Crow's Pursuit

Overview

Crow's Pursuit is a unique active Abyss Core in Crimson Desert. It is the innate Abyss Gear attached to the Tauria Curved Sword, which drops from the Crowcaller boss fight during Chapter 5 of the main story.

When equipped, Crow's Pursuit fires a murder of spectral crows every time the player lands a heavy attack (RT/R2). The crows home in on the closest targets and deal Abyss-type damage over a short duration before dissipating. Pressing RT consumes additional stamina to send the crows out, so players need to keep an eye on their stamina bar during extended fights. The crow strikes can interrupt weaker enemies and apply a brief stagger, making the core useful for crowd control on top of its raw damage.

Because it only fits into melee weapon slots, this core is best suited to aggressive frontline builds. Players running ranged setups will not be able to take advantage of it.

Properties

How to Obtain

Crow's Pursuit comes pre-installed on the Tauria Curved Sword, which is awarded for defeating Draven the Crowcaller at the end of the Toward the Nest quest in Chapter 5. The Crowcaller boss is found at the Crow's Nest in the Abyss, reached after solving the Crescent Skybridge puzzle at the Spire of Soaring.

The boss fight has three health bars and escalating phases. Once you defeat the Crowcaller, you receive the Tauria Curved Sword along with Blackwing Leather Armor, Blackwing Mask, and the Aerial Roll skill. Crow's Pursuit is one of the three Abyss Gears that come pre-installed on the Tauria Curved Sword (alongside Gale I and Wind Slash).

Like any other Abyss Core, Crow's Pursuit can be extracted from the Tauria Curved Sword and transferred to a different weapon. Visit any Witch to extract the core, then embed it into any melee weapon that has an available Abyss Core socket.

Tracking Mechanics

The spectral crows summoned by Crow's Pursuit use aggressive homing behavior. After spawning, they lock onto the nearest enemy and fly toward the target until they connect. The tracking is persistent enough that even enemies who dodge, roll, or teleport away will still get hit because the crows change direction mid-flight to follow their target.

This makes Crow's Pursuit one of the most reliable damage sources against mobile enemies. Bosses and elite enemies that frequently reposition (like the Crowcaller himself, or enemies that use shadow-step abilities) cannot escape the crows simply by moving. The homing projectiles will chase them down, dealing damage even when the player's own melee swings miss.

The crows can also hit multiple enemies that are clustered together. When a group of enemies stands close, the crows splash through the pack and damage several targets at once. Against spread-out groups, each crow picks the nearest individual target and pursues it independently, which means the total spread of crow projectiles naturally covers a wide area.

Usage and Strategy

As an active Abyss Core, Crow's Pursuit triggers every time you press RT/R2 for a heavy attack. Every swing sends out crows without any additional button input beyond the heavy attack itself. This makes the core feel almost passive in practice: just keep landing heavy attacks and the crows do their work in the background.

The most effective way to maximize Crow's Pursuit output is to spam heavy attacks. Each heavy attack fires a fresh volley of crows, so rapid chains of RT presses produce a constant stream of homing projectiles across the battlefield. Pair this with Nature's Echo from the green skill tree, which duplicates heavy attacks, to double your crow output on every swing.

Keep in mind that heavy attacks and Crow's Pursuit both consume stamina. If you spam RT without managing your stamina bar, you will run dry and be left unable to dodge or block. Bring food that restores stamina (like Chewy Rice Cakes) or slot Abyss Cores that boost stamina regeneration to compensate for the high consumption rate.

Build Synergies

Crow's Pursuit + Ator's Orb (Forward Slash Build)

One of the strongest supplementary damage combinations in Crimson Desert pairs Crow's Pursuit with Ator's Orb, the innate Abyss Core found on the Darkbringer two-handed sword. Both cores trigger on forward-impacting melee attacks, meaning every Forward Slash fires off homing crows and tracking orbs simultaneously. The result is massive supplementary damage layered on top of the base sword swing.

