Crimson Desert’s first paid expansion, Charting the Unknown, is live as of 6 PM Eastern tonight on Steam, PlayStation, Xbox and the Epic Games Store, priced at $24.99 on Steam. Pearl Abyss published the full patch notes for version 2.04.00 at the same moment, and under the ships, castles and marriage features sits a line worth reading before you buy. A save file created while the DLC is installed cannot be loaded, or used for cross-save, on a version of the game that does not include it. Play one session with the expansion and that save belongs to it on every platform you own.
DLC saves are locked to DLC copies, and Mac players need a full redownload
The save lock is listed under “New Additions” in the notes without further detail, so it is not yet clear whether an old pre-DLC save can be restored by uninstalling the expansion. The practical reading is simple: if you share saves between a PC with the DLC and a console without it, cross-save stops working the moment you load that file with the expansion active.
The rollout is also uneven on Mac. The Steam PC, Steam Mac, PlayStation, Xbox and Epic Games Store patches are all available now, while the Mac App Store build is marked “at a later time (in-progress)”. Pearl Abyss says “technical adjustments applied to the Mac build” mean players on Steam Mac and the Mac App Store have to download the full-size game package once for this update.
Ships, diving and uncharted islands open after the Howling Hill camp
The ocean content starts with a new quest, “A Wider World”, which unlocks after the “Howling Hill” main quest and after your Greymane camp reaches a certain level. Ships are a new mount type, built through a dispatch mission or bought from fleetmasters around Pywel, with customisation parts sold in Demeniss and Delesyia. They also carry maritime trading, with new trade goods added for sea routes.
Diving runs on a new breath gauge. A refined diving suit raises your maximum breath, food items restore it temporarily, and a new piece of equipment lets the A.T.A.G operate underwater. Underwater mounts are tamed the way land mounts are, by subduing or feeding them until their Trust is high enough to register. Several uncharted islands can be pioneered through new missions, and multiple treasure maps point at loot scattered across the world.
Two castles, 17 residences, and a marriage system where breaking up has a cost
The notes list two castles you can decorate, where Pearl Abyss’s pre-launch overview had suggested three. Drakesfall Castle is awarded after “Journey’s End” and liberating its stronghold, and the Flame Knight’s Castle after Damiane’s quest “Politician” and the same liberation step. The upgraded housing system, with a Free Construction mode for placing walls and windows yourself, opens after Luke’s Request in the “Grounds of the Sunrise” faction quests once the Howling Hill camp is set up.
Liberated strongholds can now be rented and run as a restaurant, sawmill, smithy or tailor’s shop from a new Facilities tab on the map. They keep operating while you are away, and special guests may visit. Camp festivals invite NPCs you have built trust with, speed up further trust gains, and let you hire some visitors as “Honorary Greymanes” for dispatch missions.
Romance is a new trust tier reached through “Interact” then “Flirt”, with “Gift” and “Chat” each able to raise it once a day. At 100 you can propose. The catch is that flirting with an NPC as one playable character lowers their trust with the other two, so Kliff, Oongka and Damiane cannot all court the same person. Witches require their sanctum quest first. A spouse gets a map icon, travels with you, sends gifts, and can have their appearance changed at a barber shop. Breaking up afterwards is allowed, but the notes say it “comes at a cost”. Seventeen residences, built through dispatch missions, give a spouse somewhere to live. A dice minigame, “Banker’s Dice”, is also new in Demeniss and Delesyia.
Garden of Trials is a ten-group gauntlet with no food healing
The expansion’s endgame combat is the “Garden of Trials”, near the Axiom Archive Abyss, open after “Journey’s End”. It has ten groups to clear, taken on with up to three characters in the order you choose. Food cannot be used for recovery, and when one character falls the next in line continues the fight. Each group cleared enhances one of your existing skills. New armor, weapons, mount and pet equipment and Abyss gear arrive alongside new bosses, some of which can be rematched using Memory Fragments. The three character epilogues for Kliff, Oongka and Damiane appear in the Journal after the main story.
DLSS upscaling now pairs with FSR frame generation, and frying pans are weapons
The notes do not mark each line as paid or free. Pearl Abyss said before launch that a base-game patch ships for every owner at the same time, and the changes below sit in the general improvements sections rather than under the expansion headings. Upscaling and frame generation can now be selected separately, so DLSS upscaling can run with FSR frame generation. Life skill tools, including the frying pan, ladle, pan lid, jar lid and kitchen knife, can be used in combat. Barber shops have been added to major cities and work regardless of camp, Greymane outfits can be changed at the Comrade Dispatch Tent for camp resources, item stack sizes are higher across the board, and trade routes now always show on a map that zooms out further than before.
In combat, the “Counter” animation and effects are improved, and Oongka’s Scatter Shot and Damiane’s Shield Toss start up faster. Kliff’s Aerial Swing bug after linking Axiom Force to terrain is fixed. The “Efficiency” Abyss Gear changes from a chance to save one material to a flat percentage reduction in materials consumed. And the spawn rate of Golden Apple Hedgehogs has been reduced.
That last line drew the loudest groan in the r/CrimsonDesert patch thread, where the top reply called the barber shops “life changing”, another saw the frying pan and declared “time for a new build”, and one player noted the absence of any LOD or lighting fixes. Known issues are tracked in a separate Pearl Abyss notice.
[Updates] Patch Notes Version 2.04.00
byu/DynoBoxer inCrimsonDesert
