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The Combat God's Plate Gloves are a pair of Gloves in Crimson Desert that channel lightning energy through unarmed strikes. Described as ancient equipment woven with unique fibers and metals, they convert friction generated upon impact into destructive electrical currents. Charges accumulate rapidly during relentless barrages of strikes, ultimately unleashing power akin to a massive lightning bolt.
These gauntlets are obtained by completing the arena quest chain in Tash Calp, a settlement in the northeast of the map near the Crimson Desert region. Players must win three consecutive bare-fist fights in the arena, culminating in a challenging boss duel. They are widely considered one of the most unique glove items in the game because of their built-in lightning affinity and the two Abyss Gears they come pre-equipped with. For players who enjoy unarmed combat and melee damage, these gloves deliver a play style complete with visible electric sparks, shock effects, a combat counter displayed on screen, and devastating chain attacks.
Attribute | Base Value | Upgraded Value |
|---|---|---|
Type | Gloves (Plate) | Gloves (Plate) |
Attack | 19 | 35 |
7 | 19 | |
Sockets | 2 (Abyss Gear) | 2 (Abyss Gear) |
Passive | Critical Rate Lv. 1 | Critical Rate (scales with upgrades) |
Affinity | ||
At base, the Combat God's Plate Gloves have 19 ATK and 7 DEF. When fully upgraded, they reach up to 35 Attack and 19 Defense, plus additional Critical Rate scaling. The built-in Critical Rate passive is especially important because crit rate on gloves only affects attacks performed with those gloves. Having it built into the item itself means you start with a head start toward the crit rate cap for fist attacks. These are widely regarded as the best gloves available for hand-to-hand combat builds.
Critical rate on gloves only applies to attacks made with those gloves, so building crit rate on the Combat God's Plate Gloves directly benefits your fist attacks. At base, the gloves have Critical Rate Lv. 1. At refinement level 10, this increases to Critical Rate 2. The maximum crit rate cap for fist attacks is 15, and reaching it requires stacking crit rate from multiple sources.
A practical setup to hit the level 15 crit rate cap:
Where Found | Crit Rate Contribution |
|---|---|
Combat God's Plate Gloves (Refinement 10) | +2 |
Crit Rate 3 gear socketed inside gloves | +3 |
Necklace (crit rate) | Varies |
Ring (crit rate) | Varies |
Total | 15 (cap) |
By socketing a Crit Rate 3 Abyss Gear into one of the glove slots and combining it with the refinement bonus plus crit rate from your necklace and ring, you can reach exactly 15. This results in a noticeably higher proportion of critical hits during fist combos, which pairs well with the Relentless damage scaling.
The Combat God's Plate Gloves are the reward for completing the arena quest chain in Tash Calp, a settlement located in the northeast of the map near the Crimson Desert area. The quest begins when you find a group of NPCs in town having a conversation about the arena champion who keeps winning. Talking to them triggers the quest, and the quest marker then moves to the arena.
Travel to Tash Calp and look for the quest marker in town. A group of NPCs will be discussing the arena champion's dominance. Speak with them to trigger the quest. The marker will then point you to the arena, which has a nearby fast travel point for easy return trips. Head to the staircase on the left side of the arena entrance, which leads down into a large fighting pit. The arena host stands outside among the crowd of spectators.
You must have fists equipped before entering. Hold left on the D-pad and cycle through your equipment until fists are selected. No weapons are allowed.
To start a duel, hold L1 and press X.
Each fight costs 1 Silver to enter. Winning a fight pays out 2 Silver.
There are three fights in total. The first two are standard opponents, and the third is a boss fight.
The first opponent is relatively easy. Use Square and X attacks to execute clothesline moves, which deal significant damage. Dodge the opponent's punches, follow up with clotheslines, and use grapple attacks when openings present themselves. Most players will clear this fight without much difficulty.
The second fight follows the same pattern as the first but has a different opponent. The clothesline strategy remains effective here. Pay 1 Silver again to enter, and apply the same approach: dodge, clothesline, and grapple. This fight is slightly more challenging than the first but uses the same fundamentals.
The third and final fight is a proper boss encounter. After paying the entry fee, a short cutscene plays. Walk forward through an ominous gate, and the boss emerges with an entourage. This fight is significantly harder than the first two and requires a different strategy.
