25 new Crimson Desert tips you don't know yet (part 2)

Did you read the first part ? Cool. We had covered the basics: Flash Aveuglant, Force Palm, food, economy. But Crimson Desert is a bottomless pit of hidden mechanics.

This part 2 goes further. The Greymane camp system, trading between cities, abyss elements, the life-changing mining drill, how to pass the waterfalls... Heavy stuff.

Let's go.

Chapter 3, you unlock the Greymane Camp. 95% of players ignore it and rush to the main quest. Big mistake.

The hidden camp 34 faction quests in Scattered Embers that teach you ALL the game mechanics: dyes, horse races, crafting, harvesting, wagon theft (yes, you can steal wagons and resell them), adoption of animals, bounties, bets... Each quest is a mini-tutorial.

A player at 121 hours in Chapter 8 with zero faction quest? His camp looks like a wasteland. A player at 60 hours in Chapter 4 who has done the quests? He has a blacksmith, a tailor, stables, a farm, and 25 operational comrades. It's another game.

Talk to Carl, open "Manage Provisions". The bar at the top is your camp dashboard:

• Headset — number of comrades recruited
• Sword — weapons and armor given/won
• Pierre — gold and stone
• Wood — wood
• Wheat — food
• Field part — camp funds (not yours)
• Personal part — your money to you

The donation works by value. Grilled bird meat = 5 food. A rare item type Spear of Righteousness = 81 arms. Don't give away your best stuff, but the surplus yes.

This is the heart of the camp. You send your comrades on missions that cost a resource and produce another Each mission loops every 16 hours as long as there are resources left.

The secret that no one tells you: launch two missions that feed off each other. Example:

• Mission A: costs 1000 copper → produces 1800 food
• Mission B: costs 200 food → produces 2900 copper

These two missions feed each other in a loop. You set that up, you go do your quests, you come back 20 hours later with overflowing stocks of food, stone, and copper. Passive income style.

Each comrade has fixed skills (not random). One comrade with 30% farming + another with 10% = 40% total bonus. But beware: two comrades with 40% farming each = still 40%. The game takes the maximum of one, not the sum.

Golden rule: do not stack the same skills on a mission. Distribute them across different missions. And each comrade beyond the minimum (+1) gives an additional 20% bonus. Four comrades on a mission with a minimum of 2 = +40% comrade bonus.

The church bonus (donation) adds another 2% approximately. It's not huge but it adds up.

Special missions. For example, Wyvern's Cradle: 5180 of enemy combat power. You send your comrades to chip away at this number. They reduce the enemy's strength over 16 hours, then restart. When it's down to 50%, you come in to finish the job.

The cost is heavy (arms, armor, food, copper) and it eats up 10 comrades out of 11. You have to plan. But it simplifies siege situations a lot for you mid-game.

Expansion goes through Grounds of the Sunrise in the faction quests, specifically the chain Embers of the Return That's where there are literally quests called "Expand the Camp".

Trap: Scattered Embers (tutorials) gets stuck if you don't progress in Grounds of the Sunrise. And vice versa, the camp is capped if you don't do the expansions. You have to alternate the two chains as they unlock.

The earlier you expand, the more vendors you have at the camp (blacksmith, tailor, stables, furniture merchant, farm). This avoids going back to Hernand for each craft.

Bryce gives you a wagon once you have an engineer at the camp. After that, it's trading between trading posts. Each post displays what it buys and sells, with rates that fluctuate.

Critical rule : you need a minimum of 25 units to sell/trade. Do not pack your trade goods before you have 25. Otherwise, you lose them for nothing.

Packaged glass is selling poorly at the moment, but ivory and red ginseng are selling well. Keep an eye on the rates, it's like a mini stock market.

You run towards a waterfall, you get smashed by the water. Normal. Crimson Desert does not go for the classic trope of "walking through the waterfall".

Except that yes. It is necessary to use Stab (R1 + △ on controller, LSHIFT + RMB on keyboard). The water splits, you go through. Almost every waterfall with a stack of stones in front hides a cave.

Two earrings in the Deminus area regenerate 0.2 HP/sec each. Equip both = 0.4 HP/sec permanently. It's not great for bosses, but when exploring, you no longer waste your food on small fall damage.

• Ancient Earring - Strong Box of Aarian Mana, matching puzzle + theft (mandatory mask)
• Witch's Earring — Southern Court, defeat the New Moon Reaper then even puzzle

The two spots are close, doable in one trip even before chapter 8.

