Crimson Desert takes a minimalist approach to its UI. Boss fights display health bars by default, but regular enemies offer no such luxury. You swing, dodge, and hope your target drops before you do, with no visual feedback on how much damage you're actually dealing. It's an intentional design choice by Pearl Abyss, and there's no option buried in the settings menu to change it.
Quick answer: Equip the Health Detection Device, a helmet found inside Marin's Laboratory on an island in the lower-right corner of the map, then lock on to any enemy to see its health bar.
What the Health Detection Device does
The Health Detection Device is a helmet-slot item with a unique passive ability. While you're wearing it, locking on to any enemy reveals their health bar — something normally reserved for boss encounters. This makes it invaluable for testing new weapons or Abyss Cores, since you can directly observe how much damage each hit deals and compare loadouts without guesswork.
Beyond health bar visibility, the helmet also grants Daze immunity. That means you won't be stunned during combat while the device is active, which can be a significant defensive advantage in fights with crowd-control-heavy enemies.
Where to find Marin's Laboratory
Marin's Laboratory sits on an island toward the lower-right corner of the world map, deep within Delesyia territory. This is not a location you're likely to stumble across during the early or mid portions of the game. Reaching it comfortably can take 50 or more hours of play, depending on how aggressively you explore. There's no quest marker pointing you there and no story beat that sends you in that direction — it's a pure exploration reward.
Picking up the Health Detection Device
Step 1: Travel to Marin's Laboratory and locate the largest building in the area. It functions as a lab and is visually distinct from the smaller surrounding structures.
Step 2: Enter the building and immediately turn left. You'll find a hallway that leads deeper inside toward a workshop area.
Step 3: Follow the hallway to the workshop. The Health Detection Device is sitting on a table, free to pick up with no combat encounter or puzzle required.
Step 4: Open your equipment menu and equip the helmet. You also need to make sure it's active on your elemental imbuement wheel — simply having it in your inventory isn't enough.
How to activate health bars in combat
Two conditions must be met simultaneously for enemy health bars to appear. First, the Health Detection Device must be equipped in your helmet slot. Second, you need to lock on to a target during combat. Health bars will not passively appear over every enemy on screen; they only show up on the specific enemy you're targeting.
If you dislike the helmet's appearance, you can toggle the "Hide Helmet" cosmetic option in your equipment settings. The health detection effect still works even when the helmet model is hidden on your character.
Why it matters for weapon testing
Without visible health bars, comparing weapon damage in Crimson Desert is largely a guessing game. You can observe how many hits it takes to kill an enemy, but that's imprecise and doesn't account for damage variance across different attack types. The Health Detection Device turns every encounter into a rough damage meter. Swap between weapons or Abyss Cores mid-session and watch how quickly the health bar depletes to get a practical sense of each item's effectiveness. This saves time and resources that might otherwise go toward upgrading gear you'd later abandon.
The lack of a simple accessibility toggle for health bars has frustrated some players, and it's a fair criticism — tying a core combat readability feature to a late-game collectible means dozens of hours pass before you get reliable damage feedback. For now, though, the Health Detection Device at Marin's Laboratory is the only way to make it happen. If you're willing to make the trek to Delesyia territory early, nothing stops you from grabbing it ahead of schedule.