Your First Systems Circuit

Crimson Desert introduces more systems than a new player can use efficiently at once. The correct early approach is not to master everything. It is to build a small operational circuit that supports combat, travel, equipment and inventory management.

The circuit

Whenever you reach a new major settlement or camp, check these functions in order:

1. map information and travel points;
2. Private Storage;
3. smithy;
4. general vendors and request boards;
5. saddlery or mount services;
6. cooking, crafting and specialist services;
7. camp/stronghold functions when the game has introduced them.

This takes a few minutes and prevents repeated long-distance travel later.

1. Map information and travel

City bell towers

Cities can contain bell towers that reveal regional map information and nearby points of interest. Use them before deciding that an area has nothing useful nearby.

Abyss Nexuses

Abyss Nexuses are the fast-travel network. Patch 1.00.03 added more across Pywel to improve teleportation coverage.

Investigate Mysterious Energy areas because they may contain:

• an Abyss Nexus;
• an Abyss-related puzzle;
• an Abyss Cresset or other progression discovery.

Do not fast travel past every road on the first visit. Travel normally once to discover services, resources and routes; use the Nexus network for repeat journeys.

2. Private Storage

Use storage before inventory pressure forces poor selling decisions.

The first documented storage locations are:

• temporary lodgings in Hernand;
• Howling Hill Camp.

Camp expansion can raise storage from 240 to 1,000 slots. This means camp progress has a practical inventory benefit even for players who are not interested in settlement management.

Move spare equipment and long-term materials into storage after each major route.

3. Smithies

A smithy is the early equipment hub.

Refinement

Refinement raises equipment effectiveness. Early levels often use common materials such as copper ore and iron ore, while higher levels involve more valuable inputs.

Use refinement to solve a current problem:

• damage is too low despite clean openings;
• defence is too weak for unavoidable mistakes;
• a chosen weapon will remain in use for several encounters;
• common materials are plentiful enough to replace.

Do not refine simply because the button is available.

Extraction

Extraction can lower a refined item toward its base level and recover materials without destroying the item.

Recovery is not equal for every material:

• special materials can return at 100%;
• common ore and bloodstone return at about 70%;
• the exact quantity depends on the material.

Use extraction when abandoning a genuinely invested item, not as a routine way to move common materials between every weapon found.

Identical-equipment refinement

Patch 1.06.00 changed refinement using identical equipment so that it is only available up to the level immediately before an Abyss Artifact is required. Older upgrade advice may not reflect this limit.

4. Vendors and request boards

A new settlement is more than a place to sell loot.

Check for:

• inventory expansion;
• recipes and blueprints;
• healing and recovery supplies;
• feed and mount items;
• weapon or armour comparisons;
• specialist stock hidden in separate service tabs;
• requests that expand carrying capacity or introduce local systems.

Selling rule

Do not sell unknown materials until their purpose is understood. Keep at least one working stack of:

• ore and bloodstones;
• refinement components;
• Artifacts and Abyss-related materials;
• rare animal or gathering materials;
• blueprints and recipes;
• items with unclear knowledge or completion value.

5. Mounts

Pywel is too large to treat mounts as cosmetic.

Use a normal mount for:

• repeated settlement routes;
• travelling between objectives and nearby exploration;
• carrying out regional service circuits;
• reducing the time cost of resource and request runs.

Build trust and care for a mount you actually use rather than collecting several immediately.

Special Mounts

Patch 1.06.00 added Special Mount registration for several animal groups after gaining trust. Supported categories include bears, boars, wolves, deer, mountain goats, Kuku birds, iguanas, raptors, camels, lions and tigers.

Ferocious animals may be subdued and fed, while some species require unique methods. Feeding an untamable animal does not increase trust.

Why this can wait

Special Mounts are valuable for travel and completion, but they are not a first-session requirement. Learn ordinary travel, storage and the active combat loadout first.

Saddleries

Special Mount equipment is managed in its own inventory tab. Saddles can be bought from regional saddleries, and different locations carry equipment for different species.

Check a saddlery when entering a new region, but do not buy equipment for an animal you do not own or intend to use.

6. Abyss Artifacts and character growth

Abyss Artifacts are a major progression resource. Community-tested beginner advice consistently prioritises survivability and stamina before specialised damage because stamina affects attacking, blocking, sprinting and sustained defence.

A conservative early allocation is:

1. enough health to survive mistakes without immediate failure;
2. enough stamina to complete an attack-defend cycle safely;
3. damage or specialised upgrades once the preferred playstyle is clear.

Do not treat this as a universal final build. It is a stability-first opening policy.

7. Skills and Watch and Learn

The game teaches skills through several systems, including observation. Post-launch patches improved Watch and Learn usability and changed skill observation so a skill only needs to be learned once before use.

Prioritise skills that solve a real combat problem:

• a reliable defensive option;
• mobility or repositioning;
• a short punish after a safe opening;
• group control;
• a ranged or environmental tool;
• a skill attached to the weapon family already in use.

Do not fill the skill list faster than you can remember the inputs.

8. Gathering, cooking and crafting

Learn these systems as support tools rather than separate careers.

Gather when

• the resource lies on the current route;
• a confirmed refinement or crafting need exists;
• the material is common and stackable;
• a request introduces the activity.

Cook when

• healing items are running low;
• a meal supports the next difficult encounter;
• ingredients are already available;
• the system is required for a request or completion path.

Craft when

• the output is better than an available vendor option;
• the blueprint is already learned;
• the item supports the active loadout;
• materials are not being diverted from a more important refinement.

Avoid mass production before inventory and storage are organised.

9. Camp and strongholds

Camp expansion can improve storage capacity and unlock wider operational benefits. Stronghold content can provide materials, blueprints, dispatches and regional progression.

Do not attempt to complete every stronghold immediately. Handle them as the main route naturally enters each region.

Patch 1.06.00 made several stronghold mission types repeatable, including dispatch, exploration, excavation and dyehouse labour-support missions. That makes strongholds a long-term resource system, not a one-time early checklist.

10. First boss preparation

Before a difficult encounter:

• save manually;
• repair or refine the working loadout where applicable;
• stock healing;
• remove unnecessary inventory clutter;
• confirm the defensive controls;
• practise the weapon’s short safe punish;
• identify whether the problem is mechanics, damage or survivability.

Do not spend every rare material because an encounter was lost once.

Systems that should connect

The opening circuit should lead into deeper guides:

• Combat Fundamentals — timing, defence and encounter control;
• Gear, Refinement & Extraction — equipment investment and recovery;
• Hernand — regional services and routes;
• Technical & Performance — crashes, drivers and platform troubleshooting;
• Save, Storage & Inventory Safety — backups, cross-save and inventory policy.

First systems checklist

• Reveal the local map information.
• Identify the nearest Abyss Nexus or Mysterious Energy area.
• Locate Private Storage.
• Compare the active weapon and armour at a smithy.
• Refine only the chosen working loadout.
• Check vendors before selling materials.
• Complete useful local requests.
• Use a mount for repeat travel.
• Check a saddlery only when mount equipment is relevant.
• Store spare equipment and unknown materials.
• Learn one or two usable skills rather than many forgotten inputs.
• Prepare consumables before a major fight.
• Leave specialist completion systems for later.

Sources

• Official Patch 1.00.03 — Abyss Nexuses and Private Storage
• Official Patch 1.02.00 — storage capacity
• Official Patch 1.06.00 — extraction and Special Mounts
• Official Patch 1.09.00 — controller remapping
• Conroy’s original Steam guide
• PC Gamer — 100-hour beginner tips