Then there’s re-blockading – an answer to the lack of enemies to kill in the late-game. Any liberated locations are at risk of hostiles attacking again, thus requiring your intervention once more. And if you’re worried that the game has become too easy, then three difficulty settings – Easy, Normal and Hard – are also being added.

Interestingly, the developer touted “new combat-focused content” as being in the works. Perhaps that faction wars feature that many hoped for? Time will tell.

However, you can look forward to new skills for Damiane and Oongka, which should play a similar role to Kliff’s Force Palm and Axiom Force. The option to hide weapons on the back of a character is also on the way. Another nice addition is that outfits that only served to be sold or donated will soon become wearable, thus expanding one’s cosmetic options. Whether that includes “damaged” gear remains to be seen.

Also, while it expanded the storage chest up to 1,000 slots, Pearl Abyss is adding more specialized storage for ingredients, a wardrobe for gear, and even a place to deposit all the ores, insects, and other resources used in crafting. You’ll even have something to deposit recipes and other quest items, further freeing up space without the need to sell them.

Additional pets and mounts are on the way, and you can expect more armor sets for them as well. In terms of UI improvements, an option to adjust the minimum font size will be implemented, and you’ll also have the option to customize controller inputs. And if all that wasn’t enough, the quality of distant scenery is getting a major upgrade.

Of course, that alone could fit into its own patch, which means not everything will be in a singular package. Pearl Abyss didn’t provide a release date for all these features, so expect them to roll out over the coming months.

Crimson Desert is available for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. It’s sold over four million units to date.

So believe me when I say that it feels a little bad to point out something that really breaks the game. No, not in a fun, boss-deleting way like infinite explosive arrows, but a major design flaw. What makes it even crazier is that you won’t notice it until you’re already dozens of hours in.

Assume, for a moment, that you’re not a permanent resident of Hernand who knows everyone in Howling Hill Camp better than your own family. Imagine that you’ve been traveling throughout Pywel, liberating quarries, taking down the Lunar Court, cleansing Sanctums (and taking on their various Blades), and sending the Black Bears packing. With each new location returned to the nicer factions, the world becomes that much safer. However, it also becomes emptier.

What does that mean? Well, in a nutshell, enemies that you’ve slain or simply driven away by prolonged butchery of their allies don’t respawn. That’s the so-called game-breaking design bug. Enemies stop respawning.

And I’ll be honest – it didn’t really hit me at first. Why should enemies respawn, especially after clearing out bandit crawls and other hives of scum and villainy? If I’m systemically hunting the Black Bears, why would they stick together? Heck, they thought they annihilated the Greymanes in the beginning, so what better karma than to see them so thoroughly purged, including any enemies that should patrol the world. But what does that mean in a game like Crimson Desert, where combat is one of the core appeals?

Think about it. As you’re collecting Abyss Artifacts, what’s one of the biggest thrills? Unlocking a new skill and trying it out, especially if it’s a combat skill. How about unlocking a new piece of gear or weapon? Or discovering the four elements? Sure, there’s more than enough exploration, and several systems to facilitate that, but for the most part, the entire purpose of that is to obtain cool stuff, either for the sake of personal upgrades or wiping out enemies in even more extravagant ways. Trying out different builds is another major appeal, especially when you start slotting different ability cores into the same weapon.

Without any enemies to fight, that’s one major aspect of the power fantasy removed. It gets even worse when factoring in the Sealed Abyss Artifacts. Not all 141 of them require combat to unlock, but there are still plenty that do. If you’re lucky, you would have completed Trials like defeating five enemies with a shield without taking damage, or slaying 30 enemies within 30 seconds with a spear, and not lack any targets for assassinating five sleeping enemies at night, or taking out an elite using only guns.

Speaking of guns, this is a great time to discuss Damiane and Oongka. I’ve mentioned this before in my qualms with the progression – how you need separate Abyss Artifacts to upgrade their skills. Toss in gear and even with the new Refinement Tokens, it becomes extremely challenging to min-max both characters alongside Kliff, much less experiment with their builds. If you decided to leave playing as them until the late game (which you’ll probably do, given the lack of resources), then there’s an absolute lack of enemies to fight. And there goes any reason to really bother with these other unique characters.

Of course, it’s not like there isn’t other stuff to do. You could challenge different optional bosses (albeit only once), complete various puzzles, or attend a whole range of activities that don’t require any combat. However, this kind of issue is one that other open-world games solved years – heck, some more than a decade – before. As much as we make fun of the Radiant quests in Skyrim and Fallout 4, the fact that they’re even present means no shortage of combat encounters. And once again, Crimson Desert is a game where combat is the backbone. Take out any reason for players to fight anything, and as many have noted, it goes from being an open-world action-adventure to simply an open-world adventure.

