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 140 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 140 health = 1400 health vs. 1 big “Hearty Grilled Meat” costing 12 meat but only restoring 280 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 140 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 140 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 1400 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 & Lava 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.

Boss #13 – Lucian Bastier & Awakened Lucian Bastier

• Main Quest: A Fleeting Dream

Lucian Bastier has 2 healthbars, with a full transformation after his first healthbar. This is a very annoying boss – you are forced to fight him as Damiane, he constantly blocks, and in his second phase he constantly teleports. It’s worth upgrading Diamane’s starting armor by 1-2 levels for more defense. It’s recommended to use the “Golden Vanguard” weapon (2-handed spear, from Boss #11 – Gregor, the Halberd of Carnage). Its attack is fast, reaches far, does more damage than the rapier, and can break the enemy’s guard with a few attacks. You don’t want to be blocking for this fight anyway, always dodge all attacks sideways, dodging in a big circled around the boss (don’t dodge backward). As usual, bring 100+ Grilled Meat. It’s a very lengthy fight.

Phase 1: He is in human form, with a shield and mace that deals explosive fire damage on the floor. He will block all attacks from the front. Wait for him to attack, dodge sideways to get behind him, after he misses his combo attack him with spear attacks. After a few hits you will break his guard and will deal damage. When you attack quick enough after he misses a combo, you can also land some free damage from behind before he starts blocking again. Reason you want to dodge sideways is because his floor attacks spread out in a straight line, so if you dodge back you will still get hit. His attacks are fairly slow and easy to dodge. He does have a lot of health and is slow to defeat due to his constant blocking, but he doesn’t deal very much damage. Just take it slow, focus on dodging, land hits at each opportunity.

Phase 2: He will awaken into his monster form. He will constantly teleport away from you, extremely annoying to hit him at all. He also constantly summons shadow demons to attack you, which can’t be damaged. When he summons the shadow demons you must keep dodging until they go away. Especially if the screen gets darker he will summon many demons in quick succession. When he stands still for a moment, always attack with quick attacks before he goes away. This is more a test of patience and dodging than anything else. When he stands still he will often hold his arms in front of his body, which is your signal he’s about to counter your attack, hit him and immediately dodge to the side, then you can land some hits. Basically: dodge all the shadow demons, land attacks whenever the boss isn’t teleporting.

Boss #14 – Goyen

• Main Quest: Unwavering Steps

Goyen is a human enemy with a shield and sword, he has only 1 healthbar. He uses a similar moveset to what Kliff can do. Before the fight, be sure to activate the fast travel point on the floor directly in front of the boss fight, in case you get stuck you can fast travel away to get stronger and travel back here.

He hits extremely hard, being able to kill in 1-2 hits with his strongest attacks. Most dangerous is when he jumps into the air and comes smashing down to create a shockwave, this can kill you in one hit depending on your armor and max health. He always follows this up with a second kick from the air. When he jumps in the air the first time, watch the floor for a display of his impact radius, repeatedly dodge to avoid this. Keep dodging sideways when he follows up with the midair kick.

His sword combos pretty much a copy of what you can do. Blocking/countering is risky because of how hard he hits, it’s generally safer to dodge to the right, let him miss a combo, then land 4 heavy attacks and follow up with a few light attacks while he’s interrupted. If you take any damage, always heal back to full health immediately. If you die too fast, your best bet is to spend some time getting more Abyss Artifacts to increase your max health, and get your weapon/armor to refinement level 7 or above.

Boss #15 – T’rukan the Ascended

• Main Quest: True Strength

T’rukan is a guy wearing a Leopard Mask and attacking with his fists. He only has 1 healthbar. He hits extremely fast and hard, but he doesn’t have much health. You should at least upgrade your passive Health Skill to Level 6 to have 750 Health minimum. Having Level 6 refinement gear is also recommended, and strengthening your gear at an Anvil + Grindstone for the extra stat boost. Equip Tauria Curved Sword.

