Black Desert How to Grind Knowledge
A guide to the Black Desert Online Conversation minigame and gaining Amity.
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Conversation Basics
Amity
Every NPC in Black Desert have something called Amity, a measure how of they like you. You gain Amity primarily by engaging in a conversation with them, which costs energy. Additionally, you can gain amity by waving at them via F1 but that it isn't very energy efficient.
Getting higher Amity with NPCs rewards you. NPCs will share knowledge, have additional conversations, give you new quests and even offer you special items via their shop. To check what Amity for each NPC give you, interact with them and look at the Amity wheel on the bottom left. Beware that for items you can purchase when you have reached a certain Amity, you will lose that Amity when you buy the item.
Knowledge
Engaging in a conversion with a NPC requires knowledge, which is gained via interacting with other NPCs, killing mobs etc. Each NPC has a specific field of knowledge they are interested in and they will only talk to you if you meet the minimum amount of knowledge required for a conversation (usually 5, depends on their zodic sign). You cans see the knowledge they are interested in when you interact with them. The NPC below for examples is interested in knowledge about Serendia Adventure Journal II. If you don't have enough knowledge topics the conversation button will be greyed out.
Energy
Engaging in a conversion costs energy. It is usually 2 energy per conversation at the beginning but this cost increases as you gain more Amity with the NPC. The conversation button will tell you the energy required for a conversation and the total amount of energy you have. In the example below it takes 2 energy per conversation and I have a total of 63 energy available.You gain1 energy every 3 minutes and can increase the maximum via questing.
Conversation Mini Game Mechanics
The Conversation Mini game to gain Amity can be very confusing both through confusing design and bad localization.
Interest Level/Sparking Interest
Sparking Interest is calculated by comparing the Interest Level of the NPC you are talking to (in this case Siuta) vs the Interest Level of the Knowledge you have selected in the Knowledge of Interest circle (in this example Lara). This is a simple % calculated by dividing the Interest Level of the Knowledge over the Interest Level of the NPC
- Lara the Knowledge you have selected, has an interest level of 19.
- Situa the NPC you are talking to, has an interest level of 31.
- 19/31 = 0.61 or 61%.
If the Interest Level of the Knowledge is higher than the Interest Level of the NPC you are talking to, then Sparking Interest will always be 100%.
Sparking Interest determines if the Knowledge you have selected will have an effect or not on the NPC. If you get a blue smiley face, it means that you have succeeded. If you get a grey frowny face, it means that you have failed. The % Sparking Interest determines which face you get.
Also note that Sparking Interest from one Knowledge can carry over to the next Knowledge. For example. If you place a Knowledge with a 100% Sparking Interest before a Knowledge with say 30% Sparking Interest on the Zodiac Sign, that 30% Knowledge will more likely to succeed than if you place the 30% Knowledge in front of the 100% Knowledge.
One last thing to note is that the Interest Level of the NPC can change between conversations. This is usually a small range such as having an Interest Level of 31 one conversation and Interest Level 34 the next conservation. It is a very small RNG factor. Interest Level of the Knowledge remains the same.
Favor/Interest
The term Interest here is confusing because it has nothing to do with the Interest Levels and the Sparking Interest mentioned above. Rather it is the difference between two Favors. Interest is calculated by (Favor of the Knowledge – Favor of the NPC). So if we take look at the Situa/Lara example above again
- Lara the Knowledge you have selected has 45-50 Favor
- Siuta the NPC you have selected has 25 Favor
- (45-50) – 25 = 20-25, which is the Interest of the Knowledge. This is a random number range that we will roll in the conversation.
Accumulated Favor Level/Maximum Favor Level
Now that you know Interest Level,Sparking Interest, Favor and Interest, it is time to look at Accumulated Favor Level (AFL) and Maximum Favor Level (MFL). To do this, we need an example conversation and keep the following formula in mind.
- MFL = Previous MFL + Current Interest roll
- AFL = Previous AFL + Current MFL.
We will pick 5 Knowledge in the following sequence.
- Dora Fonti: 8-11 Interest
- Lara: 20-25 Interest
- Joel: 5-15 Interest
- Vangelas: 0-0 Interest
- Melissa Brady: 15-17 Interest
Table Format
| Turn | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Knowledge | Dora | Lara | Joel | Vangelas | Melissa |
| Roll | 9 | 22 | 5 | 1 | 16 |
| MFL | 9 | 31 | 36 | 37 | 53 |
| AFL | 9 | 40 | 76 | 113 | 166 |
Dora: Dora has an Interest range of 8-11, in this conversation an Interest of 9 was rolled. Maximum Favor Level (MFL) is therefore 0+ 9 =9. (It is shown as 0 in the screenshot because Maximum Favor Level is always calculated one step behind the current Knowledge, which makes it confusing). The AFL is calculated as Previous AFL + Current MFL = 0 +9.
Lara: Lara has an Interest range of 20-25, in this conversation an Interest of 22 was rolled (you can't see the roll number but you can deduce it based on the ACL and MFL). MFL is therefore 9+ 22 = 31. AFL is 9+31 = 40.
Joel: Joel has an Interest range of 5-15, in this conversion an Interest of 5 was rolled. MFL is therefore 31 + 5 = 36. AFL is therefore 40 + 36 = 76.
Vangelas: Vangelas has an Interest range of 0-0 since he has a Favor lower than that of the NPC. This is a special case and the Knowledge will always roll 1 here. MFL is therefore 36 + 1 = 37. AFL is therefore 76 + 37 = 113.
