TL;DR
- Talk to Count Roberts at Bluemont Manor to start the quest
- Head north to Karin Quarry and clear out the Bleed Bandits
- Destroy the Infirmary first — it revives injured enemies
- Deplete the occupation bar to unlock the Excavatron boss fight
- Use Force Palm to stagger Excavatron and create safe damage windows
- Don’t sprint away when it burrows — sprint away from it instead
- Rewards include a Gold Vein Map, Drillknuckle, and Engraved Gold Earring
Stolen Quarry is a faction quest you pick up early in Crimson Desert. It sounds simple — go clear out some bandits. But the game doesn’t warn you how hard this one actually is. Many players jump in right away and get demolished. Don’t be that player. This guide covers everything you need to know to get through it cleanly.
Before you head out, make sure your gear is in good shape. Check our best items to get early in Crimson Desert guide and our tips on how to reinforce equipment before you go.
How to Start the Stolen Quarry Quest
Talk to Erich outside Bluemont Manor first. He’ll send you inside and upstairs to meet Count Roberts. The Count will tell you that Karin Quarry — his family’s quarry — has been taken over by the same Bleed Bandits that seized his cask house.
Accept the quest and prepare before you leave. This is one of the first real difficulty spikes in Crimson Desert. Go in underprepared and you’ll be making a lot of trips back to Hernand.
Prepare Before You Go
Don’t rush straight to the quarry. Do these things first:
Stock up on food. Clear Soup is your best early option. It heals well and only needs common ingredients. Buy what you need from the butcher and grocer in Hernand, then cook before you leave. Our how to cook the best healing food in Crimson Desert guide shows you exactly what to make.
Upgrade your gear. Visit the blacksmith in Turnali in Hernand. Upgrade your weapon and armor as much as you can. Even one or two refinement levels makes a big difference here. See our guide on how to increase your attack level and how to increase your defense level.
Bring Palmar Pills. If Excavatron drops you, a Palmar Pill lets you get straight back up without losing progress. See our guide on how to get and use Palmar Pills in Crimson Desert.
Consider bringing a two-handed weapon. Longswords have great reach and wide sweeps. They let you hit multiple enemies at once, which matters a lot inside the quarry. Our best early build guide can help you decide what to run.
How to Get to Karin Quarry
Head north from the Goldleaf Trading Post, northeast of the City of Hernand. Karin Quarry is hard to miss — look for the large hole in the ground and the giant crane sticking up above it.
Tip: Enter from the mountains behind the quarry if you can. Coming in from the high ground lets you pick off archers first and gives you a positioning advantage before the main push. It’s a much cleaner approach than charging in through the front.
When you arrive at the entrance, you’ll find bandit patrols and groups of captured refugees. Beat the bandits and free the hostages as you go. Freeing hostages earns you extra Hernand Contribution points, and it counts toward a separate side objective called To the Rescue at the same time.
How to Liberate Karin Quarry
Once inside the quarry proper, look to your left. You’ll see four objectives listed: the Infirmary, Timber Warehouse, Barracks, and Marni’s Excavatron. There’s also a green occupation bar showing 100%. Killing Bleed Bandits depletes it. When it hits zero, the Excavatron boss fight unlocks.
You can ignore most of the sub-objectives and just fight through normally. But the Infirmary is worth dealing with first.
Destroy the Infirmary. It’s on the right side of the entrance — look for the building with white flags on the roof. Knock out the enemies near it, then destroy it with Turning Slash. Once it’s gone, injured enemies stop returning to the fight. It makes the rest of the clear significantly easier.
Use your Blinding Flash to spot the sub-objectives easily. A spinning red square will appear above each one once you activate it.
Key combat tips for the quarry:
- Use Grappling attacks to manage crowds. Lariat moves send shockwaves through nearby enemies every time you slam someone into the ground. Great for breaking up groups.
- Watch for explosive barrels marked with a white X. You can pick them up and throw them, or trigger them from range with arrows. Very useful when you’re surrounded.
- Use Blinding Flash when you’re getting overwhelmed. It stuns everyone in front of you and buys you breathing room. Pair it with the Blinding Flash Finisher skill for a strong follow-up combo. See our how to use Blinding Flash guide for the full breakdown.
