Revision 7

Overview

Witches are essential NPCs in Crimson Desert who provide services related to Abyss Gears and Abyss Cores. They allow players to embed, extract, and craft Abyss Cores that apply buffs to weapons and armor. There are five witches scattered across the world of Pywel, each disguised in a different form. Finding them requires completing specific tasks or noticing environmental clues. Each witch also has a set of Sanctum Challenges that players must complete as part of the Witches faction questline.

All four main witches can be discovered at the very beginning of the game, even before the main story directs you to their regions. Visiting them early is highly recommended because the Abyss Gear blueprints and accessories they sell provide a significant power boost. Any witch's shop can perform extraction and synthesis once unlocked, so many players use whichever witch is easiest to reach for routine crafting.

The witch questline is tracked under the faction quest tab in the journal. Although the quests are listed under Hernand, the four witch quest chains span every major region of the map, from the snowy mountains of Pailune to the far eastern Tashkalp territory. Completing all four chains unlocks a fifth and final witch hidden in the Wayward Woods.

Quick Reference

The table below summarizes each witch's title, region, disguise, and how to unlock her.

All Witch Locations

Sylvia (The Hermit Witch)

Sylvia is the first witch most players encounter. She is unlocked automatically during the early game after completing the "Abyss Without Balance" quest. After fast-traveling to an Abyss Nexus point, a white bird delivers a letter. Reading this letter starts "The Hermit Witch" quest, which leads players to a cavern where Sylvia resides. The White Crow delivers the letter as soon as you gain control of Kliff in Chapter 3, making Sylvia the earliest witch you can access.

• Location: Shadow's Whisper Cave, north of Hernand. The entrance is at the bottom of the bridge near a fast travel platform.

• How to Find: Complete the "Abyss Without Balance" quest, then read the Unsealed Letter delivered by a white bird.

• Services: Embed Abyss Gears into equipment sockets, extract Abyss Gears from equipped items, create and unlock Abyss Core sockets on equipment.

Sylvia provides the basic embed, extract, and socket services but does not sell blueprints or recipes. She is the introductory witch for learning the Abyss Gear system.

Important bug warning: If you enter Shadow's Whisper Cave before you officially receive the quest, Sylvia may vanish entirely, locking you out of her services. Wait for the white bird to deliver the letter before exploring the cave.

Elowen (Witch of Wisdom)

Elowen is the second witch, located in The Witchwoods west of Hernand City. She becomes accessible after the Chapter 5 boss fight against Kearush at Hernand Castle. Players receive a letter from a bird and must follow the "Missing Seal" quest to find Elowen being held captive at a bandit-raided farmstead. She is rescued by entering through a hole in the roof of her hut.

Elowen is the first witch you meet through the faction quest system. The main story brings you directly to her during Chapter 5, and she carries various Abyss Gear recipes in her shop. Her residence is a few hundred meters north of the hut, surrounded by red flowers and a fountain.

• Location: The Witchwoods, west of Hernand City, near an Abyss Nexus fast travel point.

• How to Find: After Chapter 5, read the Unsealed Letter to start the "Missing Seal" quest. Find the hut surrounded by thorny vines, climb the scaffolding, and enter through the window.

• Services: All of Sylvia's services plus crafting Abyss Gears using recipes, buying Abyss Gears and recipes, buying Abyss Artifacts, selling equipment and items, and alchemy via her cauldron.

• Sanctums: Sanctum of Temperance, Sanctum of Absolution, Sanctum of Benediction, Sanctum of Penitence

Elowen's shop is the most comprehensive among the witches because it includes a cauldron for alchemy recipes. She is also conveniently located near a fast travel point, making her the go-to witch for routine extraction and synthesis. Completing her four sanctums in the Hernand region rewards powerful Kuku weapon blueprints such as the Kuku Lightning Spear and Kuku Bird Boltspitter blueprints. Many players consider her the best witch to visit regularly for crafting convenience.

