Crimson Desert Tips and Tricks: Hidden Mechanics the Game Never Explains

Crimson Desert buries some of its strongest mechanics under menus, hidden inputs, and systems it never properly explains. Force Palm can launch you three stories into the air. Your horse can be healed without items. Faction vendors sell endgame-quality armor for reputation points instead of silver. These Crimson Desert tips and tricks cover the hidden mechanics, shortcuts, and exploits that make the game click once you know about them. If you are still in the opening hours, start with our Crimson Desert beginner guide first.

Combat Tips

Switching to Fists Unlocks a Full Martial Arts System

Open the weapon radial menu and select fists. This does not give you a basic punch. It unlocks a completely separate martial arts combo system with its own R1 and R2 attack chains. The fist moveset includes launchers, grapples, and a German Suplex that slams enemies into the ground. Fist combat works especially well for staggering humanoid enemies and feels nothing like unarmed combat in other open-world games. For a full breakdown of every weapon type, check our best weapons guide.

Eat Food While Climbing, Swimming, and Gliding

Stamina food can be consumed mid-climb, mid-swim, or mid-glide without interrupting the action. Open your consumable wheel (hold D-Pad Right / F3) and eat stamina-restoring food while hanging on a cliff face and your stamina bar refills instantly. This effectively gives you infinite climbing and swimming range as long as you have food in your inventory. It also works during combat, which means you can heal while dodging without stopping to stand still.

Poison Arrows One-Shot Hunted Animals

One poison arrow takes down almost any animal instantly. No chasing, no second shot. This is by far the fastest hunting method in the game and makes it trivial to stockpile meat for boss fight preparation. Craft poison arrows at any campfire once you have the recipe, or buy them from vendors in Hernand.

Learn Skills by Watching Enemies Use Them

Some skills on the skill tree show a note: “observe this skill in action to learn it.” This means you can unlock the skill for free by watching a specific enemy or NPC perform it several times instead of spending an Abyss Artifact. The Counter skill (normally Keen Senses Level 3) can be learned by observing the two spear-wielding guards practicing behind Lioncrest Manor in Hernand. Clothesline can be learned by watching enemies in the Paleon region. Check each skill’s description before spending resources on it. Our skill guide covers the full priority order.

Traversal Tips

Force Palm Triple-Jump for Scaling Cliffs

After unlocking Force Palm in Chapter 1, you gain access to a hidden traversal move that most players never discover. Jump and immediately press R3 (Mouse Wheel on PC) mid-air. Kliff boosts upward. Press R3 again for a second boost. And again for a third. Three consecutive aerial Force Palms launch you high enough to skip most climbing routes entirely. Each boost costs Spirit, so keep your Spirit bar charged (hold L3+R3 to recharge). Combine this with the gliding skill for rapid vertical and horizontal traversal that feels like a completely different game. Force Palm also works as a mining tool while climbing. If you spot ore deposits on cliff faces, climb up to them and hit Force Palm to break the vein without needing to dismount or find flat ground.

Heal Your Horse with Force Palm

When your horse is injured and stuck at a slow trot, you do not need mount-healing items. Switch Force Palm to healing mode by holding R3 and then tapping L3 (PC: hold Mouse Wheel, tap Tab). Hit the horse with the healing-mode Force Palm and its health restores. This saves inventory space since you never need to carry horse medicine. You can check your horse’s health in the inventory screen while standing near it.

Upgraded Horses Can Swim

Once you upgrade your horse by feeding it and increasing its level, it gains the ability to swim across bodies of water while mounted. You do not need to dismount and swim manually anymore. When the horse’s swimming stamina runs low, the game switches you to personal swimming stamina. Pet your horse and feed it regularly (either from inventory or by dropping food near it) to level it up faster. Horses can also double-jump and drift, which unlocks through the same leveling system.

Skydive from Sky Islands via the Abyss Map

Press R3 on the map screen to switch to the Abyss map layer, which shows fast travel points floating above the world. You can fast travel to these sky points and then dive straight down to ground-level destinations. This is faster than riding or walking, especially for areas with poor ground-level fast travel coverage. Use map markers on the ground layer to line up your landing spot before switching to the Abyss layer. For a full map of all fast travel points, see our minimap guide.

Economy Tips

Faction Contribution Shops Sell Armor for Reputation

Every region has a contribution shop where you spend faction reputation points (earned from quests, helping NPCs, and greeting passersby) on armor and items. These shops are easy to miss because they look like regular NPC stalls and some are tucked inside buildings like castle interiors. The armor available rivals crafted gear and costs zero silver. Check each region’s shop as soon as you arrive. Prioritize spending contribution points on armor since the gear available at these shops is competitive with blacksmith-refined equipment.

Steal and Sell Wagons for Easy Silver

Wagons scattered along roads can be stolen and delivered to Wagon Fence NPCs found in most regions. The earliest one is east of Hernand along the Nas River. Each wagon nets roughly 15 silver per delivery. This is a low-risk, repeatable income source that works well alongside the bank investment system. Grab any unattended wagon you pass while riding between objectives.

