Crimson Desert Bounty Guide: Crime, Masks, Jail and Outlaws

The rule launch-week guides get wrong

At least thirteen of the sixteen fan-guide pages cited at the bottom of this post first went up between March 18 and March 26, the days around launch. GamerGuides says Contribution loss "is unavoidable when you commit any crime". Dexerto says stealing from a home costs you Contribution "even if no one saw you do it." Both went up in launch week, and both described the launch build.

Nine days after launch, Pearl Abyss changed it. Patch 1.01.00, posted March 28, 2026, carries this line:

"Changed criminal acts to not decrease Contribution before an NPC witnesses the act."

That flips the arithmetic of theft. A clean job that nobody sees should no longer cost you standing in the region at all. The patch notes since then have also added constabularies, a rule that can get you arrested while turning in someone else's bounty, and limits on your bank account while you are wanted.

This guide covers both sides of the law: what you need before you can steal, how a crime turns into a bounty, the two ways to clear one, what being wanted blocks, and how to collect bounties on other people. Pearl Abyss's notes describe the system mostly through bug fixes, so anything taken from them names the patch, and everything else names the fan guide it comes from. What a witnessed crime costs your regional standing is covered in our Contribution guide and is not repeated here.

You cannot steal without a mask

Walk up to something an NPC owns and, per GamerGuides, the game prompts you to pay for it or steal it. The steal option stays greyed out until you are wearing a Mask. GamerGuides, Insider Gaming, Dexerto and players.com.ua all say the same, and Fextralife's page for the pickpocketing challenge states that "pickpocketing requires that you wear a mask."

Masks are cheap and easy to find:

PowerPyx puts a Back Alley Shop on the edge of each major town: south of Hernand town, east of Demeniss city, southeast of Delesyia city, south of Tashkalp town and north of Varnia city. They show as "?" icons in the map's Environment tab. The same shops sell keys, three per shop, restocking at in-game midnight per PowerPyx. Patch 1.04.00 on April 23 also added outfits to certain shops, the Back Alley Shop among them.

Two handling notes. Patch 1.08.00 (May 22) moved the quickslots for masks and circlets to the armor tab of the quickslot menu, which is where you toggle one on and off. And Insider Gaming warns that wearing a mask draws bystanders' attention, so put it on just before the job, not for the walk across town.

What the mask unlocks

• Theft from homes. Dexerto lists chests, dressers, shelves and strongboxes. Hold your lantern to examine objects and target them more precisely (GamerGuides).
• Pickpocketing. Sprint into an NPC to knock them off balance, then hit the prompt before they recover. PowerPyx gives you 1 to 2 seconds. players.com.ua lists the inputs as double-tap Shift then E on PC, X then Square on PS5, and A then X on Xbox. Hold your lantern up first: NPCs worth robbing show a glowing gold purse (GamerGuides, players.com.ua).
• Livestock and wagons. Both can be stolen (Dexerto). Pearl Abyss's own notes confirm stolen wagons exist: 1.15.00 (July 24) fixed wagons disappearing when you used the "Escape" function with a stolen one.

What counts as a crime

GamerGuides' short list is theft, threatening, assault and murder. Insider Gaming adds vandalism and animal abuse. KeenGamer notes that killing a guard counts as an NPC murder.

The patch notes fill in the edge cases, mostly by fixing things that were or were not counted:

Two more from 1.05.00 (May 2) show where the law reaches. Failing a cheat at a minigame is meant to send you to the constabulary: the patch fixed cases where it did not teleport you, or sent you to another region's constabulary instead. How cheating at the card tables works is in our Duo and Five-Card guide. The same notes fixed a bug that stopped you playing Duo after being transferred to prison for a crime committed during an archery contest. So yes, you can get arrested in the middle of a minigame.

How a crime becomes a bounty

GamerGuides lays out the sequence, and itemlevel and players.com.ua describe the same red zone:

1. A red search area appears, centred on you, the moment you commit the crime.
2. If an NPC spots you inside it, the crime is reported and you get a bounty sized to the crime. GamerGuides puts a typical theft at about 5 copper; assault and murder cost far more. itemlevel says a wanted poster then appears at the top right of the screen with the charge and the fee.
3. If you get out of the red area, or stay unseen until it runs out, you get away with it. GamerGuides says a bar shows how long you have to wait, and that NPCs generally do not go searching for you inside the area. Guards do not come running on their own.

Isolation is the whole skill. A crowded market is full of potential witnesses; an empty house or a field with nobody in it is not. PowerPyx's route for selling stolen pigs depends on exactly that: lift one from a pen, get clear of the suspicion area, and nobody cares that you are walking down the road carrying a pig.

