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Healing Guide
May 1, 2026 at 10:35 AM
Merged content from retired article (how-to-heal); +1154 words
Crimson Desert does not feature traditional healing potions. Instead, healing revolves around food, with a system that allows you to eat during combat with roughly a two-second cooldown between bites. This means you can sustain yourself through difficult fights by rapidly consuming stacked food items while attacking. Understanding what to cook, where to find ingredients, and how to manage your healing supply is essential for surviving the game's tougher encounters.
Crimson Desert does not use traditional health potions. Instead, healing comes from eating food, using the Healing Force Palm skill, crafting Palmar Pills, or sleeping at a bed. Boss fights in particular turn into wars of attrition where you will take damage no matter how well you dodge. Keeping a large stock of food is the single most important thing you can do to stay alive.
Press Left on the D-Pad (controller) or the assigned hotbar key (keyboard) to consume a food item during combat. There is practically zero cooldown between eating, meaning you can tank through incoming damage by healing while you attack. If your healing item disappears from your hotbar, hold Right on the D-Pad and use the Left Stick to reassign it.
Your character cannot gain weight from eating, so there is no penalty for consuming large quantities of food. The only limiting factor is how many food items you carry in your inventory.
Cooked food in Crimson Desert comes in four quality tiers. Higher tiers restore more HP and may grant additional buffs, but they require more or rarer ingredients:
Quality Tier | HP Restoration Range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
Modest | 60-80 HP | Basic items that require minimal ingredients. Ideal for early-game bulk cooking. |
Basic | 100-140 HP | Moderate healing with slightly more complex ingredient lists. |
Filling | 180-280 HP | Strong healing items that often grant resistance buffs. Good for mid-game. |
Hearty | 280-540 HP | Top-tier meals with large HP restoration and Spirit bonuses. Best for late-game boss fights. |
The following table lists the most important recovery items and cooking recipes:
Food Item | HP Restored | Ingredients | Additional Effects | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
80 | None | 1 Raw Meat | None. Cheapest and most efficient early-game option. | |
60 | None | None | ||
100 | None | 1 Fish | None | |
60 | None | 1 Egg | None | |
None | +4 to +16 Spirit | 1 Fruit | Spirit restoration only | |
None | +4 to +16 Spirit | 1 Vegetable | Spirit restoration only | |
60-180 | None | 1 Grain | None | |
100-280 | None | 1 Grain, 1 Egg, Cooking Oil | Fire Resistance Lv 2 (30s) | |
100 | +8 Spirit | Fire Resistance Lv 2 (30s) | ||
100 | None | 1 Fish, 1 Egg, 3 Cooking Oil | Fire Resistance Lv 2 | |
140 | None | None | ||
Moderate | Meat, Vegetables | Restores both HP and Spirit. Recommended mid-game staple. | ||
240 | None | Ice Resistance Lv 4 (1 min) | ||
120 | None | 1 Meat, 1 Fish | None | |
260 | +24 Spirit | 2 Fish, 2 Onion, 2 Egg, 3 Cooking Oil | Fire Resistance Lv 4 (1 min) | |
280 | +26 Spirit | 2 Northern Pike, 1 Shineberry, 2 Barley, 3 Water | None | |
340 | None | Ice Resistance Lv 4 (1 min) | ||
Clear Soup (variants) | 180-420 | None | Various | Ice Resistance Lv 2 (5 min) |
Fish Porridge (Hearty) | 540 | None | Premium ingredients | Ice Resistance Lv 5 (10 min). Best healing food in the game. |
220 | None | 10 Raw Meat | None. Less efficient per resource than basic Grilled Meat. | |
None | +64 Stamina | Ice Resistance Lv 1 (3 min). Requires Cauldron. |
Food can be cooked by interacting with bonfires and cooking pots found throughout the world. You do not need to discover recipes beforehand; as long as you have the required ingredients, you can use the Improvise option at any bonfire to create dishes. Key cooking locations include:
Hernand Butcher Stand: The meat vendor (a green goblin woman) is located on the southwest edge of Hernand town. A cooking pot sits immediately to her right.
Greymane Camp: Your Greymane Camp has cooking facilities that become more versatile as you upgrade the camp.
Field Bonfires: Scattered throughout the open world, these allow basic cooking while exploring.
All raw meat types produce identical results when cooked. Tough Meat, Lean Meat, Fine Meat, Marbled Meat, and Tender Meat all yield the same Grilled Meat with the same 80 HP restoration. Always buy the cheapest option to maximize your healing supply.
