Sharp black crystal shards are an important part of the Black Desert Online game. They, as well as hard black crystal shards, are needed for producing concentrated black stones, which are used to upgrade armor and weapons to PRI and beyond.
The fastest method to acquire these is to purchase them on the marketplace. However, you might be unable to do this for a number of reasons, such as unavailability and high cost. Luckily, there are other methods you can use, and we discuss them below.
Obtain Sharp Black Crystal Shards Through Gathering
The gathering is perhaps the easiest way to get your hands on some BDO sharp black crystal shards.
However, there is very little chance that you’d find the materials you need to craft these crystal shards from the items you gather. Therefore, you should find a way to gather materials at a high speed. When you gather a large number of materials, your chances of acquiring sharp black crystal shards will increase.
There are several gathering methods available. However, the most important thing, regardless of which gathering method you prefer, is to increase your gathering speed. Else, you won’t find much success.
How to Enhance Your Gathering Speed
You can increase your gathering speed in two ways – by increasing your gathering rank or using gathering tools that require less gather action time.
Increase Your Gathering Rank
There are several methods mentioned below through which you can increase your gathering rank. But first, note that you have to increase your gathering stat to level five, irrespective of your gathering skill.
Become a Member of a Guild
This is one of the easiest ways to increase your gathering rank. Becoming a member of a guild involves joining a guild that has invested guild points in the Nimble Fingers skill-line. Doing this will help to increase your gathering rank by up to +3. It will also provide the opportunity to complete life skill guild missions that require you to gather a certain amount of materials, which can be beneficial in your pursuit of black crystal shards.
Buy the Silver Embroidered Gatherer’s Clothes
You can also increase your gathering ranks by wearing the silver embroidered gatherer’s clothes. The easiest, and perhaps best, way you can acquire this gear is to purchase it at the central marketplace. However, you can also craft it in a costume workshop.
The basic version of this wearable gear provides you with an increase of +1 in your gathering rank and another +1 in your movement speed. If you want to increase the bonus you get from it, enhance the gear the same way you would enhance accessories.
We recommend you enhance your gatherer’s clothes to a minimum of +2 if you choose this route. This is because a +2 silver embroidered gatherer’s cloth will provide a +2 increase to your gathering stat and speed. It will also increase your gathering skill experience by 15% increase.
Using Food and Drinks
There are certain food and drinks, such as Balenos Special meal and Grain Soup, that can help you increase your gathering rank. With this method, the highest level you can attain is gathering rank level five. However, you can still gather more materials when you consume fig pies or sweet fig pies as they provide a gathering resource gain chance of +3%.
Alchemy Stones of Life
Having an alchemy stone of life can be highly beneficial for your gathering activities. You can either purchase one at the central marketplace or craft one for yourself. Similar to many other gears, alchemy stones are available in multiple tiers, with two of them having a direct impact on gathering action.
The first tier, the blue tier stones, provide an increase of +1 or +2, depending on the stone type, to your gathering rank. The second tier, which are the yellow tier stones, increases your gathered item drop rate anywhere from +3% to +20%. The exact percentage increase you will get depends on the stone type.
There is a cheaper and non-reparable alternative to the Alchemy Stone of Life and it is as the Life Spirit Stone.
Life Spirit Stone
Like several other materials, life spirit stones are available in abundance at the central marketplace for an affordable price. The benefits of this stone include:
- A +11% increase in processing success rate
- A +2 increase in gathering or fishing rank
- A -1.1 second reduction in alchemy or cooking time
- A +10% increase in gathered item drop rate
The benefits of the life spirit stone are quite similar to that of the alchemy stone of life, save one difference – weight increase. Hence, if you want to use alchemy stones in your gathering activities, you should start with life spirit stones.
Use Better Gathering Tools
There are two types of gathering tools on BDO – regular tools and life skilling mastery tools. Of all regular tools, the only one worth using are the magic tools.
When you start gathering on BDO, you should begin with Loggia tools. You can purchase them from specific NPC vendors or from Loggia farms.
These tools are not only reparable, they also provide a -11 second reduction in your gathering time. However, when you scale your gathering rank up to level five, you should change to magic tools.
Similar to the Loggia tools, magic tools give a -11 second reduction in gathering time. At the same time, they give a hidden bonus that is better than that of the Loggia tool.
When you want to use magic tools, which become available at gathering skill level five, you should consider their cost in relation to their benefits.
However, using them will increase your chances of acquiring a sharp black crystal shard.
How to Gather Sharp Black Crystal Shards Fast
Once you increase your gathering speed, the next thing to do is to start considering the most efficient gathering methods.
Logging
Logging is a highly efficient gathering method. This is because logs are in high demand due to their usefulness in building boats. In addition, they provide the most silver of all gathering materials. One of the factors you should consider before venture into logging is where to log. The best place would be a forest that is off the beaten path and has a high density of trees. It also has to be safe from attacks from monsters to enable you gather without worry.
Examples of such location are the dense forest southwest of Calpheon and the forest located south of Velia.
Pilgrim’s Haven
You can find Pilgrim’s Haven in the Valencia Desert, east of Sand Grain Bazaar. This is perhaps the location where you can gather the fastest in Black Desert Online. Unfortunately, it is not close to the regular hubs of players, hence, you would have to factor in travel time as well.
Gathering Water into Bottles for AFK Gathering
AFK approach provides you with a gathering option if you want an alternative to active gathering. All you have to do is to purchase empty bottles from material vendors and then gather water from springs and rivers into them. Fair warning: you need a reasonable number of bottles.
After this, locate a spring or river of your choice. When you get there, jump in it. Then, right-click your bottle and check the box that pops for repeat gathering to start AFK gathering water.
This approach is more a semi-AFK approach than a full one. This is because you stop gathering water immediately you acquire a hard or sharp black crystal item. It is a great method to acquire crystal shards if you want to practice alchemy. This is because river water is essential in the production of purified water, which is necessary for producing Clear Liquid Reagent.
Melting Accessories
When you melt certain accessories like Witch’s Earrings, you can obtain sharp black crystal shards. Melting these accessories produce between one and two sharp black crystal shards. You should know you can only melt basic accessories and not the enhanced (or PRI) variety. Also, if the accessory is not worth as much as a million silver, then it won’t produce shards.
Although it saves you both time and effort that gathering requires, try to make it a last resort only. That is, you should only use it when you can’t find shards in the market or gather through other means because it is very expensive.
The following is a list of accessories you can melt to get sharp black crystal shards:
- Witch’s Earring
- Necklace of Good Deeds
- Ancient Guardian Seal
