Crimson Desert Abyss Link: Skills After Patch 2.00

Abyss Link is the new skill-learning resource Pearl Abyss added to Crimson Desert in patch 2.00.00, the Crimson Desert Enhanced update released August 25, 2026, and it changes two things players had been stuck with since launch: a shared skill pool and an all-or-nothing reset. Spending Abyss Artifacts on one character now grants an equivalent number of Abyss Links to the other playable characters, and resets happen per character instead of wiping the whole roster at once. This guide covers what Abyss Link actually is, how the new reset and refund work, what carries into a new save, what’s confirmed about Kliff’s 8 new skills, and what Pearl Abyss still hasn’t said.

Abyss Link is described in the 2.00.00 patch notes as a new skill-learning resource: when a character uses Abyss Artifacts to learn a skill, an equivalent number of Abyss Links is granted to the other playable characters. The skill system in Crimson Desert covers three playable characters, Kliff, Oongka, and Damiane, and before this patch Abyss Artifacts were the resource spent per character to unlock skills. Abyss Link sits on top of that system rather than replacing Abyss Artifacts outright — you still spend Artifacts to learn a skill on the character you’re playing, but the other two characters now bank an equivalent amount as Links they can spend on their own trees.

The site’s earlier Abyss guide for entering with Oongka and Damiane, written against patch 1.13, covers where Abyss Artifacts themselves come from — that farm hasn’t changed with 2.00.00, only what happens to the Artifacts once you spend them.

Before 2.00.00, resetting skills meant resetting every character’s tree simultaneously. That’s gone: skill progression can now be reset individually for each character instead of being reset for all characters at once, and each character can use their own Abyss Links to learn skills. When you reset one character, the Abyss Links used by that individual character are refunded, so you’re not burning resources permanently by experimenting with a build.

How to reset one character in the menu

Open the Skills menu from the pause screen, switch to the character you want to rebuild, and use Reset All in the bottom-right corner (hold the prompt on a controller). Before 2.00.00 each reset consumed one Faded Abyss Artifact and the 2.00.00 notes do not say that cost changed — the confirmation dialog lists what the reset will take and return, so read it before confirming. Two limits from the same walkthrough: you cannot reset a single node, only a whole tree, and skills learned by observing them in action are not reset. Source: Game8, How to Respec Skills (updated 21 March 2026, pre-2.00 menu); the per-character split and the Link refund are from the 2.00.00 notes. Not yet re-checked by us in the 2.02.00 client.

On top of that ongoing per-character reset, there was a one-time event tied to the update itself. With the addition of Abyss Link, all existing skill progression was reset the first time the game was launched after the update, and any resources previously used to learn skills, including Abyss Artifacts, were refunded. A press writeup of the patch confirms this plays out as an on-screen notification the first time you log in post-update, showing your skill points reset and spent materials returned.

Patch 2.00.00 also added a feature that lets you carry over Abyss Links and other in-game currency from an existing save file when starting a new game. That’s gated, though: the feature is only available after completing all main quests on the save you’re carrying from. If you haven’t finished the main story yet, starting a new game won’t have anything to pull forward. Pearl Abyss’s own notes don’t spell out every currency type covered beyond Abyss Links and the general phrase “other in-game currency,” and at least one press guide covering the patch flags that the full list isn’t itemized anywhere official. Treat “other in-game currency” as exactly that until you see it confirmed on your own carried-over save — the notes don’t name equipment, quest items, or anything beyond currency as part of the transfer.

The patch notes confirm 8 new skills were added for Kliff, and that they become available after reaching a certain point in the main story. That’s the entire official description — no story chapter, quest name, or level requirement is given anywhere in Pearl Abyss’s own text.

What community wikis report

Third-party wikis tracking the live game list specific skill names for Kliff’s new additions, including abilities like Water Stride and Enhanced Flight among others, but these come from wiki and press observation of the in-game skill tree, not from the patch notes themselves.

What is and is not confirmed about the names

Pearl Abyss’s 2.00.00 notes do not list the eight. One Kliff skill name does appear officially: the 2.02.00 notes fix a chaining issue for Descending Force Palm after Aerial Force Palm — without saying whether it is one of the new eight. The community list (Fextralife, read 17 September 2026) is the only source for the rest, and the main-story gate is not named anywhere official; we have not yet confirmed either in the 2.02.00 client.

Combat and traversal got one small but concrete change: Bilwise will now reward you with Double Jump during the quest “Unexpected Gift.” A press summary of the patch frames this as removing a resource cost that existed before — previously Double Jump had to be bought with a skill point, and now it’s handed to you as a quest reward instead. Practically, that means one fewer decision to make about where to spend your Abyss Artifacts early on, since Double Jump no longer competes with other early skills for the same currency.

Per-character respec changes how you can approach gear. Because resetting one character no longer touches the other two, and because the Abyss Links that character spent come back, you can test a Damiane or Oongka build against a specific armor set without worrying about wiping Kliff’s tree in the process. The site’s 1.13.00 equipment guide documents the boss and standard gear sets available for each character, and pairing that with a free per-character reset is the practical way to figure out which skills actually complement a given set rather than guessing. If your build leans on animation timing rather than raw skill picks, the site’s animation cancel and heavy attack recovery guide covers the combat-side half of that equation.

Two different refunds, not one: an ordinary reset returns the Abyss Links that character spent; the one-time reset at the first launch after 2.00.00 was the only event that returned every previously spent resource, Abyss Artifacts included. Redistribution afterward is manual, one character at a time — anyone rebuilding three trees around a specific armor set from the equipment guide above is doing that legwork by hand.

For armor and set pieces specifically, the site’s Crimson Desert armor sets shelf lays out what’s currently available if you’re shopping for a set to build a respec around.

Two specifics sit outside the official notes. The main-story point that unlocks Kliff’s 8 new skills is not named. The full list of the eight is not printed either — one name, Descending Force Palm, appears in the 2.02.00 notes as a fixed skill, without a statement that it is new. On the Link mechanic itself there is no open question: spending a number of Abyss Artifacts on one character grants the other two a matching number of Abyss Links. Patches 2.01.00 and 2.02.00, released September 4 and September 11, 2026, are bug-fix patches and change nothing about Abyss Link or the reset. None of this is the same system as the paid Charting the Unknown DLC releasing October 15, 2026 — that’s a separate paid expansion, not part of the free Enhanced update this article covers.

Sources and Confidence

This table separates what the studio has confirmed from what comes out of press previews, and what is still just circulating. Each claim below is tied to the post and the game version it describes.