Crimson Desert Abyss Without Balance Quest and Puzzle Guide

Stuck on the Abyss Without Balance quest in Crimson Desert? If you’re in the pit after punching the Abyss Cell into the wall and don’t know what to do next – you need to climb out of the pit, get on top of the big circular mechanism, hang in the middle of it, and use Force Palm to activate it. The recoil will throw you back down, but that’s supposed to happen – the puzzle completes and your reward spawns at the top. This is the first Abyss puzzle in Crimson Desert and it trips up a ton of players at that final step. Below we’ve got a full step-by-step walkthrough of the entire Abyss Without Balance puzzle from start to finish. For more Crimson Desert help, check out our other Crimson Desert Guides on MetaForge.

How to Start the Abyss Without Balance Quest

The Abyss Without Balance quest is the 12th main mission in Crimson Desert and kicks off automatically after you finish Polar Opposites. You’ll find yourself outside the Axiom Archive building in the Hernand region. Walk through the triangular gate directly ahead of you and you’ll see an alignment device appear at the edge of the path – a pillar with a glowing dial.

Grab the dial with Axiom Force (Tab on PC / L3 on controller) and rotate it using your mouse or the D-Pad. Keep turning until you hear a high-pitched click, see the glow shift, or feel your controller vibrate harder. Once it locks in, a skybridge will form and give you a path forward into the Abyss.

Platforming to the Ethereal Pathway

After the skybridge forms, you’ve got a chunk of platforming to get through before the actual puzzle starts. It’s mostly linear jumping and climbing, but a few spots can trip you up:

• Use Precise Jump for narrow platforms – Hold LB (controller) to aim where you’ll land, then tap jump. Way more reliable than eyeballing it, especially on the smaller floating platforms.
• Wait for the floating platforms – There are a couple of spots that look like dead ends, but there’s actually a slow-moving platform heading your way. These can take up to a minute to arrive, so be patient and don’t jump to your death trying to find another route.
• Climb anything that looks too high – If a ledge seems out of reach, run, jump, and press Space (PC) to grab the wall and pull yourself up. You can climb most surfaces in this game.

Keep pushing through until you reach a larger floating island – a big open area with ancient machinery, trees growing in a circle, and a pit in the center. This is the Ethereal Pathway, where the real Abyss Without Balance puzzle begins.

First Abyss Puzzle – Activate the Abyss Nexus

First things first – look for a pedestal on the ground when you arrive. Step on it to activate the Abyss Nexus fast travel point. This is important because it lets you teleport back here later without redoing all the platforming. Always activate these when you see them.

Move the Power Core

Your first real objective in this first Abyss puzzle is to “Move the floating power core to the deactivated lantern.” You’ll spot a floating blue cube hovering in the middle of the area – that’s the power core. On the right side, there’s a lantern structure that looks like a cube with square holes on each face.

Use Axiom Force (Tab on PC / L3 on controller) to grab the blue cube, then walk it over toward the lantern. You don’t need to be super precise here – once the cube gets close enough, an animation will play and it’ll snap into position. This removes the invisible wall blocking the floor below, and you’ll drop down into the lower section of the puzzle area.

Combine the Abyss Cell

You’re now in the lower pit area. Your new objective is “Combine the Abyss Cell.” Look around for another floating blue square down here – that’s the Abyss Cell. Grab it with Axiom Force and bring it over to the matching slot on the wall, near the three sparking batteries.

You can rotate the cell using your mouse scroll wheel on PC (or hold Ctrl + scroll wheel for finer adjustments). On controller, use the D-Pad. Line up the flat side so it’s facing you and position it roughly in front of the slot. Don’t overthink the alignment – it just needs to be close. You’ll push it into place in the next step. The controls for rotation are shown in the bottom-right corner of your screen if you forget.

But before you can lock the cell in, you need a new ability. Look for a ghost silhouette – a child-like hologram figure standing near the wall slot. Walk up to it and press Ctrl (PC) or L1/LB (controller) to Observe. You’ll see “Learning in Progress” appear at the top-left of your screen.

