Crimson Desert features some pretty expansive skills, offering a lot of freedom for shaping your playstyle. Nevertheless, some make a much bigger impact early on in the game. We’re sure nobody wants to feel like they wasted their Abyss Artifacts on the wrong things in Crimson Desert. You don’t have unlimited resets after all. Here are the best Crimson Desert Skills to get first for your adventure in Pywel.
Best Crimson Desert Skills to Get First
It’s worth pointing out that we’ll be going over named skills specifically. Leveling up your Stamina is a fantastic use of your Abyss Artifacts, but we wanted to focus on the unique abilities and attacks you can unlock rather than the resources you can enhance.
Counter
While most would be fine keeping to Parrying and Blocking attacks, the Counter skill in the Spirit skill tree adds another option. Counter makes it so that attacking an enemy right before getting hit will interrupt their attack. As someone who doesn’t intentionally try to Counter, I can confirm it’s easy to accidentally trigger one anyway.
You normally have to spend two Abyss Artifacts to bring Keen Senses up to Level 3 to gain the Counter skill, but there is a much faster and cheaper way. All you need to do is head west of Hernand Castle to Lioncrest Manor (the place with some great gear and a cool strongbox puzzle).
Directly behind the manor are two soldiers training together. Observe them to learn this skill for free.
Swift Flight
Although the standard Flight ability you learn in Chapter 1 can primarily be improved by upgrading your Stamina, it’s still a slow glide at best. That’s where the Swift Flight skill on the Health skill tree comes in, allowing you to fly faster at the expense of more stamina.
You only need to spend one Abyss Artifact to upgrade the Flight node to Level 2 and unlock Swift Flight. It’s a necessary upgrade if you want to cover more distance during your glide or merely want to clear some chasms without needing to climb back up a wall. Pair this with Stamina upgrades to really start stretching your wings.
Vault
As annoying as archers can be, it’s the enemies with shields that can really stall a fight. The Vault skill is the perfect answer to these pesky defenders, letting you jump over an enemy and attack them from behind. We’ve even found success using this against smaller groups of enemies that come running at you together.
You only need one Abyss Artifact to obtain the Vault skill from the Stamina skill tree. It can be observed out in the world, but we haven’t seen any NPCs or enemies with it just yet. We recommend spending the Abyss Artifact to get this skill as soon as possible.
Blinding Flash Finisher
With so many attacks you can learn in Crimson Desert, we wouldn’t blame you for forgetting that you can use the Blinding Flash mechanic to temporarily blind and stun enemies. It’s clunky and doesn’t last long either. Which is why it’s so surprising that the Blinding Flash Finisher skill turns this on its head to end up being one of the most overpowered abilities in the game.
After unlocking this from the Stamina skill tree, you can attack a blinded enemy with a frenzy of strikes. Not only is this a great way to deal big damage without being interrupted, but the huge range can decimate nearby enemies as well. Blinding Flash Finisher is a must-have, especially at the cost of just one Abyss Artifact to unlock.
Evasive Roll
The only thing worse than getting hit in Crimson Desert is getting stunlocked by multiple consecutive attacks. Thankfully, the Evasive Roll skill can act as your get-out-of-jail-free card. After unlocking it, you can press the Evade button while being hit to roll away.
Evasive Roll can be unlocked for one Abyss Artifact on the Spirit skill tree. However, we recommend holding off until you reach the end of Chapter 2. The Hornsplitter boss uses this skill and Kliff will learn it after seeing him use it.
Aerial Maneuver
Using Axiom Force’s extendable hand to grab things is fun, but what if you could use it for traversal? The Aerial Maneuver skill plays with this idea by letting you latch onto and then launch yourself towards a target. It’s a great way to quickly clear a fortress wall or make a huge climb to another platform while scaling the side of a mountain.
It only costs one Abyss Artifact to upgrade the Health skill tree’s Axiom Force to Level 2 and unlock Aerial Maneuver. The more taxing cost is that Aerial Maneuver takes 200 Stamina. You won’t reach that until you’ve upgraded your Stamina to Level 4, which costs six Abyss Artifacts. We also recommend going slightly higher than that so your stamina isn’t completely depleted.
If you want an even crazier mobility option, upgrade Axiom Force to Level 3 for the Aerial Swing skill. This lets you jump while latched onto a target to gain some impressive air with some big swings.
Nature’s Echo
Many of the unlockable combat skills add new strings to existing attacks or another combination of buttons to memorize. Nature’s Echo simply adds an illusory mimic of yourself that copies some of your strongest attacks. Having these occasional echoes of a strong move come out to inflict more damage makes a huge difference in combat.
Naturally, such a powerful skill requires some heavy investment. While it can apparently be observed in the game, we haven’t seen it early on, and this is a skill worth getting early. You’ll need to have a Level 3 in both Keen Senses and Forward Slash (running you four Abyss Artifacts) just to unlock the Nature’s Echo node on the Spirit skill tree.
Then you can level up Nature’s Echo with one to three more Abyss Artifacts. The first level adds an echo to Forward Slash, the second adds one to Spinning Slash, and the third adds one to your charged Stab. You really can’t go wrong with any of them.
Adding these to your toolset will certainly make things more fun in Crimson Desert. If you’re looking to explore more of Pywel, it will help to brush up on our guides for every fast travel location and every bank location.
