Secret of the Ancient Ruins puzzle solution in Crimson Desert

Ancient Ruins puzzle in Crimson Desert — (Image credit: Pearl Abyss)

The puzzle in Crimson Desert to unravel the secret of the ancient ruins is part of the Reunion quest on the main campaign, a confusing puzzle unlocked right after you get the Nature's Grasp and Focus abilities. Oddly enough, the former doesn't really enter into this puzzle beyond opening the door that reveals it. If you're stuck, I'll explain how to solve this puzzle in Crimson Desert, and what you'll get for doing so.

How to Unravel the Secret of the Ancient Ruins

After entering the Ancient Ruins in the Reunion quest, you'll be taught the Focus skill from a memory. This will allow you to enter a state where you regenerate Spirit, which you can use for your Force Palm and other similar abilities. After that, you'll see three stone discs on the wall, with a line of energy through each one.

To solve the puzzle, you need to hit the discs with Force Palm in this order:

Middle
Right
Left

The solution is to have all three pressed into the wall at once. However, when you Force Palm one of them, it inverts the position of any disc next to it. So if you push the middle one in, the ones on either side change to whatever the opposite of their current state is (so they pop out if they're in, and depress if they're out). You need to have them all pressed into the wall at once, which connects the line of energy through and completes the circuit. This mechanic comes up in a lot of Crimson Desert puzzles, so don't forget it!

Completing this puzzle and the Reunion quest unlocks an Abyss Creset for you to interact with outside. These Cresets give you Artifacts you can use to buy Crimson Desert skills, and can also be used as fast travel points, as laid out in our guide on how to fast travel in Crimson Desert.

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Joel Franey is a writer, journalist, podcaster and Very Tired Man with a BA from Brunel University, a Masters from Sussex University and a decade working in games journalism, often focused on guides coverage but also in reviews, features and news. His love of games is strongest when it comes to groundbreaking narratives like Disco Elysium, UnderTale and Baldur's Gate 3, as well as innovative or refined gameplay experiences like XCOM, Sifu, Arkham Asylum or Slay the Spire. He is a firm believer that the vast majority of games would be improved by adding a grappling hook, and if they already have one, they should probably add another just to be safe. You can find old work of his at Eurogamer, Gfinity, USgamer, SFX Magazine, RPS, Dicebreaker, VG247, and more.

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