Overview
A Gold Bar is a miscellaneous item in Crimson Desert. Described in-game as a heavy bar of gold refined by a skilled blacksmith, it is one of the rarest metals and a concentrated store of wealth. Gold bars are the single most valuable common item in the early game and serve as a bridge between exploration loot and large silver payouts.
Gold bars can be exchanged at any bank in Pywel for 500 silver each. Selling them to a regular vendor yields only about 190 silver, less than half the bank rate. Always exchange gold bars at the bank for the best return.
Value Comparison
Exchange Method | Value per Gold Bar |
|---|---|
500 Silver | |
Vendor / Merchant | ~190 Silver |
The bank rate is nearly three times the vendor rate. There is no reason to sell gold bars to merchants unless you are in a remote area with no bank access and need silver immediately.
How to Obtain
Gold bars can be acquired through several methods across the game. The earliest and most accessible source is the Lion Crest Manor fireplace in Hernand.
Lion Crest Manor Fireplace
The first gold bar most players find is hidden beneath the fireplace on the ground floor of Lion Crest Manor. To retrieve it, Kliff must be wearing a Mask. With the Mask equipped, interact with the lit fireplace to extinguish the flames, then interact a second time to reach inside and pull out the gold bar. This gold bar respawns every three days, making it a renewable source of early income.
To steal the gold bar, enter the manor (you may need quest access or you can try sneaking in at night). Shut off the fireplace first, then equip your mask and take the gold bar. Make sure no one sees you, or you will be reported. The gold bar regenerates over time, making this a repeatable source.
The gold bar from the Lion Crest Manor fireplace regenerates over time, so you can return periodically to steal it again. This makes it a repeatable source of gold bars rather than a one-time find.
Other Sources
Manor raids: Other manors throughout Hernand contain gold bars and valuable items in strongboxes and hidden compartments. The Bluemont Manor and hillside manors are all worth raiding.
Alchemy: Gold bars can be crafted using the Alchemy Formula: Gold Bar recipe once discovered.
Quest rewards: Some faction quests and bounties reward gold bars upon completion.
Exploration: Treasure chests in dungeons, ruins, and hidden areas occasionally contain gold bars.
For a complete list of every known gold bar location, see the All Gold Bar Locations article.
Bank Vault Back Room
At the Hernand bank, there is a locked door behind the counter that leads to the vault's back room. Open it with the appropriate key and you will find paintings, vases, and strongboxes that can all be looted. This is one of the richest single rooms in the game and can yield multiple gold bars' worth of valuables in a single visit.
Demeniss Wildlife Park Pickpocketing
The Demeniss Wildlife Park is home to wealthy nobles who sometimes carry gold bars. Use a lantern or drawn sword to inspect their pockets. Gold bars can appear as a second or third item in the pickpocket list, so they are not always visible on the first inspection. After a recent patch, gold bar frequency was lowered and they can be buried deeper in NPC pocket lists.
Fast travel to a nearby Abyss Nexus to reset NPC inventories and try again. This method pairs well with combat farming at the same location (see the Abyss Artifacts Farming Guide for details on the Wildlife Park combat loop).
Use a lantern or hold your sword to scan the nobles walking through the park. The silhouette overlay reveals what items they are carrying. After a recent patch, gold bars may appear as the second or third item buried in a noble's pocket rather than always being the first. This means you may need to pickpocket someone multiple times or check several NPCs before finding a gold bar. Teleport to a nearby Abyss Nexus and return to reset who is present at the park.
Demeniss Wildlife Park Combat Farming
Beyond pickpocketing, the Demeniss Wildlife Park also supports an active combat farming method that yields gold bars, copper pouches, and jewelry alongside massive XP gains. This method requires a thieving mask and a bow loaded with explosive arrows or the Volcanic Eruption ability.
Teleport to the Abyss Nexus below the main town at the Demeniss Wildlife Park. When you arrive at the gate, jump over it rather than opening it. Opening the gate breaks the farm by alerting guards prematurely. Land on the walkway inside and equip your mask.
