An intrepid Crimson Desert player has ventured far out of bounds and discovered a deserted but fully functional village. No-one knows what the village is for, but some are speculating it may be cut content, or even hint at a location for DLC.
Pearl Abyss’ smash hit single-player open world game has an enormous map to explore, and for some who have put hundreds of hours into it already, that journey is over. But for a Crimson Desert player known as Riskbreaker, that was not enough.
As shown in a clip on the Crimson Desert subreddit, below, Riskbreaker headed north on the back of a dragon and went out of bounds. Far north of Pailune, they found, is a fully functional, snow-drenched village.
Riskbreaker visited the village a few times to get a decent look around, using Photo Mode to pause time and move the camera about. The village is deserted, but there are objects, many of which you’d find in a normal Crimson Desert village. For example, there is a notice board where you’d normally pick up bounties. There are even items and chests. Riskbreaker speculates this village was meant to make it into the final game but was cut.
This village is far, far north of Pailune, so you do need a dragon — on a timer of its own — to get there. Riskbreaker said it takes about two and a half minutes as the crow — or dragon — flies to reach the village. The normal out of bounds timer kicks in, of course, but Riskbreaker was able to find what they call “reset points” along the route that for some reason stopped and started the timer, enabling a journey farther than you’d expect. Riskbreaker detailed the journey in a YouTube video.
Frustratingly, there doesn’t appear to be one of Riskbreaker’s reset points near the village, so by the time they land, there are only a handful of seconds left on the out of bounds timer to explore. The village looks close to finished, although there are a few objects floating around. And, of course, there are no NPCs.
The amount of trial and error it will have taken to find this village is immense, given the out of bounds timer that restricts normal exploration. It turns out there are a number of points of interest, including forts, camps, and watchtowers, out of the normal bounds of Pywel, but this village is of most interest because of how far away it is, and how tricky it is to reach. From what I can tell, this is the first time it has been reached, or at least, the first time its discovery has surfaced within the Crimson Desert community.
Perhaps the most impressive moment in the video is when Riskbreaker leaps off their dragon and flies through the air to a house up on a hill, just a tad farther north of the village. There is a shrine. What could it have been for? It’s almost impossible to find out more, given there are only a few seconds left by the time they land.
As the community fusses over Riskbreaker’s mysterious village, another out of bounds oddity has emerged. There is a question mark, indicating… something of interest, that’s popping up far out of bounds to the east. This has puzzled players who have found the question mark on their in-game maps. Riskbreaker suggests this is likely a bug, as the east side of the desert is the end of the continent, and there’s nothing further to the east, only water.
Still, there’s an entire inaccessible named part of the map, called Sunbaked Peaks, to the east of Varnia. Could it be the place for DLC?
“Most of the unused land is actually on the west and north sides of the map, so I’d assume that’s where a potential DLC would take place,” countered Riskbreaker, bringing their experience exploring the game to bear. Sunbaked Peak is only a “small extension of the desert, and if you go around it, there’s only a fort on the side facing Varnia, and another one on the north side of the island, while the rest is just rocks and a few trees.” So perhaps this hidden village is indeed a clue to DLC.
But will Crimson Desert get DLC? In March, after the game’s sales success had become evident but sentiment was still mixed, Pearl Abyss CEO Heo Jin-young said updates were the focus. “While it is good to see sales driven by expansion packs, I believe there are games that generate revenue by increasing sales of the base game as content expands,” he said. “I want to make strategic decisions that ensure the base game of Crimson Desert sells well.”
Given Crimson Desert has now sold over 5 million copies — enough to spark a $3,400 bonus for all staff — perhaps DLC is inevitable.
Image credit: Riskbreaker / YouTube.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
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