New Crimson Desert update makes everything feel better and adds five magnificent mounts

A new Crimson Desert update has landed, with Pearl Abyss still hard at work tackling the many major and minor grips to be had with its colossal open-world game. While the headline feature is the addition of five impressive new mounts (I'll describe those later in case you're looking to dodge spoilers), there's much more to be excited about. Further improved movement controls and reduced stamina costs should make getting about Pywel feel better, the minimap has been upgraded, menu interactions with a mouse are more intuitive, and load times are faster than before.

These Crimson Desert patch notes come in at around the 100-line mark, so there's a whole lot to dig through. You'll immediately notice the improved mobility, with sprinting on foot or on horseback now accessible through either a single key tap or a hold. While you'll have to press it occasionally to maintain your speed, you no longer need to keep it mashed down. Turning responsiveness has also been increased to help navigate tight areas. Stamina consumption has been lowered while sprinting and flying, you can now use equipment mid-flight, and an issue that could cause you to simply not start flying has been fixed.

The ability to spam Aerial Stab repeatedly has been nerfed slightly with gradually increasing stamina costs on each consecutive use, but Pearl Abyss notes, "it can still be used as a fun movement mechanic." Both Aerial Maneuver and Aerial Swing use less stamina, so you'll have more incentive to make use of those. You can now roll and evade while using focus skills, and a wider range of enemies and bosses will be less aggressive about attacking you immediately while you're reviving.

Look out for lots of tweaks to make the world feel more accessible. The interaction range has been increased to make talking to NPCs easier, and object interactions should also feel smoother than before. There are new weak-point indicator effects for each element, an aim key guide for tools, and a warning message if you're trying to draw your weapon in an area where that's restricted. The inventory controls with a mouse have been changed, moving away from hover. It's now a simple left-click to select, right-click or double-click to use.

You're now able to fix the minimap with North at the top, and there are new icons showing the locations of keys and anvils. Looking at a liberation gauge will bring up faction facilities there as well. The notifications menu has been polished, with the maximum number that can be stored raised to 2,000. The cooking and crafting menus now group recipes of the same type together, while the knowledge screen lets you view main and sub categories simultaneously.

Criminal acts will no longer affect your contribution score unless an NPC notices them. The private storage chest in Howling Hill Camp has been moved to Kliff's tent for convenience. Pickpockets are less likely to run into houses when fleeing, and interacting with locked doors will now prompt you to choose whether you want to use a key. Pets will be better at looting while combat is taking place, and should stray less far away from the action. Several buildings and tools are more efficient, including wells, the Mining Knuckledrill, and the Demenissian Chainsaw.

Rounding out the list are a bunch of new materials chests across Pywel, a bigger treasure detection range on the Pirate King Hat, a wider maximum camera distance in photo mode, and several cases of turn-ins like shop item knowledge all being handled in one go. Loading times when fast traveling or respawing after death have been improved, and the whiteout effect on the retry screen is no more. Pearl Abyss also notes improved rendering for translucent materials like hair and fur when using the high-end FSR-RR and DLSS-RR raytracing settings.

Finally, for those of you who've made it to the end, here are the five new mounts (note that a couple of these are tied to bosses, so keep that in mind if you're wary of spoilers). First up, we've got three legendary animals: White Bear, Silver Fang, and Snowwhite Deer. Then there's the Rock Tusk Warthog and the Icicle Edge Alpine Ibex. If you've caught any of the beasts beforehand, you'll be given the corresponding mount automatically. Pearl Abyss adds that "the people of Pywel are not afraid of tamed animals," so don't worry about using them around town if you want to show off your status.

Crimson Desert patch 1.01.00 is out now on Steam for PC and Mac, and will be deployed to the Epic Games Store as soon as possible. I've been busy enough since launch that my journey across Pywel is only really just getting started, but I'm looking forward to putting many of these changes into practice this week.