Crimson Desert DLC Unlock Requirements: What to Finish First

The prerequisite row finally has an answer

Our Charting the Unknown price and contents guide includes a ledger of what Pearl Abyss had not said. One row read "Story or level prerequisite: Not published." On October 20, 2026 at 23:00 UTC, Pearl Abyss published it. The notice is titled "Charting the Unknown DLC Features Overview," it opens with a link to a new video, and its main section is headed "Content Overview & Prerequisites." For most of the features it covers, it names the base-game gate.

The gates fall into three tiers. Diving needs nothing. The ocean storyline, ships and the new housing need Chapter 3 progress. Three pieces wait until you have finished the main story: the character storylines, the castles and the boss gauntlet.

Steam's global achievement stats, read on October 23, show how that lands. 58.4% of Steam players have Master Camper, whose description is "Complete the activation of the camp at Howling Hill." 10.7% have Expert Storyteller: "Complete all main quests." Both figures count Steam accounts, not saves, and do not separate active players from lapsed ones. Still, the gap is the point of this guide. On those numbers, a majority of Steam players have already passed the Chapter 3 camp gate, and roughly nine in ten have not reached the ending tier.

Charting the Unknown launches October 29, 2026 at 22:00 UTC; Pearl Abyss moved it there from October 15 in a September 30 notice. That leaves six days from this post's date. This is what to do with them.

Every gate, feature by feature

Requirements are quoted or closely paraphrased from Pearl Abyss's October 20 notice. The right-hand column places each gate in the base game, with its source named in the sections below.

Pearl Abyss also says "additional details will also be shared via patch notes on the day of release," so this table may get more specific on October 29.

The Chapter 3 tier: camp first, then Luke

The ocean story. Pearl Abyss puts "Howling Hill" in quotation marks and calls it part of "the main story." Game8's chapter list has Chapter 3: Howling Hill. Neither Game8 nor Fextralife's main-quest list has a quest by that name, so read the gate as "finish Chapter 3." Our chapters guide covers what else that chapter hands you.

The camp. The ship-building questline opens "after you have set up your Greymane Camp at Howling Hill." Fextralife's Howling Hill page says the camp is set up there as a reward for beating the Hornsplitter, and Steam's Master Camper achievement fires when its activation is complete. If your housing never unlocked when you raised the camp banner, check your version. Patch 2.02.00 on September 11 fixed housing not becoming available "when raising the banner at Howling Hill Camp while the inventory was full." The base game has been on 2.03.02 since September 23.

Luke's Request. This gate is a faction quest, not a story beat, and Fextralife files faction quests as optional. Its quest page lists Luke's Request as a Greymanes quest at Howling Hill. It opens after Secure Resources: Luke asks you to place a flower basket in the old house on the hill. The reward is a Medium Bag, 50 Greymane Contribution EXP and 50 Trust with Luke. Fextralife notes that "you need to use Kliff to progress this Faction Quest," and Pearl Abyss's own Known Issues notice backs up the warning: its September 21 revision still lists "Greymane faction quests cannot be progressed while playing as Damiane or Oongka." Switch to Kliff before you start. The full walkthrough of that quest and of decoration mode is in our housing guide.

Two more details are worth knowing. Per the notice, finishing Luke's Request gives you "access to both the regular and upgraded housing system," so the old decoration mode is not replaced. And per Fextralife, Luke's Request is the quest that unlocks Expanding the Camp, which matters for the camp-visit gate below.

Two ways to get a ship

The notice gives two routes once the ship-building questline is done:

• Build one "by sending your comrades on a ship-building dispatch mission at a port."
• Buy one "from a Fleet Office manager."

The first route draws on the same comrades as the rest of your camp's dispatch economy. Our comrades guide covers recruiting more Greymanes. Pearl Abyss has not said how many comrades the mission takes, what it costs, which ports offer it, or where the Fleet Office is.

The credits tier: three things wait for the ending

Three of the notice's headline features carry an end-of-campaign gate:

• Three new storylines, one each for Kliff, Oongka and Damiane. "After completing the main story, these stories can be started through the Journal menu."
• Greymane Castles. "Three specific castles are available for you to claim." You complete the main story and "relevant quests," then liberate each stronghold to unlock the missions that hand you the castle. You can then decorate its courtyards and interiors. Pearl Abyss does not name the three castles. Our Re-blockade guide covers how stronghold liberation works.
• Garden of Trials, "accessed after clearing the main questline" (below).

