Overview
Crimson Desert contains numerous hidden passages and secret areas concealed behind illusory walls, waterfalls, destructible barriers, and environmental puzzles. These secrets are scattered across caves, ruins, buildings, and the open world of Pywel. The game rarely signals their presence directly, so finding them requires thorough exploration, the right tools, and a willingness to investigate anything that looks out of place. Hidden passages often lead to valuable loot, Abyss Cressets, crafting materials, and unique encounters that are easy to miss on a casual playthrough.
Types of Hidden Passages
Hidden passages in Crimson Desert fall into several distinct categories. Each type has its own visual tells and methods of access.
Illusory Walls
Illusory walls are solid-looking surfaces that players can walk straight through. They are most commonly found in caves and ruins throughout Pywel. To detect an illusory wall, activate your lantern (L1 on PlayStation, LB on Xbox, or CTRL on keyboard) near a suspicious surface. If the lantern marker appears on the wall but the interact prompt does nothing, try walking directly into the wall. On contact, the wall dissolves and reveals a hidden passage behind it. Not every wall that shows a lantern marker is illusory, but the combination of a marker and no interaction is the strongest indicator.
Waterfall Entrances
Virtually every waterfall in Crimson Desert hides something behind it. The hidden content can range from a full cave system to a single collectible or resource deposit. One of the most reliable visual indicators is a set of stacked stones near the base of the waterfall. When you spot stacked stones, walk through the waterfall to check for a concealed entrance. Some waterfall passages require using the Stab attack to enter, so try attacking the waterfall if walking through it does not work.
Force Palm Barriers
Many hidden rooms and passages are blocked by destructible barriers that require Force Palm to break through. Look for cracked walls, unusual floor panels, or rock formations that stand out from the surrounding environment. When you use Force Palm on one of these barriers, it shatters and opens a path to whatever lies behind it. Force Palm barriers are common in caves, dungeons, and Sanctum locations. If you encounter a wall with visible cracks but cannot open it through normal interaction, Force Palm is almost always the answer.
Revolving Bookshelves
Multiple buildings across Pywel contain bookshelves that conceal hidden rooms. These revolving bookshelves are found in houses, libraries, and other interior locations. To open one, approach the bookshelf and use the standard interact button. The bookshelf rotates to reveal a passage leading to a secret room. The hidden rooms often contain loot, lore documents, or connections to questlines. Pay close attention to bookshelves that look slightly different from their surroundings or that have an interact prompt where you would not normally expect one.
Environmental Puzzles
Some hidden areas are locked behind environmental puzzles that must be solved before the passage opens. These puzzles take several forms:
Rotating bridges: Mechanisms that change the orientation of a bridge to connect to a previously unreachable path.
Lever-powered gates: One or more levers must be activated to open a gate blocking a hidden passage.
Light-reflection crystals: Beam alignment puzzles where the player redirects light through crystals to hit a target and unlock a door.
Platforming sequences: Hidden areas accessible only by completing a series of precise jumps or traversal moves.
Constellation alignment puzzles: Puzzles requiring the player to align symbols or markers to match a star pattern, unlocking the sealed passage.
Environmental puzzles tend to guard more significant rewards than simple illusory walls or waterfall caves. They are commonly found in Ancient Ruins and deeper sections of dungeons.
Dark Fog Lantern Reveals
The Dark Fog Lantern is a special tool obtained through the Alfonso House faction quest. Unlike the standard lantern, the Dark Fog Lantern reveals hidden elements that are completely invisible under normal conditions. These include:
Memory fragments: Echoes of past events that provide lore and context about the world.
Hidden clues: Visual hints that point toward nearby secrets or puzzle solutions.
Sealed Abyss Artifacts: Collectibles that only become visible and interactable when the Dark Fog Lantern is active.
Ghost holograms: Spectral figures that indicate the presence of a nearby secret or hidden path.
The Dark Fog Lantern glows blue when it detects a hidden secret in your vicinity. When you notice the blue glow, examine your surroundings carefully. The secret may be an illusory wall, a hidden item, or an environmental detail that becomes visible only under the lantern's light.
Tools for Finding Secrets
Three primary tools help players discover hidden passages and secrets throughout Pywel:
Standard Lantern: Activated with L1/LB/CTRL. Highlights interactable objects and reveals illusory walls when the marker appears on a surface. Always have your lantern out when exploring caves, ruins, and indoor areas.
Dark Fog Lantern: Reveals memory fragments, sealed artifacts, ghost holograms, and other hidden elements invisible to the standard lantern. Its blue glow signals proximity to a secret. Obtained through the Alfonso House faction quest.
Force Palm: Breaks cracked walls, destructible floor panels, and rock barriers that block hidden passages. Essential for accessing many secret rooms in caves and dungeons.
Tips for Thorough Exploration
Keep your lantern active at all times when exploring interior spaces. The lantern marker appearing on a wall is the primary way illusory walls are detected.
Check behind every waterfall. Even small waterfalls that seem purely decorative can hide collectibles or passages.
Use Force Palm on any wall or floor that has visible cracks, even if there is no obvious prompt. The game does not always highlight destructible surfaces.
Listen for audio cues. Some hidden passages produce subtle sounds (wind, echoes, or water dripping) that differ from the ambient noise of the surrounding area.
Revisit areas after obtaining the Dark Fog Lantern. Many early-game zones contain secrets that are only detectable with this tool.
Interact with bookshelves, paintings, and other furniture in buildings. Revolving bookshelves do not always stand out visually.
Look for stacked stones near waterfalls, unusual rock formations near cliff faces, and any geometry that breaks the natural pattern of the environment.
Connection to Secret Places and Ancient Ruins
Hidden passages are closely tied to two of Crimson Desert's major collectible systems. The All Secret Places Locations guide documents 60 Abyss Cressets hidden throughout Pywel. Many of these Abyss Cressets are concealed behind illusory walls, waterfall entrances, or Force Palm barriers. Finding all 60 requires mastering the hidden passage types described above.
Similarly, the game's 37 Ancient Ruins contain some of the most complex environmental puzzles and hidden passages in the game. Each ruin is essentially a self-contained dungeon built around discovery and puzzle-solving. The beam alignment crystals, constellation puzzles, and rotating bridge mechanisms described in this article are all common features of Ancient Ruins.
Players who want to achieve full completion should combine the techniques in this guide with the Secret Places and Sanctum location guides for a systematic approach to uncovering every hidden area in the game.