The boss has more health and hits harder than the previous two opponents. The most effective approach revolves around R2 attacks and force punch attacks to keep the boss stagger-locked:
Spam R2 attacks to build stagger on the boss. R2 hits stagger him quickly and set up follow-up opportunities.
Use force punch attacks to extend the stagger window. After landing an R2 combo, immediately follow up with a force punch to keep the boss locked in place.
Single-tap dodges are more effective than dodge rolls for this fight. A single tap provides better invincibility frames than a full roll, making it easier to slip through the boss's attacks and counter.
The boss has super armor at certain points during his combos, meaning your attacks will not interrupt him. Recognize when he has super armor active and focus on dodging instead of attacking.
There are destructible pillars in the arena that can be knocked down onto the boss. However, this tactic is too slow to be worth using in practice. Stick to the R2 and force punch approach.
With enough force punches and R2 attacks, you can fully stagger the boss, leaving him completely vulnerable for an easy finish.
Leveling the unarmed combat skill tree helps with this fight. Higher ranks may increase damage output and unlock additional moves.
Fight | Difficulty | Entry Cost | |
|---|---|---|---|
Fight 1 | Easy | 1 Silver | Clothesline attacks (Square + X), dodge and grapple |
Fight 2 | Easy to Moderate | 1 Silver | Same clothesline approach, different opponent |
Boss Fight | Hard | 1 Silver | R2 spam into force punch, single-tap dodges, stagger lock |
Defeating the boss rewards the Combat God's Plate Gloves. Make sure to also pick up the Artifact from the boss's body after the fight, which grants a skill point. Each fight won also pays out 2 Silver, so completing all three fights earns a net profit of 3 Silver (6 Silver won minus 3 Silver paid in entry fees).
The Combat God's Plate Gloves have 2 abyss gear slots and come with both slots already filled. The pre-equipped gears are Kinetic Burst (also known as Showstopper) and Relentless. Most gloves either have one abyss gear or none at all, making these an exceptional find. Note that if you want to socket a Crit Rate 3 gear for the crit cap build, you will need to swap out one of these two gears.
Kinetic Burst (referred to as Showstopper in some contexts) is the first of the two pre-equipped abyss gears. For unarmed attacks, it triggers on the 3rd hit of the light attack chain, which is normally the finisher of the combo. The burst releases an AoE 360-degree pulse around your character that damages all nearby enemies. This addresses one of the main weaknesses of unarmed combat, which typically lacks area-of-effect capability.
If you have invested points in the Martial Arts skill tree, you can extend your light attack combo with a finisher by pressing a separate button after the 3rd hit. This extension also triggers Kinetic Burst, meaning a full extended combo (3 light attacks plus the extension) gives you 2 Kinetic Burst procs in a single chain. This double activation is what makes the gear so effective. You can even perform this combo from range without your attacks connecting with the enemy, since the Kinetic Burst activates based on the combo count, not on hit confirmation.
Kinetic Burst shines most during stagger windows. When an enemy is fully staggered, you can land rapid light attack combos with extensions, and each chain pumps out two bursts for incredibly fast damage buildup. Against groups, the repeated AoE pulses clear out surrounding enemies while you focus on the staggered target.
Relentless increases your damage output with each consecutive attack you land. The longer you sustain an unbroken chain of hits, the harder each strike lands. This synergizes naturally with the unarmed play style, since fist combat revolves around rapid, repeated strikes rather than single heavy blows.
Because the bonus resets when you stop attacking or get interrupted, positioning and timing matter. Staying close to your target and avoiding staggers will let the Relentless damage multiplier ramp up to significant levels, especially during extended boss encounters where you can maintain pressure.
The Combat God's Plate Gloves have a default Lightning affinity that operates on a charge-based system. The gloves hold 3 lightning charges, and each charge causes your punch to deal additional lightning damage on impact. After a charge is consumed, one charge regenerates every 5 seconds. This means you enter every fight with a burst of three lightning-empowered strikes, and as the fight continues, you get a steady trickle of bonus lightning damage every few seconds. The recharge rate is generous enough that you rarely feel like you are running without lightning for long.
