How to get a ship in the Crimson Desert DLC

A sailing ship in the Crimson Desert DLC — (Image credit: Pearl Abyss)

The Crimson Desert DLC allows you to get a pirate ship for yourself, a giant ship that you can use to explore and set up trade around the world. There are multiple types of ship that you can unlock along the way, and while most of these cost you money, Crimson Desert will set you up with a small ship as an (almost) free default – but that isn't your only option, and even then it's not easy to find that option. If you want to get the ship in the Charting the Unknown DLC, here's what you need to do.

For more about where to begin in this grand expansion, check out our guide on how to start the Crimson Desert DLC!

How do you get a ship in the Crimson Desert Charting the Unknown DLC?

The Charting the Unknown entry in the Journal for the Crimson Desert DLC marks where to find the Ship — (Image credit: Pearl Abyss)

To get a small ship in the Crimson Desert "Charting the Unknown" DLC expansion, as well as unlocking seafaring as a larger system, you need to take the following steps:

Make sure you've completed the Scattered Embers and Grounds of Sunrise quests (Hope From Ashes) associated with the Greymanes. These are part of the core game, but they appear to be mandatory to unlock the ship.
This should unlock a quest chain new for the DLC in Pailune city called Uncharting the Unknown (A Wider World) shown in the journal above, with the first mission being called "A Call from Beyond the Horizon".
Starting this quest will trigger conversation with your allies, followed by a task to go to Vellua port, marked on the Southern Coast.
Once you've arrived, inspect the port in the map to find a Dispatch Mission called "Small Shipbuilding."
This will cost your camp the following resources: 600 Stone, 600 Wood, 1,200 Food and 10,000 Silver. You'll also need to assign 5 Greymanes to it for 5 hours, and one must have the Engineering Skill.
Once complete, you will be given a ship, as well as a follow-up mission that teaches you how to use it called "Where the Wind Blows".

Kliff kicks an enemy off a ship in the Crimson Desert DLC — (Image credit: Pearl Abyss)

This is by no means the beginning and end of shipbuilding in Crimson Desert. From this point players will either be able to buy or construct larger ships, which will cost you increasingly large amounts of money and resources. You can either buy them from Fleet Offices, or through Dispatch Missions like the one where you bought your first ship.

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Joel Franey is a writer, journalist, podcaster and Very Tired Man with a BA from Brunel University, a Masters from Sussex University and a decade working in games journalism, often focused on guides coverage but also in reviews, features and news. His love of games is strongest when it comes to groundbreaking narratives like Disco Elysium, UnderTale and Baldur's Gate 3, as well as innovative or refined gameplay experiences like XCOM, Sifu, Arkham Asylum or Slay the Spire. He is a firm believer that the vast majority of games would be improved by adding a grappling hook, and if they already have one, they should probably add another just to be safe. You can find old work of his at Eurogamer, Gfinity, USgamer, SFX Magazine, RPS, Dicebreaker, VG247, and more.