Pearl Abyss added one piece of feedback in 1.12.00 (June 19): the game now plays related sound effects "when a crime is committed with no witnesses present." The notes do not describe the sound.

Where the guides and the patch disagree. GamerGuides (last updated March 19), Insider Gaming (March 19), Dexerto (March 20) and KeenGamer (March 26) all describe the Contribution loss from crime with no witness condition. All four went up before 1.01.00. players.com.ua, writing on April 27, still says each successful steal costs 5 Contribution. Pearl Abyss's line is the primary source and the newer one, so this guide follows it. I found no hands-on test from after March 28 either way.

What being wanted changes

Bounties are regional. Gfinity, Gamers Heroes and NerdsChalk all say a bounty is tied to the region where you committed the crime: wanted in Hernand means wanted in Hernand. Gamers Heroes and itemlevel add that the whole region turns red on your world map while the bounty stands.

Guards ignore small bounties. Per GamerGuides, guards do not bother you over small bounties. Once a bounty is high enough they turn hostile on sight and try to tackle you. Gamers Heroes adds that fighting back raises the bounty further.

Pearl Abyss's patch notes add four details:

• Your bank account is limited. Since 1.03.00 (April 11), bank services stay available while you are wanted, but depositing gold bars and updating investment funds are not possible. If you run money through the bank from our trading guide, clear the bounty first.
• A quest can stall on it. 1.00.03 (March 23) improved the notice that tells you when your crime status is blocking a quest. If a quest will not move and that notice is up, your bounty is the reason. 1.03.00 also fixed issues with completing certain requests while wanted, and with Pailune being liberated in Chapter 7 while you were wanted.
• You can be arrested at the bounty desk. Since 1.04.00 (April 23), if your own bounty is too high when you bring an outlaw to the Constabulary, the game puts you in an arrest state instead of playing the handover. Clear your own bounty before you cash in someone else's.
• You can fight guards from a combat mount. 1.06.00 (May 11) fixed guards being impossible to attack with a combat mount while you were wanted. Whether that is a feature you want is another matter.

Two ways to clear a bounty

Jail does not save you silver. GamerGuides and PowerPyx both say the bounty is paid on release, so the Writ is the better deal whenever you can reach a church.

The Writ of Absolution

Fextralife describes Alfred as the priest who oversees the confessional at the Church of Hernand, and places the Confessional just to the left as you enter. Talk to the priest and pick "Buy Writ of Absolution" (GamerGuides). itemlevel says the red map overlay clears as soon as you pay.

The Writ is not a fan invention. Pearl Abyss's 1.10.00 notes (June 5) fixed overlapping text "when buying the Writ of Absolution on a 5K monitor," which confirms both the item and that you buy it.

One question the guides split on: whether any church clears any region's bounty. Gamers Heroes says yes. KeenGamer tells you to go to the nearest church in the region, and NerdsChalk to find a church inside the region you are wanted in. Using a church in the same region works under either reading.

Jail

When guards come for you, some will tackle you, which starts a quick-time event (PowerPyx). GamerGuides says you avoid arrest by succeeding at it, and Gfinity notes you can resist. Lose it and you are put in a cell, time skips forward, and the bounty is paid on your release (GamerGuides).

PowerPyx adds a ceiling: a bounty stops rising at 100 silver. That is the most a single region's bounty can cost you, if PowerPyx is right. No other source I found gives a cap.

There is a prison at Calphadean Castle. Pearl Abyss's 2.00.00 notes (August 25) fixed players being sent there after being captured as a wanted criminal in Calphade while the region was at war. They do not say where you go instead.

The other side: hunting outlaws

The legal way to profit from crime is bounty hunting, and it pays in silver and regional Contribution.

• Bounty notices start in Chapter 2. allthings.how and mapmaster.io both put the unlock there. Notices hang on posts and boards and show as purple icons on your minimap. Read one and the target's area is marked on your map.
• Yann teaches it. Fextralife lists the Greymane faction chain Sweet Taste of Bounties: in Face on the Bounty Notice, Yann points you at a notice for Ulzok, wanted for stealing from religious sites, then Plenty of Bounty has you catch him near St. Halssius's House of Healing for 6 silver and 100 Hernandian Contribution EXP. Pearl Abyss patched both: 1.06.00 fixed Sweet Taste of Bounties stalling when done in a certain order, and 1.07.00 fixed Face on the Bounty Notice stalling if you picked up Ulzok's notice before speaking to Yann.
• Catch, don't kill. Chase the target and tackle on the prompt (PowerPyx says to crouch near them first). Then punch until a Tie Up prompt appears (GamerGuides); mapmaster and allthings put it at about three punches. Since 1.08.00 you can also silence a tied-up outlaw.
• Haul them on your horse. Load the prisoner onto your horse and ride; GamerGuides and mapmaster both say you cannot fast travel while carrying one. allthings.how warns against saving and reloading on the way.
• Turn them in at a constabulary. Patch 1.04.00 added Constabularies in southern Hernand and in eastern, western and southern Demeniss.
• A dead target pays half. GamerGuides, mapmaster and allthings all say a killed target pays half the silver. They split on Contribution: mapmaster says you still get it, allthings says you lose it.
• Some targets keep hours. PowerPyx, mapmaster and allthings all note that certain outlaws only show up at certain times of day.

