Criomson Desert’s patch 1.00.03 has a bunch of fixes and improvements for most of the common complaints at launch such as controls, storage expansion and additional fast-travel points.
Highlights
The changes that stood out most to us include the addition of private storage, more fast travel points, and initial improvements to controls.
Private Storage
They added private storage to the initial temporary lodgings in Hernand Town and at the Howling Hill Camp, so you aren’t forced to sell things when you run out of inventory space on your person anymore.
There are 240 slots in Private Storage. You can go back and repurchase stuff you sold to a vendor in the past week, but it will cost you full price (more than you sold it for), and you have to remember which vendor you sold it to.
As annoying as they may be, many of the design decisions surrounding inventory management seem intentional. The sheer amount of stuff you find can quickly spiral out of control.
It’s clear they were initially taking inspiration from restrictive inventory systems found in games like Breath of the Wild and Skyrim, but there’s also the fact that you’re meant to give items to your fellow Greymanes as Camp Provisions.
I don’t have my hopes up for the kind of item stacking from Avowed, but I have a feeling we’ll see larger redesigns down the road with the incorporation of dedicated, hopefully unlimited, inventories for crafting materials and such.
Given the high degree of physicalization present in the world, I’m surprised the devs didn’t opt for a more Tetris-style system where some items take up multiple slots based on their actual size and shape. Maybe we’ll see something like that in the future as well.
More Fast Travel Points
There are now more Abyss Nexuses scattered throughout the world. Those are the fast travel points you have to stand on to activate initially but can teleport back to whenever you want.
Previously, Abyss Nexuses were pretty much only near major locations or important NPCs, but you could already also fast travel to Abyss Cressets, the little spires that have Abyss Artifacts in them that unlock after completing a puzzle.
Pearl Abyss has created a pretty delicate balance in terms of game pacing, and other aspects have been sped up or feel snappier as part of this update to maintain that balance. It’s unclear how many more fast travel points have been added.
I personally thought the previous density was reasonable. Open world games often create way too many fast travel points that invalidate the other modes of transportation the game offers.
Speaking of other modes of transportation, Pearl Abyss has yet to address one of the biggest growing concerns from the playerbase that mounts you get are not permanent unlocks.
Controls Improvements
There are a host of improvements to Crimson Desert’s controls, though most apply to keyboard and mouse. We don’t yet have proper support for changing keybindings, though Pearl Abyss has announced they are working on further improvements to controls.
Thank you to those who have been playing Crimson Desert and sharing your feedback with us.
As we mentioned in a previous notice, we have been paying close attention to your experiences across issue reports, videos, livestreams, and community discussions. Your feedback has been invaluable to us, and we appreciate the time and care you have taken to share it with us. This patch includes some of the improvements and fixes we were able to prepare first, including changes based on player feedback, like the addition of a Storage at Howling Hill Camp for storing your Inventory items and some improvements related to keyboard and mouse controls. However, this is not the end to our control improvements; we will continue to improve both controller and keyboard/mouse controls moving forward.
We are currently reviewing various gameplay elements based on your feedback and will roll out further improvements and fixes in subsequent updates. We remain committed to improving Crimson Desert and your experience in Pywel. Thank you once again for your continued support.
The controls for Crimson Desert are complicated, and the layout Pearl Abyss has created is pretty thoughtful and logical.
We don’t feel that there is that much you could do to modify keybindings on a controller that would improve the experience, and doing so would require you to have a pretty good understanding of the current control scheme.
Still, if remapping buttons on a controller is on the horizon, it’s understandable that such a feature would not be included in an update so soon after release.
1.00.03 Full Patch Notes
Below, you’ll find the full patch notes for Version 1.00.03 from pearlabyss.com. They have been reformatted, but no other edits have been made.
Quests
- Fixed an issue in the Chapter 2 quest “Reunion” where the cat would sometimes stop leading the way.
- Improved the Chapter 4 quest “Mysterious Pot” by making the symbol stop briefly when it reaches the correct position while repairing the ancient generator.
- Fixed an issue in “Turnali’s Request” where the quest would not complete if a Bekker Shield that had already been refined was refined again.
- Improved the notification to appear when crime status prohibit the quest from progressing.
Content
- Added more Abyss Nexuses across the continent of Pywel to improve fast travel via teleportation.
- Added the Private Storage that can be used to store items from your Inventory.
- The Private Storage is located at the initial temporary lodgings in Hernand and at the Howling Hill Camp.
- Reduced the time required to acquire knowledge.
- Changed skill observation to be only required once to learn before being able to use it.
