Crimson Desert – 15 Reasons I Might Never Beat It

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Crimson Desert isn’t filled with pointless extras or designed to keep you playing just for daily rewards. The real issue is that it’s incredibly expansive – completing everything the game offers would take an enormous amount of time. Crimson Desert’s many different systems all connect and build on each other, constantly adding depth. What starts as a seemingly standard open-world game quickly becomes a massive undertaking.

Let’s be honest, completing this game will likely require skipping a lot of things, and it’s not even clear if it can be fully completed with so many interconnected systems. That said, here are fifteen reasons why I’ve already accepted that I won’t be seeing the end of Crimson Desert.

It’s Several Games At Once

Crimson Desert offers a surprising amount to do – from challenging combat and building up your base, to completing bounties, herding animals, and exploring vast landscapes. Each of these activities is a full game in itself, but here they all connect. Getting better at fighting can unlock new possibilities for your base, and expanding your base can open up trade routes. The game constantly evolves, with new content and opportunities always appearing. This is just one example – and it’s a broad one – but it shows that Crimson Desert isn’t just large in scope, it actively grows as you play.

Camp is Practically Its Own Strategy Game

The Greymane camp, which you’ll set up fairly early in the game, isn’t just a base – it’s a detailed management system. You’ll be recruiting members, assigning them jobs, specializing their skills, managing supplies, and setting up delivery routes. The developers could have made it a simple story location, but instead they created a surprisingly engaging and immersive experience that’s easy to get lost in, even when you have other important things to do.

Challenges Are Multi-Step Lessons

Crimson Desert is full of challenges you unlock by finding hidden items called Sealed Abyss Artefacts. These Artefacts can be tied to the story, or they can help you upgrade your weapons or improve skills like gathering resources. To make finding these Artefacts easier, it’s helpful to explore and reveal the map. This requires activating eight hidden bells, but the game won’t show you where they are – or where the Artefacts are either! While the challenges offer good rewards, completing all of them would take a very long time. If you like to finish everything in a game, be warned – you might spend a half hour or more just fighting soldiers in the Demeniss region!

Progression, Sometimes, Is Observation

Instead of completing structured challenges to improve your skills in Crimson Desert, you can also learn by fighting enemies. The game’s skill system lets you acquire upgrades by battling specific opponents in the world. While this sounds like a great way to learn, it doesn’t quite work perfectly. The game’s progress tracking, enemy placement, and difficult boss fights make it harder to learn skills intentionally.

Combat Needs to be Relearned

You don’t lose the basic skills of fighting, like swinging a weapon or shooting an arrow. Instead, combat in Crimson Desert is constantly changing and evolving. There are unique challenges for every weapon type – swords, spears, bows, cannons, and more – each with its own specific techniques to master. This means your improvement comes from learning and adapting to new combat situations, not just getting better gear or dealing more damage. It’s a continuous learning process that takes time and effort.

“Tech” is Already Being Discovered

Action games often have established character builds, but players are constantly discovering powerful techniques, or “tech,” by creatively combining skills. A recent discovery revolves around Kliff and his spear – specifically, using the Evasive Slash move as a defensive position that automatically counters attacks. When paired with the easily learned Blinding Flash Finisher, Kliff’s spear becomes incredibly effective at quickly defeating large groups of enemies. With discoveries like this happening early in the game, it’s exciting to think about how many more powerful skill combinations might exist.

Loot is Transferable

Abyss Gears are a key new feature – you can take them out of one weapon and put them into another after unlocking the Witch’s Lair. This means even weaker weapons are worth picking up, as they might have a powerful Abyss Gear attached. Just bring the item to the witch to transfer the gear. Beyond simply improving your weapons, you can experiment with different combinations to find the perfect build for your playstyle, then go out and try it!

Respec Encourages Endless Tinkering

In Crimson Desert, players can experiment with different skills thanks to collectible Faded Abyss Artefacts, which allow them to reset their skill points. The game features intricate upgrade trees that you advance by using regular Abyss Artefacts and carefully choosing skills. It’s easy to make a mistake and go down the wrong path, but Faded Abyss Artefacts let you fix those errors. They’re especially helpful for tough bosses, but also encourage players to constantly refine and perfect their character builds.

Environmental Interaction Expands Over Time

In Crimson Desert, Axiom Forge and Force Palm provide a growing set of skills that let you change how you experience the game world. You’ll be able to move objects, interact with systems, carry more, and solve puzzles you couldn’t before. As you unlock more abilities, Crimson Desert reveals even more of its potential and secrets.

One Ability Can Influence Multiple Systems

As we discussed before, Blinding Flash isn’t just one thing. It’s primarily used to solve puzzles – you can use its light to open doors sealed with crystals. But it’s also useful in a fight, briefly stunning enemies. Plus, it helps with exploration, revealing hidden fast travel points. This versatility encourages you to look at the world differently and even revisit places you’ve already been.

Progressing Your Abilities Encourages Revisiting

Similar to what we’ve discussed, Crimson Desert features exploration with platforming elements, letting you freely roam and encouraging you to return to areas you’ve already visited. Many locations in the game world of Pywel require specific abilities to access, so as you gain new skills, you’ll be able to find secrets you couldn’t reach before. This system is designed to feel rewarding, like you’re discovering new things rather than simply retracing your steps. Given how massive Crimson Desert’s world is, fully exploring it will take a very long time indeed.

Horses Are a Long-Term Investment

As you’d expect, horses in Crimson Desert can also be improved! You level them up by caring for them – feeding, petting, and simply riding them across the land. The more you interact with your horse, the quicker it learns new abilities like dashing, swimming, and even double jumping. Essentially, your mount becomes a key part of your character’s progression, so it’s worth investing time in developing its skills.

Even Pets Become Mechanical Tools

While it might seem small, auto-looting can save you a lot of time in a game filled with hidden treasures. To make the most of it, though, you’ll need to interact with the game’s animals and build relationships with them. By petting and feeding stray cats, you can turn them into companions who will automatically collect loot from defeated enemies for you.

Crafting and Cooking Allow for Improvisation

Most games treat crafting and cooking as minor extras. But in Crimson Desert, these activities are much more involved. Ingredients are refreshed daily by vendors, and recipes are flexible, letting you swap ingredients. Even gathering resources isn’t straightforward – you can fish with a rod or by hand, and even use telekinetic abilities to collect wood and stone without tools. It’s more than just collecting and combining; it’s a truly engaging system.

The Outlaw and Merchant Systems Give a Glimpse of the Other Side

If you have the time for another run-through (which many players won’t!), Crimson Desert lets you ditch the hero path and become a criminal or merchant. You can steal goods, hijack caravans, and take what others have. While it does come with risks to your reputation, the well-developed systems make a life of crime surprisingly appealing.

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2026-04-15 17:43