Crimson Desert Enhanced: Things I Wish I Had Known When I Started Playing

Steam Community guide by birolay.

Ultra-mega-blaster-important

• Dump your early Skill Points in Stamina early
  This is one of the closest things the game has to an early universal tax (how it blocks you from accessing places and doing stuff). More stamina means better traversal, more glide freedom, and way less movement misery. Consider putting a single point (Abyss Artifact) in the Grappling Jump skill, another in the Swift Flight skill, and dumping everything else in Stamina (it's the uppermost skill in the skill tree) until you max it out. You'll also need it for horse taming, more about this down below.
• The menus are stupid, learn to deal with it
  The game doesn't tell you this, but your're not supposed to just Press Start/ESC and browse through the menu. No... The "correct" way of browsing through the menu is HOLDING the Start/ESC button and **then **going to whatever menu you want. The last one you interacted with will be set as the "shorctut" for quick press. What were they thinking?
• Stick to the main questiline for the first dozen hours
  You'll unlock some neat traversal skills and gear (gliding, grappling) that make exploration far more efficient. I'd say, rush the campaign up until the point you have a new camp spot, then you can start sidequesting about.
• The game has dark-souls style secret walls
  Whenever you spot a wall with a button indicator and no response, that's a hidden wall.
• Merchants sell inventory space
  Yeah, wtf. Check merchants constantly. Bounties and some smaller quests can also expand your bag space. Whatever their price, BUY THEM ASAP.
• The default map filter is bad
  Make a habit of setting the world map to All or it will feel way more useless than it actually is.
• Ring church bells to reveal the map
  THIS IS A BIG ONE. Don't waste time roaming the mnap to clear fog of war. Just ring the church bells.
• Set the lantern to Auto
  Do this immediately unless you enjoy manually babysitting the lamp forever. You can do this by hovering it in the radial menu and pressing the highlighted button (there'll be an option for ON/OFF/AUTO).
• Hold the loot button
  I personally figured this out early, but a lot of my friends didn't. Anyway... If you're surrounded by loot, don't tap-pickup every single item like a lunatic. Just hold it and move through loot piles, it'll automatically grab whatever's on the way.
• Sheathe your weapon before looting
  One of the dumbest hidden rules in the game. If loot seems inconsistent, this may be why. You can sheathe by double pressing the left directional on the controller, or "T" on the keyboard.
• Hold attack buttons instead of mashing them
  It's INSANE how the game says ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ about this. But here's the 101 of Crimson Desert combat: you're supposed to HOLD the attack button... and combine them with other stuff you'll be unlocking on the skill tree. Late-game wise you'll be holding R1 and spamming everything else for special attacks. Think of it as an MMORPG, holding the attack button is "enabling attack mode", while pressing whatever other buttons are your special skills. Bonkers, right?
• Parry is a hold-block timing, not a panic tap
  This is not a tap-to-parry game. You actually have to HOLD the block button.
  Why? I dunno bro.
• You can climb way more than the game makes you think
  Walls, buildings, trees, branches, windows. If a door is locked, the answer is often up, not come back later.
• Upgrade your gear
  Half of us will save up those materials for upgrading some better gear down the line, right? Haha yeah, don't. Early refining will require only abundant materials, and soon enough the game will start slapping you around. EARLY-LEVEL-WISE, whenever an equipment you're currently using can be upgraded, upgrade it.
• Do not go to the Quarry early
  Seriously. Leave that place alone until you have a more respectable character.

Menus, UI and Configs

• Turn OFF "view 3d stronghold" in the settings if you use the map to do camp missions
  That'll streamline A LOT the process of dispatching soldiers. It's on Menu > Others > Language and Gameplay > View 3d Stronghold Details on the Map > OFF
• Blur settings are hidden in Accessibility
  Because of course they are... If you wanted to turn off motion blur, consider yourself a person with special needs.
• Use the quick menu
  Already mentioned this one, but worth pointing it out here again... Holding Start/ESC brings up a useful shortcut menu. Once this becomes muscle memory, basic navigation gets much less annoying. That's how you're supposed to seamlessly browse through them.
• Set camera acceleration higher if it feels sluggish
  Default camera movement can feel weirdly sticky. Bump that sensitivity up asap.
• Grouping items is for organization, not real extra space.
  LISTEN UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUP.... You can group and stack items on your inventory. It reduces visual clutter and scrolling, but it does not magically increase total carrying capacity. You have to do it one by one, though... Just hover any item at your inventory and hold the "GROUP" button. Rinse and repeat for the rest of them.
• You can raise or lower visors and toggle some headgear visuals from the radial menu.
  Tiny detail, but neat.
• Minimap icon meanings
  F*ck this man, the game never teaches you anything. So here's the actually useful version.
  