- Adjusted when Force Palm is learned to allow players to use it much earlier in the game.
- Reduced the number of hits required to log trees.
- Changed logging so that trees are chopped with basic swings without aiming first.
- Decreased the QTE difficulty in the Arm Wrestling minigame and when pinned by an opponent (Mount).
- Improved the visibility of items that can provide knowledge by adding icons and tooltips that show the total number of knowledge acquired.
- Changed ore veins and collectibles to be discovered automatically when you are within a certain proximity.
- Regular Ores: 8m
- Tools: 2m
- Bonfire, Special Cooking Tool, Grindstone
- Improved Skybridge Alignment Devices in the Abyss to trigger immediately when placed in the correct activation point.
- Improved the visibility of Skybridge Alignment Devices within the Abyss to make them easier to locate.
- Improved the visibility of the circuit board attached to Axiom Force to show its lines while being moved.
- Improved camera movement when aiming a bow at a brazier and adjusted the range for lighting arrows accordingly.
- Added an indestructible brazier in front of the Lioncrest Watchtower.
- Improved the Trading Post UI to display Damiane, Oongka, and Kliff’s horses’ Inventory.
- Added effects for destroying facilities at enemy strongholds. The effects of facility destruction are as follows:
- Infirmary: Wounded enemies no longer return to the fight.
- Storage Facilities: Enemy Max Health -10%.
- Barracks Facilities: Enemy Attack -5.
- Improved the visuals of certain puzzles for clarity.
- Increased the Health restored by ingredients and food items, and added new food to the Hernand Tavern.
- Increased the Lantern’s range for detecting clues.
- Reduced Stamina consumption for Nature’s Grasp.
- Fixed an issue where pets would fail to loot items under certain conditions.
- Changed certain items in the Witches’ shop to reset daily.
- Changed the properties of bismuth ore and how it is gathered.
- Petrification is now applied by default when you approach bismuth ore.
- Bismuth ore can now be mined using regular methods like a pickaxe, rather than requiring Lightning damage attacks.
- Lowered the difficulty of the Marksmanship and Archery Contest minigames.
- Fixed an issue where the Abyss cell’s electric field would not disappear.
- Improved the visibility of the part that needs to be grabbed with Axiom Force on the Skybridge Alignment Device.
- Changed Visione to be automatically equipped and play after reading memory fragments with the Lantern.
- Fixed an issue in the Ethereal Pathway Abyss where players could not observe Force Palm if they did not step on the Abyss Nexus.
- Fixed an issue where Stamina was not consumed after a certain quest cutscene.
Controls
- [General] Improved the response speed of the interaction UI.
- [General] Improved the responsiveness of jump inputs.
- [General] Fixed aiming to target the center of the screen when using a Lantern or while unarmed.
- [General] Improved the Equipment Quick Slot so that re-selecting your current equipment will stow it.
- [General] Improved the responsiveness of the Main Menu UI.
- [General] Fixed an intermittent issue where the Main Menu would not open.
- [Keyboard/Mouse] Improved the responsiveness of character movement controls.
- [Keyboard/Mouse] Added the following shortcuts to open and close certain menus:
- Inventory: [I]
- Skills: [K]
- Journal: [J]
- Map: [M]
- [Keyboard/Mouse] Fixed an issue where the key guide at the bottom right of the screen would not update when using Guard or Aim.
- [Keyboard/Mouse] Added default control options for Guard/Aim (Side Button 1) and Evade (Side Button 2).
- [Keyboard/Mouse] Changed controls to maintain movement input when using Axiom Force.
- [Keyboard/Mouse] Fixed an issue where duplicate keys could be assigned in Shortcuts and Input Settings.
- [Keyboard/Mouse] Fixed an issue where certain inputs did not function correctly after changing the Shortcuts and Input Settings.
Boss Fights & Combat
- Reduced the Health and Attack of specific enemies and bosses.
- Reduced Stamina consumption for blocking attacks.
- Lowered the difficulty of the ambush encounters triggered while heading toward the Reed Devil boss stage.
- Adjusted certain attack patterns for Kearush the Slayer.
- Increased the accumulation of the stun gauge on bosses upon a successful parry.
- Changed boss weakness effects to display even if the player has not acquired the specific knowledge.
- Fixed an issue where comrades remained when entering a boss fight.
- Fixed an issue where fire arrows failed to ignite enemies on hit.
- Fixed an issue where certain bosses fell unnaturally in specific situations.
- Fixed an issue where certain bosses ran away too frequently when hit under specific circumstances.
- Fixed an issue where the Blinding Flash weakness was not being properly applied to certain enemies.
