Flames of Judgment

Overview

Flames of Judgment is an Abyss Gear ability in Crimson Desert that triggers explosive lines of sparks whenever an attack is imbued with the Fire element. The sparks erupt outward from the source of fire and explode on contact with enemies, dealing significant bonus fire damage. Flames of Judgment costs Spirit each time it activates, so Spirit management is important when building around this ability.

This ability is one of the strongest fire-focused Abyss Cores available for offensive builds. When paired with Volcanic Eruption and a fire-imbued Turning Slash, Flames of Judgment contributes to some of the highest burst damage combinations in the game.

Ability Details

How it Works

When Flames of Judgment is socketed into your equipment and you attack with a fire-imbued weapon, explosive spark lines erupt from the point of fire contact. These sparks travel outward and detonate, dealing fire damage to enemies caught in their path. The effect triggers reliably on fire-imbued attacks, including Elemental Turning Slash, making it highly effective when built around fire-element combos.

Each activation of Flames of Judgment consumes a small amount of Spirit. In builds that trigger fire effects frequently (such as the Turning Slash Nuke Build), this Spirit drain stacks with the base cost of the skill and other fire-triggered effects like Volcanic Eruption. Managing Spirit through Spirit Siphon abyss gears, Spirit Regen on armor, and Focus recovery is essential when relying on this ability.

How to Obtain

Flames of Judgment comes on a pair of gloves awarded for completing Chapter 8 of the main story. The chapter concludes with a boss fight played as a character other than Kliff. After clearing this challenge, Kliff wakes up and the reward items (including the gloves with Flames of Judgment) are placed into your inventory automatically.

Since this is a story reward, there is no alternate method to acquire Flames of Judgment earlier. Players can extract the Abyss Gear from the reward gloves at any Witch and re-embed it into different equipment as needed.

Build Synergies

Flames of Judgment reaches its full potential when combined with other fire-triggered Abyss Gears. The following combinations create devastating burst damage:

How to Obtain

Flames of Judgment is obtained by completing the main quest through the end of Chapter 8. At the start of Chapter 9, a pair of Eclipsed Solas Plate Gloves automatically appears in the player's inventory. These gloves come with the Flames of Judgment abyss gear already embedded. This is the only way to acquire this gear; it cannot be found as a standalone drop or purchased from a merchant.

Usage and Setup

To use Flames of Judgment effectively, the player needs two skills unlocked:

• Flame Strike, which is unlocked by completing Abyss Island puzzles

• Imbue Element (at least Lv. 1 in the red skill tree)

Once both skills are available, the player can extract Flames of Judgment from the Eclipsed Solas Plate Gloves at any witch. For a dedicated fire imbue setup, it is recommended to embed both fire abyss gears (Volcanic Eruption and Flames of Judgment) into a single pair of gloves or boots. This concentrates fire augmentation bonuses and keeps other armor slots free for defensive or utility gears.

Effects

Flames of Judgment is one of two abyss gears that augment fire imbued attacks. When embedded in equipped armor and the player uses fire-imbued strikes, the gear adds additional fire-based effects to those attacks, increasing overall fire damage output. Pairing it with Volcanic Eruption further amplifies the effectiveness of a fire-focused combat build.

Source Summary

Flames of Judgment drops from the final boss of Chapter 8, the Blood Coronation chapter of the main story. The abyss gear is already pre-socketed on the chapter reward gloves documented above, and extracting it at a witch merchant lets the player re-socket Flames of Judgment onto any other armor piece while preserving the trigger behavior. There is no alternate source for this specific abyss gear, so a Chapter 8 completion is required before the boss-slayer stack can be fully built.

Global Effect (Boss-Slayer Builds)

The critical property of Flames of Judgment for a boss-slayer build is that its effect is global. Unlike most weapon-socketed abyss gears, Flames of Judgment does not care which weapon you swing, and it does not need to be on the gloves that the chapter reward shipped with. Players can move the abyss gear onto any armor slot (helm, chest, cloak, gloves, or boots) and it will still trigger whenever a Flame imbuement is active. Each activation deals a chunk of fire damage and fills a noticeable portion of the boss's stagger bar, which makes it one of the strongest sources of passive pressure in the entire boss-slayer loadout.