  IconWhat it meansWhat to doRight BarWeather indicator.Red means hotter, blue is colder, green is milder. Dress for the climate or your stamina economy gets worse.Left yellow barExperience bar.It fills as you kill enemies. Each full bar gives you an Abyss Core.Green LeafSpirit meter.This fuels your spirit-based abilities, so keep an eye on it before trying to spam flashy nonsense.Orange dotNPC with dialogue or a quest.Talk to them. Could be side content, story context, or a useful request.Purple iconBounty board or sealed Abyss Artifact.Check it. Bounty boards lead to outlaw targets. Sealed artifacts lead to puzzle content and rewards.White circleNearby fast travel point.Walk into the area and look for a Nexus platform or hidden Cresset entrance to unlock it permanently.Bell iconBell tower nearby.Climb it and ring the bell to clear a big chunk of fog from the world map.Yellow markerCurrent objective.Follow it to advance your tracked quest, whether main story or side quest.Temperature gaugeLocal heat or cold level.Cold slows stamina recovery and drains you faster. Use proper gear or resistance items when entering rough climates.Scroll IconConsumable recipe nearby.Go check it if you care about cooking, utility items, or just not missing free unlocks.Book IconWeapon or armor recipe nearby.Worth grabbing whenever you see it. Easy progression, easy miss."+" iconLootable corpse nearby.There is a body close enough to rob. Go vacuum the dead guy's pockets.Pouch IconStealable loot or key-related object.Check it carefully. A lot of the time this is tied to stealth and may require the mask.

Exploration Cheeses

• You can drift with your horse
  You can slide down hills... By yourself AND WITH YOUR HORSE.
• Slide-yeet
  Speaking of slides, if you jump after sliding it'll YEET you further than normal.
• You can precision jump while climbing.
  THIS IS A BIG ONE and might get patched in the future. As it requires no stamina, you can climb pretty much anything in the game, no matter how tall, if you keep precision-jumping upwards instead of actually climbing it.
• Confused on what to do during a puzzle? Open the map.
  Yet another MAJOR thing the game doesn't tell you. Whenever you come by a puzzle, it won't notify you about what you're supposed to do, no messages, no popups, anything. Instead, IT'LL BE ON THE MAP (???????????????????????????????????????????). Just... Bro... Ugh... Anyway, open the map, point the cursor at the location's miniature, and read the description. The game will give you a cryptic tip about what you're supposed to do there, something like:
• "the sound shall be heard by the blind" - music puzzle, listen for the sound
• "reach for the mechanism" - you have to use axiom force at something
• "only the sharp tip of the blade" - you have to use the STAB skill at something
• Strange Energy markers matter.
  Those giant question-mark-style markers are not fluff. They lead into puzzle content and fast travel related rewards. Here's how to pinpoint where you should go:
• Shining your weapon from high vantage points helps detect distant points of interest.
  Fast travel spots, artifacts, puzzles, weird shiny nonsense. Get to high ground and find out stuff!
• If the distant glints vanish, it may just be line-of-sight.
  Try again from a better height instead of assuming the game lied.
• If a building is locked, climb it and try the windows.
  This works way more often than you would expect.
• You can climb basically everything, including trees.
  And trees are not just scenery. They are traversal tools. In fact...
• You can launch yourself off trees.
  (SKILL LOCKED) Once you start abusing this, the world opens up in a very funny way. Beware before unlocking this skill, though, you'll need 200 Stamina to use it.
• After latching with Axiom Force, double tap jump to pull yourself in.
  (SKILL LOCKED) This is a major vertical traversal upgrade that the game does a terrible job emphasizing.
• Force Palm can be used midair for extra height.
  (SKILL LOCKED) You can chain additional boosts and force a glide even from fairly flat ground.
• You can negate some fall damage with the slam move.
  (SKILL LOCKED) Useful when you misjudge height like a clown.
• Landing in water can also save you from some bad falls.
• If you run out of stamina mid-glide, stop moving.
  You will slow-fall straight down for free instead of immediately eating dirt.
• You can slide down hills for absurd distances.
  Press in the left stick and become a medieval landslide.
• The first free Abyss teleporters make great glide launch points.
  If you hate long horse commutes, abuse elevation.
• You can "craft" a teleport near your customizable home
  Bear with me... Clear Karen Quarry, go down the hole after the crane minigame, focus palm force through, and you'll find a piece of the teleporter. Seal it in your coockoo pot (google this if you don't know what it is). Now go back to your home in Howling Hill, burn the vines to the right, place the teleporter there, force palm downwards and there you go. A more convenient warp point. Jesus, this game...
• Using the stab move can get you behind waterfalls.
  Exactly the kind of deranged traversal tech this game leaves for players to discover by accident.
• Grappling a tent destroys it.
  Ridiculous, useful, beautiful.
• Be careful climbing over spiked palisades.
  The hitbox is more generous than it should be, and not in your favor.