This synergy is particularly effective for crowd control. The crows home in on the closest targets while Ator's tracking orbs seek out additional enemies, covering a wide area around the player. Against packs of enemies, the combined projectiles can stagger and chip down multiple targets at once, letting the player focus on landing Forward Slash chains without being overwhelmed.

Both the crows and the orbs track teleporting enemies. If an enemy blinks or dashes away during your combo, both sets of projectiles will pursue them and land regardless. This double-tracking effect is what makes the combination so reliable in fights against mobile bosses and elite enemies.

To set up this build, equip Darkbringer (which comes with Ator's Orb built in) and slot Crow's Pursuit into one of the weapon's Abyss Core slots. Since Darkbringer has five Abyss Core slots total, you still have room to add Destruction or Insight cores alongside this pairing for even more damage or survivability.

Crow's Pursuit + Nature's Echo

The Nature's Echo skill from the green skill tree duplicates your heavy attacks. Because Crow's Pursuit triggers on every heavy attack, Nature's Echo effectively doubles the number of crow volleys you produce. This turns an already strong passive damage source into a constant barrage of homing projectiles.

Volcanic Mage Build

In the Volcanic Mage build, players combine Crow's Pursuit with Ator's Orb and fire-based Abyss Cores like Volcanic Eruption to create a loadout focused on supplementary projectile damage. The idea is that every melee swing triggers multiple passive effects (crows, orbs, and fire blasts), turning each attack into a multi-layered burst. The crows and orbs handle single targets and crowd control, while fire-based effects deal area damage.

Ranged Heavy Attack Effect

Crow's Pursuit is widely considered one of the best effect-adding Abyss Gears in the game because it effectively turns your heavy attack into a ranged attack. The spectral crows home in on enemies with aggressive tracking, making it possible to take out aerial enemies simply by swinging your sword on the ground. This makes the gear especially valuable for crowd control and for dealing with flying targets that would otherwise require a bow.

Stamina and Spirit Cost Warning

An important consideration when using Crow's Pursuit is stamina and spirit consumption. The more effect-adding gears you stack on a weapon (for example, combining Crow's Pursuit with Greatsword Howling and other active gears), the higher your stamina and spirit costs become per swing. Overstacking effect gears results in paying more resources for proportionally less damage. A better approach is to balance one or two effect gears with stat-boosting gears that provide crit rate, raw attack, or attack speed.

Recommended Darkbringer Build

The strongest pairing for Crow's Pursuit is the Darkbringer greatsword. Darkbringer's innate crit rate synergy complements the constant crow volleys, since each crow hit can independently crit. A solid loadout on the Darkbringer uses Crow's Pursuit for the ranged heavy attack effect, Greatsword Howling for a free second Turning Slash swing, and two Destruction 3 gears for a flat +6 attack damage bonus. This combination balances effect utility with raw stat gains, avoiding the diminishing returns of stacking too many active effects.

Comparison with Other Offensive Abyss Cores

Among offensive Abyss Cores, Crow's Pursuit stands out for its homing behavior. Unlike Momentum, which only boosts a single skill's damage, Crow's Pursuit adds a whole new damage layer on top of your existing attacks. Every heavy attack produces crows that independently seek targets, which means you get value from the core even when your melee swings miss. Ator's Orb works on a similar principle but triggers on Forward Slash instead of heavy attacks, which is why the two pair so well together.

Source Summary

Crow's Pursuit drops from Crowcaller, the boss fight that closes out Chapter 5 of the main story. Video guides that transcribe the boss name as "Cruelcaller" are referring to the same encounter; the drop, the chapter, and the weapon it ships on (Tauria Curved Sword) are all identical. There is no alternative source for this abyss gear, so beating Crowcaller during a normal Chapter 5 playthrough is the only way to add Crow's Pursuit to your collection.