Visually, your attacks produce electric sparks and visible shock effects on impact. When equipped, the gloves have a glowing style with lightning streaking off them. The lightning affinity is always active while the gloves are equipped; you do not need to manually trigger it through the Imbue Element system. The shock damage builds up an elemental charge on the target. Once the threshold is reached, the target becomes shocked, staggering them and leaving them vulnerable to follow-up strikes. This makes the Combat God's Plate Gloves one of the few pieces of equipment that provides a permanent elemental damage bonus without any setup.
Equipping the Combat God's Plate Gloves changes and enhances the standard hand-to-hand moveset. Attacks gain a unique AoE variant, allowing strikes to hit multiple enemies in close range. The visual flair is distinct as well, with lightning-imbued punches that trail electricity.
When the gloves are equipped, a combat counter appears on the side of the screen, similar to combo counters found in fighting games. This counter tracks your current hit chain and provides visual feedback on your sustained aggression. The counter ties into the Relentless abyss gear's damage scaling, making it a useful indicator of how much bonus damage you are currently dealing.
R2 for stagger: Against tough enemies and bosses, spam R2 attacks to build stagger quickly. Once staggered, follow up with force punch to extend the stagger window.
Force punch combos: After landing an R2 chain, the force punch keeps enemies locked in place. This R2-to-force-punch loop is the foundation of an effective stagger strategy.
Single-tap dodge over roll: In unarmed combat, a single-tap dodge provides better invincibility frames than a full dodge roll. This is especially important against bosses with fast combos.
Chain R1 for Showstopper: Do not interrupt your R1 combo early. Let the full chain play out to trigger the Showstopper AoE pulse at the end. This is your primary tool for crowd control.
Stay aggressive for Relentless: The Relentless damage bonus rewards nonstop aggression. Dodge through enemy attacks rather than backing away so you can keep your hit chain going and the combat counter climbing.
Lightning stagger: The shock buildup from lightning affinity will stagger targets periodically. Use these stagger windows to reposition or start a fresh combo for maximum Relentless stacking.
Respect super armor: Some enemies (especially bosses) have super armor during certain combo sequences. When you see attacks not interrupting them, switch to dodging and wait for their combo to end before counterattacking.
Boss fights: Against single-target bosses, the combination of Relentless ramping damage and lightning stagger makes these gloves excellent. Focus on learning the boss's attack windows and punish every opening with sustained R2 chains into force punch follow-ups.
Pair with mobility skills: Unarmed combat puts you at close range with no shield. Invest in dodge skills and movement abilities to stay alive while keeping your attack chains active.
Invest in unarmed skill tree: Leveling the unarmed combat branch of the skill tree increases damage and unlocks additional moves, making the gloves significantly more effective.
If you want a copy of Kinetic Burst as a standalone abyss gear (for use in other gloves or to keep while experimenting with the Combat God's Plate Gloves' second slot), it can be found in the Wanderer of Faith Leather Gloves. This item is located inside a chest within a waterfall cave southeast of Demeniss and north of Dlesia. Reaching the cave requires exploring off the beaten path, but the reward is worthwhile for anyone investing heavily in an unarmed build. You can extract the Kinetic Burst gear from the Wanderer of Faith Leather Gloves and socket it into other equipment as needed.
While the Combat God's Plate Gloves already excel on their own, they can be taken further by pairing them with the Frost Hail abyss gear on a separate armor piece. Frost Hail causes icicles to rain down from above whenever you perform frost-imbued attacks, dealing additional AoE damage in the impact zone.
To obtain Frost Hail, you need to progress through two quest chains in Pailune. First, complete the full Pailune militia questline (which includes the Queen of the Skies encounter). After that, you unlock the Soul Shepherd quest for the Sogghorn Tribe. The second quest in this chain pits you against the White Horn boss. Defeating White Horn rewards the Frost Hail abyss gear.
When using Frost Hail alongside the Combat God's Plate Gloves, you can switch between lightning-imbued strikes and frost-imbued strikes depending on the situation. Lightning staggers targets quickly, while frost builds toward a full freeze. The icicle drops from Frost Hail add another layer of AoE on top of the Showstopper pulse, giving you strong crowd-clearing potential from multiple sources.
