Crimson Desert
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Charting the Unknown arrives on Oct 29, 2026Crimson Desert's first DLC, on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Steam and the Epic Games Store at 3 p.m. PT (22:00 UTC), Pearl Abyss's announced time

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Pywel

Pywel is the continent where Crimson Desert takes place, one seamless open world of five regions (Hernand, Pailune, Demeniss, Delesyia and the Crimson Desert) with the Abyss floating in the sky above it. Pearl Abyss's Will Powers called it at least twice the size of Skyrim's playable area; Pearl Abyss has given no square-kilometer figure.

Pywel is the continent of Crimson Desert: one seamless open world of five regions, Hernand, Pailune, Demeniss, Delesyia and the desert called the Crimson Desert, with The Abyss floating in the sky above it. Pearl Abyss describes it as "green plains and woods to arid deserts and rugged mountains", with "bustling cities and quiet hamlets", landmarks and ruins (Steam store). Digital Foundry's PlayStation 5 Pro review opens with one ride across it: drifting a horse through fields, the hills of a war between giant metal insects and soldiers, a fortress of giant robots, a beach, a large city left by jumping off the castle wall, a rainforest in a night storm, and finally the Crimson Desert itself. Kliff, the Greymane at the center of the story, can travel all of it on foot, on horseback, by gliding and later on a mech and a dragon.

Seen from behind, a rider on a brown horse stands by a wooden fence on a grassy hillside path with pine trees at right. Below spreads a wide green valley with rocky hills, a walled castle on a rise and a needle-like spire beyond it, under a blue sky with white clouds and snow-streaked mountains on the horizon.
A rider with a round shield on his back sits on a brown horse on a hillside path, looking over a green valley toward a castle and a tall spire below snowy mountains in an official Pearl Abyss press screenshot of Crimson Desert. Pearl Abyss

Quick facts

What it is The continent of Crimson Desert, one seamless open world
Regions Hernand, Pailune, Demeniss, Delesyia and the Crimson Desert
Above it The Abyss, a realm floating in the sky
Size "At least twice as big as" Skyrim's playable area, in Will Powers's words (PCGamesN, Jan 9, 2026); no official figure
Cities in official notes Hernand, Calphade, Equinsher, Demeniss, Pailune, Delesyia, Tommaso, Varnia, Urdavah
Fast travel Abyss Nexus points
Getting around Walking, climbing, gliding, horses and other mounts, wyverns, the A.T.A.G. mech, the dragon Blackstar, wagons, trains, rowboats
Printed map A Map of Pywel comes with the physical Deluxe Edition (paper) and the Collector's Edition (fabric)

The five regions

Pywel is divided into "five distinct regions: Hernand, Pailune, Demeniss, Delesyia and the Crimson Desert, each offering its own stories, environments and challenges", Pearl Abyss said when it released its first features video on Jan 29, 2026. The main quest follows Kliff, but the regions can be explored "in any order", with faction quests, large battles, fortress sieges and smaller missions along the way. In Digital Foundry's first look at the game (Mar 5, 2026), Alex Battaglia calls it a systemic open world with a full day and night, changing weather, many biomes, and cities and towns with many indoor areas.

  • Hernand, the Duchy of Hernand, is where most of the early story plays out, with the city of Hernand, the walled city of Calphade and Howling Hill, the first home of the Greymane Camp. Game Rant's boss list places 16 bosses there.
  • Pailune, the Tribal State of Pailune, is "the northern region" the Greymanes come from (Pearl Abyss). Kliff fights to take it back in Chapter 7, and the camp can later move there. Game Rant lists 13 bosses.
  • Demeniss holds Demeniss Castle, the scene of Chapter 8, "Blood Coronation", in Game Rant's chapter list, and 16 bosses, Hexe Marie and Draven the Crowcaller among them.
  • Delesyia is the land of Marni's machines, of the A.T.A.G. mechs and of the Golden Star, the setting of Chapters 10 and 11 according to Game Rant, with 9 bosses.
  • The Crimson Desert, the region that gives the game its name, has 8 bosses in Game Rant's list, Muskan and Queen Bismuth Oreback Crab among them.

Game Rant counts 10 more bosses that belong to the continent as a whole (most of them in the Abyss) and three "Overwhelming Beings"; the full list is on Bosses.

