Crimson Desert's first big expansion is out. Charting the Unknown is available now on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox on PC with Xbox Play Anywhere support, Pearl Abyss announced on Xbox Wire on October 29, with new storylines, an ocean to explore and a boss rush.
It isn't an Xbox exclusive, either. PC Gamer's launch-time guide lists a simultaneous global release, at 3pm PDT on October 29 in the US, 10pm GMT in the UK and 9am AEDT on October 30 here in Australia. The guide also says preloading was only available on PlayStation, and that the expansion needs 50GB of storage on top of a base game PC Gamer puts at 135GB. Steam lists it as an add-on that requires Crimson Desert Enhanced.
What's actually in it
The headline features, per Pearl Abyss's Xbox Wire post:
- Three new storylines, one each for Kliff, Oongka and Damiane, each heading off on their own path.
- The ocean. You can dive into an underwater world with ruins, treasure chests, and new creatures and mounts, and build your own ship to sail across what the post calls the Great Ocean of Pywel.
- Relationships. Deeper bonds with some of Pywel's residents "may eventually blossom into romance and even marriage".
- Housing and castles. The upgraded housing system lets you build a house from the ground up, and liberated castles can become yours, with courtyards and interiors to decorate.
- Small business mode. You can lease facilities such as a restaurant or a smithy and run them yourself.
- Garden of Trials, a combat challenge where you face bosses you've already met on your travels, one after another. Boss rush, in other words.
That's a lot of systems for one expansion. Some are combat, some are about settling down and running a restaurant. PC Gamer describes Charting the Unknown as the game's first full-fledged DLC, arriving about seven months after the base game, and says it comes after an earlier delay.
The free trial is the sneaky useful bit
If you've never touched Crimson Desert, the expansion isn't really the news for you. The trial is.
Xbox players can try Crimson Desert Enhanced for five hours, free, starting October 29. There's a wrinkle: the Xbox Wire post gives two different end dates. The summary at the top says the trial runs through January 7, 2027, while the body text says January 6. Either way, you've got into early January, but if you're planning to cut it fine, assume the earlier date.
Crimson Desert Enhanced is the version of the base game that now includes the post-launch updates. According to Xbox Wire, that includes new cutscenes and story moments plus expanded voice-over and language support, and it's listed at $69.99 on the store. The post doesn't say whether trial progress carries over if you buy, so don't count on it until Xbox or Pearl Abyss confirms it.
What the post also doesn't give is a price for Charting the Unknown itself. Steam sells it as a separate add-on that needs Crimson Desert Enhanced to run, so treat it as a paid expansion on top of the base game, and check your store of choice for the local price.
What's next
Nothing beyond this expansion is confirmed in the post. No further DLC is announced, and there's no word on the trial coming to other platforms. If you want in, the window is now until early January for the trial, and the expansion is live on Xbox and listed on Steam.
Jax's take: The boss rush and the boat are the obvious draws, but the free trial is the part I'd point people at. Five hours is long enough to work out whether Pywel's sprawl is your thing before you drop $69.99 on it, and that's exactly the kind of try-before-you-buy more big open-world games should offer. Just set a reminder for January 6, not the 7th. Better a day early than locked out on the last day.
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