Crimson Desert Charting the Unknown arrives on October 29, and the most useful thing to know before then is that most of it sits behind the main story. Pearl Abyss published a features overview notice on October 20 that lays out what each part of the DLC asks of you first, so if you’re still mid-campaign, you’ve got a week to catch up. It unlocks at 3pm PT (6pm ET) on October 29 and costs $24.99 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S and Steam at the time of writing.
What to finish before October 29
If you’ve beaten the main story and set up the Greymane Camp at Howling Hill, nearly everything will be waiting for you on day one. If you haven’t, two checkpoints do most of the work. Completing Howling Hill opens the ocean side of the expansion, and the end of the main story opens the new character stories, the castles and the boss rush.
| Feature | What you need first |
|---|---|
| Kliff, Oongka and Damiane stories | Finish the main story, then start them from the Journal |
| Ocean storyline | Complete “Howling Hill” in the main story |
| Diving | Nothing, though gear that stretches your breath helps |
| Your own ship | Set up the Greymane Camp at Howling Hill, then clear the related questline |
| Camp visitors | Upgrade the Greymane Camp (Pearl Abyss hasn’t said to what level) |
| Upgraded housing | Camp at Howling Hill, plus Luke’s Request in the “Grounds of the Sunrise” faction quest |
| Greymane Castles | Finish the main story and related quests, then liberate each stronghold |
| Management businesses | Liberate the region through its faction quest and finish setting up your camp |
| Garden of Trials boss rush | Finish the main questline |
Sailing and diving
Diving is the one thing you can do straight away. Kliff, Oongka and Damiane can all head underwater to find ruins, treasure chests, and new creatures and mounts, but every dive eats into your breath, so a diving suit or the right items will keep you down longer. Pre-orders come with the Charter’s Diving Set and Charter’s Light Diving Set, which covers that nicely. If you already own Crimson Desert Enhanced, the PlayStation Store listing also takes 10% off the pre-order price.
A ship takes more effort. Once your camp is up at Howling Hill, a questline opens that lets you either send comrades on a ship-building dispatch mission from a port or simply buy a vessel from a Fleet Office manager. After that, the Great Ocean of Pywel is yours to sail, with islands to fight across and new strongholds to set up alongside your Greymanes.
Building a life in Pywel
The quieter half of the DLC is about putting down roots. Build enough trust with certain characters and it can turn into romance and even marriage, and once the Greymane Camp is upgraded far enough, the friends you’ve grown close to start dropping by.
Housing gets a proper overhaul too. You’ll be able to lay out a home from the foundation up, deciding where the walls and windows go, and three castles can be claimed and decorated, inside and out, after you liberate them.
Then there’s Management. You can rent businesses around Pywel, from a restaurant in Vellua to a smithy at Zargan Tankworks, staff them with comrades and equipment, and choose what goes on sale. Each one appears on the world map once you’ve freed its region through the faction quest and finished setting up camp.
Garden of Trials
For the fighters, the Garden of Trials sends bosses you’ve met on your travels at you one after another, with special rewards for getting through. It’s end-game content, so it stays locked until the main questline is done.
When it unlocks
Charting the Unknown goes live Thursday, October 29 at 3pm PT (6pm ET). That’s 10pm UTC (11pm CEST) in Europe and 7am Friday in Korea and Japan. Pre-orders are open on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Steam and the Epic Games Store, and Pearl Abyss says full patch notes will follow on release day. If you missed why it slipped from mid-October, our Charting the Unknown delay story has the details.
Still short of Howling Hill? That’s the one to push for this week, because it’s the key to the whole ocean half of the expansion.