Crimson Desert

44:44 Crimson Desert is Pearl Abyss's single-player open-world action-adventure, released Mar 19, 2026 (Mar 20 in Asia) on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC and Mac, in which Kliff sets out across the continent of Pywel to rebuild his mercenary band, the Greymanes. Since Aug 25, 2026 it is Crimson Desert Enhanced, a free update for every owner, and its first DLC, Charting the Unknown, arrives on Oct 29, 2026 at 22:00 UTC (3 p.m. PT). This stretch of Pearl Abyss's "50 Minutes of Early Gameplay", footage from a 2024 pre-release build, shows the two halves of the game: Kliff crosses sunny grassland on foot with the minimap at the bottom left of the screen, then fights a band of enemies in a reed marsh beside a camp, trading sword-and-shield blows, setting off a red burst of a skill and knocking his foes down into the water.

Latest highlights

Updated Oct 21, 2026.

• The DLC's features, detailed. In a Features Overview on Oct 20, 2026, Pearl Abyss said Charting the Unknown adds three new stories, one each for Kliff, Oongka and Damiane, started from the Journal after the main story, plus an ocean storyline that opens after "Howling Hill" in the main story; romance and marriage, three Greymane castles to claim, businesses to rent and the Garden of Trials, a run of rematches against bosses (Pearl Abyss on Steam). More
• Out Oct 29 at 22:00 UTC. Charting the Unknown unlocks on Oct 29, 2026 at 22:00 UTC (3 p.m. PT, 6 p.m. ET), Oct 30 at 07:00 in Korea and Japan, two weeks later than first announced: Pearl Abyss moved it on Sep 30, 2026 for "a more polished and stable gameplay experience" (notice). More
• Golden Joystick voting ends Oct 23. Crimson Desert is nominated for PC Game of the Year and Best Soundtrack at the Golden Joystick Awards 2026, Pearl Abyss announced on Oct 8, 2026 (notice). More
• Latest patch: 2.03.02. The newest update is the 2.03.02 hotfix of Sep 23, 2026, after 2.03.00 on Sep 18 added 1,000 or more silver for a new game started from an existing save (patch notes); Pearl Abyss says more details come in patch notes on the DLC's release day. More

Quick facts

What Crimson Desert is

Crimson Desert is a story-led, single-player action-adventure in a large open world, sold once with no subscription. Steam's description sums it up: "Join Kliff on his journey to rebuild the Greymane faction and to save the land from a looming threat." It plays offline after the first setup, which downloads the day-one patch (Pearl Abyss's FAQ, Mar 12, 2026). New players should start with the Beginner's Guide; the How Long to Beat page gathers the press's estimates of its length, which Pearl Abyss has never given.

It is not an MMO and has no multiplayer or co-op. Pearl Abyss presented it as an open-world MMORPG when it was revealed in 2019, but it became a single-player game; in its Aug 11, 2026 earnings letter the company said it is "conducting extensive research" on multiplayer, which is "far more complex than simply adding a new game mode" (2Q26 earnings letter).

Story

0:59 The Story begins with a night ambush: the Black Bears, the Greymanes' "sworn enemies", fall on their camp and leave the band "dead or scattered across the continent", and Kliff, "having lost his family in all but name", sets out to reunite the survivors (Steam's premise). IGN's 13 minutes of gameplay, from an Aug 2025 pre-release build, shows the kind of mission that follows: in a besieged castle in Hernand a soldier reports "we've lost another outpost to the Black Bears", Kliff learns that a comrade is holding out in the keep, and he is told he will "need to use the cannons" against the watchtowers the enemy has built before he can reach him. The story runs through a prologue, 12 chapters and an epilogue, according to Game Rant's chapter list (Main Quests and Chapters).

Along the way Kliff meets "those who seek to upend the very order of the continent". Reviewers called the story the weak part of the game, and the Enhanced update added cutscenes in response (Crimson Desert Enhanced).

