Island pioneering mission stuck at 100%? Patch fixes (2.04.03, 2.04.06) and workarounds
Pioneering mission in Charting the Unknown stuck at 100%? Hotfixes 2.04.03 and 2.04.06 fix it. Update, then finish it from the map's Facilities tab.
Steps
- Update to 2.04.06 and restart the game. Hotfix 2.04.03 (October 31) fixed pioneering missions that couldn't be completed under certain conditions. Hotfix 2.04.06 (November 4) fixed two more cases: running two or more pioneering missions at once, and completing a mission while your ship is near the anchorage. Fully close and relaunch the game so the patch applies.
- Crew every role on your ship. If there's nobody to send when you try to pioneer the island, put at least one crew member in every crew slot on your ship. One player found that was the whole problem.
- Don't send your three pioneers on other dispatch missions. The game still lets you pick the same comrades for other dispatches. Doing that pulls them off the island and breaks the mission, so leave those three alone until it's done.
- Stay at the island while it's being built. Two players got the mission to finish by staying at the dock on the island for the whole construction, without moving away or teleporting, until it hit 100%.
- Complete it from the Facilities tab on the map. When the completion message appears, open the map and go to the Facilities tab. A new option to complete the mission shows up there.
- Already stuck at 100%? Patch first, then reload an earlier save. Install 2.04.03, restart, and check the Facilities tab again. It isn't confirmed yet whether the patch repairs missions that froze before you updated. If yours is still stuck, load a save from before construction finished and redo it while staying on the island.
The problem: one of the first things the Charting the Unknown DLC asks you to do is sail to an island and pioneer it, sending three comrades from your ship to build an anchorage. Lots of players get the construction to 100% and then can’t complete it. The only option left is to cancel, and some find only two of their three comrades still assigned. Others can’t send anyone at all.
The official fix: Pearl Abyss released hotfix 2.04.03 on October 31, and the first line of its patch notes says it fixes “certain pioneering missions” that couldn’t be completed under certain conditions. It’s live on Steam (PC and Mac), PlayStation and the Epic Games Store. Xbox and the Mac App Store versions are still on the way. Install it, fully close the game and launch it again before you go back to the island. The October 30 hotfix (2.04.02) also fixed crew members not showing up on some ships. It added a pop-up in the right-hand menu too, so when you sail into an area you can pioneer, you can start the mission straight from there.
The patch is only a few hours old, so it’s not clear yet whether it rescues missions that were already frozen at 100%, or crews that disappeared, before you installed it. Patch it first. If the mission still won’t finish, use the player workarounds below.
Second fix, November 4: hotfix 2.04.06 fixes two more pioneering bugs. Before it, you couldn’t complete an earlier pioneering mission if you’d sent out two or more, and pioneering wouldn’t finish if you tried to complete it while your ship was near the anchorage. The hotfix is out on Steam, PlayStation and Xbox now. The Epic Games Store and Mac App Store versions will come later.
What worked before the patches: two players got it to complete by staying at the island’s dock for the entire construction, without sailing away or teleporting, and then completing the mission from the Facilities tab on the map once the completion message appeared. A third said finishing it from the map was all they needed. These steps are still worth following after you update.
Before you send your crew
These keep the mission from breaking in the first place:
- Crew every role on your ship. If there’s nobody to choose when you try to pioneer, put at least one crew member in every crew slot. The player who started the “Anchorage bug?” thread found that was what stopped them.
- Keep your three pioneers off other dispatches. The game still lets you pick those same comrades for other dispatch missions while they’re working on the island. If you do, they get pulled off the ship and the island, and the mission can’t finish because they’re gone. Your ship’s deckhands drop too.
- Don’t swap ships mid-mission. One player upgraded to a bigger ship while their crew was on the island. The new crew couldn’t take over, and the mission got stuck in a locked state.
How to finish the pioneering mission
- Make sure you’re on version 2.04.06 if your platform has it (2.04.03 at minimum), and restart the game after it updates.
- Send three comrades to pioneer the island.
- Stay at the island’s dock while they build. Don’t leave the area, fast travel or teleport.
- When progress reaches 100% and the completion message pops up, open the map.
- Go to the Facilities tab. There’s now an option to complete the mission. Select it, and the quest moves on.
Already stuck at 100%?
Install the latest hotfix and restart the game first, then check the Facilities tab on the map again. Neither set of patch notes says whether missions that were already stuck get repaired, and nobody on Steam has reported back yet. Before the patch, reloading, restarting and teleporting didn’t help anyone. The players who got past it loaded an earlier save (one went back to a save at around 23% construction) and redid it while staying on the island.
Some players are passing around an unofficial save-fixing tool on Steam. One player said it worked before the hotfix, and another said it no longer works on the new version. It isn’t from Pearl Abyss and it edits your save files, so we don’t recommend it. If you try it anyway, back up your saves first.
Still not working
Two other versions of this bug were reported before the patch. Some players press “Confirm Dispatch” and nothing happens. Others get a warning that the captain or ship is too far from the anchorage, even when the ship is parked right at the dock. In the “can’t assign” case, one player got it working by sailing the ship into the area marked in yellow on the mission map. Hotfix 2.04.06 fixes pioneering not completing while the ship is near the anchorage, and it also fixes the case where you’ve sent out more than one pioneering mission. Pearl Abyss doesn’t mention the “too far” warning or Confirm Dispatch by name, so update and try again. If it still fails, reload a save from before you sent the crew. This guide will be updated as players confirm what the patch fixed.
If you’re new to dispatching comrades, here’s how dispatch missions work at Howling Hill. For everything else in the expansion, see what Charting the Unknown adds and how to unlock it.
Sources
This guide summarizes answers from these community threads. Credit goes to the players who worked it out.
- Patch Notes Version 2.04.06 (All Platforms Hotfix) (official Crimson Desert site, Pearl Abyss) (crimsondesert.pearlabyss.com)
- Patch Notes Version 2.04.03 (All Platforms Hotfix) (official Crimson Desert site, Pearl Abyss) (crimsondesert.pearlabyss.com)
- Patch Notes Version 2.04.02 (All Platforms Hotfix) (official Crimson Desert site, Pearl Abyss) (crimsondesert.pearlabyss.com)
- Anchorage bug? (Steam Community, Crimson Desert General Discussions) (steamcommunity.com)
- Pioneer mission bugged? (Steam Community, Crimson Desert General Discussions) (steamcommunity.com)
- Pioneer Island mission - 'temporary' Fix (Steam Community, Crimson Desert General Discussions) (steamcommunity.com)
- [BUG] Island Pioneering Dispatch Not Working – Even After Latest Hotfix (Steam Community, Crimson Desert General Discussions) (steamcommunity.com)
- Solution Pioneer mission cant assign mission (Steam Community, Crimson Desert General Discussions) (steamcommunity.com)
- How do I complete the pionner mission? It keeps saying I or ship too far from anchorage (Steam Community, Crimson Desert General Discussions) (steamcommunity.com)