The Crimson Desert update streak continues with new skills, faster farming, and a wealth of extra pets

A new Crimson Desert update going into the weekend has become a staple feature at this point, but that doesn’t mean that Pearl Abyss is letting off the gas. The open-world game continues to evolve with each subsequent set of patch notes, and this latest round is particularly good news for controller players and pet enthusiasts. There’s also some extra assistance for farming, and a pair of new skills for Kliff’s spotlight-sharing deuteragonist and tritagonist duo, Damiane and Oongka (I’ll let you decide which is which).

While the sheer list of additions and fixes stretches almost beyond counting, some of my favorite post-launch support for Crimson Desert is the work Pearl Abyss has done to make Damiane and Oongka feel equally viable to use for exploration and action, at least outside of the Kliff-mandated main missions. The latest addition is a pair of character-specific finishing moves that act as their equivalent to Kliff’s Blinding Flash Finisher. Both are activated similarly, by pressing heavy attack while using Blinding Flash, but they’re rather different from each other.

Damiane gains ‘Reckoning,’ and it calls down a rapid-fire series of light spears from the heavens for the cost of 20 Spirit. These will travel forward a short distance in a straight line by default, but seem to lock onto an enemy if one is present to strike them repeatedly in quick succession. For Oongka, the move is ‘Devastation:’ he punches down firmly into the ground at his feet, sending a large, fiery shockwave ahead through the floor. This knocks up enemies it hits.

A wide range of small animals can now be registered as pets: Pearl Abyss doesn’t give away the exact number, but estimates that “approximately 30 species” have been added to the list. There are also more animations to pick up, carry, and put down a range of these.

Head back to camp for the next set of changes. Farming has been made faster thanks to the ability to slap your seeds into the inventory quickslots, allowing you to quickly plant them without the need to manually pull up the menu each time. Speaking to the dye vendor, meanwhile, will now transport you to a special fitting room designed to provide better lighting that should make it easier to get your character customization right the first time. When assigning dispatch missions, comrades with the required skills will be filtered to the top of the list.

Full controller remapping has been introduced too. It’s been another long-requested feature, and the new menu clearly shows when you have potential conflicts. Messages will indicate when clashes should be okay (due to actions that don’t occur at the same time) and when they’re forbidden.

Crimson Desert patch 1.09.00 is live now. Among the other bug fixes are the prevention of “unnatural” landing animations, transparent equipment, and a crash that could occur while navigating the crafting menus. There’s no word on what’s in the works for the update coming after this, but I’d be shocked if we weren’t treated to even more changes this time next week.