Essential Tips and Tricks

It’s incredibly easy to get overwhelmed in Crimson Desert. From a massive continent like Pywel that dwarfs other open-world giants to a combat system that feels more like a fighting game than a traditional RPG, there is a steep learning curve to Kliff's journey. We’ve spent dozens of hours mastering traversal, the unusual control scheme, and the deep character-swapping mechanics for Damiane and Oongka to bring you 34 of the most essential things you need to know before you take your first step out of Hernand.

In this Crimson Desert beginner's guide, we cover everything from vital inventory management hacks (like how to stop picking up useless garden hoes) to the secrets of the "Observation" skill system. Learn how to maximize your power through the blacksmith's refining process, why you should be "Yoshi-ing" off cliffs with Force Palm for vertical height, and the surprisingly lax rules of the game’s crime and bounty system. We also break down how to manage your Greymane camp and how to unfog large chunks of the map.

Beginner’s Guide: 34 Tips for Getting Started in Crimson Desert

Managing Your Inventory Space Early On is Crucial

Managing your inventory may be easier now than it was at release, but it can still be easy to want to pick up every little thing you see and end up with a full inventory fast than you think.

So, try to keep only what you need. Avoid taking tools that you’re not actively planning on using, like Fishing Rods, Shovels, Garden Hoes, Mallets, etc. Unless you’re looking to craft a specific potion, don’t pick up every bug, herb, or piece of food that you see. Instead, consider dropping a marker at the location and making a mental note to return to it when you know what you want to craft with that material.

With that said, you should always keep at least a few inventory slots open for a Pickaxe (or Mining Drill), a Lumber Axe, ores such as Iron and Copper, Timber, and Animal Hides, as these are all core materials that you’ll need to upgrade your equipment—which we’ll touch on next.

Remember that as of patch 1.00.03, there is now a Storage Box that holds 240 items (as well as storing items you may have forgotten to loot after a battle. Before Chapter 3, it can be found at a Freeswords Tent just outside Hernand Castle on the north side. After building the Greymane Camp on Howling Hill, you can find it moved there instead.

We also highly recommend keeping a variety of animal meats on hand, as their simplest versions can typically be cooked without needing a ton of different ingredients, and will still offer a fairly decent health recovery. Generally speaking, anything with a healing capacity around 60+ will be totally usable for the first four to five Chapters. Trust us, you’re going to need a lot of food.

As you explore Hernand Town, you’ll also find that certain vendors such as the Provisioner’s Shop, Butchery, Confessional, and the Inn—just to name a few—will sell a very limited supply of Small Bags that you can purchase for a minor fee to increase your inventory space by one if you’re urgently in need of a bit more.

As you continue through the game, completing Quests and Side Quests will increase your inventory little by little, so you’ll get a little more leeway with this general rule of thumb. Still, when you’re just starting out, you should absolutely be picky about what you decide to put in your inventory, and don’t be shy about discarding or selling things that you don’t currently have any use for. Unless it’s a unique weapon or piece of equipment, most items will be easily obtainable again.

Refining Equipment is an Absolute Must

Refining your equipment is the main way you’ll increase your character’s power to better handle the increased difficulty of enemies as the game progresses. To start refining your equipment, you’ll want to complete the Blacksmith’s optional introductory quest ‘Turnali's Request‘, which you’ll find not too far from the center of Hernand Town. Speak with the Smithy and he’ll ask you to bring him some Timber, which you can get by cutting down a tree. Once the short errand is complete, the ability to begin crafting and refining will be unlocked.

Your starting weapon, the Sword of the Wolf, is actually a great weapon to keep around, and you can start refining it pretty much right away. If you want to get an early leg up, we recommend heading directly north of Hernand Castle, where you’ll find the Cairn House. The main vendor here sells Iron and Copper ore at reasonable prices, which you can use to upgrade your gear early on.

In general, though, always make it a habit to keep an eye out for Iron and Copper ore veins and animals to hunt while you’re out adventuring. Then, when you come back to town, make a stop at the Blacksmith to upgrade your gear as much as you can.

Your Skills Have Multiple Uses

Fairly early on in the game, Kliff will gain the ability to use a technique called Force Palm. When completing the tutorial for this move, you’ll learn that it can also be used to activate switches, as well as move objects to solve puzzles, and even briefly stun enemies while in combat.

