Pearl Abyss releases Update 1.00.03 for Crimson Desert, a major patch that not only fixes a wide variety of bugs and other issues, it also makes tweaks and adjustments to the game, including a nerf to the overall difficulty. After years of development time and fan anticipation, Crimson Desert finally launched earlier this month to plenty of fanfare. However, things seemed to get off to a worrying start when the game reviews were seemingly a bit more erratic than anticipated, leading to the shares of Pearly Abyss to drop by 30%.
Despite the inconsistency across the game’s reviews, it seemingly hasn’t stopped players from diving in to the highly anticipated game. In fact, just 24 hours after the game launched, Crimson Desert sold over 2 million copies as indicated by developer, Pearl Abyss. The studio’s announcement thanked fans for their support and confirmed that it was listening to players and currently reviewing feedback in order to make further updates to help better improve things. Less than a week later, Pearl Abyss has dropped a major new update for Crimson Desert, making a bunch of changes to the game while also fixing some existing bugs.
While referred to as a “minor” update by Pearl Abyss, Update 1.00.03 includes a huge number of fixes and other changes. For players, the update also takes aim at some of the bigger pain points the community has raised concerns over after the game’s launch, including feedback surrounding Crimson Desert‘s complicated control scheme. The developer previously indicated a fix was coming and in this update, that has come true. General fixes include better responsiveness, a fix to the Equipment Quick Slot, main menu adjustments, and a host of keyboard and mouse adjustments. Players have more options available, including shortcuts, default control options for guarding and evading, and more.
The other major piece to this update, besides the hundreds of bug fixes, is to the game’s overall difficulty. Pearl Abyss has made numerous changes to the game that should ease some of the frustrations, such as adding more Abyss Nexuses across Pywel to make fast travel in Crimson Desert more available and therefore cut down on the need to travel long distances. Players can now use Storage Chests as expected, Force Palm is now available to learn earlier in the game, increased the amount of health restored from ingredients and food, reduced the number of hits needed to log trees, and much more.
In terms of combat, Pearl Abyss confirmed that the Health and Attack has been reduced for “specific enemies and bosses” but didn’t indicate which ones in particular. Stamina consumption for blocking has been reduced, the ambush encounter difficulty near the Reed Devil has been lowered, and the multiphase Kearush the Slayer fight in Crimson Desert has also been adjusted. In addition, the stun gauge for bosses will now accumulate faster after a successful parry and players will now see boss weakness effects even if they don’t yet have the specific knowledge.
Balance the critic averages
Balance the critic averages
Easy (6)Medium (8)Hard (10)
Much has also been made about the game’s graphics, especially PS5 players who are struggling with blurry graphics. In this update, console players are getting a toggle for 120Hz mode within Settings, which seems like it could address the root issue. Pearl Abyss has also fixed a variety of resolution and other visual effects.
The last thing to note with this update is that it is currently only available for Steam users at the time of writing. Pearl Abyss has confirmed it will also be launching on other platforms like Xbox, PlayStation, Epic Games Store, and Mac, though no specific date was given. Given that, this update has also been confirmed to fix the crashing issues that some PlayStation users have been experiencing.
Crimson Desert Update 1.00.03 Patch Notes
Major Updates
In this patch, we’ve adjusted some gamepad and keyboard/mouse controls, increased Health restored from food and items, and added new item storage in the Howling Hill Camp.
Fellow Greymanes
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.
Details regarding the patch schedule, fixes, and improvements can be found below.
Update Schedule
Patch 1.00.03 will become available on Xbox, Epic Games Store, and Mac App Store at a later time.
Please check back to this notice and we’ll provide updates on when all the patches for each platform become available.
Patch Notes Version 1.00.03
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.
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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.
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Changed ore veins and collectibles to be discovered automatically when you are within a certain proximity.
- Regular Ores: 8m
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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.
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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.
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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.
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[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.
- (Mac) Fixed an issue where the game would occasionally freeze when Frame Generation was disabled.
- (Mac) Fixed a letterbox rendering issue in cutscenes when Frame Generation was enabled.
- 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
- For known issues, please check the notice below:
- Released
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March 19, 2026
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ / Blood, Drug Reference, Intense Violence, Strong Language
- Developer(s)
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Pearl Abyss
- Publisher(s)
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Pearl Abyss
