Crimson Desert Boss Guide – All Bosses

Crimson Desert contains many boss fights in the main story. This Crimson Desert Boss Guide will walk you through the best tactics to defeat all main bosses in the main story. They are listed in chronological order below.

General Tips & Tricks:

• It’s all about the meat: Bring 100+ Grilled Meat to every boss fight. The more meat you bring, the easier it will be. Meat and other food is used for healing and can be used as often as you want during the fight. To get meat: buy it from the meat vendor in Hernand town (marked as “?” on map), or run through the woods and kill/skin animals, each gives 3-4 meat. You can buy the cheapest meats from the vendor, it doesn’t matter what meat. How to cook meat: to the right of the meat vendor in Hernand use the cooking pot (look at it with / and press / ). Cook the cheap GRILLED MEAT that gives 80 health. This only takes 1 meat to cook. The other Grilled Meats restore more health but take more meats to make. The cheapest meats restore more health overall and get you further through the fight (10 x 80 health = 800 health vs. 1 big “Hearty Grilled Meat” costing 12 meat but only restoring 220 health). ALWAYS have 100+ Grilled Meat in your inventory before going to any quest! Some bosses are far away from any fast travel point, and if you go into fights without enough meat you’ll get stuck and need to waste time traveling back and forth to get more meat. Even better, bring 200 meat, the more healing items you bring the easier it will be.
• Universal boss strategy: The bosses are designed in a way that you WILL take damage and the difficulty depends on how much meat/healing items you brought. You’ll want to heal WHILE attacking with / quick attacks, or if at low health keep dodging while you heal back to full health. You select the healing items by holding and at the bottom / on the food item. Then during combat tap once to consume the selected food. You can eat a meat every 2 seconds. You can eat meat while performing other actions. You can tank through any incoming damage by healing while you attack.
• For bosses that use blockable attacks (typically humans): you’ll want to parry with / to interrupt their attack, then follow up with a quick / combo.
• For bosses that use shields/block: you’ll want to use / heavy attacks to break their guard. Note that heavy attacks consume stamina and light attacks do not.
• For bosses that use unblockable attacks (typically monsters): you’ll want to dodge the attacks, after the boss misses a combo you have a brief moment to land some hits, rinse and repeat.
• Upgrade your gear: You find a blacksmith in the middle of Hernand town (the starting town from Chapter 1). He’s marked with a “?” icon on the map. The best choice is heavy plate armor for more defense. Leather and linen armor have less defense. There’s no equipment weight stat so having heavy plate armor doesn’t slow you down. You can buy plate armor, helmet, boots from the merchant in the middle of Hernand. Then use the smithy to upgrade it as much as possible. All ore comes from using a pickaxe on ore deposits found along mountain sides (you find different ore types in each region). Bones/Hides come from hunting animals. There isn’t really one armor that’s better than another, the stats are all dependent on your refinement level (upgrade).
• Keep boss weapons: Keep the unique boss weapons, don’t sell/discard them. Some of them have special effects that make them vastly superior to other weapons. Especially good are “Sword of the Lord” (from Boss #2 – Kailok, The Hornsplitter) & “Tauria Curved Sword” (from Boss #6 – Crowcaller). The first is great for quick attacks, the second is great for heavy attacks and crowd control.
• Recommended Skills: Start out by reaching Health Level 4 & Stamina Level 4. The stat upgrades carry over to all playable characters. Then buy Kliff’s skill “Nature’s Echo” (green skill tree), it duplicates your heavy attacks. This is especially powerful in combination with Tauria’s Curved Sword, which you get from Boss #6 – Crowcaller. It requires buying all 3 Forward Slash skills (blue) & all 3 Keen Senses skills (green). Up until Chapter 8 it’s best to focus all your skill points and gear upgrades on Kliff, the main character. The 2nd character Damiane is unavailable for much of the story, so don’t waste too many resources on her.

Boss #1 – Matthias (Knight)

• Main Quest: For Honor

Matthias is a knight, he has two healthbars. He is the easiest boss in the game, his attacks don’t deal much damage, he only does some basic sword attacks and kicks, which are quite slow.

