Overview
Contribution Points are a region-locked currency in Crimson Desert that players earn by leveling up their Contribution standing with a region's faction. Each time the Contribution XP bar fills completely, the player gains one Contribution level and receives one spendable Contribution Point. These points function as the sole accepted currency at Contribution Shops, where exclusive armor, weapons, accessories, and horse equipment can be purchased.
Unlike Silver, which is earned through combat loot and trading, Contribution Points are tied directly to a player's regional standing. Points earned in Hernand cannot be spent in Demeniss or Delesyia. Each region maintains its own separate point pool. There is a hard cap of 100 Contribution Points per region, since the maximum Contribution level is 100.
How Points Are Earned
Contribution Points are not awarded directly from activities. Instead, players earn Contribution XP from various tasks, and that XP fills a progress bar. When the bar fills completely, the player reaches a new Contribution level and receives one point to spend. The bar then resets and the process repeats.
If a player loses Contribution levels through criminal activity, they do not lose points already earned. However, they must re-earn the lost levels before gaining any new points. Regaining a previously held level does not award a second point for that level.
The following activities award Contribution XP toward the next level:
Activity | XP Reward | Notes |
|---|---|---|
High | The fastest and most reliable source of Contribution XP. Found under the Factions tab in the Journal. | |
High | Short combat encounters with generous XP payouts. Available starting in Chapter 2. | |
Side Quests | Moderate to High | Any quest performed on behalf of a regional faction awards Contribution XP. |
Liberating Strongholds | Very High | The single largest XP gain from a single action. Clear bandit camps and free occupied territory. |
Moderate | Repeatable tasks posted on regional notice boards. | |
Freeing Captives | Moderate | Rescuing slaves and prisoners from bandit camps during exploration. |
Helping Citizens | Low to Moderate | Random encounters with NPCs needing assistance. These do not appear in the quest list. |
Giving Alms to Beggars | +1 XP per coin | Donating copper coins to beggars in settlements. Can be done once per day per beggar. Slow but useful for topping off the last few XP before a level-up. |
The 100-Point Cap
Each region has a maximum Contribution level of 100, which means a player can earn at most 100 Contribution Points per region. This is a hard cap; once a player reaches level 100, no further points can be earned in that region regardless of how many additional quests or bounties are completed.
Because 100 points is not enough to purchase every item in a region's Contribution Shop at the same time, players must make strategic choices about what to buy. The refund mechanic (described below) softens this limitation by letting players swap purchases freely, but they can never hold more than 100 points worth of items and unspent points combined.
Spending Points
Contribution Points can only be spent at Contribution Shops, which are specialized vendors found in each region's major settlement. These shops accept only Contribution Points; Silver is not accepted. The inventory at each shop is unique to its region and includes faction-themed equipment unavailable from any other merchant.
Items available at Contribution Shops fall into the following categories:
Category | Description | Typical Cost Range |
|---|---|---|
Character Armor | Region-exclusive armor sets with unique stats and appearance. Includes body armor, headgear, gloves, and footwear. | 4 to 23 points per piece |
Faction-themed cloaks providing defense bonuses. Multiple tiers are available at different price points. | 6 to 19 points | |
Signets, crowns, rings, and necklaces offering passive bonuses. These are the most expensive shop items. | 25 to 70 points | |
Horse Bardings | Decorative and functional horse armor that changes the mount's appearance. | 23 points |
Faction flags that double as usable two-handed weapons in combat. | 30 points | |
Camp Workers | Hirable workers for the Greymane Camp who gather supplies and Silver automatically. | Varies |
Refund Mechanic
Any item purchased from a Contribution Shop can be sold back to the same shop for a full refund of the Contribution Points spent. This means Contribution Points are never permanently consumed by a purchase. Players can freely experiment with different gear, sell back pieces they no longer need, and reallocate their points toward new items as their build evolves.
This refund policy is especially important given the 100-point cap. Since players cannot earn unlimited points, the ability to recycle them ensures that no purchase decision is irreversible. A player who buys the Bolton Plate Armor early on can sell it back later and put those 7 points toward a more expensive piece like the Hernand Ceremonial Guard Armor.
Regional Shop Examples
Each region in Pywel operates its own Contribution Shop with a distinct inventory tied to the local faction's identity. Below is a summary of notable items and their costs in each region.
