How to Recruit Comrades

Overview

Comrades are the backbone of your Greymane Camp in Crimson Desert. These former members of the Greymane mercenary band serve as your workforce for dispatch missions, camp operations, and passive resource gathering. Unlike many open-world RPGs where you can recruit random NPCs from taverns, Crimson Desert restricts recruitment to scattered Greymane members who must be tracked down through a specific quest system. You are not hiring strangers; you are reuniting a broken family.

Recruiting more comrades directly boosts your resource farming and passive income, making it one of the most important systems to prioritize early. This guide covers every method for finding and recruiting comrades, lists all known recruitable characters, and explains how to manage and level them up once they join your camp at Howling Hill.

How Recruitment Works

All comrade recruitment in Crimson Desert flows through the Greymane Faction Quests. Random freeswords you encounter in the open world cannot be recruited, even if they appear friendly. Only characters with a Greymane affiliation can join your camp.

To access recruitment quests, open your Journal and navigate to Faction Quests, then select the Greymanes tab. Recruitment is split across several quest categories, but the primary source is a system called "rumor quests" found under the Grounds of the Sunrise category.

The Rumor System

The rumor system is the primary method for recruiting new comrades. It revolves around Marius, a key NPC at your camp who gathers intelligence on the whereabouts of scattered Greymane survivors. Marius is not a dispatch worker or shopkeeper; he is a story-critical character who drives the recruitment loop.

The recruitment cycle works as follows:

1. Speak with Marius at the Greymane Camp. He will share a rumor about former Greymanes who have been spotted in a specific area.

2. Check your Journal under Faction Quests, then Greymanes, then Grounds of the Sunrise. Missions that begin with "A Rumor..." are recruitment quests.

3. Travel to the marked location on your map. This might be a farm, trading post, outpost, quarry, or other settlement where former Greymanes have settled.

4. Find and speak with the former Greymanes at that location. You may need to clear out enemies or complete a short objective first.

5. Return to camp. The recruited comrades will appear at Howling Hill and become available for dispatch missions or camp services.

6. Repeat the cycle by speaking with Marius again. New rumors tend to unlock after completing previous ones and progressing through the main story.

A common mistake is assuming that recruitment locations are fixed or that you can find comrades by exploring randomly. Rumors are dynamically assigned through Marius, so returning to him regularly is essential for steady recruitment.

Key Recruitment Quests

Recruitment quests fall under several quest chains within the Greymane Faction Quests. The most important categories are the Pioneering storyline in Chapter 3, the Grounds of the Sunrise expansion quests, and the Embers of Return chain that begins in Chapter 4.

Pioneering (Chapter 3)

Your first comrades are recruited during the Pioneering sub-chapter of Chapter 3. After establishing the Greymane Camp at Howling Hill, Marius introduces the rumor system with the Scattered Comrades quest, which is a brief conversation that sets the stage for recruitment.

The next quest, Rumors From the Sawmill, sends you to a sawmill south of the Coalvale Workshop. There you find Luke and Ronald, two former Greymanes who traded their swords for axes and now work as lumberjacks. Speaking with them completes the quest and recruits your first two Freesword comrades, who become immediately available for dispatch missions.

Grounds of the Sunrise

Grounds of the Sunrise is the primary quest category for camp expansion and comrade recruitment. These missions are assigned by Marius and focus on tracking rumors across Pywel to bring former Greymane members home. The following table lists the confirmed rumor quests and the comrades they recruit:

New rumor quests unlock progressively as you complete existing ones and advance through the main story. After finishing each rumor quest, return to Marius to check whether a new rumor has surfaced.

Embers of Return (Chapter 4)

The Embers of Return questline opens in Chapter 4 with the quest Rumors of the Greymanes, where Marius shares intelligence about potential Greymane survivors spotted in different regions. This chain contains seven missions and represents a more structured recruitment path compared to the earlier rumor quests.

The first mission in this chain leads to A Rumor at Hills of No Return, where you travel north of Hernand past a bandit camp to find a brightly lit house containing Silvan, Otto, Fritz, and Aldric. Yann is already with them, having reached the location independently. Speaking with Otto triggers a reunion cutscene and completes the quest.

Reuniting with Comrades

After completing the Goldleaf Trading Post quest, a new sub-chain called Reuniting with Comrades unlocks within the Grounds of the Sunrise category. This chain requires you to first complete all seven missions in the Embers of Return chain, then the first four missions of the Gathered Will chain. Once those prerequisites are met, the Reuniting with Comrades quests become available.

The most notable quest in this sub-chain is A Rumor in St. Halssius, which recruits Arnold. Arnold is significant because he possesses the Engineer skill at level one, which is required for constructing the trading wagon through Brice's Request. Without Arnold, you cannot build a wagon and access the trading system.

