Crimson Desert: complete guide to the skill tree (Blue, Green, Red branches)

When you launch Crimson Desert for the first time, the skill tree is displayed in full. Everything is visible. Nothing is locked behind a level or obscure quest. You could literally put your first point into Dropkick if you feel like it.

The problem is that your abyssal artifacts — the currency of the skill tree — are extremely limited at the beginning. And since they are shared between Kliff, Damiane, and Oongka (the three playable characters), each point invested counts double. You spend 5 artifacts on a useless skill? That's 5 artifacts you won't have for Double Jump or Keen Senses.

This guide will explain to you how the system works as a whole: the three colored branches, the different types of artifacts, the "observe to learn" mechanic that allows you to scratch free skills, and above all the skills to unlock as a priority to avoid struggling.

If you are looking for artifact locations in the open world, we have a guide dedicated to abyssal artifacts on the blog. Here, we focus on the skill tree itself.

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Before talking about the skill tree, you need to understand the currency. At the top right of the screen, you have three counters. Each corresponds to a type of artifact with a specific role.

The abyssal artifacts — it's your main resource. You earn them by exploring, solving puzzles, defeating bosses, completing quests, or buying them from certain merchants. The progress bar near the mini-map shows your progress towards the next artifact. After 110+ hours of gameplay, an active player can have spent over 115. In short, as long as you play and explore, they fall regularly.

The faded artifacts are used to respect you. You consume one, you recover all your points. The cool thing: the skills you learned by observation remain acquired even after a respec. This means that the more free skills you observe, the more profitable your respec is. They are a little rarer, but not impossible to find — some merchants sell them, and you can find them by exploring.

The sealed artifacts are mysterious objects that you collect on the roads, small shrines at crossroads, sometimes in cities. When you examine them, Kliff reads a cryptic text and stores them. Then, head to the journal: in the "mastery" tab, you find related challenges. Like "land 15 counterattacks with the spear" or "defeat 5 enemies without taking damage." By completing them, you earn abyssal artifacts and sometimes bonus tarnished. Keep an eye out - a purple icon appears on the mini-map when you're near a sealed one.

The blue branch is Kliff's physical pillar. It manages the Endurance (Stamina) — upgradeable up to level 16 — and encompasses everything related to close combat, archery, and athletic movements.

Endurance is your vital resource in Crimson Desert. It is used for sprinting, climbing, gliding, heavy attacking, riding a horse... Everything. A player who invests heavily in it from the beginning will have a radically different experience from one who neglects it. Several testers who have put in 100+ hours in the game agree: it is the stat that changes the game comfort the most.

• Blinding Flash Finisher — For a single artifact, it's probably the most impactful skill in the game. You trigger Blinding Flash (the same move that reveals fast travel points), you follow up with heavy attacks, and it destroys everything. Works on all types of weapons, effective on bosses as well as basic enemies.
• Forward Slash (3 levels) — The basic heavy attack, but well upgraded. At level 3, you get Sure Hit (the attack never misses) and a sequence of slot + final blow. Combined with Nature's Echo, it doubles your damage. Confirmed boss killer.
• Charge Shot — Useful beyond combat. In addition to the obvious damage, it is used to shoot down flying enemies and even to break ore veins if you forgot your pickaxe. Versatile.
• Turning Slash (level 3) — Kliff's finisher. Big wind-up, big damage. At level 3, Rend Armor ignores enemies' super armor and sends them airborne. However, it's slow to come out — best saved for clear openings or stagger bosses.

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On the close combat side, Stab with its upgrades Skewering Stab and Rend Armor is an excellent medium-term investment. And if you love wrestling, Lasso for one point unlocks all wrestling moves - RKO, German Suplex, Elbow Drop... The move you perform depends on your position relative to the enemy. Pure pleasure.

The green branch turns around the Mind — upgradeable up to level 14. Spirit is a bit like the mana of Crimson Desert: it powers all your special abilities. It regenerates when you eliminate enemies (you see a green glow around Kliff) and via the Focus skill.

5 levels of Spirit, that's the minimum to feel comfortable in combat. Below that, you're constantly dry and you can't chain your moves. It's frustrating.