Now, there are several ways that the development team could address this. The short-term solution is to simply allow enemies to recapture camps, forts, and whatnot, forcing the player to liberate them again, and that’s a decent band-aid. However, some have suggested a more detailed faction wars system. Imagine the dozens of different factions battling each other for supremacy, and Kliff being able to ally or go against each of them for unique benefits. It may even provide an incentive to use the Mission Dispatch for sending Greymanes to different fronts. Considering the sheer number of factions, it’s kind of surprising that Crimson Desert didn’t ship with this already.

Granted, this could mess with the Contributions system (not to mention the whole thing about Kliff and his crew being morally good), but it certainly creates a whole lot more intrigue than simply, “The good guys won, the bad guys disappeared, the end.” It’s something that probably could have been more easily justifiable if there were more morally grey factions to work with, rather than strictly good/evil groups, but I digress.

Another, more straightforward fix is to introduce New Game Plus. All your Abyss Artifacts, equipment, money, skills, inventory, and Howling Hill Camp upgrades carry over to a new playthrough. The entire map becomes available to liberate once more, and while you can still use any unlocked mounts, special exceptions like Blackstar require playing through the story again. Besides tougher foes, the developers could spice things up by introducing modifiers, perhaps even new attacks or late-game enemies appearing much earlier. Otherwise, add some new activities that players can engage with ad nauseam for their combat needs. A horde mode. Boss rush. A siege mode. Mission replay. The list goes on.

Some may argue that the current system is fine – it’s a video game after all, one that already provides hundreds of hours of entertainment. Why do you need it to last forever? Of course, this isn’t what anyone is arguing – simply that if there’s content, much less an entire combat system, that hinges on fighting regular enemies, then gradually removing said threats as you progress doesn’t make any kind of sense. I don’t always need challenging encounters to limit-test my end-game build. Sometimes, I just want to let loose against a crowd of jabronis and watch them fly amid the explosions. Why deny someone that simple pleasure? Furthermore, why give them all these optional challenges via Sealed Abyss Artifacts and then not even give them the means to complete them?

Once again, there are multiple ways that the development team could approach this issue, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it were already working on something to address it. That’s one benefit of speaking up and letting them know about Crimson Desert’s shortcomings – sooner or later, it will do something, creating a better experience for everyone. And really, that’s all anyone can really ask for.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

We found quite a few memorable ones during our time in Hernand, er, Pywel, and as always, we’re here to share them all with you. Let’s get right to it!

1. The March of Armies

There is a point in the story where a rousing speech from a supporting character gets his troops mobilized and marching to the next chapter’s objective marker before the cutscene ends, and you take control of Kliff once again. The army begins moving to the battlefield, passing through a few towns and villages to get there. We decided to march alongside them instead of gliding and leaping across mountains. Those long treks get lonely even for a Greymane as seasoned as Kliff, after all.

But what took us completely by surprise was that the residents of each settlement we passed through actually came out to cheer on their brave soldiers, cheering and clapping them as they went by. There was even a second contingent that joined the troops somewhere along the way. The whole thing took a while, but it was worth every step in our book.

2. Accidental Hilarity

It can get quite hard to navigate crowded streets without bumping into people when you’re racing to your next point of interest on the game’s massive map. We kind of got used to disgruntled comments from the people we rudely knocked down, but what we didn’t expect was a man carrying a basket of fruits to drop the darn thing. Of course, his precious cargo rolled everywhere, and he actually got to his knees to begin gathering them all back up.

We would have stopped to help, but duty called, and we didn’t want to risk him thinking we were stealing his fruits, an act that might have landed us with a bounty on our heads.

3. An Authentic Weather System That Affects The Player

If you’ve been exploring Hernand like us, you’ve probably realized that its eastern mountain ranges get pretty cold. We found that out the hard way when we came across a certain area housing some pretty challenging enemies if you’re in the game’s early hours. Of course, we accepted the challenge only to find that our health kept dropping thanks to the cold winds inflicting frost damage. Even worse, Kliff got temporarily frozen in place, which wasn’t the best way to find out about the temperature gauge on the side of our minimap.

Things in the Crimson Desert are fortunately less damaging as far as we’ve explored it, but we wouldn’t be too surprised to find areas where the heat can be as deadly as the cold.