If your save is mid-campaign, none of these will be waiting for you on October 29. The October 20 notice puts no time limit on any of them.

What counts as finishing the main story

Pearl Abyss uses three phrasings in one notice: "completing the main story," "complete the main story" and "clearing the main questline." None of them says where the line is, and Crimson Desert's ending has two steps.

Steam's Expert Storyteller is described as "Complete all main quests." Console Pulse's Epilogue walkthrough says the achievement pops at A New Beginning. That is the first of eight quests in Epilogue: Journey's End, and seven farewell quests are still open when it appears. The 2.00.00 notes use the same "after completing all main quests" wording for carrying Abyss Links into a new game, and they do not draw the line either.

The safe read is to clear all eight Epilogue quests before you go looking for a castle. If the gate turns out to be A New Beginning, you have lost nothing.

One more thing the notice does not cover is new games. Since 2.00.00, a finished save can carry Abyss Links and other currency into a new one (our Abyss Link guide has the details). Nothing in the October 20 notice says that carry-over also carries the DLC's story gate, so plan on a fresh save needing its own run to the ending.

Garden of Trials pays where Rematch does not

Pearl Abyss calls Garden of Trials "a new combat-focused content where you face off against bosses you've encountered throughout your adventures in Pywel, one after another." Then comes the line that separates it from the base game's boss refights: "completing this challenge will grant you special rewards."

That is the opposite of the existing system. Rematch, added in 1.05.00, has its rule in the patch notes: "no separate loot can be obtained," and our Rematch guide found no patch through 2.03.02 that changed it. A gauntlet that pays out is new.

One wording match is worth noting without reading too much into it. Pearl Abyss's June 2 roadmap promised "a new combat-focused content" letting players "prove their true strength as a Greymane," as part of its June-to-September update plan, with no name attached. That same June notice mentioned the DLC separately, as something it could not detail yet. The October 20 notice uses the same "a new combat-focused content" phrasing for Garden of Trials, but files it under Charting the Unknown. Pearl Abyss has not said whether they are the same item, or whether players who don't buy the DLC get any version of it.

Diving needs nothing but breath

Diving is the one feature the notice explicitly calls ungated. Per the notice, Kliff, Oongka and Damiane can all dive, and below the waves you find "ruins, treasure chests, and new creatures and mounts." The only limit Pearl Abyss names is air: "staying underwater consumes breath," and items or gear "such as a diving suit" extend your time down there.

That line touches the pre-order bonus. Pre-orders come with the Charter's Diving Set for Kliff and Oongka and the Charter's Light Diving Set for Damiane, and Pearl Abyss's DLC page and pre-order notice still do not say whether those sets do anything. Neither does the October 20 notice. It talks about diving suits in general, not about the Charter's sets, so treat a functional pre-order suit as possible rather than confirmed.

Romance, camp visits and rented businesses

Romance is confirmed. All three playable characters can "form even deeper bonds with some of Pywel's inhabitants," and building trust "may eventually blossom into romance and even marriage." "Some" means the pool is limited, and the notice gives no number or names. The notice states no story gate for it.

That settles one open question from September. Our regional restriction explainer covered one outlet's theory that a romance system was why the DLC was pulled from storefronts in the UAE, at a time when no romance system had been announced. Pearl Abyss's DLC page still does not use the word. The romance system now exists on Pearl Abyss's own notice board. The reason for the regional restriction still does not. The October 20 notice says nothing about markets, and the revised pre-order notice still names none.

Camp visits. Friends you have grown close to "may visit and spend time with you" once the camp is "upgraded to a certain level." No level is given, so pushing camp expansions now is a cheap hedge. The camp-growth loop is in our camp guide. The section is headed "Romance and Festivals," but its text never describes a festival.