The basic strategy is that you’ll want to perform counters while blocking to break his guard. Just spam with the shield. If you miss the counter and he hits you, dodge away immediately. If you successfully perform a shield counter you can land 1-2 combos on him. Start with heavy attacks, then try if you can land another light combo before he attacks again. This way you deal pretty fast damage. If you struggle with the block timing, you can also just dodge behind him, let him miss a combo, land some hits, repeat. The key to success here is just being able to survive his strongest attacks, hence upgrading the health stats is a must.

Sometimes he will slow down and glow purple, then he is about to summon his spirit animal. Always get far away when he does this. When he shoots lots of purple projectiles you can simply block them while at the same time healing, or dodge and heal at the same time. His other melee attacks you want to perfect counter with the shield or dodge, whatever is easier for you.

Boss #16 – Hexe Marie

Main Quest: Black Witch

Hexe Marie is a witch with 2 healthbars. Her primary attacks are to shoot crows at you and summon smaller enemies. The enemies die in 1 hit. The crows fly in a straight line and are easy to avoid by dodging sideways. She also teleports away a lot. Whenever she stands still, dodge her first attack to get behind her, land 4 heavy attacks and follow up with light attacks until she teleports away. Just tank through her attacks and heal as you attack. If you try to dodge every attack the fight will go on for a long time and you’ll get barely any openings to attack her. When she summons her minions, get rid of them, then keep attacking Hexe Marie.

In her first phase she is a bit less aggressive and doesn’t summon minions as frequently. In her second phase she will spawn the minions a lot more frequently.

Boss #17 – Master Du

• Main Quest: The Sage of the Desert

Master Du has 2 healthbars. He uses a Longsword to attack. Be sure to bring some Palmer Pills to revive during his second phase, he will use some laser attacks that can instakill.

When he does regular melee attacks, try to perfect parry him with your shield. If done successfully, he will be stunned for a moment and you can land 4 heavy attacks and follow up with light attacks. When you land heavy attacks he typically becomes unable to do anything while you deal damage. His dangerous move in the first phase is when he quickly jumps between the pillars around the arena, then jumps onto you. This deals huge damage. As soon as he stops jumping between the pillars, there’s a short delay and you need to dodge/roll sideways repeatedly to avoid getting hit. As soon as he start jumping between the pillars make sure you heal back fully to survive this if you get hit (blocking it won’t work).

In the second phase, he starts shooting green lasers at you, these deal extreme damage and can potentially instakill you if you have less than 8 upgrades in health. When he shoots 3 lasers in a row, you have to dodge all 3 perfectly or he will kill you. If he hits you with one laser, you will fall to the floor unable to move, then he fires another laser and you won’t survive it. If you have upgraded your health a lot (around level 10 health) and have refinement level 8+ armor, you should be able to survive 1 laser hit if you’re at full health. Palmer Pills become crucial here for revives.

Sometimes he fires a single weaker laser between his regular attacks, but that one doesn’t deal as much damage as the 3 lasers in a row. His lasers also shoot through the pillars so you can’t hide from them. Blocking won’t work either. Keep doing what you did in the first phase.

Boss #18 – Marni’s Clockwork Mantis

• Main Quest: Frozen Hearted Predator

This is a mechanical praying mantis boss. He only has 1 healthbar. Despite looking strong, he is actually one of the easier bosses compared to the last few. His most dangerous attack is when he shoots yellow laser beams at you, those deal a lot of damage. Especially when he shoots multiple in a row, they can potentially kill in one hit depending on your max health. His melee attacks don’t deal much damage.

Evade his melee combos to get behind him, follow up with heavy attacks using Tauria Curved Sword with Nature’s Echo skill. Rinse and repeat. If he shoots yellow lasers dodge sideways in big circles around him. It’s also possible to parry some of his attacks, but he often uses attacks that can’t be parried, so dodging is safer here.

Boss #19 – Thunder Tank

• Main Quest: Fortress Keys

Thunder Tank is the boss in Valvegard Garrison, mandatory to liberate the fortress and get the Fortress Key there. It’s an electric tank boss with 1 healthbar.