Grindstones and Anvils Give Free Temporary Buffs

Grindstones and anvils found near blacksmiths and camps are not just decoration. Interact with a grindstone to temporarily boost your weapon’s attack stat. Interact with an anvil to temporarily boost your armor’s defense stat. Both are free. The buff is based on uses rather than a timer, so it does not expire before you engage. Always hit both before a boss fight or a difficult stronghold liberation.

Sell Recipes and Letters After Reading Them

Once you read a recipe, it is permanently learned. The physical item becomes useless. Sell it to any vendor immediately for extra silver. The same applies to letters, notes, and other readable loot. Read first, sell second. This adds up over time since the game hands you dozens of recipes through exploration and quest rewards.

Exploration Tips

Ring All 8 Bells to Reveal the Entire Map

Eight bells are hidden throughout Pywel. They are not marked on the map and require exploration to find. Ring all eight and the entire world map reveals itself, removing all fog of war. Each bell is typically found at the top of tall structures or in elevated positions that require climbing. Use Guiding Light (L1+R1 / LB+RB) while exploring to spot blue glints that indicate interactable objects nearby, including bell locations.

Diamond Cave Near Howling Hills

South of the Howling Hills camp sinkhole, a small cave along the southern wall leads to a diamond deposit. Diamonds sell for significant silver and the deposit respawns. Check the map icon color to confirm it has reset. While inside, mine the stalagmites too since they are surprisingly valuable for their weight. This cave is one of the strongest repeatable farming spots in the early-to-mid game.

Get the Mining Knuckle Drill Early (Skip the Bandits)

Start the House Roberts quarry quest at Karin Quarry, then ignore the bandits and go straight for the Excavatron boss. Defeating it gives you the Mining Knuckle Drill, which mines faster than the basic pickaxe and has a 10% chance to yield bonus ore per swing. You do not need to clear the entire quarry first. The boss is accessible from the start of the quest, and the drill makes every mining run after it more efficient.

Sinkhole Ruin Puzzle Solution

Outside the sinkhole ruin near Howling Hills, push the false wall to access a room with three rotatable symbols. The solution:

• Top position: Sun and moon symbol
• Bottom position: Swirling symbol
• Left position: Backwards C shape
• Final symbol: Larger circle upper-right, smaller circle bottom-left

The reward includes “memories of abundance,” which reveals a hidden dungeon location and marks additional exploration secrets on your map. Completing this puzzle early gives you a significant head start on discovering optional content that most players find much later.

Palmer Pills Revive You on Death

Palmer pills are glowing items found on the ground throughout Pywel. Pick up every one you see since they are never flagged as stealing. When you die with Palmer pills in your inventory, you revive on the spot with 30% health instead of reloading a save. The recipe is available at the research hall in a hidden village south of Hernand (accessible after getting knocked out during a specific quest). Craft them at Shadow’s Whisper Cave north of Hernand. Ingredients are common enough to stockpile. For a deeper look at crafting and materials, check our crafting guide.

Pet Dogs Daily to Bond Them as Companions

Hundreds of dogs and cats are scattered across Pywel. Petting a dog earns 5 trust per action, up to 5 times per in-game day (25 trust daily from petting). Feeding adds more: tough meat gives 10 trust, fine meat gives 35, up to 3 feedings per day. At 100 trust, the animal becomes your permanent companion. Bonded dogs auto-loot enemies during combat, collecting drops while you fight. You can have up to 30 pets total with one active at a time. The same trust system works with cats.

Gear for Long Sessions

Crimson Desert rewards players who slow down and explore. A comfortable setup makes those 4-hour sessions go by faster. For more coverage of the game’s systems, see the rest of our Crimson Desert guides.

Controller•$70

8BitDo Ultimate 2 Controller

Hall effect sticks with wireless and Bluetooth

Headset•$180

SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7

Multi-platform wireless with 38-hour battery

Monitor•$250

Samsung Odyssey G55C 32″ QHD

165Hz curved VA panel at a budget price

Frequently Asked Questions

Prices on gaming peripherals and accessories change constantly. Berry Finds tracks real-time Amazon deals across thousands of products so you can grab gear at the lowest price.

Summary

The three Force Palm aerial boosts, mid-action food consumption, and faction contribution shops are the tips that change the game the most. Force Palm turns Crimson Desert’s traversal from tedious climbing into fast vertical launches. Eating while climbing and swimming removes stamina as a limitation entirely. Contribution shops give you competitive armor without spending a single silver coin. Stack these with free grindstone and anvil buffs before every tough fight and the difficulty curve flattens considerably. The rest of the tips here save time, save silver, or unlock content the game buries under layers of menus and unexplained mechanics.

If you enjoy action RPGs with buried mechanics, our Windrose tips and tricks guide covers the same kind of hidden systems in the new pirate survival RPG that just launched on Steam.