New Difficulty Settings and Patch Details

Crimson Desert developer Pearl Abyss has said it’s taking the time to make sure it properly tests and polishes the game’s next major patch, which is due out next week.

Pearl Abyss’ remarkable update release cadence had seen major patches release each weekend after Crimson Desert’s launch last month. But the next update is taking a little longer, and will be a heftier download than previous patches.

The patch will include several features mentioned in last week’s developer update announcement, including the addition of a keyboard/mouse and controller preset, difficulty settings, and category tabs for your inventory, and more. It will be a bigger download because it also improves the distant scenery quality.

Here’s Pearl Abyss’ statement in full:

Hey Greymanes,

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We’re currently preparing our next update which will include several features mentioned in last week’s Dev Update notice, including the addition of a keyboard/mouse and controller preset, difficulty settings, category tabs for your inventory, and more. We want to take our time with testing and polishing things before we roll the patch out, which we expect to do sometime next week. Also, due to the distant scenery quality improvements we are adding in, this patch size will be larger than our previous ones. We hope you’re looking forward to this update, and thanks for your patience and support!

The addition of difficulty settings is worth digging into. Here’s the note from Pearl Abyss’ original announcement:

“A difficulty settings feature will be added so that everyone — from new Greymanes to the more advanced — can enjoy the adventure at the level that suits them best. You’ll be able to choose from easy, normal, and hard difficulty.”

As IGN had reported, some players had called for a hard mode because they felt updates had made the game too easy. But we’re also getting an easy mode, which will be good news for those who prefer a more easy-going experience (Crimson Desert can be brutal in places, particularly with some of the bosses). It will be interesting to see how the game changes with each setting.

Features and changes Pearl Abyss has announced as coming soon but are yet to launch or weren’t mentioned in today’s statement include boss rematches and enemy territory recapture. When Pearl Abyss dropped the first update that included some of these improvements, it added in changes it hadn’t announced, so perhaps next week’s patch will include some surprises of its own.

Sentiment around Crimson Desert has improved significantly since launch, with Steam user reviews rising from ‘mixed’ to ‘very positive’ as those updates have taken effect. Sales and player numbers are impressive, too. Crimson Desert is now up to 5 million copies sold — an impressive milestone it achieved less than a month after launch — and it remains one of the most-played games on Steam.

The natural next question is whether Pearl Abyss will expand the game with DLC, or even an expansion. Pearl Abyss CEO Heo Jin-young recently said there are no solid plans for any DLC, and cast doubt on the possibility of official mod support, but a Nintendo Switch 2 version is apparently being explored.

We’ve got plenty more on Crimson Desert, including praise from the director of The Witcher 3, a hidden food consequence system that a modder has restored, and an impressive character creator mod. We recommend you take a look at our guide to Things to Do First in Crimson Desert, plus Things Crimson Desert Doesn’t Tell You (we’ve got 28 and counting!). We’ve also got a guide to the Best Early Weapons we recommend picking up, the Best Skills to Get First (including a handy explainer of the skills system), and 34 Essential Tips and Tricks to help you succeed in Pywel.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.