Crimson Desert abyss guide: The Path of Providence

Once you unlock the ability of flight, you can head back to the abyss in the Path of Providence by changing the map layer with R3, making sure you have it tabbed to show all icons, and teleporting to the abyss nexus on the Ethereal Pathway.

Walk through the triangle forcefield here and you’ll get a switch. Use Axiom Force to grab it and the D-pad to turn it to the sweet spot. A bridge will appear. Cross it and reach the teleporter on the other side to be whisked away to Root’s End.

On this page:

• Root’s End
• Precipice of Truth
• The Secret Garden
• Vault of Vengeance
• Courtyard of Precision
• Altar of Solitude
• Ice Cradle

Root’s End

Cross the platforms to the furthest point and then wait for a floating platform to pick you up and carry you across to the main island. It won’t take you all the way, but you can hop across the three broken platforms (be careful, they crumble and fall) before jumping and gliding the rest of the way to the island with waterfalls.

Head up the stairs and activate the fast travel point. Head up the rest of the stairs and you’ll find yourself in a large square room, an archway in its center, and two rocks shining floodlights down into the middle.

In the middle under the arch you’ll find a circular metal grate. A jumping Force Palm will make it flip around, but it flips too quickly for you to drop inside.

What you need to do is crouch and Force Palm — done correctly, it’ll flip you around with it. From here, use your flight and free falling skills to avoid the lasers on the way down.

When you reach the bottom, look up at the floating rocks. Among them there’s a blue rectangle surrounded by electricity. Use Axiom Force to grab it, and place it in line with the open fuse slot on the ground.

It’s quite difficult to grab because it’s just out of range, but you can use a jumping Force Palm to get some air (even better if you’ve unlocked three consecutive Force Palms) and grab it while gliding.

Once you’ve moved it into position, perform a jumping Force Palm to secure it in place. Take the teleporter once you’re done.

In front of you, you’ll see two columns — one with a working fuse and one (on the right) that needs Force Palming into the wall.

Axiom Force it into position and slam it in. Next, do a jumping Palm Strike on the gear to complete Root’s End.

Grab the abyss artifact and head to the triangle forcefield to the northeast.

Grab the switch that appears with Axiom Force and turn it with the D-pad until it clicks and you’ll open the way forward. Use the platforms and work your way forward before gliding to the next teleporter to a new location, Precipice of Truth.

Precipice of Truth

Jump across the cliff structure and make your way up the steps. An orb at the top will fire an explosive at you, but you can destroy it by grabbing the orb with Axiom Force. It’ll leave a power core behind, which you can scoop up with your kuku pot (grab it with Axiom Force and press Y/Triangle). Move on and activate the fast travel point.

Around the corner you’ll see a deactivated fuse you can’t reach yet because of a forcefield. Just in front of the fast travel point there’s an active fuse and a slot for the missing fuse. There’s also a square pedestal next to the inaccessible fuse.

Usually you’d use a square block to activate the pedestal, but you’ve got what you need on you already — the power core from the sphere.

Move that into the pedestal and you’ll be able to grab the fuse and slam it into place near the fast travel point. Position it and Force Palm it in.

This activates the wind generator just across the way. Glide over to it and land on the upper islands.

You’ll start on a small rock, with another sphere overlooking you. Grab it with Axiom Force and put it in the kuku pot, then step onto the rock that floats down like an elevator.

Step off at the rock above and you’ll see a familiar scene — take the power core out of the pot, push it onto the cube pedestal, and grab the disconnected CPU. Once you’ve pulled it out, make sure to shove the power core back into your kuku pot.

You have to take the CPU across the rocks leading down to the left of where you came up. Push it into place next to the round gears and glide in front of it to Force Palm it in.

This activates another wind generator nearby that you can use to float across to the next section. Use the power core in your kuku pot to open the way for the next CPU, which you need to take upwards (don’t forget to pocket the power core again). Use the elevator rock to head up and deal with the CPU in the same manner as last time.

Another wind generator will activate just across from you, and you can ride that wind current to get to the powered up gear, slam it in with Force Palm, and finish this abyss puzzle. The act of using Force Palm while climbing will send you flying back, so be ready to glide and grab back on, climb up for your prize, another abyss artifact.

A series of platforms and elevators behind the monument will lead you up to the next area. Unfortunately, the forcefield triangle is blocked for now.

The Secret Garden

For the second set of abyss puzzles, available after the Scholastone Institute, make sure you bring lots of arrows.

