Pearl Abyss released a 37 GB patch for Crimson Desert on Steam on Wednesday, adding easy, medium and hard difficulty settings in the game’s biggest update since launch. The patch also expands housing, pets, weapons, armor, combat and inventory systems at once.
Hard difficulty goes beyond simply making enemies hit harder and take more damage. Food will not restore health until the eating animation finishes, and the patch notes do not say why the mode brings no extra rewards or XP gain. House chests have been added to houses rather than the camp, while Sturdy Gatherables provide 10,000 slots for crafting or refinement materials. The Kuku Cooler stores food, Collectibles hold quest items and recipes, and Wardrobes offer 100 clothing slots and 1,000 total storage.
New house layouts now include Compact House, Standard House, Spacious House and Spacious Pailunese House. Birds can now be recruited through an intro quest and fed with different food types, five new cat pet types have been added, and the Abyss Heuklang can now become a pet. Players can also rename horses and pets. Damiane now gets The Sword of Starlight through a quest, while Kliff and Oonkga gain two one-handed weapons called Tree Branch and Sturdy Tree Branch. Kliff also gets a new Baltheon armor outfit, more outfits have been added to certain shops including the Back Alley Shop, and Kuku Flame and Ice armor can now be dyed.
The update also pushes into the world itself. More ores and wells have been placed across Pywel, livestock can now be bought directly from NPC vendors, and bosses are no longer immune while performing powerful attacks. Some bosses also received changes to counterattacks, escapes and attack patterns. Force Palm Pulse is now chargeable to three damage levels, Force Palm is faster, Kliff can use weapon throw with shield bash controls, and weapons return when the button is pressed again or when the player gets near them. Damiane and Oongka now have their own Ambush skill, along with moves that function like Kliff’s Focused Force Palm.
Inventory and map tools were tightened too, with category tabs added to item viewing, Basic Gears now stacking, and the map showing stock status for shop items once maximum trust has been reached. The scope suggests Pearl Abyss is trying to turn a launch build into a fuller version of Crimson Desert in one sweep, but the patch leaves one thing hanging: why hard mode was not paired with any stated reward or experience boost.
