Crimson Desert: Gate to the Otherworld and Spire of the Stars guide

Once you reach the Scholastone Institute, you’ll be asked to follow the Dean. After some rambling, he leads you to another tutor called Octavius, who’s demonstrating his new invention.

He’s lucky you’re here, though, because they expect you to turn the damn thing on.

Help with Octavius’s Experiment

When the cutscene ends, you’re asked to activate the device lock switch underground. Just head to the edge and float down a layer, popping in through the window.

You’ll find a square device with a bunch of symbols on it, and the trick is to make it so they’re all pushed in. Each one you press will also activate others, so just trial-and-error it until they’re all pressed in.

Once done, pull the switch and the ceiling will open up. Climb back up top and help with the batteries.

Insert the batteries to activate the device

There are four batteries (the square symbols on the minimap) and four slots to put them in. The batteries are the floating cubes fizzling with electricity. Each slot is directly in front of the battery.

Use Axiom Force (your spectral hand grabby thing) to position each cube so it’s floating just in front of the hole. The game should automatically rotate them so they’re aligned once you bring them close.

When they’re floating just in front of the hole, use Force Palm to slap them into place. Four beams will hit the sphere in the center and a cutscene will play. After, grab the central sphere with Axiom Force (hold the left trigger and pull with the stick) and pull it away from the pedestal.

Tenebrum

The game tutorialises you to shine your sword’s light on the creature to find its weakness, but it doesn’t really help much. Your goal, however, is quite simple — glide into the shadowy creature and click R3 to hit it with a Force Palm mid-air.

It’s almost impossible to hit while moving, so glide around and avoid its projectiles until it zips to the center and rests, giving you a chance to hit it.

The wind around the arena will get you airborne if you jump and glide, so don’t worry about climbing to get height. If you run out of Spirit while trying to hit it with a Force Palm, take cover behind a pillar and press L3 and R3 simultaneously to meditate and recharge your Spirit.

Three hits should be enough to finish it off.

One word of warning: if you die and choose “retry”, it’ll put you right back to the start of the puzzle for some reason.

Spire of the Stars

Once you’re done, head through the cave and up to the top of the cliff to the Spire of the Stars. Use your key on the door. Inside there’s an elevator, a short corridor off to either side, and a series of symbols on the wall in front of you.

The symbols are switches. Before you do anything, head into the side corridors and Force Palm the three wall buttons (one left and two right) to get three Engraved Stones. The solution to the switch puzzle is also in these side rooms.

Let’s name the symbols for ease of use, from left to right: infinity, circle, square, triangle. We will do the same for the position, from top to bottom: 1, 2, 3, 4.

Here’s where each symbol should sit:

• Infinity – 1
• Circle – 2
• Square – 4
• Triangle – 3

Back in the main elevator room, insert an Engraved Stone into the slot at the bottom of the infinity symbol and it’ll move right into position at the top.

Circle is already in position and has an Engraved Stone slotted already, hence why you only needed three.

Slot an Engraved Stone into square and then climb up the wall, hanging onto the lever until the symbol is all the way at the bottom in position 4.

Insert an Engraved Stone into the triangle symbol and climb up and hang, but jump off when it reaches position 3, second from bottom.

Hop on the elevator when you’re done. If you happen to fall off for any reason, jump from a very tall place and die – you’ll restart back from the checkpoint (this definitely didn’t happen to me).

At the top, head up the stairs and you’ll trigger another cutscene. Once finished, interact with the abyssal gate and teleport to the sky islands.

Obsession and Madness — investigate the abyss

You’ll find yourself among the ancient technology of the abyss once again. Walk forward and you’ll see Old Octavius, who asks you to stop “him” from tearing open the rift. There’s an Abyss Nexus just in front of you, so make sure to stand on it for a handy fast travel point.

Glide across to the tall pillar in front of you and climb to the top. From there you can glide across and climb the main platform. At the top, just before the circular arch, there’s a ground switch that you need to activate by jumping and Force Palming mid-air. Another cutscene will play and you’ll be back down to earth.