Management. You can "rent and manage different businesses, from a restaurant in Vellua to a smithy at Zargan Tankworks," reached from the world map. Vellua is the coastal village south of Hernand that the Fextralife and Fandom wikis both describe as famous for its fish. The gate is two-part: the faction quest that liberates the facility's region, and a finished camp setup. Pearl Abyss names those two businesses as examples, not a full list.

Twitch Drops start at launch

A second notice, posted October 22 at 02:30 UTC, announces a two-week Twitch Drops event that begins with the DLC. The rewards include "various equipment, a pet, and customizable parts for your ship." The ownership rule matters: Week 1 rewards can be claimed and used by anyone who owns Crimson Desert Enhanced, while Week 2 rewards can only be used by DLC owners.

Go by the UTC line. The notice gives Week 1's Pacific end as "November 5, 15:59 PT," but 23:59 UTC on November 4 is 15:59 PST on November 4, because US daylight time ends on November 1. The CET and KST lines agree with UTC, and so does Week 2's Pacific start of November 4 at 16:00. Only the Week 1 Pacific end does not, so a Pacific viewer who saves Week 1 for November 5 would find it already over.

What the notice does not give is the split: which week pays the pet and which pays the ship parts. The image embedded in the notice, placed right after the reward line, returned an access error when we loaded it on October 23. The "View Event Page" button is marked "(Coming Soon)." If you have the base game but not the DLC, Week 1 is the half you can use, and Pearl Abyss has not yet published what is in it.

When it unlocks

One global moment: 22:00 UTC on Thursday, October 29, 2026.

Pearl Abyss's notices list Europe, North America and Asia; the UK row is converted from UTC. The notices also disagree on one label. The revised pre-order notice and the Twitch Drops notice print CET. The September 30 date notice and the October 20 Features Overview still print "23:00 (CEST)." European summer time ends on Sunday, October 25, so CET is correct. The instant is the same either way.

Check your drive before then. Steam's system requirements, read on October 23, list 50 GB of available space for Charting the Unknown and 180 GB for Crimson Desert Enhanced, on both Windows and macOS. The DLC's listing does not say whether its 50 GB comes on top of the base game's figure. Clearing 50 GB of SSD space before launch day covers you either way. Console storefronts were not checked for this post.

What I could not verify

• Where "the main story" ends for the DLC's gates: Expert Storyteller at A New Beginning, or all eight Epilogue quests.
• Which three castles can be claimed, which strongholds they sit in, and whether a claimed castle can be retaken when Re-blockade is switched on.
• Ship details: the comrade count and cost of the dispatch mission, which ports run it, and where the Fleet Office manager is.
• Romance scope: how many characters, whether any have a story gate, and what camp level brings visitors.
• Which regions host rentable businesses beyond Vellua and Zargan Tankworks.
• Garden of Trials roster and rewards, whether it is the June roadmap's combat content, and whether non-DLC owners get any of it.
• What the Charter's Diving Sets do.
• The Twitch Drops reward split between Week 1 and Week 2, and how to claim them.
• Whether the DLC's 50 GB on Steam is in addition to the base game's 180 GB, and what the console download sizes are.

Quick Action Checklist

• Patch. The base game is on 2.03.02 (September 23). If housing never unlocked after you raised the camp banner, 2.02.00 fixed the full-inventory cause.
• Finish Chapter 3 for the ocean storyline. The camp setup alone opens the ship-building questline.
• Do Luke's Request as Kliff. It needs Secure Resources first, and it is the gate for the upgraded housing.
• Recruit Greymanes now. One of the two ship routes is a comrade dispatch mission at a port.
• Push camp expansions. Visits from friends you have grown close to need a camp level Pearl Abyss has not named.
• Liberate regions if you want to rent businesses there, such as the Vellua restaurant.
• Finish the main story, Epilogue included, before you look for the three castles, the three character storylines or the Garden of Trials.
• Don't wait to dive. There is no gate, but breath runs out, so pack a diving suit.
• Watch Twitch from 22:00 UTC on October 29 if you want the drops. Week 1 ends at 23:59 UTC on November 4 and works without the DLC. Week 2 runs to November 11 and needs it.
• Free up 50 GB. That is the DLC's Steam storage figure. The base game's Steam listing now says 180 GB.
• Read the launch-day patch notes. Pearl Abyss says more detail lands with them.