Hernand
The Hernand Contribution Shop is located inside Hernand Castle and is operated by a vendor named Haldwin. This is the first Contribution Shop most players encounter.
Item | Category | Cost |
|---|---|---|
4 points | ||
Cloak | 6 points | |
7 points | ||
14 points | ||
15 points | ||
Cloak | 19 points | |
Cloak | 19 points | |
21 points | ||
Horse Barding | 23 points | |
Banner | 30 points | |
Accessory | 65 points | |
Accessory | 70 points |
Demeniss
The Demeniss Contribution Shop is split across multiple vendors in the city and castle. The castle shop is the main vendor, while the cathedral and bank district house additional sellers.
Item | Category | Cost |
|---|---|---|
17 points | ||
Cloak | 19 points | |
23 points | ||
23 points | ||
Accessory | 25 points | |
Accessory | 27 points | |
Banner | 30 points | |
Accessory | 65 points | |
Accessory | 70 points |
Delesyia
The Delesyia Contribution Shop serves the Delesyia region and stocks gear themed around the local guard and nobility.
Item | Category | Cost |
|---|---|---|
17 points | ||
23 points | ||
Cloak | 19 points | |
Cloak | 19 points | |
Horse Barding | 23 points | |
Banner | 30 points | |
Accessory | 65 points | |
Accessory | 70 points |
Tashkalp
The Tashkalp Contribution Shop is operated by a vendor named Tommaso and offers desert-themed equipment.
Item | Category | Cost |
|---|---|---|
17 points | ||
Cloak | 19 points | |
23 points | ||
Horse Barding | 23 points | |
Tommasoan Contribution Banner | Banner | 30 points |
Accessory | 65 points |
Losing Contribution Through Crime
Criminal actions in Crimson Desert reduce Contribution XP in the region where the crime occurs. These penalties apply whether or not the player is caught. The Crime System ties directly into the Contribution mechanic, creating real consequences for unlawful behavior.
Crime | Penalty | Details |
|---|---|---|
Stealing an item | -5 Contribution XP | Applied per item stolen, regardless of whether the player is detected. |
-5 Contribution XP | Same penalty as stealing. Triggers guard pursuit if detected. | |
Assault / Murder of an innocent NPC | -30 Contribution XP | Immediate penalty upon killing or seriously injuring a civilian. |
Since each Contribution level requires filling the XP bar from scratch, losing a large chunk of XP can drop the player below their current level. While points already earned and spent are not lost, the player must re-earn any lost levels before new points become available. Regaining a previously held level does not award a duplicate point.
Low Contribution in a region triggers practical consequences beyond the point loss. Merchant prices may rise, guards become more aggressive, and certain quests or restricted areas may become inaccessible until the player rebuilds their standing.
Strategy and Tips
Prioritize bounties and faction quests. These are the fastest sources of Contribution XP. Bounties become available in Chapter 2 and offer short, high-reward encounters.
Liberate strongholds early. Clearing bandit camps provides the largest single-action XP boost in the system. Do this first when entering a new region.
Use beggars for small top-offs. Giving a copper coin to a beggar grants 1 XP. This is very slow for bulk farming, but it is useful when you are just a few XP short of the next level.
Sell back old gear before buying new pieces. The full refund policy means you can recycle points from cheaper early-game armor (like the Bolton Plate set at 17 total points) into late-game prestige items.
Plan purchases around the 100-point cap. Since you cannot earn more than 100 points per region, plan which items you want most. The refund mechanic provides flexibility, but you cannot own everything at once.
Avoid unnecessary theft. Each stolen item costs 5 Contribution XP even if nobody sees you take it. Habitual stealing adds up quickly and can stall your Contribution progress.
Related Pages
Patch 1.04: Prestige Unlocks at Regional Vendors
Patch 1.04 tied regional Contribution Shops directly into the equipment vendor layout by making regional Crowns the unlock key for Prestige-locked gear. Every region has its own Contribution Shop (the Hernand Contribution Shop up in the castle area, the Demeniss Contribution Shop, and the equivalent stalls in the other regions), and each of those shops sells a regional Crown priced at 70 Contribution Points. Owning the regional Crown flips the gated items at that region's equipment and smithy vendors from locked to purchasable.
The cleanest worked example is the Hernandian Crown bought from the Hernand Contribution Shop. Once Kliff holds that Crown in his inventory, visiting Rhett (the equipment vendor in the Hernand main square) removes the Prestige lock on the Balphion Plate set at the bottom of Rhett's stock list. The helm, plate, and gloves of that set all become normal purchases as soon as the Crown is owned.
