How to get the Phoenix pet in Crimson Desert

The short answer: the Phoenix is a legendary bird you earn in the open world. It isn’t something you buy, and none of the sources call it a preorder or DLC bonus. You shoot it down, skin it for the Phoenix Feather, and turn the feather into a Sigil of Solidarity at a Witch. Using the sigil adds the Phoenix to your pets. No feeding or trust meter is involved, unlike normal bird pets.

Finding it

Guides describe the spot a little differently, but they all point to the same area: the north edge of the Crimson Desert where it meets the Trader’s Expanse. PC Gamer and KeenGamer put it in a small ravine-filled crater just south of the Trader’s Expanse with a large stone pillar in the middle. Game Rant marks it north of the “S” in “Crimson” on the map, east of the Oasis Hearth. VULKK says to look around a small oasis, and that the Phoenix passes over it roughly every 7.5 minutes.

Its flight path isn’t fixed like other legendary animals’ routes. Game Rant suggests waiting about two minutes, and if it doesn’t show, reloading the area by fast travelling to the Abyss Nexus.

Killing it is the hard part

The Phoenix is built to come back from the dead, and the in-game description says as much. Guides agree you need a bow with Explosive Arrows and Charged Shot. Some extras they recommend:

• Game Rant and games.gg suggest the fire element on Charged Shot (Elemental Charged Shot with Fire Lv 1) to deal enough damage that it can’t revive.
• VULKK combined Focused Shot with Charged Shot and Explosive Arrows. It tried Poison and regular arrows, and neither worked reliably.

It can seem impossible to kill. Game Rant says some Phoenixes die to a single arrow while others seem bugged and won’t die at all. A player on Steam described hitting it 10 to 20 times with fire-charged Explosive Arrows, only for it to get up, fly off and fade away. Nobody posted a fix in that thread. The only workaround the guides give is to reload the area at the Abyss Nexus and try again. games.gg suggests saving your second arrow if the first hit only knocks it down and it revives.

What the Phoenix does

• Loots for you. Like other pets, it picks up loot from enemies you kill.
• Follows you on a mount. VULKK notes it keeps following you even while you ride.
• Can fight with the Sigil of Valor. This pet accessory is sold by the Secret Shop NPC in Pororin and makes a pet attack enemies. The Phoenix couldn’t equip it at first (a known issue in patch 1.10.00). Patch 1.13.00 fixed that. VULKK says the Phoenix gets a fire attack with the sigil but spends less time looting.

One Steam player felt the pet wasn’t worth the trouble of hunting it, and another replied that the hunt is optional. If you’re only after loot pickup, any bird pet does that.

Quirks

• Can’t summon it? Unsummon your current pet first, then summon the Phoenix from the Pets tab (KeenGamer and games.gg).
• Pet missing after crafting. Two Steam players said they crafted or registered the Phoenix and then couldn’t find it, one of them after an update. Neither thread got a fix. Patch 1.11.00 fixed an issue where the Sigil of Solidarity couldn’t be used in certain situations, so make sure your game is up to date before you craft it.
• Fextralife disagrees. Its Phoenix page uses the generic bird-pet text about earning trust with the Sotdae of Bond feeder. Every step-by-step guide here gets the Phoenix through the feather and the Sigil of Solidarity instead, so follow those steps.