The sandstorm barrier in Crimson Desert’s new DLC takes away your minimap and significantly lowers your visibility. This guide will help you find your way through the Sandstorm Barrier and complete Kliff’s new main quest, Beyond the Margins.
How to Unlock Beyond the Margins
Beyond the Margins is Kliff’s new Main Quest in Crimson Desert’s Charting the Unknown DLC, and is one of three new Main Quests.
To unlock it:
- Complete all Main Story Quests from the base game, including the Epilogue: Journey’s End.
- Start Kliff’s new questline in Pailune and progress through it.
- Reach the Crimson Desert region, where you’ll help dispel a giant sandstorm barrier that has appeared west of Urdavah.
Unique Mechanics
The sandstorm barrier introduces mechanics found only in this questline, making it one of the most immersive quests in Crimson Desert.
Impaired Visibility
While inside the sandstorm, the game makes it hard for you to navigate this region in three ways:
- The sandstorm will be raging around you, limiting your visibility to your immediate surroundings.
- You can’t see your position on the Map, and any markers within the sandstorm won’t show up.
- The Minimap on the bottom-left corner of your screen won’t show Cardinal Directions or Quest Markers.
Despite the impaired visibility, there are a few things to keep in mind to better find your way:
- Once you reach a town inside the sandstorm, its area becomes visible on the Map and Minimap.
- There’s an Abyss Nexus at each town and key location. Unlock each one as soon as you reach it to make the quests easier to complete.
- The light emitted by an Abyss Nexus while you use Blinding Flash works as an emergency landmark if you get lost. You won’t know the exact location you’re headed to, but it will be an important one.
Marker Stones
Marker Stones are obelisks topped with a large gem that emits a beam of light for each nearby town inside the sandstorm. At the base of each stone, you’ll find signs naming the town each beam points towards. They are visible from further away than other landmarks, making them easier to spot from a distance.
The simplest and most efficient way to use them for navigation is:
- Stand beneath a Marker Stone.
- Find the sign for the town you’re looking for.
- Walk in a straight line following its beam of light.
Glowing Seeds
During the cutscene where you enter the sandstorm barrier, you’ll be given 100 Glowing Seeds by the Eastern Witches. When planted in the sand, each one sprouts into a luminous tree that can be seen from far away. You can place these trees to mark the path you’ve taken.
While they sound useful on paper, in practice you never need them to complete the sandstorm quests. If you get lost, it’s faster to fast travel back to a town and try following the Marker Stones again.
You also shouldn’t bother exploring the area while the sandstorm is active. Every point of interest can be explored after you finish Beyond the Margins and the sandstorm is dispelled.
Corrupted Marker Stones and Dark Stakes
Inside the sandstorm, five Marker Stones are corrupted by the influence of Umbra through a set of three Dark stakes. If you follow the light emitted by one of them, it will lead you to a location called The Silent Burial Ground instead of the town you’re looking for.
To cleanse a Corrupted Marker Stone:
- Approach the Corrupted Marker Stone. Antumbra Sand Warpriests will dig themselves out of the sands and attack, so take them out before continuing. The first Corrupted Marker Stone you encounter won’t have this fight.
- Use Blinding Flash next to the stone. A dark beam will connect it to each of the three Dark stakes surrounding it. Although you ca
- Follow the lines to the Dark stakes, which are in the vicinity, sometimes in plain sight, and other times hidden inside a nearby ruin or tree.
- Destroy each one using Axiom Force to pull the stake upwards.
When all three Dark stakes are uprooted, a short cutscene will play out, after which the Marker Stone will be cleansed, and its light will point in the right direction.
Environmental Hazards
While exploring the sandstorm-engulfed desert, you’ll find two major environmental hazards that will make it harder to follow the guiding light from the Marker Stones: giant tornadoes and quicksand pits.
Giant tornadoes pull you towards them, and if you get too close, they will send you flying. You’ll more than likely lose track of the route you were following.
Quicksand pits slow you down when you enter them and slowly drag you under. If you don’t make it out in time, you’ll die and have to restart from a checkpoint. You can also use them to your advantage by throwing enemies inside them, which kills them almost immediately.
How to Complete Beyond the Margins
Once you enter the sandstorm barrier, you’ll unlock two new quests:
- Beyond the Sandstorm: complete four more quests that unlock as you explore the desert area.
- Distorted Light: cleanse all five Corrupted Marker Stones
To make following this guide easier, here’s a map with all the key locations inside the sandstorm marked:
- Pilgrim’s Peak
- Lukumiya
- Maddin
- Faraj
- Hazran
- Yasmin
- The Silent Burial Ground
From Pilgrim’s Peak to Lukumiya
You’ll arrive in Pilgrim’s Peak, where Sebastian will set up camp. From there:
- Follow the first Marker Stone you encounter towards Lukumiya. The sign will read “Lukumiya / Hazran,” which is normal, since routes to different towns often split further ahead.
- The next Marker Stone is a tutorial for Corrupted Marker Stones. Cleanse it and keep following its light.
- After two more Marker Stones, you’ll reach Lukumiya
If you get lost, fast travel back to Pilgrim’s Peak and try again. Lukumiya will work as a starting point for reaching most towns, so make sure to unlock its Abyss Nexus.
