Overview
Resetting your skills in Crimson Desert is not free. Each reset consumes one Faded Abyss Artifact of the game. There is no currency cost, no cooldown, and no penalty for respeccing. Every Abyss Artifact you spent on skill upgrades is refunded immediately when you reset, and you can reassign those points right away.
While the system does require a consumable item, Faded Abyss Artifacts are accessible enough that the game still encourages experimentation. You can try different builds and playstyles without worrying too much about wasted resources.
Keep in mind that each playable character has a separate skill tree. Resetting refunds the points invested into Kliff, Damiane, and Oongka at the same time, but you still have to manually dump those points back into each character individually if you want all three ready for action. Because the witch shops make Faded Abyss Artifacts so easy to farm, this is the main inconvenience of respeccing rather than the currency cost.
Skill respec in Crimson Desert allows you to reset your invested Abyss Artifacts (skill points) and rebuild your characters' skill trees from scratch. The process requires a consumable item called a Faded Abyss Artifact, and there are several important caveats to understand before triggering a reset.
How to Reset Your Skills
Open the Skills Menu from the pause screen.
Navigate to the skill tree section.
Look for the Reset All button in the bottom-right corner of the screen.
Press the corresponding button to confirm the reset.
All Abyss Artifacts you previously invested in skill upgrades are returned to your inventory. You can immediately spend them again on different skills.
What Gets Refunded
The reset only affects skills that were unlocked or upgraded by spending Abyss Artifacts. When you hit Reset All, every artifact you spent comes back. This includes points invested in:
Spirit Skills (Force Palm tree)
Passive abilities and stat upgrades
Any skill that required Abyss Artifacts as a cost
What Does NOT Reset
Not everything resets when you use the Reset All function. The following are permanent and unaffected by respeccing:
Details | |
|---|---|
Skills learned by watching NPCs perform moves in the open world. These are unlocked through observation, not Abyss Artifacts, and stay with you permanently. | |
Weapon Mastery Progress | Your proficiency with each weapon type is tied to usage, not skill points. Respeccing does not reduce your mastery level. |
Story and Exploration Progress | Quest completions, map discoveries, collectibles, and story advancement are unaffected. |
The distinction between purchased skills and observed skills is the most important thing to understand about respeccing. If you learned a skill by watching an NPC demonstrate it out in the world, that skill is yours forever. Only the skills you bought with Abyss Artifacts can be refunded.
There Is No Selective Reset
You cannot reset a single skill. The only option is Reset All, which refunds every Abyss Artifact skill at once. If you want to change just one skill, you still have to reset everything and then re-purchase the skills you want to keep.
This is a minor inconvenience at most, since you just need one Faded Abyss Artifact to reset. Just take a moment to re-allocate your points after each reset.
Witch Shop Purchase (Primary Source)
The easiest and most reliable way to stockpile Faded Abyss Artifacts is to buy them directly from Witches at their hideouts. Each of the four witch shops that stock this item sells three Faded Abyss Artifacts per visit. Because the shop inventory respawns on a regular cycle, you can rotate through every witch and return for another stock run after the refresh.
This works out to up to 12 Faded Abyss Artifacts per refresh cycle across the four witches combined. At that pace, building up a stack of respec charges takes only a few minutes of fast travel between hideouts.
How the Witch Shop Cycle Works
Three per witch: Every witch shop that sells Faded Abyss Artifacts offers a stack of three per visit.
Four shops: Four separate witch shops stock Faded Abyss Artifacts, spread across different regions of Pywel. Fast travel to each in turn.
Twelve per cycle: With all four witches cleared out, you leave each refresh cycle holding up to 12 Faded Abyss Artifacts.
Regular respawns: The shop inventory respawns on a cycle, so you can return later and buy another 12. This is the key difference between Faded Abyss Artifacts and the regular Abyss Artifacts sold by the same witches, which do not respawn once purchased.
Inexpensive: The silver cost per artifact is low enough that buying a full stack is trivial by mid-game. Players who follow this routine report never running short on respec currency.
Why You Can Respec Freely
Between the three-per-witch per-visit limit, the four shop locations, and the regular respawn, there is functionally no reason to hesitate before investing Abyss Artifacts into the Skill Tree. If a build does not work out, fast travel to the nearest witch, grab a few Faded Abyss Artifacts, and reset. Swapping back and forth between builds for different bosses, weapons, or playstyles is cheap and convenient.
Why Crafting Is Wasteful by Comparison
There is a crafting recipe for Faded Abyss Artifacts, but it is not a good use of resources. The recipe consumes regular Abyss Artifacts as ingredients, which are the same currency you spend on skills and stat upgrades. Buying from witch shops is far cheaper than burning skill points to make respec fuel.
Remember that respeccing resets the invested points for each playable character individually. After a reset you still need to dump Abyss Artifacts back into Kliff, Damiane, and Oongka one at a time, because each has a separate skill tree.
When to Respec
Because respeccing only costs one Faded Abyss Artifact per reset and has no cooldown, you can respec frequently. Here are some situations where a reset makes sense:
New gear: If you find a weapon that favors a different playstyle, respec to complement it.
Tough boss: Some bosses are easier with specific skill loadouts. Reset before a hard fight and rebuild around whatever gives you the best advantage.
New story abilities: As you unlock new characters and combat options through the story, your old build may no longer be optimal.
Experimentation: Curious about a skill you have never tried? Reset, try it out, and reset again if you do not like it.
