Crimson Desert Guide

Auto-loot stopped working? Your pet does the looting: how to get it back

Items no longer get picked up when you walk over them? Auto-loot comes from your pet. If it vanished or got stuck, resummon it from the Pets tab.

Mechanics · Updated

Steps

  1. Know where auto-loot comes from. Kliff has no auto-pickup of his own. The loot that seemed to collect itself was your pet running around after a fight and grabbing items from bodies. If you suddenly have to hold a button to search every corpse, your pet has stopped working or is gone.
  2. Check whether your pet is still with you. Look and listen for it after a fight. Pets vanish while you're on your horse and come back when you get off, and they can get left behind, get stuck, or be dismissed during some quests.
  3. Resummon your pet. Open your inventory, switch to the Pets tab next to Kliff's tab and summon your pet again. If it's already summoned but stuck, unsummon it and summon it again. Fast travelling can also bring it back.
  4. Make room in your inventory. Pets put what they find straight into your bags, so keep some space free for the loot.
  5. No pet yet? Tame one. Find a dog or cat in a town such as Hernand and raise its Trust to 100 by petting and feeding it (pick a cat up first), then adopt it. It appears in your Pets tab, ready to summon.

The problem: for hours, weapons, armor and other drops seemed to collect themselves after every fight. Then it stopped. Now you have to press a button to pick up each item, or hold it to search every body, and there’s no auto-loot option in the settings.

The short answer: the auto-loot was your pet all along. Pets run around after combat and grab items from bodies for you. When the looting stops, your pet is gone or stuck. Resummon it and the looting comes back. The player who asked about this on the Steam forums confirmed it: they realized the meowing had stopped around the same time the looting did.

Why the loot stopped

Kliff doesn’t pick anything up just by walking over it. A summoned pet’s main job is to run to the bodies after a fight and loot them for you, and only one pet can be out at a time.

That means “auto-loot stopped working” almost always means one of these:

  • Your pet isn’t summoned anymore. Pets have been dismissed during some quests and minigames. Pearl Abyss fixed several cases (patches 1.08.00 and 1.12.00), but players still report pets going missing.
  • Your pet got left behind or stuck. Players say pets sometimes stray too far in big battles, stand over the loot without moving, or vanish after combat.
  • You’re on your horse. Pets disappear while you’re mounted and come back when you get off.

How to get auto-loot back

  1. Open your inventory and go to the Pets tab, right next to Kliff’s tab.
  2. Summon your pet. If it’s already summoned but not doing anything, unsummon it and summon it again. Several players on the Steam forums say this gets a stuck pet looting again, though sometimes you have to repeat it.
  3. Try teleporting. One player said fast travelling helped when their dog went missing.
  4. Leave room in your bags. Pets put loot straight into your inventory. Players say a pet can fill your bags within minutes. Patch 1.10.00 fixed items vanishing when a pet picked them up with a full inventory, but it’s still worth keeping some space free.

Don’t have a pet yet?

You can tame dogs and cats around towns from early on, starting in Hernand. Pet the animal and feed it until its Trust reaches 100, then adopt it. Cats need to be picked up before you can pet them. Feeding is the fast way: drop its favorite food at its feet, such as small bones for dogs or fish for cats. Petting only gives a little Trust and has a daily limit. Your new pet then shows up in the Pets tab, ready to summon.

Want something flashier than a dog? See how to get the Phoenix pet.

Good to know

  • There’s no in-game switch to turn pet looting off. If your pet fills your bags with junk, the only built-in option is to unsummon it.
  • Pets don’t always keep up. Even when they’re working, players find pets slow when enemies drop a lot of items, so check bodies yourself after big fights.

Sources

This guide summarizes answers from these community threads. Credit goes to the players who worked it out.