But, perhaps the most important use of Force Palm is using it to gain some vertical height. When you’re in the air, you can activate Force Palm up to three times to get some massive airtime. This is extremely useful when it comes to scaling vertical cliffs, cutting down on the amount of time you’d spend traveling by having to follow a path around and up a mountain. It also goes hand in hand with air-to-ground abilities like the flying kick, meteor kick, and body slam.

You can also use it as a quick way to mine ore veins, even while you're gripped onto the wall without the need for a pickaxe or drill! Just know that it will push you off the wall if you’re not holding on.

Axiom Force can also be used in a variety of ways as well, though for this, you’ll need to unlock some skills in the tree. Upgrade Axiom Force to level two, and you’ll be able to get Aerial Maneuver, which is a vital movement skill that lets you pull and zip yourself to a location, Spider-Man style. Just know that this technique costs a whopping 200 stamina, so you’ll first need to ensure you’ve spent some Abyss Artifacts to upgrade your stamina, otherwise you won’t be able to use it at all.

Understanding the Skill Tree

Crimson Desert is a bit unique in that there’s no traditional level-up system. Instead, you’ll gain what are known as Abyss Artifacts as you defeat enemies in battle, complete certain side missions, and solve the many Abyss Cresset puzzles strewn all around Pywel. These artifacts can be used as a very valuable currency to do one of typically three things: Add a skill point to a skill on the skills menu; add a stat point in either Health, Stamina, or Spirit; or they can be used to refine your gear, once you get it to a high enough level where just ore and other simple materials won’t suffice.

The skill tree itself is a bit unusual as well, as you can really upgrade anything you want, right out of the gate, barring a few exceptions. You don’t need to start at the bottom and work your way up. We do highly recommend though that you have at least some idea of the playstyle you want to employ in combat.

If you fancy yourself more of a ranged fighter, go ahead and put down some upgrades into your bow skills. Want to hurl people around, perform some RKO’s from out of nowhere, and even chain together throws like you’re King from Tekken? Then we recommend maxing out grappling before you even look at anything else. Ultimately, how you choose to play and engage in combat is entirely up to you.

Ring Bell Towers to Unfog the Map

As you enter notable towns and new regions, be sure to keep your eyes peeled for Bell Towers—you’ll often notice these appear as bell icons on your mini-map. When ringing these towers, you’ll summon a Shai, who will then unfog a large portion of the region, revealing vendor locations, notable points of interests, as well as roads, which can be super helpful in plotting your path towards future objectives. It won’t show you everything, though, so you’ll still have to do some travel on foot or horseback if you want to spot ore veins, hidden collectibles, shops, etc.

Generally, most Bell Towers can be found in major towns and cities, or at notable locations such as the Research Institute. So, make sure to do a deep sweep every time you visit one.

Fast Travel Exists, But Some Spots are Hidden

One particular Point of Interest that you’ll always want to explore is the large “?” circles that you’ll find scattered all across the map—these will typically only appear once you stumble close enough to them. These mysterious areas hide Abyss technology, either in the form of an Abyss Nexus or an Abyss Cresset.

Abyss Nexuses are simply fast travel points that become activated once you stand on them. Abyss Cressets, on the other hand, are sometimes a bit more involved as they are typically accompanied by a puzzle that you’ll need to solve or a hidden place that you need to discover before you can access the fast travel spot.

While there are endless activities to explore and partake in, we highly recommend making these mysterious locations a priority to check out as soon as you discover them, as unlocking their fast travel spots will make traversing Crimson Desert’s gigantic map incredibly easier. You’ll also hugely benefit from the Abyss Artifacts that are rewarded for solving these puzzles and/or discovering secret places.

Understanding the Crime System

One odd thing about Crimson Desert is that it’s generally pretty lax about you being a kleptomaniac. To get the option to steal, all you have to do is find a mask. They’re a dime a dozen, fortunately, and can be found either by completing the first Bounty Hunting mission for Jeffrey, simply looting one off the body of a Bleed Bandit, or even by purchasing one from the Back Alley Merchant that’s just south of the Church in Hernand.

When stealing behind closed doors in the privacy of an empty building, you are free to steal to your heart's content as everything there will be fair game. Upon stealing, a theft meter will appear in the top right corner of the screen. As long as you don’t enter a public space with witnesses while the meter is active—even if they didn’t see you commit the crime—you’ll remain completely free of all fines and crimes.

