Crimson Desert Respec Guide: How to Reset Your Skill Tree
Committing to a terrible character build is not a permanent death sentence in Pywel, provided you know how to manipulate the artifact system.
Crimson Desert grants you a massive amount of freedom when it comes to upgrading Kliff, which also means you have the freedom to completely ruin your character. The game throws a staggering number of combat maneuvers, elemental attacks, and passive buffs at you. It is incredibly easy to get distracted by a flashy sword combo and dump all of your hard earned Abyss Artifacts into a skill tree branch you will never actually use.
When you inevitably hit a brutal progression wall and realize your stamina is too low to survive a boss fight, you are going to need a reset. The game does not allow you to just toggle your points back and forth for free. Respeccing requires a highly specific, exceedingly rare consumable item called a Faded Abyss Artifact. I spent an agonizing amount of time fighting late game enemies with a garbage skill loadout before I figured out how this system operates. Here is exactly how to wipe the slate clean, track down these elusive items, and craft them yourself.
The Mechanics of the Skill Reset
The actual process of wiping your skill tree is straightforward once you have the required currency in your pockets.
You need to open your main Skills menu. If you are holding at least one Faded Abyss Artifact in your inventory, a new prompt will appear at the bottom of the screen. You simply press and hold the designated button to initiate the reset. For PC players, you hold the F key. Xbox users hold the X button, and PlayStation users hold Square.
Triggering this action consumes the Faded Abyss Artifact. The game then refunds every single Abyss Artifact you have spent up to that point. Your entire skill tree is wiped blank, allowing you to reallocate your points from scratch. I strongly advise reading my breakdown of the best early skills to unlock before you spend your refunded points, so you do not make the exact same mistakes twice.
The "Watch and Learn" Exception
There is one major exception to the complete memory wipe. Your character will not forget everything.
Crimson Desert utilizes a brilliant observation mechanic. If you watch an enemy perform a specific attack multiple times during a fight, time will slow down, and Kliff will permanently learn that maneuver without spending any skill points. Because you never invested an Abyss Artifact into these "Watch and Learn" abilities, they are completely immune to the respec process. You get to keep your observed moves.
The Shared Roster Trap
This is the most critical warning I can offer regarding the respec system. You cannot reset characters individually.
Kliff is your main anchor, but you eventually gain access to Damiane and Oongka. All three of them draw from the exact same pool of Abyss Artifacts. When you trigger a skill reset, the game forcibly resets the skill trees for the entire roster simultaneously. If you have a perfectly optimized loadout for Damiane but you want to tweak Kliff's heavy attacks, you are going to destroy Damiane's build in the process. You will have to manually rebuild all three characters every single time you use a Faded Abyss Artifact.
If you are about to experiment with a weird new combat style, save your game manually first. Perform the respec, test the abilities on some low level bandits, and if you hate the results, just reload your save file. It is infinitely better than wasting your rare consumables. If you have not even reached the point in the story where the rest of the roster becomes available, read my guide on unlocking Damiane and Oongka so you know when the shared skill pool becomes a problem.
Where to Find Faded Abyss Artifacts
Because these items are so powerful, Pearl Abyss intentionally made them frustrating to acquire during your opening hours.
You get your very first Faded Abyss Artifact as a guaranteed quest reward. Once you reach the end of Chapter 1, you will complete a main story mission titled "Woman in White." Finishing this quest automatically drops the artifact into your inventory, giving you a free pass to fix your initial early game mistakes. Do not waste it on a whim.
If you need more, you have to start hunting Sealed Abyss Artifacts. These are glowing, cube shaped objects scattered along main roads and hidden behind rock cairns. Picking one up adds a specific challenge to your Journal. Completing the required tally for that challenge rewards you with a Faded Abyss Artifact.
You can also find them inside treasure chests. The chests located in the nooks and crannies of the floating Abyss sky islands have a very high chance of containing reset items. These chests are completely unmarked on your minimap, so you have to physically scour the environment. If you want to know how to efficiently navigate those floating puzzle islands, check out my fast travel and map guide.
Buying Respecs from Witches
Exploration is unreliable when you urgently need to fix your stats. The most consistent way to secure a reset early in the game is by engaging with capitalism.
The various Witch vendors scattered across the wilderness sell Faded Abyss Artifacts directly. A Witch will typically hold a stock of three artifacts, and they cost 2.85 silver each. This is a noticeable chunk of change when you are just starting out. If you are too broke to afford basic magical services, take a quick detour and read my guide on making money fast to get your finances in order.
Crafting Infinite Respecs
Eventually, you will progress far enough into the game that buying items from hags in the woods is no longer necessary. You can just manufacture your own.
You cannot craft a Faded Abyss Artifact without the official blueprint. You have to travel to Scholastone during Chapter 4 of the main campaign. Once you arrive at the institute, speak to the lead researcher and open the academic projects menu. You need to fund the project titled "Research on the Abyss Energy Restoration Phenomenon."
This project requires a flat payment of 12 silver and takes eight hours to complete. You can bypass the brutal waiting period by sleeping at a campfire. If the academic funding system is confusing you, I have a complete breakdown of every institute in my research projects guide.
Once the research concludes, you permanently unlock the alchemy formula. You can now visit any Witch cauldron in the open world and brew your own skill resets, provided you have the incredibly dangerous raw materials required to pull it off.
Are you finally happy with your optimized skill tree? You should probably test your new damage output by hunting down some ceremonial gear. Read my reputation and contribution rewards guide to see exactly which factions are handing out the best heavy armor.