4. More Accidental Hilarity

Players have tested out the true extent of their formal alliance with one of Hernand’s noble houses, and the best way to do that was to see if its guards helped them if they were attacked by a wild animal or enemy forces. They happened upon a bear that they dutifully led back to the city, only to find that the guards were as terrified of it as its residents. They were clearly only trained to deal with bandits and the like.

They took down the bear in question, earning some valuable upgrade materials in the process, but the entire episode was quite amusing and definitely among our more memorable moments in Hernand.

5. Watch Out For Your Stuff

The game takes the word ‘discard’ quite seriously, which we found out at our own cost. We dipped into our inventory to move a few things around when we accidentally dropped a few common materials on the ground. A passing NPC took quite an interest in them, and we assume they thought it was all stuff we didn’t need. They proceeded to just pocket it all and walk away like nothing had happened.

We could afford the loss at that point, but they could have asked first.

6. Learn From The World Around You

You’ve probably already picked up a few handy skills from observing bosses use them in a fight. But did you know that training camps and challenge areas on your map can also net you a few ones for free? Find one and look out for soldiers or NPCs training, and simply observe them for a chance to see Kliff internalize their moves, and then make the skill in question usable for yourself. That’s a great way to get some free skills, and they remain unlocked if you attempt to respec your character.

That leaves more Abyss Artifacts for you to unlock other skills, or perhaps use in upgrading your gear.

7. Customize Your Drip

If you haven’t been keeping up with your Greymane camp, you might have missed the memo about dyeing your armor. While that specific quest introduces you to the basics, you’re going to be pleased to know that most of the armor in that game has multiple parts that you can dye, meaning that you can create some truly unique looks for all three playable characters AND any armor you slap on to their steeds.

We’ve been dutifully making Kliff resemble a Nazgul for our part. It just feels right given the dark motif surrounding his Abyssal abilities.

8. Spirit Regen Buff

We happened upon a lovely cliff with a great view of the land below, and stopped to take in the sights. Getting there involved a few acrobatics using up a lot of our Spirit meter, though.

And while you usually have to enter Focus Mode to regain it quickly, we noticed that it was recharging on its own despite our gear having no Abyss Gears with Spirit regen. Turns out that we were standing in an orchard of Rosemary flowers, their yellow shade being what caught our eye in the first place. That granted us a Spirit regen buff that was greatly appreciated once we dived off and spread our wings to soar to the ruins we saw in the distance.

9. Stab The Right Waterfalls

If you’ve been stabbing every waterfall you see in hopes of finding hidden caves and some great loot (and Refined Palmer Pills, of course), you’re probably spending a lot of time navigating the cliffs around you to find the right place to stab. Not anymore, as we discovered that there is a stack of stones outside waterfalls that have something to hide.

They’re called Cairns in medieval discourse, and looking for them can save you a fair bit of time if you’re on the hunt for your next piece of armor or a potent new weapon.

10. Visit Your Fellow Greymanes At Work

Have you fulfilled a request for one of your Greymanes only to find that they’re not at camp since you sent them out on a mission? While the more patient ones among you might wait for them to be done and return to camp, while others might cancel the mission altogether, we found a suitable middle ground.

Simply visit the place they’re at by speaking to Ross at the camp and finding the location. You can then walk up to them and tell them that you’ve done as they asked. Heck, you could even hire a few locals to help them out and watch the work unfold in real time!

11. Bad Weather Debuffs

If you’re stuck in the rain, know that it brings down your resistance to lightning and frost, a natural effect that we were quite delighted to find was integrated into the game. You might want to keep some soup in reserve to deal with the loss in Ice Resistance if things get dicey and you’re up against enemies who use it in battle. The same goes for your Lightning Resistance, too. Preparation is the mark of an effective Greymane, after all.

12. Look Through The Raindrops

Speaking of rain, if the sun happens to be out when it’s coming down, we recommend dabbling in Photo Mode to see how individual droplets of water reflect the world around them. Quality Mode is going to be a good bet here, although the new update’s Fixed 4K output does a fairly decent job even on Balanced or Performance. It’s fascinating, and a lovely showcase of how Pywel’s beauty isn’t just skin-deep.

13. Click Pictures Of The Local Fauna

Photo Mode also lets you get a good look at the incredible detailing on even the tiniest creatures. Players have found a frog that looked so darn good when we took a closer look, and our take on Kliff now includes wildlife photography on an already extensive list of abilities that he brings to the table as the Greymanes’ leader.

14. Sheathe Your Sword With Style

If you’ve been rocking the Hwando, you probably want to keep your katana as deadly as it can be in battle. That applies to any weapon you carry, and part of maintaining your Sword is to keep its blade free of rust and blood. While the grindstones you find out in the world can help keep your blade sharp, hitting the Stow Weapon button twice is going to give you a cool animation where Kliff shakes off the blood on his weapon before sheathing it.