The easiest method is to land a light attack combo with 3x / > follow up with a heavy attack combo 3x / – this will interrupt him. Note that heavy attacks consume stamina and light attacks do not. Make sure you’re at full stamina before starting a combo.

Dodge far away from him to let your stamina recharge, then run in (tap / to run toward him), do a quick combo, follow up with a heavy combo, repeat. If he attacks you mid-combo, dodge away.

Remember you can heal with food items during the fight. Hold to select a food item (bottom of item wheel, click to cycle through food items), once selected tap during combat to eat the food. If you get stuck in this fight, you can quit out during the game over screen and buy a bunch of meat from the meat vendor in Hernand town. Then use the cooking pot to the immediate right of the meat vendor to cook the grilled meat that restores 80 health.

Boss #2 – Kailok, The Hornsplitter

• Main Quest: Cheers Echoing From the Edge

Hornsplitter is a goblin boss with only one healthbar. He’s a significant step up in difficulty from the previous boss, a trend that will continue with every main boss going forward.

For this fight you’ll want to focus on perfect counters with the shield: press / at the moment he attacks, this will show a green glow which interrupts his attacks. Follow up with a quick attack combo. Keep your stamina for blocking and dodging, it’s best to avoid using too many heavy attacks as they drain your stamina.

His sword causes waves that cover a wide area. You can block these however (consumes stamina). Try to keep your stamina full at all times so you can use it to block his ranged wave attacks. When he goes into super armor mode (blue glow on him and he’s invulnerable to damage), stop attacking and get ready to block/dodge.

Be sure to bring plenty of healing items (buy meat from vendor in Hernand town, cook it in the pot to the right of the vendor). Or just spend some time going hunting and skinning animals for meat. If you bring 40+ meat the fight will be relatively easy as you can tank through the incoming damage and instantly heal back. Then you just need to attack with and heal with and try to counter with when he attacks. That’s pretty much the strategy for every boss.

Boss #3 – Reed Devil

• Main Quest: Dance with the Devil

Reed Devil has 3 full healthbars. Bring lots of healing items for this fight, ideally 40+ grilled meat. If you don’t have enough healing items you’ll have a bad time.

Phase 1: Similar to the previous boss, focus on countering his attacks with your shield. Press just before he hits you to interrupt him, follow up with combos, heal with as you attack. Get good at perfect counters with the shield. You can also use + to hit him with the shield between combos.

Phase 2: 5 totems will appear. You must destroy them all. Just keep hitting each of them with a few quick attacks. This phase is very annoying because you constantly get attacked. Don’t run in a straight line from one totem to the next, keep dodging so you don’t get hit by ranged attacks and other enemies. If you lose health immediately heal back while you dodge or while attacking the totems.

Phase 3: Same strategy as the first phase, interrupt him with shield counters and follow up with quick attacks, rinse and repeat. Heal back constantly while you attack to tank through the incoming damage. He will be more aggressive during this phase with some new attacks. When he dashes around and shoots red projectiles at you, dodge sideways from the other end of the battlefield to avoid it. Remember you can also use a Palmer Pill to self-revive if you die close to the end, but it’s best to keep them for harder bosses later.

Boss #4 – Tenebrum

• Main Quest: Gate to the Otherworld

This is more of a “puzzle boss” than a real fight.

First, reveal Tenebrum’s weakspot using Blinding Flash: hold + > press / + > press . Aim at the flying specter and it will show a square shape on it. You only need to do this once and the game gives a tutorial screen about this feature.

To defeat Tenebrum you must hit him multiple times with Force Palm while flying in the air: Double press  ( on XB) to jump and use your wings. Do this over the middle of the plaza where the floor is missing, where Tenebrum flies around. The wind will catapult you up to Tenebrum. In midair press  / to perform Force Palm. Hitting  Tenebrum can be tricky because he flies around constantly.

It’s best to attack when he stays in the middle to charge up an attack. If you get hit by his projectiles you will fall down and take fall damage, but can heal back with  to use food items.