The same pattern repeats in every region. The Crown functions like an access token rather than an equipped item: you do not need to wear it, you just need it in your inventory for the vendor in that region to recognize you as Prestige-cleared. Regional Crowns do not unlock Prestige items in other regions; the Hernandian Crown opens up Hernand vendors only, the Demeniss Crown opens up Demeniss vendors only, and so on. This is the same region-locked logic that already applied to Contribution Points themselves.
Because Prestige-tier items often include some of the stronger regional sets and horse gear, players who had already done enough regional quests to sit on a full point pool suddenly had a clear path to the gated stock post-patch. Regions with extensive faction questlines (Hernand, Demeniss) tend to produce Crown-worth point pools fastest; the lighter regional areas take longer because side quests, faction quests, bounties, camp infrastructure builds, and other regional activities all feed the same 100-point cap.
Crown Refund Trick
The crucial detail Patch 1.04 preserved is that regional Crowns are fully refundable. Selling the Crown back to the same Contribution Shop it was bought from returns the full 70 Contribution Points to the region's point pool. There is no sale penalty, no durability loss, and no time gate on the refund. This turns the Prestige unlock into a zero-cost toggle.
The loop works like this:
Buy the regional Crown at the Contribution Shop for 70 points.
Travel to the regional equipment vendor (for example Rhett in Hernand) and purchase every Prestige-locked piece you want from that vendor. Purchased gear stays in your inventory permanently.
Return to the Contribution Shop and sell the Crown back. The 70 points are restored to your regional pool.
Spend those reclaimed points on whatever else the Contribution Shop stocks: horse equipment, weapons, accessories, or keep them banked for future content.
The net result is that unlocking Prestige gear at regional vendors costs nothing in the long run. The 70-point price is effectively a refundable deposit rather than a spend. Players who had already emptied their Contribution Shop inventory on early-game gear can use the same refund mechanic in reverse: sell back no-longer-useful Contribution Shop purchases to rebuild the 70-point pool, buy the Crown, do the Prestige shopping run, then sell the Crown back too.
This also means there is no long-term decision cost on which region to Prestige-unlock first. Even on a character that only has exactly 70 points in one region, the Crown can be cycled through to unlock Prestige gear, refunded, and the same 70 points carried over to the next region's shop the moment you hit 70 Contribution there. There is no reason to hoard Crowns or to leave them equipped after the shopping trip is done.
Shop Visibility Changes (Patch 1.04)
Patch 1.04 also rewrote how equipment vendor stock is presented. Locked items no longer appear as mystery rows; the shop UI now prints the specific unlock condition next to each gated entry. The three labels to know are:
Prestige: item unlocks once the regional Crown is owned, as described above. Purchased from the regional Contribution Shop.
Trust: item unlocks once Trust with the specific vendor reaches the listed threshold (typically 100). Built by gifting the vendor items they favor over time. Back Alley Shop vendors use this label heavily, for example gating regional guard armor sets behind Trust 100.
Knowledge: item unlocks once the player has acquired the corresponding Knowledge entry from exploration, conversations, or inspection. Learning the Knowledge about the item is the cost; no Contribution or gifting is involved.
Before Patch 1.04 these gates existed but were opaque: a vendor would show a locked row without telling you which currency or activity would open it, so players often bounced between Contribution Shops, faction dailies, and gifting routines trying to identify the right path. Post-patch, the label is printed directly in the vendor window, which makes it easy to plan a shopping trip around Contribution runs (for Prestige), gifting sessions (for Trust), or Knowledge hunts (for Knowledge).
Because the unlock condition is visible up front, the Crown refund trick pairs cleanly with the UI change: scan each regional equipment vendor for items labeled Prestige, buy the regional Crown, clear the Prestige list in one trip, then refund the Crown. The label readout takes the guesswork out of which vendors reward the Crown purchase and which do not.
Related Articles
Patch 1.04: Prestige Unlocks at Regional Vendors
Patch 1.04 tied regional Contribution Shops directly into the equipment vendor layout by making regional Crowns the unlock key for Prestige-locked gear. Every region has its own Contribution Shop (the Hernand Contribution Shop up in the castle area, the Demeniss Contribution Shop, and the equivalent stalls in the other regions), and each of those shops sells a regional Crown priced at 70 Contribution Points. Owning the regional Crown flips the gated items at that region's equipment and smithy vendors from locked to purchasable.
