Overview
Elemental Force Palm is a Health Skill Tree ability exclusive to Kliff. It allows you to imbue Force Palm with an element while using it, adding elemental damage to one of Kliff's core combat abilities. The infused Force Palm deals bonus elemental damage and can apply status effects based on the active element.
Skill Details
Property | Detail |
|---|---|
Skill Tree | Health (Imbue Element branch) |
20 Spirit | |
Characters | |
Level 3 | |
Parent Skill |
How to Unlock
Upgrade Imbue Element to Level 3 to automatically gain Elemental Force Palm. You must first acquire at least one element (Flame, Frost, Lightning, or Wind) by completing Abyss Challenges at elemental Spires. These elements are progression-locked and become available around the middle of Chapter 4.
Kliff's full Imbue Element progression:
Level | Skill | |
|---|---|---|
Lv.1 | 20 Spirit | |
Lv.2 | 30 Spirit | |
Lv.3 | 20 Spirit | |
Lv.4 | 20 Spirit |
Elemental Effects
The element applied depends on which imbuement you have selected through the Axiom Bracelet's radial menu. Each element adds different bonus properties:
Flame: Ignition effect, dealing damage over time. Effective for sustained pressure against tanky enemies.
Frost: Freezes enemies, halting their movement. Creates openings for follow-up combos.
Lightning: Stagger damage with electrical bursts. Builds stun gauge quickly on hit.
Wind: Knockback effect that pushes enemies away. Useful for crowd control.
Combat Tips
Force Palm is one of Kliff's most versatile attacks. It is an offensive strike in combat, breaks enemy defense values, and can even be used three times mid-air to catapult yourself upward for fast climbing. Adding elemental damage on top makes it even more powerful.
At 20 Spirit per use, Elemental Force Palm is relatively affordable compared to Elemental Charged Shot (30 Spirit). This makes it practical to use frequently in sustained melee encounters.
Frost-imbued Force Palm is particularly strong against slow-moving bosses because the freeze effect locks them in place for follow-up attacks. Flame is better for fights where you need to keep moving, since the damage-over-time continues burning after you disengage.
Note that Elemental Force Palm is exclusive to Kliff. Damiane's Level 3 Imbue Element skill is Elemental Shield Toss instead. This reflects her different combat toolkit.
Charging Skills with Imbuements
Elemental Force Palm is one example of a broader system in Crimson Desert: once an elemental imbuement is active, certain core skills can be held down or charged through the appropriate button combination to convert them into an elemental-imbued variant. This works across more than just Force Palm itself. The charge version consumes the active imbuement and applies its damage type and status effect on hit, which is what makes the imbuement system so useful in extended combat.
Which Skills Can Be Imbued
Each imbuement-compatible skill is listed in the skill tree with its own upgrade entry. Investing a skill point into one of these entries teaches your character how to charge that specific skill into an elemental version while an imbuement is active. The confirmed skills that support charged elemental variants include:
Force Palm (the core example, which becomes Elemental Force Palm as described in the sections above).
Turning Slash. With a Flame Imbuement active, charging Turning Slash produces Elemental-Imbued Turning Slash, which adds burning damage to the sweep.
Charge Shot. The bow attack can be imbued while drawing for a projectile that carries the active element.
Meteor Kick. The downward finisher gains an elemental variant in the same way when charged with an imbuement equipped.
Each of these entries appears as a separate node in the skill tree next to its base skill. You still need the underlying skill learned first, then invest a second point into the imbuement upgrade to unlock the charged elemental version.
How to Unlock Each Imbuement
There are five imbuements in the game and each follows a different unlock path. Knowing which gate or story step grants which element makes it easier to plan the order you tackle the abyss in.
Spirit Imbuement is the default imbuement. It is active from the beginning of the game and does not require any unlock. It is the baseline that lets you experiment with the charged-skill system before you have any of the advanced elements.
Wind Imbuement is the only elemental imbuement unlocked through the main story. It is granted automatically as you progress through the critical-path questline, so players do not need to detour for it.
Lightning Imbuement, Frost Imbuement, and Flame Imbuement are all unlocked from inside the abyss. Each one is tied to a specific Abyss Skybridge Gates branch. Taking a new skybridge gate reaches a fresh portion of the abyss, and completing that portion's long platforming and puzzle chain rewards the associated imbuement.
Because Lightning, Frost, and Flame are gated behind separate abyss runs, players who only skim the abyss for one imbuement will be missing a large portion of the charged-skill toolkit. Plan to come back and clear each skybridge branch if you want the full range of elemental variants for skills like Turning Slash, Charge Shot, and Meteor Kick in addition to Force Palm.
Charging a Skill in Practice
After unlocking an imbuement, activate it with the assigned hotkey (on keyboard this is typically the 2, 3, or 4 slot depending on which elements you have available), then hold the appropriate button combination for the skill you want to charge. The game consumes the imbuement for the duration of the charged attack and applies the elemental effect on hit. Imbuements can be swapped freely mid-fight, which is what makes it possible to bring, for example, Frost Imbuement to freeze slow-moving bosses and then switch to Flame Imbuement for a burning Turning Slash follow-up.