It works on a sword and shield, but didn’t happen when we had a weapon in both hands, for some reason. Perhaps a future patch could bring that about? It’s a great move to pull off right after you defeat the last soldier in an encounter!

15. Damage on Outlaws

Yes, trekking halfway across the map to drop off an outlaw you capture at a Constabulary can be tedious. But the process of capturing them certainly isn’t, and you get to see signs of visible damage on their faces once you tackle them to the ground and start making them confess.

It adds a layer of authenticity to the entire exercise, but we can’t really think of one good reason why we can’t use an Abyss Nexus to speed up their incarceration. That’s yet another detail for future patches to consider.

Bonus: Over the Edge

It is a minor detail, but a nice one nonetheless. When you move close to the edge of a cliff, the player character performs a subtle leaning or tilting animation, as if trying to keep balance. It is a small touch, but it is there, and it adds to the sense of realism.

Bonus: The World Reacts to Your Actions

The world is not just filled with bounty posters. It also keeps track of your exploits through news posters. Defeat a major boss, and expect that achievement to become public knowledge soon after.

And that’s all we have for you at the moment. We can’t shake off the feeling that we’ve barely scratched the surface of what Crimson Desert is still hiding away, even after we’ve collectively sunk upwards of around 150 hours into it. That’s saying something, and we’re excited to find more of what Pywel wants to discover as we explore every corner of its sprawling map!

But what’s really surprising is the feeling that the entire experience is just getting started, with an opening region that’s so rich and four others that are looking as jam-packed with engaging content. I chuckled to myself at jokes saying that the developer could have titled the game ‘Hernand’ and called it a day, and I must say there is some merit to that thought.

But is an opening region that’s this large a sign of a game that’s full of bloat? I’d say no, as Hernand isn’t a long checklist of repetitive activities, but a gradually unfolding story within a story that’s so engaging, it trumps my curiosity to see what the other four regions have to offer. Join me as I take you through why I think that’s the case.

More Than A Tutorial Zone

I’m probably not the only one among us who thought that my time in Hernand was going to be short, a sort of introduction to a bunch of mechanics before I was sent off into Pywel to find a path to Kliff’s destiny. After all, there was such a massive map to explore on the ground, and The Abyss calling to me from high up above.

But Hernand’s intricate politics and the interdependencies between its various factions are just too compelling to leave behind, making it feel like a destination that could put even the most elaborate RPGs to shame. It’s got the density of a sandbox that’s usually in the later stages of a massive game, and just uncovering all it’s landmarks is such a huge part of why it draws you back in.

There are sealed artifacts to pick up, well-hidden caves with valuable loot to discover, strongbox puzzles that took me a while to find and solve, crafting recipes and manuals for food and gear that I expect will serve me well when I finally venture in Demeniss or Calphade, and of course, bosses that have had me quite happy to stay put among its mountains and plains.

That covers Hernand’s size, but what about its scope?

A Complex And Nuanced Landscape

If I were to describe what I see Hernand as after all this time with it, I’d say it’s a vast swathe of land with the city as its beating heart. I’m floored by how a simple meeting with the Marquis de Serkis has thrust me, and Kliff by extension, into an entire life of solving problems for nobles, and improving the region so that its people remember the Greymanes for a long time to come.

Each quest chain starts off so simple before it becomes an elaborate loop of clearing out enemy encampments, battling literal armies, taking on intriguing bosses, solving the complex mechanical layers of a desolate castle, ringing bells to summon the mysterious residents of a hidden village, climbing atop a literal Ent to gain access to said village, and so much more!

And it’s all so subtly woven into the region’s political fabric that Hernand feels alive in a way that makes it so compelling that my efforts to venture into other areas somehow ends with me back in it again, exploring a new part of the area in the service of one faction or another.

Finding Factions

Let me give you a rundown of all the different factions I’ve met, each of them introduced to me so organically I barely even noticed how rapidly the list of people who were depending on the Greymanes began to grow.

There were the Goldleaf Merchants and House Serkis to begin with, each of whom I’m sure we’ve all encountered through the main story. House Celeste gets quickly added to that list the minute you pick up your first bounty poster. Of course, the Greymanes get woven in after setting up shop on Howling Hill. That’s four factions, already, each bringing new avenues to engage with the land in multiple ways.