All Known Comrades

Crimson Desert divides camp inhabitants into two groups: story NPCs who provide services and cannot be dispatched, and Freesword comrades who can be assigned to dispatch missions. The following tables list both groups.

Story NPCs (Non-Dispatchable)

These characters are essential story figures who manage camp features. They cannot be sent on dispatch missions.

Freesword Comrades (Dispatchable)

These are the comrades you recruit through rumor quests and faction missions. They can be assigned to dispatch missions for resource gathering.

Some comrades function primarily as vendors or camp service providers rather than dispatch workers. Conrad, Wynstan, Alec, Ed, Ben, and Kamu establish shop facilities at your camp rather than serving as Freesword workers for dispatch.

Managing Comrades

Once comrades arrive at Howling Hill, you manage them through Ross, the dispatch coordinator. His location is marked by a helmet icon on the minimap, making him easy to find. Ross provides two options when you speak to him:

• View Comrades: See a list of all recruited comrades, their current status, and their skill levels.

• Mission Dispatch: Assign comrades to resource-gathering missions. Active missions run automatically and restart unless manually canceled.

Resources collected from dispatch missions appear in the Supply Chest behind Carl at your camp. Check it periodically to collect gathered materials.

Dispatch Missions and Skill Matching

Each dispatch mission has a skill requirement indicated by an icon (farming shows a corn symbol, mining shows a pickaxe, and so on). Assigning comrades whose skills match the mission type provides significant bonus rewards:

Some dispatch missions require specific skills as a hard prerequisite. For example, wagon construction requires at least one assigned comrade with the Engineer skill. If no comrade has the required skill, the mission cannot be dispatched at all.

There are seven dispatch categories: Escort, Harvest, Ranching, Fishing, Smithing, Logging, and Mining. Additionally, certain missions require specialized skills such as Craftsman, Jeweler, Engineer, Cook, Explorer, Painter, Weaver, or Builder.

Leveling up Comrades

A critical detail that many players overlook is that running dispatch missions does not level up your comrades' skills. Comrade skill levels are tied entirely to your camp's expansion level. When you upgrade Howling Hill through a camp expansion dispatch mission, it increases the skill levels of all comrades simultaneously or unlocks the next skill each comrade has available.

The camp expansion process works through the Greymane faction progression system. As you complete Greymane faction quests and accumulate resources, you can dispatch the Howling Hill Camp Expansion mission. Each expansion tier requires increasing amounts of resources:

Because expansions require recruits as one of their resource costs, recruiting more comrades is doubly important: you need them both as workers for dispatch and as a prerequisite for camp upgrades that improve everyone's skills.

Greymane Commissions

Once comrades are settled at camp, they may offer personal requests called Greymane Commissions. These are side quests that involve gathering materials, delivering messages, or handling combat tasks for your comrades. There are 27 Greymane Commissions in total, and each one rewards a Medium Bag (+3 inventory slots). Completing all 27 commissions grants a total of 81 additional inventory slots, making commissions extremely valuable beyond their narrative content.

Commissions are accessed through your Journal under Faction Quests, then Greymanes, then Greymane Commissions. Hover over any quest to check its rewards before accepting it.

Tips for Efficient Recruitment

• Prioritize Glenbright Farm early. Recruiting Brice unlocks the Cook and Quartermaster, which are among the most useful camp services. Getting these running early saves time throughout the rest of the game.

• Complete Goldleaf Trading Post as soon as possible. This single quest recruits six people and unlocks the ranch, farm, shops, smithy, and stables. It is the highest-value recruitment quest in the game.

• Return to Marius after every completed rumor. New rumors are not announced with a notification. You need to speak with Marius directly to check for new leads.

• Progress the main story to unlock new rumors. New recruitment rumors tend to surface after major chapter transitions. If Marius has no rumors, advance the main storyline.

• Check the Grounds of the Sunrise tab regularly. Some quests in this category are not rumor quests but still contribute to camp expansion and may unlock further recruitment opportunities.

• Do not skip Reuniting with Comrades quests. These quests reward Abyss Artifacts and useful crafting materials on top of new recruits.

• Recruit Arnold before starting Brice's Request. Arnold's Engineer skill is required to build the trading wagon. Without him, you will be stuck on that quest chain.

• Dispatch comrades on missions while exploring. Missions run in the background and complete over real time. Assign your comrades before heading out on quests so resources accumulate passively.

• Upgrade Howling Hill as soon as requirements are met. Camp expansions improve all comrade skills at once, making your entire workforce more efficient for every dispatch mission.

• Watch for the Greymane disappearing bug. A known issue can cause recruited NPCs to vanish from camp if trust levels are raised too quickly before their personal requests unlock. Complete personal requests promptly after recruiting comrades to avoid this problem.

