Ancient Ruins and Their Puzzles

Overview

Ancient Ruins are exploration sites scattered across the continent of Pywel in Crimson Desert. There are 37 Ancient Ruins in total, and each one conceals an Abyss Cresset behind a unique environmental puzzle. Solving the puzzle activates the Cresset, which serves two purposes: it becomes a permanent fast travel waypoint, and it awards an Abyss Artifact. Each Abyss Artifact translates directly into a Skill Point that can be spent on the skill tree to learn new combat abilities or boost core stats like health, stamina, and attack power.

Progress across all 37 ruins is tracked in the journal under the Challenges tab, specifically in the section called "The Thread in the Forest." Completing every Ancient Ruins Challenge unlocks the Puzzle Solver trophy and achievement. Because each ruin also activates a fast travel point, thorough puzzle hunters will have a well-connected travel network by the time they finish.

Pearl Abyss has cited The Legend of Zelda series as a direct influence on the puzzle design. Previews and early reviews frequently compared the ruins to shrines from Breath of the Wild, noting that each Ancient Ruin feels like a self-contained puzzle chamber with its own rules and logic.

How to Find Ancient Ruins

Ancient Ruins are not marked on your map by default. When you approach one, it appears as a white circle with a question mark, labeled "Mysterious Energy." However, you do not need to stumble onto them by accident. The game gives you a long-range detection tool that makes systematic searching practical.

The key ability is Blinding Flash, a sword skill that reflects sunlight off your blade. When you activate Blinding Flash while exploring the open world, glints of light appear on the horizon. Each glint marks the direction of an undiscovered Abyss Cresset or Ancient Ruin. Head toward the glint, and the Mysterious Energy icon will appear on your map as you get closer. This mechanic rewards players who actively scan the environment from high vantage points rather than relying on map markers alone.

Some Ancient Ruins are hidden inside caves, behind waterfall passages, or at the end of narrow cliffside trails. A handful are found underground and require dropping through a hole or entering a dungeon entrance. If a glint from Blinding Flash seems to point at the base of a cliff or mountainside, look for a cave opening or a destructible barrier nearby.

Required Skills

Many Ancient Ruins require specific abilities to interact with the puzzle mechanisms. If you arrive at a ruin and cannot solve it, you likely need to progress further in the main story or invest points in the skill tree to unlock the missing ability. The table below lists every skill used across the 37 ruins.

Nature's Grasp and Force Palm are the two most critical puzzle skills. Between them, they cover roughly half of all Ancient Ruins interactions. If you are exploring early in the story, prioritize unlocking these before heading into unknown regions.

Puzzle Types

The 37 Ancient Ruins feature over a dozen distinct puzzle formats. Some types appear multiple times across different regions with increasing complexity, while others are unique to a single ruin. Understanding the core mechanic of each type makes it much easier to recognize what a puzzle is asking when you encounter a new one.

Force Palm Sequence

Found in ruins like the Timberdale Cliff Ruins and Timberdale Gorge Ruins. The puzzle presents a set of wall-mounted discs. When you hit a disc with Force Palm, it presses into the wall but also inverts the state of any adjacent disc. A disc that was pressed in pops out, and one that was out presses in. The goal is to get all discs pressed into the wall at the same time so the energy line connects from one side to the other. This is a logic puzzle where order matters. Trial and error works eventually, but observing which discs are linked to which neighbors lets you solve it efficiently.

Pillar Height Alignment

Found at the Duskwood Hill Ruins and Deepfog Basin Everfrost Ruins. A central pedestal has four Stab sockets. Each socket controls a different combination of tall stone pillars, raising or lowering them. The target height is shown by the leftmost pillar, which does not move. You need to cycle through the sockets until every pillar matches that reference height. Keep track of which socket moves which pillars to avoid undoing your progress.

Statue Rotation

Found at the Sunrise Plains Ruins, Golden Plains Ruins, and the Red River Ruins. Each statue sits on a rotating base with a dial or Stab socket on its back. The goal is to turn every statue so it faces the central Abyss Cresset. Some statues are linked, meaning rotating one also moves another. At the Golden Plains Ruins, you must first burn away vines with Blinding Flash to reveal a hidden fourth statue before you can begin. Listen for a grinding noise or watch for a glow to confirm a statue has reached the correct angle.

Fountain Rotation

Found at the Arboria Forest Ruins and Fuming Lands Ruins. Stone fountain pillars each have a waterspout and a Stab socket. Rotating a pillar redirects its water stream. The goal is to point every spout inward so that all the water flows into a central basin. At the Fuming Lands Ruins, vines cover some mechanisms, and you must burn them with Blinding Flash before you can interact with the pillars.

