Character Switching

Overview

Crimson Desert features three predefined playable characters rather than a custom character creator. Players begin the game as Kliff, the main protagonist and leader of the Greymanes mercenary band. As the story progresses, two additional characters become playable: Damiane, an agile fighter within the Greymanes, and Oongka, a powerful orc warrior. Each character offers a fundamentally different playstyle with unique weapons, abilities, traversal gadgets, and individually motion-captured animations.

Three-Character Design

The character switching system draws comparisons to the three-protagonist structure found in GTA V. Both games allow players to swap freely between characters using a radial wheel, and both zoom the camera out during the transition before loading in the new character. However, the two systems differ in an important way. In GTA V, all three protagonists can advance the main narrative through their own story threads. In Crimson Desert, the main campaign belongs exclusively to Kliff, while Damiane and Oongka expand gameplay variety for open-world exploration, side quests, and optional content.

Each character has a completely independent skill tree and separate progression. Leveling up a skill for Kliff does not affect Damiane or Oongka, and vice versa. This means players need to invest time into each character individually to unlock their full potential.

How Character Unlocking Works

Damiane and Oongka are not available from the start. Players unlock them by progressing through the main story. Both characters join the Greymanes during Kliff's campaign and become playable once recruited.

Unlocking Damiane

Damiane unlocks partway through Chapter 3: Homestead. She appears as part of the main quest when Marshal Middler introduces her at Howling Hill to help set up the new camp. From that point forward, she is available to switch to at any time during free roam.

Unlocking Oongka

Oongka's unlock process has multiple stages. Players first encounter him again in Chapter 6 and fight alongside him for a stretch, but he does not become a permanent playable character at that point. During Chapter 7, the encounter with Myurdin at Ashclaw Keep incapacitates Kliff, and control shifts to Oongka. Players experience a portion of the story directly as Oongka during this sequence.

After the Chapter 7 sequence, players must complete the side quest "Gentle Sound of Flowing River" to make Oongka permanently available outside of story missions. Until this quest is finished, Oongka cannot be freely selected from the character wheel during open-world gameplay.

How to Switch Characters

Once a character is unlocked, switching is done through a radial character wheel that can be opened at any time during free roam. The camera zooms out during the swap, and after a brief loading transition the player takes control of the selected character.

When you switch characters, you are teleported to wherever the selected character currently is in the game world. Each character maintains their own independent position on the map, so switching to Damiane will move you to wherever Damiane was last standing, not to your current location.

Companion Summoning System

In addition to switching control to another character, players can also summon unlocked characters to their current location as AI-controlled companions. This is distinct from the character swap: instead of teleporting to the other character's position, the companion appears beside you and follows you around the world.

How to Summon a Companion

1. Hold Up on the D-pad (controller) or F1 (keyboard) to open the Characters and Mounts wheel.

2. Highlight the character you want to summon.

3. Press X (PS5) or A (Xbox) to summon the character, rather than switching to them.

4. Close the wheel. After a brief loading moment, the selected character appears at your location and begins following you.

Companion Behavior

Summoned companions are controlled by the game's AI. They follow you through the open world, automatically engage enemies in combat, and react to the situation around them. Companions will launch their own attacks and use their unique abilities during fights, providing meaningful support when clearing enemy camps or tackling difficult encounters.

How to Dismiss a Companion

To send a companion home, open the Characters and Mounts wheel again, highlight the active companion, and press the disband button (Space on keyboard, or A/X on controller). The companion will leave your side and return to their independent position in the world.

Fast Travel via Character Swapping

Because the game tracks each character's position independently, character switching can be used as a pseudo-fast travel system. By strategically positioning your characters at different points on the map, you can swap between them to quickly move across the world without relying on Abyss Nexus teleport points.

The basic technique works as follows. Leave one character at a location you want to return to (such as a town or vendor). Explore or fight with a different character. When you need to return, open the character wheel and switch back to the character you left behind. You will be instantly teleported to their position.

This trick is especially useful during lengthy combat scenarios. If you run out of healing items while clearing an enemy-occupied area, you can switch to a character parked near a town, restock at a vendor, then summon the character who was fighting to your new position and switch back. This lets you resume the fight without losing progress.

Restrictions and Limitations

Character switching and companion summoning have several restrictions that keep the system balanced and preserve the narrative structure of the game.

Why Switching Matters

Each character was individually motion-captured, giving them a distinct feel and personality in combat. They are not reskinned versions of the same moveset. The three characters differ across three key areas: combat style, weapon selection, and traversal options.

