We’re back again with everything that’s in the latest 1.12.00 update for Crimson Desert. The developer is continuing to make meaningful changes to the game, as it has been doing for the past few months, and this one turns the developer’s focus to the housing and crafting systems. But that’s not all, as there have been a few changes to combat, Damiana, and Oongka’s functionality, fixes to a few progression blockers, and quality-of-life additions.
So, what’s new? Let’s dive right into a list that’s quite intriguing.
1. Exterior House Decorations
You’ve spent hours placing every bit of furniture and decorations just right inside the house you’re given early into your efforts to reassemble the Greymanes. What started with a simple flower basket is now an elaborate setup that reflects your growth and the extent of your travels.
All of that’s fine, but it didn’t make sense that the exterior of your house was as drab as your camp when you first set it up on Howling Hill. Not anymore! You’ve got a ton of options to add to your home’s exterior, and it’s quite a treat!
2. A Bunch of New Housing Items
There are fifty-eight new items that you can collect and add to the exterior of your homes. Yes, you read that right. They include Sotdaes, fountains, an assortment of facilities, braziers, wells, lights, carpets, automata toys, hanging pots for your plants, a music box, and even furniture for your pets in case they’re ones who prefer hanging out in the open instead of within your four walls.
That’s a lot of stuff to pick up and play around with, and this one’s going to keep you completionists and decorators quite busy until the next update arrives to overwhelm you with more stuff.
3. Workstations and Looms
The addition of all those new items for your houses is accompanied by new crafting options. The Workstation and Loom are where you’re going to go to get started with decorating your house’s exterior. There’s a Workstation in Hernand, at the Timberhand Saw Mill, as well as the Greymane camp, while a loom is waiting for you at the Hernand tailor shop.
Crafting recipes for items can be found in shops, won from claw machines, crafted in crafting missions for flower baskets, the newly added boxes of fortune in the Mystery Shop, and from orb roll challenges. That’s a great way to weave in new additions with exploration and gameplay instead of merely dumping them into shops.
4. More Integration For Damiane and Oongka
It’s almost a tradition at this point for Damiane and Oongka to have something added to their repertoire with each passing update, and this one’s no different. They can both equip the Visione now, which was an oversight that should have been remedied a long time ago. Well, better late than never. Additionally, they can now mount Blackstar, the noble dragon, finally recognizing them as valuable allies.
Oh, and they can now read memories and can learn Nature’s Snare through observation, which should give them an edge against those pesky flying enemies who attack at range.
They also get the cool loading screen that Kliff gets if you’re booting up the game with either of them as your last played character.
5. Sliding Chain Attacks
This one might not seem like much, but we can tell you that having chain attacks at your disposal while sliding immediately improves combat flow by a significant margin. If you hate having to have a little break in your momentum after trading blows with an enemy, this one’s going to have you grinning as you flit seamlessly between foes to sustain a continuous barrage of attacks that they’re going to struggle to keep up with.
6. Preserving Settings On Retrying Bosses
While observing enemy attacks to pick up new skills is cool and all, it gets really annoying when you have to do it time and time again if you’re the type who likes to hoard Palmar Pills and just restart a tough fight from scratch. It’s especially annoying on hard mode when your concentration could break thanks to a pop-up about a new skill.
That’s now a thing of the past, and it also extends to the primary and secondary weapons you had selected, your element of choice, arrows, food, and consumable items. Diving back into the fight with all the right stuff already in place is very welcome and can reduce a lot of friction that arises from having to select it all again in the heat of battle.
7. New Gear And Accessories
We’re pretty excited about this one as we like our warriors looking and feeling their very best every time they step out into Pywel. There’s the Greymane Light Armor for Kliff, alongside five new helmets for you to make more unique looks for him. Those include the Silent Conqueror Plate Helm, Sentinel of Tenacity Helm, Feral Sentinel Helm, Steelmaw Plate Helm, and the Sentinel of Trust Helm.
Damiane gets a pair of Honorary Cloth Gloves for her contributions to the Greymane cause. There’s also the new Greymane Signet accessory for those of you who are doubling down on being representatives of the Greymanes wherever you go in Pywel.
8. Improvements To Knowledge And Collectibles
There are a few new Knowledge entries that are now obtainable even if you’ve finished associated quests, an omission that’s sure to be good news for those of you who’ve been getting annoyed by incomplete lists thanks to your inner completionists. You can now get the entries for Exploding Bismuth Spiders, Jar Back Crabs, Darksworn Armor Spectral Soldiers, and Jared.
It’s always a good thing to reduce the number of missables in a title as big as this one, and this is definitely a step in the right direction for Pywel.
9. UI Improvements and Beyond
It isn’t just new content and combat tweaks with this one, as the settings menu is now easier to navigate thanks to being able to switch to the first or last entries from either end of a menu, while the Collectibles chest now clearly tells you what you already own and what you still need to find out in the world.
Furthermore, the disappearance of enemy icons from the minimap under certain conditions has now been addressed, and you’re prompted to set the minimum font size you prefer when you’re booting up a new game. That’s certainly a boon for readability, clarity, and reduced friction when navigating the game’s menus, where you do spend a fair bit of time as you go about your business. We’d call it a win for accessibility.
10. Miscellaneous Improvements
Last but certainly not least are fixes that improve on minor, yet important aspects of the experience that Pywel has to offer. Crashes have been addressed, as have performance and frame drops in certain conditions. Additionally, landing issues when you’re using Blackstar or a wyvern have been addressed, too.
There have also been fixes to NPC follow behaviour, housing placement, crashes when switching weapons after you use Nature’s Echo, controls not responding when you try to fire a shotgun while riding a wagon, and blocked progression during some missions.
Well, that’s another long list of fixes for us to test out alongside all of you dedicated Greymanes out there. We’re not going to keep you any longer, and hope our paths cross, either in Pywel or when the next awesome update to Crimson Desert comes along. Stay safe, fellow Greymanes, and don’t let those Black Bears gain an inch of land while you’re at it!
