Korean developer and publisher Pearl Abyss held its first North American “Calpheon Ball” event this weekend, celebrating its growing worldwide community by unveiling major new multi-platform content via Livestream for Black Desert Online (PC), Black Desert (PlayStation 4 and Xbox One), and Black Desert Mobile. Broadcast in nine languages, this annual fan event coincided with a separate Calpheon Ball in Korea for Black Desert Mobile and a “Voice of Adventurers” community event in The Netherlands to help expand Pearl Abyss’ Black Desert global community of 50 million players.
Debuting the twin sisters and classes, Woosa and Maegu, to more than 200 attendees at Ovation Square in Long Beach, Ca, Pearl Abyss showcased detailed footage of Woosa’s magical Taoist combat style, full of elegant movesets and elemental combinations. The content-rich Livestream showed the beautiful new “Land of the Morning Light” region, already bustling with characters, monsters, and quests.
The team revealed elder twin sister Maegu will launch on Black Desert Mobile Tuesday, December 13th, while younger twin Woosa will launch on both Black Desert Online (PC) and Black Desert (PlayStation 4, Xbox One) Wednesday, December 14th, for free. Also on Wednesday, December 14th, console players will receive updates including “Solo Garmoth Summoning”, “Marni’s Realm”, and “Expansion of Caphras’ Level”.
The Twin Classes Showcasing Woosa
Woosa took the spotlight at the streamed event with brand-new gameplay footage of her special movesets and combat style. Dressed in traditional Korean attire exemplifying her roots in the new region Land of the Morning Light, her gentle, deceiving appearance is contrasted by a tough-as-nails inner persona. Woosa harnesses the power of ancient Taoist sorcery, enabling her to conjure powerful elemental attacks and spells using her magical fan.
Comprising three key moves, Woosa is built to withstand and combat the toughest of foes.
- Stormfall: When Woosa swings her fan, she creates a giant storm that circulates around her, inflicting heavy damage to surrounding enemies in a wide area. With its impressive range, it will be useful to defeat larger monsters and bosses. It’s even more useful when combined with other skills.
- Cloudrise: Woosa creates a dark cloud above enemies’ heads, causing extreme damage through rain and lightning. This skill becomes extra special when used successively. Players can both activate and cancel the skill instantly. When canceled, it creates a dark cloud at the target location to deal damage through rain and lightning. This can be used in combos for additional enemy damage.
- Wingbeat: Accompanied by a large whooshing sound, Wingbeat enhances the size of the fan and inflicts relatively high enemy damage, making it a great combo tool. Players can use the skill two times consecutively, each time extending the area of damage (AOD).
Land of the Morning Light
Arriving in Black Desert in 2023, Land of the Morning Light is a new region inspired by the Joseon Dynasty, Korea’s last dynastic kingdom, and conceived from ancient myths passed down for generations. Think of myths such as Zeus and Olympus, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, the Frog Princess, and the Pied Piper all in one place, and you’ll be in The Land of the Morning Light.
Players will be introduced to new NPCs, folklore, story quests, monsters, areas to explore, and creatures to interact with, such as Sangoon, the King of Tigers who rules the high mountains of Taebaek, and Duoksini, the commander of the Dokkebi. Also, the setting of Haso, which used to be the sole eastern civilization within the world of Black Desert, has been completely revamped to make it more accessible.
Dev Talk with Jaehee Kim, Plus Mega Prizes!
Calpheon Ball’s developer Livestream included a Dev Talk with Jaehee Kim, executive producer of Black Desert, plus music performances, community raffles, giveaways, and more. The Developer Talk portion introduced new systems and improvements, starting with the news that the popular in-game PvP “Arena of Solare” will begin on Wednesday, December 28th. Pearl Abyss also announced a special weapon-themed, time-limited set of rewards available immediately after the Ball ended. The coupon codes, available now to everyone, include J’s Hammer of Loyalty, Advice of Valks (+150), Cron Stone x 2023, plus a dozen more valuable items for free. After the official stream ended, attendees enjoyed a variety of on-site events and after-parties, starting with Black Desert Abyss One DJing.
Calpheon Ball in Korea Unveils Black Desert Mobile News
Adventurers attending the Calpheon Ball in Korea this past Saturday witnessed firsthand footage and news of the Black Desert Mobile update, including the new turn-based “Dawnrise Vanguards” content, the new character class, Maegu, and the new region “Shahzad”. The popular mobile game will go live with twin Maegu and the Shahzad region Tuesday, January 3.
Twin sister Maegu is a swift-moving sorceress from the Jwado School who utilizes the power of a beautiful, magical fox to attack and defend in battle. She wields “Horyeongbu” as her main weapon and attacks her enemies with fluidity that resembles the way a Gumiho would charm another human.
The developers also debuted the expanded region, The Great Desert: Shahzad. In this vast territory, Adventurers can fight with others (PvP), obtain rare items – via a wandering merchant in Shahzad discovering treasure buried in the sand – or enhance Black Spirit runes by using Luminescent Crystals, among other activities.
Finally, players can obtain the second “Dream Horse”, Diné. Diné is a beautiful white horse with a golden mane that runs as fast as the wind across the desert. Quantum Jump also can be accessed by moving to a Black Rock Shrine. Several other additions, including Apocros (a new field boss), Dawnrise Vanguards (turn-based strategy family content similar to Path of Glory), Level 9 Camp, and more were added.
Voice of Adventurers Europe
In Utrecht, The Netherlands, more than 150 people attended the Voice of Adventurers Europe community event at Castle de Haar. The day was laced with entertainment, and giveaways, and featured a lush dinner served at the castle’s main hall. During the dinner, a mini-concert was given, featuring some of Black Desert Online’s best-known scores, and a raffle was organized where players could win grand prizes provided by AMD, including a high-end PC, Ryzen 9 7900X-PiB CPUs, and Radeon RX 6950 XTs. Community members left with a goodie bag containing several Black Desert items and a Black Desert branded HyperX Cloud Alpha S headset.