The Hernand meat vendor stocks a rotating supply of raw meat each day. Her inventory refreshes every in-game night at midnight (0:00). Available stock includes: 10 Lean Meat, 9 Fine Meat, 6 Tender Meat, 7 Marbled Meat, 12 Tough Meat, 10 Bird Meat, and 15 Lean Bird Meat. You can rest for 12 hours to speed up the restock cycle.
Riding through woodlands and attacking groups of deer is one of the fastest ways to stockpile meat for free. A single pack of deer (5 or more animals) typically yields 3 to 4 meat per deer, netting you roughly 20 pieces of raw meat per location. Wooded areas like the Witchwoods are ideal hunting grounds.
Defeated enemies sometimes drop food items or cooking ingredients.
Fruit-bearing trees can be felled for fruit, though this is slower than buying or hunting.
Chapter 7 unlocks a second meat vendor in Pailune.
Palmar Pills are a special recovery item that function as a self-revive mechanic. If you have a Palmar Pill in your inventory when you die, you can trigger an instant revive. Your character stands back up in the middle of combat with 30% of your total health restored.
Palmar Pills function as an automatic revive. When Kliff's HP drops to zero, a Palmar Pill activates and restores 30% of maximum HP, letting you continue the fight without reloading a save.
Once you obtain the Palmar Pill recipe, you can craft them at any Cauldron. The ingredients are simple: 2 units of Water and 15 of any single herb variety (such as Rosemary, Lavender, Peony, or Red Croton). All 15 must be the same type. There are 31 compatible herbs in total, so you can use whichever you have the most of.
The Palmar Pill recipe is found in Shadow's Whisper Cave, located in the north of the Hernand region. Enter the cave and look for the recipe on a table inside.
Later in the game, you can find the Refined Palmar Pill recipe. This upgraded variant revives your character and fully restores their HP instead of only 30%.
Force Palm is primarily a combat and puzzle ability, but it has a hidden healing function. While holding R3 (PS5), Right Stick (Xbox), or Mouse Wheel (PC) to aim Force Palm, press L3 (Left Stick) to convert it into a Healing Palm. This variant restores your horse's health, which is useful when your mount takes damage during mounted combat or travel.
Force Palm requires Spirit to use. You can recharge Spirit by holding L3+R3 simultaneously (controller) or pressing X on keyboard. The Healing Palm variant consumes the same Spirit cost as a standard Force Palm.
For boss encounters from Chapter 5 onward, bring at least 100 Grilled Meat or equivalent healing items. Boss fights in the late game are extended encounters where sustained healing is the difference between victory and defeat. Combining food healing with Palmar Pills as a safety net ensures you can survive even the longest battles.
Grilled Meat (80 HP, 1 Meat) is more efficient per resource than Hearty Grilled Meat (220 HP, 10 Meat). Ten Grilled Meats restore 800 HP total versus 220 HP from one Hearty variant.
Meat Skewers are the recommended mid-game staple because they restore both Health and Spirit, combining two recovery needs into one item.
Always carry a mix of HP food and Spirit food. Spirit is needed for skills and Force Palm, while HP keeps you alive.
Cook in bulk using the 'Make Maximum' option at cooking pots. This saves time and ensures your inventory is stocked before heading into dangerous territory.
Keep at least 2 to 3 Palmar Pills in your inventory at all times for emergency revives during unexpected encounters.
Eating food is your main source of HP recovery during combat and exploration. You can consume food every 2 seconds, even while performing attack animations, which makes it possible to sustain yourself through long fights as long as your supply holds out.
Open the quick menu by holding Right D-Pad on controller (or the corresponding key on PC).
Select a food item to equip it to your quick slot. The equipped food appears near your mini-map.
Press Right D-Pad (or the quick-use key) to consume the food and restore HP.
You can eat raw food without any debuff, but cooked food restores significantly more HP per serving. Always cook your ingredients when possible.
Press and hold R3 / Right Stick (or Mouse Wheel on PC) to charge Force Palm.
While charging, press L3 / Left Stick (or Tab on PC) to switch to Healing Force Palm.
Aim at the target you want to heal and release to deliver the healing energy.
This skill can heal both Kliff and his horse. It is the most reliable way to restore your mount's health during long rides or after combat encounters without needing to carry hay or visit a stablehand.