If you head back to the abyss fast travel point after the Scholastone Institute’s main mission, you can head deeper into the abyss. Follow the obvious path and you’ll eventually be teleported to the Secret Garden, where another ancient technology puzzle awaits.

Inside the room you’ll see a series of devices and light beams, which reflect onto high tech mirrors. The one on the right of the room is powered up, but the one on the left is not.

You need to head to the back right corner of the room, where you’ll find a floating CPU in the bottom corner. You have to use Axiom Force to float it to the top and leave it in front of the base of the powered down light emitter.

Once it’s close, climb back up, grab it again, and jostle it into position in front of the recess. Now you need to Force Palm it into place — this is a bit fiddly, as you have to do it while gliding because of where it’s positioned.

When it’s powered up, head to the back of the orb and use Axiom Force to grab the small circle at its back. This allows you to take control of the light.

Shine it onto the mirror above the orb opposite and use the D-pad to make minor adjustments until it reflects onto the mirror above you on the left — this will shine the beam onto the blue gem on the wall. As you’ve probably noticed, that gem is already activated by the other orb.

Glide over to the other side and use Axiom Force to control the other orb. Move the light straight up to shine it on the mirror above its original position.

This will activate the second gem and open up a door next to the gems. Glide across and head into the room, which is a wind tunnel. Open your cloak to float up.

As soon as you reach the top, there’s a broken cable you need to fix — it’s easier to spot if you shine your torch, highlighting where power is running. Interact with the broken section and it’ll power up a cog just above you.

Climb up to the cog and perform a jumping Force Palm to activate it. This will restore the abyss and grant you an abyss artifact that you can collect from the north side of the platform.

You can continue your exploration of the abyss now by heading through the portal on the south side and using Axiom Force on the switch that appears. Turn it right with the D-pad until you get visual feedback and then hold it in place, and a series of platforms to the next sky island will appear. Once you reach the large platform at the end, wait for the floating platform to reach you and jump on — jump off when you reach the island.

Here you’ll find a circular platform. Stand on it and it’ll blast you across the sky to a whole new area.

Vault of Vengeance

In the new area, wait for a moving platform to take you across and use the second moving platform to head to the island with trees. Platform your way across and you’ll find another fast travel point to activate.

If you approach the vault in front of you, you’ll see it’s guarded by a magical wall. Up to the right of the vault there’s a blue cube — grab it with Axiom Force and place it on the cube pedestal on the right of the vault.

There’s another cube off to the left of the vault for the other pedestal — place it down and you will be able to approach the vault.

See those lit up circles either side of the vault door? Shoot them with an arrow in quick succession and you’ll open the vault. Use Nature’s Grasp (Y and B/Triangle and Circle) to pull the door up.

Inside you’ll see a chest guarded by lasers. There’s also a force field around the chest on the pedestal in the center. Underneath the lasers, there are those target symbols you just shot to open the vault — except now there are four of them and it’s impossible to shoot them all fast enough to deactivate the lasers… unless you get a skill.

You need to open the skill tree and unlock Focused Shot from the top left of the spirit tree. You also need to put a skill point into shooting to be able to unlock it. This allows you to slow time and shoot the targets by painting them with RB/R1 before firing them all at once by letting go of aim. It’ll cost you two Abyss Artifacts if you haven’t already got a point in shooting.

Now you can loot the golden sword from the pedestal, as well as all the chest and trinkets around it. The platform holding the golden sword lowers and you can glide down into the next area of the vault to enjoy more death lasers.

These ones are all about timing a nice slide. Just watch the patterns and look for your opening before sprinting and sliding when the time is right. At the other end there’s a CPU you need to move into place before Palm Striking into its recess. Jump, Palm Strike the floor, glide, and Palm Strike again.

Now head back outside using the teleporter on the floor. You’ll see a cog switch on a wall with two electrical fuses — one working on the left and one broken on the right. To fix the fuse on the right, you need to position it and Force Palm it into place — the easiest way to do this is jump, Force Palm to get air, press glide, immediately Force Palm again. Just like with the CPU.

Now climb onto the gear and Force Palm its center while hanging on. This completes the Vault of Vengeance and you can collect your Abyss Artifact.

But look, there’s another force field triangle thing nearby. It’d be rude to not see what else there is. Like before, Axiom Force to grab the switch and find the sweet spot with the D-pad to make a bridge appear. Head over and step on the teleporter on the other side. It’s time for the Courtyard of Precision.