Committing crimes in public works a little bit differently, as it’s crucial that you take note of the red “crime zone” ring that appears around your immediate area—the more substantial the crime, the larger the ring will be. Escaping this ring before the crime meter depletes will see you getting away scot-free.

Crimes in Crimson Desert aren’t entirely consequence free, as even though you may have managed to escape, you will always lose a small amount of Faction Contribution. In our testing, the amount lost is almost negligible, as a simple Side Quest or a few donations to beggars is usually more than enough to make up for any losses you might have incurred. Still, if you want to trade in Contribution Points for region-exclusive gear, it will take longer the more you steal (and yes your rating can go into the negatives!)

Whenever you commit a crime, a red ring will expand around the site of the act. The more substantial the crime, the larger the ring will be. Simply escape the red ring before this meter depletes, and you’ll get away scot-free. If you don’t, you’ll either get a fine, or if your fine gets large enough, a bounty will be placed on you. Once you’ve got a bounty, guards will start seeking you out and will attempt to tackle you. If they succeed, it's straight to jail to pay your fine and serve your sentence.

If you’d prefer to absolve your sins, you can clear your bounty by going to a nearby church and buying a Writ of Absolution.

Make Use of the Contribution Shop

By being a good Greymane – completing Quests, Side Quests, and exploring new regions – you will increase your reputation in an area, thereby earning you a currency known as “Contribution.” Contributions can be spent at the Contribution Shop, the first of which can be found just beyond the castle gate in Hernand.

You can use Contributions to purchase some solid gear early on. Once you decide to sell them back, you’ll even get the contribution that you spent refunded to you, allowing you to ditch outdated gear and purchase something better at another store deeper into the game. Just make sure not to steal too much, or it will take longer to gain more points.

Keep Your Equipment in Tip-Top Shape

As you explore, you’ll eventually stumble across Grindstones and Anvils at random camps throughout the world and outside of Blacksmith shops. When you find these, we highly recommend stopping and using them, as they’ll not only sharpen your weapons, but also strengthen your armor.

Grindstones will temporarily increase your weapon’s attack power, while Anvils will temporarily increase your armor’s defense—these stats can both be tracked when inspecting the item via your Inventory. If the stat isn’t displayed, chances are it has run out and you’ll need to pay another visit to the tools. Ensuring your gear is well maintained, especially before facing big boss fights, can potentially make a notable impact on your success.

Resetting Your Skill Tree

Respeccing in Crimson Desert can be done at any time in the Skill Tree menu by holding Square/X/F. Before you do so though, you just need to ensure you have a Faded Abyss Artifact available, which can sometimes be rewarded from Challenges and Main Quests. While these artifacts aren’t unlimited, you should still feel empowered to experiment with your skills, or if you feel like you made a mistake.

For example, buying a skill that you don’t have enough Stamina or Spirit for, you can fix that real quick. Skills that you learned through observation will forever be unlocked for you, so no need to worry about spending any more artifacts to unlock them.

Handling the Food Situation

Food is an important resource in Crimson Desert as it’s the main way that you’ll be healing yourself. As such, you’ll never want to set off on a Quest without a healthy supply—and by healthy supply, we mean at very least 10-15 reasonably restoring meals. If you’re low on Silver, your best option is to seek out some animals to hunt in the wild. You’ll get a good amount of meat that you can then grill at any cooking spot to get a nice supply of healing consumables.

Another option is to simply stock up on pre-made meals at the local Inn. This can be a bit pricey, but it is well worth the time saved from not having to set out solely to hunt for food.

And finally, if you want to get fancy and heal a bunch of health in just a single go, you can go ingredient hunting with your fancy recipes and do some Field Pot or Field Grill Cooking. Though, we probably recommend saving these meals for big boss fights.

It’s very important to note though, that you don’t need to have a recipe to make a certain dish. If you already know what you want to make and have the ingredients on hand, you can improvise instead. If you make a meal three times while improvising, you’ll unlock the recipe and be able to quickly select it in the menu.

