Crimson Desert is finally here, and its massive open world of Pywel is as beautiful as it is overwhelming. With total freedom granted almost immediately, it’s easy to get lost in choice paralysis or miss out on game-changing upgrades hidden right under your nose. From finding a powerful secret shield at the very start to unlocking essential traversal abilities like flight and telekinesis, we’ve spent countless hours uncovering the systems the game doesn't explicitly explain.
Whether you're looking to expand your inventory, rob the local bank without getting caught, or even recruit a loyal pet to loot enemies for you, this guide covers the several essential things you should do first to master the early hours.
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Ring The Hernand Bell
If you look at the minimap while you explore the shops and alleys of Hernand, you might notice a bell icon that’s next to a tower in the center of town. Crimson Desert doesn’t directly tell you what that does, but it’s actually a crucially important mechanic that you should engage with as soon as possible.
If you climb to the top of the tower and ring the bell, the map will immediately populate with icons and helpful information, saving you plenty of time from having to walk directly up to the hundreds of question marks on the minimap. Ringing the bell doesn’t show you absolutely everything on the map, but it does show you a lot of what you need to get started by highlighting important places where you’re likely to find major side quests and characters.
As you explore Crimson Desert, make sure to keep an eye out for other bell towers in major cities, since you’ll realize just how helpful they are as soon as you ring your first in Hernand.
Hunt Down Mysterious Energy for Fast Travel Spots
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As you explore, you’ll notice areas marked down as “mysterious energy.” Once you see these spots on the map, it’s a good idea to make it a priority to check them out since many times they’ll be marking the location of Abyss Nexus, the fast travel points in Crimson Desert. Because of how large the map is in Crimson Desert, you’ll definitely want the option to fast travel when returning to major locations instead of making the trek on foot or horseback.
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You can find your first one as soon as you reach Hernand Town. Just past the inn, head under a small arch toward the road up to the castle, and you'll find the first transporter, which can be activated just by stepping on the platform for a moment.
Take note that Mysterious Energy locations on the map aren’t always hiding an Abyss Nexus, they hide all manner of secrets usually tied to the Abyss. Sometimes they will be puzzles in the form of Abyss Cressets, and once you solve the puzzle not only will you get a fast travel location out of it, but you’ll also usually be rewarded with an Abyss Artifact as well.
Get A New Shield And Sealed Abyss Artifact
The very first thing you should do as soon as you make the trip into Hernand at the start of the game is grab the shield and Sealed Abyss Artifact that are sitting at the altar on the side of the road that you’ll ride into town on. You can find the altar just northeast of the stables that are north of Hernand. The shield has better base stats than the Grey Wolf wooden shield you start the game with, so it’s a no-brainer to pick up as soon as you can for an easy upgrade. The Sealed Abyss Artifact is one of the three skill currencies in Crimson Desert that allows you to upgrade your character. When you pick it up, you’ll be assigned a challenge in the Goyen’s Arrangement Shield path in the Mastery challenges.
Note that this particular challenge will require the shield bash technique, and is very tricky to do, especially in the early hours of the game since you need to kill enemies with your shield, an item that doesn’t do a whole lot of damage. Pick it up if you want, but if you want an easier Sealed Abyss Artifact challenge, you can find one just north of the altar immediately next to the giant bridge you crossed when riding into town. This challenge only requires you to get three kills with a sword within 30 seconds. Easy.
You can grab these items at any time, so if you missed them in the early moments, don’t worry, they’ll still be there for you to grab when you’re in the area. Since you start your adventure so close to their location, however, it’s a good idea to pick them up as soon as possible to give you a head start on upgrading your gear and skill tree. The more Challenges you complete, the more rewards you'll gain like Abyss Artifacts to use on Skill points.
Complete Chapter 1
Even though you can technically completely ignore the main quest in Crimson Desert, we'd recommend finishing Chapter 1, at the very least, before running off in your desired direction. Without wishing to spoil much of the story, you’ll end the chapter by gaining a handful of incredibly useful abilities that change the way you interact with the world. By the time the chapter is done, you’ll have gained Axiom Force (an ability that allows you to grab items with magic, telekinesis-style), Force Palm (a powerful punch that sends enemies and physics objects flying), and Flight (an ability that lets you glide for a short amount of time.)
There are a lot of abilities in the skill tree that are unlocked simply by completing quests, but you can purchase some of them early if you have enough Abyss Artifacts. That said, Axiom Force, Force Palm, and Flight are only attainable by completing the quest, so it’s best to get them as soon as possible.
As you undertake more main quests, be on the lookout for small orbs emitting a sparkling glow that usually appear in areas you need to investigate for quests. These are called Palmar Pills, and they are fairly rare, and can allow you to resurrect on death with a bit of health left to continue the fight. These will become vitally important for boss fights later on!
