While the regular moves everyone uses in Crimson Desert are enough to let you decimate several enemies, the truth is that you’ll need an extra punch if you really want to get rid of some of the more annoying foes you’ll face in Pywell. Besides Abyss Gears and wrestling moves, you’ll also want to keep an eye out for Elemental Attacks. However, getting them isn’t an easy feat, as most of them require you to solve several puzzles in the Abyss. In any case, here’s how you can unlock magic in Crimson Desert to start imbuing your weapons with elemental attacks.
How To Unlock Your First Magic Attack
Rather than the traditional magic systems we’ve seen in other games, Crimson Desert has its own way of “magic” in the form of elemental attacks. The way to start unlocking these is by going through the Abyss, which, beyond giving you skill points, will start giving you elemental skills that you can then use when fighting.
For this guide, we’ll show you how to unlock Frost Mantle, which in turn lets you imbue your weapon with that element.
The Spire of Ringing Truth
The easiest way to start working toward magic and elemental attacks in Crimson Desert is by heading toward some of the Spires, which will eventually lead you to a new area in the Abyss once you complete all puzzles. The first spire we tackled, which led us to our first elemental magic, was the Spire of Ringing Truth, which you can find in Pailune, west of the main city.
Once you reach the Spire, you’ll need to make your way to the top of it and shoot the bell that’s hanging. You can use a couple of arrows to bring it down. Once you do that, the bottom of the tower will open, and you can dive toward it.
There, you will face Priscus the Ancient, which isn’t a challenging fight in terms of moves. The most difficult part here is finding the right window to attack him, as he is always flying around the arena. We managed to beat him while waiting for him to execute his ultimate attack, which is when he stands in the middle of the arena and starts casting several spells that chase you. Once he stops casting, attack him with Pierce moves to bleed him out.
Once you defeat the boss, a path to the Abyss will open, and here’s where the path toward your first magic unlock in Crimson Desert will begin.
Reaching the Path of Trials
Once you reach the Abyss, you’ll appear in an area called Ether Rest, and here’s where the puzzle gauntlet will start, as you’ll need to go through three zones full of puzzles to unlock your first elemental attack in Crimson Desert.
Fortunately, solving the puzzles in these areas isn’t too difficult. And we’ll go over the steps to solve each one quickly.
- Ether Rest
- Enter the rotating structure and use your Axiom Force to rotate the circle between the cables outside of the cages.
- Enter the cage and glide to the top. You’ll find a wall with a circle in the middle; use Nature’s Grasp to lift it.
- Once lifted, use Axiom Force to grab the other circle and start rotating the room until you unlock an opening.
- Use the turbines to fly to the top, and grab the two floating pieces in this area. You can either seal them in your pot or drag them as you ascend.
- Use the Abyss pieces to power up the block at the top to turn on the big turbine. Ride the wind to the other side and use your focus palm to activate the button on the wall.
The first puzzle area ends here, and you’ll get an Abyss Artifact and unlock the next area: Frostbitten Paradise.
Note: If you’re having a hard time moving the floating platform, you need Nature’s Snare to make the wind pass through the fan that will move the platform.
- Frostbitten Paradise
- Grab the cube that’s emitting light on your left and have it face the golden gem on the wall. This will unlock the door.
- Go through the door, step on the switch on your left, and go through the gate that opened on the floor.
- Grab the cube and have it light the gem at the end of the corridor, where the impassable wall is.
- Climb on the floating platform and take the cube with you.
- Place the cube on the conveyor near the wall and use any energy cube you have (or the one in the room) to power up the conveyor. You’ll need to line up the cube first so that it lights up the sphere on the wall.
- The impassable wall will open. You can now grab the first cube you used and bring it with you.
- Place both cubes so that they light both spheres on the wall.
- With the right timing, take one of the cubes with you and place it in the room to open the other impassable wall.
- Grab the battery and insert it into the socket on the wall.
Once you do all that, the next Abyss island will unlock, and this one is the Path of Trials, which is what you need to get your Frost Mantle spell.
- Path of Trials
- Jump across the lake and stay next to the torches to keep yourself warm.
- Reach the top and grab the battery. Drag it to any of the lava pools you saw on your way up.
- Wait until it melts and return to insert it into the socket on the ground.
- Climb the wall and use your Force Palm to press the button.
Once you reach the top, you’ll see that, besides the Abyss Artifact, you’ll unlock the Frost Mantle spell, finally giving you access to magic and elemental attacks in Crimson Desert.
From here, you’ll see that the spell menu in the red skill tree will be unlocked, meaning that you can start investing points into some of these abilities. However, keep in mind that you need to keep unlocking elements to get other elemental attacks. For instance, the fire attack requires you to unlock the fire spell first, and so on.
So far, we’ve only found this spell, but every other elemental attack is tied to the Abyss. If you want to unlock all of them, make sure to explore this area, and if you reach a point where you can’t progress, look for more spires across the map, as these will lead you to your next spell.
