To build houses in Crimson Desert, establish Greymane Camp at Howling Hill, complete Luke’s Request, and select Free Construction in Home Decoration.
That unlock lets you assemble a house using individual structural pieces rather than choosing an existing layout and decorating its rooms. Walls, windows, doors, stairs, and roofs give you control over the structure, but every installed module costs Camp Provisions. Before placing anything, it pays to understand the unlock requirements, decide how much customization you actually need, and plan around the resources you cannot recover.
Should you build a custom house or choose a preset?
Free Construction is part of Charting the Unknown and was introduced with patch 2.04.00. It expands housing beyond furnishing existing rooms, letting you combine structural modules into your own design.
Preset layouts remain the simpler option if you mainly want more living space. Their availability depends on Greymane Camp progression, and the preset layout system received improvements in patch 1.04.00.
| Housing option | Available choices | Best reason to choose it |
|---|---|---|
| Preset layouts | Compact House, Standard House, Spacious House, and Spacious Pailunese House | You want an existing structure to furnish without planning every building module |
| Free Construction | Individual walls, windows, doors, stairs, roofs, and other obtained modules | You want control over your house’s shape and the placement of its structural pieces |
Choose Free Construction for the design freedom. If your priority is a bed and useful storage, a preset house can do that job without a custom rebuild.
How do you unlock Free Construction?
The housing unlock has two requirements: establish your camp at Howling Hill and complete Luke’s Request under the Grounds of the Sunrise Greymane faction questline. You do not need to finish the main story to meet these housing prerequisites.
Establish Greymane Camp at Howling Hill
If you have not reached your first camp yet, follow this progression:
- Defeat Kailok the Hornsplitter at Goldleaf Camp.
- Return to Hernand City and speak with Marquis Serkis.
- Receive Howling Hill and establish Greymane Camp there.
- Open the Quest tab and check the Greymane faction quests.
Howling Hill is the starting point for the housing quest. Once camp is established, continue with Grounds of the Sunrise rather than searching furniture shops for a construction unlock.
Complete Luke’s Request
Find Luke at camp, speak with him, and decorate the old house as requested. Completing Luke’s Request unlocks access to the regular and upgraded housing systems.
Finish Luke's housing request
If you need more help with this prerequisite sequence, the Crimson Desert Free Construction housing guide walks through Howling Hill and Luke’s Request.
How do you enter Free Construction and build a house?
Return to your house near Greymane Camp after completing Luke’s Request. The route into custom building is Home Decoration > Layout > Free Construction.
Follow this sequence to begin:
- Enter Home Decoration at your house.
- Open Layout.
- Select Free Construction.
- Open Installables and choose an available structural module.
- Place the building pieces for your chosen design.
- Exit Free Construction when the structure is finished, then use regular Home Decoration to furnish it.
On a controller, Start opens building mode, and R3 opens the layout selection. The menu names are the useful landmarks if your control setup differs.
Select your construction layout
What can you place in a custom house?
Free Construction uses separate modules, so the pieces available in Installables determine what you can build. Individual modules depend on what you have already obtained or unlocked.
| Structural piece | What it does | What to consider before placing it |
|---|---|---|
| Walls | Define room boundaries and the house’s shape | Decide your room sizes before spending provisions on the structure |
| Doors | Provide entrances and access between rooms | Plan where you want to move between spaces |
| Windows | Add windows to exterior walls | Choose their positions while planning the exterior |
| Stairs | Support multi-level house designs | Decide whether your design needs another level |
| Roofs | Complete the house’s upper structure | Plan them around the rooms and levels you intend to build |
The sensible approach is to settle the layout before installing all its parts. Free Construction gives you freedom to change the design, but rebuilding has a resource cost.
What does building a house cost?
Installing structural modules consumes Camp Provisions, and each module has its own cost. Check that cost before placing a piece, especially if you are considering a large house with several rooms or levels.
Plan structural placement first
Before starting a rebuild, check your Camp Provisions and leave enough inventory space for the items you will handle while constructing and furnishing the house. A bigger design also means more individual modules to pay for.
How do you get more building options?