Your Lantern Will Guide the Way

To help pinpoint new Points of Interest, light and equip your Lantern and then press LB/L1 to cast the light around your environment—we’ve found this is often best done when standing on a cliff overlooking vast surroundings of the map. Doing so will sometimes reveal bright golden orbs throughout the world, both nearby and in the distance. These orbs indicate new secrets or Points of Interest that you can discover. While some orbs will lead to Challenges such as Sealed Abyss Artifacts, others will lead you to ancient ruins with a puzzle to solve, and even Abyss Nexuses to activate.

Letting your lantern pinpoint these locations can help save you from aimlessly wandering around looking for them.

Damiane and Oongka

Over the course of your adventure with Kliff, you’ll eventually unlock two additional playable characters: Damiane and Oongka. Damiane unlocks early on in Chapter 3, while Oongka won’t be playable until much later in the story in Chapter 7. So, how does character switching work?

Once you unlock a new character, you can switch to them by holding Up on the D-Pad and selecting their portrait. Then, in GTA-style, the perspective will switch over to the other character wherever they currently are in the world. Each character has their own skill tree, and your spent artifacts on one character’s skill do not carry over to another. However, the stat upgrades that you spent your Abyss Artifacts on do carry over, so Kliff, Damiane, and Oongka will all have the same Health, Stamina, and Spirit upgrades.

Each character will also have their own character-specific Quests to complete, and you should generally try to get these knocked out when they appear, because at certain points of the story, you will not be able to switch characters for an extended period of time, as you’ll be stuck completing Kliff’s Main Questline.

As for each character’s playstyle, Damiane is much more agile and relies on rapiers and quick movements. Plus, she’s got an Izuna drop. Oongka, on the other hand, is an absolute brute, with slower, heavier, and much more devastating attacks and skills.

You’ll be playing most of the game as Kliff, so that’s where the majority of your Abyss Artifacts should go, but if you want to complete some of the character-specific Side Quests, that’s as good an opportunity as any to use some of your Faded Abyss Artifacts to respec and check out the skills that Damiane and Oongka bring to the table.

Expanding the Greymane’s Howling Hill Camp

In Chapter 3, you’ll secure a plot of land at Howling Hill that will eventually turn into the Greymane’s home base. There is a lot to unpack here, as you can expand your camp drastically through Quests and eventually unlock your very own Vendors, Farm, Ranch, and Barber. There are a lot of important things that you can do here that you should know about. So, here’s a quick rundown.

First off, it’s a great one-stop shop to get equipped for a lengthy mission. There’s a Cook who will sell you ready-made meals and ingredients, a Blacksmith who sells gear, weapons, and ammo refills for your ranged weapons, along with a nearby Cooking Pot for you to make some recipes. Any unwanted equipment can also be sold off at any of the vendors. Furthermore, if you can manage to max out the trust of the various shops in Hernand Town, by either greeting them once per day or giving them gifts, you can actually purchase special Trade Agreements that allow you to buy their inventory directly from the relevant merchant at your camp.

As you build up your camp by rescuing Greymanes via Faction Quests, you can eventually send them out on Missions to increase your camp funds and resources, construct statues, weaken outposts, and collect a variety of other rewards.

You’ll need camp funds and certain skills on your Greymanes to take on a lot of these missions. We’d recommend having your greymanes take on these two protection missions whenever you’re low on funds, and just leave them running in the background to amass some wealth. You’ll unlock new skills for your Greymanes by upgrading your camp, and you’ll upgrade your camp by completing camp-related sidequests, like those that fall into the Embers of Return category.

Take Advantage of the Pet System Immediately

Despite receiving a Quest deep into the game that teaches you all about having a pet, you can actually get yourself one pretty much from the get-go. All you have to do is gain the affection of one of the domesticable animals by petting it or feeding it to fill its trust meter. Petting the animal will increase its trust by five, and can be done five times per day; feeding meat on the other hand, increases the animal’s trust by 20, with a maximum of three feeds per day. So altogether, it shouldn’t take more than two days to secure yourself a pet.

Pets are great to have around, as they will automatically loot items off the ground, which is especially handy when you’re mining ore. Just be aware that it may lead to you filling up your inventory with junk real quick after a battle against a ton of enemies, so just be ready to offload your excess junk often if you decide to have a pet.

Save Some Coin and Catch a Wild Horse

In the market for a new horse? Try your luck at taming a wild one to save some coin! If you're quick enough and can catch up to one of the rather skittish horses in the wild, you'll have the option to ride them. When jumping on, you'll be presented with a mini-game as the horse attempts to buck you off.

