Underwater Exploration Guide for Crimson Desert

Crimson Desert’s Charting the Unknown DLC lets you explore beneath the ocean’s surface, gather new materials, search for valuables, and tame aquatic mounts. You can dive without a ship, but a vessel makes distant diving spots easier to reach.

This guide covers how to manage your oxygen, prepare your diving equipment, find worthwhile underwater locations, obtain the harpoon gun, and unlock permanent water mounts.

Our Crimson Desert ship guide explains how to unlock your first ship, upgrade it, and manage your crew.

Enter the water and use the dive command to begin exploring beneath the surface. You do not need to unlock a ship before diving, although a vessel makes distant ocean locations easier to reach.

Your oxygen decreases while you are submerged. Return to the surface to breathe before it runs out, or you risk drowning.

Depth affects oxygen consumption. The deeper you dive, the faster your air drains, so a breathing supply that feels comfortable near the surface will not last as long farther down.

Some underwater interactions can replenish your oxygen. Sunfish, for example, can be used to restore air while you remain submerged.

These oxygen sources can extend a dive when you encounter them, while surfacing remains your regular way to recover your breath.

A diving suit increases your underwater breathing capacity, allowing you to explore for longer before returning to the surface.

If you pre-ordered Charting the Unknown, open the Add-ons menu to claim your diving equipment.

The diving set’s helmet and chest piece each provide two additional minutes of breathing capacity, giving you four minutes combined when both are equipped.

These bonuses increase your available air, but deeper water still drains oxygen faster. They do not guarantee four additional minutes at every depth.

If you did not preorder the expansion, you can obtain diving equipment through Relic Exchange vendors. Our Relic Exchange vendor locations guide shows where to find diving suit blueprints, completed pieces and breathing devices that improve your underwater exploration.

Use your ship’s underwater relic radar to search for nearby valuables before diving.

The radar checks the surrounding ocean from the surface, helping you identify places worth investigating. This gives you a more focused approach than diving into every stretch of water you cross.

Underwater exploration also provides crafting and refinement resources. Look for mineral veins and hydrothermal deposits while searching beneath the waves.

Many ordinary materials can also be obtained from floating salvage crates and destroyed pirate ships. Collect those resources while sailing, then use the radar to help choose your diving locations.

Your ship therefore serves two useful purposes: transporting you to distant waters and helping you locate underwater points of interest.

Underwater ruins can also contain weapons. Follow our Lumen Sword location guide to find the hidden cave and chest containing the glowing pink blade.

The harpoon gun is the ranged weapon type used for underwater combat.

You receive one by progressing through A Wider World, the introductory Greymane questline for shipbuilding and ocean exploration. This makes the questline useful even if diving is your main interest.

Although you can enter the water before obtaining a ship, following these quests gives you both transport for reaching distant locations and a weapon for underwater encounters.

Certain underwater creatures can become permanent mounts, including sharks, turtles, and orcas.

For creatures that can be tamed through subdual:

1. Use Force Palm to stun the creature.
2. Approach it and select the ride interaction.
3. Complete the taming minigame, which works similarly to horse taming.
4. Access the registered creature through your mount wheel.

Once unlocked, the creature remains available as a mount rather than being limited to that encounter.

The taming method depends on the creature. Some underwater mounts require feeding to build Trust, so stunning is not the correct approach for every species.