Courtyard of Precision

Cross the bridge and activate the fast travel point before heading up the stairs where you’ll see a bunch of floating squares firing bolts randomly at the scenery. In the center of the battlefield, there’s a square protrusion on the floor and a bunch of cables leading to it. If you raise your lantern you’ll see none of them are powered, but they all lead the same way: down. Follow them to the edge and you will see a circular platform below you.

You don’t need to head down. Instead, go back to the floating squares. You’ll notice some of them are red and some are blue. You need to use focused shot to shoot the red ones at the same time. Paint them with RB/R1 and then let go of aim. Head around the upper platforms and do this to all the different groups of squares.

That circle down the bottom is now a wind tunnel. Glide into it and you’ll be shot up into the sky, where you need to repeat your trick of shooting the red squares simultaneously whilst airborne.

You can cheat here and land on the circular platforms near both groups to steady your aim. It’s a bit awkward to get the angle right because you need to wait for them to tilt toward you, but it’s doable.

Once done, that’ll activate another gear switch to the north. Head to it and perform a jumping Palm Strike to unlock the skills Lightning Pulse and Lightning Surge. Head won the stairs to the north for another Abyss Artifact.

Head though the forcefield triangle and Axiom Force the next precision switch before finding the sweet spot with the D-pad. Cross the new bridge but be careful of the crumbling platforms — move fast. Step onto the circular platform at the end to be whisked off somewhere new.

Altar of Solitude

Activate the new fast travel point when you arrive. You’re standing in a large room in a state of disrepair — there’s a floating blue cube in the air, and missing CPUs on the ground. Grab the nearby blue cube and move it to the square pedestal right near the fast travel point.

Still looking into the puzzle room from the fast travel point, grab the floating CPU that’s up and to your left. Place it onto one of the empty floor slots on the right side and Palm Strike it until place. Now pull the other CPU that’s in place on the left side, yank it out, and put that on the right side.

The entire section of the floor will flip and you need to drop down into the room as it does. If you miss it, you can move the cube off and on the pedestal to trigger the flip again. Down here there’s another CPU and you need to work it back toward the save point and push it through one of the gaps in the wall here.

Use the teleporter to go back up top and look down the hole on the right nearby to pull the CPU out. Put that CPU in the slot in the middle, between the two left and right sides. Now flip the right side by moving the cube, and take the two CPUs out. Place them in the left side, Palm Striking them into place, then put the cube back to flip the left side.

Drop down as it flips and make your way to the end, where you’ll just about be able to make out another CPU through some gaps in the wall.

Grab it with Axiom Force and tease it out the gaps, rotating it as you need to. Drag it through the vertical hole toward you, pull it right, push it through the next vertical hole, drag it to the right, flip it and pull it through the horizontal hole.

Now you just need to push it through the hole near the save point and pull it out like you did the other one. Once done, place it in one of the right side CPU slots, and pull out the middle CPU before placing that in the other right side slot. If you’ve done it correctly and the cube is still powered up, you’ll get a little cutscene of the machine powering up. Do a downward Palm Strike on the gear to finish things up and get an Abyss Artifact.

In the back right corner of this area there’s another series of islands, and one has a chest guarded by lasers at its base. To get the chest, simply pick up and use the blocks nearby to stop the lasers. The chest contains a Faded Abyss Fragment and a Haste 2 Abyssal Gear.

Once you’ve got those, head through the triangle door and activate the sweet spot switch with Axiom Force. Cross the platforms and take the teleporter at the end.

Ice Cradle

You know the drill — platform your way across to the fast travel point. Beyond, another puzzle awaits. Head forward and take the path up to the right, where you’ll find a way to drop into the cave toward the strange music emanating from within. Here you’ll find an automated instrument.

Stand in the light breaking through the cave and hold RB and LB and then press LB to shine the light from your sword. This is how you play the buttons beneath the instrument. You need to play them in the same order as the song. To make it easy, let’s name the notes from left to right as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Here’s the order to play the notes: 51234511.

The machine will whir to life. Head back to the other area of the cave with the frozen flowers and look up — there’s a power cable snaking out of a hole in the roof next to an ice wall.

Make your way up (I like it use Aerial Maneuver, an unlockable skill on Axiom Force, to pull myself up annoying climbs). Up here you’ll find a floating fuse — a little blue rectangle — that you can drag to the slot just above and right of the powered CPU. Don’t forget to glide up and Force Palm it in. You can now exit the cave and fix the broken pipe leading to the cog. Now climb onto the powered up cog to Force Palm it in.

Grab your Abyss Artifact and head through the triangle forcefield to platform your way to the abyss exit.