• Focus (3 levels) — One of the best skills in the game, period. Level 1: meditative state that regenerates Spirit + repels nearby enemies. Level 2: time slowdown. Level 3 (Focused Insight): instant parry in bullet time. Against bosses, it's an absolute game changer. You slow down time, you position your parry, you follow up with heavy attacks.
• Double Jump — Essential as soon as possible. Especially at the beginning when you have little Endurance, it's your best friend for navigating puzzles and the open world. One artifact, zero regrets.
• Keen Senses (level 3) — The basis of your survival. Level 2 gives you basic dodge, level 3 unlocks Counter. It's the i-frame dodge of Crimson Desert: you press B just before the impact, you pass through the attack and you place a free counterattack. If you play without it, good luck against the bosses of chapter 4+.
• Force Current — Requires 2 levels of Force Palm and 2 of Axiom Force as prerequisites, but it's worth every artifact. You send a pulse of energy through your grappling hook that explodes upon arrival. In combat, it's useful, but above all: it replaces the pickaxe and the woodcutter's axe. You can destroy ore veins, fell trees, and solve puzzles from a distance. A Swiss army knife.
• Nature's Snare (level 3) — The most underrated skill in the game. Level 1: you block projectiles like Doctor Strange. Level 2: you catch and throw them back. Level 3: you set up the barrier and do something else while it absorbs. Against bosses who spam ranged attacks, it's inner peace.

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Another skill to note: Nature's Echo For a single point, it adds an echo effect on Forward Slash, Spinning Slash, and Stab. Basically, the game reproduces your attack automatically. Doubles the damage for a single artifact. Hard to do better.

The red branch manages the Health — upgradeable up to level 18, the highest of the three — and focuses on advanced mobility skills and elemental infusions.

If blue is the attack and green is the utility, red is what allows you to survive and move like crazy. It is also the least branched branch, but every skill counts.

• Axiom Force (level 2) + Aerial Maneuver — The Crimson Desert's grappling hook, and Aerial Maneuver is one of the best traversal skills in the game. Combined with Double Jump and Force Palm, you can climb absurd vertical distances. The tech: Double Jump → triple Force Palm → Axiom Force towards a anchor point → spam X to pull yourself. You can literally climb castles with that.
• Flight (level 2): Swift Flight — The basic flight is unlocked through the main quest "The Woman in White". Level 2 gives you Swift Flight: you glide faster, you cover huge distances in the Abyss. Costs extra Endurance, hence the importance of investing in Stamina at the same time.
• Imbue Element - Elemental infusions (thunder, wind, fire, ice) are unlocked by completing the Spires in the Abyss. Then, Imbue Element allows you to infuse your attacks. Level 1: Elemental Slash. Level 2: Elemental Charge Shot. Level 3: Elemental Force Palm. Level 4: Elemental Meteor Kick. No need to invest before unlocking your first elements, but once it's done, it transforms your DPS.

On the less prioritized skills side, Winch (you scorpion-pull an enemy then you chokeslam) and Ambush (teleportation + slash) are pure style moves. Cool to watch, satisfying, but not essential at the beginning. These are end-game investments when you have surplus artifacts.

This is one of the most original mechanics of Crimson Desert and probably the least well explained by the game. Some nodes in the skill tree mention "observe this skill in action to learn it." In practice, when an enemy or an NPC performs the movement in question, time slows briefly, the screen takes on a blue hue, and a learning bar appears (like 1/3, 2/3, 3/3). Once the bar is filled, the skill is yours — for free.

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The best part of it all: these skills learned through observation persistent even after a respect So if you respect and you had already learned Counter by observation, you recover the artifact that you had put in without losing the skill. Needless to say, it's worth farming.

• Compteur, Compétence, Barre oblique — The soldiers above the first town. You can catch the 3 in less than a minute by watching them train.
• Evasive Roll — The boss Hornsplitter in chapter 2. He makes the move during the fight, you learn it for free.
• Clothesline — The Black Bears in chapters 6-7. A common enemy.
• Focused Force Palm — Attention, this one is missable. It unlocks in chapter 4 on the way to Scholastone by following a spiritual guide. If you take another path, you'll have to wait until chapter 9.

