Just when you think Crimson Desert is quote-unquote done, and Caesar wept because there were no more features to be added, the development team returns with some notable patches. These arrive in the wake of update 2.0 – the Enhanced Edition with its long-awaited story fixes, Abyss Links to finally make unlocking other characters’ skills easier, and much more. As such, they’re nowhere near as large. Heck, several of these features may not matter for the vast majority waiting on the DLC to jump back in.
And yet, patches 2.01.00 to 2.03.00 – alongside the two hotfixes before them – are still worth dissecting. They not only fix several long-standing issues and improve mechanics that have been around since launch, but they also further refine the newest additions. So without further ado, let’s dive into the ten biggest improvements, starting with…
Stackable Silver Pouches on the New Journey
Is it disappointing that Crimson Desert doesn’t have a true New Game Plus, where all your equipment, mounts, skills, and whatnot carry over? Sure, but at least the latest patch, 2.03.00, takes steps to address what does make the jump: Silver. Now, when starting a new journey from a save that’s cleared all the main missions, 1,000 or more Silver will be provided in the form of pouches that can stack, making it easier to manage your currency. It won’t make the story progress faster, but it means a certain camp-related feature is more worthwhile. More on that later.
Precise Movement and Camera Tilting in Photo Mode
While I wouldn’t call Photo Mode the most feature-packed, especially compared to what other games have done, I still remember how the development team implemented it so quickly after launch. The first sign that they were, indeed, listening to any feedback. Thankfully, there have been improvements over the months, and patch 2.01.00 added one of the more essential functions: The ability to tilt the camera. But it gets even better, as 2.03.00 added Precise Movement for much finer control, making it easier to line up any desired shots (and thus far, the results have been looking fantastic).
Water Striding is Even Better
Perhaps the coolest new ability added to the game, Water Stride allows Kliff to sprint on water. From lakes and rivers to oceans, it made traversal so much more seamless, provided you had the Spirit to spare. Its introduction wasn’t entirely perfect, however, since hitting a small rock could halt your momentum entirely. This is reportedly fixed, but the development team has gone even further, allowing you to jump while Water Striding. And if that wasn’t enough, it also works with the Vaporwalker Boots, so if you want to break up the monotony by sliding on water, go for it.
Donating Silver for Camp Funds
So, you can’t buy the most broken weapons and armor sets right out of the gate with Silver on your new journey (which makes sense because they need to be found). The same goes for your camp – you can’t just throw a bunch of money and expect it to be fully developed. But you can donate that Silver for Camp Funds – an essential resource when conducting dispatch missions. As of patch 2.01.00, the amount of Funds gained from Silver has increased ten-fold, meaning your Greymanes won’t have to conduct that bodyguard mission for the umpteenth time in a row for some funding.
Smoother Interactions and Combat Behavior
Several smaller changes also make moment-to-moment play feel smoother in Crimson Desert. In game NPC interactions have been tightened up to reduce noticeable delays, while companions and mounts are now more intelligent about engaging enemies during combat. Physics-based interactions have also been improved, with enemies now able to properly tumble from cliffs instead of awkwardly stopping at the edge.
Knowledge is Power
One of the few changes in patch 2.03.00 is for an issue that I never really thought of as being problematic. And yet it makes sense to add a visual effect to showcase which skills were unlocked specifically through Knowledge. This, like several of the recent fixes, wouldn’t seem all that important. But for new players, keeping track of which skills are already learned and where they can invest their Skill Points is a nice quality-of-life change.
Finally Riding into the Sunset
Just like when Blackstar failed to fully recover its health during an important main quest (to my seemingly never-ending torment before it was finally fixed), horses not fully recovering when retrying any riding quests was irksome, to say the least. Patch 2.01.00 fixed this, but 2.03.00 did even better – it fixed a bug where opponents in races were moving too fast. If you’ve ever faced difficulties with a race, this fix is nothing short of amazing.
Minimum Font Size Clicking QoL
Speaking of irksome, even with all the sweeping improvements, changes and new features in Crimson Desert, there’s always room for fixing the smallest things. For instance, the minimum font size setting in the menu you’ll see on the initial launch. Thanks to the latest patch, it now requires only a single click on PC to increase or decrease its values.
DLSS Ray Reconstruction Update
As has been the case for quite some time, console performance could certainly be better. But for PC players, there’s great news: DLSS Ray Reconstruction now uses the latest Transformer model, thus ensuring even better ray-traced visuals. It will be very heavy on your GPU, but if you have the hardware, the results should be utterly fantastic.
All the Best for All the Rest
The development team has already said that you shouldn’t expect updates on the same scale as 2.0, which added to and fixed several components of the story, dramatically improving it in many ways. But that doesn’t mean these last three patches haven’t been worthwhile, especially the bugs and glitches they’ve addressed. Have you ever noticed visual noise in rainy weather or with puddles? How about when your items vanished without a trace from the Trade Goods Storage, all because you chose a specific save file?
Patch 2.01.00 addressed the first; 2.02.00 handled the second. However, more recently, issues that caused you to take a lot of fall damage during mid-air dismounts from the A.T.A.G., or caused jittery UI text in certain places while scrolling, have also been fixed. As with the minimum font size clicking change, all these little things add up, and even with the team working on a massive new DLC, Charting the Unknown, complete with a new region, activities, and bosses, it’s nice to see them still supporting Crimson Desert. Even if it’s long past overkill, I fear that the dev team members will never see the light of day.
I don’t expect these patches to be the last before the DLC lands, and I also wouldn’t be surprised if the team has a surprise update for those that don’t purchase it. So it goes at this point, but it bears repeating: There’s rarely been a better time to jump into Pywel and start suplexing fools.