Important tip: Do NOT move your camera while learning the ability. Just click Observe and stare at the ghost performing the skill. Moving your camera can break the learning process and force you to start over. Once it completes, you’ll permanently unlock Force Palm – basically a force push that lets you slam objects into place.

Punch the Cell Into Place

Now you’ve got Force Palm unlocked, it’s time to slam the Abyss Cell into the wall. Take a few steps back from the cell to give yourself room, then walk up to it so you’re facing the flat side. Hold Middle Mouse Button on PC (or R3 / Right Stick on controller) to charge Force Palm, then release to punch it in.

If it works, Kliff will slam the cell into the slot, the wall will light up, and the big circular device above you will start glowing. That mechanism in the middle is now active, and the large circle at the top is powered up. This is where a lot of players think they’re done – but there’s one more step, and it’s the trickiest part of the whole Abyss Without Balance quest.

How to Activate the Abyss Power Supply

This is the part where most players get stuck, and it’s also the trickiest section of this first Abyss puzzle in Crimson Desert. Your objective updates to “Activate the Abyss power supply” – the big glowing circular wheel device above you. We’ve also got a video walkthrough further below that shows every step of this final section if you want to see it in action.

1. Climb out of the pit. You’re still in the lower area after punching the cell in. Use the pillars directly in front of you to climb out – grab onto them, pull yourself up, grab the ledge, and you’re out. These are the easiest surfaces to scale in this area.

2. Get onto the circular device. Now you need to get on top of the big glowing wheel. Try to position yourself right in the middle of it – this is the Abyss power supply you need to activate.

3. Use Force Palm on the center. While you’re on the wheel, line yourself up with the center and press Middle Mouse Button (PC) or R3 (controller) to fire off a Force Palm. The recoil is going to blast you right back into the pit below – don’t panic, that’s exactly what’s supposed to happen. The circular device will shift from a yellow glow to blue, the mechanism will fully activate, and an animation will show a cube spawning at the very top of the structure.

4. Climb back up one more time. Yeah, you’re heading out of that pit again. Climb up and head toward the top of the structure where the animation showed the cube appearing. That cube is your Abyss Artifact reward. Some players have found that the artifact kind of magnetizes toward you as you get close, so you might not even need to climb all the way to the very top.

5. Talk to the NPC behind you. After you grab the artifact, a cutscene plays and you’ll get spawned back at the beginning of the puzzle area. Here’s the part people miss – just turn around. The NPC you need to talk to, White Crow, is right behind you. Talk to her and you’ll trigger the final cutscene that wraps up the Abyss Without Balance quest and completes Chapter 1.

Abyss Without Balance Quest Rewards

Completing Abyss Without Balance – your first Abyss puzzle in Crimson Desert – gets you some seriously important rewards:

• Abyss Artifact – A key item used to unlock new skills. You’ll want to collect these from every Abyss puzzle you come across throughout the game.
• Force Palm (permanent ability) – You keep this forever. It’s used to activate mechanisms, slam objects into place, and even gain vertical height when used mid-jump in later puzzles. It’s one of the most important tools in your kit.
• Flight / Wings – After talking to White Crow, you unlock the ability to glide whenever you fall from height. Press X (PlayStation) or Square (Xbox) to deploy your wings mid-air. This completely changes how you explore Crimson Desert’s massive vertical world.
• Chapter 2 unlocked – Finishing this quest wraps up Chapter 1 – The First Encounter and opens Chapter 2 – Golden Greed, giving you access to new story content and a much wider chunk of the world of Pywel.

More Crimson Desert Resources

For launch details and game price information, check out our Crimson Desert Release: Everything You Need to Know guide. To check if your PC can run the game, read our Crimson Desert System Requirements and Performance breakdown. For the full story on the DRM situation, see our Crimson Desert Denuvo DRM Explained article. Explore puzzle locations and secrets on our Interactive Map, and join our Discord community to discuss Crimson Desert and more!