From the walkway, fire explosive arrows or use Volcanic Eruption on the groups of nobles gathered at the back and right side of the park. The explosions cause them to mass up and panic. Once they cluster together, switch to a two-handed weapon or continue with the bow to deal area damage. The nobles themselves give decent XP, but the real payoff comes from the guards that arrive in response.
Eight guards spawn initially, and they provide massive XP. The guard captain in particular is worth roughly 30% of a full XP bar in a single kill. After clearing the first wave, you can stay and wait for additional guards to keep arriving, which means more abyss artifacts from XP bar completions.
Your dog companion will automatically loot fallen nobles, collecting copper pouches, gold bars, and jewelry. When you are finished, run out of the wanted area and teleport south of Demeniss. Visit the nearest church to clear your bounty for approximately 100 silver. Then teleport back to the park and repeat the loop, since all NPCs respawn after using a teleporter.
This combat method can be combined with pickpocketing in the same run. A single NPC can drop anywhere from 1 to 4 gold bars in one pickpocket, and the park has over 100 NPCs per instance. After a recent patch, you may need multiple stealing attempts per NPC to find gold bars, since they can be buried deeper in the pocket list. Work through every NPC systematically, going floor by floor from top to bottom. After a full run, NPCs respawn without needing to teleport, or you can use the teleporter for a faster reset.
Witch Alchemy: Golden Apple Recipe
At any Witch hideout, open the Craft Abyss menu and navigate to the last tab. There you will see the Gold Bar listed among the craftable alchemy items. The cheapest recipe consumes 1 Golden Apple and 3 Gold Ore to produce 1 Gold Bar. This is the most material-efficient recipe, but Golden Apples are the bottleneck since they only drop from hedgehog creatures at specific locations such as the Grey Rock Dock area northwest of Demeniss.
If you already have a stock of Gold Ore and you can farm Golden Apples at the Grey Rock Dock, this recipe is roughly as fast as the pickpocket farm for Gold Bars. You need the Alchemy Formula: Gold Bar learned before the craft option appears in the Craft Abyss menu.
Banking and Investment
Beyond simply converting gold bars to silver, the Bank in Hernand offers investment options that allow your silver to grow passively over time. Once you have accumulated enough silver from exchanging gold bars and other income sources, you can invest in gold bars at the bank. The invested silver generates returns based on the risk tier you select (Low-Risk, Medium-Risk, or High-Risk).
To invest gold bars, take them to the bank in Hernand. Register a strong box first, then select the invest option. The high-risk investment takes 2 in-game days to complete and can return up to 55% profit on your deposit. For maximum returns, save your game before the investment payout timer completes; if the result is poor, reload and try again. This lets you guarantee near-maximum returns on every investment cycle.
The standard exchange rate at any bank is 500 silver per gold bar. Always use the bank rather than selling to regular vendors, which yield only about 190 silver per bar.
Building up a gold bar income stream early in the game, particularly through the repeatable Lion Crest Manor fireplace, funds equipment upgrades at the Smithy and purchases from the Hernand Contribution Shop. Combining gold bar farming with your normal quest income can put you significantly ahead on gear upgrades during the first few chapters.
For a full breakdown of silver earning methods, see the Silver and Gold Farming guide.
Caution: Bank Deposit Reports
Players have reported that gold bars can occasionally go missing from the bank after being deposited, and that the bank may enforce a hidden cap on stored gold bars. Until Pearl Abyss clarifies or patches this behavior, treat the bank as a place to exchange gold bars for silver rather than a long-term storage vault. Convert each Gold Bar to 500 silver on arrival and spend the silver on upgrades, investments, or shop purchases instead of stockpiling raw bars.
If you do plan to invest gold bars directly through the bank's passive income system, deposit a small test amount first, fast travel away, and confirm the balance still reflects your deposit before committing a large stockpile.
