New Crimson Desert update brings new difficulty options and, most importantly, a pet bird

It's weird to think that Crimson Desert hasn't even been out for a month yet, considering the dizzying amount of new content and improvements developer Peal Abyss has added to the open-world RPG. Following the reveal of a substantial, feature-filled roadmap that's set to roll out between now and the end of June, the studio has now dropped a rather hefty set of patch notes for Crimson Desert's 1.04.00 update. Alongside three selectable difficulty options, you'll also get to try out new skills for the leading trio, housing options, and even forge a bond with a new avian amigo.

Suffice it to say, the new Crimson Desert update is a bit of a beast. It's only been a couple of weeks since Pearl Abyss announced its roadmap for this quarter, but already there's been a flurry of movement behind the scenes. Update 1.02.00 upped storage capacity and added the means to switch movement controls, while 1.03.00 did a world of good for making Oongka and Damiane more viable alternatives to Kliff when out in the world.

In today's patch, things are getting even better. You can now choose between Easy, Normal, and Hard modes via the settings menu. While Normal difficulty remains the standard experience you're used to, Easy makes combat significantly, well, easier, while Hard mode adds some extra devious bells and whistles. For example, food won't begin healing you until the consumption animation is complete, and you won't get as many invincibility frames when you roll. What's more, certain bosses now have "additional combat patterns," so watch out for those.

In the housing department, Pearl Abyss has added multiple layouts, alongside improvements to controls, such as being able to retrieve furniture in bulk. The biggest win here, though, is the introduction of new storage options that allow you to access items directly when crafting or cooking, without having to place them in your inventory. It's an absolute game-changer when I'm whipping stuff up in Palworld, and I can imagine it'll be equally-useful for Kliff and Co.

While cats and dogs have long been the most popular pets, Pearl Abyss has clearly heard that the bird is the word. By using the newly-added Sotdae of Bond item, you can now gain trust with birds, eventually turning them into companions. I've been dutifully feeding the pigeons outside my home office for months now and I'm no closer to achieving this feat, so this addition will be a great salve for my ongoing disappointment.

Elsewhere in the patch notes, Pearl Abyss specifies that "more detailed controller customization will be added soon," which is great news if you're still struggling to get to grips with Crimson Desert's unruly schemes.There are plenty of UI and accessibility tweaks, too, which should greatly help when navigating menus and Pywel itself. You can read the full patch notes here.

As Crimson Desert goes from strength to strength, I can only commend Pearl Abyss for pushing hard to quickly iterate and improve Kliff's adventure. It is already a substantially better experience than it was during our Crimson Desert review, and I'm excited to see how it continues to evolve as the roadmap progresses.