Overview
The Health Detection Device is a Boss-grade Plate Armor headgear piece in Crimson Desert. It is a scouting helm integrated with unknown technology. The lenses allow the wearer to see through a target's state, displaying the health of nearby enemies. When equipped and activated, health bars appear above all enemies in range, along with the exact damage dealt by each of your attacks.
This is one of the most useful utility items in the game for players who want precise information during combat. Knowing exactly how much health a boss has left and how much damage each hit deals makes it far easier to plan when to commit, when to heal, and when to switch targets.
Stats
Stat | Value |
|---|---|
Grade | |
Armor Type | |
Slot | |
6 | |
Price | 3,869 Silver |
Location
The Health Detection Device is found at Marni's Laboratorium in eastern Delesyia. The Laboratorium can be accessed from the waypoint right next to it at any stage of the game.
Inside the Laboratorium, head down the side corridor (not the main hall). Follow the tunnel past a teleporter until you reach the end of the corridor. The helmet is located near a glowing machine at the very end of this path.
How to Use
Equip the Health Detection Device in your headgear slot.
Open the imbument/function wheel and assign it to the right side.
Toggle the visor up or down using L2+R2. When the visor is down, the detection function is active.
With the visor active, health bars appear above all nearby enemies and damage numbers display with each hit.
Hood Trick
One common concern with the Health Detection Device is that it looks bulky and can clash with your character's visual style. However, there is a simple workaround: equip a hood over the helmet. The hood covers the device entirely, so your character still looks cool while the health bar overlay remains fully active. The cloak hood found in a village near Demeniss is a popular choice for this trick, and it can even be dyed to match the rest of your outfit.
Why the Health Detection Device is a Game-Changer
Seeing actual damage numbers on every attack changes how you approach combat in a fundamental way. Without it, you are guessing whether your build is effective or whether a boss is close to dying. With the device active, you can tell at a glance when an enemy is one hit away from death, which means you stop wasting Stamina on unnecessary attack spam. You also learn exactly how much each skill contributes to your damage, making it far easier to compare Abyss Gears and decide which ones to keep on your weapon.
The device is especially useful during boss fights. When a boss is nearly dead, many players panic and spam attacks, burning through Stamina and leaving themselves vulnerable to counterattacks. With visible health bars, you can see that the boss only needs one more Forward Slash combo and time your finishing hit cleanly instead of overcommitting.
Tips
Pick this up as early as possible. Seeing exact enemy health and damage numbers helps you evaluate whether your build is effective and learn boss attack patterns more efficiently.
The Health Detection Device can be found early since the Laboratorium is accessible from the start of the game, though you may need to defeat some mechanical guards at the entrance.
There is no downside to wearing this helmet beyond missing out on other headgear defense stats. Its Defense 6 stat is competitive with most helmets in the game.
This item pairs well with the Marni Laser Helm as a swap option. Use the Health Detection Device to learn a boss's patterns and health pool, then switch to the Marni Laser Helm for burst damage once you know the fight.
See Also
Marni Laser Helm - Another special helmet from a Marni facility
Plate Armor - All plate armor pieces
Equipment - Full equipment guide
Controls and Activation
The Health Detection Device does not project health bars automatically when it is equipped. After slotting it into the headgear slot, you still have to bind the item to the Functions Wheel and then actively toggle the visor during combat. Until that second step is done, the helmet behaves like any other piece of armor and contributes only its defense value.
Bind Order
Open the inventory and equip the Health Detection Device in the headgear slot.
Press Right on the D-pad (PlayStation and Xbox) to bring up the Functions Wheel, which is the same radial menu used for elemental imbuements and other activated utilities.
Highlight an empty Functions Wheel slot and assign the Health Detection Device to it. The transcript author recommends placing it on the right side of the wheel so it does not clash with commonly used imbuement bindings.
With the device bound, press Right Trigger + Left Trigger together (L2 + R2 on PlayStation, RT + LT on Xbox) to flip the visor down. When the visor is down, the detection feature is active and health bars appear on every nearby enemy.
Lock on to a target to see its specific health bar cleanly. The visor will continue to display bars on other enemies in the field of view as well.
Repeat the same trigger combo to flip the visor back up and turn detection off. The helmet stays equipped either way, so you can toggle during a fight without opening any menus.
Troubleshooting
Health bars do not appear. Check that the visor is actually flipped down. If you assigned the device to the wheel but never pressed the dual-trigger combo, the helmet is just a defense-6 plate hat.
Damage numbers are missing. The device surfaces both health bars and per-hit damage floaters, but only while the visor is down. If numbers stop appearing mid-combat, you probably bumped the dual triggers and flipped the visor back up.
The effect persists through fast travel as long as the helmet stays equipped and the visor stays down, so you do not need to re-enable it after teleporting between Abyss Nexus points.
Unequipping the helmet clears the bind from the Functions Wheel. If you swap to the Marni Laser Helm for burst damage and come back later, you will need to re-assign the device to the wheel.
Pros and Cons of Helmet Slot Design
One of the most common community complaints about the Health Detection Device is that its functionality is tied to a specific armor slot rather than to a reusable module. Conceptually, health-bar visibility is a readability feature that almost every player would benefit from, so locking it behind a single plate armor headgear piece creates awkward trade-offs. The transcript author and several write-ups argue that the feature would be better served as an unequippable abyss gear socketed into any armor piece, or as a toggled setting.
Advantages of the Helmet Approach
The helmet still contributes a competitive defense value, so wearing it is not a full defensive sacrifice.
Because it is a physical item, the detection feature becomes something the player discovers and hunts down rather than a menu toggle. This fits the Crimson Desert design philosophy of surfacing mechanics through exploration.
The visor animation and HUD readout are visually distinctive, which makes the fantasy of a scouting helm more cohesive than a pure UI toggle would be.
Pairing the device with the Hood Trick (described above) preserves both the readability benefit and character fashion, which is a large quality-of-life win for players who want to keep a specific cosmetic silhouette.
Disadvantages of the Helmet Approach
Headgear is the same slot that holds important combat helmets like the Marni Laser Helm and various end-game plate helms. Committing the slot to a detector means giving up any other slot-specific bonus.
Players who prefer non-plate armor sets still have to carry a plate headgear piece to see enemy health bars, which breaks set bonuses on lighter armor builds.
Swapping between the Health Detection Device and another helmet mid-fight unbinds the Functions Wheel slot, which means you have to re-assign it every time you switch helmets.
The feature is locked behind the detour to Marni's Laboratorium in eastern Delesyiaand the entrance is guarded by hostile mechanical units. Players who skip this side content never see damage numbers at all, which makes build tuning harder than it needs to be.
Because the helmet only shows health bars while the visor is actively down, there is no way to leave it on as a passive feature. Forgetting to toggle means losing the benefit mid-fight.
The community consensus, echoed by the transcript author, is that the Health Detection Device is still worth the trip despite these trade-offs. The information gain during boss fights outweighs a few points of lost defense from any alternative plate helmet, and the hood trick removes the cosmetic objection entirely.