The cleanest worked example is the Hernandian Crown bought from the Hernand Contribution Shop. Once Kliff holds that Crown in his inventory, visiting Rhett (the equipment vendor in the Hernand main square) removes the Prestige lock on the Balphion Plate set at the bottom of Rhett's stock list. The helm, plate, and gloves of that set all become normal purchases as soon as the Crown is owned.
The same pattern repeats in every region. The Crown functions like an access token rather than an equipped item: you do not need to wear it, you just need it in your inventory for the vendor in that region to recognize you as Prestige-cleared. Regional Crowns do not unlock Prestige items in other regions; the Hernandian Crown opens up Hernand vendors only, the Demeniss Crown opens up Demeniss vendors only, and so on. This is the same region-locked logic that already applied to Contribution Points themselves.
Because Prestige-tier items often include some of the stronger regional sets and horse gear, players who had already done enough regional quests to sit on a full point pool suddenly had a clear path to the gated stock post-patch. Regions with extensive faction questlines (Hernand, Demeniss) tend to produce Crown-worth point pools fastest; the lighter regional areas take longer because side quests, faction quests, bounties, camp infrastructure builds, and other regional activities all feed the same 100-point cap.
Crown Refund Trick
The crucial detail Patch 1.04 preserved is that regional Crowns are fully refundable. Selling the Crown back to the same Contribution Shop it was bought from returns the full 70 Contribution Points to the region's point pool. There is no sale penalty, no durability loss, and no time gate on the refund. This turns the Prestige unlock into a zero-cost toggle.
The loop works like this:
Buy the regional Crown at the Contribution Shop for 70 points.
Travel to the regional equipment vendor (for example Rhett in Hernand) and purchase every Prestige-locked piece you want from that vendor. Purchased gear stays in your inventory permanently.
Return to the Contribution Shop and sell the Crown back. The 70 points are restored to your regional pool.
Spend those reclaimed points on whatever else the Contribution Shop stocks: horse equipment, weapons, accessories, or keep them banked for future content.
The net result is that unlocking Prestige gear at regional vendors costs nothing in the long run. The 70-point price is effectively a refundable deposit rather than a spend. Players who had already emptied their Contribution Shop inventory on early-game gear can use the same refund mechanic in reverse: sell back no-longer-useful Contribution Shop purchases to rebuild the 70-point pool, buy the Crown, do the Prestige shopping run, then sell the Crown back too.
This also means there is no long-term decision cost on which region to Prestige-unlock first. Even on a character that only has exactly 70 points in one region, the Crown can be cycled through to unlock Prestige gear, refunded, and the same 70 points carried over to the next region's shop the moment you hit 70 Contribution there. There is no reason to hoard Crowns or to leave them equipped after the shopping trip is done.
Shop Visibility Changes (Patch 1.04)
Patch 1.04 also rewrote how equipment vendor stock is presented. Locked items no longer appear as mystery rows; the shop UI now prints the specific unlock condition next to each gated entry. The three labels to know are:
Prestige: item unlocks once the regional Crown is owned, as described above. Purchased from the regional Contribution Shop.
Trust: item unlocks once Trust with the specific vendor reaches the listed threshold (typically 100). Built by gifting the vendor items they favor over time. Back Alley Shop vendors use this label heavily, for example gating regional guard armor sets behind Trust 100.
Knowledge: item unlocks once the player has acquired the corresponding Knowledge entry from exploration, conversations, or inspection. Learning the Knowledge about the item is the cost; no Contribution or gifting is involved.
Before Patch 1.04 these gates existed but were opaque: a vendor would show a locked row without telling you which currency or activity would open it, so players often bounced between Contribution Shops, faction dailies, and gifting routines trying to identify the right path. Post-patch, the label is printed directly in the vendor window, which makes it easy to plan a shopping trip around Contribution runs (for Prestige), gifting sessions (for Trust), or Knowledge hunts (for Knowledge).
Because the unlock condition is visible up front, the Crown refund trick pairs cleanly with the UI change: scan each regional equipment vendor for items labeled Prestige, buy the regional Crown, clear the Prestige list in one trip, then refund the Crown. The label readout takes the guesswork out of which vendors reward the Crown purchase and which do not.