Run failure / gear permanence / Purification
What happens to your gear when a run ends?
Crimson Moon separates temporary hunt power from equipment and upgrades that become part of your long-term arsenal. The line is Purification—and success matters.
The complete answer path
A run in five decisions
- 01
Prepare
Manage equipment, upgrades and unlocks at Sanctus Clypeus before choosing a hunt.
- 02
Enter a Ward
A Ward contains replayable missions, enemies, elites, secrets, loot and a boss encounter.
- 03
Adapt
Your build changes through discovered equipment and temporary Boons chosen during the run.
- 04
Spend the life pool
Deaths use the run's life pool. When it is exhausted, the run ends—there is no corpse recovery trip.
- 05
Secure the result
After a successful hunt, discovered equipment can be Purified and added to your permanent collection.
Carryover ledger
What stays and what ends with the hunt
| System | Status | What the source confirms |
|---|---|---|
| Purified gear | Permanent | Added to your collection and available at the Loadout Station before later hunts. |
| Upgrades & unlocked equipment | Permanent | Explicitly named as progression that carries forward. |
| Lore Scroll Boon unlocks | Future option | Return Lore Scrolls to Mereda to unlock additional Boons for later hunts. |
| Nexus Gate Boons | Run-only | Temporary Boons remain active for the rest of the current run. |
| Unsecured loot after failure | Not recovered | The developer says there is no return trip to recover lost loot when the life pool is exhausted. |
Permanent progress
Purification is the checkpoint
Discovering a strong weapon is not the same as permanently owning it. The confirmed sequence is: find equipment during a hunt, complete the hunt successfully, then Purify selected discoveries so they enter the collection used by future loadouts.
Evidence boundary: current sources do not safely publish every Purification cost, capacity rule or launch-day menu step. This guide does not invent them.
Failure state
No corpse run after the pool is empty
Death does not necessarily end the hunt immediately: the run is supported by a life pool. But once that pool is exhausted, the district fails and the run closes. In co-op, the pool is communal, so one partner's deaths move the whole team toward failure.
Not safe to assume yet
Launch-day unknowns
- The final number of lives at every difficulty.
- Exact Purification costs or how many items can be secured.
- Whether every mission type ends with the same return flow.
- Final balance, rarity odds and post-launch progression tuning.
Evidence register
Sources behind this answer
- How Runs Work in Crimson MoonDeveloper explanation of the hub, Wards, life pool, failure and permanent progression.
- Loot & Progression in Crimson MoonDeveloper explanation of Purification, the Loadout Station and difficulty rewards.
- How Builds Work in Crimson MoonDeveloper explanation of Nexus Gate Boons, Lore Scroll unlocks and permanent equipment.