Crimson Desert’s Duskwood holds two puzzles, one of which is easier to get caught up in than the other. Both reward you with the usual artifacts, but you also get Abyss Cressets, which is Crimson Desert’s convoluted way of saying “you unlocked a fast travel point.” The Duskwood is big, and given how long it takes to get across Pywel, any additional fast travel points are definitely worth taking the time to unlock.
Below, we explain how to solve the Duskwood Hill and Duskwood Waterside puzzles in Crimson Desert.
Crimson Desert Duskwood Waterside Ruins puzzle solution
Duskwood Waterside Ruins is a slightly misleading name, since it’s basically just a mystical game board, not really a ruin. Anyway, it’s a little ways to the west of Hernand Town. Exit the town, head west, and approach the river. Follow it as it curves through the landscape, and when it curves back to the south, you’ll see one of those cloudy areas with a question mark on the map appear. That’s Crimson Desert’s way of telling you there’s a puzzle or quest nearby.
Approach the cloudy area (you’ll run into a bandit camp, which you can either clear or ignore) and head to this spot. The “Duskwood Waterside Ruins” quest may or may not pop when you reach the location, but you can still complete the puzzle even if it doesn’t.
The goal here is putting five stones of the same color in a row, white or black. The easiest way to do this is to move the black stone that’s circled above and so it replaces the white stone the arrow is pointing to. After a few seconds, the Abyss pillar will activate. Approach it to claim your artifact and cresset, which will then turn this location into a fast travel point.
Crimson Desert Duskwood Hill Ruins puzzle solution
The Duskwood Hill Ruins puzzle is further south, in the middle the Alfonso’s estate and just past the spearkmaker’s hut. Like with the waterside ruins, the Duskwood Hill Ruins will show up as a cloud marked with “mysterious energy” on the map when you approach. Make sure you’ve unlocked the “stab” skill from the blue section of the skill tree; starting from the center of the tree, travel up one node in the blue section and then one node to the right.
Use Blinding Flash and focus light on the vines covering the pedestal and then the vines covering the pillars on the dais behind it. You’ll also see the shadow of a man stabbing the pedestal, which is your clue how to deal with the puzzle. The goal is rotating the pedestal to make each pillar the same height as the one on the far left,.and they’ll light up when they reach the correct height. It’s a little easier to complete during the afternoon in in-game time, as the shade lets you actually see when the pillars light up.
The pedestal has several holes, and you need to face one and use the stab move to insert your sword, which will then act as a lever. In this instance, every movement needs to be clockwise (unless you need to correct a movement and lower a pillar).
Start from the back of the pedestal, the hole facing the pillars. Turn it until roughly the position shown above, where the second, third, and fourth pillars are all just slightly lower than the first one. Then, move to this position in the front right of the pedestal. Turn until the second pillar lights up and the last pillar is even with the third and fourth, which is roughly at the position shown below.
Finally, stab the hole in the back and turn until the last three pillars light up. They don’t all have to be perfectly even. The game will even them out once they all light up, so they just need to be lit.
A short scene will play, the altar lights up, and you can finally grab your cresset.
For more help in Crimson Desert, check out our Dragon Stone Chamber puzzle solution guide, along with how to clear the fog from Crimson Desert’s map. We’ve also got tips for tracking down the Blix bounty and Bianca bounty, if you’re struggling with those.