Crimson Desert: Best Beginner Build – Early Game Starter & Easy To Get

Welcome to the Crimson Desert Beginner Build for Kliff. This is a powerful early-game spec that is easy to get and level up. I will also cover how to upgrade the armor and craft food, because that is an important aspect of any Crimson Desert build!

Powerful Early-Game Kliff Build that is easy to get and carries you through the early game.

Table of Contents:

1. Kliff Beginner Build Overview
2. Equipment
3. Weapons
4. Abyss Gear Upgrades (optional)
5. Skills
6. Best Combos
7. Food
8. Basic Mechanics Explained
9. Mistakes to avoid

Strengths and Weaknesses of the Kliff Beginner Build for Crimson Desert:

Kliff Beginner Build Overview

This Early-Game Kliff Beginner Build is optimized to make your early-game easy. All items are easy to obtain and are available in the Hernand starter zone.

With this build, you can easily fight multiple enemies at once, and early-game bosses won’t be much trouble anymore. The extra big shield we use for this beginner build will make it easy to block attacks from bosses.

• Equipment: Most of it is available right after you defeat the boss Matthias, which is very early in the game.
  • Gear Scaling: Most gear has the same stats; the uniqueness comes through Abyss Gear Buffs and Refinement (Leveling it up).
• Weapons: The main weapons we use are the Sword of the Wolf (Base sword) & Shield of Conviction, and the Hwando 2H.
• Skills: We only use a few specialized move sets, so the build doesn’t get too complex, perfect for getting used to the game!
  • Leveling up Stamina to at least 200 is necessary. Otherwise, you might run out of Stamina during combat easily!
• Combos: We only use a few key combos that get us through the game early on, because we don’t have many skill points yet.
• Food: Generally, use whatever you find and cook it if it provides HP. You need these during tough fights. I will also recommend a few strong early-game recipes.

Equipment for the Crimson Desert Beginner Build

The Crimson Desert Beginner Build for Kliff has easily obtainable gear. You can get most of it right after you defeat the first boss called “Matthias” in Hernand town. Smaller items such as accessories can also be found in Hernand Town.

• Gear Scaling: Most gear has the same stats; the uniqueness comes through Abyss Gear Buffs and Refinement (Leveling it up).
• Leveling Up Equipment: I recommend leveling up your items to at least level 4 (Refinement).
  • Materials: You find all the materials by hunting animals, mining ore at the big wall close to the city, and felling trees.

Slot	Name	Refinement
Head	Canta Plate Helm	Level 4
Armor	Canta Plate Armor	Level 4
Cloak	Canta Plate Cloak	Level 4
Gloves	Canta Plate Gloves	Level 4
Foot	Canta Plate Foot	Level 4
Necklace	Finely Crafted Gold Necklace	Level 2
Earring 1	Oath of Darkness Earring	Level 2
Earring 2	Engraved Gold Earring	Level 2
Ring 1	Tarnished Ring	Level 2
Ring 2	Worn Ring	Level 2

Where to get the Equipment:

• Canta Plate Armor Items: Purchasable at Rhett’s after defeating Matthias.
• Finely Crafted Gold Necklace: Looted inside Bluemont Manor at the Wheel puzzle Storage box.
• Oath of Darkness: Looted inside Bluemont Manor Owl Storage Box puzzle.
• Engraved Gold Earring: Looted inside Lioncrest Manor, top floor, right.
• Tarnished Ring: Drops from early Hernand territory Bleed Bandits (low chance).
• Worn Ring: Can be looted inside huts (2x location).

Weapons for the Crimson Desert Beginner Build

It’s best to level up the Sword of the Wolf to level 4 to have a higher attack value. The base sword is fine for now. You can swap it out later if you want, but this is a beginner build, so it will do. The main thing here is to remember to upgrade the weapons. That is the most important thing, actually.

Shield of Conviction: Because this is a bigger shield, you will move slightly slower but have higher protection. If you prefer the small shield, you can also use that.

Slot	Name	Refinement
Primary Weapon	Sword of the Wolf	Lv 4
Primary Shield	Shield of Conviction	Lv 4
Primary 2H	Hwando Two-Hander	Lv 4
Primary Bow	Grey Wolf Bow	Lv 4

Where to get the Weapons:

• Hwando Two-Hander: Inside Lioncrest Manor in a treasure chest.
• Shield of Conviction: Inside the tower of the Churc of Calphade.
• Sword of the Wolf: Already equipped at the beginning of the game.
• Grey Wolf Bow: Already equipped at the beginning of the game.

Generally, for a Beginner Build in Crimson Desert, any weapon will work that you like, just make sure to level it up so it actually deals damage!