You can convert 500 silver to 1 gold bar at any bank and vice versa. Any noble anywhere in the world has a chance to carry gold bars, making pickpocketing a universally viable method for finding them in towns, castles, and manors.
Best Farming Loop: Golden Apple Hedgehog to Gold Bar
The fastest repeatable way to produce Gold Bars is the Golden Apple Hedgehog farm at the Golden Field near Tinkerton, between Deinis and Hernand. The bottom-right corner of the middle field above Tinkerton (marked by a slanted water tank) has a cluster of three bushes that spawns up to 20 animals at a time, including a rare Golden Apple Hedgehog variant that drops a Golden Apple on kill. Running about 10 feet away and back instantly resets the spawn.
Recipe Reminder
Each Gold Bar costs 1 Golden Apple + 3 Gold Ore, crafted at any Witch vendor once you have picked up the Alchemy Formula: Gold Bar from its cave chest. Gold ore is the throughput bottleneck, so stockpile it between apple runs. A bonus-yield Pickaxe noticeably increases the ore per node and is worth chasing before scaling the farm.
Bank Sale vs Vendor Sale
Regular NPC vendors pay only 190 silver for a Gold Bar. Any Bank in any town buys the same bar for 500 silver. Always sell gold bars at the bank, or invest them through the bank menu for passive long-term returns. Selling a full inventory of gold bars to a regular vendor leaves more than half of the silver on the table.
Theft Warning
Picking up the Golden Apple dropped by the hedgehog is classified as stealing. A Mask is required to prevent reputation loss, since NPC farmers work the Golden Field. Any back-alley vendor sells one, with the back-alley vendor in Hernand being the closest to the farm.
Golden Apple Farming Method
The fastest way to acquire Gold Bars is to farm Golden Apples from golden hedgehogs, then combine each apple with 3 Gold Ore at any witch vendor to craft a Gold Bar.
Farming Location
The recommended farming spot is the Gray Rock Dock area, located just above Demeniss near the Hills of No Return. Liberate the area first by clearing all enemies. The specific spot is at the corner of a house with a pumpkin patch nearby.
Method
Run a loop around the house to force animal spawns to reset. The animals that appear include rats, porcupines, and raccoons. Roughly 1 in 5 spawn cycles produces a golden hedgehog. When a golden hedgehog appears, shoot it with a bow (alternatively, pick it up and drop it, then shoot it). The hedgehog drops a Golden Apple upon death.
A mask is required for this method. Picking up the Golden Apple is classified as stealing, which triggers a red ring alert around the player. Purchase a mask from a vendor in Hernand or loot one from bandits. After picking up the apple, run out of the immediate area to clear the stealing indicator.
At a steady pace, this method yields approximately one Golden Apple every two minutes. If animal spawns stop appearing, try despawning your pet or companion dog, as they can interfere with the spawn cycle.
Gold Bar Recipe Location
The recipe for crafting Gold Bars can be found in a cave. There are two cave locations that contain the recipe; one is accessed from a spire and the other from a more accessible ground-level cave entrance.
Witches Hideout in Pell Luin
One confirmed location for the Gold Bar formula is the Witches Hideout in Pell Luin. From the nearest Abyss Nexus in Pell Luin, travel to the Witches Hideout entrance. Once inside, take a right and go behind the desk. The bookshelf against the wall contains the Gold Bar formula. Picking it up teaches you the recipe permanently, allowing you to craft Gold Bars at any Witch NPC on the map.
Snake Tail War Golden Apple Source
One of the fastest ways to gather Golden Apples for the crafting recipe is the hedgehog farm at Snake Tail War near Tinkertown. Use your Focus Light on hedgehogs in the area to make them drop Golden Apples, then equip a Fist Mask to steal the dropped apples. The entire area is a friendly zone with no hostile enemies, making it safe to run farming circuits. For Gold Ore, the mine at Ironwood has an Abyss Nexus right next to it for fast travel access, with a diamond mine also nearby. Gold ore at Ironwood respawns every 7 in-game days.