Check each module’s description for information about where to obtain it. Unlocking Free Construction does not immediately give you every structural option.
Furniture shops also sell books and blueprints that expand your building options. Buy them for the specific additions you want, rather than purchasing them as a substitute for completing Luke’s Request. The quest is the housing unlock; additional building options come afterward.
How do you furnish a useful house?
Once the structure is complete, leave Free Construction and return to Home Decoration to place furniture and interior decorations. The Crimson Desert housing and decorating guide covers furnishing your home and finding furniture shops.
Appearance is only part of the decision. Several household items provide practical functions, so plan your interior around the ones you want to use:
- Bed: Lets your character rest.
- Storage Chests: Store items at home.
- Sturdy Gatherables Chest: Makes stored materials available for crafting and equipment upgrades.
- Kuku Cooler: Makes stored ingredients available for cooking.
The Sturdy Gatherables Chest and Kuku Cooler are especially worth considering when planning your rooms: one supports crafting and upgrades, while the other supports cooking with stored ingredients.
How do you establish houses at more locations?
Charting the Unknown adds 15 housing locations across Pywel, bringing the total to 17 alongside the original Howling Hill and Pailune homes. Discovering a new location adds a knowledge entry.
These sites are abandoned or occupied by bandits. Clear any enemies, then speak with Ross, the Base Camp Dispatch Coordinator, and send a party to construct the new camp.
Use the following landmarks to find the additional housing sites. Establishing another camp through Dispatch is a separate step from placing structural modules in Free Construction.
| Region | House | Where to look |
|---|---|---|
| Hernand | Abandoned Tanner’s Old House | Near Calphade Castle Hearth, by Deepfog Basin |
| Hernand | Old Mushroom House | Follow the road northwest from Abandoned Tanner’s Old House, past Deepfog Basin Shrine |
| Hernand | Abandoned Traveler’s Old House | Follow the road west from Howling Hill along the river |
| Hernand | Old Cobweb House | Take the road left of Hernand North Gate, past Saddlewind Ranch |
| Hernand | Abandoned Guard’s Old House | Follow the road southwest of Hernand East Gate |
| Pailune | Old Sunstride House | North of Pailune camp toward Vannstein Lake, near the route to Totemfelt by the Upper Denn River |
| Pailune | Old Maple House | North of Beighen settlement, beyond the bridge |
| Demeniss | Old Grapescent House | On the western edge of Furlington Farm |
| Demeniss | Old Frogchant House | Along the road southwest of the Southern Court, a short distance into the grassland |
| Demeniss | Old Forest House | Near the three-way junction close to Brookfield Marketplace and Church of East Demeniss |
| Delesyia | Old Pink Grassweave House | A little west of Fullharvest Farm and the Tinkerton research site |
| Delesyia | Old Bloomscent House | Northeast of Delesyia Dyehouse, or west of the Delesyia Institute |
| Delesyia | Old Railsound House | Northwest of Cornfield Farmhouse |
| Crimson Desert | Old Barren Land House | Southwest of Tommaso, past Redsand Farm |
| Crimson Desert | Old Sandswept House | A little east of Tommaso |
After marriage, you can designate one of these residences as the home where your partner lives. That residence choice serves a different purpose from designing a custom structure through Free Construction.
Can you claim and decorate castles too?
Charting the Unknown also includes three specific castles you can claim. Castle ownership requires completing the main story and relevant quests, then liberating the associated stronghold to unlock its claim missions. Once claimed, you can decorate castle courtyards and interiors with furnishings and special objects.
Castle ownership is a later progression goal than the Howling Hill housing unlock. If you want to build a custom house, focus on Luke’s Request first rather than working toward a castle deed.
Renting businesses is another separate camp-management activity. The Crimson Desert facilities guide explains how to rent and manage facilities after establishing camp and completing the required regional liberation quest.
For your first custom home, keep the priorities simple: finish Luke’s Request, open Free Construction, check your modules and Camp Provisions, and settle the layout before placing pieces. Build the structure you actually want to furnish, because dismantling an expensive experiment will not return the provisions you spent.
