The final stretch of the Forbidden Knowledge quest in Chapter 4 sees you solving a puzzle to scale the Spire of the Stars in Crimson Desert, and it’s easier said than done. Unless you take a moment to look for the clues yourself, it’s not immediately clear what you’re expected to do, making it easy to end up staring at a wall of glowing symbols, trying to make sense of it.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through all the necessary steps to solve the puzzle so you can continue your climb up the Spire of the Stars in Crimson Desert.

Spire of the Stars Puzzle Location in Crimson Desert

Right after beating Tenebrum, the objective updates to: Go to the Spire of the Stars, during the said quest.

To reach the spire, take the stairs north from the boss arena to enter a large building. Hug the right side to enter a dining hall, then continue east to find another set of stairs. Taking these stairs will lead you up to the Spire of the Stars in the Scholastone Institute.

How to Climb the Spire of the Stars in Crimson Desert

To solve the puzzle and climb the Spire of the Stars, here’s what you need to do:

1. Insert the Spire of the Stars key you obtain from Dean Grundir into the front door of the spire to access it.

2. Inside the puzzle room, there are three chambers. In the central chamber, you will find a wall with eight plates arranged in four columns, each column bearing the same glowing symbol. On the bottom row, three plates are missing an engraved stone, except for the one with the circle symbol, which is already there.

3. To find the missing engraved stones, head into the east and west wings. In each wing, use Force Palm on the protruding contraptions on the glowing walls to retrieve the engraved stones.

4. While collecting the stones, you will also notice a mural on each wall in the left and right chambers. The murals act as your clues, showing the plates aligned vertically across four notches.

5. Return to the main puzzle area and insert the three stones into the bottom plates. Kliff will automatically place them correctly, so there is no risk of inserting the wrong one. Doing so lifts the upper plates all the way up to the uppermost notch.

6. Once they stop moving, climb up and hang from each plate’s handle to drag them down with your weight to the correct notch, matching the murals on both sides.

7. After that, the hourglass symbol should already be at the topmost notch, while the circle is already correctly placed by default. You only need to lower the square to the bottom notch and position the triangle in the second notch from the bottom.

Note: If you mess up a plate’s positioning, you can reset it by bringing it all the way down and using Force Palm on the corresponding lower plate that juts out.

For solving the puzzle, you’ll activate the spire’s circular elevator. Riding it will take you to a staircase that leads to the Obsession and Madness Abyss gate.