We have some huge incoming changes to Pearl Abyss’ Crimson Desert that are going to change things up plenty and keep things interesting. The latest patch notes reveal massive quality of life improvements to housing, inventory storage, and pet systems, which should make the game feel nicer to play. There’s also difficulty revamps, with some nice adjustments to UI and control schemes.
Crimson Desert Patch Notes details smart storage, which finally makes cooking and alchemy viable
For those who’ve been ignoring Crimson Desert’s cooking and alchemy systems because managing materials was a nightmare, Pearl Abyss heard you. The patch introduces three new storage containers that completely change how inventory works.
The Sturdy Gatherables Chest is the big one. It has 1,000 inventory slots and can be purchased from furniture stores. Materials stored in this chest can be used for crafting and refinement even if they’re not in your inventory. It’s a major convenience to everyone, so you might actually want to go to a city now and interact with the cooking stalls, alchemy station, not not bin it off since you cannot be bothered rummaging through your personal storage back at camp 500 meters away or more
The same smart storage system applies to cooking. The Kuku Cooler (40 slots, obtained via quest) and Enhanced Kuku Cooler (330 slots, craftable) work exactly like the Gatherables Chest, but for food and ingredients. Ingredients stored in either cooler can be used for cooking, even if they’re not on you. It’s the kind of quality-of-life feature that should’ve been there at launch, but better late than never.
There’s also a Collectibles Chest with 1,000 slots specifically for quest items and crafting recipes. That’s more to stop old quest items clogging your back space up and making it harder to find more relevant stuff for your missions.
And for the fashion-focused players, the Wardrobe now has outfit storage. Each wardrobe provides 100 storage slots, with a maximum capacity of 1,000 slots total across multiple wardrobes. You can even display outfits by hanging them up.
Difficulty changes work well with the Storage updates
These storage improvements are particularly important if you’re jumping into the new Hard difficulty mode. Hard mode introduces delayed food item effects, meaning consumables only take effect after the eating animation completes. That means you need to be far more prepared going into fights, with proper meal prep and alchemy buffs sorted beforehand. Odds on your burning through food is higher, which is part of the reason why working on recipes is very important now.
Being able to access your entire ingredient stash without physically carrying it means you can experiment with different buff combinations and prepare properly for boss rematches (which are also coming soon) without spending half your playtime managing inventory.
Though, if you’re still not interested, the new difficult patch seems to be based around normal, which is what the game was on anyway, and easy if you want to feel like a god. Depending on the setting, you will either take more or less damage, and enemies will be less aggressive and counter-attacky in nature.
Housing and pets get some love
Housing also gets different model styles based on your Greymane Camp expansion level. You can now choose between Compact House, Standard House, Spacious House, and Spacious Pailunese House to suit your decorating preferences. There’s also a new function that lets you retrieve all placed furniture at once, making redecorating far less tedious.
For those who like collecting companions, there are now birds as pets that you can tame using the Sotdae of Bond item. There are also five new types of cat pets, and pets now have accessory slots, letting them take on different roles beyond just being cute followers. Pearl Abyss even turned a popular bug into a feature. Cats can now stay on your shoulder for longer periods using the Sigil of Bonding accessory. And if you’re into livestock, vendors are now scattered across Pywel selling cows, pigs, goats, sheep, ducks, and chickens for your camp and house.
There’s quite a lot here for everyone. If this is the type of patch we’re getting in this mini-road map, then it should make us wonder just how big the other patches will be over the next two months. If you’re curious, you can check out the patch notes over on Steam. There’s plenty there about new weapons, armour, skills and other things for your companions too. There are also some UI improvements, with them fixing even more of the janky controls.
