Crimson Desert NPC Trust and Gifts Guide

Everything you need to know about earning trust with NPCs, how the gift system works, what you get from different types of NPCs, vendors and contracts, and the best gifts to give to each NPC in Crimson Desert.

NPC Trust Explained

Every Non-Playable Character (NPC) has a Trust level. When it reaches its maximum 100, they’ll give you a gift to show their appreciation and affection.

Rewards

The gift an NPC gives you after reaching max Trust is always better than whatever you give them, but economics and efficiency can complicate that equation.

You won’t always have what they like on-hand, and it’s often not a good enough or reliable enough trade that it’s worth going out of your way to give everyone something.

Still, it can often be worthwhile to give gifts to non-Stranger NPCs, especially if you know they’ll give you something you want.

If you ever see that NPC again, their Trust level sticks around and they will give you another gift, again and again. This is particularly lucrative for Greymanes at Howling Hill who will give you some free camp resources and are somewhat of a captive audience.

Some of the best rewards are random Dyes from Dyers and random Elixir recipes from Tariv Sorcerers, but I also got a Golden Apple for getting the Witch of Strength’s Trust up to 100.

Trust

Trust gain works differently for getting Pets compared to sapient NPCs. There’s no daily limits on trust gain from gift giving, but you can’t pet people (who don’t already trust you), either. You can increase your Trust with an NPC by doing the following:

• Greeting them (+5, rate-limited)
• Completing a quest for them (+50, once)
• Gifting them something they like (usually +10, but ranges from +5-25, no rate limit)

Gifts are the main way to increase trust, typically by spam gifting them 4, 10, or 20 of the thing you know they’ll like. Vendors are the only type of NPC that reliably has a quest associated with them, and you should do their quest before raising their trust with gifts.

Gift System Explained

The name over an NPC’s head determines the type of gift you’ll get for reaching 100 Trust and influences the kinds of things they’ll like, though race plays a much bigger role in determining what they like than their name and profession.

The old adage with gift giving that “it’s the thought that counts” is at the heart of Crimson Desert’s gift system. The monetary value of a gift “matters” much less to NPCs than the fact that you gave them something they liked.

You can see what items a given NPC will accept as a gift and how much their trust will increase when you try to give them something.

The same gift will always give the same amount of Trust to NPCs of that race and profession. There are no diminishing returns or other factors.

The game doesn’t let you give NPCs things that won’t increase their Trust, but there are still a lot of considerations when it comes to gift giving in Crimson Desert.

Gifts are sorted into “buckets” that typically yield +5, +10, +15, or +25 Trust, determined by the value assigned to whole item categories, not the value of an individual item’s value.

For example, if you give a troll Scholar some Hides, you’ll get +10 Trust per Hide regardless of whether it was Thin Hide or Sturdy Hide, despite the latter being worth almost three times as much. Sell and keep the good stuff from each category for yourself. Give them the scraps that are only worth a few cents.

Since categories determine Trust gain per gift and individual NPCs only like certain item categories, there usually isn’t a “Favorite” thing, at least not one that’s ever worth spending time to figure out. Don’t obsess over people, least of all fake ones.

The best way to go about gift giving is to keep some consistent +10 gifts on hand for chance encounters and grab plants/flowers as you find them for the picky people.

Gift Priority

Different types of NPCs can like the same things, but some like them more than others or like other, cheaper, or more common things that you should give them instead.

You want to save the rarer and more expensive gifts for the NPCs that will only accept those goodies and only give those gifts when you know you’ll get something you want from that NPC in return.

It’s worth noting that Food is sorted into a few categories based on quality, but the peasants can’t always tell the difference between the good and the bad, so if they’ll accept the Bread, just give them the Bread.

1. Materials (Hides, Lumber, Fruits, Plants, etc.)
2. Cheap Food (Bread, Beer, Jerky, etc.)
3. Cheap-ish Food (Wine, +180-300 HP Food, Spirit recovery food, etc.)
4. Cheap Collectibles (“Study” Paintings, Containers, etc.)
5. Special Cooking Tool Food (+500 HP Food, Meals/Feasts)
6. Flowers
7. Paltry Copper Pouches

If you’re giving Flowers or Paltry Copper Pouches, don’t forget to greet them. A greeting is equivalent to flowers in Pywel. You don’t need to bother with the other gift types because they should be worth +10 Trust.

It’s possible I’ve missed something, but as far as I can tell, it’s much more straightforward to give gifts to non-human races. You’ll usually have something on hand that you can give them 10 and be done with it, but the only thing humans always seem to like getting is Flower Baskets and Pots, but those are harder to come by and only give +5.

You can find a bunch of free, replenishing flower baskets/pots by the farm plot and eventual tailor shop at Howling Hill. The next best spot is stealing them from Nobles’ homes.

Perhaps it’s intentional that it’s harder to give gifts to humans. It does help to emphasize the influence of an NPC’s profession in gift giving and add an ounce of realism to the whole process.

Vendors and Contracts

You may notice that some vendors will sell you a contract upon reaching 100 Trust. These contracts are consumable items that expand the available inventory of analogous Greymane vendors at Howling Hills.

For example, most Equipment Shops will sell you a contract that will unlock their weapons and armor for sale with Tranan, the camp’s quartermaster.

Not every Greymane vendor at Howling Hills has a perfect analog elsewhere; like Ronnie, the camp’s cook, sells new meals by contracting with taverns, but he also sells ingredients, like a butcher, a grocer, and a farmer, all rolled into one.

Each Greymane vendor will tell you which shops will unlock the exact item you’re after, and which types of shops you need to care about out in the field.

Each type of vendor is always the same race, so like all Equipment Shops are run by trolls and all Butchers are orcs. If you have a complaint with this racist fact, take it up with Pearl Abyss.

Rewards and Best Gifts for each NPC

NPCs will give you some good stuff depending on their profession (as listed as their name) and their gift. The gift we suggest is based on what’s cheap, accessible, and efficient. Usually, it’s not what provides the absolute maximum amount of Trust.

Complete List

The table below is interactive. You can search, sort and filter it. Entries marked in bold are the most valuable rewards you can earn from NPCs.

Trends

As you may have noticed, there are some trends with the types of goods and the rewards that similar NPCs tend to give.

• Peddlers trade your specialty material for more of theirs
• Vendors that don’t have a Greymane contract usually give nothing at all or have some special item unique to them
• Tradespeople give wooden boxes with prizes inside or something related to their profession
• Nobles, Servants, Maids, and members of the church give collectibles
• Soldiers give ammo and equipment
• Children give bugs
• Abyss-oriented (magical) individuals give the really good stuff