Crimson Desert's Charting The Unknown DLC includes the coolest out of bounds secret

If you don’t test the boundaries of open-world games, then you’re simply not playing open-world games correctly.

It’s a great way to gauge the creativity of dev teams, as studios deal with map boundaries in all sorts of different ways.

Almost all boundary edges come with some kind of on-screen warning, advising you to venture no further.

Many games simply see you transported back to a sensible in-map location. I’ve also played many games surrounded by snowy peaks that see you perish from the cold and spawn in anew.

What I adore, however, is dev teams that have enough whimsy to hide a fun little secret for those players who try to push the boundaries of what’s possible - and Pearl Abyss have passed my little test with flying colours.

Crimson Desert has officially launched its first paid DLC expansion, Charting The Unknown, with the enormous offering more than doubling the size of the game’s already large map.

The new portion of the map features an array of islands surrounded by vast swathes of ocean.

Given that Charting The Unknown also adds diving, underwater mounts, and underwater locations, those vast swathes of ocean are as integral a part of the map as more traditional land locations.

It’s with all of this in mind that there are two types of boundaries within Charting The Unknown: the ocean’s depths and the ocean’s perimeter.

Well, if you dive down as deep as you possibly go, you’ll come face to face with a legendary beast of the seas.

Come face to face with a kraken in Crimson Desert’s Charting The Unknown DLC

Diving down too deep spawns an on-screen warning that reads “cannot enter this region”. If you ignore the warning though, and keep going, a small cutscene will eventually play.

It shows a huge kraken appearing, with a rather unsettling soundtrack to go with it. The kraken grabs Kliff, Damiane, or Oongka, before dragging them down even deeper into the sea to their doom.

You can see the Easter egg in action thanks to this clip captured by TheRealZephryss.

“Cool way to do an invisible wall,” replied MR3Dev.

READ MORE: Crimson Desert is playable for free from your PC browser, no download required

I’m yet to try and sail past the game’s boundaries but I’m assuming that’s where the DLC’s maelstroms come into play.

If you’ve not yet encountered one of these fierce sea storms, they’ll eventually see your ship completely destroyed, killing you and your crew if you’re foolish enough to sail into the storm.

It’s worth doing, though, once, I stupidly advise. Yes, you’ll perish, but it looks awesome. I couldn’t stop thinking about Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End’s climatic fight the entire time.

Given the sheer scale of Charting The Unknown, there are likely plenty more secrets for us to discover - particularly when you consider just how many were featured within the base game.

Pearl Abyss has pulled off something wildly special by launching both this and the base game within the same year.