Pearl Abyss has begun rolling out a third patch to Crimson Desert since it launched four days ago (on Steam and PS5 now, coming later to Xbox and Epic), and it finally begins to address the myriad issues with mouse/keyboard controls. I stress “begins,” since they still remain a gruesome, bemusing mess, but it’s a start. However, players using controllers remain as deep in the mire as ever.
On Saturday, Pearl Abyss took to Steam to apologize “for not providing keyboard and mouse players with a satisfactory gameplay experience.” Our feedback is being taken seriously, the studio insisted, and said that it is “working to improve your gameplay experience as fast as possible.” And credit to that speed, because as of this morning we now have the first wave of fixes, some genuinely improving the feel of the game, but still leaving it way, way short of good enough.
Some of the improvements made will astonish those who haven’t experienced the ludicrous controls in Crimson Desert, since they’re the sorts of things you’d just assume any game would have launched with. For instance, Version 1.00.03 adds keyboard shortcuts for screens like the Inventory, Skills, Journal and Map, now bound to I, K, J and M respectively. What did you have to do before, you might reasonably ask with an incredulous tone. Well, you had to press Esc, and then watch, wide-eyed with wonder, as the game randomly chose one of them for you, then click on the menus to painfully slowly change to the one you actually wanted.
UI response speeds have been improved across the board, and I can attest to this: Their solution is to crudely speed up the transition animations, but honestly, whatever makes it less laborious. The patch also purports to have improved the responsiveness of hitting Space to jump, but while faster, it’s still delayed. It also claims to have improved protagonist Kliff’s responsiveness to basic controls, but as far as I can tell he’s still like trying to steer a rear-wheel-drive car instead of a human, and there’s still that achingly long gap between pressing forward and him actually starting to move.
The patch also makes a huge number of tweaks to the finer details of the game’s wild number of mechanics, so arm wrestling’s QTEs are no longer so hard, trees turn to logs in fewer hits, we have better visual cues for all manner of interactions, the Lantern’s clue-detecting radius has been boosted, the health you gain from eating food has been improved, and a bunch of minigames have been made easier. The patch also claims to have improved “aiming” when trying to set an arrow on fire in a brazier, but I can report that’s still a total mess.
Private Storage has at least been fixed to operate how storage chests are supposed to, letting you store inventory items (yup); there are more fast-travel spots; and “acquiring knowledge” (the deeply tedious requirement to hold down Ctrl every 14 seconds in the game) is now faster. Oh, and you learn Force Palm earlier, which is odd, since I thought it taught that ability the moment you needed it.
Lastly (from me—there are millions more changes in the notes below)—boss fights have had another round of nerfs, and blocking takes less stamina, to hopefully make the game’s flawed attempts to sometimes be a Soulslike less irritating.
But as mentioned, the PS5 and Xbox are yet to get controller improvements (as do PC players using controllers, for that matter), and Pearl Abyss notes in the patch, this is just the beginning of the vital control improvements that are required to make this game less farcical. PS5 players do have a fix for the game crashing when opening the map, while Xbox players can now access all of the game’s content when offline, and both can now play the game at 120Hz. If you want to scour the list to see if any of your pet issues have been addressed, here’s the whole lot:
Patch Notes Version 1.00.03
Quests
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Fixed an issue in the Chapter 2 quest “Reunion” where the cat would sometimes stop leading the way.
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Improved the Chapter 4 quest “Mysterious Pot” by making the symbol stop briefly when it reaches the correct position while repairing the ancient generator.
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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.
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Improved the notification to appear when crime status prohibit the quest from progressing.
Content
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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.
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Reduced the time required to acquire knowledge.
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Changed skill observation to be only required once to learn before being able to use it.
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Adjusted when Force Palm is learned to allow players to use it much earlier in the game.
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Reduced the number of hits required to log trees.
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Changed logging so that trees are chopped with basic swings without aiming first.
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Decreased the QTE difficulty in the Arm Wrestling minigame and when pinned by an opponent (Mount).
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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.
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Regular Ores: 8m
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Tools: 2m
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Improved Skybridge Alignment Devices in the Abyss to trigger immediately when placed in the correct activation point.
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Improved the visibility of Skybridge Alignment Devices within the Abyss to make them easier to locate.
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Improved the visibility of the circuit board attached to Axiom Force to show its lines while being moved.
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Improved camera movement when aiming a bow at a brazier and adjusted the range for lighting arrows accordingly.
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Added an indestructible brazier in front of the Lioncrest Watchtower.
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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:
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Infirmary: Wounded enemies no longer return to the fight.
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Storage Facilities: Enemy Max Health -10%.
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Barracks Facilities: Enemy Attack -5.
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Improved the visuals of certain puzzles for clarity.
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Increased the Health restored by ingredients and food items, and added new food to the Hernand Tavern.
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Increased the Lantern’s range for detecting clues.
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Reduced Stamina consumption for Nature’s Grasp.
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Fixed an issue where pets would fail to loot items under certain conditions.
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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.
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Petrification is now applied by default when you approach bismuth ore.
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Bismuth ore can now be mined using regular methods like a pickaxe, rather than requiring Lightning damage attacks.
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Lowered the difficulty of the Marksmanship and Archery Contest minigames.