Kliff: The Versatile Leader

Kliff is the most adaptable of the three, often described as a "Swiss Army Knife" capable of using magic, blades, and gadgets. He has the widest weapon arsenal of any character and is the only one who can wield the Axiom Bracelet.

Kliff also wields the Axiom Bracelet, a magical device that grants elemental powers including fire, ice, lightning, wind, and nature. Since Kliff has no innate magical ability, the bracelet is his sole source of magic. A selection wheel lets players choose which element to infuse into attacks. Key bracelet-based skills include Force Palm, which can be upgraded to Aerial Force Palm for up to three mid-air activations, greatly enhancing vertical combat and traversal.

For traversal, Kliff uses the Crow's Wing, a raven-wing cloak that enables gliding across large distances. He also has a grappling hook for latching onto structures and chaining mid-air jumps, as well as a triple jump ability. The Swift Flight skill further increases his glide speed.

Damiane: The Agile Striker

Damiane is built for speed and precision. Her combat style rewards hit-and-run tactics and tactical positioning. She has her own independent skill tree, separate from Kliff's progression. With high damage output but lower defense, she functions as the Rogue archetype of the group.

One of Damiane's signature moves is the Izuna Drop, a spinning kick that transitions into an aerial grab and slams the enemy to the ground. She also has a Captain America-style Shield Toss ability (in place of Kliff's Force Palm), which can be augmented with Shield Sentinel to turn her buckler into a floating sentry turret that fires at nearby enemies.

For traversal, Damiane uses a Parasol Machine. Unlike Kliff's Crow's Wing, which only allows gliding descent, Damiane's propeller can spin faster to achieve true upward flight. This makes her the best character for aerial exploration and reaching elevated locations that Kliff and Oongka cannot easily access.

Oongka: The Powerhouse

Oongka is an orc warrior focused on raw power and area-of-effect damage. His combat style features slow, devastating attacks with easy-to-learn combos that obliterate groups of enemies. He functions as the Barbarian or Warrior archetype, designed for breaking through enemy lines and tanking damage.

Oongka's pickaxe is notable because it doubles as a mining tool, making him uniquely useful for resource gathering runs. His signature combat abilities include Rampage, a cleaving attack that carves through groups of enemies, and Scatter Shot from his arm-mounted cannon. His Rage ability grants super armor, dramatically boosting his survivability during heavy encounters. His combat style also features body slams and leap slams for devastating area-of-effect damage.

Character Customization

All three playable characters can be cosmetically customized, though the game does not feature a full character creator. Customization options are available at barber shop locations found throughout the world of Pywel.

Design Philosophy

The character switching system serves Pearl Abyss's goal of offering gameplay variety without forcing players into a single combat style. Each character occupies a distinct niche: Kliff as the versatile all-rounder, Damiane as the precision-focused speedster, and Oongka as the raw-power bruiser. This design encourages players to experiment with different approaches to combat and exploration depending on the situation.

The companion summoning system adds another layer to this design. Rather than simply offering three playable perspectives, the system lets players bring a second character along as AI support. This gives solo players the feeling of fighting alongside their mercenary band while keeping the core difficulty intact for story missions and boss encounters.

Tips

• Experiment with all three characters regularly. Later encounters are designed to reward players who switch between Kliff, Damiane, and Oongka depending on the situation.

• Oongka's pickaxe doubles as a mining tool, making him the ideal character for resource gathering runs.

• Damiane's Parasol Machine grants true upward flight rather than just gliding, making her the best choice for reaching elevated locations and exploring vertical terrain.

• Use the character swap fast travel trick by parking one character at a town with vendors. When you run low on supplies while exploring, switch to that character, restock, then summon your explorer to your new position.

• Remember that each character has an independent skill tree. Invest skill points into all three characters over time rather than focusing exclusively on Kliff.

• Before triggering a main story quest, dismiss any active companion. The game will block story progression if a companion is following you.

• Summon Damiane or Oongka as companions when clearing faction strongholds and enemy camps. Their AI support can make a significant difference against large groups.

100 Abyss Artifact XP Cap Per Character

Each playable character has a per-character cap of 100 Abyss Artifacts earned through the yellow XP gauge. Once the bar stops filling on Kliff (or whichever character is active), switching to Damiane, Macduff, or another unlocked hero via the swap system resets the farm allowance and lets the player grind another 100 artifacts. This is the core reason the Abyss Artifacts Farming Guide treats character switching as a farm-extension tool rather than a pure combat feature.

Artifacts earned from puzzles and challenges are believed not to count against the 100-per-character cap, but the community has not fully confirmed this, so treat it as a working assumption rather than a documented rule.