The Timberdale Gorge Ruins puzzle in Crimson Desert is one of many Ancient Ruins you’ll come across, containing a puzzle you need to solve to unlock a fast-travel location or in some instances, some extra loot too. That said, the Timberdale Gorge Ruins are perhaps one of the more troubling of these puzzles.
So you’re not stuck here for as long as I was, here’s the Crimson Desert Timberdale Gorge Ruins puzzle solution.
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Crimson Desert Timberdale Gorge Ruins puzzle solution
Upon arriving at the Timberdale Gorge Ruins in Crimson Desert, you’ll find the ruins coated in a pool of water, and there’ll be a power source in the far corner of the ruins.
First things first, ignore the pool and head to the Ruins’ northmost wall. Here, you should see some arched bricks that are slowly but surely crumbling (pictured below). Destroy them using the Turning Slash Skill (which you can use by pressing ‘R1 + R2’), and the pool of water will begin to drain through the hole you create. It’ll take a moment however.
Now you can actually start solving the puzzle of Timberdale Gorge Ruins! Return to the now-drained Ruins interior and look at the dials on the wall near the power source. Your goal with this puzzle is to hit the dials so that power flows through them all.
To successfully do this, you’ll need to use the Force Current Skill (which you can use by pressing ‘R3’ while using Axiom Force with ‘L3’). This Skill allows you to grab the dials using Axiom Force and then unleash a Force Palm on them from afar, which is ideal given these dials are a little high up.
If you press ‘L1’ and look at the dials, you’ll see exactly which path – one that allows power to flow from one side to the other – you need to create using them. However, hitting one dial can cause those adjacent to it to reset and that’s the puzzling part of these Ruins. You’ll also want to make sure you’re lined up with the dial you wish to hit as well as you possibly can, so as to not risk hitting more than one dial at a time and messing up your progress.
I also recommend creating a save before kicking off this puzzle in case you need to restart. In my experience, running away to reset the puzzle saw the pool of water return but the northern wall was already destroyed. This meant I could not drain the pool again and needed to reload my save file.
While you can complete this puzzle with trial and error (and don’t forget you can press L1 to reveal the power currents path between the dials that you’re aiming for), here’s which dials you need to hit with Force Current for each round of the puzzle:
Round 1: Hit the leftmost dial, then hit the rightmost dial.
Once that’s done, power is provided to the next round of the puzzle which is on the wall to your right.
Round 2: Hit the dial in the middle of the leftmost column, then hit the dial in the top right-hand corner.
Once that’s done, power is provided to the next round of the puzzle which is on the wall directly behind you. For this round, you can hit the dials lower to the ground using Force Palm instead of Force Current.
Round 3: Hit the dial in the middle of the leftmost column, the dial in the middle of the top row, the dial at the bottom of the fourth column, and the dial in the top right-hand corner.
Once you successfully complete all three rounds of this puzzle, a door in front of you will be unsealed, revealing a glowing blue podium that holds your reward: an Abyss Cresset.
Crimson Desert Timberdale Gorge Ruins puzzle location
The Timberdale Gorge Ruins are located in the subregion of Dewhaven, which is in the southeast region of Delesyia.
Their location is marked on the below map from MapGenie:
Good luck solving the Timberdale Gorge Ruins puzzle. For more on Crimson Desert, take a look at how to enter the Unreachable Village, the best armour you can find, and all mounts.