Bari (Witch of Kindness)

Bari is located in the far northern region of Pailune, in the Paleoon mountain area. She is not encountered through the main story or side quests; players must discover her independently. Her disguised form is an old woman huddled under a tent near the Wayward Woods landmark, shivering in the cold. The closest waypoint is near the Silver Wolf Cave, and her false form is just southwest of that location.

• Location (Disguised): Southwest of the Silver Wolf Cave near Wayward Woods in Pailune. She is shivering under a small tent in the snow.

• How to Unlock: Light the brazier in front of her to give warmth. This reveals that she is Bari, the Witch of Kindness.

• Location (True Home): A cabin on an island in Crimson Lake, south of the Silver Wolf Mountains in Pailune.

• Services: Full witch services including Abyss Gear embedding, extraction, crafting, socket creation, and a shop with unique blueprints and accessories.

• Sanctums: Sanctum of Exaltation, Sanctum of Solace, Sanctum of Deliverance, Sanctum of Atonement

Bari's Shop Inventory

Bari sells several notable items and blueprints that are particularly useful for speed and combat builds.

Bari's Blueprints

Bari's blueprints focus on speed and mobility, making them excellent for aggressive playstyles.

Lyselia (Witch of Humility)

Lyselia is located in the Serpent Marsh in the far southern region. Her disguised form is a person hanging from a broken bridge in Beighen. To find her false form, travel to the northeastern side of the town of Bayon (which the main story also brings you to at a certain point). Near the broken bridge, someone is hanging off the edge. Pull them up and the illusion fades, revealing the Deminis witch.

• Location (Disguised): Hanging from a broken bridge on the northeastern side of Bayon in the Beighen area.

• How to Unlock: Help her up from the bridge to trigger her questline. She then teleports to her true lair in the Serpent Marsh.

• Location (True Home): A hidden cave in the Serpent Marsh, just south of Demeniss. The entrance is in the side of the mountain on the southeastern face. Follow colorful flags inside the cave to reach Lyselia.

• Services: Full witch services including Abyss Gear embedding, extraction, crafting, and socket creation, plus a shop with unique defensive blueprints and accessories.

• Sanctums: Sanctum of Devotion, Sanctum of Veneration, Sanctum of Oblation, Sanctum of Faith

Lyselia's Shop Inventory

Lyselia sells defensive accessories that complement tanky and crit-rate builds.

Lyselia's Blueprints

Lyselia's blueprints are entirely defensive, making her the primary source for tank builds. These blueprints are essential for players who want to increase their survivability in late-game combat.

Higher tiers of these Abyss Gears are created through synthesis. For example, combining two Fortification 1 Abyss Gears produces a Fortification 2, and two Fortification 2 Abyss Gears produce a Fortification 3. The same synthesis pattern applies to Aegis and Fortitude.

Areciel (Witch of Strength)

Areciel is the final main witch, located in the Tashkalp territory. Her disguised form appears as a small child begging for money just outside the town of Tashkelp on the northwestern side. There is a post house with a bounty board, and the child stands right next to it.

Give the child a single copper coin and the illusion fades, revealing the Crimson Desert witch's true nature. Areciel then marks her location on your map. Her actual home is slightly more northwest, past the Great Gate over the huge hill at the World's Navel. The house is built on a sheer cliff, and when you step inside she scolds you and tells you to come up to the roof. A waypoint sits just northwest of her hideout for convenient fast travel.

• Location (Disguised): A beggar child near a wooden board northwest of Tashkelp, next to a post house with a bounty board.

• How to Unlock: Give the beggar 1 copper coin to trigger the quest. Areciel only appears at her home after all other witches' sanctum cleansing quests are complete.

• Location (True Home): Northwest of World's Navel, near Urdavah, on the second floor of a cliff-side building accessible by climbing planks.

• Services: Full witch services including Abyss Gear embedding, extraction, crafting, and socket creation, plus the best offensive blueprints in the game.

• Sanctums: Sanctum of Expiation, Sanctum of Renunciation, Sanctum of Revelation

Areciel's Shop Inventory

Areciel's shop focuses on offensive gear, making it the most valuable shop for players pursuing damage builds. She also sells a unique book for 999 silver that allows you to spawn a traveling merchant anywhere in the world, which is extremely useful for selling loot in remote areas.