If you run out of Spirit, hold  +  to restore Spirit. After a few Force Palm attacks you will run out of Spirit and must redo this. Hide behind a pillar while recharging Spirit.

Boss #5 – Kearush, The Slayer

• Main Quest: Demenissian Delegation

One of the hardest bosses in the game, and by far the hardest one yet. This is a giant gorilla-like monster with 3 full healthbars. You’ll have to get good at dodging here. Blocking or parrying with the shield won’t work. He does lots of smashing attacks, occasionally grabs you, and likes to jump onto you from above. Always dodge forward-right to get behind him, land 3 quick attacks with / then stop attacking and get ready to dodge again.

Preparation: In the skill tree buy at least 4 health upgrades and 4 stamina upgrades. Also spend time upgrading your armor and weapons or you’ll have a bad time. Spend time upgrading your items to refinement level 4 or higher, the extra defense value will help. You can buy decent armor from the merchant in Hernand (the plate armor has high defense) and upgrade it with mining materials (use pickaxe on material deposits at mountain walls). Refining your gear is done at the blacksmith in Hernand town.

BRING 100+ GRILLED MEAT! Even better, bring 200. It sounds like a lot, but you can ride/run through the woods and often find groups of deer, each gives 3-4 meat. You can sometimes find 5+ deer in the same spot = 20 meat within seconds. Buy the cheaper meats from the meat vendor in Hernand. Use the cooking pot to the right of the meat vendor to make it into Grilled Meat that gives 80 health. The higher-health meats are too costly to make. The cheapest Grilled Meat gives you more total health recovery as it only costs 1 meat to make (10 of those giving 800 health which gets you further through the fight than one big meat).

Phase 1: This is when he is the least aggressive and uses his shortest combos. Dodge forward-right when he attacks, wait for him to miss his combo, land 3 quick attacks, stop attacking and get ready to dodge. Rinse and repeat. If he climbs the walls, run to cover on the sides where he can’t drop down on you. HEAL WHILE YOU ATTACK WITH QUICK ATTACK COMBOS. This way you can combine dealing damage with restoring health.

Phase 2: He’s more aggressive, does longer combos, and goes into super armor mode (invulnerability, blue glow) more often. When he goes into super armor, he will launch a series of heavy attacks after a few seconds. IMMEDIATELY fast run to the opposite end of the arena and hide behind the last possible walls at the end. Stay there and wait for him to finish his attacks. He will usually get stuck around the corner and can’t hit you there, but you must be VERY FAST to get away from him. Quick press / to run faster, as soon as you see a blue glow when attacking him and he stops taking damage. If you stay near him, he will home in on you and when he hits he will likely kill you with follow-up attacks. He will keep doing this multiple times throughout the fight, learn to recognize this attack. Other than that keep dodging forward-right, land some quick attacks, dodge away and repeat.

Phase 3: By far his most aggressive, it will be harder to find any opportunity to attack him at all as you’ll be busy dodging most of the time. He does longer combos and more smashing jumps. The basic strategy from before still applies. Dodge and let him miss a combo, then quickly land some quick attacks. Keep healing back if you take any damage. If you die during this phase use Palmer Pills to self-revive. This is where having brought 100+ Grilled Meat comes in handy. If you run out of healing items here, go back to hunting for more meat and bring even more food.

Boss #6 – Crowcaller

• Main Quest: Bloodwind / Toward the Nest

You fight this boss twice. The first encounter he only has 1 healthbar and it’s an easy fight.

The second encounter is at the end of Chapter 5, there he has 3 full healthbars. He hits hard and is fast. The general strategy is to parry his attacks with then land an quick combo, rinse and repeat. Heal back with Grilled Meat while attacking. If you get low on health, dodge away to fully heal.

When he flies up in the air, wait for him to do his 2nd midair dodge, then roll by holding / . This will always make you dodge his dive attack. Once you get the timing down it will be easy to dodge.

