Pearl Abyss is taking Crimson Desert out to sea. Charting the Unknown is the game’s first paid expansion, and it bolts an entire maritime layer onto Pywel: a ship you captain yourself, islands off the coast, and diving sections that drop Kliff beneath the waves. It also brings a rebuilt housing system, new story content for Kliff, Oongka, and Damiane, and a set of new bosses on both land and seabed.
Quick answer: Charting the Unknown launches October 15, 2026 for $24.99 / £19.99 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, and requires Crimson Desert Enhanced to play. Pre-order on any storefront before launch to lock in the Charter’s Diving Set for Kliff and Oongka, plus the Charter’s Light Diving Set for Damiane.
Release time: October 15, 2026 at 22:00 UTC (3:00PM PT / 6:00PM ET)
Release times by region and platform
The DLC unlocks at the same global moment, which lands on different calendar days depending on where you are. Europe and Asia technically roll over into October 16 local time.
| Region | Unlock time |
|---|---|
| Europe | October 15 at 22:00 UTC (00:00 CEST on October 16) |
| North America | October 15 at 15:00 PT / 18:00 ET |
| Asia | October 16 at 7:00 KST/JST |
Charting the Unknown ships on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam, the Epic Games Store, and the Microsoft Store. It will not be available on the Mac App Store at launch, and Pearl Abyss says a separate announcement will follow if a Mac release is planned later.
Price, pre-order bonus, and what you need to own
The expansion costs $24.99 in the US and £19.99 in the UK. It is not standalone content — you need the base game upgraded to Crimson Desert Enhanced for it to run. Existing owners of Crimson Desert get that Enhanced upgrade free, so most players already have the prerequisite covered.
Pre-orders opened on September 3, starting with the PlayStation Store at 3:00PM UTC and followed by Steam, the Epic Games Store, and the Microsoft Store at 9:00PM UTC. Everyone who pre-orders gets the same cosmetic bundle, which ties directly into the new diving gameplay.
- Charter’s Diving Set — for Kliff and Oongka
- Charter’s Light Diving Set — for Damiane
Ship navigation and ocean travel
The headline addition is naval traversal. You take command of your own ship, steer it yourself, and sail out past Pywel’s coastline to reach islands that were previously off the map. Pearl Abyss frames it as adventure extending beyond the shore rather than a fast-travel shortcut, and the trailer footage shows extended sailing sequences to remote destinations.
Land travel expands too. A drill-fronted tank vehicle appears in the footage, moving across both desert terrain and water, alongside enlarged desert stretches and new island zones.
Underwater diving, sunken ruins, and marine encounters
Once you are on the water, you can go under it. Swimming and diving are new to the game here, complete with diving suits and an underwater jetpack for propulsion. The seabed hides treasures, sunken ruins, and what Pearl Abyss describes as hidden mysteries — one of the four new story threads is an ancient secret beneath the waves.
Marine life is interactive rather than scenery. The reveal footage shows Kliff grabbing hold of a shark and riding it through open water, which doubles as a traversal option down there.
The full reveal trailer runs through the sailing and diving sequences alongside the new regions:
Upgraded housing mode and facility management
Housing gets a substantial rework under the banner of “A Richer Life in Pywel.” You can build a fortress of your own, place walls to carve out rooms, and decorate the interior. Alongside that, you can rent and manage a range of facilities across Pywel as an income source.
Staffing sits on top of that system. You hire NPCs and assign them to roles — cooks are the example shown — through a management screen that lists each worker’s skills before you slot them into a job.
Social interaction is folded into the same pillar. Pearl Abyss says you can talk with the people of Pywel to forge deeper bonds, and the trailer shows Kliff handing flowers to the Red Witch. The studio has not detailed how far that relationship system goes.
New story content for Kliff, Oongka, and Damiane
The expansion picks up after the base game’s ending and splits into four narrative strands: an ominous presence in the desert, a dangerous political conflict, a journey beyond time, and the underwater secret. Each of the three leads gets their own missions, with Oongka shown researching engine blueprints in one sequence.
Follow Kliff, Oongka, and Damiane as they forge their own paths forward, discover their purpose, and shape their destinies.
New enemies and boss fights
Threats appear on land and at sea, and Pearl Abyss is positioning them as some of the game’s most demanding fights so far. Three stand out in the footage: a towering robot firing lasers, an elf-like enemy with cannons for arms, and a large mechanical dragon construct. Enormous machines also lurk in the underwater zones, so the diving suit is not just for treasure hunting.
New weapons and armor kits arrive with these encounters, giving you something to chase beyond the story beats.
PC requirements and storage
On Steam, the expansion is listed as a single-player action-adventure with support for 15 languages. Make sure you have the space cleared before launch day, because the storage requirement is steep.
| Requirement | Minimum |
|---|---|
| OS | 64-bit Windows 10 |
| Memory | 16GB RAM |
| Storage | 150GB on an SSD |
| DRM | Third-party Denuvo Anti-tamper |
The store listing also carries an AI content disclosure. Pearl Abyss states that generative AI is used in a supplementary capacity while creating some 2D prop assets, and that those assets are replaced by the art and development teams through the studio’s production pipeline. The content is rated as violent with depictions of gore.
Crimson Desert launched in March and has moved fast since, with cross-save support, narrative patches, and the Enhanced update all landing before the calendar year was out. Charting the Unknown arriving less than seven months after release fits that pace, and at $24.99 it is a straightforward proposition for anyone who finished Kliff’s story and wants to know what is past the coastline. The one thing to check before October 15 is that your copy has been upgraded to Enhanced, since nothing in the expansion runs without it.