Areciel's Blueprints

Areciel sells the Destruction blueprint, which is the primary offensive Abyss Gear blueprint in the game. This blueprint is exclusive to Areciel and cannot be purchased from any other witch.

Like other blueprints, higher tiers of Destruction are obtained through synthesis: two Destruction 1 Abyss Gears combine into Destruction 2, and two Destruction 2 combine into Destruction 3. Pairing Destruction gears with Swift (from Bari) on your weapon creates one of the strongest offensive setups in the game.

Witch Services Summary

All witches provide the following core services once unlocked:

Because all witches share the same extraction and synthesis functionality, you can use whichever witch is most convenient for routine gear management. Many players prefer Elowen in The Witchwoods since she is the easiest to reach from Hernand and also has an alchemy cauldron.

Blueprint Comparison by Witch

Each witch (beyond Sylvia) sells a unique set of Abyss Gear blueprints. The table below compares all available blueprints across witches, making it easy to see which witch to visit for a specific build.

Witches Faction Quest

The Witches are one of several factions in Crimson Desert. Progressing through the Witches faction questline involves finding each witch and completing their associated Sanctum Challenges. Elowen's sanctums (Temperance, Absolution, Benediction, and Penitence) are the primary set that players encounter. All sanctum tasks can be tracked under Journal, then Faction Quests, in the Hernand Witches section.

These tasks involve clearing out the Antumbra hostiles that occupy several sanctums across Pywel. Completing all Sanctum Challenges across all witches is the key to unlocking the final reward.

Each witch rewards you with a Witch's Token upon completing her sanctum quests. Plenty of good gear and loot can be found along the way while doing sanctum quests, so tackling them as soon as possible provides an early power boost.

If you visit sanctums before triggering the Witch of Wisdom questline, the chests inside are fully accessible without any combat requirement. Once the questline activates, Antumbra enemies will guard the sanctums and the free loot window closes.

Sanctum Mechanics

Each sanctum follows a two-part structure: a liberation phase and a puzzle phase. Understanding these mechanics makes sanctum clearing much more efficient.

Liberation Phase

When you arrive at a sanctum, the area is overrun with Antumbra worshippers. You must defeat enough of them to fill a green liberation progress bar. The progress is persistent, so if you die during the fight you keep all your liberation progress and respawn at full health. This means you can let enemies kill you instead of consuming healing food, then come back and continue clearing. This is an efficient strategy for conserving resources during difficult sanctum fights.

Puzzle Phase

After clearing the enemies, you solve a puzzle to restore the sanctum's power device. The puzzle always involves finding one or two missing components: power cubes (also called Fusion Reactor Cores) that slot into the central unit, and pillar pieces (pillar tops) that go on the pillars surrounding the device. It is never more than one cube and one pillar piece at a single sanctum.

These components appear on your minimap when you are nearby, so you can tell whether a piece is below, above, or in a room next to you. A useful trick is that you can use the Kuku Pot to seal a cube or pillar wherever you find it (even while fighting), then unseal it at the puzzle location. This saves you from having to drag heavy objects across the sanctum. You can also grab cubes and pillars through grates and holes in the walls without having to reach the object's room directly.

Secret Chests

Nearly every sanctum contains a hidden treasure chest somewhere within its ruins. The exception is sanctums that feature a boss fight, which have the boss weapon as their main loot instead. These secret chests are usually behind iron grates or sealed doors and contain unique items tied to the region.

To reach the secret chests, look for these environmental clues:

• Lanterns: In most cases, light the two lanterns next to the iron grate (or adjacent to it) to open the sealed door.

• Cracked walls: Some chests are behind walls covered in green leaves. Look for a crack in the wall where you can see the chest. A lantern near the crack may need to be turned off rather than on.

• Breakable walls: The sanctums are crumbling ruins with many floors, walls, and ceilings that collapse when you interact with them. Use Force Palm on clearly outlined walls to spin through to hidden rooms.