Before spending an artifact on a skill, always check if it has a "watch and learn" mention in the skill tree. It can save you precious resources, especially at the beginning of the game.

OK, concretely, if you start a game and want to optimize without spoiling the whole game, here's how I would distribute my first artifacts.

1. Stamina and Health at 2-3 each — The base. Without it, you die in two hits and you don't have enough stamina to climb a wall.
2. Keen Senses level 3 — The dodge and the Counter. Non-negotiable.
3. Blinding Flash Finisher — Only one artifact, insane impact on your power.
4. Double Jump + Focus (minimum level 1) — Mobility and regeneration of the basic Spirit.
5. Forward Slash level 3 + Nature's Echo — Your main damage dealer combo.
6. Axiom Force level 2 — Grapple + Aerial Maneuver for exploration.
7. Stamina up to 10 — The ultimate comfort. At this stage, you never struggle again in climbing or prolonged combat.
8. Focus level 3 + Current Strength + Flight level 2 — The complete set mid-section.

After that, you have the luxury of choice: elemental infusions if you completed Spires, Nature's Snare for comfort, unarmed if you want to play catch... The skill tree becomes your playground.

It has already been mentioned, but it deserves its own section: passives are as important as active skills. The cost increases at each level — at level 9 of Health, it costs you 4 artifacts per level. And it's the same for Stamina and Spirit.

The consensus after hundreds of hours of community play:

• Stamina (Blue) — The most important. Objective: level 10 as fast as possible. This is what makes the difference between a player who struggles with every boss and a player who has a blast. Sprinting, climbing, fighting, gliding, horse training... it all goes through there.
• Health (Red) — Objective: minimum level 9. This is the difference between being one-shot by a boss and surviving to place a heal. Level it up in parallel with Stamina, not after.
• Green Spirit — 5 levels are enough for the majority of the game. It allows you to use your abilities regularly without constantly running out. Beyond 5, it's a luxury.

The optimal strategy: alternate between the three until level 4 each, then rush Stamina to 10, then Health to 9, then Spirit to 5. Adjust according to your playstyle, but it's a good starting point.

A small bonus for those who want to push exploration to the limit. Once you have Double Jump, Force Palm, and Axiom Force level 2, you unlock a movement tech that allows you to reach absurd heights.

The recipe:

1. Double Jump to gain initial height
2. Triple Force Palm (right stick x3) to gain even more altitude
3. Axiom Force towards a point of attachment above you
4. Press X to tow you at full speed

With this, you can climb castles, bypass puzzles, or simply reach chests that are normally inaccessible. It's the same tech that a player used to bypass a game-breaking bug in their playthrough. Not bad for a total of 4-5 artifacts.

Yes. Kliff, Damiane, and Oongka share the same pool of abyssal artifacts. This means that if you spend 50 artifacts on Kliff, you'll have 50 less for the others. Most players focus on Kliff (the main character) for this reason, at least for the first 100 hours.

You must consume a faded artifact (Faded Abyss Artifact). You get back all your spent abyssal artifacts. Skills learned through observation remain acquired. Faded artifacts are found at merchants and during exploration — it's not super rare either, you can easily have 8+ in reserve by playing actively.

Keen Senses level 3 (for dodging and Counter) and Blinding Flash Finisher (for damage) are the two most cost-effective skills in the game in terms of impact per artifact spent. Double Jump right after for exploration comfort.

At 110+ hours of play, even a player who explores a lot will not have unlocked everything yet. The skill tree is designed to last the whole game and encourage respecs rather than max-all. It's normal not to have everything — focus on your playstyle.

It depends on your style. The Unarmed tree (Unarmed, Blue branch) requires 5 levels of investment to be functional, which is heavy at the beginning of the game. But if you're into the street fight aspect - Meteor Kick, Scissor Takedown, bare-handed combos - it's viable for the entire game. However, it draws from the same pool of artifacts as weapons, so you have to choose.