Crimson Desert's Version 1.01.00 patch landed on March 28, 2026, marking the second update since the game's launch and by far the largest. Developer Pearl Abyss packed it with new content, significant control reworks, stamina rebalancing, UI additions, graphics improvements, and a long list of bug fixes. The patch is live on Steam (PC and Mac), PlayStation, and Xbox, with the Epic Games Store and Mac App Store versions still in progress.
Quick answer: Patch 1.01.00 adds five rideable mounts (White Bear, Silver Fang, Snowwhite Deer, Rock Tusk Warthog, Icicle Edge Alpine Ibex), reduces stamina costs for sprinting and flight, reworks movement so you no longer need to hold the run button continuously, and changes criminal acts so Contribution only drops when an NPC actually witnesses the crime.
Five New Summonable Mounts
The headline addition is a set of five mounts that can be summoned on demand once you meet specific in-game conditions. Three come from Legendary Animals and two from boss encounters.
| Category | Mount |
|---|---|
| Legendary Animal | White Bear |
| Legendary Animal | Silver Fang |
| Legendary Animal | Snowwhite Deer |
| Boss Mount | Rock Tusk Warthog |
| Boss Mount | Icicle Edge Alpine Ibex |
NPCs in Pywel's towns won't react negatively to tamed animals, so you can ride any of these mounts straight through populated areas. If you caught a Legendary Animal before the patch went live, the corresponding mount reward appears retroactively in the "Extra Rewards List" when you next load in.
Movement and Stamina Rework
Pearl Abyss overhauled how running works for both Kliff and his horse. Movement speed now increases by either holding or tapping the run key once, and speed no longer drops when you release the button. Full sprint still requires periodic button presses, but casual running is far less demanding on your thumbs.
Flight received a direct stamina cost reduction, and a bug that caused a brief pause before the character started moving with Flight has been fixed. You can also now use equipped items while flying, and Flight activates more reliably in edge-case situations.
Stamina consumption while sprinting and using Crow Wings was reduced as well. The stamina requirements for Aerial Maneuver and Aerial Swing both went down, making aerial traversal significantly more practical across the board.
Criminal Acts and Contribution Changes
One of the most requested fixes addresses the crime system. Previously, stealing an item — even with no NPCs nearby — immediately reduced your Contribution score. Patch 1.01.00 changes this so that criminal acts only decrease Contribution when an NPC actually witnesses the act. Unobserved theft no longer carries a penalty, which makes the stealth-oriented playstyle far more viable.
New Items and Crafting Quality-of-Life
A new Refinement Token item lets you temper equipment up to Stage 4 without consuming additional materials. These tokens drop from certain main quests and faction quests. Material chests have also been scattered throughout Pywel, giving you more resources to find during exploration.
The Cooking and Crafting menus gained a "Make Now" button that immediately crafts or cooks a selected recipe without requiring you to manually pick each ingredient. A "Store all selected items" function (Shift+RMB on keyboard, □ on PS5, X on Xbox) lets you dump inventory into private storage in one action. The private storage chest at Howling Hill Camp moved from behind Karl to inside Kliff's tent.
Several tools now behave more smoothly. The Mining Knuckledrill and Demenissian Chainsaw both auto-collect gathered materials on use, eliminating the need to separately pick up drops. Wells produce five units of water per interaction instead of one. The Knowledge Helm acquires all visible knowledge at once, and the Pirate King Hat's treasure detection range was slightly increased.
Controls and Combat Fixes
Beyond the stamina and movement changes, the patch addresses a number of combat and input issues. Bosses and enemies no longer attack immediately after you die and revive, giving you a brief window to recover. The stun gauge on mounted bosses no longer resets instantly when the boss falls off its mount. Roll and Evade can now be performed while using focus skills, and Meteor Kick can no longer be cast in midair without reachable ground below.
Keyboard and mouse players got several targeted improvements. Inventory item selection switched from mouse hover to mouse click, shop items can be sold by double-clicking, and a new "Precise Control" mode for Axiom Force lets you hold Q or the mouse back button for finer object manipulation. Weak point indicators now display element-specific effects, and a new aim key guide appears for tool-type items.
UI and Minimap Improvements
| Change | Detail |
|---|---|
| Minimap orientation | Can now be locked with North at the top |
| Minimap icons | Keys and anvils now shown; faction facilities appear during liberation |
| Skills menu | Shows stat increases for the next skill level |
| Notifications menu | Tracks quest/challenge progress, rewards, and time; stores up to 2,000 entries |
| Journal menu | New icon indicates available quests |
| Cooking/Crafting menu | Recipes of the same type (Filling, Satisfying, Hearty) grouped together |
| Knowledge menu | Main categories and subcategories visible simultaneously |
| Locked doors | Interaction prompt now asks before consuming a key |
| Pouch items | "Use All" is the default option |
| UI text | Description text color made brighter |
The locked door prompt is a particularly welcome fix. Before this patch, approaching a locked door would automatically consume a key with no confirmation, leading to frequent accidental waste.
Graphics, Performance, and PlayStation 5 Enhancements
Rendering stability improved in low-resolution environments and when upscaling is active. Translucent materials like hair, fur, and clothing render more accurately with FSR-RR and DLSS-RR enabled. On PC, the DLSS-RR preset shifted from D to E, which fixes displacement mapping errors and a bug where texture animations (such as waterfalls) could freeze.
PlayStation 5 received a new "Fixed 4K Output" option. When enabled, the game outputs at 4K resolution regardless of whether your display natively supports it, producing a sharper image. On the base PS5 in Performance Mode, this setting enables FSR upscaling. The option is on by default and can be toggled off if you prefer the game to match your monitor's native resolution.
Loading times for fast travel via Abyss Traces and for respawning after death were reduced. A frame-rate drop during the Crowcaller boss fight was fixed, and several crash and stability issues across PC, console, and Mac were addressed.
Quest Fixes
Three specific quest-blocking bugs were resolved. The Prologue quest "New Journey" could stall if you threw an object at Sebastian. The Chapter 2 quest "Missing Companion" sometimes lost its delivery target mid-quest. And the Chapter 3 quest "Dance with the Devil" occasionally failed to count destroyed totems. Liberation sequences also transition more smoothly now, and additional guide prompts were added in areas where players were getting stuck.
Visual Asset Replacement and Other Fixes
A line in the patch notes states that "select 2D visual assets" were replaced "to better align with the game's art direction." This follows player complaints about paintings in the game world that appeared to be generated with AI tools — an issue Pearl Abyss committed to addressing after the controversy surfaced during launch week.
The remaining fixes cover a wide range of smaller issues. Pets no longer wander excessively far during combat and can loot properly again. Cows follow more reliably during herding. Greeting NPCs with a low bounty no longer triggers a crime. The Energy Drain Abyss gear effect now activates correctly. Bow aiming works in previously broken situations. And — notably — attacking NPCs with trees is now properly flagged as a crime.
Known Remaining Issues
Several player-reported problems remain unaddressed in this patch. Night-time brightness still appears too high for some users, particularly on PS5 Pro with OLED displays and HDR enabled. Graphics settings continue to reset to defaults after closing and reopening the game for some players. There is no option to hide helmets or shields, and UI text scaling for TV play has not been added. Pearl Abyss maintains a separate known issues list on the Crimson Desert website for tracking ongoing problems.
Given the pace of updates — two substantial patches within the first week — Pearl Abyss appears committed to rapid iteration. Whether the remaining visual and settings issues get addressed in the next round remains to be seen, but the studio's turnaround speed so far has been unusually fast for a game of this scope.