Combat Tips the Game Kinda Never Tells You About

I swear to god, man. This game dumps you in the middle of combat and never tells you anything about how it works.
Here's the 101 of it:

• Hold attacks. Do not mash them.
  Worth mentioning again here as this is the single biggest "combat suddenly feels better" revelation for a lot of people.
• Parrying is done by holding block at the right time.
  Also worth mentioning again here because WHO WOULD GUESS YOU HAVE TO >HOLD< THE PARRY BUTTON? Ffs... Anyway...
• You can parry with more weapons than you think.
  This is not limited to your starting sword and shield combination.
• Bullet-time
  Sliding and drawing your bow slows down time. Same goes for using the Axiom Force skill while airborne.
• You can learn skills for free
  Before spending points in Skills, make sure you can't get it for free by observing NPCs doing it.
• A lot of skills exist in rough form before you properly unlock them.
  So the skill tree is not always a pure on/off gate. Some moves feel underwhelming because they literally are until you invest in them. Get them Lvl 3 skills asap.
• Read your starting abilities.
  You begin with more useful tools than the game meaningfully teaches you to exploit.
• Before buying an upgrade, make sure you can actually use it.
  Some ability upgrades are unusable if your current Stamina or Spirit is too low.
• Some combat moves make you effectively unstaggerable during the animation.
  This matters a lot against regular and elite enemies.
• You can use Force Palm for mining if needed.
  Not ideal, but useful if you are missing a pickaxe. You'll not extract all potential ores from it, though.
• In fact.. You can harvest many resources by simply attacking them.
  Do not overcomplicate gathering.
• You can use fire on more than enemies.
  Bushes, hay, foliage, environmental junk. Fire solves problems.
• Some bosses and side bosses have weird silver-bullet counters.
  Pay attention to what absolutely ruins a specific enemy, because some of them get shut down hilariously hard.
• About capturing criminals
  Once you learn how to slam, pin, and tie people up, captures get way easier. Tackle them.
• You can unlock grab tech on enemies with grappling upgrades.
  Very funny against annoying ranged enemies.
• If an enemy gets knocked into traffic or under hooves, that can kill them fast.
  Crimson Desert occasionally turns into slapstick physics murder.
• You can instakill poltergeists/dementors (LATE-GAME)
  Just use focus light.

