It’s roughly two weeks out from release, but Crimson Desert players have only begun to scratch the surface when it comes to discoveries and unknown things. Many of these will significantly improve your experience, even if you have tons of hours in the game, and others are downright game-changers, especially when it comes to fighting bosses. Without further ado, let’s dive into them all, starting with one trick that significantly improves picking up multiple items…
Seamless Looting
One of my biggest annoyances while reviewing Crimson Desert is having to pick up multiple items. Looking at each and then pressing the button every time was a fate worse than death, especially after huge skirmishes, but you don’t need to. Hold down the corresponding button – Square on PS5 – while walking around, and Kliff will automatically pick up the loot.
Seamless Rescue
Holding down the “loot” button isn’t the only function it serves, however. Ever wanted to quickly rescue any hostages, like those Pailunese refugees strewn about bandit camps? Instead of trying to untie them all separately, hold down Square and walk into them. This will seamlessly remove their restraints without even needing to glance at them, and can be done even while sprinting around.
Focus Flying
Focus serves many functions, from regenerating Spirit to activating abilities like Nature’s Snare for knocking back multiple enemies (even if you haven’t ensnared multiple projectiles). However, it can also play a part while gliding. Activate Focus immediately after entering the gliding animation, and you’ll find that Kliff kind of retains the same altitude throughout. It’s pretty useful right after using Force Palm to propel him upwards, and though using Aerial Roll will cause him to move faster while slowly descending, you can hit Unleash for this crazy burst of speed at any time.
The Importance of Grindstones and Anvils
Since recent patches made grindstones and anvils much easier to spot on the minimap, there’s no excuse not to use them. Liberation missions, boss fights, minor scraps where someone probably insulted your pet – it’s all fair game, because the weapon and defense buffs that they provide can be pretty absurd, even if they’re temporary.
Turning Slash to Destroy Archer Towers
Annoyed with the archers constantly raining arrows down when you just want to clear out a fort or quarry full of enemies? Don’t want to climb those ladders and toss them out? Just use Turning Slash. It’s very good at breaking these towers, bringing said archers down to the ground to finish them off (assuming they survive the fall) and ensuring others don’t get any bright ideas.
Save Duplicate Weapons
If you enter a new region and face multiple enemies with the same weapons, pick them all up. Sure, they may not be special on their own, but at the blacksmith, you can consume duplicates to refine one of them without needing additional resources. This particular strategy was great when the game felt too stingy, and refining every piece of gear became tedious. Recent changes alleviate both, but if you want to save those Refinement Tokens, then this is still a solid method. Note that the same process also applies to Abyss Gears and will become especially important when trying to obtain one of the best Cores in the game.
Vaulting With Banner Pikes
On the surface, banner pikes seem like more decorative spears and something you’ll sell post-skirmish. However, they can be used to pole vault. When equipped, double-tap jump, and Kliff will vault with it, getting some serious air. It’s more consistent than the actual double-jump and doesn’t even require any Spirit.
Force Palm for Mobility
Whenever you have to climb in the Abyss, especially after narrowly avoiding a fall, there may be times when Kliff can’t surmount a lip in the architecture. Instead of attempting to do so, thus costing more stamina, use Force Palm to push him back. You can then chain together two more to propel him upwards, and then glide over. This method also works for regular climbing if you need that extra boost upwards.
Memories of Abundance
Discovered near Howling Hill Camp, the Dragon’s Stone Chamber can seem fairly tedious, since it requires going to three separate locations to discern the correct orientations of each mural. And while it doesn’t hide a weapon as the Memory Fragment seemingly teased, it does provide something even better – Memories of Abundance. When consumed, it “unlocks knowledge of hidden places” in Hernand, which sounds exactly like what you think it does. Now you can traipse through the region, locating all the hidden goodies (and powerful loot).
Let There Be Light
Clearing out ground forces during the Sanctum cleansing quests for the witches is pretty easy. The only real annoyance is the magic wielders, who float around and out of range of your weapon strikes. Instead of shooting them with arrows to bring them down, use Blinding Flash and Focused Light instead. It will immediately burn them out of existence.
Infinite Arrows
One of the best builds in the game currently is to equip Infinite Arrow Cores to your bow, which grants a chance to not consume arrows, and then spam Explosive Arrows to absolutely wreck bosses. While each core on its own has a percentage chance, you can stack multiple to hit 100 percent and effectively never run out. The downside is that the best way to get these is by using Abyss Gear Fusion at the witches, with Tier 2s being the most desired result. Obviously, save-scumming is best if your luck isn’t great, but you should also beware of the Greater Infinite Arrows Core because it has a durability limit. Once broken, you need to farm it again, so stick to hitting 100 percent by rolling for other tiered Abyss Gears instead.
Fast Forward Through Conversations
While you can fast forward through cutscenes, there’s no option to do so during dialogue exchanges…at least, none that are seemingly intended. If you activate Focus by pressing L3 and R3 on the DualSense, the conversation speeds up significantly, letting you avoid a healthy amount of yapping. Again, this only applies to dialogue exchanges and could be patched, but it’s fantastic.
Hollow Visage
If you’re not in the mood to farm enemies to refine a basic weapon, why not go after one of the best early swords in the game? Hollow Visage can be obtained in Hernand to the west of Vellua. You’ll find an innocuous-looking waterfall, but use Stab to rush through it (which works with just about every other waterfall). You’ll find Dawn Cave and a chest containing the weapon, which comes equipped with three Abyss Gears – Critical Rate 1, Attack 1 and Attack Speed 1. Not a bad way to start and gain an advantage on the early bosses.
Refinement Information
Have you ever wandered back to the Blacksmith to continuously check which materials are required to refine gear further (or, like me, just hoped you had enough after exploring for hours)? Well, there’s a stupidly easier way to check. Go to the gear piece or weapon in your inventory and select Details. It reveals the weapon’s stats, skill (if applicable) and whatnot. However, if you check Refinement Information, it will display all the materials necessary to upgrade it, that too on a per-stage basis.
Cancel Freesword Missions Anywhere
We’ve all seen that notification about our Freeswords returning from a mission and then restarting it. If only we cared enough to return to camp and tell them not to, but there’s a much easier way, especially thanks to the new patch. Go to the Notifications tab in your Journal and select the pop-up about the mission’s completion/restarting. This will immediately examine the location where it’s taking place, and you can tab over to Missions. Select “Cancel Mission” and voila. While you could already do this anywhere before from the map, it’s much easier through the Notifications menu.