• Collapsible floors: Pillars, cubes, and secret chests are sometimes found by dropping through floors or ceilings that give way when you step on them.

Sanctum Bosses

Three of the sanctums feature unique boss fights instead of standard enemy clears. Defeating each boss rewards a skill point and a unique boss weapon. These are some of the most challenging encounters in the witch questline.

The staff weapon from Antumbra's Staff comes with a crescent attack and a copy of Spirit Siphon, which generates spirit as you attack. This makes it an excellent offensive gear piece. The spear from Antumbra's Spear arrives pre-refined at level 4 and features the Warden of Darkness passive: when you finish off a weakened enemy, it causes an area-of-effect blast in four directions, making it strong for clearing groups.

After defeating a sanctum boss, you still need to complete the puzzle to fully restore the sanctum. The boss weapon may need to be picked up from the ground near the boss arena rather than being automatically added to your inventory.

Kuku Recipes from Sanctums

When you restore a sanctum's power device, you receive one or two Kuku recipes and blueprints as a reward. The Kuku Pot is unlocked during Chapter 4, and most of the unique Kuku recipes come from this witch questline. These include:

• Unique elemental weapon blueprints such as spears with fire or lightning properties.

• Specialized boots that grant movement benefits like running on water or swimming faster.

• Equipment providing elemental resistances (frost resistance and fire resistance are particularly useful for hot and cold regions).

• Utility items like a backpack that automatically collects insects as you walk, removing the need to gather them manually.

• The Enhanced Kuku Pot blueprint from the Sanctum of Absolution.

Many of these recipes require rare materials found in the southeastern region of Delissia, so they lean toward late-game crafting. However, acquiring the blueprints early means you can craft these items as soon as you gather the right resources.

The Fifth Witch: The White Crow

After completing all sanctum cleansing quests for every witch in Pywel, each witch gives you a Witch's Token as a reward. You need all four tokens (from Elowen, Bari, Lyselia, and Areciel) to unlock the door to the Wayward Woods Witch Hideout, a hidden location deep in the Wayward Woods area of Pailune. The location is revealed on your map once you have completed the four other faction quest lines.

Approach the sealed door and insert all four Witch's Tokens into their slots. Once the door opens, head inside to find the fifth and final witch: the White Crow. She thanks you for helping the other witches, tells you about your reward, and then departs. The White Crow is the same entity that sends the bird to deliver letters throughout the game, tying the entire witch questline together.

Rewards

The Wayward Woods Witch Hideout contains several rewards:

The hideout is built inside a large tree and is fully equipped with crafting and resting facilities. Once unlocked, it can serve as a private home base for players who want their own secluded location. The Icewing Plate Cloak's stats are modest, but it has a unique visual style. Much of the real reward from this questline comes from the journey itself: the blueprints, boss weapons, Kuku recipes, and skill points earned along the way.

Synthesis and Greater Abyss Gears

The witch questline is closely tied to the Abyss Gear synthesis system. When you visit the four witches, each of them offers roughly three blueprints for different Abyss Gears that you can then craft. The real power, however, comes from synthesizing these gears into higher tiers.

Standard Synthesis

Synthesis works by combining two identical Abyss Gears of the same type and tier to produce a single gear of the next tier. For example, two level 1 Destruction gears become one level 2 Destruction gear. Two level 2 gears become one level 3 gear. Level 3 is the highest permanent tier.

The stat differences between tiers are significant. A tier 1 gear might provide +0.1 spirit per second, while a tier 3 version of the same gear provides +0.3. Similarly, movement speed scales from level 1 to level 3 with noticeable impact on gliding, running, and general traversal.

Special Synthesis (RNG Crafting)

An alternative crafting method is special synthesis, which lets you throw any two Abyss Gears into the system regardless of type. The result is a random new gear, often one tier above the inputs. This is the primary way to obtain Greater Abyss Gears (effectively tier 4 gears). The chance of producing a Greater gear from special synthesis is roughly 4%, meaning you should expect about 25 attempts on average.