To successfully tame a wild horse, you will need to point the left analog stick in the direction of the horse’s tail in order to try and keep your weight balanced as it bucks. If you manage to stay on and fill the yellow bar completely, the horse will be tamed, and you'll be prompted with its stats, along with the options to "Register and Ride", "Register and send to Stable", or simply "Ride" if you don't wish to add the horse to your collection.

Other Quick Tips and Tricks

Finally, let’s round this out with a handful of other quick tips about things that will help you along your journey:

• The Mining Knuckledrill—which you receive during the House Roberts Side Quest ‘Stolen Quarry’—will see you gaining the ability to mine while clinging onto cliff faces. You can do this by holding L2+R1, and then R1 (LT, RT, and RB).
• When you catch a fish, if you hover over it in your inventory and hold the X/A button down, you’ll get the option to clean the fish and turn them into fillets—which are important for certain recipes. You can also do this to use all of a stacked item, like coin pouches.

• Palmar Pills are quick revives that can bring you back to life from the game over screen. They can be found all throughout the world, or they can also be brewed in a cauldron if you find the recipe in this cave near the start of the game.
• You can cut down trees in a single blow by pressing R1+R2/RB+RT at the same time with your weapon equipped. The only thing you need an axe for is the final step, where you turn the cut-down log into timber. While it is possible to cut the logs into timber with a well placed sword strike, we’ve found that the axe is a lot more consistent and precise.
• You can get behind waterfalls by simply using the Stab ability, which can be performed by pressing R1+Triangle/RB+Y/LSHIFT+RMB at the same time. If you don’t have any Abyss Artifacts to spend, you can also opt to unlock Stab via ‘Watch and Learn’ during the first phase of the Reed Devil boss fight.

• You can rest at any bed to pass the time and restore your life in Crimson Desert, but there is a cooldown on how much you can rest. So, it’s not possible to just continuously pass the time and quickly clear the time-based Missions that you send your Greymanes out to complete.

• Almost everything in Crimson Desert can be climbed. While there are some exceptions, you'll find that nearly every wall, cliff, tree, and building is climbable. But, just be sure you have the stamina for it.

• When exploring taverns and residential areas, be on the lookout for scroll icons that may appear on your minimap. These icons represent recipes you can find and learn. While recipe scrolls are practically useless once learnt, don't go throwing them away, as they can be stowed in your inventory and later sold at vendors for a pretty penny. Collecting and selling recipes early on is a great way to earn some quick coin when starting out.
• Earned yourself a Bounty and need help remaining unseen? Keep your eyes peeled when you’re around farm land, as you can hide from search guards inside large piles of hay.
• When picking up cats in the open world, you can use R2/RT/RMB to pet it. Pet or feed the same animal until you reach 100 Trust to unlock it as a companion.

• You can complete bounties before picking up their related Bounty Flyer. So, keep an eye out if you get a prompt to tackle a suspicious-looking NPC, as there's a good chance they’re a bounty, and can be turned in for a cash reward. If you have a dog as a companion, it’ll even stop and begin barking at suspects as you stumble across them throughout the world, even if you haven’t collected their related Bounty Flyer.
• Much of the environment around Pywel is highly breakable. So, use this to your advantage by using Push and Shield Bash to send enemies off cliffs and even through bridge railings. Be careful, though, as enemies can do the same to you!
• When in possession of a bounty, if you throw them off a cliff, they will die and you won't be able to take them to jail. Once you leave the area of their death and go far enough away, the mission will fail and restart.

• Left notable items behind such as Power Cores? You can purchase them back via the Recover Items section of your Base Camp Provisions Keeper’s shop, which is run by Carl.
• Be on the lookout for Strongboxes. These little wooden boxes, often found on shelves in wealthy areas, can reward upwards of 4.8 Silver or more when opened.
• Be mindful when swimming, especially across lengthy stretches, as it drains your stamina quickly, and the only way to restore it while in the water is to consume a stamina boost through either a Meal or an Elixir. If your stamina runs out, you'll begin taking significant damage and will die after a few hits.

• As you explore the world of Pywel, be sure to always mine ore veins you spot. Mining these will unlock their icons on the map, so you can revisit them in the future.
• Once you get your horse up to a gallop, you can preserve its stamina by tapping the run button and letting the bar refill a little bit between each tap.