Are you having fun being Kliff MacDuff? How would you like to be Kliff MacDuff with an acute case of gastritis? It appears that open world RPG Crimson Desert has a secret “food consequence” system, cut during development. It offers 50 different “food skills” split across 15 categories, on top of the existing Crimson Desert cooking recipes. Stir it all together and you have something like a survival sim, as if this game wasn’t enough genres already.

I know this because those wily modders have been up to their usual tricks, digging into the game files in search of abandoned assets and deactivated features. The modders in question – claramercury and Averno Team, with credit also going to lazorr410 and MrIkso for creating tools – claim to have restored the abandoned food system and published their version of it on NexusMods (via TheGamer). As they note: “No new assets, no new buffs — everything this mod uses already exists in the game files. We just reconnected what Pearl Abyss designed.”

The mod’s food categories span “temperature food, elemental resistances, combat buffs, and even immunity food for endgame mechanics that aren’t live yet”. Each skill has 10-15 power levels that scale with character progression.

There’s a risk/reward layer in the shape of potential debuffs from high-potency food, such as poisoning, though basic, low-potency food remains safe to consume for health replenishment. And then there are the immunity foods, allegedly “designed for endgame content not yet active”: Coma Immune, Abyss Immune, Poison Immune, and Sound Attack.

The mod comes with three presets. When playing on Adventure, “only high-tier food (HP 3-5, HP Regen Grade 5-8, MP 4-5) at maximum potency carries mild risk” of negative consequences. When playing in Survival, every food tier is risky at peak potency: “low tiers get Drunken, mid tiers get Food Poison, high tiers get strong Poison.” Iron Gut, meanwhile, turns anything remotely flavourful into a handful of rusty nails. “Multiple debuffs stack at the two highest power levels,” the modders explain. “Only low-potency food is safe. For players who want food to matter.”

The modders are in the process of updating their creation, weaving their own systems around it. Specifically, they’re trying to address base Crimson Desert’s reliance on guzzling vittles for HP during more punishing fights, such as boss battles. The mod’s 0.5 version adds “light but noticeable cooldowns to direct food categories”, making it harder to eat your way out of a corner.

“This means food is still useful in regular play, but it can no longer be spammed as freely in high-pressure situations,” the modders comment. “At the same time, built-in cooldown families already present in the game data are left untouched, so the mod stays closer to the underlying structure of the game.”

We were lukewarm-to-contemptuous about Crimson Pudding at launch, but the game’s evolution and evolving reception have been exhilarating to follow. Mark keeps staggering in with crazy headlines. “I took a ghost train to penis town!” he yells, as I back away rapidly. “It’s now illegal to slap people with trees,” he insists, unblinking, as I reach for my cattleprod. “Kliff MacDuff was from his mother’s womb untimely ripped,” he roars, as I take a running dive through the window. “Pearl Abyss agree that the story sucks!” he hollers, as I flag down passing cars in a panic.