The desert

Pywel runs from grassland into red rock: the Official Launch Trailer of Mar 12, 2026 moves from a green plain to dry steppe below snowy peaks, then to fights in red desert sand and a steam train crossing a trestle bridge over the red canyons. Patch 1.04.00 (Apr 23, 2026) added tumbleweeds to the desert regions (Pearl Abyss), and Digital Foundry's PS5 Pro review ends its long ride on a cliff "staring out across the crimson desert itself".

A dry canyon of tall red sandstone pillars glows in low sunlight. Flat-topped, umbrella-shaped trees grow from the scrub in the foreground, and a pale stone fortress with towers and an arched bridge clings to the cliffs above. A snowy peak rises at far left under a sky of streaky clouds.
Red sandstone cliffs and umbrella-shaped trees in warm evening light, with a pale fortress and an arched bridge built into the rock high above a dusty path in an official Pearl Abyss press screenshot of Crimson Desert. Pearl Abyss

The desert is also where the story continues. The reveal trailer for Charting the Unknown, the first DLC (Oct 29, 2026, 22:00 UTC), opens: "Beyond the Crimson Desert lies a hidden land", and says "the witches sensed something stirring in the desert". Steam's text for the DLC promises "an ominous presence in the desert", a ship to sail to "new islands off the coast" and diving under the sea; Pearl Abyss has not named the new areas, as of Oct 21, 2026.

Cities, trade and law

Pearl Abyss's patch notes name nine cities. Patch 1.06.00 (May 11, 2026) gave saddleries to Hernand, Equinsher, Calphade, Demeniss, Pailune, Delesyia, Tommaso and Varnia, each selling saddles for different tamed animals (Pearl Abyss); the trading overhaul in 1.16.00 (Aug 1, 2026) put wagon workshops in seven of them, Hernand, Demeniss, Delesyia, Pailune, Tommaso, Urdavah and Varnia, and added 133 new trading posts with royal trading posts and a Trade tab on the map. The Orb Roll minigame stands at the Great Gate of Urdavah (Pearl Abyss, Jun 5, 2026).

Towns react to the player: blacksmiths, tailors and merchants serve Kliff, and residents turn hostile or put a bounty on him after harmful acts, Pearl Abyss said on Feb 12, 2026. Patch 1.04.00 added constabularies in southern Hernand and in eastern, western and southern Demeniss (Pearl Abyss). Outlaws can be tied up and delivered to jail, and Kliff's own bounty is paid off at a church, according to TheGamer.

Getting around

Pywel is crossed "on horseback, climb terrain, glide across distances and later access advanced traversal options such as a missile-firing mech and a dragon", in Pearl Abyss's words (Jan 29, 2026). In Digital Foundry's review, the reviewer sets a waypoint in the middle of nowhere and rides toward it through dense grass and trees, then leaps from the galloping horse straight onto the scaffolding of a long wall. Kliff's horse comes after the prologue; summonable mounts arrived in 1.01.00, tameable bears, wolves, camels, lions and more in 1.06.00, and wyverns in 1.10.00 (all on Mounts). The dragon Blackstar comes late in the story (Chapter 11, according to guides), and since 1.12.00 Damiane and Oongka can ride it too.

Gliding is the fastest way down from any height. In Pearl Abyss's "50 Minutes of Early Gameplay" (Sep 12, 2024, a pre-release build), Kliff drops from high above the clouds and glides over forests and a river valley toward a walled town on a clifftop. Since update 2.00.00 (Aug 25, 2026), Double Jump is an early skill, given by Bilwise in Chapter 2's "Unexpected Gift", and a "Flying Mount Controls" option sets flying mounts to Camera or Manual steering (Pearl Abyss). Game Rant's vehicle list adds the Cloudcart balloon, wagons, trains and rowboats.

Fast travel and the map

Fast travel in Crimson Desert is teleportation between Abyss Nexus points, which must first be found and activated. Pearl Abyss added more of them "across the continent of Pywel" in 1.00.03 on Mar 23, 2026 (Pearl Abyss), one in Pailune in 1.02.00 on Apr 4 (Pearl Abyss), and in 1.03.00 on Apr 11 made them easier to discover and usable while mounted, falling, swimming or climbing (Pearl Abyss). TheGamer's tips say an undiscovered point sits in an area marked with a large question mark, and Blinding Flash shows its exact spot.

The world map fills in as Kliff explores, and ringing a bell reveals the area around it; since 1.18.00 (Aug 15, 2026) bell-revealed areas look different from areas explored on foot (Pearl Abyss). Patch 1.03.00 also marked opened treasure chests, visited caves and restored Abyss locations with their own icons.

