Don't Ignore Crimson Desert's Best Quest Line

You don’t even need to play Crimson Desert at this point to know it’s a massive game with countless things to do. Ahead of its launch, it earned the reputation that it was “too good to be true,” simply because of how much players can do in the game, from flying jetpacks and dragons to fishing, cooking, mining, and logging. Not only is its open world incredibly large, but so much of what is in that world can be interacted with, making it feel even bigger at the end of the day. If that wasn’t enough, even a few hours into Crimson Desert, you’ll start to realize how much it loves relentlessly throwing side quests at you, because there are so many they don’t seem to end.

Given how packed with content the game’s open world is, there’s a greater chance for players to miss out on certain elements. In fact, there is so much going on in Crimson Desert, that I’m willing to bet the majority of players won’t see everything it has to offer. Because of that, it’s worth shining a light on its best—and perhaps most useful—content so players won’t miss out on it. As it turns out, Crimson Desert‘s best quest line is almost entirely skippable, because even though it counts in my eyes as something not worth skipping, you can get through the game’s story without seeing it through to its full potential.

Crimson Desert Review: A Remarkable Open World That Often Asks Too Much

Crimson Desert offers one of the most impressive worlds in gaming, but the deeper you go, the more it asks you to meet it on its own terms.

Don’t Skip Crimson Desert’s Greymane Camp-Building Quest Line

Not long into Crimson Desert, you’ll be introduced to a series of quests that see the Greymanes establishing a foothold in Pywel for story reasons that I won’t spoil here. In those quests, you’re tasked with building a camp in the Hernand region that turns into something resembling Red Dead Redemption 2‘s Van der Linde camp. At first, it looks like something simple that you could skip if you wanted to, but the end result is something I promise you will regret passing on.

Who’s That Character?

Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.

Who’s That Character?

Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.

Easy (7.5s)Medium (5.0s)Hard (2.5s)Permadeath (2.5s)

Eventually, the Greymane camp becomes a one-stop shop with just about every amenity you will need throughout the game, from various merchants to a wagon you can use to sell trade goods. At some point, you’ll have your own bonfire for cooking meals, an anvil and grindstone to improve the effectiveness of your gear, numerous opportunities for side quests that, when completed, can increase your inventory space, and much more. The stock of the camp’s merchants can even increase if you’re devoted enough to building relationships with other merchants throughout Pywel. Upon maximizing your bond with a vendor, you’ll have the option of adding portions of their stock to your merchants back at camp, which can truly maximize the efficiency of your home base.

Crimson Desert‘s Greymane camp-building questline will even introduce you to your own furnishable house at some point, although you can technically make use of it before that quest.

There’s even an aspect to the Greymane camp that looks like something straight out of a cozy game like Stardew Valley. If you build up your camp enough, you’ll unlock a farm and a ranch where you can grow crops and raise animals and livestock, respectively. Actually, that’s one of the most profitable parts of this whole thing, because you can even grow plants from Abyss Seeds that will grant you the Abyss Artifacts you need for your gear, skill, and stat progression in the game. Plus, the products you get from your animals are great for cooking delicious meals or selling for some decent funds.

Far down the line, you’ll be asked to expand the Greymane camp beyond its borders, and that’s when things get even more interesting. At that point, the Greymane clan isn’t just trying to survive on the outskirts of civilization but actually firmly integrated into it. It’s one of the most satisfying conclusions to a very long, drawn-out buildup, but it ultimately makes it all worth your time.

There Is an Unfortunate Downside to the Greymane Quests

Now, I use the adjective “best” somewhat loosely when describing the Greymane camp-building quests because even though they are exceedingly rewarding in the end, they are some of the most boring, monotonous quests in the game. I’ve had my fair share of fetch and kill side quests in open-world games, and sure, they’re often brainless, I’ll admit. But Crimson Desert‘s Greymane quests are generally on a different level.

Firstly, many of them really are fetch quests, though you’re not fetching items—you’re fetching people. As your camp grows, Marius, one of your fellow Greymanes, will frequently inform you about rumors of other Greymanes who were spotted somewhere in the world. From there, you’re told to “investigate the rumor,” which usually means you’re going to go visit a marked location on the map, witness a cutscene where Kliff and the once-lost-but-now-found Greymanes exchange some dialogue, and then rinse and repeat. That part isn’t really the worst of it though.

Eventually, the Greymane camp becomes a one-stop shop with just about every amenity you will need throughout the game, from various merchants to a wagon you can use to sell trade goods.

It’s really that most of these side quests see you following an NPC (typically on horseback) to a location, and for some reason, they insist on moving as slowly as possible. Crimson Desert does have a semi-auto-follow function where you can hold down one button/key to automatically follow an NPC, but it’s also a bit buggy, as your character’s speed won’t match the NPC you’re following, so you might as well do it manually anyway. Apart from that, though, it’s the fact that many of these follow quests not only force you to move at an incredibly slow pace, but NPCs will often take you to a location and then turn back at the last second, making the fact that you followed them all that way feel like a complete waste of time.

Needless to say, if you do take my advice and decide to prioritize the Greymane camp-building quest line, you’ll have to do your best to bear with its pacing, because it’s horrendous at times. The interactions between the characters can be fun, and even humorous at times, but I can’t help but feel that Crimson Desert could have shown those things in a way that felt less like it was encroaching on my time in the world and more like it actually mattered. Still, I encourage you to buckle down and do these quests, because they are very much worth it, if only from a materialistic point of view.