TL;DR
- Trace of Shadows is a House Serkis faction quest in Hernand, part of the Secret of the Lost Seal questline
- You must complete The Missing Family Seal and Traces of Intruder first before this unlocks
- Travel to Three Saints’ Falls and dig up dirt mounds under the bridge to find the Thief’s Third Note
- Use a basic non-refined shovel — refined shovels can bug the mounds
- Go to Duskwood, use your Lantern to find the white stone on the checkerboard, and pick it up to get the Clue from Duskwood
- Return to Oakenshield Manor and speak with Graham Alfonso and Alan Serkis to complete the quest
The Trace of Shadows quest in Crimson Desert is part of the larger Secret of the Lost Seal questline run through House Serkis in Hernand. It’s a detective-style investigation where you track down clues left by a thief at two separate locations. Both tasks involve interacting with the environment in ways the game doesn’t fully explain — which is why so many players get stuck. This guide walks through everything step by step.
How to Unlock Trace of Shadows
Trace of Shadows doesn’t appear in your quest log until you’ve completed the earlier quests in the Secret of the Lost Seal chain. This questline runs through both the House Serkis and House Alfonso factions in Hernand, and it’s a bit tricky to trigger if you haven’t been keeping up with both.
The order goes like this: first complete The Missing Family Seal, then Traces of Intruder. Only after finishing Traces of Intruder will Trace of Shadows become available.
The Traces of Intruder quest requires you to investigate the Lioncrest Watchtower — that’s the correct location out of three marked on your map. Torchlight Beacon and Everfrost are red herrings, so skip them and go straight to the Watchtower. At the top, find the thief’s note and the Piece from Lioncrest Watchtower. Pick up the piece, flip it over to examine the writing on the back, and a cutscene will play. That completes Traces of Intruder and opens up Trace of Shadows.
If you’re working through the overall quest chain and want a guide to the Traces of Intruder quest itself, our Traces of Intruder walkthrough covers that in full.
Once the quest unlocks, speak to Graham Alfonso and the other characters at Oakenshield Manor in Hernand City. They’ll send you to two new locations where the thief left more clues — Three Saints’ Falls and Duskwood.
Part 1 — Track the Traces at Three Saints’ Falls
Where to Go
Follow the quest marker to Three Saints’ Falls. When you arrive, head to the patch of land that sits directly under the bridge in the area. This is the key spot — don’t go searching the wider area if you can help it, as the relevant dirt mounds are concentrated under and around the bridge.
How to Dig
You need a shovel to interact with the dirt mounds here. Equip it from your inventory before you start. The mounds are scattered around and you’ll need to dig multiple ones — not every mound contains what you’re looking for. Keep digging until you get a prompt that a clue has been found.
Important: Use a basic, non-refined shovel. This is not obvious from the quest text, but refined shovels can bug out the dirt mounds and prevent the dig prompt from appearing. If you’re standing on a dirt mound and nothing is happening, this is almost certainly why. Switch to a plain shovel and try again.
The mound you’re looking for tends to be in the northeastern part of the area under the bridge. Keep working through the mounds systematically if the prompt doesn’t appear right away.
Once you find it, you’ll receive The Thief’s Third Note. Open your inventory and read it — you have to actually read the note from your inventory for the quest objective to advance. If you don’t read it, the quest won’t update.
Part 2 — Track the Traces at Duskwood
How to Get There
Duskwood is in Hernand, west of Hernand Castle and just northwest of the Kilnden Workshop. If you’ve previously completed the Duskwood Waterside Ruins puzzle, you can use the Abyss Cresset fast travel point there to reach the area quickly. If not, travel to the marked location manually using the quest marker. The Duskwood Checker puzzle guide on our site covers that ruins puzzle separately if you want to complete it while you’re in the area.
Finding the Clue at Duskwood
When you arrive, equip your Lantern (L1 on controller / CTRL on keyboard). Using the Lantern is essential here — it highlights the specific stone you need to interact with among a large checkerboard of black and white stones near the riverside area.