Inventory and Economy

• Do not hoard recipe/blueprint papers
  If you already learned them. Sell them or gift them to vendors.
• Don't sleep on Abyss Gear Crafting
  They'll give you an insane equipment buff for little effort, and It's way less complicated than it seems. Here's the TLDR: You can upgrade Gears to +3 by merging two of the same. The easiest way to get two of the same is by crafting them. To craft them, you'll need blueprints sold by "Witches". There are 5 witches in the game (google how to find them), each will unlock a couple of blueprints on gear crafting. ICYM: When you start crafting them, the base recipe will apparently require "Yellow Sulphur Butterflies" or something, but you can just as well use the Peony flower, which is way more abundant.
• Buy the Contribution Shop Crown asap
  It unlocks special, hidden items at assorted local vendors. No need to equip it, just having in your inventory is enough.
• Use your chest
  Crafting materials and whatnot are better off kept in your private chest instead of being carried around all the time. You can find it beside your bed on the tent you spawned at Hernand (or your camp, once you unlock it). But you probably knew this already...
• You can teleport unwanted loot to it
  What I bet you DIDN'T KNOW is if you want to remote-stash your junk from anywhere in the world, all you have to do is (1) find a bed, (2) dump the loot on the floor, and (3) sleep. Everything you left on the floor will be teleported to your personal chest. This gets less useful once you (unlock your camp and the fast travel point next to it), but it's a gamechanger early-game wise.
• Kill all deers in early game
  LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISTEN UP!!! Deers, goats, you name it. If you see one, kill it. You can use their bones to easily increase your damage by upgrading your jewelry and fry the meat for easy early game meals. This is valid all the way to the endgame, as you'll be needing stronger healing items, and to get them you'll either need to dump 10 pieces of meat per dish or spend a ridiculously exhorbitant amount of silver in more elaborate dishes that heal >400hp. So yeah, HOARD MEAT. HOARD VEGETABLES, you might not need it now but you'll bleed through them **fast **at endgame.
• Speaking of jewlery
  Did you know useless statless rings can be upgraded at the blacksmith to give you more damage? Huh...
• Roam the Abyss
  There's tons of Artifacts (skill points) to be found there. Don't sleep on it just because the puzzles are boring.
• Always help out beggars
  If you max out their trust, they'll become a passive upgrade material source. They'll straight up give you ore, timber, bones and whatnot.
• Check every merchant for bag space
  LISTEN UPPPPPPPPPP... This is huge and easy to miss. Whenever you see an item expansion on sale, buy it.
• Open your little money bags.
  Silver and copper pouches are not decorative junk. You're supposed to "USE" them. There is also a use-all option.
• Check vendor shelves, not just vendor menus.
  Get a load of this... A lot of shops have buyable or stealable items physically sitting around. Most won't be listed in the vendor's menu. So, always check both shelves and the menu. Going into firt person helps a lot.
• Duplicate equipments are not trash.
  Whenever you're refining an item on early levels, instead of spending materials you can just burn through any duplicate copies you have of it first. Say you stumbled upon another helmet of the one you're using... Instead of selling it, use it to enhance yours.
• You can catch fish by hand.
  Not just through the proper fishing minigame. You can literally go feral and grab them.
• Do not turn fish into fillets if your goal is money.
  Selling fish whole is often worth dramatically more. Unintuitive, right? Figures.
• Water is one of the most useful cooking ingredients.
  Hoard it.
• Cook often.
  Food matters more than some players realize, and you can brute-force recipe discovery by improvising.
• Magnifier-cooking
  You can actually cook stuff by using your blinding flash ability (the sword light beam-y thing).
• Many abandoned camps and mini-POIs are full of cooking materials.
  Once you recognize which junk piles actually contain useful food supplies, you stay stocked much more easily.
• Some "trash" items are actually bait, ingredients, or money in disguise.
  AGAIN, A BIG ONE HERE. LISTEN UP... Always double-check new items before assuming they are pointless.
• There is a bank.
  And yes, that has obvious implications.
• You can steal skill points.
  You can pickpocket Abyss Artifacts from Freeswords and Homeless guys in Hernand Town (and soutwestwards at the hobo den). Just use your lantern and look for someone with cubes on their waists, instead of satchels. It's a pretty nasty RNG rate, but they're out there.
• Completed bounty posters can be sold too.
  Free your inventory from paper clutter.

Horse, Pets and Companions

• You should adopt a dog ASAP
  They're the game's autoloot systemm, and will help you clean out the aftermath of a battlefield in half the time.
• You can adopt a dog instantaneously (thanks @cstrikin it up)
  You can only interact with it 5x a day. So, just "petting" it for 5p of trust won't do it for the 100p you need. You'll need to feed it by discarding food next to it. You can feed cats with poultry, and dogs with meats of all sorts for 10 points of trust. If you cook it, though, it'll give 20p each. Dropping small bones, 25p each. 5 interactions of grilled meat or 4 of small bones means you can adopt a dog in a single go. The pup will disappear and be summonable via your inventory.
• Mounts - How to tame
  You can find horses in the wild, just run after one and jump onto it. It'll prompt a taming minigame, after you finish it, the horse is your