Crimson Desert Players Work Out a Way to Fly Like Neo From The Matrix, but Given Pearl Abyss’ Previous Form on Patches, They’re Not Sure if It’s a Bug or a Feature

Crimson Desert players have found a way to fly across the map like Neo from The Matrix, although they’re not sure if it’s a bug or a feature.

In Pearl Abyss’ open world action adventure, flight is not indefinite. Rather, you slowly fall to the ground no matter how high your Stamina. So, anything that makes you boost around quicker while flying would be welcome. Enter, this latest glitch/mechanic/who knows at this point?

Now, there are a few skills you’ll need to unlock (you can watch and learn them or just buy them) before you can make this work, and be warned: making it work is rather fiddly. And even when you do, it’s unclear whether this actually gets you significantly farther than you can without using it. But let’s run — or fly — with it for now.

You’ll need the Aerial Roll skill (in the health tree) and the Focused Repulsion skill (one of the nodes in the Focus skill) to do this entire combo (Crimson Desert input commands sometimes feel like fighting game combos!).

While flying, click both thumb sticks in to enter Focus Mode, do the Aerial Roll (the Circle button on a PlayStation controller), then, as you boost, ‘Unleash’ (R1) to exit Focus Mode and, somehow, keep boosting.

Now, while this gives you the speed boost you can see in clips online, it doesn’t look like this will get you much farther than simply using the Aerial Roll and staying in Focus Mode. So while you might get where you’re going a little quicker and look like Neo in The Matrix while doing it, poor Kliff is stubbornly sticking to his own rules regardless.

Still, it’s fun to see the community wonder whether Pearl Abyss will patch this out or simply make it yet another feature of Crimson Desert gameplay by adding, say, an actual proper animation for it. The developer has released patches in quickfire fashion since the game’s launch, and tackled so-called glitches like this (stab flight!) promptly, so perhaps we’ll find out soon.

“It’s a mechanic or a bug glitch lol?” one player wondered. “Pearl Abyss devs still deciding which one to designate it,” replied another. “It’s definitely a bug, it bypasses the whole using A to go faster while gliding, also the animation of Kliff during it is kinda jank and if you land it sends you flying a bit,” another suggested. “Abuse while you can cause it’s gunna get patched. That being said, it’s extremely fun to do!” “We have to wait for Pearl Abyss to either patch out or improve the animation, then we’ll know for sure,” another concluded.

We’ve got plenty more on Crimson Desert, including a story on how the NPCs are the stars of the show, a hidden food consequence system that a modder has restored, and cats. Yes, cats. We recommend you take a look at our guide to Things to Do First in Crimson Desert, plus Things Crimson Desert Doesn’t Tell You (we’ve got 28 and counting!). We’ve also got a guide to the Best Early Weapons we recommend picking up, the Best Skills to Get First (including a handy explainer of the skills system), and 34 Essential Tips and Tricks to help you succeed in Pywel.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.