Flame Imbuement Trigger

Flames of Judgment activates whenever the player has Flame Imbuement active through the Imbue Element system. With flame buff running, every attack that connects has a chance to produce the lined spark pattern that explodes outward from the strike, dealing Fire Element damage on top of the base weapon hit. The trigger is completely weapon-agnostic, so players can still benefit from it during bow weaves, turning slash finishers, or normal combo chains without needing to swap imbued weapons mid-fight.

Pairing with Volcanic Eruption

Flames of Judgment pairs naturally with Volcanic Eruption as a second source of fire-triggered global damage. The recommended setup places Flames of Judgment on the gloves and Volcanic Eruption on the boots, which gives the build two independent flame-reactive abyss gears that both fire on the same imbuement buff. Both of them also contribute to filling the boss's Stagger Bar during extended fights, which in turn unlocks the long turning slash and finisher animations that a boss-slayer build leans on for raw burst damage. For the complete socketing plan, see the Boss Slayer Build Guide.

Tips

• Flames of Judgment only triggers when Fire element is active. Remember to imbue your weapon with fire through the Axiom Bracelet before engaging.

• The Spirit cost per activation adds up quickly in extended fights. Keep Spirit food available and use Focus mode to regenerate Spirit between attack windows.

• If facing a boss that resists fire or is weak to another element, consider swapping Flames of Judgment for a non-fire Abyss Gear to avoid wasting sockets on effects that will not trigger.

• Extract Flames of Judgment from the Chapter 8 gloves and socket it into your preferred armor piece. The original gloves may not have the stats you want for your build.

See Also

• Abyss Gear

• Volcanic Eruption

• Turning Slash

• Turning Slash Nuke Build

• Imbue Element

• Elemental Turning Slash

Community Tier List Rating (Flames of Judgment)

A community tier list of every Abyss Gear published by a Crimson Desert content creator scores each gear out of 30 across damage, usability, and utility. Scores between 15 and 19 land in B tier.

The community summary positions Flames of Judgment as a decent early-game fire option that loses ground to stronger picks once players unlock more powerful gears. The three fireballs the gear sends out are easy to land and provide a baseline of fire pressure, but they do not match the per-proc damage of Volcanic Eruption, which the same list ranks in A tier as the standout fire element gear.

That said, Flames of Judgment retains specific value for boss-slayer builds where the global trigger property (it fires off any flame imbuement, regardless of weapon or armor slot) lets it stack alongside Volcanic Eruption to double up on flame-reactive damage. The two gears are not redundant in those builds even though the tier list rates them differently in isolation.

Pairing Recommendations

Community boss-kill guides and tier lists repeatedly identify Flames of Judgment as one of the two strongest abyss gears in the game, alongside Volcanic Eruption. Its value comes from the extra sparks it emits on every imbued attack: each spark contributes independent stagger ticks, which is how fire builds chain-lock bosses out of their upright stances.

• Pair with Fire Imbue: Flames of Judgment keys off Fire Element. Keep fire imbued at all times while this gear is slotted. Swapping to a different element disables the spark trigger even if the gear remains in the bracelet.

• Pair with Volcanic Eruption: Double-slot with Volcanic Eruption. This is the canonical S-plus-tier fire build documented across community videos. Flames of Judgment provides constant spark damage while Volcanic Eruption's molten boulder launches additional fireballs, turning every imbued strike into a poise explosion.

• Pair with Flame Strike: Use Flame Strike as your spam clear. The skill costs almost nothing and can be fanned in every direction, and sparks from Flames of Judgment still fire on each projectile strike.

• Pair with Charged Shot bow builds: Equip a zero-arrow-consumption bow with max critical rate and Charged Shot. Focus charge shots are already one of the strongest single-target openers in the game, and the spark procs from Flames of Judgment increase the odds of catching overwhelming-tier enemies in the post-stun window.

• Avoid mixing with non-fire elements: There is no benefit to slotting Flames of Judgment while running Frost Element or Lightning Element. The gear simply idles. For mixed-element utility, lean on skills like Storm Veil or Frost Mantle rather than off-element abyss gears.