Bell Sequence

Found at the Steel Mountains Ruins. A set of six bells hangs in a row. A nearby board displays musical note symbols indicating the order in which the bells must be struck. The correct sequence is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, then back down: 4, 3, 2, 1. You hit the bells by using a mallet or the appropriate melee interaction. If you make a mistake, the puzzle resets.

Sundial and Symbol Matching

Found at the Halssius Conflux Ruins and the Grey Forest Ruins. A rotating metal frame or sundial sits in the center of the room, and illuminated statues around the edges each display a symbol. You use the Stab skill on the central pillar to rotate the frame until the symbols on the floor align with the ones lit up on the statues. The Halssius Conflux puzzle has three rounds, each adding more symbols to match simultaneously.

Red Light, Green Light

Found at the Drakesfall Gorge Ruins and Mount Benus Ruins. A king statue watches over a walkway leading to the Abyss Cresset. When the statue's eyes glow red, it is watching. If you move while the eyes are red, you are knocked back to the start. Move only when the eyes are dark. At Mount Benus, the ground is muddy, so sprinting causes Kliff to slide forward even after you release the input. Walk slowly and carefully on that variant.

Stepping Stone Puzzles

Found at the Precipice of Echoes Ruins and Beardtree Hills Rock Ruins. Floor plates display pairs of identical symbols. Step on the starting plate, then walk to the plate with the matching symbol without stepping on any incorrect plates. There are typically three rounds, and the final round at Beardtree Hills requires stepping on every single plate in the correct sequence without errors.

Sliding Block and Moving Block Puzzles

Found at the Deepfog Basin Dragon Head Ruins and Five-Finger Mountain Icy Ruins. Tiles or blocks on the floor can be moved with the Stab ability. Drag them horizontally or vertically to arrange the pieces into a complete image or diagram. At Five-Finger Mountain, you must first break the ice covering the puzzle area with Turning Slash before you can interact with the blocks.

Water Drainage

Found at the Haunted Hill Ruins, Wiggling Hill Ruins, Silver Wolf Mountain Ruins, and Beardtree Hills Sunflower Ruins. A flooded area conceals the Abyss Cresset. Use Nature's Snare on a mechanism submerged in (or adjacent to) the water to partially drain the pool. A second mechanism usually becomes accessible after the first drain, and casting Nature's Snare on it finishes the job. At Silver Wolf Mountain, you must also break ice with Turning Slash before the drainage mechanism is reachable.

Lantern Lighting

Found at the Hunter's Cabin Ruins and as a second phase at Wiggling Hill Ruins. Stone lanterns surround a graveyard or ruin entrance. Use Blinding Flash to light each unlit lantern. At Hunter's Cabin, you must first use the Visione ability to trigger a memory scene before the lanterns become interactive. Lighting all lanterns opens a tomb door or reveals the Abyss Cresset.

Wall Lift Puzzles

Found at the Meandering Hills Ruins, Black Wall Ruins, and Blue Thicket Ruins. Nature's Grasp lifts a stone wall or column blocking access to the ruin interior. At Meandering Hills, lifting the wall is only the first step; you then need to hit three stone plates with Force Palm in the correct order (middle, left, right). At Blue Thicket, you lift two walls to redirect energy toward a central device.

Mural Dial Rotation

Found at the Dragon's Stone Chamber Ruins and the Trembling Woods Ruins. Multiple rotating dials must be aligned based on clues found on nearby murals or in a separate location. At the Dragon's Stone Chamber, the clue mural is located at the Anvil Hillside Terrace, not inside the ruin itself. You need to visit that location first, observe the correct symbols, and then return to rotate the three dials into position.

Maze Challenges

Four of the 37 Ancient Ruins are classified as Maze Challenges rather than single-room puzzles. These are the Ancient Rift Maze, Smoking Lands Desert Mouth Maze, Burhum Maze, and Dawnreach Maze. In each maze, you must navigate a multi-room dungeon, solve smaller puzzles along the way, and collect three Engraved Stones. Placing all three stones in receptacles at the end of the maze opens the path to the Abyss Cresset. Maze challenges tend to be longer and more involved than standard ruins.

Other Unique Puzzles

• Stone/Pot Stacking (Bamboo Forest Seonangdang, Kingshield Mountains): Stack three stones or four pots from largest to smallest without toppling them.

• Stone Placement (Duskwood Waterside Ruins): Pick up a white stone and place it in an empty slot to complete a line of five matching stones.

• Elemental Block Puzzle (Hidden Chamber of Wisdom): Push blocks matching elemental symbols (Wind, Lightning, Ice, Fire) using Force Current.

