If you’ve spent any time grinding endgame content in Black Desert Online, you’ve almost certainly come across mentions of black desert online crimson, one of the most sought-after rare resources in the entire game. I’ve spent over 300 hours farming and testing uses for this material, and I can tell you it’s not just another random crafting drop—using it correctly can shave weeks off your gear progression and let you tackle content you couldn’t touch before. A lot of new players waste their first few crimson drops on low-impact upgrades, so I put this guide together to help you avoid that mistake and get the most out of every piece you get.
What Exactly Is Black Desert Online Crimson, and How Do You Get It?
Black Desert Online Crimson is a high-tier crafting and enhancement material that only drops from endgame content, so you won’t find it in low-level grind spots or early quest rewards. It comes as either a full crimson piece or smaller crimson shards, and you can combine 100 shards to make a full usable piece if you don’t get lucky with a direct drop. I remember my first full drop came from a random Nightmare Kzarka run 6 months ago, and I had no idea what it was worth until my guild mates started spamming chat asking to buy it off me.
Base drop rates for a full crimson piece sit under 0.2% for most endgame world bosses, so you can’t really farm it intentionally—you just have to run endgame content consistently and get lucky. The content with the highest drop chances right now are Nightmare world boss runs, Ash Forest nightmare grind spots, and limited-time endgame event missions. You can also occasionally get full crimson pieces as a top reward for completing seasonal endgame challenge tracks, so it’s worth finishing those even if you don’t care about the other seasonal rewards.
Never spend real money on loot boxes that promise crimson drops—the odds are so low you’ll almost certainly waste your cash, and you can get it for free if you stick to regular endgame runs over a few months. Even if you’re a more casual player who only runs 2 boss runs a week, you’ll likely get at least one full piece a year without spending any extra money.
Top Uses for Black Desert Online Crimson to Boost Your Gear Progression
The value of black desert online crimson comes almost entirely from how it impacts endgame gear progression, so you want to make sure you’re using it on the upgrades that give you the biggest possible stat boost. If you’re new to endgame BDO, PEN is the highest enhancement tier for most core gear pieces, and regular enhancement attempts have a success rate under 3% most of the time. Using a crimson piece as a failstack protector prevents your gear from dropping an enhancement level if you fail the attempt, which saves you thousands of silver worth of repair materials and months of rebuilding failstacks.
There are a few other useful ways to spend crimson, but you should always prioritize your core gear upgrades first before moving on to less impactful uses. I’ve tested all the different use cases over the past year, and these are the only ones that are actually worth the cost of a full crimson piece:
- PEN enhancement protection for your main weapon or chest armor piece, since this gives the biggest stat boost for your entire account and improves both PvE and PvP performance
- Crafting a Crimson-grade ring or earring for your PvP build, if you already have full PEN main gear and want an extra edge in guild wars or arena matches
- Trading for the permanent stat boost costume from the special Calpheon vendor, only if you have extra crimson left after handling all your core gear upgrades
Prioritize your main character’s gear first before spending crimson on alts—you’ll get far more value out of a single PEN main weapon than you will out of upgrading 3 alt characters’ lower tier gear. I made the mistake of spending my second crimson drop on an alt’s armor upgrade when I first started playing, and I still regret it because I had to wait another 3 months to get another drop for my main character’s PEN weapon attempt.
Common Mistakes to Avoid With Your Crimson Drops
The biggest mistake I see new players make with black desert online crimson is using it on low-tier enhancement attempts, like upgrading TRI to TET gear. That’s a total waste, because the success rate for TRI to TET attempts is much higher (usually around 12% with a proper failstack), and you don’t need a failstack protector for those attempts. You can easily get through TRI to TET upgrades with regular materials, so save your crimson for the PEN attempts that can actually cost you months of progress if you fail.
Another common mistake is selling crimson on the central market for quick silver. Right now, the market price for a full crimson piece is around 2.5 billion silver, but the value you get from using it for a PEN enhancement attempt is closer to 8 billion silver when you account for avoided repair costs, failstack rebuilding costs, and the stat boost you get from the PEN gear. If you need silver fast, farm lower tier grind spots instead of selling your crimson—it will pay off way more in the long run, even if you have to grind for a week to get the silver you need.
Many players also fall into the trap of hoarding crimson for years waiting for a “perfect” enhancement attempt that never comes. It’s easy to keep putting off your PEN attempt because you want a 20% success rate instead of a 10% one, but building that extra failstack can take 3 or more extra months of grinding. If you have a 10% or higher success chance for a PEN attempt on your main weapon, go for it—you’ll get way more value out of using the gear 3 months earlier than you will out of a slightly higher success chance.
Pro Tips for Maximizing Your Crimson’s Value
If you’re trying to farm black desert online crimson as fast as possible, join an active endgame guild that runs regular Nightmare boss runs. Guild runs have a much higher chance of dropping crimson than public runs, because most guilds run with full party buffs and clear the boss faster, which boosts overall drop rates. I’ve gotten 3 of my 5 crimson drops from guild Nightmare Vell runs, so it’s well worth the time to find a guild that fits your schedule and runs content you’re already planning to do.
Always stack as many drop rate buffs as you can before starting any content that can drop crimson or crimson shards. Even a 50% drop rate scroll can nearly double your chances of getting a shard or full drop, and they’re cheap to buy from the central market or earn from regular event rewards. Make sure your drop rate buffs are active before the boss dies or you finish your grind rotation—they don’t cost much, and the payout if you get a crimson drop is massive.
If you’re planning to use black desert online crimson for a PEN attempt, make sure you build your failstack correctly first. For PEN main weapon attempts, you want at least a 120 failstack for the best balance of success chance and time invested, so don’t waste your crimson on a 70 failstack attempt just because you’re impatient. You can find free failstack building guides online that walk you through the process without wasting expensive materials, so take an hour to follow one before you use your crimson.
At the end of the day, black desert online crimson is one of the most valuable resources in the game, and how you use it can make a huge difference in how fast you progress through endgame content. You don’t have to stress if you haven’t gotten a drop yet—keep running your regular boss runs and grind spots, and you’ll get one eventually. When you do get that drop, follow the tips in this guide to make sure you get the most value out of it, instead of wasting it on a low-impact upgrade that you’ll regret later. If you have your own tips for using crimson, drop them in the comments below to help other players out.