Abyss Artifacts are the equivalent of skill points in Crimson Desert, and form the foundation of the complex skill and equipment systems in the game. They appear in the game world as tangible items that you collect in a number of different ways, including combat and quest completion, but some methods are far better than others.
This guide is all about grinding for Abyss Artifacts quickly and efficiently in order to upgrade skills and equipment in Crimson Desert.
Abyss Cressets
Just like Abyss Nexuses, Abyss Cressets are denoted with a question mark symbol on the map for “Mysterious Energy”, but unlike them they additionally hold an Abyss Artifact in them. There are at least 22 in Hernand alone.
Some Cressets require you to solve a puzzle before you can use them for fast travel.
Sealed Abyss Artifacts
These particular variants of Abyss Artifacts prevent you from interacting with them until you complete the particular challenge that you are tasked with, including combat, exploring, and learning lore. Once done, simply crack them right open from your inventory, to collect your rewards including both regular Abyss Artifacts and Faded Abyss Artifacts.
Pay close attention to your minimap as you explore, as these items are identifiable as purple icons when in proximity to them.
Ancient Ruins Puzzles
Solving the puzzles in certain Abyss locations will reward you with Abyss Artifacts. There are at least fifteen locations scattered around the world waiting to be unlocked.
Shops And Merchants
While certainly not cheap to purchase at a cost of 28.50 in Silver each, Abyss Artifacts can be bought from a number of shops. Usually just one will be in stock, but bear in mind that wares are reset daily at midnight in-game. There is an upper limit to the total stock as well.
Combat
In case you were not paying attention, the curved yellow gauge on the left of the minimap is filled by eliminating enemies, and will earn you an Abyss Artifact every time you max it out.
A potential farm for combat XP are the infinite mob spawners on the mountain prior to the Reed Devil boss. This opportunity will no longer appear after defeating the boss, so stock up as much as you can stomach before boredom sets in.
Questing
A handful of quests explicitly reward you with Abyss Artifacts, as do some side missions. They are also rewarded for defeating certain bosses.
The Challenges tab in the Journal also holds a number of opportunities to earn Abyss Artifacts as rewards for completing them, usually the exploration or mastery ones.
Looting
Since Abyss Artifacts are a tangible form of skill points, you will find them just lying around in the open or in containers around Pywel. Either get familiar with their shape, so that you can pick them out easier visually while exploring structures with loot for the taking, or glance at your minimap to see their distinct yellow icon when nearby.
Respec
If you are starting to regret going down a particular path in the skill tree, remember that you can somewhat freely reset all of the skills upon which you explicitly spent Abyss Artifacts. This does require possession of another item though: the Faded Abyss Artifact, which is visible as the middle icon in the top-right corner of the Skills tab, along with how many you own. These can be purchased from Witches, crafted in a cauldron with a blueprint, rewarded from Sealed Abyss Artifacts, or just found randomly in the wild while exploring.
Also note that all skill trees are reset when you utilize the Reset All function, which might be annoying if you only intend to wipe a specific set of skills.
Those are all the best ways to amass Abyss Artifacts fast in Crimson Desert.
