If you’re here – you’re looking for the best weapons for leveling up, and starting out in Black Desert Online. I made this since there’s a lot of weird info out there regarding what weapon you should pick in BDO while starting out and leveling up. This is important because you DO NOT WANT TO INVEST on a weapon with no “future”. Here goes!
But, before I continue – the most important part of this guide is this:
BDO Best Leveling & Starter Weapons: SUMMARY
Mainhand:
Bares > Yuria = Kalis
Bares is the best against all non-human targets while grinding.
Yuria is roughly 5-10% better ONLY on Human and PVP targets.
Kalis is best for RS pushing, but…
Offhand:
Accuracy >>> Pure AP. Here’s a list of ’em.
Keep in mind: You will NOT be using these weapons forever. The choice purely fulfills the specific need “Most effective grinding” up until you upgrade to boss gear. These weapons are legit from the leveling process all the way up to DUO / TRI.
Older info: Rosar and other options are outdated, their upsides don’t stack up well against Bares or Yuria these days.
All other “green” weapons not mentioned here are in need of an in-game update to be competitive – they’re simply a remnant of the past, or outright WORSE in non-niche scenarios.
Weapon options for alts (Black Abyssal, Liverto, Hand me downs) will be discussed towards the end.
BDO Leveling Starter Weapons: Comparison
These are all under the assumption that they will not exceed DUO, or at most be left at TRI – as they should be replaced by boss gear at that point.
BDO Leveling Main hand weapons
| Duo Ultimate | Min AP | Max AP | Avg AP | Ex AP | Adj AP | Eff AP | Slot | Impt Note |
| Bares | 79 | 87 | 83 | 22 | 18.7 | 101.7 | 1 | All Species |
| Yuria | 84 | 93 | 88.5 | 22 | 18.7 | 107.2 | 1 | Human Only |
| Rosar | 85 | 94 | 89.5 | 0 | 0 | 89.5 | 2 | 2 Slots |
| Kalis | 81 | 99 | 90 | 0 | 0 | 90 | 1 | High RS |
The above weapons are what you see usually discussed in these threads. IMO, Bares, Yuria, and Kalis are the only ones in consideration.
Main hand weapon:
It’s a choice between Bares > Yuria = Kalis
I will go into further details as to “WHY” in the next segment.
BDO Leveling Off hand weapons
| Duo Ultimate | AP | DP | Acc | RS |
| Acc Offhand | 12 | 23 | 84 | 35 |
| AP Offhand | 28 | 2 | 0 | 30 |
The above are the only 2 true choices (No Rosar? Hold your horses – will explain).
Off-hand weapon:
the “Accuracy Offhand” is GREATLY FAVORED versus the “Pure AP” one.
I will go into further details as to “WHY” in the next segment.
BDO Leveling Weapons – Why the good ones are good.
In this segment I will focus on WHY these leveling weapon recommendations were chosen, while data in tables speak for themselves, discussion also helps.
Main hand weapon:
It’s a choice between Bares > Yuria = Kalis, why?
- Bares has an effective, adjusted AP of 101.7 against ALL MONSTER TYPES.
- Yuria has an effective, adjusted AP of 107.2 against HUMANS and PVP.
- Kalis has an effective, adjusted AP of only 90 – but has a high Renown Score.
Bares: Best for overall grinding, even if does have the lowest AP. You’ll likely be fighting many different kinds of monsters, and this performs best against overall. It performs roughly 10% better than the average performance of Kalis, Rosar, and Yuria.
It only loses to Yuria against human targets and PVP. Keep note that Bares +Species applies to human, too.
Yuria: Best for grinding against humans and PVP. It’s so good against Human type mobs and PVP it is only very slightly worse than Kzarka!
However, not every grinding spot are humans, right? If you plan to do Sausan / Shultz / Pirates / Cadry / Crescent all the time – then Yuria is gonna be pretty damn good.
Kalis: An older recommendation – and honestly NOT SO BAD – high AP and Renown Score. And even a small bonus of not losing AP when it rains! It’s “Okay”.
