So, this happened…
And is it a doozy.
Enhancing in Black Desert is a mixed bag, dependent on who you ask. Some people detest it, while others play because of it. Some are very keen, and choose not to interact with the system at all; a side that I tend to lean on for the most part (though Deboreka enhancing hasn’t been too bad for me). Some will simply do it for profit.
The fact of the matter is that enhancing is a core part of Black Desert, and it always will be. Even if you aren’t interacting with it, it will always interact with you.
Throughout the years, Pearl Abyss has given players so many different ways of making enhancing much easier, or even free to do. The amount of +100 Advice of Valks is plentiful, even up to +150. Cron Stones are given out like candy, and there’s an abundant amount of rewards that set you up for the endgame very nicely. The recent TET Blackstar weapon is a prime example of this, as this not only gives new players a way to jump right into the midgame with an excellent, future best in slot weapon, but a whole process being skipped by just obtaining it.
About 6 months ago, they also gave away multiple J’s Hammers of Loyalty. This allows a risk-free attempt at enhancing a weapon or armor piece. No risk of losing your progress, no strings attached. They’ve done this for quite a while now, but this past giveaway was the first time they’ve given multiple in such a short stint. Pretty much any time a Heidel Ball or Calpheon Ball comes around, we can expect to receive these hammers in some capacity.
CATCH! pic.twitter.com/dT3o1SoqWk
— Black Desert Online PC (@NewsBlackDesert) April 7, 2024
This event is much, much different.
For an April Fools event, Pearl Abyss teased a new hammer, but none of us really believed it, because that’s kind of how April Fools jokes work, right?
Until April 3rd came around, and the J’s Hammer of Precision was introduced.
The first big thing is that this hammer works on accessories. This is absolutely massive. This kind of item has never existed before for accessories, and that alone could save so much silver for people shooting for endgame items. Secondly, this hammer also prevents a failed attempt to downgrade your accessory.
Now, normally, when using Cron Stones, the accessory will never break. However, there is a decent chance that it could go down one level. At the endgame, even having something like a Deboreka accessory downgrade can be painful, especially when going for PEN. J’s Hammer of Precision effectively lets you freeroll. No ifs, ands, or buts, as long as you have an appropriate failstack to reasonably make the attempt.
Two Birds with One (very large) stone
Oh, yeah, did I mention that these hammers are tradeable on the Central Market!?
Everything about the function of this shiny new hammer is what we mostly would expect, but the fact that you can sell these on the market is unprecedented. At the time of this writing, there are quite a bit sitting on the market at about 25 billion silver, but with the price range being 20 bil to 50 bil, who’s to say that it won’t go up? And who knows how much we’ll get in supply of these? For someone like me, 25 bil per PEN Deboreka attempt is very much worth it. So worth it, in fact, that I plan on buying as many of these as I can while I finish my Debo journey. At my gear (About 710 gearscore), I can make almost 2 billion an hour if I’m a bit above average at the endgame, so only about 12 hours of grinding will get me an attempt at a BiS accessory.
Easy peasy.
For the newer player, however, 25 bil is nothing to scoff at. That’s enough to catapult you to an extremely good piece of gear or two, like a TET Black Distortion Earring, or most of the way toward an Infinite HP and MP potion combo. You can invest it into starting your Debo journey early. You can make a lot of progress toward your Fallen God set. A new player’s 25 billion has way more mileage than my 25 billion.
So, what should one do?
Personally, I’m going to hang on to mine and change my previous TET Debo journey into a PEN one. As previously mentioned, it’s only 12-ish hours for me to get a hammer at the current prices, which is a lot less time than it would have been with average luck before. With no risk of downgrading, I only have to grind 1 Debo per attempt once I do get TET, and with Debos being easier than ever to obtain, this is incredibly motivating for me to continue improving my gear.
For a new player, I wouldn’t sell it just yet. They did just come out, and I have a feeling that prices will start to rise again after about a month or so. If you can stand the wait, I could tuck it away in storage until the time is right. They don’t seem to have an expiration date, and the event lasts until November of this year, so you have an eternity to collect it. With the requirement being 200 hours played, level 61, and The Mediah story done, if you’re serious about progression, this will be a huge help.
