Crimson Desert Beginner Guide: 10 Things to Do First
Skip the rookie mistakes. The 10 most important things to do first in Crimson Desert — controller setup, stat priority, inventory, food, fast travel, and silver.
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Quick overview
- Crimson Desert hides most of its systems behind tutorials you can blink past, then punishes you for the next 50 hours.
- Bosses one-shot under-leveled players, food is your only heal, and there are no storage chests anywhere in the world.
- This guide is the 10-step shortcut: do these in your first 5-10 hours and the rest of the game opens up smoothly.
- Last verified on patch 1.0.x. Works for Kliff (your main character) — Damiane and Oongka share progress.
1. Use a controller, not mouse and keyboard
- PlayStation or Xbox controller is mandatory on PC — KB+M is borderline unplayable for combat.
- Combat uses combo timing, parry windows, and stagger build-up that need analog sticks.
- Blinding Flash, lock-on, and aerial maneuvers all chord two shoulder buttons — clunky on KB+M.
- Buy a $30 wired Xbox-style pad if you don't own one. Cheapest performance upgrade in the game.
2. Spend Abyss Artifacts on Stamina and Health first
- Crimson Desert has no XP or levels — you progress by spending Abyss Artifacts on the skill tree.
- Three branches: Stamina (red, dodge/flight), Health (blue, HP), Spirit (green, ability resource).
- Early game: alternate Stamina and Health up to ~level 10 each. Spirit can wait until act 4-5.
- Stamina lets you dodge more and glide longer. Health is the difference between surviving and one-shot deaths.
- Use Faded Abyss Artifacts to respec at any time — experiment freely with weapons and skills.
- Sources of Artifacts: combat (mob bar fills the minimap meter), quests, bosses, and 141 Sealed Abyss Artifacts on the map.
3. Clear Hernand Commissions for inventory slots
- There are NO storage chests in the world — every item you keep stays on Kliff's back.
- Hernand Commissions (also called Requests) award +3 inventory slots per quest. Stack them.
- Each region has its own commission set — Hernand first, then Demeniss, Delesyia, Pailune.
- You can also buy single inventory slots from Hernand vendors at 50 copper each — fast early boost.
- Look for an Extra Large Bag (+10 slots) hidden in the world — major early-game upgrade.
- Don't forget Rory's Supply Chest at the Greymane camp — anything you leave behind goes there.
4. Cook Hearty Grilled Meat — your only real heal
- There are no health potions in Crimson Desert — food is your only real heal.
- Hearty Grilled Meat is the cheapest viable healing food — restores 200+ HP per piece.
- Buy Fine Meat from the butcher in Hernand and cook at the bonfire next to the stand.
- Mountain Goats die in 1-2 hits and drop Fine Meat — easier to farm than deer.
- Bring 100+ pieces to every boss fight. Bosses are tuned to be brute-forced via heals.
- Later you'll unlock Clear Soup (Act 3, +180 HP from cheap merchant veggies) and stamina/spirit foods.
- Street vendors in cities sell ready-made meals — backup if you run out of cooking time.
5. Get the Palmar Pill recipe — auto-revive at 30% HP
- Palmar Pills auto-revive Kliff with 30% HP when he dies — saves you from boss reset hell.
- Recipe is unlocked from the Village of the Sick side quest line in early Hernand.
- Cheap to craft: water + insects + Palmar Roots (basic alchemy ingredients).
- Carry 5+ to every boss fight. They stack with food healing for back-to-back saves.
- Warning: enemies can still hit you mid-revive animation — pop them in a safe corner if possible.
6. Activate the Greymane Camp Abyss Nexus
- Greymane Camp is your hub: cook, blacksmith, provisioner, and Rory's Supply Chest live here.
- Camp gets its own fast travel point after Act 4, once you have Focus Force Palm.
- Path: head to Karin Quarry, drop into the ruins, grab the Transporter, return to the hill by the camp.
- Activating the Nexus lets you teleport home to deposit loot, restock food, and accept new commissions in seconds.
- Upgrade the camp early — every Greymane quest brings a new specialist (cook, blacksmith) that unlocks new gameplay.
