How material mining works in Crimson Desert

Another new update for Crimson desert has dropped and more features have been added to the game. From being able to feed your horses and buy saddles for rarer animal species, to being able to have your sword scabbards on display when not in use, these add-ons are a nice collection of quality-of-life tweaks.

However, the best new content is the Extraction feature added to blacksmiths in various cities. Here's how the feature works, if it's worth the effort, and what you get for extracting all your unused weapons and armor.

If you want to engage with this new feature, you'll need to head to any forge on the map. When you talk to them, you'll see a new option called “Extraction” next to Refinement and Crafting. Selecting this option will display a list of all your current weapons and armor in your inventory. Select any item to extract materials from and this will bring up another menu showing all previous upgrade levels for that piece of equipment.

You can now select any of the listed levels and reset any piece of gear you pull back to the specified refinement level. If you do, we'll refund you for all the materials needed to reach that level; however, the amount of materials you get depends on the item. For example, common materials like Bloodstone or Iron Ore will only give you back 70% of the cost, while rarer materials like Abyss Artifacts or Aeserion's Scales will give you 100% of the amount you used.

The number of materials you get will increase the lower you are willing to drop the refinement level of the item. For example, if I want to set my Molten Ambition Sword back to Refinement Level 3, I'll earn 22 Iron Ore, 21 Copper Ore, 8 Bloodstones, and 3 Abyss Artifacts.

Plus, you won't destroy the actual weapon you're pulling from, so you don't have to worry about losing key pieces of armor or weapons. that you may have invested a ton of materials in the beginning. Keep in mind that you cannot take a weapon or armor beyond the base level at which you discovered it.

This means that if you obtained a sword from a chest that is refinement level 4, you cannot lower its level by extracting beyond that level. Only weapons and pieces of armor that have been leveled up through the Forge can have the extraction function used to return any materials you spent on them.

Luckily, you also don't have to be on Oongko or Damian to get their character-specific gear. Even if you're not on them, if their weapons or armor are in your inventory, you can lower their refinement level to get more materials. Remember that equipment must be in your inventory to upgrade it, so if you have a large storage chest full of weapons and armor, you'll need to choose what you want to shrink and take it to the forge.

This can be a fantastic way to not only replenish the material you may have spent on weapons you no longer use, but also to get a lot of artifacts from the Abyss. Since this material is crucial for leveling up, being able to get more Abyss Artifacts is useful for further upgrading items or unlocking new skills.

Although it can be a little time consuming, I really recommend going through your collection of weapons and armor that you no longer use and bring them to the forge. This allows you to easily dump more materials into your preferred gear, making your journey to improving Kliff's power much easier and less tedious.