How to Complete Trial After Trial in Crimson Desert and Read the Cow Memory Fragment

Trial After Trial is the 21st main quest in Crimson Desert, sitting inside the Chapter 2 sub-chapter "Hernand in Chaos." A farmer named Bremer has lost his cattle to bandits, and you need to track them down using a game mechanic that trips up a lot of players: reading a Memory Fragment with your lantern and the Visione helmet. Although the Visione was handed to you during the earlier Unexpected Gift quest, Trial After Trial is the first time you actually have to use it — and the game doesn't explain the process particularly well.

Quick answer: After clearing the bandit camp, walk to the center until your lantern pulses blue, raise it with CTRL (LB on controller), aim at the ghostly figures until the "learning" bar fills, then open the menu and equip the Visione to watch "The Missing Cow" memory. Return to Bremer to finish the quest.

Trial After Trial quest details

The quest has five objectives that flow in a straight line: speak with Bremer, bribe a witness, follow him on horseback, read the Memory Fragment at the bandit camp, and return to Bremer with the bad news.

Speak with Bremer

Head to the farm at the quest marker in Springtide Mill. Bremer is the man in a blue shirt — he'll be sitting down near the marker once any nearby strangers have moved on. Lock onto him and start the conversation. He'll explain that bandits stole his cattle, leaving him with nothing.

Speak to the witness

After Bremer finishes talking, a new marker appears down the road. The witness is a Herbalist standing on the corner. Lock onto him and interact, but be ready to part with one copper coin for the information. Once you pay up, he'll mount his horse and offer to lead you to where he last saw the bandits.

Follow the Herbalist on horseback

Call your horse and mount up. Hold the follow button to trail the Herbalist automatically. He'll ride you out to a bandit camp. When you arrive, you can use the "Look" prompt to scout the area ahead before engaging.

Clear the bandit camp

Approach the camp and take out every bandit inside. There's nothing especially tricky about this fight — standard combat will do. Once the last enemy drops, the game prompts you to "use your lantern where it reacts," which is where most players get stuck.

Read the memory on the cows' whereabouts

This is the core mechanic the quest teaches you, and it applies to every Memory Fragment you'll encounter while exploring the open world going forward. The process has two distinct phases: learning the fragment with your lantern, then playing it back with the Visione.

Step 1: Walk toward the center of the bandit camp. Watch for your lantern to start glowing blue and emitting a visible pulse. That blue glow is the universal signal that a Memory Fragment is nearby.

Step 2: Open the armed combat radial menu by pressing F2 on keyboard (or left on the D-pad on controller). Move the selection arrow to the right to equip your lantern.

Step 3: Raise the lantern by pressing CTRL on keyboard (LB on controller). Slowly look around the camp until you spot fluttering, ghostly blue shapes — these are the memory's echoes.

Step 4: Keep the lantern aimed directly at the figures. A "learning" progress bar will fill up. Hold steady until it completes. The memory you're learning is called "The Missing Cow."

Step 5: Once learning finishes, press ESC on keyboard (the menu/start button on controller) to open the sidebar. Select the bottom icon on the right to equip the Visione and watch the memory play out. Alternatively, you can open your inventory, find the Visione, and manually choose to play the memory from there.

Return to Bremer

After the memory ends, head back to Bremer at the quest marker. One thing that confuses players here: the marker initially stays pinned to the bandit camp because the game wants you to mount your horse Hesperia before riding back. Grab your horse and follow the marker to Bremer to deliver the news and complete the quest.

Bandit camp tip worth remembering

The camp you just cleared contains an anvil and a sharpening wheel. These let you restore your armor and weapons to perfect condition, which directly buffs your defense and attack values. It's worth marking this location on your map — look at the campfire and the icon will persist. Before any difficult boss fight later in the game, fast-travel back here to top off your gear. You can reach the camp quickly by skydiving from the sky island directly above it.

Later stages of Trial After Trial

The quest doesn't end with Bremer's cows. Trial After Trial continues with two additional segments that reuse the same lantern-and-Visione loop, reinforcing the mechanic before the game cuts you loose.

The Man Trapped in the Mire: You'll meet an enraged man named Ibano whose house was robbed by brigands. Travel to their location, defeat them, then shine your lantern on the crates to learn the "Hornless Goat" Memory Fragment. After watching the memory through the Visione, grab the elixir sitting on a rock near the crates and bring it back to Ibano.

Secrets Hidden in the Dark: A character called the Graymane leads you on horseback to a third group of brigands. Clear them out and enter a cave where the stolen animals — mostly dead — are being held. Aim your lantern near the large cow next to the cells to learn the final fragment. Before you leave, loot the cave for free meat and animal skins. Once you exit, a cutscene plays as the villagers arrive to reclaim their goods and, surprisingly, some livestock that's still alive. After the scene ends, speak with the guards about the Goldleaf Merchants to wrap up the quest chain.

Trial After Trial is fundamentally a tutorial for one of Crimson Desert's most important exploration mechanics. Once you've internalized the lantern-pulse-to-Visione pipeline here, you'll be able to pick up scattered Memory Fragments across the entire open world without missing a beat — and some of them contain information that's far more valuable than the fate of a few missing cows.