Crimson Desert: Garden of Trials Guide (Unlock, Rules, Rewards and the Lumen Longsword)

30-second quick start (TL;DR)

• Unlock: complete Journey’s End. The faction quest Garden of Trials: At the Threshold of a New Ordeal takes you there.
• Location: the Abyss, near the Axiom Archive. The HUD reads Abyss, Garden of Trials once you are in.
• Format: 10 groups, each a pedestal with its bosses frozen on it. Examine one to warp into that fight. Any order.
• Team: up to three heroes in a chosen order, or solo. A fallen hero hands over to the next.
• No food. Bring potions, pills and healing gear instead, and a defence-heavy build.
• Rewards: a skill enhancement per group, Abyss Artifacts, some Abyss gear and skills, and the Lumen Longsword after all ten.
• Difficulty: lowering it is allowed and speeds the clear. Nobody has found a reward difference.

What this guide helps you do

The Garden of Trials is Charting the Unknown’s boss gauntlet: a run of bosses from across Pywel, fought back to back, with the one recovery tool everyone leans on, food, switched off. This guide covers how to unlock and reach it, how the three-hero relay works, what each cleared group gives you, what the final reward actually is, and how players who cleared it on launch night approached it. It also lists plainly what Pearl Abyss has not published, such as the full list of groups.

It is post-ending content. If you have not finished the main story, see what the DLC unlocks before the credits, because most of it does not need Journey’s End.

Requirements and prep

The official line: the Garden “becomes available after completing Journey’s End from the main story, and features a total of 10 groups” to challenge, and it “is located near the Axiom Archive Abyss”. The quest that leads you there is listed in the Journal as Garden of Trials: At the Threshold of a New Ordeal.

Because food cannot be used for recovery, the preparation is unusual for Crimson Desert. Stock potions and max-health pills, equip healing-on-hit gear such as Health Siphon, and bring the highest-defence set each hero owns rather than the highest attack. Fill every Abyss gear slot. If you have the Enhanced update’s skill reset options, use them to give each hero a survival build before you go in.

Choose the hero order deliberately. The first hero takes the opening fights while you are learning each group; the third is your closer, so put the character whose build you trust most last. Oongka’s Scatter Shot and Damiane’s Shield Toss both got faster startups in 2.04.00, which helps in a gauntlet.

How a run works

Inside, the Garden is a set of ten pedestals, each holding a group of bosses frozen in blue. The one players have photographed is labelled Earth-Shattering Beasts and carries three bosses: a horned white beast, a large furred brute and an ice golem. Examine a pedestal and you warp into the arena for that group. There is no fixed order; pick any pedestal that is lit.

You enter with up to three heroes in the order you set, or with one. The bosses come one after another. If the active hero is defeated, the next hero in your order steps in and the fight continues where it left off. When all three fall, the group resets. Food is blocked, but other consumables and gear effects work.

Clearing a group “enhances one of your existing skills” in the official wording, and hands out Abyss Artifacts, with some Abyss gear and unlearned skills among the drops. Players have not yet mapped which skill each group upgrades. After the tenth group, the final reward is simply lying on the ground: no cutscene, pick it up and leave.

Step-by-step: clearing the Garden

Tick these off as you go. Your progress stays on this device.

1. 1Mark step 1 done

   Finish Journey’s End

   The Garden only appears after the final main quest. The faction quest Garden of Trials: At the Threshold of a New Ordeal then shows in the Journal.

2. 2Mark step 2 done

   Rebuild each hero for survival

   Highest defence set, Health Siphon or similar healing gear, potions and max-health pills in the quick slots. Skip food entirely; it will not work inside.

3. 3Mark step 3 done

   Set your hero order

   Learner first, strongest last. The third hero finishes fights the first two softened up.

4. 4Mark step 4 done

   Travel to the Axiom Archive Abyss

   Follow the quest marker into the Abyss near the Axiom Archive until the HUD reads Garden of Trials.

5. 5Mark step 5 done

   Examine a lit pedestal

   Start with a group whose bosses you know. Earth-Shattering Beasts is one of the ten; it holds three beasts you have fought before.

6. 6Mark step 6 done

   Fight the group back to back

   Heal between bosses with potions, not food. If a hero falls, the next continues; use the swap to reset the camera and pick up your rhythm.

7. 7Mark step 7 done

   Collect the group reward

   Take the Abyss Artifacts and check your skill list for the enhancement. Apply any new Abyss gear before the next pedestal.

8. 8Mark step 8 done

   Clear all ten

   If a pedestal stays dark, leave and hunt that group’s bosses in the open world, then return.

9. 9Mark step 9 done

   Pick up the Lumen Longsword

   It lies on the ground after the final group. The achievement Trial by flower pops at the same time.

Rewards: what the Lumen Longsword is

The sword’s base attack of 25 is modest, and the player who first posted it had not yet found the new materials that refine it. Treat it as a cosmetic trophy with room to grow rather than an instant upgrade. Mount and pet equipment is new in the DLC but comes from the wider update, not from the Garden.

The other new bosses, and Memory Fragments

The patch notes also add “several powerful bosses” to the world, “some of them available for a rematch using Memory Fragments”. That rematch system is for these open-world bosses, not for the Garden’s groups. The ones players have found so far: harpy boss lairs that drop Crude Gold Bars by the stack, a trained-up Matthias in Kliff’s post-ending quest Beyond the Margins, with the Greymane Apprentice Combat Armor and Matthias himself as a comrade for winning, T’rukan at Jijeong Temple, the pirate ship The Siren’s Cry off Samora Island, a kraken at Rocky Reef and a ghost ship in the Silent Sea.

Troubleshooting and common mistakes

• Mistake: Walking in with a food-based healing plan. Fix: Food is blocked. Potions, pills and healing gear only.
• Mistake: One pedestal will not activate. Fix: Players believe you must have fought that group’s bosses in the world first. Go find them and come back.
• Mistake: Putting your best hero first. Fix: The last hero in the order is the closer. Put the strongest build there.
• Mistake: Expecting a cutscene or chest at the end. Fix: The Lumen Longsword lies on the ground. Look down before you leave.
• Mistake: Grinding Hard for a better reward. Fix: Nobody has found a difficulty bonus. Normal is faster for the same sword.
• Mistake: Trying to rematch a Garden group with Memory Fragments. Fix: Fragments rematch the new open-world bosses, not the Garden.

FAQ