A useful technique is to save your game before performing special synthesis, then reload if you do not get the result you want. This allows you to reroll the same two unwanted gears repeatedly until you produce a Greater version or the specific stat you need.

Greater Abyss Gears

Greater Abyss Gears provide ten times the value of a tier 1 gear. A tier 1 gear that offers a 4% damage increase becomes a 40% damage increase at the Greater tier. The power is enormous, but there is a trade-off: Greater gears have durability. Once you equip a Greater gear, it begins to degrade through use and will eventually break and be lost.

Because of the durability limitation, Greater gears should be saved for specific challenges rather than used as everyday equipment. Equip them before a difficult boss fight, a tough sanctum, or a PvP encounter, then swap back to your permanent tier 3 gears for general exploration.

Abyss Cell Farming

Crafting Abyss Gears requires Abyss Cells as a key material. The best-known farming location is Drakefall Castle, which is southeast of Pailune, just north of the Queen Spider fight area.

The castle is full of Bismuth Oreback Crabs, which drop Bismuth Ore, Abyss Cells, and occasionally Abyss Gears when killed. The crabs disguise themselves as metallic rocks on the ground and reveal themselves when hit with Force Palm. This is an infinite respawn location: you can kill a batch of crabs, leave the area, and return to find them respawned.

Important: Leave the large crab and a few small ones alive. If you kill too many, Hernand soldiers move into the area and the crabs stop respawning. Save your game before each clearing run so you can reload if the soldiers appear. Be careful with area-of-effect attacks to avoid accidentally over-killing.

You can expect roughly 6 to 10 Abyss Cells per full clear of the area. A recent patch added an Abyss Nexus fast travel point inside the castle, making the farming loop much more convenient.

Tips and Recommendations

• Sylvia is the easiest witch to find since her quest triggers automatically during normal progression.

• Elowen offers the most comprehensive services among the witches, including a cauldron for alchemy and the ability to buy recipes. Use her as your primary crafting hub.

• Bari requires no quest to trigger; simply finding and warming her disguised form is enough to reveal her location.

• Each witch's true home has an Abyss Nexus fast travel point nearby, making return visits convenient.

• All witches provide the same core services of embedding, extracting, and creating Abyss Core sockets. Use whichever witch is easiest to reach for routine operations.

• It is highly recommended to find and unlock all witches as soon as possible. The blueprints and accessories they sell provide a significant early-game power boost.

• All four main witches (Elowen, Bari, Lyselia, Areciel) can be discovered at the beginning of the game, even before the story naturally sends you to their regions. Explore early for maximum advantage.

• Areciel is the most important witch for damage builds. Prioritize completing other witches' sanctums so she appears at her home.

• For mining and gathering minerals needed for Abyss Gear crafting materials (such as Azurite and Garnet), explore the regions around each witch's location since they often have resource nodes nearby.

• When building for defense, combine Lyselia's Fortification (defense +3) and Aegis (damage reduction 1.0) on your armor and shield for maximum survivability.

• For the best offensive setup, pair Areciel's Destruction (attack power) with Bari's Swift (attack speed) on your weapon.

• Buy all blueprints and learn them every time you visit a new witch. Also purchase the skill point from each witch for a total of four extra skill points across the questline.

• When liberating sanctums, do not waste food on healing. Let enemies kill you and respawn. You keep all liberation progress and come back at full health.

• Use the Kuku Pot to seal cubes and pillar pieces wherever you find them, then unseal them at the puzzle device. This avoids having to drag heavy objects through the sanctum.

• Save your Greater Abyss Gears for tough boss fights and challenging content. Their durability means they will eventually break, so treat them as consumable power boosts rather than permanent equipment.

See Also

• Sanctum Challenges

• Witches of Pywel

• Abyss Gear

• Abyss Cores

• Abyss Core Synthesis Guide

• Kuku Iron Pot

• Best Abyss Gears Guide

• Sanctums

• Antumbra's Sword

• Antumbra's Staff

• Antumbra's Spear

• Sealed Abyss Artifact Locations

• Abyss Island Puzzle Solutions