Grindstone

Next to the Smithy there is a grindstone, make sure to use it because it boosts the damage of your weapons! You only have to use the grindstone once to enhance all your weapons.

Abyss Gear Upgrades Kliff Beginner Build

Abyss Gear Upgrades are optional for this Crimson Desert Beginner Build. However, the build will of course get stronger if you embed Abyss Gear that you find as its the main way to scale power of your character.

Make your way to the Witch Sylvia (see image) to embed or extract Abyss Gear in Crimson Desert. Abyss Gear can be found in the world or on items. If you don’t use an item, it is recommended to extract the Abyss Gear; it’s free. Then, you can use it on our current gear.

• Extract: Free of cost, do it for the items that you won’t use.
• Embed: Free of cost, you can embed whatever you want as long as you have sockets.
• Sockets: You must unlock Sockets for a bit of Silver first. The more Sockets you unlock per item, the more expensive it gets.

Skills for the Crimson Desert Beginner Build

Here are the most important Skills that you have to focus on first for the Crimson Desert Beginner Build for Kliff. Because we currently have only a few skill points to spend, we want to make sure to pick useful ones. Please read the Combo section of the Crimson Desert Beginner Build to understand what combos we use with this setup.

• Priority 1: Blue Skill Tree
• Priority 2: Red Skill Tree
• Priority 3: Green Skill Tree

Note: You also learn skills by observing enemies sometimes, so you won’t have to spend a skill point! The tooltip of the skill will mention this.

Blue Tree Allocation (Priority)

1. Stamina to level 5: This is crucial to not run out of stamina mid-combat.
2. Grapple to level 2:
   • Throw Skill: You can throw tough enemies off cliffs to instantly defeat them.
   • Lariat Skill: Grapple enemies and smash them into the ground.
3. Forward Slash to level 1: Deal damage with a powerful slash.

Red Tree Allocation

1. Axiom Force to level 2:
   • Aerial Maneuver Skill: Non-Combat related, but makes traversing a lot easier because you can grapple and pull yourself up.

Green Tree Allocation

1. Force Palm to level 1:
   1. Healing Force Palm: This is great when you accidentally jump off a cliff with your horse. You can actually heal it with this skill.

Combos for the Crimson Desert Beginner Build

Because this is an early-game Beginner Build for Crimson Desert, we won’t get into too difficult combos.

• Light & Heavy Attack: Used against all types of enemies.
• Block: Mostly only used against tougher enemies or bosses. With high enough Stamina you can block for a while.
• Forward Slash: Delivers powerful slashes that hit multiple enemies.
• Grapple (Lariat): Used against shielded enemies, you can smash them into the ground.
• Grapple (Throw): If you are fighting close to a cliff, you can throw tougher enemies over the cliff to instantly kill them.

Basic Mechanics Explained

In this section, I will explain a few basic mechanics you might have missed during the tutorial or should know.

Stamina

1. Sprinting and performing certain actions consume Stamina.
2. You cannot use skills if you do not have enough stamina.
3. Defending against enemy attacks also consumes Stamina.
4. Blocking heavy attacks results in higher Stamina consumption; if your Stamina is fully depleted while guarding, your defense will break, and you will take damage.
5. Certain equipment effects can reduce the Stamina consumed by defending.
6. Stamina is gradually restored once you stop attacking.
7. Stamina will slowly recover while walking or blocking, but recovers fastest when standing still.
8. Leveling up the Wolf Sign in the blue skill tree (Stamina) increases the amount of Stamina you have.

Power Scaling

Power scaling comes from increasing your equipment level and adding Abyss Gear in Crimson Desert. Leveling up skills won’t increase your power. This is often overlooked.

Players often just get some gear but don’t refine it (level up). That means you will run around with more or less base stats, which can be tricky in the later parts of the game.

To increase the power of your character:

• Refine equipment
• Add Abyss Gear to your equipment

Food for the Crimson Desert Beginner Build

We aren’t very picky when it comes to food. However, you must have plenty in your inventory.

1. Hunt down animals; they drop plenty of meat.
2. Cook the meat.
3. If your health drops too low, use the food to refill it.
4. Bossfights: Make sure to have plenty in your inventory when fighting a major boss.

Having enough food with you to replenish your health is especially important during boss fights!

Mistakes to Avoid with the Kliff Beginner Build

Here are the most important things to remember for the Kliff Beginner Build for Crimson Desert:

1. Don’t forget to level up your equipment, it will make you way more powerful!
2. Never go into a boss fight without food! You can spam food to constantly heal.
3. Make sure to have at least 200 Stamina. Otherwise, you run out of it too fast during fights.
4. Visit the Witch and embed Abyss Gear in your gear to further enhance it!

Related Guides:

Visit our Crimson Desert Database overview page for more builds and guides.