Pywel and the Abyss

19:03 Pywel is a continent of "green plains and woods to arid deserts and rugged mountains", with cities, hamlets and ruins (Steam). In the 2024 pre-release footage, Kliff drops from high in the sky, glides over a patchwork of fields, forests and a long wall below snowy mountains, and lands beside a white castle on the edge of a pale cliff, then walks into the town. Its regions are Hernand, Pailune (the Greymanes' homeland), Demeniss, Delesyia and the Crimson Desert itself, according to Game Rant (Hernand, Pailune, Demeniss, Delesyia). Will Powers, Pearl Abyss's marketing and PR director, called Pywel "at least twice as big as" Skyrim's playable area (PCGamesN, Jan 9, 2026); there is no official size in square kilometers.

0:18 Digital Foundry's PS5 Pro review opens with a single run across that map: drifting a horse around the fields, "the great bug wars between giant metallic insects and gun-toting soldiers", a fortress of giant robots, a city where he became a wanted criminal, a rainforest storm at night, and finally the Crimson Desert, climbing "to its highest point to see the world that I had just traversed".

Above the land floats The Abyss, "a mysterious realm" where "a mystical imbalance endangering the world must be restored" (Steam). Kliff reaches it through gates, solves its puzzles for Abyss Artifacts and travels fast between Abyss Nexus points.

Combat and skills

0:37 Combat mixes weapon skills with "hard-hitting bare-hand hits and kicks, as well as a wide range of grapples" (Steam): swords and shields, spears, greatswords, axes, dual wields, bows and guns. The official launch trailer cuts from a rider on a green plain to fights in red desert country: charges on horseback, a blast of green energy, a flash of white light across a dusty arena and a gout of fire in a dark camp. There are no experience levels: Abyss Artifacts from bosses, hidden places and Abyss puzzles raise health and stamina or unlock skills, and Kliff can learn some moves by watching people (Skills and Abyss Artifacts).

Since update 1.04.00 of Apr 23, 2026 the game has Easy, Normal and Hard difficulty (patch notes), with colorblind and photosensitivity options and control presets (Difficulty and Accessibility). Gear and its refinement are on Weapons and Gear.

Kliff, Oongka and Damiane

0:13 Three characters are playable: Kliff, the Greymanes' leader, and two who "come to join your journey", Oongka and Damiane, each with "their own combat style, as well as unique skills and weapons" (Steam). In Pearl Abyss's "Meet the Cast", Alec Newman (Kliff), Stewart Scudamore (Oongka) and Rebecca Hanssen (Damiane) introduce themselves; Hanssen calls Damiane "a fierce fighter, and headstrong", and Scudamore calls Oongka "a nomadic warrior" with a passion "for his people, for his tribe, and for the Greymanes". Damiane fights with rapiers and guns and Oongka with big axes and arm cannons, according to Game Rant; the full cast is on Characters.

Bosses

1:06 Crimson Desert has more than 75 Bosses, counting the in-game Knowledge tab and story fights, according to Game Rant's boss list. The launch trailer shows the scale: a golden mechanical dragon flying over a desert town, a figure among huge stone rings floating in the sky, a horned brute roaring in a sunlit hall and a creature crackling with blue lightning. Pearl Abyss filmed several of them for its 2024 demo, among them White Horn, the Staglord, the Reed Devil, the Queen Stoneback Crab and Hexe Marie; later ones include Myurdin, Golden Star and the final boss, Umbra. Since update 1.05.00 of May 2, 2026, any defeated boss can be fought again (Boss Rematch).

Mounts, camp and life in Pywel

Kliff rides horses from the start; updates added summonable mounts, tamed bears, wolves, lions and tigers, wyverns and the dragon Blackstar, and the A.T.A.G. mechs of Delesyia (Mounts). In Chapter 3, according to TheGamer, he founds the Greymane camp at Howling Hill, which grows with recruits, farms, dispatch missions and housing (Greymane Camp). Pets came in updates, up to 100 registered since 1.11.00 (Pets); cooking, fishing, mining and crafting are on Cooking and Crafting, and minigames from arm-wrestling to pinball on Side Activities and Minigames.

Crimson Desert Enhanced and updates

0:14 On Aug 25, 2026, at gamescom Opening Night Live, Crimson Desert became Crimson Desert Enhanced, "a free update to the base game" for every owner on every platform (version 2.00.00). The announcement trailer lists what it added: new story moments, expanded voice-over and language support (German, French, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and Japanese voices, and Arabic text) and every post-launch update to date. The stores now sell the game under that name.