• Totem Rotation Under Time Pressure (Red River Ruins): Turn a crank to lower walls revealing rotating totems. Use Focused Shot to slow time and mark the correct totem faces (identified by red glowing eyes) before the walls close.

• Rotating Frame Symbol Matching (Halssius Conflux, Grey Forest): Rotate a central dial until its symbols align with those illuminated on surrounding statues.

Ruins by Region

The 37 Ancient Ruins are spread across five regions of Pywel. The table below lists every ruin organized by region, along with its puzzle type and the key ability required to solve it. Ruins with no special ability requirement can be completed as soon as you find them.

Hernand

Hernand is the starting region and contains the highest concentration of Ancient Ruins. Many of the ruins here serve as introductions to puzzle types that appear in more complex forms later. The Meandering Hills Ruins is encountered during the Act 2 story quest "Reunion" and cannot be missed.

Demeniss

Demeniss covers the plains, bamboo forests, and volcanic areas east and south of Hernand. The ruins here feature several stacking puzzles and statue rotation challenges, along with the elaborate Screaming Vault multi-room dial puzzle.

Pailune

Pailune is the frozen northern region with ice-covered mountains and deep caves. Several ruins here require Turning Slash to break through ice barriers. The Hidden Chamber of Wisdom introduces the Force Current ability to puzzle design.

Delesyia

Delesyia is a forested region with thick canopies, thickets, and elevated ruins. The Beardtree Hills area alone contains two ruins with very different mechanics. Mount Benus hosts the harder variant of the Red Light, Green Light puzzle with slippery muddy terrain.

Crimson Desert Region

The Crimson Desert region is the arid southeastern territory. It contains the Red River Ruins (one of the more mechanically demanding puzzles due to its time pressure) along with two of the four Maze Challenges.

Rewards

Every Ancient Ruin awards the same two things when its puzzle is completed: an Abyss Cresset activation and one Abyss Artifact. The Abyss Cresset becomes a permanent fast travel point, and the Abyss Artifact grants one Skill Point for the skill tree.

Completing all 37 Ancient Ruins provides 37 Abyss Artifacts in total. These are a significant portion of the available Skill Points in the game. Players who skip ruins will find themselves noticeably behind in skill progression compared to those who complete them. The fast travel points are equally valuable, especially in Pywel's large open world where waypoints can be sparse in remote areas.

Beyond the Artifact reward, fully completing all 37 Ancient Ruins Challenges unlocks the "Puzzle Solver" achievement/trophy. This is tracked in the journal under Challenges, making it easy to see which ruins you have left.

Tips and Strategies

1. Unlock Nature's Grasp and Force Palm early. These two skills are prerequisites for the most ruins. Without them, you will frequently arrive at a puzzle site only to discover you cannot interact with it yet.

2. Use Blinding Flash from hilltops. The higher your elevation, the more glints you can spot on the horizon. Mountain peaks, towers, and castle walls are ideal scanning positions.

3. Check for external clues. Some puzzles (Dragon's Stone Chamber, Memory-Laden Ruins) require information found at a completely different location. If a ruin seems unsolvable, look for murals, carvings, or environmental markers in the surrounding area.

4. Watch for linked mechanisms. In statue rotation and pillar height puzzles, moving one element often moves another. Observe the connections before committing to a sequence of moves.

5. Walk, do not run, in Red Light Green Light puzzles. At Mount Benus, the muddy ground causes sliding when you sprint. A slow walk is the safest approach.

6. Stacking puzzles require patience. The stone and pot stacking puzzles at Bamboo Forest Seonangdang and Kingshield Mountains are physics-based. Place objects gently and make sure each piece is centered before adding the next.

7. Save maze challenges for later. The four Maze Challenges are longer and more complex than standard ruins. They are better tackled once you have a full set of puzzle skills and good gear, since some mazes contain enemies as well.

8. Reset if stuck. Most puzzle mechanisms reset if you leave the area and return. If you have gotten a puzzle into an unsolvable state, walk away until the Mysterious Energy icon resets, then re-enter.

Related Articles

• Ancient Ruins Solutions - Step-by-step walkthrough for every ruin

• Ancient Ruins Challenges - Challenge tracking and completion checklist

• All Puzzle Solutions - Hub page for every puzzle type in the game

• Environmental Puzzles - Broader overview of all puzzle categories

• Abyss Cresset Locations - All 60 Abyss Cressets (including non-ruin ones)

• Strongbox Puzzle Solutions - Lock-based puzzles found in buildings

• Abyss Artifacts - All sources of Skill Points

• Skill Tree - How to spend your earned Artifacts