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Tenebrum
March 20, 2026 at 10:16 PM
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Tenebrum is a boss in Crimson Desert encountered during the Gate to the Otherworld main quest at the Scholastone Institute. Unlike every other boss fight in the game, Tenebrum cannot be damaged by conventional weapons. It is a floating mass of black smoke and dark energy, summoned through an Abyss Void that Octavius, a scholar at Scholastone, opens as part of his experiments with the Abyss. The entire encounter is a puzzle fight that requires aerial movement and Force Palm attacks to resolve.
Players who come into this expecting a traditional swordfight will be confused, and the game does not explain the solution clearly. For a detailed walkthrough with step-by-step controls, see the companion guide article.
Related guide: How to Defeat Tenebrum
Stat | Details |
|---|---|
Location | Scholastone Institute |
Quest | |
Act | Act Four |
Type | Mandatory story boss (puzzle encounter) |
Health Bars | 1 (three Force Palm hits to defeat) |
Damage Type | Dark / Abyss |
Difficulty | Low (once you understand the mechanic) |
Reward | Story progression; no item drops |
Before Tenebrum appears, players must complete two puzzles in the Scholastone Institute as part of Octavius's experiment to open the Abyss Void.
On the lower level, there is a 3x3 grid of floor buttons. Pressing any button toggles it and its adjacent tiles. The goal is to light up all nine buttons simultaneously. The solution sequence is: Middle, Top Left, Bottom Right, Top Right, Bottom Left.
After solving the grid, activate the machine on the upper level using the handle. Four batteries need to be inserted into square slots around the room. Use Axiom Force to grab each battery and carry it near its slot, then hit it with Force Palm to blast it into place. Once all four batteries are seated, the machine activates and Octavius's experiment summons Tenebrum through the Abyss Void.
Tenebrum has a small moveset. The real challenge is not surviving its attacks but figuring out how to damage it at all.
Attack | Description | How to Counter |
|---|---|---|
Dark Strike | A close-range punch that triggers when you fly too close. Unblockable but slow. | Maintain distance. If hit, you will be knocked out of the air and take fall damage. |
Dark Whip | The most frequent attack. Tenebrum lashes out with a long-range tendril of dark energy. | Fly laterally to avoid. The whip tracks slightly, so change direction after the first dodge. |
Dark Whirlwind | An area-of-effect vortex of dark energy swirling around Tenebrum's body. | Stay out of melee range. This ability punishes players who try to Force Palm during the wrong window. |
Relocate | Tenebrum teleports to a new position via a shadow trail, then pauses briefly to charge up. | Track the shadow trail to find where it reappears. The pause after relocation is your attack window. |
Getting hit by any attack while airborne knocks you down to the ground, and you take fall damage on landing. Heal with food items if your health drops, then get back into the air.
Conventional weapons do nothing. Tenebrum can only be damaged by Force Palm strikes delivered while flying. Here is the sequence:
Use Blinding Flash (hold L1+R1, then press R1 on PlayStation, or LB+RB then RB on Xbox) and aim it at Tenebrum. A square-shaped weak point marker will appear on the specter. You only need to do this once; the marker stays visible for the rest of the fight.
Double-tap the jump button to deploy Kliff's wings. Fly over the open section of the plaza where the floor is missing. The updrafts here give you effectively infinite flight stamina, which is unique to this encounter.
Get close to Tenebrum while airborne and press the Force Palm button (R3 / RS). Each successful hit removes about one-third of Tenebrum's health. Three hits total will finish the fight.
Tenebrum flies around erratically and will blast you away if you approach at the wrong time. The safest window is right after it uses Relocate: it pauses in the center of the arena to charge up its next attack. Climb on top of one of the stone columns, wait for Tenebrum to hover in the center, then launch yourself toward it and hit Force Palm from above.
Force Palm consumes Spirit. After two or three uses you will run dry. Hold L3+R3 (or the equivalent on your controller) to recharge Spirit, and hide behind a pillar while doing so to avoid getting hit by Dark Whip. Once Spirit is full, get airborne again and repeat.
The short version: reveal the weak point with Blinding Flash, fly up, wait for Tenebrum to pause after a Relocate, then Force Palm it. Do this three times. Recharge Spirit behind pillars between hits.
This encounter is not mechanically difficult once you understand the gimmick. The frustration comes entirely from the game's unclear communication about what you are supposed to do. Many players waste time trying to hit Tenebrum with sword attacks from the ground, which does nothing.
Tenebrum is an entity from the Abyss, pulled into the physical world through Octavius's experiment at Scholastone. Octavius believes that the Abyss can be studied and harnessed for scholarly purposes, and the Gate to the Otherworld quest centers on his attempt to open a stable portal. Tenebrum is what comes through.
The creature itself has no dialogue or apparent intelligence. It behaves like a mindless specter, lashing out at anything nearby. Whether Tenebrum is a single entity or one of many Abyss creatures of its kind is not clarified during the quest.
Dying during this fight sends you back to the pre-fight puzzles. Solve them once, memorize the answers, and do not die.
The Blinding Flash reveal only needs to happen once. If a popup keeps telling you to use it again, ignore it; the weak point marker is already active.
Attacking Tenebrum from above (dropping down onto it from a column) is safer than approaching horizontally, because the Dark Whip has poor vertical tracking.
If you fall, eat food to heal, then get back up. There is no timer on this fight.
You do not need any special gear or consumables for this encounter. It is entirely about knowing the Force Palm mechanic.