House Robert, House Grace and House Alfonso quickly get thrown in as you make your way across the land, as do the Witches, The Shia, a whole bunch of vendors who need favors and give you very useful rewards in return, strangers who look to your kindness as you encounter them on the road, and of course, several story quests to begin sending Kliff towards other regions.

One of those requests pointed me in the direction of a fishing village, a quest that soon led me to stumble upon the Catfish Pirates, a meeting that ended up taking up many an entertaining hour! It’s almost as if Hernand’s size was a deliberate choice made to contain its scope within a boundary that would allow it to be its own game map within a larger one.

Remember those story quests I mentioned? If you’re wondering if they’re the reason I haven’t left Hernand, they’re not. Allow me to explain.

A Citizen By Choice

Yes, Crimson Desert’s story might not be its strongest feature. But the ones in Hernand have largely been interesting, between the main narrative and my Greymanes looking to me to help them rebuild the faction. I haven’t moved on from hernand because I find the story to be weak, but rather because it’s too damn hard to leave all my business there unfinished.

It’s presented so well that it has begun to feel like home to me, and I feel invested in its welfare. I’ve spent time with nobles who have helped me find a safe space for my Greymane brethren, while I assisted them with a variety of unique problems in return. I’ve invested in the land, using my Greymane camp’s resources to help its people.

I’ve helped people in villages by freeing those taken prisoner by bandits or pirates and liberating their homes, where I’m now welcomed. I’ve sent my Greymanes to build bridges across crucial trade routes while I’ve helped clean the place up, getting it decidedly free of Bleed Bandits, Fundamentalist Goblins, and Bandits. I took out the one leading the Goldleaf Merchants astray and helped stabilize trade in the region.

I’m now fast friends with its local merchants. I’m more or less a citizen of Hernand myself, and I’ve prided myself on being one that is well-liked and respected.

That isn’t a weak story, but a very intelligent design. And I want to experience and savor it all. But that doesn’t mean I’m not going to leave at some point. Here’s why I’m looking forward to that day.

A Fifth Of The Pywel Pie

As the first exploreable of five big ones in Crimson Desert, the fact that Hernand feels like a place you can’t help but come back to speaks very well for the rest of the experience. It means that Crimson Desert has managed to make its players want to stay, which can be tricky for any open-world experience.

If the rest of Pywel is as densely packed with content that feeds into itself, I think Crimson Desert is going to take up all my personal gaming time for the rest of the year, with perhaps only Phantom Blade Zero pulling me away from it. I’ve been playing it as I eat, and think about it when I’m not holding a controller in my hand. I’ve even begun talking through gravelly grunts and an accent, much to the chagrin of my social circle.

With such an immersive opening area, it can be easy to worry that the developer has overplayed its hand by making Hernand this enjoyable, making the other four regions of Crimson Desert feel less intricate and dense by way of comparison. But my limited forays into new areas have given me enough new quest threads to pull at that I’m convinced it isn’t the case. The very existence of that concern is a testament to Hernan’s quality, if you ask me.

The way Hernand is structured is a great showcase of how confident game design can make experiences so unique their very existence becomes the source of discourse around a game, and a lot of it being good. Hernand’s kind of been the stage for Crimson Desert’s recovery from a slow start if you think about it.

It’s a place that has become personal, and I’m hoping that the rest of Pywel is the same. I’d truly be one with its world when I finally put it down if that’s the case. And on that note, I return to Hernand to continue building the Greymane legacy, one enjoyable step at a time.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

The video, which you can check out below, shows off the fact that the curvature of the game’s world was modelled, and is visible from space. Along with this, the atmosphere of the planet also seems visible. Looking beyond the planet, it looks like the Milky Way galaxy can be seen in the distance, with many stars dotting the otherwise-black emptiness of space.

Social media user NikTek has uploaded another video showcasing how players can get into space. The process involves using an Infinite Stamina mod for the PC release of Crimson Desert and spamming aerial attacks to gain minor elevation levels with every attack. NikTek has noted that this is a slow process, and the endeavour will likely take players several hours.

“It took quite some time, but once you go high enough, you can see what looks to be the Earth’s atmosphere,” they wrote. “The Milky Way is clearly visible, and I also did a short timelapse while I was there.”

Interestingly, it also looks like developer Pearl Abyss may have even modelled some re-entry effects in case players ever got into space and wanted to head back to land. However, NikTek has noted that the re-entry’s visual effect—showing protagonist Kliff beginning to burn as he starts his descent—might have just been a visual oddity with strange interactions from the in-game lantern.

“When free-falling, Kliff also looks like he’s doing an atmospheric entry as he looks like he is catching fire. I don’t know exactly if this effect was intentional or not, as my lantern was on,” they wrote.