Consider resetting your skills in the following situations:
Before a difficult boss: Certain bosses are much easier with specific skill loadouts. If your current build is not working, respec into a more suitable setup for that encounter.
After unlocking new weapon types: As you progress through the story and unlock additional weapons and combat styles, you may want to redistribute points to take advantage of newly available skills.
Testing builds: With Witch vendors providing affordable Faded Abyss Artifacts, experimentation is encouraged. Try different combinations of Kliff, Damiane, and Oongka builds to find your preferred playstyle.
After learning Watch and Learn abilities: Since Watch and Learn skills persist through respecs, you can respec freely after acquiring new observed abilities without worrying about losing them.
Tips for Respeccing
Spend your Abyss Artifacts freely. Do not hoard them thinking you might need them later. Since respeccing only costs a Faded Abyss Artifact (available from witch vendors for about 2.85 silver each, or craftable from Chapter 4 onward), there is no reason to be cautious with skill point allocation.
After respeccing, double-check your quick menu and equipped abilities. Some abilities may be unequipped when you reset.
If you are stuck on a boss, try respeccing into a defensive build with more health and stamina upgrades. You can always switch back to an offensive build afterward.
Observed skills remain after a reset, so prioritize seeking out NPCs who teach special moves through observation. Those skills are permanent additions to your toolkit.
Save your game before respeccing if you want to compare two builds side by side. Load the save to try the second build without needing to reset again.
Always ensure you have a plan for all three characters before triggering a reset. Resetting for one character wipes all three.
If you are low on Faded Abyss Artifacts and cannot afford to buy more, explore the floating islands in the Abyss for hidden treasure chests.
The crafting method (Chapter 4) is the long-term solution for unlimited respecs. Prioritize the research project early if you like experimenting with builds.
Write down or screenshot your current build before resetting so you can recreate it if the new build does not work out.
Faded Abyss Artifacts
Faded Abyss Artifacts are the consumable item required to reset your skills. Each reset costs exactly one Faded Abyss Artifact. You can obtain them from witch vendors found throughout Pywel (about 2.85 silver each, with 3 available per vendor), by crafting them after learning the recipe in Chapter 4 at Scholastone, or as quest rewards. Stock up on a few before you experiment with builds. Do not confuse them with the standard Abyss Artifacts that you spend on skill upgrades.
In short: respeccing is really no big deal. Between the four witch shops each selling three Faded Abyss Artifacts per visit and the regular shop respawn cycle, you can walk away with up to 12 respec charges at a time, all for a small amount of silver. The only catch is that after a reset you have to re-allocate points into each of the three characters separately, because their skill trees do not share combat skill unlocks.
How to Reset Skills
To perform a skill respec:
Open the Skills Menu from the main interface.
Locate the reset option in the bottom-right corner of the screen.
Hold F (keyboard), X (Xbox controller), or Square (PlayStation controller) to confirm the reset.
After confirming, every Abyss Artifact you have spent is fully refunded and all abilities are reset. You can immediately begin reinvesting your points into a new build.
Multi-Character Reset Warning
Important: You cannot reset characters individually. When you trigger a skill reset, the game resets the skill trees for all three playable characters simultaneously: Kliff, Damiane, and Oongka. If you have a perfectly optimized loadout for one character but want to tweak another's build, you will destroy the first character's build in the process. You will need to manually rebuild all three characters every time you use a Faded Abyss Artifact.
The silver lining is that because Faded Abyss Artifacts are cheap and plentiful from witch shops, the inconvenience here is entirely about time spent re-allocating points, not resource cost. You can respec back and forth as often as you like. The real friction is simply walking each of the three characters' skill trees individually after every reset.
Watch and Learn Exception
Abilities acquired through the Watch and Learn mechanic are permanently retained even after a respec. Since Watch and Learn abilities do not consume Abyss Artifacts to unlock (they are learned by observing enemies and bosses), they remain in your skill set regardless of how many times you reset.
Where to Find Faded Abyss Artifacts
There are five distinct ways to acquire Faded Abyss Artifacts:
Source | Details | Quantity |
|---|---|---|
Campaign Quests | Story progression and world exploration naturally reward Faded Abyss Artifacts at key milestones. | Varies |
Collectibles scattered across the world. Completing the challenge tally attached to each Sealed Abyss Artifact converts it into a usable Faded Abyss Artifact. | Limited (fixed locations) | |
Abyss Treasure Chests | Hidden in puzzle rooms on the floating islands in the Abyss. These chests are not marked on the minimap and require exploration to find. | Several per island |
Witch Vendors | Purchase from Witch vendors found throughout Pywel. Each vendor sells 3 Faded Abyss Artifacts per transaction at a cost of 2.85 Silver each. | 3 per transaction (repeatable) |
Unlocked in Chapter 4 via the 'Research on the Abyss Energy Restoration Phenomenon' research project. Costs 12 Silver and requires 8 real-world hours to complete. Each craft requires 1 Abyss Cell and 2 Mercury. | Unlimited (once unlocked) |
Most Reliable Source
Witch vendors are the most reliable on-demand source of Faded Abyss Artifacts. At 2.85 Silver per artifact with 3 available per visit, you can restock quickly before a tough encounter. If you need more than 3, rest or wait for the vendor inventory to refresh.
For unlimited respecs later in the game, invest in the crafting research project during Chapter 4. Once the 8-hour research timer completes, you can craft as many Faded Abyss Artifacts as you need provided you have the Abyss Cell and Mercury materials.