Crimson Desert's New DLC Stories for Kliff, Oongka, and Damiane Require Main Story Completion

Pearl Abyss has confirmed that players must complete Crimson Desert's main storyline to access the new DLC stories for Kliff, Oongka, and Damiane. In an interview on Dropped Frames, Pearl Abyss' Will Powers revealed two entry points for the Charting the Unknown DLC, set to launch on October 29.

The first entry point requires finishing the main storyline to experience the epilogue story content for each of the three main characters. The second entry point requires establishing the Greymane camp during Chapter 3 of the main game to unlock the new open world content, which includes exploration, naval gameplay, and essentially everything except the character-specific story DLC.

"There are storylines for the three characters," Powers explained. "Damiane, Oongka, and Kliff—you didn't really get to explore a lot of their backstory or motivations during the main game. Now, it's effectively an epilogue for all three. What are they doing after? They're not necessarily together anymore. After all of this, what is Oongka going to do in the world? What is Damiane going to do? What is Kliff going to do? So there are those storylines, which are really cool and unique in and of themselves. But then there's also this storyline and quest line around this new area of the map that you can play through."

Completing the main Crimson Desert storyline is no small feat—it's a massive game that many are still working through. However, it makes sense that an epilogue story DLC would require this rather than being integrated into the main campaign, to avoid spoilers. Powers echoed this sentiment: "It would ruin the story for people focused on that stuff. If you want open world content and access to all that, you can do it very early in the game. If you want story-focused content, then you've probably already beaten the story, so you'll be able to continue along that."

Still, it's worth noting that relatively few players have actually completed Crimson Desert's main story. According to official Steam achievements data, only 10.8% of players have unlocked the Expert Storyteller achievement, awarded for completing all main quests. This isn't surprising—Crimson Desert is packed with hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of content, making it easy to get sidetracked. Personally, I've logged nearly 70 hours in Crimson Desert on Steam and am nowhere near finishing the main story. I'm not sure I ever will.

Charting the Unknown adds new stories, ocean exploration, romance, business management, and expanded housing to the already feature-packed world of Pywel. For a comprehensive look at the major additions, check out our roundup of Crimson Desert's Charting the Unknown DLC features.