Your First Gold Bar in Crimson Desert – Easy Early Money Guide

The first gold bar in Crimson Desert is hiding inside Lioncrest Manor, just northwest of Hernand. The guards won’t let you in through the front door, but you can climb in through a second-floor window around the back and steal it from the fireplace on the ground floor. Getting this gold bar early is one of the smartest money moves you can make – it’s worth 500 silver at the bank, and if you invest it instead of cashing out, it’ll generate passive income for the rest of the game. Here’s the full early money strategy covering how to grab the gold bar, what to do with it, and how to get the silver, keys, and gear you need along the way. For more Crimson Desert tips, check out our guides on MetaForge.

How to Get the Gold Bar in Crimson Desert at Lioncrest Manor

Lioncrest Manor is located just northwest of Hernand, up a sloping path in the hills. It’s a large estate with guards posted at every entrance, and they won’t let you in through the front door. You’ll need a Mask equipped to steal the gold bar – if you don’t have one yet, skip down to the How to Get a Mask and Keys section below. Here’s how to sneak in and grab it:

1. Go around to the back of the manor. Don’t bother with the front entrance – the guards will turn you away. Head around to either side of the building.

2. Climb up to the second-floor window. Look for a wall you can climb on the side of the building, to the right of the back door. Climb up and you’ll find a shuttered window that you can open. Climb through to get inside.

3. Head downstairs to the fireplace. Once inside, make your way down to the main room on the ground floor. You’ll find a large fireplace in the corner.

4. Equip your Mask and steal the gold bar. Make sure your Mask is equipped, then interact with the fireplace. You’ll see a Steal option – grab it and you’ve got your first gold bar in Crimson Desert. Watch out for wandering guards and NPCs while you’re doing this. If you get caught, you’ll be fined and lose your Mask, but the good news is you get to keep the gold bar even if you’re thrown in jail.

Pro tip: Visit the manor during the daytime. At night, both guards and nobles roam the area, making it way harder to steal unnoticed. During the day, it’s mostly just guards on set patrol routes that are easier to avoid.

What to Do With Your Gold Bar in Crimson Desert

This is important – do not sell your gold bar to a regular merchant. They’ll only give you 190 silver for it, which is a terrible deal. Instead, you have two much better options at the Hernand Bank, located on the north side of town just below the castle entrance.

Option 1: Exchange it at the bank for 500 silver. Talk to Grover, the bank teller, and you can exchange the gold bar straight up for 500 silver. That’s more than double what a merchant would pay you. If you need cash right now, this is the way to go.

Option 2: Invest it at the bank (best long-term play). If you don’t need the silver immediately, the smartest move is to invest the gold bar. To do this, you first need to open a Personal Strongbox Permit (basically a bank account) for 100 silver. Once your account is open, deposit the gold bar (worth 500 silver as an investment) and choose an investment strategy:

• Low-Risk – Smaller but consistent returns. Safe if you don’t want to gamble.
• Medium-Risk – The sweet spot that most players recommend. Good returns without too much downside. This is the one we’d go with.
• High-Risk – Big potential payouts but you can also lose silver. A single high-risk payout can earn you hundreds of silver though, which you can reinvest for even more.

Your bank account is shared across all banks in Pywel, so you can check your investments from any bank in any town. Once you start generating returns, you can reinvest them into more gold bars and snowball your income. This is genuinely one of the best ways to set yourself up financially for the rest of the game.

Don’t Have 100 Silver for a Strongbox? Rob the Bank

If you want to invest your gold bar but don’t have the 100 silver to open a bank account, the fastest way to get it is hilariously simple – rob the bank itself. You’ll need a Mask and a Key for this (see the section below if you don’t have them). The Hernand Bank is on the north side of town, just below the castle entrance, and you can do this right after the prologue.

