Crimson Desert Garden of Trials Bosses and Rewards

The Garden of Trials in Crimson Desert’s Charting the Unknown DLC unlocks after completing the main story and offers ten groups of returning bosses to defeat. Clearing individual challenges unlocks Ascended Skills, while completing all ten earns the legendary Lumen Longsword.

Each group contains three encounters, with a break between fights so you can prepare before starting the next round. Choose your early challenges around the upgrades you want, whether that means cheaper elemental attacks, more efficient flight or improvements to your favourite combat skills.

If you are returning after a break, our Charting the Unknown preparation guide covers story progress and getting your characters ready.

Complete the main story through Journey’s End, then travel to the Axiom Archive in the Abyss.

Approach the main building and take the corridor on its right towards the annex. This leads to the trial selection area, where Abyss cubes let you choose different boss groups.

To begin a challenge:

• Approach a cube and check the challenge name.
• Inspect the holograms to see the enemies associated with that group.
• Interact with the cube to travel to the arena.
• Go through the door and activate the cube inside to begin the first fight.

After defeating a boss, the next encounter waits until you interact with another cube. Use this pause to recover and prepare before continuing.

Food cannot be used for recovery inside the Garden of Trials, so your equipment, defensive timing and recovery effects matter throughout each challenge.

Bring upgraded weapons and armour, then build your Abyss Gear setup around attacks you regularly use. For example, a Turning Slash setup benefits from effects that support the skill and complement your chosen element.

You can tackle the trials with Kliff, Damiane or Oongka. Bring your companions before entering and arrange their battle order so another character can continue if your active fighter falls.

Before starting, prioritise:

• A focused damage setup. Equip effects that strengthen your main attacks instead of spreading your build across unrelated skills.
• Reliable recovery. Health-regenerating Abyss Gear helps you sustain through encounters without food.
• Spirit recovery between rounds. Use Focus during the pauses before activating the next fight.
• Prepared backup characters. Upgrade their equipment so they can contribute if your first character is defeated.

For additional equipment options, our hidden weapons and gear guide covers rewards available across the expansion.

Start with challenges that improve the abilities you use most. You do not need to follow the list below as a fixed route.

Three useful early targets are:

• Marni’s Relics for Ascended Elements, which reduces the Spirit cost of attacks imbued with an element.
• Harbingers of Death for Ascended Flight, which reduces the Stamina cost of maintaining flight.
• Ironbound Warriors for Ascended Turning Slash and its corresponding upgrades for Damiane and Oongka.

Unarmed builds should also prioritise Earth Shattering Beasts, which unlocks Regeneration for recovering Health and Spirit through successful unarmed attacks.

If your goal is the Lumen Longsword, you will eventually need to complete every group.

Bosses: Staglord, White Bearclaw and Cassius Morten.

These encounters reward consistent parries and straightforward weapon combinations. Use Focus to help time your defence, then punish openings with your main damage skills.

This is a useful early challenge if your build revolves around Turning Slash or one of its equivalents.

Skill reward — Ascended Turning Slash

Reduces the Spirit cost of Turning Slash. The corresponding upgrades also unlock for Damiane’s Smiting Strike and Oongka’s Quaking Fury.

Bosses: Kailok the Hornsplitter, Sizlek the Insatiable and Master Du.

Use Focus and well-timed parries against the first two enemies. Master Du requires more patience because his mobility makes it harder to maintain pressure.

Build his Stun gauge, then commit to your strongest attacks while he is vulnerable. This gives you a more reliable damage window than repeatedly chasing him between attacks.

Skill reward — Ascended Evasive Roll

Reduces the Spirit cost of Evasive Roll, making repeated evasive manoeuvres easier to sustain.

Bosses: Kearush the Slayer, White Horn and Ogre.

Fire is useful throughout this group. Set enemies burning to create openings, use perfect evades to move around them and interrupt attacks with Force Palm when possible.

Against the Ogre, prioritise perfect evades around its slams. Reposition behind it and punish the recovery instead of relying on parries against every attack.

After applying fire, switching to ice can help slow the Ogre and make the fight easier to control.

