Crimson Desert is a great game, but many complain how its controls feel unnecessarily complicated. This negatively impacts the overall experience of the player. Interacting with NPCs or objects often requires multiple steps or button sequences. Some actions need triggers + face buttons + timing, for example the Stab ability which is used to enter Waterfall to get loot like the Dark Ringleader’s armor set.
Even picking up things or performing contextual actions can often feel like a mini puzzle in Crimson Desert. So, what’s the solution if the game doesn’t allow you to change controls? The solution is the button remapper mod currently available at Nexus Mods.
Of course, this means only PC Crimson Desert players can change their controls while console players must wait until Pearl Abyss comes to its senses.
How to Remap Controls in Crimson Desert
According to the mod’s description, is allows the player to “Remap any controller button to any other button via a simple INI file. On-screen button prompts automatically update to match your remap. No image editing needed.”
So that makes it clear, we need to edit the ini file to remap controls. Go to Nexus mods and download the Crimson Desert button remapper. Extract the zip into Crimson Desert bin64 directory: Crimson Desert\bin64\.
You should have:
bin64\winmm.dll
bin64\CDControllerRemap.asi
bin64\CDControllerRemap.ini
bin64\CDControllerRemap_textures\originals\A84A7BA7.png
bin64\CDControllerRemap_textures\originals\78A41C9F.png
bin64\CDControllerRemap_textures\originals\340C997E.png
bin64\CDControllerRemap_textures\originals\icon_map.json
Edit CDControllerRemap.ini to set your preferred button mappings and start the game. Restart every time you make changes to the controls.
How to Configure
Open CDControllerRemap.ini in any text editor. The format is simple:
; In [ButtonRemap] section:
; SourceButton=TargetButton
; When you PRESS SourceButton, the GAME SEES TargetButton
; Example: Swap A and B
A=B
B=A
; Example: Move Light Attack to X
X=RB
RB=X
Important: To swap two buttons, you MUST define BOTH directions. If you only write A=B without B=A, then pressing A sends B but pressing B also sends B.
Available buttons: A, B, X, Y, LB, RB, LT, RT, LS, RS, START, BACK, DPAD_UP, DPAD_DOWN, DPAD_LEFT, DPAD_RIGHT
Combo Passthrough
Crimson Desert uses simultaneous button presses for skills:
- RT + RB — Skill 1
- RT + LB — Skill 2
- RT + A — Skill 3
- RB + B — Skill 4
- RB + A — Skill 5
- RB + X — Skill 6
- RB + LB — Skill 7 / Blinding Flash
- Y + RB — Grapple: Throw
- Y + RT — Grapple: Lariat
- X + RB — Enemy Vault
- LB + X — Precision Jump
- LB + RB — Blinding Flash
Your combos will work automatically through the remap. If you need a specific combo, add it to [ComboPassthrough]: [ComboPassthrough].
