This guide will show you what the Plate Armor of the Shadows set looks like (and it makes you look like Sauron), what unique benefits it provides, and how to get it in Crimson Desert!
Appearance
The Plate Armor of the Shadows set is obtainable by all players in Crimson Desert and features pitch-black plate with a Louboutin-style red accents, along with Sauron’s signature pointy helmet-crown.
We like to call this one “the Sauron set”, because it involves defeating one of the three Overwhelming Beings in Crimson Desert.
The crown (helm) of the Frostcursed Plate Armor set is more in line with Sauron’s helmet and crown, but when it comes to “ultimate evil” in Crimson Desert, you can’t go wrong by picking Beloth.
With some custom dye job, you can make it pure black or black and shades of gray.
Sauron is the main antagonist in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. His ambition to rule over Middle-earth fuels his actions. He is the creator of the magic rings as well as The One Ring (“to rule them all”).
Stats
The Plate Armor of the Shadows set consists of 10 fully upgradeable pieces and is wearable by Kliff only.
As Plate Armor, it features maximum Defense and high raw unarmed Attack Power. Its helmet features a unique Skill that creates a blizzard and its cloak is the best in the game by offering supreme Fire Resistance.
Plate Helm of the Shadows Stats
Defense: 2 → 21
Daze Immunity
Glacial Domain (Skill)
Abyss Gear Sockets:
Included Gear:
Fortification I
Plate Armor of the Shadows Stats
Defense: 4 → 41
Abyss Gear Sockets:
Included Gears:
Heart of Stone
Fortification I
Vigor I
Plate Cloak of the Shadows Stats
Defense: 0 → 12
Fire Resistance Lv 7
Plate Gloves of the Shadows Stats
Defense: 0 → 17
Attack: 12 → 36
Abyss Gear Sockets:
Included Gears:
Ascent I
Surge I
Plate Boots of the Shadows Stats
Defense: 4 → 21
Attack: 10 → 34
Lightning Resistance Lv 1
Critical Rate Lv 1 → 2 → 3
Movement Speed Lv 1 3 → 4
Abyss Gear Sockets:
Included Gears:
Aptitude I
Ascent I
Vow of the Dead King Two-Handed Weapon Stats
Attack: 12 → 35
Critical Rate Lv 3 → 4
Abyss Gear Slots:
Included Gears:
Bloodbane I
Primalbane I
Malicebane I
Mace of Resolve One-Handed Weapon Stats
Attack: 13 → 37
Abyss Gear Slots:
Included Gears:
None
Seal of Pitch-Black Darkness Ring Stats
Attack: 0 → 3
Attack Speed Lv 0 → 3
Stamina Regen Rate: +0 → 8%
Mark of Darkness Ring Stats
Attack: 0 → 3
Attack Speed Lv 0 → 4
Stamina Regen Rate: +0 → 6%
Relic of Darkness Necklace Stats
Attack: 0 → 5
Critical Rate Lv 0 → 3
Spirit Regen: +0 → 0.4/s
Acquisition
You can obtain the Plate Armor of the Shadows set from different locations, mostly spread across Hernand and Demeniss, but some pieces will be difficult to get until late game.
Plate Helm of the Shadows Location
You can pick up the Plate Helm of the Shadows after defeating Beloth, the Darksworn, at Hoenmark Ruins in the western Everfrost mountains of Hernand. The location will be marked on your map.
You’ll also get the rest of the armor set at this time, save for the Cloak, but you can find the rest of the pieces elsewhere and access them much sooner than when you can actually defeat Beloth.
Plate Armor of the Shadows Location
You can loot the Plate Armor of the Shadows from a chest at Everfrost Watchtower, north of the river near Hoenmark Ruins, in western Hernand. There’s a Torch you need to light nearby that will open the gate.
Plate Cloak of the Shadows Location
You can loot the Plate Cloak of the Shadows from a chest on the west side of Hoenmark Ruins in the Everfrost mountains of western Hernand.
It’s safer and easier to do this after you’ve defeated Beloth, but there’s nothing that completely prevents you from getting it sooner.
To enter the chamber with the chest, you’ll need to open a trap door on the floor above by using Force Palm while Crouched and Resisting.
Plate Gloves of the Shadows Location
You can loot the Plate Gloves of the Shadows from Everfrost Cave, slightly south of the river flowing into the Everfrost mountains on the western edge of Hernand.
The cave is covered in ice, making it difficult to enter and exit. You may want to teleport out if you’re struggling.
Plate Boots of the Shadows Location
You can loot the Plate Boots of the Shadows from Frostclaw Cave, a waterfall cave along the Nas River that flows into the Everfrost in southern Hernand.
Vow of the Dead King Location
Beloth, the Darksworn, wields a Halberd called Vow of the Dead King, which you can find on an altar in Frostveiled Castle Ruins, in the mountains south of Ashclaw Keep in central Pailune.
Sauron Mace Location
Sauron is depicted wielding a black mace, and while it’s not technically affiliated with Beloth, the one that best matches his and the Plate Armor of the Shadows is the Mace of Resolve.
