Crimson Desert latest patch notes adds adjustable difficulty settings and major inventory and housing changes

Pearl Abyss are living up to their first big patch update for Crimson Desert. The latest patch notes reveal Crimson Desert now actually has difficulty settings, alongside some other major system expansions.

The patch is largely focused on improving major combat and character design.

Difficulty settings finally arrive in Crimson Desert

Players can now choose between Easy, Normal, and Hard modes through the settings menu. Normal is the baseline experience that players were on prior to the difficulty patch update for Crimson Desert.

Hard mode offers increased enemy strength, new boss patterns for certain bosses by trying to deflect more, and tighter parrying and dodging windows for advanced players. The player will also take increased damage. There are also delayed food item effects, which will only take effect after animations complete. It should make it more like what the reviewers and influencers were playing prior to launch. Meanwhile, Easy mode offers reduced damage taken to the player, reduced max health, speed, and aggressiveness of enemies, major increases to parry and dodge windows, and reduced how often bosses try to counterattack.

In addition, the new Crimson Desert patch notes reveal that there are new character skills too. There are some new weapons for Damien that you can get via aquest, while Kliff and Oongka get tree branches from felling trees. There are also new ambush abilities for your companions, while Kliff gets a new weapon throw skill, too. Both companions also get a skill similar to the Focused Force Palm to help with those key combat types or exploration requirements. The balance patch also adds in more damage for elemental effects, meaning those battle mage builds might be more enticing to use.

Housing upgrades and quality of life

For those who like comfort, there are some more housing upgrades. There’s a new Sturdy Gatherables Chest, which you can buy from furniture stores. These contain 1000 inventory slots, which are perfect for storing your goods. These can also be used like magic storage systems in other games, allowing you to use them for crafting, even if the items are not on you. That’s a very big win for the game. There are other decorations like wardrobes, where you can place an outfit to hang up on display, too, and a collectables chest for other expired related quest junk too.

Housing also gets different housing model styles for different house shapes and sizes to decorate.

For other, more earthly things, there’s now a bird bath item you can get through a quest. This should allow you to tame birds as pets. There are also more cats to tame and other smaller features that should make you happy. If you’re into livestock, there are now livestock vendors for your camp and house if you want to go that route too, selling various farm animals from cows to chickens.

This patch comes after Pearl Abyss stated it wanted to work on delivering major changes via a soft roadmap to the game after player feedback. It targets the lacklustre housing feature, weak inventory systems, and the lack of engagement with the cooking and alchemy features. Oh, and of course, companions and the difficulty lacking in places. It comes after Pearl Abyss ran marketing the game with one difficulty, letting people know it can be as easy or as hard as you like.

The patch notes are massive by the way, so feel free to check out the full patch notes from Crimson Desert on Steam.