Crimson Desert: Diving, Underwater Mounts, Islands and Treasure Maps in Charting the Unknown

30-second quick start (TL;DR)

• Dive now. No quest or chapter gates diving. Pre-order owners should claim the Charter’s Diving Set from Pause, Others, Add-ons first.
• Watch the lungs icon. The gauge drains while you are under; the number next to it is your depth. Surface or find an air pocket when it runs low.
• Stack breath gear. Helm and suit add 120 each with the Charter’s set; gloves and boots add swim speed. Refining the suit raises the cap further.
• Tame by type. Sharks attack, so subdue them. Rays, turtles and sunfish are fed. Trust high enough, and they register as mounts.
• Mounted controls on PS5: Barrier on R2, Ascend on Square, Descend on Circle, Dismount on Triangle.
• Deep water is gated. Entering some zones shows “Cannot enter this region” with a countdown. Turn around.
• Islands need a ship, three Deckhands and the ship parked inside the facility circle before the pioneer dispatch will start.
• Carry a shovel. New treasure maps lead to half-buried chests that will not open without one.

What this guide helps you do

The Great Ocean is the biggest thing in Charting the Unknown, and the first night’s forum traffic was all questions about it: how long you can stay under, how to catch the air pockets, how a great white becomes a mount, why the island dispatch is stuck at 100 percent, and whether the new treasure maps need the old shovel. This guide covers diving and the breath gauge, underwater mounts, the uncharted islands and their pioneer dispatches, and the new treasure maps and Relic Collector, with the facts Pearl Abyss published and the parts players have confirmed since.

For getting the ship itself and paying for it, see the ship guide. For what else the DLC unlocks and when, see how to start Charting the Unknown.

Requirements and prep

Diving itself has no prerequisite. Pearl Abyss’s own wording is that “no special conditions are required to dive underwater, but keep in mind that staying underwater consumes breath”. The coastline, some inland lakes and the whole Great Ocean got the underwater treatment, so you can test it from the first beach you reach.

Reaching the deeper dive sites, the islands and the open sea needs a ship, which comes from the Greymane faction quest A Wider World after the main quest Howling Hill and a camp expanded past a certain level. Its first sub-quest, A Call from Beyond the Horizon, gets you a vessel; the chain continues through Where the Wind Blows, A Beginning Beyond the Waves, Footsteps in Unfamiliar Lands and Secret of the Winding Island.

If you pre-ordered, Kliff and Oongka get Charter’s Diving Set and Damiane gets Charter’s Light Diving Set. Claim them from the pause menu under Others, then Add-ons, then Receive. On some PC copies they appear directly in the armour list. Each set is four pieces with the same stats: helm and suit add 120 maximum breath each, gloves and boots add 2 percent swim speed each. Everyone else crafts a diving suit, and refining it is the official route to a bigger breath cap.

The breath gauge: how long you can stay under

The gauge is a lungs icon with a depth readout beside it. It drains while you are submerged and refills at the surface or at an air pocket. Three things raise the cap: diving gear, refining the diving suit, and the new food items that temporarily restore breath. Pearl Abyss has not published the refinement materials or the food names yet, so for now the gear is what you control.

With the Charter’s helm and suit, players describe the gauge as generous: plenty of air, followed by several automatic full refills before it finally empties, plus the bubble pockets on top. One player timed the stacked helm and suit at close to five minutes underwater. Without gear, treat every dive as a short sortie.

Underwater movement is fully three-dimensional, and getting through small doorways in sunken ruins takes practice. Jellyfish sting, deep zones are region-locked with a countdown warning, and whirlpools pull you in, including a dragon rider who flew too close and was dragged under, although players describe the sequence as scary rather than lethal. Underwater discoveries land on the main world map rather than a separate layer, and the mount and pet summon indicators now show whether you are calling something to land, air or water.

The A.T.A.G gets new equipment that lets it operate underwater, turning it into something like a small submarine. Its name and recipe are not published yet.

Underwater mounts: subdue or feed

The patch notes say it plainly: “Depending on their type, underwater mounts can be subdued or fed to increase their Trust”, and once Trust is high enough they can be registered. That mirrors land taming, where you break a wild animal with Force Palm or win it over with food, then take it in at Trust 100. Pearl Abyss has not confirmed the exact threshold for sea creatures, so assume the land rule until someone proves otherwise.

Mounted, the controls shift: on PlayStation, R2 raises a barrier, Square ascends, Circle descends and Triangle dismounts. Each mount clears a different radius of map fog, so a fast open-water mount reveals more of the ocean per trip than a reef dweller. Where each species lives has not been documented; sharks are the common early find.

Step-by-step: your first hour at sea

Tick these off as you go. Your progress stays on this device.

