Duskwood Hill Ruins Puzzle Solution

This page will provide a walkthrough for the “Duskwood Hill Ruins” Abyss Cresset Puzzle in Crimson Desert, including its location on the map and pictures showing you how to solve the pillar raising puzzle

Page Breakdown¶

Duskwood Hill Ruins Location¶

The Duskwood Hill Ruins (not to be confused with the Duskwood Waterside Ruins) can be found southwest of Hernand city, in a forested area between two rivers, southeast of the Warspike Spearmaker and north of Phoniel Ranch. Just look for some ruins in the forest, specifically four rectangular pillars overgrown with ivy and you’re in the right spot.

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A ghostly image will pantomime stabbing a cylinder, if you have any wonder what you’re supposed to do,

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but first, reflect sunlight to burn the vines off some pillars and a cylinder.

Duskwood Hill Ruins Puzzle Solution¶

Hoo-boy, another puzzle that’s simple in concept, but botched in execution to be more annoying than it needs to be. First you need to clear the area to free up the puzzle’s various components, and this means fire. We already noted the five pillars which are on the ruin’s high ground, but there’s also a slotted cylinder down the stairs opposite the pillars that you’ll need to interact with to solve the puzzle. Both are covered in vines, so use Blinding Flash by holding + , then press to reflect sunlight onto the vines covering both the pillars and the cylinder. When both are burned away you can get around to actually solving the puzzle.

A ghostly apparition will appear from time to time near the Abyss Cresset on the middle ground between the pillars and the cylinder and instruct you on what to do - you need to stab the cylinder by pressing + , which will allow you to rotate the cylinder using your sword as a lever. Doing this will raise or lower some of the pillars, and your goal is to get all five pillars to the same height. Sound simple? It is, in practice, in execution, it can be a bit of a chore.

First, note that there are four slots on the cylinder, none of which appear distinct to our eyes, but they are not created equal. Depending on which slot you stab, rotating the cylinder will move the following pillars:

• Slot 1: Pillars 2 and 5
• Slot 2: Pillars 2, 3 and 4.
• Slot 3: Pillars 3, 4 and 5.
• Slot 4: Pillars 2 and 4.

Again, there’s no way to tell what pillars you’re rotating until you move them, so you’ll just have to give the cylinder a push while watching the pillars to see what moves. You also might notice two other things about this puzzle before you really get started: first, Pillar 1 doesn’t move and second, Pillars 2-5 are one notch lower than Pillar 1. Pillar 1 is the “guide” for this puzzle - that’s the height you need to get all the pillars to, and since you’re moving the other four pillars from a lower position, you’ll need to move them all up. While the game doesn’t tell you what pillars you’ve selected when you’ve stabbed the cylinder, it is worth noting that when a pillar is elevated to the correct height, the carvings on it will glow yellow, so at least you don’t have to worry about guessing whether you’ve raised a pillar enough or not.

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(1 of 5) There are four slots on the cylinder, and where you stab it will determine whether you raise or lower pillars 2/5, 2/3/4, 3/4/5 or 2/4.

Alright, so you should get the idea now: stab cylinder, rotate pillars, get all pillars to the same height! Aside from the guesswork of figuring out which pillars each slot on the cylinder controls, this shouldn’t be too much fuss. Here’s one of presumably many solutions, chosen because you can complete the puzzle in three moves and you only have to move pillars up:

• Step 1: Stab Slot 3 and raise Pillars 3, 4 and 5 halfway up to the height difference to Pillar 1.
• Step 2: Stab Slot 2 and raise Pillars 2, 3 and 4 until Pillars 3 and 4 are glowing yellow (roughly even with Pillar 1).
• Step 3: Stab Slot 1 and raise Pillars 2 and 5 until they’re glowing (roughly even with Pillar 1).

Don’t worry if the pillars aren’t visually flush - if they’re glowing, they’re close enough, and the upon getting them all glowing the game will automatically correct any minor discrepancies and adjust all the pillars to uniform height. Once done, you’ll be free to loot the Abyss Cresset for an Abyss Artifact. Honestly not too hard of a puzzle, but the guesswork with what slot you’ve stabbed and how annoying it can be to get your character to stab the right slot in the first place can be somewhat annoying.