Melissa Brady: Melissa has an Interest range of 15-17, in this conversation an interest of 16 was rolled. MFL is 37+16 = 53, AFL is 113 + 53 = 166. To show that MFL lags behind one step, notice that MFL in the screenshot jumps from 37 to 53 right before the conversation minigame finishes.
Simplified Example on AFL/MFL
The example above might be confusing the first time you go through it since there are many things to keep track of. To make this easier, here is a simplified example.
Lets assume the conversation has room for 4 Knowledge, so that is 4 rolls. All 4 rolls have Sparking Interest success.
Knowledge 1: Knowledge 1 rolls a 9 for Interest. Your MFL is Previous MFL + Current Interest roll = 0 + 9. Your AFL is Previous AFL + Current MFL so that is 0 +9 = 9 again. Interest: 9, MFL: 9, AFL: 9.
Knowledge 2: Knowledge 2 rolls a 10 for Interest. MFL= Previous MFL + Current Interest roll = 9 + 10 = 19. AFL = Previous AFL + Current MFL = 9 + 19 = 28. Interest:10, MFL:19, AFL: 28.
Knowledge 3: Knowledge 3 rolls a 8 for Interest. MFL = 19+ 8 = 27. AFL = 28+27 = 55.
Knowledge 4: Interest = 4, MFL = 27 + 4 = 31, AFL = 55 + 31 = 86
The confusing thing when you look at the ingame way of displaying AFL and MFL is that it doesn't tell you the Interest roll numbers (you have to deduce it based on the AFL and MFL) and the MFL is always lagging 1 round behind.
Sparking Interest Failure
Now that you know about AFL and MFL, lets talk about the effect of Sparking Interest Failure. Sparking Interest Failure resets you MFL, so your AFL remains the same as the previous Knowledge and your MFL is 0. Lets look at an example.
We will pick 5 Knowledge in the following sequence.
- Dora Fonti: 8-11 Interest, 77% Sparking Interest
- Flaviano: 19-22 Interest, 3% Sparking Interest
- Siuta: 15-17 Interest, 100% Sparking Interest
- Techthon: 20-21 Interest, 65% Sparking Interest
- Lebyos: 0-0 Interest, 100% Sparking Interest.
| Turn | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Knowledge | Dora | Flaviano | Siuta | Techthon | Lebyos |
| Roll | 10 | 0 | 15 | 20 | 1 |
| MFL | 10 | 0 | 15 | 35 | 36 |
| AFL | 10 | 10 | 25 | 60 | 96 |
As you can see, we had a failure in turn 2 with Flaviano. MFL was reset to 0. This means that AFL for that turn = 10 (previous AFL) + 0 (Current MFL) = 10. In Turn 3 we had a Sparking Interest success and rolled a 15. 15 then became the new MFL.
Combo Effects
Combo Effects is pretty confusing due to the wording. Lets take look at Amerigo,a Knowledge with a combo effect of "After 3 turns, Favor will be reduced by 3 for 2 turns". What this means is that, after 3 turns (including Amerigo's turn), the Favor of the NPC Suita will be reduced by 3 for 2 turns. The Favor here means Favor of the NPC, not the Knowledge.
If you hover over the last 2 Knowledge Spots, which is affected by the combo from Amerigo Knowledge, you will see a +3 in blue under Favor of the Knowledges that occupy them. This is basically the same as reducing the NPC's favor by 3.
Since most Combos only activate after a couple of turns and last for a few turns, it is advisable to place them in the front for the most benefit. Always check that the Knowledge with the combo has a high Sparking Interest since if the combo Knowledge has a Sparking failure it won't apply the combo.
Conversation Mini Game Strategy
Requirements
To succeed in the mini game, you must follow the requirement. Otherwise you will be kicked out of the mini game and not gain any Amity. There are four types of Requirements
Consecutive successes/failures
- Check the Sparking Interest of the Knowledge available and pick high% for consecutive success and low% for failures. Sometimes you can get screwed over if you don't have enough low & Sparking Interest Knowledge.
- If you are short on high % Knowledge and need to do Consecutive Success, place high % Knowledge right before the low% ones for the carry over effect.
Reach a certain Accumulated Favor Level (AFL)
- You want to place your Knowledge with the highest Interest and Sparking Interest % in front. The reason for this is that AFL adds by adding the previous AFL so if you have the big Favor numbers first they will get added multiple times.
Reach a Maximum Favor Level (MFL)
- The order of which you place the Knowledge does not matter for MFL. Pick your Knowledge with highest Interest/Sparking Interest. A single Sparking Interest failure can reset your Maximum Favor Level so beware of that.
Free Talk
- You can't really screw up this one. Try reach a high Accumulated Favor Level for more Amity.
Continuous Interact vs Exit
Continuous Interact requires no energy and give you bonus Amity but if you fail one of the Requirement you lose all the amity you have earned. If you don't have a good selection of Knowledge then you can play it safe and use Exit when you feel you have a high enough Amity and rather not take the risk of losing it.
You can only do Continuous Interact twice per conversation.
Amity Gain
There are no hard calculations for Amity Gain but it seems to be around 10% of the Accumulated Favor Level. In addition, if you do Continuous Interact, it appear to give you extra Amity.
If you have the same Zodiac sign as the NPC you will also gain extra Amity.
Black Desert How to Grind Knowledge
Source: http://dulfy.net/2016/03/04/black-desert-online-conversation-and-amity-guide/