How big is the map

Pearl Abyss has never given Pywel's size in square kilometers. Its marketing and PR director Will Powers said the world is "at least twice as big as" Skyrim's playable area and "larger than the map of Red Dead Redemption 2", while adding "I don't think numbers really do it justice" (PCGamesN, Jan 9, 2026). Digital Foundry's measure is time: walking and riding from the opening village to a mountaintop over the desert took the reviewer "roughly 4 hours of traversal and exploration", which he calls only "a tiny path through the game world".

The far distance is drawn in full. Digital Foundry's first look notes that trees stay three-dimensional far away and grass and trees keep moving in the wind into the distance, and Pearl Abyss improved its "distant scenery" again in 1.04.00 on Apr 23, 2026 (Pearl Abyss), so the far side of a valley can be read from a ridge. The engine behind it is the BlackSpace Engine.

Frequently asked questions

How big is the Crimson Desert map? Pearl Abyss has given no square-kilometer figure for Crimson Desert's continent, Pywel; its PR director Will Powers called it "at least twice as big as" Skyrim's playable area and larger than Red Dead Redemption 2's map (PCGamesN, Jan 9, 2026).

What are the regions in Crimson Desert? Crimson Desert's continent of Pywel has five regions: Hernand, Pailune, Demeniss, Delesyia and the Crimson Desert, with the Abyss floating in the sky above them (Pearl Abyss, Jan 29, 2026).

How do you fast travel in Crimson Desert? Crimson Desert's fast travel is teleportation between Abyss Nexus points that Kliff has discovered; since patch 1.03.00 (Apr 11, 2026) it works even while mounted, falling, swimming or climbing, outside combat.

Is Crimson Desert one open world? Yes. Pearl Abyss calls Pywel "a seamless open world", and Crimson Desert lets players explore its five regions in any order, with no loading during normal play, according to Digital Foundry.

How do you reveal the map in Crimson Desert? In Crimson Desert, exploring fills in the world map and ringing a bell reveals the area around it; since 1.18.00 (Aug 15, 2026) the map shows bell-revealed areas differently from explored ones.

Can you fly in Crimson Desert? Yes. Kliff glides from early on, and Crimson Desert later adds flying mounts: tamed wyverns since 1.10.00 (Jun 5, 2026) and the dragon Blackstar late in the story.

Sources

Moments

Crimson Desert on PlayStation 5 Pro - The Digital Foundry Deep Dive

Digital Foundry

  1. Pywel is the continent of Crimson Desert: one seamless open world of five regions, Hernand, Pailune, Demeniss…
  2. Pywel is crossed "on horseback, climb terrain, glide across distances and later access advanced traversal options such…
  3. Pearl Abyss has never given Pywel's size in square kilometers. Its marketing and PR director Will Powers said the…

Crimson Desert First Look: The BlackSpace Engine Tech Preview

Digital Foundry

  1. Pywel is divided into "five distinct regions: Hernand, Pailune, Demeniss, Delesyia and the Crimson Desert, each…
  2. The far distance is drawn in full. Digital Foundry's first look notes that trees stay three-dimensional far away and…

Official Launch Trailer | Crimson Desert

Crimson Desert

  1. Pywel runs from grassland into red rock: the Official Launch Trailer of Mar 12, 2026 moves from a green plain to dry…

Crimson Desert Enhanced: Charting the Unknown | Official DLC Reveal Trailer

Crimson Desert

  1. The desert is also where the story continues. The reveal trailer for Charting the Unknown, the first DLC (Oct 29…

50 Minutes of Early Gameplay | Crimson Desert

Crimson Desert

  1. Gliding is the fastest way down from any height. In Pearl Abyss's "50 Minutes of Early Gameplay" (Sep 12, 2024, a…

Photos

A dry canyon of tall red sandstone pillars glows in low sunlight. Flat-topped, umbrella-shaped trees grow from the scrub in the foreground, and a pale stone fortress with towers and an arched bridge clings to the cliffs above. A snowy peak rises at far left under a sky of streaky clouds.Seen from behind, a rider on a brown horse stands by a wooden fence on a grassy hillside path with pine trees at right. Below spreads a wide green valley with rocky hills, a walled castle on a rise and a needle-like spire beyond it, under a blue sky with white clouds and snow-streaked mountains on the horizon.

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See also

Last updated Oct 21, 2026 by the Vi.ki team. Page text CC BY-SA 4.0.

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