Crimson Desert Players Overlook Major Shortcut in Early Mission

In Crimson Desert, players will encounter an early side quest in the House Roberts storyline titled “Sealed in Stone.” This quest kicks off right after you take down Marni’s Excavatron, and your main task is to eliminate the foes surrounding Karin Quarry. On your HUD, you’ll notice a meter that decreases with each Bleed Bandit you defeat.

However, the progress is painfully slow. Each enemy nets you about 0.5%, meaning you’ll need to take down roughly 200 enemies to fully clear the quarry. I tackled this the hard way, spending around 20 minutes in relentless combat, unaware that I had overlooked a significant shortcut that many others likely missed as well.

A shoutout to a Reddit user for shedding light on this: you don’t actually have to defeat each enemy to complete the quest. Instead, three key locations are listed above the objectives: the Infirmary, Timber Warehouse, and Barracks. Focusing on destroying these structures will remove a hefty 33.3% from the total each time.

Given the number of upvotes on that comment and the popularity of the post discussing the enemy-slaying approach, it’s clear that most players have fallen into the same trap. It seems the game intentionally obscures objectives and mechanics, leading many to assume that the locations simply indicate where to fight enemies rather than where to destroy buildings.

That said, the combat in Crimson Desert is a highlight for many, so some players don’t mind the grind. One player noted, “Getting to slime 300 plebs, Dynasty Warriors-style, was badass,” while another mentioned it was “good practice to understand the combo mechanics.”

This isn’t the only quest structured this way, so if you find yourself in a similar situation but can’t locate the buildings to destroy, try using the Blinding Light ability with your weapon. This will highlight the necessary locations in red—if you can manage to do so while fending off enemies.