The Buried Neighbors Walkthrough
Once you reach Lukumiya, you’ll unlock The Buried Neighbors, a quest that takes you from Lukumiya to Maddin and back.
Talk to the sick villagers in Lukumiya, who can’t get the medicine they need because of the sandstorm. Head to the Marker Stone near the town’s entrance and follow the light beam leading to “Maddin / Faraj.”
On your way to Maddin you’ll go through two Corrupted Marker Stones you’ll need to cleanse:
First Corrupted Marker Stone:
- Two Dark stakes will be in plain view, buried in the sand nearby.
- The third will be in the nearby ruins, behind a pile of jars. Break the jars to reach it.
Second Corrupted Marker Stone:
- One Dark stake will be in plain sight, and another will be inside a tree stump.
- The third will be inside a ruined building. Push the interactive wall blocking the entrance to reach it.
After a short trek, you’ll reach a Marker Stone sitting right outside Maddin. Go inside and talk to the apothecary to receive the medicine. Fast travel back to Lukumiya and deliver the medicine to the sick villagers.
The quest will ask you to return to Sebastian, but you can wait. Instead, complete all four quests linked to a town inside the sandstorm, then go back to Pilgrim’s Peak to finish them in one sitting.
The Lost Child Walkthrough
When you entered Maddin during the last quest you unlocked The Lost Child, a quest where you’ll escort a lost child from the outskirts of Maddin back to his parents in Faraj.
Talk to the crying child, who is next to a Marker Stone on the opposite side of town from where you entered on the last quest.
Locate the beam of light leading to Faraj and follow it. At the second Marker Stone, you’ll reach Faraj. Lead the child to his parents to finish the quest.
Avoid running, as the child will fall behind and the quest will get cancelled. If this happens, you’ll find him back at his original spot.
The Missing Calf Walkthrough
You’ll unlock this quest the first time you enter Hazran. Fast travel to Lukumiya, head to the Marker Stone near the town’s entrance and follow the light beam leading to “Hazran.”
You’ll reach a Corrupted Marker Stone you need to cleanse:
- The first Dark stake will be in plain view, buried in the sand nearby.
- The second will be inside the ruins of a building covered in Bismuth, You don’t need to destroy the ore to enter the building.
- The third is in another set of ruins covered in Bismuth. This Dark stake is hidden below the Bismuth, so you’ll need to destroy the ore to reach it.
Keep following the light to Hazran, enter the town and talk to the villagers. They’ll ask you to recover a calf that got lost in the sandstorm.
To find the calf, raise your lantern and follow the calf’s trail. You’ll reach an outpost filled with Antumbra Sand Warpriests. Defeat them and rescue the calf.
To return to Hazran:
- Stand at the entrance of the outpost, looking away from it.
- Walk in a straight line until you reach the Marker Stone at the entrance of Lukumiya.
- Follow the beam of light leading to “Hazran,” then talk to the villagers to finish the quest.
Village in Darkness Walkthrough
Fast travel to Hazran and make your way to the Marker Stone on the outskirts of the town. Follow the beam of light leading to “Yasmin.”
You’ll reach a Corrupted Marker Stone you need to cleanse:
- The first Dark stake will be in plain view, buried in the sand nearby.
- The second one will be inside a tree. Use Blinding Flash or any fire-based attack to burn down the tree and reach the stake.
- The third will be inside the basement of a ruined building. Burn the thorns blocking the entrance, then destroy the stake.
This is the fifth Corrupted Marker Stone you’ll cleanse, which completes the Distorted Light quest.
The path to Yasmin will be filled with tornadoes and quicksand pits, do your best to avoid them as you make your way to the town’s entrance.
Once you arrive, you’ll unlock the Village in Darkness quest, which tasks you with liberating the town by defeating the Antumbra War Priests. The quest finishes once they’re all defeated.
Veil of Darkness Walkthrough
Fast travel back to Pilgrim’s Peak and approach Sebastian to trigger a cutscene. This completes the following quests:
- Beyond the Sandstorm
- The Buried Neighbors
- The Lost Child
- The Missing Calf
- Village in Darkness
Afterwards, you’ll unlock the quest Veil of Darkness. To complete it, you’ll need to reach The Silent Burial Ground and defeat the boss waiting for you.
- Fast travel to Hazran and head to the Marker Stone on the outskirts of the town. Follow the beam leading to “Yasmin.”
- At the next Marker Stone, follow the beam leading to “The Silent Burial Ground.” The route passes through a series of Marker Stones, each guarded by a group of enemies.
- At the entrance of The Silent Burial Ground, defeat the Antumbra Sand Warpriests waiting for you.
- Head inside and defeat the boss, Archon of Antumbram, Kharzek.
Path of the Mapmaker
Defeating the Archon of Antumbra, Kharzek completes Veil of Darkness and unlocks Path of the Mapmaker. It also rewards you with one Abyss Artifact and the Revelation’s End Abyss Gear. Fast travel to Pilgrim’s Peak and approach Sebastian. A cutscene will trigger, after which you’ll have dispelled the sandstorm barrier and finished Beyond the Margins.