While it has the highest AP, the damage output simply doesn’t compare to Bares, or Yuria against humans.
Renown Score is what people usually tout when speaking of Kalis. It’s just too inconsistent thought. Renown isn’t a “sure shot” and it’s not always gonna give you enough gains to compare to Bares (which is always a workhorse).
This honestly makes an awesome BACKUP WEAPON, when your main blows up from unlucky enhancement.
Offhand Weapon:
Accuracy >>> Pure AP, why?
The “Accuracy” offhand is 100% the responsible choice. The only other option for starters is the “ALL AP” option, which is niche and nice to own. For now, here’s a list of the accuracy offhands.
| Offhand for | Type | Accuracy | Pure AP |
| Warrior | Shield | Vangertz | Axion |
| Valkyrie | Shield | Vangertz | Axion |
| Musa | Horn Bow | Black | White |
| Maehwa | Horn Bow | Black | White |
| Dark Knight | Ornamental Knot | Saiyer | Oros |
| Berserker | Ornamental Knot | Saiyer | Oros |
| Striker | Vambrace | Leather | Scale |
| Mystic | Vambrace | Leather | Scale |
| Ninja | Shuriken | Quitar | Estique |
| Kunoichi | Kunai | Quitar | Estique |
| Sorceress | Talisman | Helrick | Jubre |
| Witch | Dagger | Bronze | Steel |
| Wizard | Dagger | Bronze | Steel |
| Tamer | Trinket | Incense | Needle |
Accuracy is simply the best for many, many reasons. The first of which?
YOU DO ZERO DAMAGE IF YOU MISS.
MASSIVE ACCURACY from one single item! Aside from that, you get a DECENT AMOUNT OF AP and a DECENT AMOUNT OF DP – and a total Renown Score higher than other offhands!
It’s just an insurmountable pile of stats that other offhands can’t come close to.
Pure AP offhands are the only other possible viable option. Why? It’s nice to own one IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOURE DOING – against certain mob types, or at a certain level difference you can drop accuracy for a higher clear speed.
It’s up to you if you want to invest heavily into this. It’s nice to own IF YOU KNOW WHAT THE HELL YOU ARE DOING, and when to use it.
The scenarios where you NEED the accuracy offhand exist – and the
pure AP offhand WILL NOT HELP YOU in those scenarios.
The scenarios where you WANT the AP offhand rarely exist, and the Accuracy offhand WILL STILL HELP YOU SOMEWHAT in those cases!
It’s a WIN/WIN versus a WIN/LOSE. It’s a pretty clear cut choice for me.
Other unmentioned item types: Are simply outdated, meant for low levels, or outright WORSE than any of the viable types.
Pure DP options: Available to a few classes. Not bad, but only really good in niche scenarios (certain pvp scenarios, certain mob types…).
BDO Leveling Weapons – Why we DON’T use the others
I’d also like to add WHY dismissing some older, or oft heard leveling weapon recommendations are NOT UP TO PAR NOW. Here’s a few write-ups:
Rosar: Man, I understand WHY people recommend this but I simply can’t agree.
“It has two slots!” Two slots will almost never shore up its weaknesses versus any other weapon. If you use crystals worth millions it may come close. BUT – you forget that almost any other weapon has ONE SLOT. People usually talk about Rosar’s two slots as if its +2 versus other weapons.
“Great set bonus” Worst statement ever. The set bonus is great for PVP but you’re GIVING UP THE ACCURACY OFFHAND to complete the set bonus! Also, it’s purely a PVP set bonus as reducing monster resists is trash! For those confused, it’s talking about CC RESISTANCES! In grinding – this is irrelevant!
Other weapon types?? Are either not worth mentioning at all, or quite simply OUTDATED weapon types that need an in-game update. I assume these are in for a rework, or I hope so, because as it stands now some weapon types are downright USELESS.
