Crimson Desert update just turned a beloved bug into a feature, and made its bonus characters actually worth using

Continuing its consistent streak of delivering a weekly Crimson Desert update, developer Pearl Abyss has scored another big win with its latest set of upgrades. Remember last week, when the developer snatched away the focus dodge flight glitch that was probably a little too powerful? It's now back, albeit in a slightly altered form, courtesy of an all-new skill. Alongside that comes the first implementation of a weapon display toggle, faster fast forwarding, better fast travel, and new additions to Oongka and Damiane that make both much more useful for actually exploring the open-world game.

Hot off the presses of its recent roadmap through June, the new Crimson Desert patch notes are full of great news. The skill additions are the most immediately exciting to me, so let's start there. Kliff can now unlock 'Focused Aerial Roll,' which is essentially a slightly nerfed version of the bug that let you soar across the heavens until it was yoinked out last week. Once you've unlocked it, it works in pretty much the same way as its old incarnation. Go into focus in the air and then press dodge to fire yourself forward at speed. You can extend this by tapping dodge again "repeatedly at the right moment."

I always wanted to use Damiane and Oongka a bit more, but both have been a pain to switch to because they lacked a lot of Kliff's core move set for exploration and puzzle solving. Now, they both have access to several skills such as the Axiom Force and the Nature's Snare shield. Damiane's Shield Toss and Oongka's Scatter Shot ability will now push objects in the same way as Kliff's Force Palm, allowing you to use them for environmental interactions.

There are five new camera settings to be found in the accessibility menu, giving you more control over elements like its range, vertical and horizontal offset, and whether it will auto-follow or look ahead. Lock-on during boss fights has been upgraded: the hard lock-on will now be maintained at a greater range so it doesn't drop off as quickly against mobile foes, and the softer lock-on no longer applies against bigger enemies where it isn't useful.

In the gameplay menu you'll now find the 'weapon display' toggles. This allows you to set it so only your selected melee weapon will show, and you can adjust ranged weapons so they'll only appear when being used. I'd like to see this expanded on even further to match the functionality of the helmet options, but it's a good start. You can now adjust the minimum font size for clearer text, and can raise the fast-forward speed to 4x. It'll also work in standard dialogue scenes, not just those with the cinematic letterboxing.

Following last week's change, fast travel to an Abyss Nexus can now be used while mounted, falling, swimming, or climbing. Pearl Abyss also notes that it's made Abyss Nexuses "easier to discover," and while I haven't been able to test this yet I have found myself stumbling around aimlessly in search of one on several occasions. Abyss puzzles have been adjusted to make it clearer when you can use Force Palm on an object, and the hints offered by the lantern and Blinding Flash skill are more obvious.

There's a camp upgrade, which Pearl Abyss marks as a spoiler - the simple advice here is that it applies to a camp location you get later in the game, with NPCs moved to smarter spots and an expansion to both the farm and ranch areas. If you're still in the starting location, you don't need to worry. You're now able to access basic bank services while in the 'wanted' state, but you won't be able to deposit gold bars or update your investment funds until you clear your name.

Rounding things out is a range of UI improvements and some additional graphics settings. Faction quest icons have been given a new color, the fragments list in the Visione should be better sorted, and you can process all items at once when choosing between a grouped and ungrouped inventory. Some incorrect stat displays on certain equipment have been fixed, markers should no longer vanish from the world map, and you'll be able to see if you've already looted treasure chests, entered caves, and restored Abyss locations by looking at their map icons.

Crimson Desert patch 1.03.00 is live now on Steam and the Epic Games Store. I've started to really relish all these weekly overhauls. Pearl Abyss has been incredibly proactive and responsive to the community, and has even shown a willingness to walk back unpopular adjustments, or at least offer the old method as an alternative. I can't even imagine how different the game might look by the time the year is out.