1. Enter the bank normally. Just walk in through the front door – no mask needed to enter the building itself.

2. Open the locked door on the left. As soon as you walk in, you’ll see a locked door to the left, opposite the bank teller. Walk up to it and if you have a Key in your inventory, it’ll automatically unlock. Step inside and make sure the door closes behind you.

3. Equip your Mask and start looting. Once the door is closed, open your inventory and equip your Mask. Then crouch and start grabbing everything. The room is loaded with strongboxes on the shelves and silver pouches in the chests on the floor. Loot all of them – a red crime meter will appear, but since you’re locked inside the room, nobody can actually see you.

4. Wait out the crime timer before leaving. Don’t rush out. Wait until the red crime circle disappears from your minimap, then calmly walk out of the bank like nothing happened.

5. Open the loot in your inventory. Don’t sell the strongboxes and silver pouches – open them directly from your inventory. Each one gives you 1-5 silver, and a good run should net you somewhere around 30-50 silver total. Combined with whatever silver you’ve already picked up from quests and exploration, that should easily cover the 100 silver account fee.

Yes, stealing will lower your Contribution (reputation) with Hernand slightly – each stolen item costs about 5 Contribution XP. But don’t stress about it. As long as you’re not stealing constantly, you’ll build that reputation back up through liberating camps, defeating enemies, completing bounties, and doing side quests. One bank heist isn’t going to ruin your standing.

Don’t Have a Mask or Keys? Here’s How to Get Both

If you can’t steal the gold bar because you don’t have a Mask, or you can’t open the bank’s locked side door because you don’t have a Key, you need to visit the fence merchant. Head to the Back Alley Shop run by Grimrak, located just southeast of Hernand, at the end of the main road closest to the river.

If you head east out of Hernand past the model castle on the left, then take a left down the track toward the river, you’ll find him. He sells:

• Mask – Costs 10 copper. Equip it from your inventory to enable stealing. Without it, the Steal option on items is greyed out. You can also get one free by completing the Jeffrey bounty quest at the Constabulary in northwest Hernand, or by looting one from dead bandits.
• Key – Costs 30 copper each. Used to open locked doors, including the bank vault. Grimrak sells a limited stock that restocks periodically. You can also find keys as loot drops from bandits or steal them from various locations around Hernand (there’s one on a cabinet in the Church of Hernand, and another in Oakenshield Manor).

Grimrak is also your guy for selling stolen goods, and there’s a Livestock Black Market right next to him for selling stolen animals. This little corner southeast of Hernand is basically your one-stop shop for all things criminal. You can find it on our Interactive Map.

Gold Bar Crimson Desert – Quick Summary

Here’s the full early money strategy in a nutshell:

1. Buy a Mask (10 copper) and a Key (30 copper) from Grimrak’s Back Alley Shop southeast of Hernand.

2. Head to Lioncrest Manor northwest of Hernand. Climb in through the back window and steal the gold bar from the fireplace.

3. Go to the bank. Open a strongbox account for 100 silver and invest the gold bar (500 silver) on a medium-risk strategy.

4. If you need quick silver for the bank account, rob the Hernand Bank vault room (30-50 silver from strongboxes and coin pouches).

5. Watch your investment grow and reinvest the returns. You’ve just set up passive income that’ll carry you through the rest of the game.

Total cost to get started: 10 copper (Mask) + 30 copper (Key) + 100 silver (bank account). Total return from the gold bar in Crimson Desert: at least 500 silver, with unlimited upside from investing. Not bad for a 15-minute heist.

More Crimson Desert Resources

If you’re tackling puzzles in Crimson Desert, check out our Dragon’s Stone Chamber Puzzle Guide and our Abyss Without Balance Quest and Puzzle Guide for full walkthroughs. Explore puzzle locations and secrets on our Interactive Map, and browse all of our walkthroughs on the Crimson Desert Guides page. Stay up to date with the latest gaming news on MetaForge and join our Discord community to discuss Crimson Desert and more!