- You can retreat if you get low. The occupation bar stays where it is and doesn’t reset when you die or pull back. Chip away at the bandits over multiple runs if you need to.
How to Beat Marni’s Excavatron
Once the occupation bar hits zero, head to the arena west of the quarry. Marni’s Excavatron is waiting — a robotic mining machine with drills for hands. It’s the first serious mechanical boss in the game and it will punish greedy play hard.
The single best trick for this fight: use Force Palm. Activating Force Palm right as Excavatron is about to burrow underground stuns it. You can also use a jumping Force Palm to hit it while it’s underground and force it to surface. This creates consistent, safe damage windows with very little risk. If you haven’t unlocked Focus yet, do the first Unexpected Gift quest in Chapter 2 quickly — it’s short and it unlocks Focus, which you need.
Excavatron boss tips:
- Keep blocking through its regular attack strings. You can even block while it’s underground.
- Hit and run. Excavatron is hard to stagger and its drills hit multiple times fast. Getting caught in a combo will stunlock you badly. Strike quickly, then get out.
- When it burrows and chases you underground, do not dodge roll. Sprint away from where it’s heading instead.
- When the boss staggers and drops to its knees, that’s your window. Use your highest-damage combo while it’s down.
- Dual wielding or a two-handed weapon works well here since most of Excavatron’s attacks can’t be blocked anyway — offense matters more than defense in this fight.
- Consider switching to Damiane for this fight. Her agile attacks and AoE skills are well-suited to both the boss and the bandit clear outside.
We also have a dedicated how to beat Marni’s Excavatron in Crimson Desert guide if you want a deeper breakdown.
After the Boss – Clearing the Quarry and Finishing the Quest
Once Excavatron is down, exit the boss arena through the wooden gate. The remaining Bleed Bandits outside still need to be dealt with. There are quite a few of them. Use Damiane’s mobility to reposition and take them in smaller groups rather than letting them surround you.
Once the occupation bar is fully depleted, the quest completes and Sealed in Stone unlocks immediately after.
Speak to the count’s representative on site. Then return to Hernand and speak with Count Roberts directly. He’ll reward you with:
- Gold Vein Map — reveals cave locations with gold ore veins west of Hernand
- Drillknuckle — works as an alternative to Pickaxes for mining
- 3 Azurite and 3 Bloodstone
- Engraved Gold Earring — boosts defense and movement speed. Don’t sell this. It’s likely the first earring you’ll get in the early game and every stat point counts at this stage. See our accessories guide for how to get the most out of it.
After getting the Gold Vein Map, open your map. New cave locations will now appear west of Hernand. Visit them for gold ore veins and extra loot. If you need ore early, also check our guide on how to get iron ore in Crimson Desert.
Sealed in Stone – What Comes Next
After finishing Stolen Quarry, the Sealed in Stone quest sends you back to Karin Quarry. Speak with Erich and ride the lift up to the Crane Controls.
The crane is awkward to use and wobbles a lot. Take it slowly. Press it down against the buried relic to expand the claw, then lift gently. The camera zooms in when you’ve locked on. Pull it up to complete the objective.
Once the relic is removed, you can drop down into the Hidden Ruins beneath it. There’s a turret inside — grab it with Axiom Force to destroy it. It drops an Abyss Power Core you can store in your Kuku Pot. Past the turret is a small altar with 3 Palmar Pills. Our guide on how to use Axiom Force will help if you’re not familiar with it yet.
After completing Sealed in Stone, return to Count Roberts one more time to wrap up the Estate in Dismay series of quests.
More Guides to Help You Through Hernand
- How to beat Kailok the Hornsplitter in Crimson Desert
- How to enter Hernand Castle in Crimson Desert
- Bluemont Manor strongbox puzzle solution
- Hillside Manor strongbox puzzle solution
- How to remove bounty in Crimson Desert
- How to parry, counter, and dodge in Crimson Desert
- How to get max health in Crimson Desert
- How to get max stamina in Crimson Desert
- Crimson Desert review
For everything in one place, visit the Crimson Desert hub page.
