Crimson Desert post-intro and onward is absolutely worth playing, but the vague tutorial instructions in the first couple of hours can immediately leave a sour taste in your mouth. First of all, don’t worry, we’ve got you. And better news, it’s not like this for the whole game, it mellows out after a while! So let’s walk you through step by step on how to navigate the opening hours so you can get into the meat of the game.
If you ever get soft locked, you can either use the escape feature or one of the three auto save slots. The game auto saves pretty regularly so if you had something catastrophic happen within the past five minutes you can roll back, but anything farther than that it might not be accessible anymore–just be wary and manual save as needed.
Start off by simply talking to the Graymanes from the frontside–it’s straightforward here, just keep progressing. It’ll then throw you into a fight, and you’ll have to attempt to save your three Graymane friends here. No biggie.
The first movement controls tutorial starts here in the abyss. You can use A to sprint and X to jump. It will also explain holding LB to aim your jump and then pressing X to get aimed jumps. Climb up the wall by jumping on it, go to the nearby hole and crawl with L3, and get to a room with pillars. This was the first roadblock for some players, but all you have to do is initiate Blinding Flash by holding LB and RB, aim it at the sphere, release then hold LB again while still holding RB, and hold for about three or four seconds at this device. Between the “device” being confused for these side pillars and not holding the light long enough, this may have caught a couple of you off guard. Cross the chasm, head through the dark area by lighting your lantern, and head out of the abyss.
This next sequence is straightforward, just follow the man (holding A during any walking follow sections will auto-follow with the companion), kill the bandits harassing him, and go on a nice horse ride along with him. You’ll eventually end up in front of Hernand Castle, and this is where you technically could run off and do whatever you want. I’d highly recommend sticking to the main quest because you’re still missing a few key skills like the glider, natures grasp, and focus, and they don’t take too long to get.
So head towards the quest marker on the map and head into the tavern. Target the man at the center table and hit the prompt in the bottom right to challenge him to an arm wrestling match. It’s mostly mash X to win, but sometimes it will throw you a quick time event to time another button press within the highlighted window to hit another button. Once you’ve taken him down, head out of the tavern, look to your left, and hand the beggar some coins. Once you do, the trapdoor beneath him becomes accessible, and is only openable from this angle. Head down, and take a left. The path before you will crumble, but you can use what you learned before and aim-jump across the gaps. Free the woman, head back, and out of the sewer.
Then follow the next marker up the road and find a girl and her cat Jiji on the roof. Jump up there and grab the cat, you can hold the X button while walking to automatically grab it as you approach the cat to make it easier.
Then follow the quest marker and head southeast out of town, and find the couple arguing about cleaning the chimney. Go ahead and grab the broom, and equip it via the quick menu or inventory screen. What you want to do is head to the roof, jump or walk on TOP of the chimney, equip the broom via quick menu or pause menu aim with LB downward with the broom equipped in your hands, then press RB to clean it.
The couple gives you Hernandian attire as a parting gift. But first go to your inventory, and examine your key you got from the beggar–it will reveal its true form. Then head to the next marker at Hernand Castle and approach the gate. They won’t let you in as you are, so you’ll want to equip the Hernandian Attire in your inventory and head inside.
This portion gets vague again as the castle is huge and the area to search can be quite wide. So to make it easy, follow the path to the second gate, head forward up the stairs and climb up the wall directly in front of you. Then head in the door to the left and up the right side staircase, right at the center chamber, then an immediate left. The secret alchemists’ chamber will have a treasure chest, open it to reveal a portal to the Abyss.
You’ve finally made it to the Abyss. First things first, step on the slate in front of you. This becomes a fast-travel point by going to the map, pressing the right or left trigger over the environment or all sections, then pressing Y over the selected point. If you don’t activate the fast travel point then reload, as you’ll have to hike all the way back to the Abyss portal. Do not miss activating this fast travel point.
Head to the building in front of you, and after the cutscene you’ll learn how to use your Axiom Force. This also has a learning curve, so first scan the power lines with Blinding Flash, so you can see what you need to line up, then hold L3, aim it at the discs, release L3 to shoot the Axiom Force grapple, then spin them into place to power the path. Remember this is a physics-based manipulation, meaning you’re not just holding one direction to turn, you have to use the right stick and push in the direction you want to turn the disc in relation to you.
After, head inside and meet Alustin to head to the next objective. Pass through the gate in front of you, aim your Axiom Force with L3 again in the middle of this pedestal, then this time use the D-pad to turn it until you hear it click.
Go ahead and cross the platforms ahead of you. If you fall, it’ll just respawn you at the gate, so no big deal. After reaching the top, head to the next platforms and area, and activate the next fast travel point. This is another possible roadblock depending on the player so follow these instructions closely.
Grab the floating block and bring it to the opposite pedestal. It doesn’t have to be an exact science, it just needs to touch the pedestal. Head down and first target this memory with the LB to learn the Force Palm skill. Then grab the computer chip-looking Abyss Cell and place it in front of the base, doesn’t have to be exact, then force palm it into place. After that activates the power, climb out of the hole using this ladder or your new ability, then jump, climb and hang directly on the middle of the powered device, then press R3 to force palm the wall. After activating the device, head up towards the center pylon to receive your artifact.
From here you’ll finally get the glider, but you’re not done yet. Just go anywhere near the main town, and the second will start.
Summon your horse with D-pad up, and ride it to the quest marker. There you’ll have to take on an encampment of bandits, clear them out first. It will put you in front of an entangled tower. Draw your bow by holding the left trigger, walk in front of the brazier to light the arrow, then fire it into the vines on the door. Another option is to use Blinding Flash then concentrate to start a fire as well.
Head up the tower, and watch out for the traps–you can simply just hug the inner wall to avoid all of them. Find and equip the Visione and either manually select the memory through the quick menu, or just press pause when this icon appears on the right of the screen. After watching the memory, head back down to the quest marker to start a cat following quest, remember if it’s hard to physically see the cat in the terrain, look at the mini map to see Jiji’s highlight and follow, and you can use the hold A trick to auto follow.
You’ll then show up at a stone wall, where you’ll need to target the memory with LB and learn the Nature’s Grasp ability. Once you do, stand in front of the wall, press Y and B together, then mash A to pick it up. Head inside and target the second memory to learn another ability Focus, which regenerates your spirit.
If you’re having trouble with this puzzle, the answer is simply from the middle panel only protruding, Force Palm the center panel first, right panel second, and left panel third. Then the power should come on and you can grab the Abyss Cube in the pedestal next to the entrance.
Now head towards the cliff-edge, and after the cutscene plays you’re finally home free! You can keep following the main quest or wander off on your own. While I agree that we have grown accustomed to “yellow paint” ruining critical thinking in games, I think that this wasn’t quite the same problem here, and it was more difficult explanations of mechanics right from the get-go that lead to a wide variety of mis-interpretations by the player, so don’t feel bad if this section caught you off guard. As a matter of a fact this won’t completely stop as there are some sections later on which have a similar problem, but at this point you have all the right tools and a better understanding of the controls to tackle them. If you want the next step we have a things we wish we knew guide to get another leg up and more on Crimson Desert, so for everything else, keep it here on GameSpot!
