Health
Health is the primary survivability stat in Crimson Desert, determining how much damage a character can absorb before being defeated.
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Health is the primary survivability stat in Crimson Desert. It determines the total amount of damage a character can take before being defeated. The Health bar is displayed as a red gauge at the bottom-left corner of the screen near the minimap. When Health reaches zero, the character dies and must respawn at the nearest checkpoint or campsite.
Health upgrades are shared across all three playable characters (Kliff, Oongka, and Damiane). Investing in Health once applies the same bonus regardless of which character you control.
Health is upgraded through the skill tree by spending Abyss Artifacts on the red dial (marked with a cube icon) at the right edge of the tree. The stat can be raised up to Level 18, making it the highest-cap primary stat in the game.
Level Range | Abyss Artifacts per Level | Additional Cost |
|---|---|---|
1 to 2 | 1 | None |
3 to 4 | 2 | None |
5 to 7 | 3 | None |
8 to 11 | 4 | None |
12 to 18 | 4 | 5 Abyss Cells per level |
Reaching Health Level 4 early in the game is a common benchmark because it provides enough survivability to handle the first major boss encounters. After that, players typically alternate between Health and Stamina upgrades depending on how often they take hits.
Health does not regenerate passively on its own. The primary way to restore it is through food. Cooked meals provide significantly more healing than raw ingredients. Grilled Meat, for example, restores roughly 80 Health per use. You can eat food freely during combat with no cooldown, which makes carrying a large supply (100+ servings) recommended before boss fights.
Other healing sources include:
Campfires: Resting at a campfire fully restores Health.
Breath of Life core: The Breath of Life Abyss Core grants +1.0 Health recovery per second when equipped.
Vitality core: Provides +0.2 Health recovery per second. Weaker than Breath of Life but can stack alongside it.
Well-Fed buff: Eating a cooked meal at a campfire grants the Well-Fed buff, which increases maximum Health and Stamina regeneration for 30 minutes.
Armor does not directly increase your Health pool, but heavier armor reduces the damage each hit deals, effectively stretching your Health further. Refining armor at a Blacksmith raises its Defense value, which further reduces incoming damage.
Abyss Cores focused on Damage Reduction (such as Aegis and Wall of Steel) also make your Health pool last longer by reducing how much damage you take per hit. Stacking these alongside Health upgrades is an effective survivability strategy for difficult content.
Health Level 4 is a safe early target. It takes relatively few Abyss Artifacts and keeps you alive through the first story bosses.
Food is your lifeline. Cook meals at campfires before leaving camp and keep your inventory stocked.
The Breath of Life Abyss Core turns Health from a consumable resource into something that trickles back between fights, reducing your reliance on food outside of bosses.
Since Health upgrades are shared across all characters, investing early benefits every playable character equally.