Black Desert Online’s Heidel Ball is currently underway in Southern California, marking only the second time that the MMORPG has held a Ball in the United States since its launch of NA and EU servers 10 years ago. During the event, Pearl Abyss, the game’s developer studio and publisher, announced its new class: Agent.
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Who is Agent?
After nine years of teasing the new class, BDO’s 32nd class is Agent. Named Edward Henry Canary. His story can be traced back to 2017’s quest to acquire Gannicus’s Magic Bullet and the “Magic Bullet of Last Hope” knowledge that came in the Tarif update. These two things were hints that Pearl Abyss developers put in for this new class.
The class’s representative character’s backstory is ultimately tied to Deadeye, Olivia Lucy Canary. After a light introduction under the name Eddie in the webcomic released for Deadeye, now players get to know more about him. Separated from his sister after a tragedy, his introduction picks up their story.
A bookworm in childhood, Edward is now a gunslinger. Sharing the same weapon as Deadeye, the revolver, Agent is more focused on the idea of espionage. Where Deadeye is John Wayne, Edward is geared to be more like James Bond, or at least that’s the vibe.
Where Deadeye became an outlaw, Edward went into counterintelligence. Which, of course, sets the stage for his reveal trailer where he fights with Deadeye, orchestrated by none other than Marni.
Having been trained by mad scientist Salvatore Marni, the Marni of Earth. Agent’s character design took this piece of lore to build out his costume, with a focus on the meaning of “Gannicus” in BDO, with direct inspiration being taken from the signature Sorceress robe. The opposite of his sister, Edward’s style is clean-cut and tailored uniforms instead of Deadeye’s outlaw style.
The class’s weapons are focused around his main revolver, grenades, and hexrounds. But even with his many weapon specialties, Agent isn’t an Ascension path class. Ultimately, Agent was designed with Succession and Awakening Paths in mind. Putting a focus on solving AOE damage and crowd control with a revolver instead of magic.
What are Agent’s skills?
Agent’s combat style is focused on quick combat that switches from melee to ranged combat. A hybrid character, not focused on firing quickly, but rather delivering a heavy blow with each shot – like anyone who loves the Desert Eagle in an FPS.
Deadeye’s main purpose is to run-n-gun and keep mid-range pressure constantly, using her quick attacks to suppress enemies. That said, the class’s focus is on strategy and assassination – one hit, one kill, if you can.
- Weapon: Revolver – a low-caliber revolver with explosive rounds that take one small point of damage and expand into an AOE attack.
- Sub-Weapon: Hexround – a partner on the battlefield that provides support in combat. The strength of this secondary weapon is that it allows players to string together skills from both weapons.
- Special Ability: Gannicus’s Hexround, Bulletstorm: A reinterpretation of Deadeye’s skill to connect the two classes.
- Grenades: Escape grenades made for rolls and dodges.
Class Signature Skill:
- Blink: Used to infiltrate, the skill teleports Agent to a targeted location within a set range, with a balancing delay worked into the second immediately after the teleport.
Revolver Signature Skills:
- Run N’ Gun: A skill made to close gaps quickly in order to land two shots
- Mozambique Drill: Stuns enemy movement to allow the player to apply a finisher – two shots to the body and one to the head of an enemy.
- Other Skills: Bullet of Truth, Concealed Weapon, Reaper’s Barrage, Last Words, Suppressive Shot
Hexround Signature Skills:
- Hexround Engage: Setting the Hexround to track and suppress the target enemy.
- Reaper’s Mercy: A final hit to a downed enemy
Grenades skill:
- Demolition Operation
Is Agent an Ascension Path class?
Agent isn’t just a new class that BDO announced at Heidel Ball 2026. The class is also introducing a new release model for classes going forward for the MMO. Each new class will be following two paths that aren’t Ascension. First, Pearl Abyss will launch the Succession Path in the Summer, and then the Awakening Path will arrive next in Winter 2026.
This outline for BDO’s new classes means that there will be only one new class each year, with the Succession Path spec releasing in the Summer, and then the Awakening Path spec will follow in the Winter of the same year.
While this does mean that classes will slow down, the goal of the 12-year-old MMORPG (10 years in NA/EU) is to focus more on refining class balance instead of adding new classes. Which, at this point, with 32 classes, seems like the right call.
