheon 02 channel has been established as the Roleplaying Server. Your characters will be locked to that server, though you may change channels.
Now you may go into character creation. Select a class and customize the character. The first thing you want to do is to select a zodiac. They are not just RP flavor but also affect the amity minigame that you need to do to make friends and form relationships with the NPCs. Just pick whatever you want. This CANNOT be changed after the initial character creation. For instance, if you have the appearance change coupon, this feature will not be available to change.
The next thing you may want to do is adjust the weather which is the different lighting types you can view the character in. You may want to choose the most optimal lighting to see all of your characters features in. Sometimes it is good to select a darker skintone on them while you are working with features until you are done. Then you can change it back to a more pale tone if you like.
Next I usually go into "Character Action" to get it out of the way. There you can choose "Position" and "Clothes"
In "Clothes" you can preview different outfits on your character. (No, they aren't what you start out with! You can purchase outfits right away in the Pearl Store once you get into the game.) For editing it's usually good to strip them down to underwear. When you are satisfied try to see what they would look like in different armors.
In "Position" you can "Make a Pose" where you can preview a small list of selected emotes in the game. Here is where you are not really making poses. We will cover that later.
Now for the prime beef of the character creator-- The "Customizing" Menu:
"Hair Shape" is where you do ALL your editing for the hair.
"Types" allows you to select the style:
"Shape" allows for SOME of the styles to be shaped. You will see bars appear along the sides of the head with certain movement points. Hovering over parts of the hair will highlight the corresponding part in green-blue to let you know what you are working with. You may or may not be able to extend the length of move it around. Or with it selected you can simply use the sliders. In a 3D environment you have to be careful to rotate the model to make sure you are working with the proper one.
As you can see, some of the hairstyles don't allow you much freedom.
The "Main Controller" offers adjustment of each of those points with movement and rotation. You can "Reset" each part or all of them if you mess up too badly.
Some hairstyles only allow you to change the length on select parts with several length sliders at the bottom. "Curl Strength" and "Curl Level" can also be adjusted via sliders at the bottom.
Now for the "Color"!
Basic: The overall hair tint/color. You can adjust the "Shine" of the hair is as well with a slider.
Hair Ends: Self-explanitory. The "Dye" slider adjusts the intensity of the color while the "Area" adjusts how much of the ends are covered.
Hair: Kind of misleading. These are the roots of the hair. A lot of times it is good to make it a few shades darker than the actual color of the hair. Again the "Dye" slider adjusts the intensity of the color while the "Area" adjusts how much of the roots are covered.
It's always good to try a number of different combinations until you get something that catches you eye. You can even use some colors to mix and create others. Don't settle right away!
view your character in different poses and even create some for screenshots. It's pretty entertaining what you can do to them. You can even pose every single finger joint. You can drag parts with the mouse or use the Vertical, Horizontal, and Depth sliders. You can move both arms at the same time if you have symmetrical selected or uncheck it to move only one side. You can also save and delete poses for later.
