Focused Force Palm

Overview

Focused Force Palm is a Spirit Skill Tree ability exclusive to Kliff. While in Focus mode, you unleash a Force Palm that penetrates the target. This ability also shatters magical walls and barriers scattered throughout the world, making it essential for accessing hidden areas, secret rewards, and the Greymane Camp fast travel point. It is widely considered one of the most important abilities in the first third of the game.

Skill Details

Available Characters

Focused Force Palm itself began as a Kliff exclusive on the Spirit Skill Tree. Patch 1.04 added a companion skill to both Damiane and Oongka that produces the same effect. The in-game skill entry for each character may carry a different display name, but functionally they shatter the same Axiom Force walls, open the same puzzle gates, and interact with the shimmering multicolored stone barriers in the same way. This removes a long-standing gate where any save swapped to a non-Kliff character could not progress through wall-locked exploration content.

How to Unlock

Focused Force Palm cannot be purchased with Abyss Artifacts. It can only be learned by observing a spirit using the ability during Chapter 4's quest line. Here is how to find it:

• Complete the House Roberts faction questline, which requires clearing Fort Perwin (southwest of Hernand) and defeating the Red Nightmare boss and his bandit army.

• After clearing Fort Perwin, travel west on the main path toward the Institute of Scholastein.

• You will reach a small passage through a mountain. Inside, a spirit stands before a rock wall with shimmering multicolored stone.

• Observe the spirit as it demonstrates Focused Force Palm. Kliff automatically learns the skill. The screen darkens and a "Learning in Progress..." notification appears.

Warning: This skill is missable. If you take an alternate route to Scholastein and advance past this point in the main quest, you will not encounter the spirit guide until Chapter 9. Prioritize unlocking it during Chapter 4 to avoid a long wait.

How to Use

Focused Force Palm requires entering Focus mode first, then aiming and releasing:

When breaking magical walls, a green clover-shaped icon is your aiming reticle. Position the green clover inside the circle on the wall. Once the circle flashes with a yellow light, release the attack to shatter the wall.

Uses

Combat

The penetrating effect hits through enemies, making it effective against tightly grouped foes. It also temporarily reduces enemy defense values, similar to standard Force Palm. Against certain bosses, you must hit them with normal Force Palm four to five times first to break their posture before Focused Force Palm can deal damage.

Exploration

Focused Force Palm breaks through magical stone walls with shimmering multicolored surfaces. These walls hide rewards, shortcuts, and key items throughout the world. Notable rewards behind breakable walls include:

• The item required to activate the Greymane Camp fast travel teleporter

• Abyss Artifacts hidden in sealed chambers

• Equipment, consumables, and crafting materials in hidden rooms

Combat Tips

At only 5 Spirit per use, Focused Force Palm is extremely cheap. You can use it repeatedly without worrying about resource management.

Whenever you see a wall with shimmering, distorted, multicolored stone, try using Focused Force Palm on it. Many hidden rewards are tucked behind these walls throughout every region of the game.

Focused Force Palm pairs naturally with other Focus-branch abilities like Focused Repulsion and Focused Insight. A Focus-centric playstyle lets you slow time, break defenses, counter attacks, and shatter walls all from the same stance.

Patch 1.04 Changes

Patch 1.04 extended wall-breaking puzzle access to Damiane and Oongka. Before the update, only Kliff could destroy the shimmering multicolored stone barriers that seal hidden chambers and shortcuts, because Focused Force Palm lived exclusively on his Spirit Skill Tree. Any save that needed to break a wall was forced to swap to him, even mid-dungeon, which created friction for parties built around the other two characters.

What Changed

• Damiane and Oongka now have a new skill on their own trees that produces the same effect as Focused Force Palm. The in-game name may differ per character, but mechanically it shatters the same Axiom Force walls, reveals the same hidden rooms, and interacts with the same green clover aiming reticle and yellow-flash release timing.

• Both characters also received Ambush in the same patch. Ambush is unrelated to wall breaking, but since it arrived together with the Focused Force Palm equivalent, any save rolling into 1.04 should check both characters' skill trees for two new unlocks at the same time.

• Existing Kliff behavior is unchanged. The observation-based unlock during Chapter 4, the 5 Spirit cost, and the pairing with other Focus-branch abilities all work exactly as before for him.

• Other Kliff-side skills also received Patch 1.04 attention worth cross-referencing: attack speed on base Force Palm went up, Force Palm Pulse gained charging stages so it can now be held up to three levels with increasing damage, and Force Current no longer causes Kliff to fall off ledges when used near an edge.

Impact on Exploration

• Puzzle sections are no longer character-locked. Any save that has progressed far enough for Damiane or Oongka to access the new skill can clear shimmering wall barriers with whichever character is currently active, so mid-dungeon swaps are no longer forced by wall-break gates.

• The aiming approach is the same across all three characters. Position the green clover reticle inside the circle on the wall, wait for the yellow flash, and release. Mechanical timing and hitbox behavior transfer straight over.

• Missable-unlock warnings from the Chapter 4 Kliff unlock do not apply to Damiane or Oongka. Their versions are reached through their own skill tree progression rather than a one-time observation window, so they cannot be permanently skipped by advancing the main story past a specific quest node.