7. Buy ore from merchants, sell everything else
- No storage chests means hoarding kills your inventory — sell aggressively.
- Old books, documents, posters, junk drops: sell them all. Zero quest use, just dead weight.
- Buy Copper Ore and Iron Ore from the Hernand weapons merchant — needed for gear upgrades later.
- Stock Fine Meat, vegetables, and Palmar Roots regularly. Vendor stock refreshes every couple in-game days.
- Street vendors in cities sell ready-cooked meals — buy in bulk before long expeditions.
- Save big purchases (gear, cores) for Hernand's main blacksmith — better selection than camp at the start.
8. Spam Blinding Flash to reveal hidden POIs
- About 40% of the world is fogged behind '?' Mysterious Energy markers — most are fast travel points.
- Blinding Flash reveals nearby points of interest as silvery glints in the distance.
- Bindings: Ctrl + Left-Click on KB+M, L1+R1 on PlayStation, LB+RB on Xbox.
- POIs don't auto-mark on the map — you have to physically reach each glint.
- Hidden POIs include: Abyss Nexus (fast travel), Sealed Abyss Artifacts, ancient ruin puzzles, NPC camps.
- Combine with the 8 Hidden Bells (one per region) to fully unfog the map.
9. Stack Bounties + Commissions for early silver
- Bounties: purple page markers on the minimap. Track the target, return to the constable, ~10 silver each.
- Each bounty takes 10-20 minutes — perfect filler between main quests.
- Stack bounties with Hernand Commissions in the same area to chain rewards on one trip.
- For bigger jumps in silver: rob the Hernand Bank (40+ silver per chest item) and play card games (Duo, Five-Card).
- Hunt Fundamentalist Goblins in Sunrise Plains for Crude Devil Masks (~25% drop, 13.71 silver each).
- Mid-game: convert Golden Apples (drop from Grey Rock Dock hedgehogs) into Gold Bars at any Witch — 500 silver each.
10. Push the main story for Flight and Focus Force Palm
- 12 chapters total — story rewards scale exponentially the further you go.
- Flight (mid-game) and Focus Force Palm (Act 4) are gated behind the main story, not the skill tree.
- Without Flight, half of the map's vertical exploration is locked.
- Aerial Swing and Aerial Maneuver from the Axiom Force skill let you scale walls — level them after Stamina/Health.
- Glide tip: cancel and free-fall to regen stamina, then resume gliding — covers way more distance than holding glide.
- Don't grind sidequests forever before each chapter — story bosses scale, but Abyss Cores and gear matter more than your skill level.
Related Guides
- Crimson Desert: How to Make Silver Fast (Silver Farming Guide)10 proven ways to farm Silver fast in Crimson Desert — from a free 190-Silver Gold Bar in your first hour to passive bank investments and Golden Apple loops.
- Best Skills to Unlock First in Crimson DesertThe 9 skills every Kliff should unlock in the first 10 hours — from Dodge (perfect dodge) to Nature's Echo and Blinding Flash Finisher.
- Crimson Desert: All Bosses Guide & Hardest Boss Tier ListUniversal boss prep, the 3 hardest bosses (Beloth, Ator, The Forgotten General), and how to beat the final boss Umbra — plus regional boss counts and Watch & Learn farming.
- Abyss Cores Guide — The Real Progression System in Crimson DesertCores are mods you slot into gear — they boost stats and add abilities far more than swapping equipment. Unlock, slot, and stack them right.
- All 141 Sealed Abyss Artifacts — Locations, How to Use, Best OrderEvery Sealed Abyss Artifact unlocks a Challenge — and Challenge progress only counts AFTER you find the artifact. Here's how to collect all 141 in the optimal order.
- Crimson Desert: All 8 Hidden Bells (Toll of Pywel)8 bells unfog the entire map of Pywel. Locations, climbing tips, story locks, and the Toll of Pywel faction questline — ring them all in your first 5 hours.
- Crimson Desert Fast Travel Guide — All Abyss Nexus LocationsAbyss Nexus are the round floor plates that unlock fast travel across Pywel. Activate every white '?' search area you pass on the way to bells and artifacts.
Sources
Information cross-referenced from these sources and verified in-game.