The Combat God's Plate Gloves are obtained from the Bone Pit mission, the arena quest chain located in the Tash Kalp region in the northeast section of the world map. The mission is the formal name of the three-fight arena gauntlet detailed in the How to Obtain section above. If you are looking for the gloves on a fresh playthrough and the quest is not appearing in your journal, travel to Tash Kalp first and look for the NPCs discussing the arena champion. Speaking with them adds the Bone Pit mission to your journal and points you toward the staircase entrance to the fighting pit.
The Bone Pit name is used in community combat guides and is the same content as the Tash Kalp arena quest. There is no separate side activity called Bone Pit elsewhere on the map, so you only need to clear this single mission to unlock the gloves.
Equipping the Combat God's Plate Gloves applies two combat changes that are not described in the item tooltip:
On-screen combo counter: A combat counter is added to the screen that tracks consecutive hits while you are using fist attacks. The counter resets when you stop attacking or take a hit, so it doubles as a feedback indicator for how well your combo is flowing.
Lightning damage on fist attacks: Every Unarmed Combat strike adds a lightning damage component on top of the base attack value. This stacks with the gloves' built-in lightning affinity and the Relentless and Kinetic Burst Abyss Gears that come pre-socketed in the item, letting Cliff go full Tekken style with electrified bare-fist combos.
The Combat God's Plate Gloves are the offensive half of the so-called Combat God loadout, but the loadout is not complete without the Master de Cirlet, a one-handed item earned by defeating the chapter 9 boss in the main story. The Master de Cirlet is equipped on hand and adds a juggle extension to your unarmed combos. While in the middle of a fist combo, press L2 plus R2 to trigger the juggle hits, which keeps enemies floating in the air the same way Dante's guns extend combos in Devil May Cry.
Together, the Combat God's Plate Gloves and the Master de Cirlet form the core unarmed Cliff loadout used in high-tier Combos and aerial juggle show clips. The gloves provide the lightning damage and the on-screen combo counter, while the Master de Cirlet provides the air-juggle extension. Neither item is strictly required to clear the game, but using them together unlocks the most complete fighting-game style of combat that Cliff has access to and is the recommended setup for any unarmed combat build.
Item | Where Found | Role |
|---|---|---|
Lightning damage on fists, on-screen combo counter, two pre-socketed Abyss Gears. | ||
Chapter 9 main story boss reward (equipped on hand). | Press L2 plus R2 mid-combo to extend Combos with juggle hits that keep enemies airborne, similar to Dante's guns in Devil May Cry. |
Tash Calp (the settlement where the arena quest takes place)
Goldenfist Arena (another unarmed arena in Hernand)
Kinetic Burst / Showstopper (AoE abyss gear included with the gloves)
Relentless (consecutive damage abyss gear included with the gloves)
Frost Hail (complementary abyss gear from White Horn)
Abyss Gear (overview of the socket system)
Gloves (all gloves in Crimson Desert)
Artifacts (skill point collectibles)
Force Palm (key unarmed ability for boss stagger-locking)
Martial Arts (skill tree that enables combo extensions)
Unarmed Combat (fist fighting build guide)
These gauntlets are the centerpiece of the Combat God Gauntlets unarmed build, a popular variant of the Kliff Unarmed Build. The lightning infusion stuns enemies on punch, but the catch is that both the crit rate bonus and the lightning infusion only apply to unarmed attacks. That restriction is what makes the gauntlets a true unarmed build anchor rather than a generic glove upgrade. Players who keep them socketed and switch to a melee weapon lose the lightning procs entirely until they go back to fists.
The two abyss gear sockets ship with Showstopper and Volcanic Eruption already attached. Volcanic Eruption is paired with Flames of Judgment in the helmet so the build runs dual elements at once: lightning stuns from the gauntlets, and fire procs from gear. Fire imbue is the strongest and most reliable elemental setup at the time the build was filmed, which is why it sits next to the gauntlets even though the gauntlets themselves are lightning.
A common question worth answering up front: equipping a lightning-infused weapon gear does not chain off the gauntlet's lightning, so do not socket lightning gear expecting free procs. Stack fire gear instead and treat the gauntlet's lightning as a separate, automatic stun layer.
