You’ll start getting Abyss Gears in Crimson Desert after you complete Sealed Abyss Artifact challenges, and it’s obvious from their description that they’re supposed to add buffs to weapons and armour when you slot them in. You’ll actually find a couple of weapons that already have gears like the Sword of the Lord from Hornsplitter.
That won’t help with the ones that you can’t slot yet, though, so here’s how to unlock that feature so you can add gear slots, swap them around, and buff your gear.
How to use Abyss Gears in Crimson Desert
You’ll unlock the Witch faction during Chapter 3 (Image credit: Pearl Abyss)
Though you can earn Abyss Gears through Sealed Abyss Artifact challenges, you won’t be able to use any of them until Chapter 3’s main quest, after you unlock the Witch’s Lair vendor. During the chapter, you’ll unlock the Witch of Wisdom faction quest, and have to head to the Witchwoods to rescue a young woman. She’ll invite you to her house—turns out she’s a witch.
Witches let you do a variety of stuff with Abyss Gears. You can:
Pay to add core slots to weapons and armourRemove and add Abyss Gears from gearCraft Abyss Gears with any recipes you’ve found
The fact you can remove gears from other weapons means you can take Wind Slash from the Sword of the Lord you got from Hornsplitter and put it on something else. The same with the Reed Devil‘s gauntlets. It’s worth keeping a lookout for rarer, more powerful Abyss Gears on weapons, because you can always take them out and add them to what you’re actually using instead, or move them between gear as you swap.
You can slot, extract, and craft cores at the Witch’s Lair vendor (Image credit: Pearl Abyss)
One thing I would be careful with, though, is selling Contribution gear with Abyss Cores slotted back to the Contribution Shop. I’d make sure to remove all my Abyss Gears from armour before I do this to avoid potentially losing them.
Crimson Desert characters: Unlock each
Crimson Desert respec: Swap your skills
How to steal in Crimson Desert: Pilfer some loot
How to get pets in Crimson Desert: Furry friends
How to tame horses in Crimson Desert: Mount up
How to fast travel in Crimson Desert: Going places