1. 1Mark step 1 done

   Claim and equip diving gear

   Pause, Others, Add-ons, Receive for the Charter’s set, or craft a suit. Equip all four pieces for the breath and speed bonuses.

2. 2Mark step 2 done

   Dive off the nearest coast

   Learn the gauge in shallow water. Note how far the depth readout gets before the lungs icon goes red, and practise turning in three dimensions.

3. 3Mark step 3 done

   Find your first air pocket

   Swim into a ruin or sea cave and look for bubble columns. Touching one refills the gauge, which is how long dives are chained.

4. 4Mark step 4 done

   Subdue a shark

   Let it come to you, fight it as you would break a horse, then feed and interact until Trust is high enough to register it.

5. 5Mark step 5 done

   Get a ship through A Wider World

   Finish the faction quest’s first sub-quest for a vessel, then set a First Mate, Lookout and three Deckhands in port.

6. 6Mark step 6 done

   Sail to Auronui Island

   The first uncharted island. Clear the hostile camp, then park the ship inside the facility circle on the map.

7. 7Mark step 7 done

   Start the pioneer dispatch

   From the map’s Facilities tab, send three Deckhands with the required materials. The first dispatch asks for 12 hours and four stacks of materials. The crew builds a pier first.

8. 8Mark step 8 done

   Wait on the island, then Complete from the map

   Stay on the dock or the ship until the timer ends, then open Map, Facilities and press Complete. Doing it from camp or Pailune leaves the mission stuck at 100 percent.

9. 9Mark step 9 done

   Dig up the island’s treasure

   A treasure map in a cave on the first island leads to a half-buried chest. Aim the camera down and dig with a shovel to open it.

Uncharted islands and pioneer dispatches

Pearl Abyss added “several uncharted islands, which you can pioneer by taking on new missions”. They sit off the Delesyia coast, held by pirates and hostile tribes, and the ocean stretches from northern Delesyia to the southern edge of Hernand. Players have named three so far: Auronui, the first one the quest chain reaches, Samora Island, home of the pirate ship The Siren’s Cry in the Outlaws of the Ocean quest, and Winding Island, from the quest Secret of the Winding Island.

Pioneering is a dispatch like any other, with three rules that trip people up: the comrades must be assigned as the ship’s Deckhands, the ship must be inside the island’s facility circle when you start, and you should stay on the island until it completes. The Auronui dispatch asks for three members, 12 hours and four stacks of materials, and comrades with Farmer, Crafting, Cooking or Engineering skills are the ones it wants. The crew builds a pier first, then the settlement, and the island joins the Facilities tab like a leased stronghold.

Uncharted regions now show grey on the map, blockaded ones red, reconstructing ones light red and incidents yellow, and the map zooms out far enough to show that Pywel is itself an island.

Treasure maps and the Relic Collector

The DLC adds “multiple treasure maps that lets you search for hidden treasures scattered throughout the world”, on top of the dozen or so numbered maps the base game already had. Pearl Abyss gives no count and no locations, and no complete solution list exists yet. What is known from the first day: a map found in a cave on the first island leads to a chest half-buried in a dirt mound on the same island, and like the base game’s Buried Treasure quest, it only opens once you dig with a shovel. Aim the camera at the mound and press the dig input. The basic shovel is enough.

The game still gives no message when you reach the right spot, so read the map’s landmarks and search the ground for the mound. The old base-game waterfall map that nobody could solve is not mentioned in the patch notes, so assume it is unchanged.

The new Relic Collector NPC “exchanges relics obtained through exploration for various items”. Nobody has posted where he stands or what he trades, so hold onto relics from ruins and shipwrecks until the list is known. More items can also go in the Collectibles Chest, and insects get their own storage box with three new legendary species to catch.

Troubleshooting and common mistakes

• Mistake: Diving without gear and giving up. Fix: Claim the pre-order set or craft a suit, and chain air pockets until you have it.
• Mistake: Pre-order set missing from Add-ons. Fix: Restart, check the armour list, and on Xbox check Manage game and add-ons. Some console pre-orders are still missing it.
• Mistake: Trying to feed a shark. Fix: Sharks are the subdue type. Fight first, then feed.
• Mistake: Pioneer dispatch will not start. Fix: Assign the three comrades as Deckhands and park the ship inside the facility circle.
• Mistake: Dispatch stuck at 100 percent. Fix: Return to the island or the ship inside the ring, then open Map, Facilities and press Complete.
• Mistake: Chest will not open. Fix: It is buried. Aim down and dig with a shovel.
• Mistake: Sailing into a region with a countdown warning. Fix: It is gated. Turn back before the timer ends.
• Mistake: Flying over a whirlpool. Fix: It pulls mounts in from the air too. Give them a wide berth.

FAQ