NPC & NPC Dialogue
- Fixed an issue where some English audio lines were not playing.
- Reduced the price of restorative items sold by Carl at Howling Hill Camp from 10 Silver to 1 Silver.
- Improved animal behavior to appear more natural when near the player.
- Fixed abnormal behavior and placement positions for certain NPCs.
- Fixed an issue where NPCs would catch each other cheating during the minigame Duo.
UI Fixes & Improvements
- Improved food items to automatically register to a quick slot upon first acquisition.
- Improved the display positioning for the Homing Pigeon letter UI.
- Improved the camera movement when observing skills.
- Fixed an intermittent issue where the UI failed to remove the destination on the Map menu.
- Fixed an intermittent issue where the cursor did not display correctly when navigating the Shop menu.
- Moved the Knowledge and Notifications menu from the Others tab to the Journal tab and adjusted the order.
Graphics & Settings
- [PlayStation 5, Xbox] Added a toggle for 120Hz mode within Settings.
- Fixed an issue where settings were not saving correctly after using the Default option in the Settings menu.
- Fixed an issue where resolution and upscaling settings were not retained when restarting the game.
- Fixed an issue where character equipment and cats were invisible on the minimum performance quality setting.
- Fixed an issue where screen quality appeared abnormal when activating FSR Ray Regeneration or DLSS Ray Reconstruction.
- Fixed an issue where monitor size was incorrectly detected at certain resolutionsm causing abnormal display output.
- Fixed an issue where the game screen appeared cut off or misaligned in Fullscreen, Windowed, and Borderless Window modes.
- [Mac] Fixed an issue where default graphics settings were incorrectly set to Cinematic on certain MacBook models.
- [Mac] Fixed an issue where the game would occasionally crash under specific graphics settings.
- Fixed an issue where the Abyss remained visible in specific situations while on the ground.
- Improved and fixed various visual effects triggered during specific NPC animations.
- Improved the appearance of the waterfall in the Abyss tutorial.
- Fixed awkward animations that occurred when a character collided with a wagon.
- Fixed an issue where letterboxing failed to deactivate after certain cutscenes.
Performance, Stability, Gameplay
- [PlayStation 5] Fixed an issue where the game would occasionally crash when opening the Map menu.
- Fixed an issue where the game would not launch because dedicated graphics cards were not recognized in environments using both integrated and dedicated graphics cards.
- Fixed an issue where graphics cards were not correctly recognized on versions below a specific build of Windows 10 (Improved detection for graphics card versions that could not be found).
- Fixed several stability, performance optimization, and crash issues across PC and console platforms.
- [Xbox] Fixed an issue where gameplay was unavailable while offline.
Localization
- Fixed various localization errors and improved localization quality across all languages.
Others
- Fixed an issue where the death and loading sequences were delayed.
- Improved horse behavior to approach the player after being called.
- Fixed an issue where the character would be pushed sideways when using Force Palm or Stab while against a wall.
- Fixed an issue where DualSense Controller vibration failed to function in specific Windows environments.
Known Issues
As seen on pearlabyss.com:
- (Xbox) An issue has been identified where the fishing reel-in function does not work properly when the “Invert Right Stick Y-Axis” setting is enabled in the device settings. Please note that if you disable this feature, the reel-in function will work normally.
- In certain situations, the Abyss can be seen from the world below, resulting in slight drops in frame rate.
- During the “Deferred Advance” quest, retrying or abandoning the Ultimate Weapon fight when Blackstar’s Health is depleted causes Blackstar’s Health to not fully recover.
- Attempting to steal fruit at the back of a stall results in the character becoming unresponsive to controls.
- When receiving damage while holding a tree, the character can become stuck to the tree.
- During the Gregor, the Halberd of Carnage boss fight, if surrounding objects are destroyed at the same time the character dies, the character cannot revive and progress.
- Under certain conditions, applied settings are not saved after restoring settings.
- While progressing through some quests, the next objective is not automatically tracked.
- When using FSR4 upscaling, an issue occurs in rainy environments where rain disappears, or the screen becomes blurry or distorted.
- An issue has been identified where the game cannot be launched properly on Xbox ROG Ally and Xbox PC.
- We are currently investigating an issue where Collector’s Edition Steam edition pre-order purchasers are unable to claim their ultimate pack items.
Solved
- We are currently investigating an issue where Steam pre-order purchasers are unable to claim their pre-order bonus and deluxe pack items.
- (PlayStation 5, PlayStation 5 Pro) An issue where using the Map menu sometimes results in crashes.