Be sure to activate the fast travel point (floor plate) directly before the boss fight, on the path in front of the tree. In case you get stuck you can quit out of the fight to load up on more Grilled Meat and fast travel back there. If you bring 100+ Grilled Meat you can tank through his damage and continue healing while you parry/attack.

Boss #7 – Cassius Morten

• Main Quest: Traitor

The first boss that uses a shield. He will block your attacks. He has 1 healthbar. Equip the sword you got from the previous boss “Tauria Curved Sword”. Buy Kliff’s green skill “Nature’s Echo” to duplicate your heavy attacks. Then spam heavy attacks on the boss, it will damage him even when he blocks. After 3 hits it will interrupt him, afterward you can follow up with some light attacks.

Boss #8 – Ludvig & Awakened Ludvig

• Main Quest: Lonely Jackals

Ludvig is a 2 phase boss (2 healthbars) with a full transformation after the first phase. He uses lightning damage.

Focus on dodging, not blocking/parrying. He will teleport around a lot. Let him miss one of his combos, or wait for him to stop teleporting. Then land some quick attacks.

In his 2nd phase, he attacks and teleports constantly, it will be hard to hit him. Continue to focus on dodging, then land light attack combos while healing at the same time. As usual, bring 100+ Grilled Meat.

Boss #9 – Myurdin

• Main Quest: Battle at Silverwolf Mountain

Myurdin is a 2 phase boss (2 healthbars) with a full transformation after the first phase. He uses fire damage in his 2nd phase.

Phase 1: Focus on parrying his attacks, use heavy attacks ( / ) with the “Tauria Curved Sword”.

Phase 2: He will transform and uses lava attacks. Focus on dodging during this phase. Don’t let your stamina fully deplete so you are always able to dodge.

Boss #10 – One-Armed Ludvig

• Main Quest: Time to Face Justice

One-Armed Ludvig has only 1 healthbar. He uses lightning damage.

For this fight you are forced to play as Oongka (the Orc character). It’s the first time you play as him. He doesn’t have a shield, but he can still block and parry with his weapon using / . Oongka can dual wield two one-handed weapons.

His double-handed starting axe is too slow. It’s much easier if you equip two swords, your attacks will be much faster and since you wield two weapons it actually does more damage. Use “Sword of the Lord” (from Boss #2 – Kailok, The Hornsplitter) to cast wave attacks. If you don’t have two swords, you can also equip the two purple axes that are automatically in your inventory.

Focus on parrying with / and then follow up with light attack combos / .

Since you just had multiple boss fights in a row, you will likely be low on healing items. You can find plenty of animals in the woods around the boss area, skin them for meat. A cooking pot is found slightly north in Beighen village. Once you have 100+ Grilled Meat the fight will be significantly easier, as usual heal while you attack.

Boss #11 – Gregor, the Halberd of Carnage

• Main Quest: Where the Wind Guides You

This is a human boss with a spear, he only has 1 healthbar. There are also arrows being shot out of the walls at you.

His most dangerous move is when he goes into super armor mode (invulnerable) and does multiple stab attacks in a row. These you’ll want to continuously dodge until he stops attacking.

Focus on dodging in this fight instead of blocking/parrying. Land combos while you heal to tank through the incoming damage, rinse and repeat.

Boss #12 – Fortain, The Cursed Knight

• Main Quest: The Cursed Knight

This is a human with a shield and he frequently summons a ghost knight to attack you, turning this into a partial double-boss. He only has 1 healthbar. One of the more annoying bosses so far because he constantly summons his ghost which hits the ground or shoots arrows. Because the main boss also keeps attacking you spend more time dodging and have fewer openings to land hits.

Use heavy attacks with the Tauria’s Curved Sword, which you got from Boss #6 – Crowcaller. Be sure to get the green skill “Nature’s Echo” which duplicates your heavy attacks. Do a heavy attack combo followed by some light attacks to break his defenses and deal some damage. When he summons his blue ghost, dodge away.

Because he hits pretty hard, if you get stuck you may want to invest some time to cook higher quality meat so you can heal more with each use.