Crimson Desert beginner tips to know before you start

Because the tutorial sure won't tell you

Getting started in Crimson Desert is more than a little overwhelming. The massive open-world game drops you in the middle of complex systems with few, if any, explanations, and tutorials are often doled out at random by passing strangers. And even then, the game just doesn't tell you some essential tidbits, like the fact that you can travel together with your companions.

Below, we lay out a lot of Crimson Desert beginner tips to help start your journey through Pywel on the right foot.

1 Don't forget basic skills

The big red, green, and blue nodes in your skill tree aren't just there for decoration. They're how you increase your health, spirit, and stamina, respectively, so make sure to drop a few artifacts to upgrade them. They're some of the best skills to level early, especially stamina as the low starting amount you have becomes quite a detriment as you unlock skills that use a lot of it or just want to explore.

2 Hold off on roaming

Speaking of exploration, you might want to hold off straying too far until you either unlock movement abilities, like flight, or Damiane, the second playable character. With flight, you can drop down from the Abyss and glide wherever you please, but, unfortunately, only Kilff has the ability to go to the Abyss.

On the other hand, Damiane's ability to explore is great off the bat. She has a double jump ability that's automatically unlocked when she joins the team and climbs faster and more efficiently than Kliff. Stamina management is easier with her, which makes getting to new places (and getting back again, if it involves climbing) much less annoying.

3 Don't spend your abyss artifacts all at once

Tempting as it may be to spend your abyss artifacts (Crimson Desert's version of skill points) as soon as you get them, it's better to wait and see what you actually need. If, for example, you find you don't like ranged combat, but you've already spent five artifacts upgrading your bow, then you're kind of out of luck. Respeccing is possible, but the process requires limited, hard-to-find items.

Plus, when new characters do join, they share your current pool of abyss artifacts. They start with a handful of useful skills unlocked, but if you want to invest in upgrades, it's a lot more convenient to just do it right away, rather than having to find or grind more artifacts.

4 Gather resources with care

Some resources have very long respawn times, so long that you can't rely on them for grinding. Iron ore and diamond nodes, for example, haven't respawned after a week of real-world time or multiple in-game days. So think carefully about how you're using the rarer materials you come across. You might not find more for a long time.

5 Invite other characters when you can

You can get other team members to join your group and fight alongside you, though the game doesn't tell you how. Open the character select menu, and then when you point at another playable character, press the prompted button. They'll become a companion who follows you and aids in combat. "Aid" is maybe a bit strong, since they fight slowly and don't contribute a lot, but in high-pressure situations, it helps to have someone else around to take the heat off.

Just bear in mind that for some quests specific to certain characters, you'll have to go it alone. Teaming up isn't allowed.

6 Get a pet

Each in-game day, you can gain 25 trust with any animal by petting them. Once you reach 100 trust with an animal, you can take them in and they'll follow you around like a pet. They'll join you on your adventure, pick up items from enemies you defeat, and you can even dress them up. You can have a total of 30 pets, but you can only have one summoned at a time.

7 Find a mask if you plan to commit crimes

You can't steal or do anything bad unless you equip a mask. Bandits drop these on a semi-regular basis, but you can also buy one from back-alley vendors (recognizable for the fact that they, too, wear masks; there's one near the windmill in the farmland outside Hernand).

8 But maybe don't equip one until you're ready

Equipping a mask means everything is fair game. Breaking a fence is vandalism. Accidentally getting an innocent traveler caught up in your attacks on bandits is murder. The accidental atrocities pile up fast, and so does the price on your head. So just consider not equipping a mask until you're ready to commit a crime, and once you're finished, open the inventory menu, navigate to the mask, and unequip it just to be sure no terrible accidents happen.

9 Thieving is fine, actually

Theft is the easiest crime to commit in Crimson Desert, but it's also the most profitable. The way crimes work is that once you do the deed, there's a period of time where anyone who sees you in the vicinity will "witness" the crime and report it, which means you end up with a bounty on your head. Unless you're swiping something from a busy shop or pickpocketing, you can do most theft unnoticed. Just make sure no one's looking, grab the thing, and wait for the notice period to expire. You'll lose a small bit of reputation, but that's okay for reasons we'll get into soon.

10 But murder is bad

Murder is noisier, though, which makes it trickier, since people tend to hear the screams, thuds, gurgles, and so on, and the way NPCs roam around means it's a lot harder to stay unnoticed while the crime clock ticks. So you're almost guaranteed to end up with a bounty on your head. Murder bounties are high, and getting noticed by any passing guards while you're in the bounty area means they automatically fight you. Such a fuss.