Item | HP Restored | Ingredients | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
80 HP | 1 Raw Meat | Best efficiency. 10 meat = 800 total HP across 10 servings | |
220 HP | 10 Raw Meat | Less efficient per unit of meat than standard Grilled Meat | |
Raw Meat (uncooked) | 40 HP | N/A | Half the healing of Grilled Meat; cook it whenever possible |
Standard Grilled Meat is the best all-around healing item. Ten raw meat cooked into ten Grilled Meat portions gives you 800 total HP, while the same ten meat turned into one Hearty Grilled Meat gives only 220 HP. Always choose quantity over quality unless you specifically need the single-slot convenience.
Meat vendor in Hernand: A goblin merchant on the southwest edge of Hernand town sells several types of raw meat. There is a cooking pot directly to her right, so you can buy and cook in one stop. The vendor restocks overnight at 0:00 in-game time. Sleep for 12 hours at a nearby bed to accelerate the restock.
Hunting animals: Ride through forested areas and attack groups of deer or other wildlife. A group of five deer typically yields 3 to 4 meat each, giving you around 15 to 20 meat per encounter.
Enemy drops: Some enemies drop raw meat or other food ingredients when defeated.
Fruit from trees: Felling certain trees drops fruit that can be eaten for small HP recovery.
Pailune vendor: A secondary meat vendor becomes available in Pailune during Chapter 7.
You can cook at campfires and cooking cauldrons found throughout settlements and the open world. Approach a cooking station, open the cooking menu, select a recipe, and choose the quantity. More complex dishes provide better benefits, but for raw healing throughput, standard Grilled Meat is hard to beat.
Recipes appear as small scroll icons on the map and can also be purchased from merchants or found on shelves in buildings. Collecting recipes early gives you more cooking options as you progress.
Healing Force Palm is a skill in Kliff's Spirit Skill Tree that converts the standard Force Palm attack into a healing ability.
Upgrade the base Force Palm skill to Level 1. Doing so automatically unlocks Healing Force Palm. The skill costs 1 Abyss Artifact to acquire and 5 Spirit to use.
Level | Skill | Effect |
|---|---|---|
Base | Launches a palm strike that deals Spirit damage | |
Level 1 | Healing Force Palm | Converts Force Palm charge into healing energy |
Level 1 | Aerial Force Palm | Enables Force Palm use in midair; can chain 3 times for vertical traversal |
Level 2 | Force Palm Proficiency | Increases Force Palm damage and efficiency |
Level 3 | Force Palm Expertise | Further upgrades to Force Palm power and range |
Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
2 | |
Medicinal Herbs | 15 |
The Palmar Pill recipe is found inside Shadow's Whisper Cave, located on the western shoreline of Three Saints Falls, below the bridge leading from Hernand. Medicinal Herbs are common wild plants and flowers that can be picked throughout the open world.
Sleeping at a bed fully restores Kliff's HP. You only need to sleep for 3 in-game hours to heal completely, making this the most time-efficient recovery method when you are near a bed.
Royal Trading Post: North of Hernand City. Kliff's tent contains a usable bed.
Greymane Camp: Southeast of the starting area. Beds are available in both a tent and Kliff's home within the camp.
Additional beds become available in inns and safe houses as you progress through the story.
Your mount has its own HP bar that depletes when hit during mounted combat or environmental hazards. There are three ways to heal your horse:
Healing Force Palm: The most convenient method. Aim the healing variant of Force Palm at your horse to restore its health. See the Force Palm section above for controls.
Feeding hay: Carry hay in your inventory and use it while riding to restore horse HP.
Stablehand: Visit a stablehand NPC who can fully heal your horse, though this may cost trade goods.
Carry at least 100 Grilled Meat before any boss fight. For the hardest encounters in Chapter 5 and beyond, bring 200 or more.
Since you can eat every 2 seconds during combat, Grilled Meat (80 HP each) provides 40 HP per second of sustained healing. That adds up fast over a long fight.
You can eat food during attack animations. There is no need to stop fighting to heal.
Cook your food before fights. Raw meat restores only 40 HP compared to 80 HP for Grilled Meat.
Always carry a few Palmar Pills as insurance. The 30% max HP revive can save a 10-minute boss attempt.
Between fights, sleep at the nearest bed instead of eating through your food supply. Sleeping costs nothing and heals to full in 3 hours.
Pick up every Medicinal Herb you pass in the open world. You will want a steady supply for Palmar Pill crafting.