Troubleshooting

No New Rumors Available

If Marius does not offer any new rumors, you likely need to progress further in the main story. Rumor quests are gated behind chapter transitions and main quest milestones. Complete available main quests and check back with Marius afterward.

Comrades Not Appearing at Camp

After completing a recruitment quest, comrades may take a short time to appear at Howling Hill. If they still do not appear after resting or fast traveling, this may be related to the known bug where Greymane NPCs disappear. Check the Steam Community forums for the latest workarounds if you encounter this issue.

Cannot Start Dispatch Missions

Dispatch missions become available only after recruiting your first Freesword comrades (Luke and Ronald) through the Rumors from the Sawmill quest. If the dispatch option is greyed out at Ross, ensure you have completed this quest first. Some missions also require a minimum number of comrades or specific skills.

See Also

• Dispatch Missions

• Camp Expansion Guide

• Greymane Camp

• Faction Quests

• Greymane Commissions

• Trading Guide

• Beginners Guide

• Grounds of the Sunrise

Mecha Workers: Unlimited Late-Game Comrades

Once the main story progresses far enough (typically chapter 10 or 11), Kliff can unlock a separate workforce of crafted mecha workers that do not count against the normal Greymane comrade roster. Mecha workers fill the same dispatch slots as Freeswords and produce a steady stream of extra manpower for the Greymane Camp.

Unlock requirements: Travel to Due Haven. If the residents there are hostile on arrival, lower the mask before entering; Due Haven is intolerant of thieves and will attack any masked stranger on sight. Inside the castle, find the research board and start the Chair Research project. The research entry is drawn with a leaf icon and appears inside a small scrolling text box, so read the prompt carefully. Completing Chair Research unlocks the crafting recipe for mecha workers. In addition to this research, the nearby Marnie's Steel Armory must be liberated and added to the camp's allied points of interest.

Crafting cost: Each mecha worker requires two Greymane workers to build (one primary plus one spare) and costs 5,000 equipment per unit. A new worker produces every four in-game hours, which works out to roughly six workers per in-game day, or about 30,000 equipment per day to keep the line running at full speed.

Because equipment (armaments) is the bottleneck, farm it aggressively before activating the mecha line. The armory on the world map near Demeniss is one of the best equipment-producing dispatches early on; highlighting Demeniss directly does not always display the icon clearly, so pan around the region to locate it. Once the mecha line is active, resource reserves will plunge at first, but within a few cycles the new workers generate enough output to cover their own upkeep and eventually saturate every resource track.

Greymane Contribution and the Seal of Devotion

Alongside the rumor recruitment loop, the game tracks a separate Greymane Contribution score that caps at 100. Contribution is earned by completing Greymane favor missions listed on the faction board. The score does not exceed 100, so once the cap is reached the contribution track can effectively be ignored for the rest of the playthrough.

Max contribution pays off in chapter 9, when the Demeniss questlines open up and House Azarian introduces a set of Flame Knight missions. One of those missions grants the purple-tier Seal of Devotion reward. The combat for it is modest; most of it comes down to defeating a few knights just outside the main Demeniss city, and it can be completed almost by accident while exploring the area.

Once the Seal of Devotion is held, the dispatch interface adds a new option called Hire Contribution Worker. On any mission, assign one primary Greymane and then fill the remaining slots with contribution workers up to the score. At 100 contribution, this immediately adds 25 hired workers that can be poured into dispatch missions on top of the normal comrade roster. Contribution workers do not show up in the headcount at the top of the camp screen, but they do fill dispatch slots exactly like a recruited Freesword.

Stack with mecha workers. The Seal of Devotion hired workers and the mecha worker line are separate systems, and both stack on top of the Greymane comrades. Once both are unlocked, personnel shortages are never the reason a dispatch fails to launch. See Camp Expansion Guide and Dispatch Missions for full details on how these workers slot into mission planning.

Boost Equipment Yield Before Scaling the Workforce

Because every mecha worker costs 5,000 equipment and runs every four in-game hours, equipment production is the single most important resource track to develop before the late game. Keep armament dispatches running continuously, prioritize high-level security escort missions that pay silver to fund resupply, and funnel spare silver into regional church donation boxes to raise the Conversion Bonus for the local dispatches.

Donations in Demeniss provide the strongest gold boost, while Delesyia is the best region for equipment output. The Revantine monastery near Hernand is the earliest donation box most players will reach; putting 50,000 silver through it at a time is a safe habit because it avoids any single-donation cap and typically adds three blessing levels per deposit. With all three bonuses stacked (comrade, skill, conversion) the armory conversion rate can easily push well past 140 percent, which compounds directly into mecha worker throughput.