Skill reward — Regeneration

Successful unarmed attacks restore Health and Spirit. This makes the challenge particularly valuable for builds that regularly use unarmed combat.

Bosses: Awakened Ludvig, Awakened Lucian Bastier and Lava Myurdin.

This group uses the bosses’ final forms, so you face those encounters without replaying their earlier phases.

Adjust your approach for each enemy:

• Awakened Ludvig: Use Focus and Flurry Shot to build Stun while he teleports or channels attacks at range.
• Awakened Lucian Bastier: Use Focus to help parry attacks following his teleportation.
• Lava Myurdin: Use ice attacks to exploit his vulnerability and maintain pressure.

Save your strongest combinations for Stun windows, especially when an enemy’s movement makes sustained attacks difficult.

Skill reward — Ascended Blinding Flash Finisher

Allows certain Abyss Gear effects to apply to Blinding Flash Finisher. The corresponding improvements affect Damiane’s Reckoning and Oongka’s Devastation.

Bosses: Giath, Fortain the Cursed Knight and Antumbra’s Sword.

Focus-assisted parries are effective across this group, particularly against Antumbra’s Sword.

During the Fortain encounter, move around or jump past the illusions to reach the boss behind them. Avoid letting the apparitions keep you occupied while Fortain remains out of reach.

Skill reward — Ascended Forward Slash

Reduces the Stamina cost of Forward Slash, making it easier to maintain heavy-attack pressure and build Stun between your other skills.

Bosses: Reed Devil, Crowcaller and Hexe Marie.

Parries are useful against Reed Devil and Crowcaller. Against Hexe Marie, make use of Nature’s Snare to catch incoming projectiles and send them back.

Returned projectiles help create Stun opportunities. Once she is vulnerable, close the distance and use your strongest attacks to take advantage of the opening.

Skill reward — Ascended Flight

Reduces the Stamina cost of maintaining flight. The benefit also applies to Damiane’s glider and Oongka’s jetpack, making this a useful unlock beyond combat.

Bosses: Raging Tempest, Bradie Gu and Mazzul.

Bring your established combat setup and focus on preserving resources across the three encounters. Use the pauses between rounds to recover Spirit before starting the next fight.

This group is especially relevant if Lariat is part of your regular unarmed or grappling combinations.

Skill reward — Ascended Lariat

Reduces Lariat’s resource cost, helping you use it more efficiently during combat.

Bosses: Marni’s Clockwork Mantis, Mechanicus and Dreadnought.

Ice is useful against this group because freezing or slowing the enemies makes their attacks easier to manage.

Control their movement, then use the openings to apply your main damage combination. This is a worthwhile early challenge for builds that regularly imbue attacks with elemental effects.

Skill reward — Ascended Elements

Reduces the Spirit cost of element-imbued attacks. If elemental damage is central to your build, this upgrade helps you sustain those attacks for longer.

Bosses: Walter Lanford, the Crimson Warden and Samara the Sandwatcher.

Against the Crimson Warden and Samara, use Nature’s Snare to deal with their projectile attacks.

Create openings with Force Palm, interruptions and Stun, then close in with your main damage skills. Keeping them under pressure limits the time they have to control the fight from range.

Skill reward — Ascended Evasive Slash

Allows Evasive Slash to be chained from another skill, giving you more opportunities to use its backward-dodging strike within your combinations.

Bosses: Gwen Kraber, Half Moon Reaper and Antumbra’s Spear.

Use Focus to help land parries, then follow successful defensive actions with heavy weapon combinations.

Force Palm can create additional openings through interruptions. Keep your attacks controlled so you can respond when the enemy recovers.

Skill reward — Ascended Stab

Shortens the attack’s charge time, making it easier to fit into openings during combat.

Complete all ten Garden of Trials groups to earn the Lumen Longsword.

This legendary two-handed weapon has a glowing blade and is separate from the one-handed Lumen Sword found in underwater ruins.

If you want to collect that weapon as well, our Lumen Sword location guide explains how to reach its hidden chest.

Finishing the final trial completes your Garden of Trials challenge, giving you the Lumen Longsword alongside the skill upgrades earned from each group.