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Fixed an issue where the Abyss cell’s electric field would not disappear.
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Improved the visibility of the part that needs to be grabbed with Axiom Force on the Skybridge Alignment Device.
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Changed Visione to be automatically equipped and play after reading memory fragments with the Lantern.
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Fixed an issue in the Ethereal Pathway Abyss where players could not observe Force Palm if they did not step on the Abyss Nexus.
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Fixed an issue where Stamina was not consumed after a certain quest cutscene.
Controls
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[General] Improved the response speed of the interaction UI.
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[General] Improved the responsiveness of jump inputs.
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[General] Fixed aiming to target the center of the screen when using a Lantern or while unarmed.
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[General] Improved the Equipment Quick Slot so that re-selecting your current equipment will stow it.
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[General] Improved the responsiveness of the Main Menu UI.
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[General] Fixed an intermittent issue where the Main Menu would not open.
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[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:
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Inventory: [I]
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Skills: [K]
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Journal: [J]
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Map: [M]
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[Keyboard/Mouse] Fixed an issue where the key guide at the bottom right of the screen would not update when using Guard or Aim.
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[Keyboard/Mouse] Added default control options for Guard/Aim (Side Button 1) and Evade (Side Button 2).
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[Keyboard/Mouse] Changed controls to maintain movement input when using Axiom Force.
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[Keyboard/Mouse] Fixed an issue where duplicate keys could be assigned in Shortcuts and Input Settings.
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[Keyboard/Mouse] Fixed an issue where certain inputs did not function correctly after changing the Shortcuts and Input Settings.
Boss Fights & Combat
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Reduced the Health and Attack of specific enemies and bosses.
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Reduced Stamina consumption for blocking attacks.
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Lowered the difficulty of the ambush encounters triggered while heading toward the Reed Devil boss stage.
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Adjusted certain attack patterns for Kearush the Slayer.
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Increased the accumulation of the stun gauge on bosses upon a successful parry.
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Changed boss weakness effects to display even if the player has not acquired the specific knowledge.
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Fixed an issue where comrades remained when entering a boss fight.
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Fixed an issue where fire arrows failed to ignite enemies on hit.
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Fixed an issue where certain bosses fell unnaturally in specific situations.
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Fixed an issue where certain bosses ran away too frequently when hit under specific circumstances.
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Fixed an issue where the Blinding Flash weakness was not being properly applied to certain enemies.
NPC & NPC Dialogue
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Fixed an issue where some English audio lines were not playing.
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Reduced the price of restorative items sold by Carl at Howling Hill Camp from 10 Silver to 1 Silver.
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Improved animal behavior to appear more natural when near the player.
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Fixed abnormal behavior and placement positions for certain NPCs.
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Fixed an issue where NPCs would catch each other cheating during the minigame Duo.
UI Fixes & Improvements
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Improved food items to automatically register to a quick slot upon first acquisition.
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Improved the display positioning for the Homing Pigeon letter UI.
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Improved the camera movement when observing skills.
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Fixed an intermittent issue where the UI failed to remove the destination on the Map menu.
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Fixed an intermittent issue where the cursor did not display correctly when navigating the Shop menu.
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Moved the Knowledge and Notifications menu from the Others tab to the Journal tab and adjusted the order.
Graphics & Settings
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[PlayStation 5, Xbox] Added a toggle for 120Hz mode within Settings.
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Fixed an issue where settings were not saving correctly after using the Default option in the Settings menu.
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Fixed an issue where resolution and upscaling settings were not retained when restarting the game.
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Fixed an issue where character equipment and cats were invisible on the minimum performance quality setting.
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Fixed an issue where screen quality appeared abnormal when activating FSR Ray Regeneration or DLSS Ray Reconstruction.
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Fixed an issue where monitor size was incorrectly detected at certain resolutionsm causing abnormal display output.
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Fixed an issue where the game screen appeared cut off or misaligned in Fullscreen, Windowed, and Borderless Window modes.
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[Mac] Fixed an issue where default graphics settings were incorrectly set to Cinematic on certain MacBook models.
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[Mac] Fixed an issue where the game would occasionally crash under specific graphics settings.
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(Mac) Fixed an issue where the game would occasionally freeze when Frame Generation was disabled.
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(Mac) Fixed a letterbox rendering issue in cutscenes when Frame Generation was enabled.
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Fixed an issue where the Abyss remained visible in specific situations while on the ground.
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Improved and fixed various visual effects triggered during specific NPC animations.
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Improved the appearance of the waterfall in the Abyss tutorial.
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Fixed awkward animations that occurred when a character collided with a wagon.
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Fixed an issue where letterboxing failed to deactivate after certain cutscenes.
Performance, Stability, Gameplay
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[PlayStation 5] Fixed an issue where the game would occasionally crash when opening the Map menu.
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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.
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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).
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Fixed several stability, performance optimization, and crash issues across PC and console platforms.
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[Xbox] Fixed an issue where gameplay was unavailable while offline.
Localization
Others
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Fixed an issue where the death and loading sequences were delayed.
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Improved horse behavior to approach the player after being called.
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Fixed an issue where the character would be pushed sideways when using Force Palm or Stab while against a wall.
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Fixed an issue where DualSense Controller vibration failed to function in specific Windows environments.