Two 1.04.00 fixes are worth knowing too. Comrades no longer attack bounty targets, and a bounty mission no longer fails if the target is killed after being captured.

The nine Hernand outlaws

mapmaster.io and allthings.how list the same nine Hernand targets at the same rewards. The notes column keeps only what both agree on.

That is 118 silver for the set, plus the Mask, which is the total allthings.how gives too. Beyond Hernand, mapmaster counts 12 more notices in Pailune and 2 in Delesyia, 23 in all. I did not cross-check those.

Bounties also feed regional standing. GamerGuides calls the Contribution boost hefty, and our Contribution guide lists bounties among the fastest ways to raise it.

Where stolen goods go

Stolen goods go to black markets and fences. Our trading guide covers the black markets and explains why a stolen wagon is a dead end for legitimate trade. The patch notes confirm the fences exist: 1.07.00 fixed ibexes that could not be sold to a fence, and 1.16.00 fixed elephants that occasionally could not be sold at the Livestock Fence. Fextralife places Edmond's Livestock Black Market at Hernand Farmhouse, near Grimrak's Back Alley Shop.

The ten crime challenges behind Shadowlord

The Shadowlord achievement asks for all ten Above the Law challenges, which PowerPyx files under Master Du's Dare. They read like a syllabus for this guide. Requirements are from PowerPyx's list; Fextralife's challenge pages give the same objectives for the six rows marked with an asterisk.

Three notes. PowerPyx says any key opens any locked door, and Fextralife's key description agrees unless "the door is specially made." PowerPyx still calls Back Alley Cleanup missable if you turn in every outlaw before picking up its artifact, but Pearl Abyss's 1.16.00 notes (August 1) fixed exactly that case: the challenge "could not be completed if all outlaws had already been turned in." And PowerPyx lists a Sealed Abyss Artifact that unlocks each of the ten, a rule our achievements guide explains along with the rest of the list.

What I could not verify

• Whether the 1.01.00 witness rule holds for every crime today. Pearl Abyss's line is general. I found no test from after March 28, and one April guide still describes the old behaviour.
• Whether one church clears another region's bounty. Gamers Heroes says yes; KeenGamer and NerdsChalk point you to a church in the same region.
• The 100-silver bounty cap. It comes from PowerPyx alone.
• Losing your Mask when caught. Only players.com.ua says guards who catch you in the act take it.
• The 5-copper theft bounty. Only GamerGuides gives a figure.
• Whether a killed outlaw still pays Contribution. mapmaster says yes, allthings.how says no.
• The Pailune and Delesyia notices. mapmaster's 12 and 2 are the only counts I found.
• What the "Civilian Disguise" effect does. Fextralife lists it on the Disguise Cloak and Camouflage Outfit in Grimrak's stock. Neither it nor the patch notes say what it changes.
• The sound 1.12.00 added for unwitnessed crimes. Pearl Abyss does not describe it.

Quick Action Checklist

• Buy a Mask at a Back Alley Shop for about 10 copper, or catch Jeffrey in Hernand for one. The steal and pickpocket prompts stay greyed out without it.
• Wear it only for the job. Insider Gaming says it draws attention. Since 1.08.00 the mask quickslot is on the armor tab.
• Check for witnesses before you act. Since 1.01.00, Contribution only drops once an NPC sees the crime.
• Leave the red search area, or stay hidden until it runs out, and GamerGuides says the crime does not become a bounty.
• Check the world map. A region in red is a region where you are wanted.
• Clear a bounty with a Writ of Absolution from a church Confessional, starting with Alfred at the Church of Hernand. It costs the bounty and works instantly.
• Do not count on jail to save money. The bounty is still paid on release, and one guide says guards who catch you in the act take your Mask.
• Clear your own bounty before turning in an outlaw. Since 1.04.00 a high bounty gets you arrested at the Constabulary instead.
• Do not deposit gold bars while wanted. Since 1.03.00 the bank will not take them.
• Take outlaws alive. Tackle, punch until Tie Up appears, load them on your horse and ride. A dead target pays half.
• Work through the nine Hernand bounties for 118 silver and a Mask, then look for more in Pailune and Delesyia.
• Pick up the Above the Law artifacts first if you want Shadowlord.