Expand Your Inventory
Inventory space is an important commodity in Crimson Desert. However, you won’t have access to very much at the start. Your pockets will fill up incredibly fast, but luckily, expanding your inventory slots is pretty straightforward in the early game. To do so, you need to complete quests. Completing some main quests will expand your slots, but if you want to get 12 additional slots right off the bat, complete the three Tales of Hernandian Merchants quests that are available to you the second you march into town. Rhett and Turnali, the blacksmith and weapons dealer, offer simple fetch quests that have you mine some ore and lumber in nearby areas while Renee, the butcher, asks you to cook fish porridge at a nearby cooking pot.
On the plus side, as of Patch 1.00.03, a storage box will appear in the Freesword Camp where you first arrive in Hernand Town that holds 240 spots of extra inventory!
(It’s important to note that when you’re completing Renee’s quest, she’ll give you all of the ingredients you need to cook the fish porridge, but you’ll need to make sure that you’re cooking the correct fish porridge recipe!)
You can get the quests from notice boards scattered across Hernand or just by approaching each vendor and talking with them. The quests are incredibly simple to complete and reward you with 3 inventory slots each, which is a huge expansion in the early hours. Plus, by doing the quests, you’ll get a handful of important lifetools, like the Pickaxe and the Logging Axe. You’ll also be able to purchase additional inventory slots at vendors in town, so make sure you buy those as soon as you have enough money.
Need more space? Consult our Inventory Management Guide!
Get A Bandit’s Mask For Stealing
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If you’re looking to commit some crimes, and let’s be honest, that’s half of the reason we like playing video games, you’ll need to get a mask to hide your identity. Masks are a common item dropped by the bandits you’ll fight out in the world, so if you’re not in a rush to start stealing stuff, you can just wait until you’ve picked one off a fallen enemy, however, if you want to get right to it, head to the Backalley Merchant to the southeast of Hernand, just south of the church.
Here, you can buy a mask from the merchant and steal to your heart’s content. Make sure you take it off, however, as you explore the world, otherwise you might be mistaken for a thief and charged with a crime.
Crime in Crimson Desert is a bit wonky, so we’ll quickly break it down: Anything you spot in friendly areas will give you the option to steal when inspecting it – but only if you have a Mask Equipped. Once you nab the item, a large red glow will appear around you and an alert in the corner. If nobody is around, you need only wait until the alert ends and the circle disappears, but if people are nearby, you’ll want to run for the edge of the red circle before they investigate or you’ll start getting bounties.
Stealing also gives you a negative hit to your Contribution Rating for the region you’re in. Early on, it’s not that big of a deal which is why we recommend stealing stuff now, as you can take on quests to build that rating back up, and use points gained on special commission shops to buy exclusive gear.
- See Also: How to Steal and Pickpocket
Purchase Keys
While you’re at the Back-alley Merchant, it’s also not a bad idea to purchase the merchant’s stock of keys. There are hundreds of locked doors all across Crimson Desert that you won’t be able to open unless you have keys in your inventory. Some doors require specific keys to open, but the vast majority are one-size-fits-all, so you’ll want to start working on creating a stockpile of them as early as you can.
Take note that keys are used automatically when you walk through a locked door and there’s no way to see from afar if a door is locked or not before opening it, so you might burn through those initial keys pretty quick. Luckily, you’ll find more keys as you explore the world, just look for the small bag icon on your minimap, and merchants eventually restock, so you’ll be able to top up your stash even if you burn through it.
Rob The Bank
With a mask and at least one key in your pocket, it’s not a bad idea to consider robbing the Hernand bank if you want to line your pockets with some extra cash to get you started in Crimson Desert. With both items, head to the bank on the north side of Hernand after saving your game just in case things break bad.
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Put the mask on, enter the bank, and head through the door on the left. When you open it, it’ll automatically use a key from your inventory and you’ll find yourself inside the store room. Once the door closes behind you, loot as much as you can from the strongboxes and chests in the room. The chests will be on the ground and the strongboxes are on the shelf on the opposite side of the room you entered in. As you grab the boxes and open the chests, you’ll likely run out of inventory space, but if you take the time to open the boxes and bags of silver and copper you just picked up, you’ll free those slots up to make room for more.
With the entire room raided, wait for the Theft meter in the top right corner of the screen to go all the way down, then take off your mask, and quickly exit the bank. If you’ve done it all properly without anyone noticing, you’ll walk away with plenty of silver in your bag with none the wiser. Remember to press "Use" on each box you steal to loot the contents within, rather than just selling the box!
It’s important to note that, in robbing the bank, your contribution meter for Hernand will take a hit, but I hardly lost a single level from the crime and the meter is quickly filled by completing side and main questlines. It’s something to consider before robbing the place, but it ultimately shouldn’t have much bearing on your relationship with the town.
Explore Lioncrest Manor
Whether you feel like doing a bit more thievery or not, there’s one place that holds more points of interest per-capita than any other area in Hernand Town – Lioncrest Manor, which is located up on the hill just outside town to the northwest (Completing the Chapter 2 Quest Reunion will put you on a cliff overlooking it). There’s a ton of things you can find here that will be a big help in the adventure to come:
As soon as you enter the grounds, you can check the north field for an archery tournament you can enter to earn some coin. More importantly, if you focus on the lone archer practicing, you can Watch and Learn the Charged Shot Skill.