Role in the Boss-Slayer Finisher Stack

Crow's Pursuit is one of the five canonical weapon-socketed abyss gears recommended for a crit-maxed two-handed boss-slayer build. The full stack pairs Crow's Pursuit with Graysaw Howling, Frostbite, Shadow Claw, and Relentless. These five abyss gears are treated as must-use finishers on the main weapon of a two-handed setup because every one of them adds a distinct damage rider that triggers off normal heavy attacks, which stacks cleanly with the crit ceiling on bows and two-handed weapons. For the full recommended gearing order, defense checklist, and spirit food loop that keeps the rotation running, see the Boss Slayer Build Guide.

In practice, Crow's Pursuit earns its slot by adding a reliable spectral crow volley to every heavy swing, which gives the build a second source of homing area damage even when the player is repositioning to avoid a tell. Because the crows home in on the nearest target, the abyss gear keeps dealing damage during the turning slash recovery window, effectively turning the finisher animation into another hit confirm without costing an additional socket elsewhere.

Tips

• The crow projectiles can hit multiple enemies clustered together, making it strong against packs.

• Crows track teleporting and fast-moving enemies. If a boss dashes away, the crows will follow and land their damage regardless.

• Combine with Destruction cores on your other gear for maximum offensive pressure.

• Crow's Pursuit is one of the rarer Abyss Cores; hold onto it even if you are not currently using melee weapons.

• Spam heavy attacks (RT) to generate a constant stream of crows. Pair with Nature's Echo to double the output.

• Watch your stamina. Heavy attacks plus Crow's Pursuit consumption can drain your bar fast. Bring stamina-restoring food.

• For a Forward Slash-focused build, equip Crow's Pursuit alongside Darkbringer's Ator's Orb to trigger both projectile effects on every forward attack.

See Also

• Abyss Core - Overview of the Abyss Core system

• Abyss Cores - Complete list of all Abyss Cores

• Tauria Curved Sword - Default weapon that carries Crow's Pursuit

• Crowcaller - Boss fight where the Tauria Curved Sword drops

• Ator's Orb - Tracking orb Abyss Core, synergizes with Crow's Pursuit

• Darkbringer - Two-handed sword with Ator's Orb built in

• Forward Slash - Melee attack that triggers both Crow's Pursuit and Ator's Orb projectiles

• Best Abyss Cores - Tier list and recommendations

• Stamina - Resource consumed by heavy attacks and Crow's Pursuit

Community Tier List Rating: Crow's Pursuit

A community ranking video titled All Abyss Gears Tier List (Best to Worst Ranked) scores every Abyss Gear out of 30 across three categories: damage, usability, and utility. Each category is worth 10 points, and the totals are bucketed so that 25 to 30 is S tier, 20 to 24 is A tier, 15 to 19 is B tier, 10 to 14 is C tier, 5 to 9 is D tier, and anything below that lands in F tier. Treat the numbers below as one experienced player's testing rather than a hard rulebook, but the overall ranking lines up with what most Best Abyss Gears Guide tier lists are converging on.

• Overall Score: 23/30

• Damage: 7/10

• Usability: 8/10

• Utility: 8/10

• Community Tier: A Tier

A tier covers gears that perform well in almost every build. They are not quite the standout picks of the whole list, but they pull their weight and rarely feel like dead slots.

Tracking crows make this one of the best ranged heavy-attack gears. Damage is similar to Ator's Orb on a per-hit basis, but the tracking makes the gear noticeably more reliable at distance than the orb-style alternatives.

Proc Reminder: Heavy attack proc. The crows track the target after release, which is what gives this gear its range advantage.

Crow's Pursuit pairs naturally with builds that already lean into ranged heavy hits. Compared to Ator's Orb, Pursuit trades raw spam for projectile tracking. Compared to Shadow Claw, Pursuit gives up some damage in exchange for usable range. All three sit in A tier on the community list, so the right pick depends on whether you value tracking, spam frequency, or pure damage.