Crafting at the Witch
To craft Gold Bars, speak to any Witch NPC and select Craft Abyss Gear, then navigate to the Special Items tab. The recipe uses 1 Golden Apple + Gold Ore to produce 1 Gold Bar. Each crafted bar is worth 500 silver at the Bank versus only 190 silver at regular merchants. Selling raw Golden Apples to vendors yields about 114 silver each, so crafting them into Gold Bars is always the better option when you have the ore to spare.
Gold Ore Sources
There are 10 gold mining spots distributed across the entire world map. Use Bernor's Pickaxe or the Mining Knuckle Drill to harvest gold ore from these nodes.
Uses for Gold Bars
Sold for a high price to accumulate silver quickly.
Gifted to NPC vendors for an instant 100 NPC Trust. Some vendors offer exclusive items at 100 trust that are unavailable at lower trust levels, making Gold Bars one of the most efficient trust-building items in the game.
Tips
Always exchange gold bars at a bank, never at a vendor. The bank pays 500 silver versus roughly 190 silver from merchants.
The Lion Crest Manor fireplace gold bar respawns every three days. Revisit periodically for easy income.
A Mask is required to steal the gold bar from the fireplace. Masks can be purchased from the back alley merchant for 10 coins.
After you have accumulated extra silver, invest at the bank for passive returns.
See Also
Three Main Gold Bar Uses
Once a Gold Bar is in the bag, there are three well-documented ways to spend it. Pick the one that matches your current goal rather than defaulting to an instant silver sale, because the other two options can produce more long-term value:
Bank exchange: Hand it to any bank clerk for a flat 500 silver per bar. This is the simplest cash-out and the best rate any ordinary vendor will ever give you.
Invest for passive income: The same bank clerks let you invest Gold Bars for a regular payout. Steady investors end up earning more silver long-term than one-shot sales because the investment compounds across every deposit cycle.
Gift to an NPC merchant: Handing a Gold Bar to an eligible merchant as a gift instantly grants +100 trust with that NPC, bypassing weeks of normal relationship grinding. This is invaluable for unlocking merchant-gated shops, quests, and discount thresholds.
Three Best Spots for Apples (DP Gen Loop)
To produce Gold Bars in volume you need a steady supply of Golden Apples. The DP Gen farming circuit covers three spots, listed best to worst:
North of Pailune, past Spire of Solitude and Tshira Tree: The bush patch next to the road spawns hedgehogs in huge density when the weather is clear. By far the best overall.
Trentin middle field, near the Serendian Watchtower: Walk through the flax bush cluster in the bottom corner of the middle field. Watch for NPC guards, who will dock contribution if they see you running off with a Golden Apple.
Grey Rock Dock pumpkin patch: Under the V in the road, next to the house. Walk the corner, pick up, step back to reset. Liberate the choir first if this is your first visit.
Weather and Necklace Setup
Every farm spot above is weather gated. Rain causes golden apple hedgehog spawns to drop to near zero. Equip the Radiant Necklace before arriving and use it to force clear sunshine if the sky turns. Missing hedgehogs are almost always a weather problem, not a spot problem.
Recommended Apple Harvest Gear
Two gear items turn these spots into an efficient Gold Bar assembly line:
Mask: Golden Apples are flagged as stolen on pickup, which normally costs contribution. Wearing a Mask hides your identity. Buy one at any Back Alley Shop or loot a bandit body.
Infinite Poison Arrow Setup: Pair Rampaging Infinite Arrows with Poison Arrow ammunition. A hit in the vicinity of a hedgehog is enough for the apple to drop, even if the shot misses the body. Fast-moving rodents rarely escape.
Quick Recipe Reference
For players who skip straight to the crafting step, the confirmed recipe from the video is 1 Golden Apple + 3 Gold Ore = 1 Gold Bar, crafted at any witch vendor on the world map once the recipe is learned. The witch hideout in Pell Luin is the standard unlock point early on.