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Lightning Saw
April 17, 2026 at 02:23 AM
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The Lightning Saw is an electrically powered logging tool in Crimson Desert that is widely considered the meta tool for cutting down trees and gathering wood. It functions like a chainsaw and automatically collects Timber the moment a tree falls, removing the need to manually pick up logs. Unlike the basic Logging Axe or the upgraded Olvald's Logging Axe, the Lightning Saw is not obtained as loot or from a boss. It is unlocked through a research project at the Doo Haven Keep research institute and then crafted through Dispatch Missions sent out from the Greymane Camp.
The Lightning Saw is an electric, motorized saw built from the fusion of traditional Pywell craftsmanship and the new electrical technology being developed in Delesyia. Its core advantage over earlier Logging tools is the auto-pickup behavior: felled logs snap directly into the player's inventory instead of spawning on the ground as collectable items. This saves a noticeable amount of time per tree, especially when clearing a dense grove or farming timber for house upgrades, crafting manuals, or dispatch-related material requests.
Completing the underlying research also permanently boosts the amount of timber each tree yields, regardless of which logging tool is equipped. This means that even before the Lightning Saw itself is delivered by a dispatch team, finishing the research is already worth the silver cost because every swing of the basic logging axe starts producing more wood.
Property | Value |
|---|---|
Tool Type | Logging tool (electric) |
Auto-Pickup | Yes, felled timber is collected automatically |
Gathered Resource | Timber, Fine Timber, Flawless Timber (tree dependent) |
Unlock Method | Research at Doo Haven, then craft via dispatch |
Research Cost | 9 Silver, 6 in-game hours |
Crafting Source | |
Region | Research institute located at Doo Haven Keep, Pywell |
The Lightning Saw is gated behind a single research project at the Doo Haven research institute inside Doo Haven Keep. The keep becomes accessible at the start of Chapter 11, when the main story brings the player into the Pywell region. Once inside the research institute, open the project list and locate:
Research: Movement Conversion Mechanism Research
Cost: 9 Silver
Duration: 6 in-game hours
Rewards: Unlocks dispatch missions to craft the Lightning Saw, and increases the amount of timber gathered while logging with any tool.
Because the research is cheap, short, and gives a permanent logging bonus on top of unlocking a new tool, most players treat it as a priority purchase the moment they first walk into the Doo Haven research institute.
Warning: Do not wear a Thief Mask when entering Doo Haven Keep. The guards consider masked faces hostile and will attack on sight, which locks the player out of the research menu until the territory is cleared or the player returns without the mask equipped.
Completing the Movement Conversion Mechanism Research does not drop the Lightning Saw directly into the inventory. Instead, it unlocks a new dispatch contract that sends a team of Greymane workers out to build one.
Travel to Greymane Camp and open the dispatch board.
Select the newly unlocked Lightning Saw dispatch contract.
Assign Greymane comrades whose stats meet the required labor and technical thresholds.
Pay the silver and material cost listed on the contract, then confirm the dispatch.
Wait for the timer to complete. Once the team returns, the finished Lightning Saw is delivered to the dispatch inbox.
Dispatch contracts can be repeated, so players who want to keep spares, lend saws to party members, or mass-produce tools for selling can run the contract multiple times as long as they have the resources.
Once the Lightning Saw is in the player's inventory, equip it from the tool wheel in the same slot that normally holds a logging axe. Approach any tree that the game flags as choppable and begin the logging interaction.
Auto-pickup: When a tree falls, its timber is added directly to the inventory. There is no need to walk to each log and press the pickup key.
Faster cycles: Because pickup time is eliminated, the saw is noticeably faster than any manual axe, especially when clearing large groves or farming for high-yield tree types.
Compatible with tree types: The saw works on every tree that standard logging axes can fell. Tree species still dictates whether the yield is normal Timber, Fine Timber, or Flawless Timber.
Research bonus stacks: The timber quantity buff from the research continues to apply no matter which logging tool is equipped. The saw simply adds the auto-pickup and faster motion on top.
Players farming wood for crafting manuals, base building, or caravan contracts typically pair the Lightning Saw with a travel mount and a dedicated logging loop, cutting every eligible tree in a region before fast traveling back to a storage hub.
Crimson Desert offers three tiers of logging tools. The Lightning Saw sits at the top of that progression, but each earlier tool still has a niche in the early game or when chasing specific yields.
Tool | How Obtained | Auto-Pickup | Notable Strength |
|---|---|---|---|
Purchased or looted from early game | No | Universally available, cheap starter tool | |
Side content reward | No | Increased chance to produce Flawless Timber | |
Doo Haven research + dispatch craft | Yes | Fastest logging loop, auto-collects all felled timber |
If the goal is raw speed and clearing large quantities of trees, the Lightning Saw is the clear winner. If the goal is maximizing the Flawless Timber proc rate for crafting rare recipes, keeping Olvald's Logging Axe in the loadout for specific tree types is still worthwhile, because its quality modifier is independent of the Lightning Saw's convenience.
The Lightning Saw is part of the first wave of electrical tools introduced by the Doo Haven research institute. Its direct counterpart on the mining side is the Hand Drill, a motorized mining tool unlocked by the Electric Tool Design Research at the same institute. The Hand Drill similarly auto-collects ore when a node is broken, making it the mining equivalent of the Lightning Saw.
Players who clear the logging research will often continue through the Doo Haven research tree for the mining tool next, since both unlocks use the same dispatch workflow from Greymane Camp and both dramatically speed up their respective gathering loops.
Hand Drill: electric mining tool with auto-pickup, unlocked via Doo Haven research.
Logging: overview of wood gathering mechanics, tree types, and regional spots.
Timber: primary resource produced by the Lightning Saw, including higher quality variants.
Dispatch Missions: the crafting system used to produce the Lightning Saw after research is complete.
Greymane Camp: home of the dispatch board that accepts Lightning Saw contracts.