While this could have just been an example of some incredible dedication to add levels of detail that most players would never see, it is also possible that Pearl Abyss has greater plans for Crimson Desert. As NikTek has noted, this could hint towards a potential future DLC, or even an entire game that revolves around space travel.

Since its release last month, Crimson Desert has been quite successful for Pearl Abyss. The studio had confirmed that it had sold 4 million copies worldwide. A more recent report has indicated that the game might have made $200 million in revenue since its launch. According to Alinea Analytics, the PS5 version of Crimson Desert has led in terms of generating revenue, having made the company almost $75 million.

Crimson Desert is available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. Pearl Abyss has continued to support it with post-launch updates. Take a look at our thoughts on the most stand-out features of these updates.

When asked about AionGuard, he expressed regret over its troubled development cycle and even said that it could have achieved what Crimson Desert has managed, and done it a long time ago. “I haven’t played Crimson Desert enough, but we had everything that I’ve seen from Crimson Desert in the plans for that game.”

AionGuard was touted as a pretty ambitious game back in the day, putting us in the shoes of a knight-sorcerer with a wide arsenal of abilities and the ability to recruit locals to his cause or even sabotage enemies in various ways (similar to the Just Cause franchise). It could have been a fantasy that unfolded very well, although hindsight tells us that it couldn’t hope to achieve Pywel’s visual splendor on the generation of gaming hardware it was being made for. And yet, Sundberg’s words make it sound like a wasted opportunity to push the boundaries of gaming quite early, and he was discontent at how Avalanche was forced to pull the plug on a project that it was clearly passionate about.

“It was signed with a big publisher that has a lot of famous IPs…And then they just changed business direction again and wanted to focus on their existing IPs instead of new ones. They broke up with us on a text message, which I will never forgive them for.”

Alas, AionGuard has crawled so that Crimson Desert could fly. We’d say it’s better late than never as far as games with ambitious ideas are concerned.

This Crimson Desert guide is a listing of all known mounts, both loyal companions and fleeting, as well as some critical stats such as stamina and speed.

Crimson Desert Ground Mounts

Crimson Desert Flying Mounts

Those are all of the mounts you can ride in Crimson Desert.

To that end, Patch 1.02.00, which is now live, isn’t as loaded with improvements and new features, but it’s still a close second. Let’s dive into all the major changes and how they’ll affect your experience, starting with the biggest addition…

More Storage Chest Slots

The addition of a Storage Chest is one that fans (and reviewers) craved, and the development team answered in kind just a few days later. It even had the courtesy to move it to Kliff’s tent so that you’re not awkwardly maneuvering past Karl to access it, but soon enough, everyone came to the same realization – 240 slots were nowhere near enough.

Thankfully, the developer agreed and decided to up the maximum amount not by double or triple but almost quadruple. That’s right – you can now have 1000 slots in the Storage Chest, which means even more room for all those armor sets, weapons, ingredients, trading goods that you swear you’ll sell off, ores, stolen items, and whatnot.

But there is a slight caveat – it’s tied to your expansion of the Howling Hill Camp. You’ll now start with 240 slots, which increases by 100 slots for each expansion, culminating in the final upgrade, giving you a whopping 360 additional slots. A good way to incentivize pursuing more space and retroactively reward those who paid attention to their camp.

Basic and Classic Controls

Personally, I liked the addition of holding the sprint button instead of constantly tapping it, but it created some issues with mounts. Instead of periodically pressing it for a short burst of speed, after which it would recover, the stamina meter drained to zero by simply holding the button for a bit. Some preferred tapping to sprint for the additional control.

Thus, a compromise was born with this update, adding Basic and Classic movement. The former is your hold-to-sprint option while the latter involves repeatedly pressing the button. However, the best part is when using mounts. Holding sprint with Basic controls will now consume stamina at set intervals instead of all in one go, but if you want to dictate those intervals, then Classic consumes it every time you press the sprint key. It’s truly a brave new world.

And that doesn’t even go into all the other little movement improvements. You can now fast travel to an Abyss Nexus plate while moving “slightly.” Granted, it still doesn’t work when mounted or gliding, but it’s a start, and the developer plans to expand this to allow fast traveling on “certain mounts.”

However, all of that pales in comparison, at least for me, to the gliding change. Instead of tapping the jump button again in mid-air and holding it, you can keep it pressed to activate a glide. No more awkwardly trying to activate glide after a triple Force Palm jump, wondering why you even bothered, and I couldn’t be happier.