BDO Leveling weapons for alts, or for the rich
Here we talk about weapons that are options for those who aren’t leveling up the first time. Luckily Black Desert has systems in place to make leveling alts very easy.
| Other | Min AP | Max AP | Avg AP | Ex AP | Adj AP | Eff AP | Slot | Impt Note |
| Black Abyss | 77 | 91 | 84 | 0 | 0 | 84 | 2 | FREE |
| Liverto | 81 | 94 | 87.5 | 0 | 0 | 87.5 | 2 | Stats!!! |
| Kzarka | 94 | 98 | 96 | 17 | 14.45 | 110.45 | 2 | King. |
| Bares | 79 | 87 | 83 | 22 | 18.7 | 101.7 | 1 | All Species |
| Yuria | 84 | 93 | 88.5 | 22 | 18.7 | 107.2 | 1 | Human Only |
Remember: You can pass down armor to alts, too.
Black Abyssal Weapon: Is great for leveling alts (to get inventory slots from the main story quest). Its power lies in between the average PRI and DUO – for free! Once you get your first Black Abyssal Weapon, you can “reroll” it to a new type once a week. This is best “low cost” option for alts that you’re not sure you want to invest further in!
Liverto: I honestly cannot personally recommend this. It handily beats any of the green weapons at equal upgrade tiers, at the expense of the sheer cost of MONEY. If you’re rich, why not? The only time I used Liverto was for Shortsword – as I can use it to level a Tamer, Ninja, and Kunoichi!
Hand-me-downs: For example you want to level an alt for boss hunting near Heidel, and you main a Valkyrie – simply passing your Longsword to your Warrior alt while leveling is a perfectly valid option. Thank god for no soulbound, ey? In this case passing down boss gear such as Kzarka, Kutum, etc is VALUE.
BDO Leveling Weapons – Summary & All you need to know
Bares just plain works EVERYWHERE. No BS.
Kalis works as the PERFECT backup weapon due to its high RS. You can also use it every now and then as an experiment whether the RS gains “push you to new heights”. If you main weapon blows up or ends up as PRI due to upgrade roulette – you can “cover” with your Kalis easily.
Yuria is great for PVP and human grinding – by quite a margin. The restriction however, is not something a lot of people are willing to suffer. But it is just so powerful in those scenarios that it’s worth calling it “equal” to Kalis.
What would I do personally, if I could rewind time?
Mainhand:
Bares, with Kalis as backup.
Offhand:
Accuracy, with Pure AP as a side-project.
Well that’s about it for the best weapon choices for leveling up, or new players starting out in Black Desert Online. I know there’s a lot of confusing things to newbies in this game, but hopefully this little guide helped you out to “NOT WASTE” resources upgrading a dead-end weapon.
The reason why Elsh isn’t considered is because of its scarcity (it doesn’t drop from NPCs; the only source of Elsh weapons is from a beginner quest and any crafters putting them up on the Marketplace). While it does have fantastic accuracy (and could be appropriately paired with either the accuracy or AP subweapon) its scarcity is going to be a problem with regards to durability recovery after failed upgrades. It’s basically a yellow-grade weapon in terms of accuracy and scarcity with green-grade damage, and while it’s certainly cheaper than any yellow-grade weapon, this is only while supplies last. Most of the time I’d suspect you’d be running around with an Elsh weapon beyond +7 with something less than full durability.
I’m just wondering why Elsh isn’t really considered? It’s nearly on par with bares damage-wise in PvE, does more damage in PvE and PvP than Kalis (since All Species dmg was also revealed to harm players), and has the same accuracy as Kzarka.
I’ts already way toooo late for me….cost billion on sh!t.
Thanks for the guide BTW. I hope this help new player and not become like me who waste 3 months of life
Or me: who has one of each at pri bc he likes the pretty colors and cant make up his mind. Lol.
The best advise I can give is to prioritize that Kzark weapon above all in beginning bc no matter which of these greenies you choose you will want and need the Zark. Watch for price dips , sales , market flooding , and have that cost as your first big goal preferably to use before you awaken .