Grab a small tree with Axiom Force, pull it towards you. The tree catapults you forward. Not huge vertically, but perfect at the top of a hill to cross a gap.

Crouch en sprint = slide. Also works on horseback. Useful for descents and narrow passages under obstacles.

Leap from horseback (△ + ○) gives you crazy height from the back of the horse. To climb onto a ledge or jump into a canyon with style.

You can open the consumables wheel in mid-flight. If your stamina regen items beat the glider's drain rate, you fly indefinitely. Very expensive in consumables, but when you fly over an ocean... it saves the day.

The most badass move in the game. A boss bombards you with instakill projectiles? Nature's Snare level 2 goes into focus mode, you catch the projectile, you send it back. Massive damage. Kung Fu Panda 2 style.

Tip: if the boss chains too many shots, dodge the first ones and only snare the last ones. Otherwise, stamina drops quickly.

Heavy attack (R1 + R2) or triple Force Palm blast. The tower collapses, the archers die inside. 5 seconds instead of 2 minutes of climbing.

Four elemental powers to unlock via abyss towers:

• Lightning — Spire of Stars (Scholar Stone Institute), archery challenge
• Frost — Spire of Truth (north of Calate), after Prriscus + Path of Trials. Freezes enemies solid.
• Fire — Tree of Slumber. An orange laser that goes through everything. The best of the four.
• Wind — Spire of Clockwork. Smoke cloud = blindness + sneak attacks. Boost your stamina beforehand.

On the controller, each element is bound to a face button + attack. Upgradeable to combine with other types of attacks.

Are you falling into the abyss? Immediately hit Axiom Force without aiming. You grab the air, a quick "escape" appears, and you teleport directly to the nexus point. No need to fall for 30 seconds anymore.

Also: the blue pillars after each abyss zone, it's just Axiom Force + slightly turning. The pathway opens.

The palm force buttons in the abyss propel you backwards (Newton, cough). Hold L2 or Q on the nearest wall to grip. Also essential for spinning gates.

Instead of getting closer to activate a puzzle, use Force Current via Axiom Force. The shockwave passes through. Safer, faster.

The inventory tab has sub-menus for mount and pet (R2 or click). Saddle, stirrups, heels, hooves = horse durability, attack, and stamina. If you have the deluxe DLC, equip the horse armor IMMEDIATELY.

Best gear via the Saddlers on the outskirts of cities. At 100 affinity, Hanan's saddler sells info on Rockades , a legendary tank horse in the Steel Mountains.

And yes, even pets have gear. The pet tailor in Porin (forest village) sells dog armors, helmets, etc. Increase affinity to unlock the best stuff.

Affinity 100 = adopted. Per day: 5 caresses (+5 each = 25) + 3 food gifts. You need a minimum of 25 points per gift.

• Dogs — small bones = +25 each. Collect them all.
• Cats — cooked meat/fish = +20 (not enough in one day). Need the specific item at +35.

Trap: your current pet is eating the food of the new one. Dismiss it before taming.

You can pick up a goat (or a bounty), ride a horse, and ride with it in your arms. For the camp farm, it's the fastest way to bring back livestock. And for the bounties, you can carry two: one on the horse, one in your arms.

Quest House Roberts in Hanand (Blummont Manor). Boss: Manise Excavatron. Tough early, but two tips: Blinding Flash when digging + Force Palm for the stun meter.

The auto-drill collects ore, gives a 10% chance of bonus ore, and functions as a weapon. No more pickaxe.

Drop raw meat/fruit on the ground (stacks of less than 10 otherwise it makes a bag). Cast Blinding Flash on it for 2 seconds. Boom, cooked. Limited in recipes but infinitely faster than the cooking menu.

You can summon both secondary characters as combat allies. Honestly, they don't really fight (you do 90% of the work). But for traveling in a group or when a boss annoys you, it's a plus. Sometimes unavailable due to ongoing quests — complete the faction quest that blocks them to get them back.

Need to go to an island or a remote corner? Teleport to the nearest Abyss Island in height, jump, and skydive to your destination. Two bars of stamina full of horizontal glide. Faster than a boat and infinitely more stylish.

Besides, the boats exist — look for them on the banks when a quest sends you to sea. But the Abyss is better.

Crimson Desert is the kind of game where you still learn things at 200 hours. We could have done 50 tips easily, but we stop there for this part 2.

If you missed part 1, it covers the basics: Flash Blind, Force Palm, cooking, inventory, early game economy. Go read it.

And if you have a tip that we haven't covered - share it in the comments. There's enough to make a part 3.