Adventuring Tips With Big Kliff McDuffer #1 - Cooking With The Sun

Hello!

I've been playing lots of Crimson Desert since it came out, and so far have been having a highly surprising amount of fun with it. Genuinely. Nobody is more surprised than me.

I pre-ordered, you see, and was very on the fence about doing so in the first place. Then everything I'd heard through professional online whining groups had me regretting my purchase further. A sickeningly big open world full of bits and bobs robbed out of every other game before it? Tank controls that folk have called "worse than RDR2" (I thought everyone liked that shit?) and other worries over performance on base PS5.

Anyway. I'm loving the heft of how big Kliff knocks about. He feels like a big heavy bastard with lots of momentum that you have to actually take into account. Case in point; whilst moving around on the roof of a church (during an attempt to get in and rob all the communion bread through a window) I found (by dying of death) that you need to actually stop moving well before you reach an edge whilst on a slope, as he'll carry on right over and smash his skull through some boxes en route to the cobbles below. This heft carries into the running and fighting, horse-riding and all the rest of it, and makes for a very pleasingly physical sort of experience.

I also appreciate walking slowly as a default speed on foot. This is a world I want to walk about slowly in. It looks spectacular on PS5 Pro (even though there are lots of shoddy textures and glitchy background shit to complain about if you must) and once the combat starts it all kicks up a gear, with our protagonist feeling lighter and very useful on his feet when mixing it up with a bunch of enemies.

Again. I'm early doors, so maybe it all goes horribly wrong once its 1000th unnecessary system or mechanic is introduced, but for now I'm having a grand old time.

Oh yeah. So, the cooking with the sun thing from the title... I almost forgot! Here's some tips - BIGLY USEFUL ONES - that I've picked up so far whilst playing (and a few extras I've discovered whilst searching for answers to puzzles)

COOKING (AND OTHER THINGS, LIKE MURDER) WITH KLIFF

1. You can cook some food types by using Kliff's sword reflection technique to heat them with the sun. Yes, you can.
2. Related to last tip! When you are out and about and the sun is shining, use your reflection technique to make distant objects of interest glint and reveal themselves.
3. Another one pertaining to this, you can also use reflection to light bushes and brambles, as well as enemies. Now we're talking!
4. When doing a bit of thieving, if you come across a locked building, you can climb up and open windows to get in. Just don't fucking end up on the roof and falling off like I did.
5. Ring bells in cities to de-fog the map in that area. It's quicker than doing it by walking or horseying (real word) around it all.
6. If you want to steal things, beat up a few bandits or visit a store to grab a thief's mask, otherwise the option to steal will be greyed out.
7. Skills (it seems) don't all need to be unlocked by using your skill points. You can, in fact, learn most of them by observing someone do the move in the field of play.
8. Focus on unlocking wrestling moves and building stamina, as this shit makes the combat 100% better (and funnier).
9. Hold in R1 or R2 when attacking, rather than repeatedly bashing them. This way you auto attack and can then focus on adding combos with the face buttons.
10. Put bodies and large animals on your horse if needed for moving around n shit.
11. The lantern can be set to auto mode. Thank fuck.
12. Shops sell inventory upgrades, and you'll also get them from completing requests.
13. The Korean dub makes the game way better.

Oh, and lots of people have been having an issue with the map causing the game to crash on PS5 Pro (me included). The suggested fix online is to turn off the "3d Nodes" in the options for the map (didn't work for me). HOWEVER. I then found the suggestion to move around a bit before opening the map, like go for a walk initially when you load into the game, and this seems to work for me at the moment! The devs are aware of this map thing btw, so a patch should sort.

OK. Back to my dinner.

🙏