Crimson Desert Patch 1.04.00 Adds Difficulty Modes, Pets, and New Accessibility Toggles

Pearl Abyss rolled out Crimson Desert update 1.04.00 on April 23 across Steam PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and the Epic Games Store, while Steam Mac and the Mac App Store versions remain in progress. The patch is one of the game's larger post-launch updates and hits combat difficulty, storage, companion systems, input presets, accessibility, and platform-specific graphics options at the same time.

The headline system change is the new difficulty menu. Players can now choose Easy, Normal, or Hard in Settings > Play, with Hard intended for people who want less forgiving combat. Pearl Abyss also says boss rematches are planned for a future update. Outside combat, the patch adds wardrobe storage that can scale to 1,000 outfit slots, new birds and five new cat pet types, pet renaming, and pet accessory slots that broaden how companion utility works.

Easy / Normal / Hard difficulty options added

Wardrobes provide 100 outfit slots each, up to 1,000 total

Bird pets and five new cat pet types added

Keyboard/mouse and controller presets added

Colorblind Mode and Photosensitive Mode added under Accessibility

The quality-of-life pass is just as important as the new content. Update 1.04.00 adds a maximum subtitle size option, expands key binding and controller behavior settings, and improves long-distance rendering quality. On PC, Pearl Abyss specifically calls out better AMD FSR Ray Regeneration and Intel XeSS 3.0 quality. On Mac, the studio added a MetalFX Denoising Upscaler option and reduced gameplay stutter, which matters because the Mac builds are still catching up with the main rollout.

The larger read on this patch is simple: Pearl Abyss is still using post-launch updates to sand down usability problems while adding progression and companion hooks that keep people in the game longer. Difficulty presets, accessibility switches, and more consistent input behavior are not flashy headline features, but they directly affect whether a large action RPG feels tolerable after the first few hours. Version 1.04.00 is substantial because it changes both how Crimson Desert plays and how many players can comfortably stay with it.