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Head around the back of the guarded manor, and you’ll find a crowd of people around the back further northwest. Of note are two guards who seem to be practicing blocking with their spears. Focus on the pair, and you’ll get a second Skill via Watch and Learn – Counter.
- Be sure to seek out even more Watch and Learn Skill Locations to save on Abyss Artifacts!
The doors to the manor are all blocked by guards, but they aren’t especially alert at guarding windows, and you can climb up and through many of the windows on the second floor.
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Once on the second floor, head through the locked door in the northern corner (there’s also a Key on a table nearby to steal), and enter a room with a Treasure Chest holding a Rhonid Large Shield that has even more defense than the last shield you found.
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Go to the opposite side of the manor’s second floor, and look in the furthest corner southern room (on the right side) for a strongbox guarded by a small puzzle. You need only rotate the blocks to form a picture, and you’ll be able to open the lock and find an Engraved Gold Earring. Be sure to refine it to unlock additional bonuses.
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Now head down to the first floor hallway, taking the first door on the right. This leads to a second Treasure Chest holding Brass Warden’s Plate Gloves, which come with two additional bonus stats already embedded in it!
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Finally, exit the main building, and look for a smaller stone building with a blue roof to the north, which also has a second floor window to sneak through. There’s only one attic storeroom up here, and it holds a third and final Treasure Chest, which you can loot to gain the two-handed Hwando sword, which has three bonus attributes inserted into it already!
That makes 2 skills and 4 chests containing special equipment, all from a single location!
Put Skill Points Into Stamina
The skill tree in Crimson Desert is huge and can be a little overwhelming when starting out. If you’re not sure what to put points into, it’s a good idea to work on increasing your stamina until you reach 200 points (you can see your stamina stats in the inventory menu.) Stamina is an incredibly important resource in Crimson Desert since it dictates how often you can use certain combat skills, how high you can climb, and how long you can glide and sprint.
200 stamina points is a great baseline for letting you traverse the world quickly on foot and it also open the door for acquiring two of the best traversal skills in the game: Aerial Maneuver and Aerial Swing in the Axiom Force node in the red branch of the skill tree. Both skills cost 200 stamina points to use, so you’ll want to put at least four points into the stamina node in the blue branch of the tree if you want to start swinging around like Spider-Man.
Level Up Your Horse
When you first start Crimson Desert, you might be a little underwhelmed by what your horse can do, but you can significantly improve it right from the start. The first thing you can do is to simply ride your horse everywhere at the start of the game. This will increase its level over time, which will give it more abilities such as sprinting, drifting, kicking, swimming, and double jumping. It doesn’t take long to get your horse to level 2 simply by riding; this unlocks Dashing, which drastically increases how quickly you can explore the world.
Additionally, once you’ve got some cash in your pocket, stop at the stables to the north of or south Hernand and purchase some gear for your horse like a saddle and horseshoes which can upgrade its health and stamina recovery. While you’re at the stables, it’s not a bad idea to purchase some horse health recovery items like hay and sugarcubes in case your horse ends up in the middle of a fight and takes some damage.
Cook Some Recipes
The second that you’re able to explore Pywel, you’ll notice a lot of small scroll icons on the minimap. If you investigate them, you’ll learn that the scrolls are marking recipe pages that you can learn to cook from. It’s a good idea to grab a few recipes and see if you can’t put any of them together based on simple ingredients that can be either bought from vendors or found while exploring.
There are a lot of items that can restore your health, stamina, and spirit, however, cooked meals with multiple ingredients are by far the most helpful things for buffing yourself mid-fight. If you can make a few meals based on the simple recipes found in Hernand, you should be set for some of the tougher boss encounters in the early chapters of Crimson Desert.
- Check out our expanding Recipe List Guide Here!
When in doubt or pressed for time, try and buy up as much meat from butchers as you can or slaughter some deer in the woods, and cook up the best steaks you can!
Once you’ve read a recipe, the page will take up a precious spot in your inventory, but you can actually just sell them once you’ve learned the information you need from them. They usually fetch a decent price from vendors and clutter up your inventory, so if you’re looking for a bit of extra money early on while also helping your overall game, chasing down recipes should be prioritized.
Get A Pet
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You start Crimson Desert with a Herspia breed of horse, but you can also befriend other animals who are just as helpful as your horse since they will loot the bodies of fallen enemies during combat encounters. Getting a pet is pretty simple: once you’ve made it to Hernand, you’ll find a lot of stray animals in the streets. Decide what animal you want to adopt and then pet it.
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When you do, the animal’s trust will increase by 5 points. You can pet an animal five times per day to get 25 trust points before needing to wait until the next day to earn more points. You can speed up the process, however, by feeding the animal some raw meat which will increase its trust in you by 10 points per food item you give it.
Once you reach 100 trust, the animal will become your pet if you chose the prompt to take it in. This can be done on your own, or you can wait for a Greymane sidequest with Naira to get a tutorial for it. With a pet bound to you, get into a fight and it’ll start picking up loot off of fallen bandits. Just make sure you have some open inventory space.
You can even find some places in the world that sell cosmetic clothing for your pets!