Look at the checkerboard grid. With your Lantern active, find the white stone that has a black mark on it. It sits in the middle of the board. Face southeast and look toward the last two rows of the grid. The white stone with the black mark is what you’re after.
Pick up that white stone. Underneath it you’ll find two items: the Clue from Duskwood and the Piece from Duskwood.
Pick up the Clue from Duskwood and examine its contents from your inventory. Then pick up the Piece from Duskwood and flip it to show the back side. Examining both items completes this objective.
Don’t confuse this with the Duskwood checker puzzle. The black and white stones on the checkerboard are part of a separate Abyss Cresset challenge. The stone for this quest is the specific white stone with a black mark, not the puzzle pieces. The checkerboard area is close to the Kilnden Workshop fast travel point, which helps narrow down exactly where to look. Our Duskwood Checker Puzzle guide explains that nearby puzzle if you’d like to clear it at the same time.
Part 3 — Organize the Leads and Report Back
Once both clues are collected and examined, the quest objective updates to “Organize the leads.” This step completes automatically once you’ve examined all the items correctly — there’s no separate action required for this part.
Return to Oakenshield Manor in Hernand City and speak with Graham Alfonso and Alan Serkis. Talk to both of them to hand in your findings. This completes Trace of Shadows and advances the Secret of the Lost Seal questline forward.
The next quest in the chain is Where All Comes Together, which takes you to the Halssius Conflux to search for more traces. After that comes Heart of Anvil Hill, which involves finding and retrieving the House Serkis family seal from Fort Anvil — requiring you to clear the fort of enemies before you can grab it from inside. Completing the full chain eventually rewards you with significant House Serkis faction standing and access to follow-up content in Hernand.
Common Issues and Fixes
The shovel isn’t working at Three Saints’ Falls. This is almost always a refined shovel issue. Swap to a plain basic shovel and try again. The quest specifically needs an unrefined version to trigger the dig prompts correctly.
The Duskwood white stone isn’t visible. Make sure your Lantern is active. Without it, the marked stone blends in with the surrounding checkerboard and is very easy to miss.
The quest won’t advance after finding items. Make sure you’re reading the notes and examining the pieces from your inventory. Picking items up is not enough — you need to open each one and interact with it fully for the objective to tick over.
Trace of Shadows isn’t appearing in my quest log. You haven’t completed Traces of Intruder yet. Go back to the Lioncrest Watchtower, collect both evidence items at the top, and examine the piece’s back side to trigger the completion cutscene. After that, speak to Graham Alfonso at Oakenshield Manor.
Where This Quest Fits in the Hernand Questlines
Trace of Shadows is part of one of Hernand’s more rewarding side questlines. House Serkis quests in Hernand are worth completing not just for the story, but because this chain eventually leads to unlocking additional vendor access and faction standing. The full Secret of the Lost Seal chain is also connected to unlocking the Hound Two-Handed Sword, one of the better early-game weapons you can find if you’re building a melee Kliff.
For general guidance on working through the Hernand faction quests and managing your character progression at this stage, our Weight of Knowledge quest guide and how to gain trust with merchants guide are helpful companions.
If you’re looking at exploration content in and around Duskwood and Hernand while you’re in the area, also check out:
- Duskwood Ancient Ruins puzzle solution
- Duskwood Checker Puzzle solution
- All Stable Locations in Crimson Desert — useful for setting up fast travel around Hernand
- How to read and replay memory fragments
- How to use contribution points
- How to gain trust with merchants
- Broken Silence Quiet Ripple investigation answers
- Missing Desert Melons investigation answers
For everything else in Crimson Desert — bosses, armor sets, Abyss puzzles, weapons, and more — visit our Crimson Desert hub page.
Crimson Desert is available on PC via Steam, Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. Visit the official Crimson Desert website for the latest news from Pearl Abyss.