Headgear Visibility

The fashion game is just as important as any other endgame activity, especially in an experience as dense as this. Unfortunately, there’s still no transmog system, so you can’t have the look of certain armor sets and clothing while retaining the stats of another underneath, but there’s a meaningful step forward: Headgear visibility.

I’ll be honest: As much as I like the Blackwing Mask, sometimes going “caw” while conversing with the townsfolk (they never say it back), I wanted an option to hide it, if only to remember what the top half of Kliff’s head looked like. Lo and behold, it’s finally here, and you can choose between having headgear always show, stay hidden in cutscenes, only show up in combat or always remain concealed.

There’s even more to come, with the developer planning to add a feature to hide the weapons on a character’s back, which should make for less awkward running about with a Banner Pike on your back.

More Graphical Improvements and Features

All platforms have seen improved quality in FSR Frame Generation and upscaling quality. Meanwhile, DLSS RR users should no longer see their GPU memory usage increasing when it’s enabled. It also doesn’t hurt that certain elements, such as foliage, which looked off with ray-traced reflections while using FSR-RR or DLSS-RR, have been fixed, and there should be less stuttering overall.

On the console side, Xbox Series X players can now enable 4K upscaling in Performance Mode. Meanwhile, PS5 Pro owners can take advantage of Upgraded PSR Sharpen and Upgraded PSSR Native AA in Quality Mode. This is in addition to several other improvements to stability and performance, including a fix for a bug that caused V-Sync to change when hitting the Home button on Xbox.

Even More Little Touches

There are several other bug fixes worth mentioning, such as Double Boost, a horse ability, now working properly, or bosses no longer teleporting to Narnia in the middle of a battle. You should also find jumping to be more responsive after an attack, and viewing details of Abyss nodes in the map screen should no longer reset a puzzle – something I didn’t know could happen and am now thankful that I never had to learn about the hard way.

However, there’s even more to look forward to, such as a new armor set and helmet for cats – a much-welcome feature for those focused on feline fashion sense. Pailune also now has a dedicated Abyss Nexus. You don’t have to choose between teleporting to the Abyss Cresset to the north or south anymore, and while it requires activation, you can’t miss it. The UI has seen further improvements, such as sellable items in shops now being prioritized on display, and the minimap’s scale no longer resetting when sprinting at full speed on a mount.

There are even separate menus for Save Game and Load Game. In answer to mishaps where players meant to load instead of save while, say, rerolling for the perfect Abyss Gear or bank investment? Who can say but you also have labels for slots. This is especially great when loading saves, since you can now clearly distinguish between auto and manual saves. Again, it’s a little thing, but one that’s still appreciated.

Some features are still a mystery – I don’t know what changing the “designs of certain gimmick monsters” necessarily entails, though I’m sure more detailed comparisons will become available. I’m also not the biggest fan of Aerial Roll now canceling Focus during Flight, because Unleash doesn’t give the speed boost that I so dearly enjoyed. I’m also still keen to see what it does with the dragon mount timers (an option to at least unsummon Blackstar, rather than waiting for the timer to expire, would go a long way).

But just like previous updates, this one reaffirms the development team’s commitment to improving Crimson Desert as quickly as possible. With four million copies sold thus far, it certainly has enough pressure to keep up the momentum. Lest we forget, the global launch was over two weeks ago, and the team has been working seemingly around the clock to address any issues, while also responding to feedback and fitting in numerous suggestions. Heck, it even looked at feedback from those who didn’t like the sprinting changes and addressed that as well.

That kind of approach doesn’t just show its ability to cater to those praising the game but also to players critical of it. Where it could go next with updates remains to be seen, but for now, it’s a heck of a ride.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Of course, it heard those complaints, loud and clear, and went about nerfing certain bosses and enemies. Attacks that massively chunked stamina while blocking are now far more manageable – from the storm that is approaching to hard knocks on a wooden board.

Which isn’t the worst thing in theory. It felt a little odd to be taking so much damage pre-launch, barely finding windows to attack because everyone possessed an ultimate attack with invincibility throughout. And that was even while keeping up with upgrading my gear, the tedium of mining ores and chopping trees mixing with the real joy that is exploration and uncovering various nooks and corners.

However, the development team went even further and decided to further sand off the rough edges. Gliding? Now much easier thanks to lower stamina consumption. Resources? Far more plentiful, as chests containing the same could be discovered while exploring. Players discovered more tech for getting around faster, which went hand in hand with the gliding changes to make it far easier to collect Abyss Artifacts and Abyss Cressets – seriously, go to the Crimson Desert, they’re just waiting around. Which meant that even if you hit a wall with Abyss Artifacts required for upgrades, well, you would have plenty on hand. Even the new Refinement Tokens made it so that any gear that you discovered could be quickly leveled up to become viable.