You can steal the Mace of Resolve from the Musket First Outpost in the northeast corner of Demeniss. It’s leaning up against a stack of crates between a map and the fence on the east side of the outpost.
There are conflicting reports about how early you can get this weapon, but you don’t have cause to visit this location until Chapter X: Counterattack.
The Mace is a One-Handed Weapon and Sauron is not depicted using a weapon in his other hand, so it’s up to you how you want to play that.
We highly recommend hiding your Bow and Shield while not in use, but the Drake Shield and its fire breath Draconic Retribution Skill might be your best bet. You loot it from the boss at Fire Knight Castle in Demeniss.
Accessories Locations
We can’t forget about the One Ring to Rule Them All! Unfortunately, all of Crimson Desert’s offerings are bulkier and more elaborate than the Precious, but there are a couple solid matches and they have fitting names.
We’ve also identified the best Necklace to use with this set. Sauron doesn’t wear a Necklace and you can’t hide it like you can hide your helmet.
Seal of Pitch-Black Darkness
The Seal of Pitch-Black Darkness is probably the closest visual match to the One Ring. You receive it for defeating Ator, the Archon of Antumbra, at the Cloister of Ruination in the western mountains of Pailune.
Ator, the Archon of Antumbra, is another Overwhelming Being. You can’t fight him here until you’ve defeated Antumbra’s Sword, Staff, and Spear, but if you can beat Beloth, you can definitely beat Ator.
Mark of Darkness Location
You can loot the Mark of Darkness from a Strongbox on the second floor of Windmere Manor, south of Tariv, in Demeniss.
Press the tiles to rotate them until you get a complete picture of a whale breaching.
Relic of Darkness Location
You can steal the Relic of Darkness from a Strongbox behind a secret passage bookshelf at an unmarked house on the Eastern Hills of Delesyia, south of the train tracks.
Just walk into the bookshelf beneath the staircase on the main level and you’ll automatically push through. Light the sconces when you enter. It’s dark inside.
The number of turns from left to right is 6 → 5 → 4 → 3 → 2. Just count the number of times the thumb moves from the bottom of the dial back to the top.
Sauron Earrings Location
The Earrings will be covered by the Plate Helm of the Shadows, so you can just keep using whatever you’ve already invested all those Abyss Artifacts into.
Tips for Beloth, the Darksworn
Beloth, the Darksworn, is considered an Overwhelming Being, making him one of the top 3 most powerful enemies in the game.
He’s not very complicated from a mechanical standpoint. He doesn’t have very many attacks, he just hits like a truck and has a ton of HP.
Ignore the Torches
There are a whole bunch of unlit torches around Hoenmark Ruins. They do provide protection from the blizzard, but you have to be standing right next to them, and none are inside the actual boss arena.
More importantly, each lit torch summons a flying wraith enemy that blasts you from the sky. You can defeat them quickly with Blinding Flash, but when you get a lot of them, they can overwhelm you.
We aren’t sure if something happens if you light all the torches, but there’s no quest objective associated with them and there are so many that it would be difficult to tell if you truly got them all.
How to Stop Getting Constantly Frozen
The only real tricky thing about Beloth, the Darksworn is the surrounding blizzard, which reduces visibility, freezes you in place, and makes you take damage over time.
You can completely prevent these negative effects and make yourself completely immune to cold weather by getting Lv 15 Ice Resistance.
You could just stack an Ice Resistance Food buff with Frostward III and a Cloth Cloak, but you’ll take more damage with Cloth Armor, have to manage a buff that probably won’t last the whole fight, and sacrifice combat proficiency by using a bunch of Abyss Gears.
The best way to do make yourself immune to Ice is by wearing the Frostcursed Plate set, or at least the Kuku Ice-Resistant Armor and Froscursed Plate Cloak, which give you that combined Lv 15 Ice Resistance.
Make Proper Preparations
Aside from getting Lv 15 Ice Resistance, we recommend making the following preparations before fighting Beloth, the Darksworn:
- Refine and use a full set of tier 9 or 10 equipment (at least second to last upgrade)
- Repair your gear at an Anvil and Grindstone
- Level up at least enough Spirit, Stamina, and HP to when you would have to start using 5 Artifacts and 5 Materials for 1 level
- 11 Health
- 10 Stamina
- 8 Spirit
- Spend at least ~150 Abyss Artifacts on Skills
- This is the number required to unlock most or all Skills and satisfy the previous requirements
- Use the following Greater Elixirs right before the fight starts
- Freya’s Greater Elixir (+30 Defense)
- Apollina’s Greater Elixir (+10 Attack)
- Meliara’s Greater Elixir (+225 Max HP, +3 Attack Speed)
- Use a full set of combat-oriented Tier III or Unique Abyss Gears and swap out a couple for relevant Greater Abyss Gears
- Example 1: Swap out a Destruction III for a Greater Destruction
- Example 2: Don’t use Abyss Gears like Ascent I or Haste II
The idea with Greater Abyss Gears is that they’re rare and have durability, so you want to save them for special occasions where you need that extra power. They should barely last for the full fight.