Pearl Abyss has shipped free updates almost every week since launch: by its Aug 12, 2026 count, "17 patches, with more than 20 new features and content additions, 120 new mounts and pets, and 70 new outfits, equipment, and items" (Update Highlights). Cross-save between PlayStation, Xbox, Steam and Epic came in 1.14.00 on Jul 16, 2026, and Mac joined in 2.02.00. Every version is on Patch Notes.

Charting the Unknown

1:01 Charting the Unknown, Crimson Desert's first DLC, comes out on Oct 29, 2026 at 22:00 UTC for $24.99 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Steam and the Epic Games Store, but not on the Mac App Store at launch. Its reveal trailer shows a blue-sailed ship off a green tropical coast, a diver swimming over a reef beside a shark, and a fight ending with a giant mechanical machine firing a red beam across the desert. Steam's text promises sailing "your ship" to new islands, diving "to uncover underwater treasures, sunken ruins, and hidden mysteries", renting and managing facilities, upgraded housing and new stories for all three characters. It was first dated Oct 15 and moved two weeks later on Sep 30, 2026 (Charting the Unknown Release Date and Time).

Platforms and editions

12:20 Crimson Desert came out on every platform at once on Mar 19, 2026 at 22:00 UTC: PlayStation 5 and PS5 Pro, Xbox Series X|S, PC through Steam, the Epic Games Store and Xbox on PC, and Mac through Steam and the Mac App Store, plus GeForce NOW (Platforms). On PS5 Pro, Digital Foundry found that each mode aims at its own frame rate: "60fps for performance, 40 for balanced, and 30 for quality", the balanced mode needing a 120Hz display (PS5, PS5 Pro and Xbox Performance). PC needs 150 GB on an SSD and at least a GeForce GTX 1060 or Radeon RX 5500 XT (PC Requirements and Settings).

It is not on Game Pass or PlayStation Plus, and there is no PS4, Xbox One or phone version. A Nintendo Switch 2 version "has reached a playable baseline", and Pearl Abyss is "working toward a release targeted for the first half of 2027", with no date or Nintendo announcement as of Oct 21, 2026 (2Q26 earnings letter; Nintendo Switch 2 Version).

The Standard Edition costs $69.99 and the Deluxe Edition $79.99 with the Deluxe Pack of armor, a shield and horse tack (Steam, Oct 20, 2026); the physical Collector's Edition was $279.99 (Editions and Price).

Reception and sales

Critics were split between its open world and its story and controls. On Oct 20, 2026 it stood at 77 on Metacritic for PC and PS5 and 78 on OpenCritic (Top Critic Average). IGN's Travis Northup gave it 6 out of 10, calling it "both incredibly cool and gobsmackingly infuriating in almost equal measure". Steam's players rate it higher: 148,553 of 177,539 reviews were positive on Oct 20, 2026, "Very Positive", up from "Mixed" at launch (Reception and Awards).

It sold 6 million by Jun 11, 2026, "an unprecedented sales milestone for a Korean-developed single-player game", Pearl Abyss said; it has given no newer total. On Steam it peaked at 276,261 players at once on Mar 29, 2026, as SteamDB measured (Sales and Player Count).

Development

3:24 Pearl Abyss, the Korean studio behind Black Desert, built Crimson Desert on its own BlackSpace Engine over more than seven years. Digital Foundry calls it "a rare and exciting moment": "In a landscape where Unreal Engine has become the default", Pearl Abyss "has arrived with something genuinely new to explore", and "It is a stunning game" (BlackSpace Engine). Kim Dae-il, the company's founder and chairman, is the game's director and executive producer, according to The Washington Post.

Revealed in Nov 2019 and aimed first at winter 2021, it slipped several times before Pearl Abyss announced the Mar 19, 2026 date at Sony's State of Play on Sep 24, 2025 (Development History). Its official videos, from the 2019 reveal to the DLC, are on Trailers.

Frequently asked questions

Is Crimson Desert multiplayer? No. Crimson Desert is a single-player game with no multiplayer or co-op; Pearl Abyss said on Aug 11, 2026 that it is researching multiplayer but has no plan to launch it.