So, with how much more seamless it is to explore the furthest reaches of Pywel, gather resources for upgrades, and even research how to obtain all the best gear, some players have taken the seemingly logical next step: Asking for difficulty options. One proposition involved making the game even more challenging on Hard mode than it was at launch, effectively creating a “survival” mode of sorts. That would mean long cooldowns on some of the best food, the removal of question marks on the map, fewer Palmer Pills, and so on.

The idea is a weird tightrope because while players feel like they’re overpowered – which is rich, considering the number of posts about spending 50-plus hours and still being in Hernand – they also like being overpowered. While there is the joke about taking a break from a boss and exploring for 10 hours, only to come back and curbstomp it, I don’t think there’s any amount of balancing that could really address that.

Others feel it’s the friction that gave Crimson Desert its true challenge, whether it’s being gated by the progression or taking more time to get around. Which is funny, given how many more positive reviews and players it received on Steam since the last two major patches.

I think it comes down to admitting a couple of hard truths about the boss fights – that, despite how challenging they may be, some of them just don’t feel all that enjoyable. I won’t name and shame specific offenders (*cough* Hexe *cough*), but for all the bosses that inevitably stood out, there were a few that felt like they could use a bit more Q&A. Less invincibility windows, more attacks that actually feel good to punish when you actually avoid them.

One also has to realize that in a game like this, it’s the player who really defines the difficulty. Look at The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. You could effectively beeline it to the final boss from the start with only three hearts if you so chose, ignoring the rest of the world. Whether you actually reached it or not is a different story, but you very well could (and there are plenty who have). Crimson Desert isn’t exactly like that – progressing through the story is a must for reaching the big bad, yet the actual game revolves around the larger world.

As you complete requests, stab through waterfalls, mine materials, and discover new ones, Kliff will passively unlock the means to become stronger. Even if you’re not actively seeking any Abyss Artifacts, a little meter on the side will fill up with every kill, awarding one when it reaches completion. The only real way to challenge yourself is to ignore it, and honestly, going down that path of not using certain things just for the sake of some difficulty can be a thorny one. Where do you stop to hit that sweet spot of challenge?

Let’s not forget that even Breath of the Wild implemented a Master Mode at the end of the day, introducing a tougher tier of enemies, buffing the already existing foes, and even tossing more serious threats into early game environments. It’s not completely out of the realm of possibility for Crimson Desert, and I don’t see the developer locking it behind paid DLC. Maybe for New Game Plus, if players are lucky.

But introducing level scaling, ensuring that every enemy matches your own? I don’t think that’s the right path towards a more challenging experience. When you’re motivated to engage with the world and rewarded in either slight increments of power or strong new tools, it just feels annoying to see your enemies leveling up for free. Besides, it kind of interferes with one thing that many enjoy about the combat, namely, the ability to wreck crowds. The progression also needs some reworking because entering a new region and exploring it to find materials that would inevitably go into upgrading your current loadout is part of the fun. Having stronger enemies may be ideal for some to “test” their broken builds on, but after what point does it just feel ridiculous to see random Demenissian Guard A get up after taking multiple Explosive Arrows to the face?

Of course, it’s still early days for Crimson Desert. Despite launching about two weeks ago, it’s been in discourse for what feels like years at this point. There are still several other areas that need improvement, numerous mechanics that could be further iterated. As much as I see the development team wanting to address every bit of feedback for those currently playing, there’s something about taking the time and really working through what it wants to do with the game. The bigger picture, so to speak.

In the meantime, players should enjoy the current cycle as much as possible – fighting monsters and inevitably turning Kliff into one that can either tank the heaviest of blows or roast bosses with a single combo. That in itself can be a catharsis for many, even at the cost of the few who seek a higher challenge.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

On Xbox, players averaged about 20 hours per week, earning it the top-ranked spot. It ranked second on PlayStation, with Path of Exile pulling ahead, but each player still averaged 22 hours. Piscatella also revealed that Crimson Desert is now in the top 20 charts when it comes to total weekly active players on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

Keep in mind that this is just the average per user – some may have put in far more time than others. It makes sense considering Pearl Abyss’s action-adventure offers a massive world to explore, combining elements from Red Dead Redemption 2, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and more. Plus, there’s just so much to see and a compelling combat system.

That momentum has pushed Crimson Desert to sell over four million copies since launch, with the developer expected to announce five million sales soon. Meanwhile, patches continue to flow, delivering numerous improvements. Check out the latest here.