Crimson Desert‘s annoying sprint, which makes you mash the button over and over like you’re in a Rockstar game, has already been fixed by modders.
If there’s one thing that we can all agree on about Crimson Desert, it’s that the controls are some of the most frustrating and unintuitive in recent triple-A history. Ever since the game launched, players have been complaining about how difficult it is to do pretty much anything, since the controls are so unbelievably awkward and trying to do so many things at once.
The backlash towards how clumsy Crimson Desert is to play has gotten so loud that Pearl Abyss has even responded and promised that changes are coming in a future patch. For now, though, modders are already doing god’s work and making Crimson Desert less of a pain to play, starting with perhaps its most annoying mechanic – sprinting.
Modders Have Already Fixed Crimson Desert’s Button-Mashing Sprint
I’ve Never Been More Jealous Of PC Players
As anyone who has even glanced at Crimson Desert will know, it takes a lot of inspiration from Rockstar’s games. While some of that influence is good, Pearl Abyss bizarrely decided to take one of the things that no one really likes from GTA and Red Dead Redemption by forcing the player to mash the X button to sprint.
To be fair, Rockstar actually lets you change that setting, while Crimson Desert has no alternative to wearing your thumb out.
It’s annoying enough in Rockstar’s games, but it does at least fit the more realistic movement and locales, which can’t be said of Crimson Desert’s expansive open areas and more varied traversal mechanics. I thought it was just me that hated how Crimson Desert handles running around, but it’s clearly bothering a lot of you since mods that fix the sprint are already available a few days after launch.
Take the aptly-named “CDSprintHold – Hold SHIFT to Sprint” mod from Nexus Mods creator Maszradine, which does exactly what it says on the tin and ties sprinting to a simple shift key hold. Maszradine’s description of the mod also says what we’re all thinking by calling the button-mashing approach a “frustrating throwback that quickly gets tiring”.
Interestingly, that’s not even the only mod aiming to fix the sprint that’s out there on Nexus Mods. RetroXrus put together some hotkeys for sprinting, jogging, and some other unintuitive parts of the game’s design, making it very clear that the modding scene is going to be very focused on making Crimson Desert less cumbersome.
Crimson Desert
- Released
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March 19, 2026
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ / Blood, Drug Reference, Intense Violence, Strong Language
- Developer(s)
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Pearl Abyss
- Publisher(s)
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Pearl Abyss
It’s Very Unlikely You Will Ever Get To Ride A Dragon In Crimson Desert
It’s a massive grind before you even get a glimpse of the dragon in Crimson Desert, and even when you get it, it’s sort of useless.