Is Crimson Desert an MMO? No. Crimson Desert was presented as an MMORPG at its 2019 reveal but was released on Mar 19, 2026 as a single-player open-world action-adventure.

Is Crimson Desert on Game Pass? No. Crimson Desert is not in the Xbox Game Pass or PlayStation Plus catalogs; it is sold at $69.99 (Standard) or $79.99 (Deluxe), and Xbox cloud play needs Game Pass plus owning the game.

Is Crimson Desert on Switch 2? Not yet. Pearl Abyss said on Aug 11, 2026 that a Nintendo Switch 2 version of Crimson Desert is targeted for the first half of 2027, with no date announced as of Oct 21, 2026.

How long is Crimson Desert? Pearl Abyss has not given a length for Crimson Desert; PCGamesN estimated about 80 hours for the main story and about 80 more for side content, and TheGamer's reviewer finished the story in about 150 hours.

Is Crimson Desert Enhanced free? Yes. Crimson Desert Enhanced is the free 2.00.00 update of Aug 25, 2026 for every owner on every platform, not a new purchase or a remaster.

When does the Crimson Desert DLC come out? Charting the Unknown, Crimson Desert's first DLC, comes out on Oct 29, 2026 at 22:00 UTC (3 p.m. PT), Oct 30 at 07:00 in Korea and Japan, for $24.99.

Is Crimson Desert connected to Black Desert? Crimson Desert is made by Pearl Abyss, the studio behind Black Desert, and began, The Washington Post reported, as a follow-up to it, but it is a separate single-player game on a new engine; pre-orders of Crimson Desert unlocked some items in Black Desert.

Sources

• Crimson Desert Enhanced on Steam, Steam, read Oct 20, 2026
• Charting the Unknown on Steam, Steam, read Oct 20, 2026
• Charting the Unknown DLC Features Overview, Pearl Abyss, Oct 20, 2026
• Charting the Unknown: Release Date Update, Pearl Abyss, Sep 30, 2026
• Vote for Crimson Desert at the Golden Joystick Awards 2026!, Pearl Abyss, Oct 8, 2026
• Patch Notes Version 2.03.00, Pearl Abyss, Sep 18, 2026
• Crimson Desert Enhanced Update Now Available, Pearl Abyss, Aug 25, 2026
• Update Highlights, Pearl Abyss, Aug 12, 2026
• Patch Notes Version 1.04.00, Pearl Abyss, Apr 23, 2026
• Frequently Asked Questions, Pearl Abyss, Mar 12, 2026
• Pearl Abyss 2Q26 Earnings Letter, Pearl Abyss, Aug 11, 2026
• Crimson Desert Surpasses 6 Million Copies Sold Worldwide, Pearl Abyss, Jun 11, 2026
• Pearl Abyss' Crimson Desert launches worldwide on March 19, 2026, Pearl Abyss, Sep 25, 2025
• Crimson Desert on Metacritic, Metacritic, read Oct 20, 2026
• Crimson Desert on OpenCritic, OpenCritic, read Oct 20, 2026
• Crimson Desert Review, IGN, Mar 20, 2026
• SteamDB on the all-time peak, SteamDB, Mar 29, 2026
• Crimson Desert map size, PCGamesN, Jan 9, 2026
• How Crimson Desert beat the critics and became a global hit, The Washington Post, May 7, 2026
• All boss fights and locations, Game Rant, Apr 1, 2026
• 50 Minutes of Early Gameplay, Crimson Desert, Sep 12, 2024 (video)
• Crimson Desert - 13 Minutes of Gameplay, IGN, Aug 15, 2025 (video)
• Crimson Desert on PlayStation 5 Pro - The Digital Foundry Deep Dive, Digital Foundry, Mar 12, 2026 (video)
• Official Launch Trailer, Crimson Desert, Mar 12, 2026 (video)
• Meet the Cast: Kliff, Oongka, and Damiane, Crimson Desert, Feb 25, 2026 (video)
• Crimson Desert Enhanced Official Announcement Trailer, gamescom ONL 2026, Crimson Desert, Aug 25, 2026 (video)
• Charting the Unknown Official DLC Reveal Trailer, Crimson Desert, Sep 3, 2026 (video)