He only does 3 moves depending on how close you are to him. If you’re close he drives into you which deals massive damage. If you’re at mid range he shoots lots of explosive projectiles. If you’re at long range he shoots missile barrages.

This boss is extremely annoying to fight. The easiest “cheese method” is to buy the green skill “Nature’s Snare” (Level 2 – Nature’s Retribution). It allows you to throw back projectiles.

Get far away from the boss so he always shoots rockets. Then use Nature’s Retribution to catch the rockets and throw them back at him. It takes around 6-10 minutes to beat him this way, but it’s easy once you get into the rhythm. You’ll want to charge up at least 2 parts of the Spirit Gauge ( + ) then rotate the Right Stick to activate Nature’s Retribution, catch some rockets and press to throw them back.

After damaging the boss a bit, the top part falls off and reveals a weakspot. Normally, you’re meant to climb up and stab the weakspot while holding on to it, but at the time of writing this is very buggy and you get instakilled when the tank drives around while hanging on to it. So don’t bother with it, just keep catching the rockets and throw them back, easy peasy cheesy method.

After defeating the boss you must also have defeated the enemies in the fortress (counter on left goes to 0%) to get a cutscene to liberate the fortress. Then you can collect the key from the big block that’s marked by a purple icon on the minimap.

Boss #20 – Storm Crusher

• Main Quest: Fortress Keys

Storm Crusher is the boss in Aeronautical Research Base, mandatory to liberate the fortress and get the Fortress Key there. It’s a fire tank boss with 1 healthbar.

He only does 3 moves depending on how close you are to him. If you’re close he drives into you which deals massive damage. If you’re at mid range he shoots lots of explosive projectiles. If you’re at long range he shoots missile barrages.

This boss is extremely annoying to fight. The easiest “cheese method” is to buy the green skill “Nature’s Snare” (Level 2 – Nature’s Retribution). It allows you to throw back projectiles.

Get far away from the boss so he always shoots rockets. Then use Nature’s Retribution to catch the rockets and throw them back at him. It takes around 6-10 minutes to beat him this way, but it’s easy once you get into the rhythm. You’ll want to charge up at least 2 parts of the Spirit Gauge ( + ) then rotate the Right Stick to activate Nature’s Retribution, catch some rockets and press to throw them back.

After damaging the boss a bit, the top part falls off and reveals a weakspot. Normally, you’re meant to climb up and stab the weakspot while holding on to it, but at the time of writing this is very buggy and you get instakilled when the tank drives around while hanging on to it. So don’t bother with it, just keep catching the rockets and throw them back, easy peasy cheesy method.

After defeating the boss you must also have defeated the enemies in the fortress (counter on left goes to 0%) to get a cutscene to liberate the fortress. Then you can collect the key from the big block that’s marked by a purple icon on the minimap.

Boss #21 – Dreadnought

• Main Quest: Fortress Keys

Dreanought is the boss in Marni’s Laboratorium, mandatory to liberate the fortress and get the Fortress Key there. It’s a big robot boss with 1 healthbar.

He is a stronger version of the other tall robots you have encountered throughout the fortresses in Delesyia. His one dangerous attack is a yellow laser he shoots from his eye, it deals massive damage. Always dodge in circles around him, then his laser is easy to avoid. His melee attacks are easy enough to dodge and not that dangerous. You fight him like you would the other big robots, he just has more health.

After defeating the boss you must also have defeated the enemies in the fortress (counter on left goes to 0%) to get a cutscene to liberate the fortress. Then you can collect the key from the big block that’s marked by a purple icon on the minimap.

Boss #22 – Golden Star

• Main Quest: Master of a Forgotten Land

Golden Star is a big golden dragon, he has 1 healthbar. He will sit in the corners of the arena, where he sits will determine what attack he will do. Once you know the pattern it’s easy to recognize.

To damage him, you’ll want to grab the spears from the blue glowing generators on the sides of the arena, then throw them at him when he sits still. When he sits on the lower wall on the right side you can also damage his claw while he breathes fire, this does much more damage than throwing spears. After he takes some damage, he will fall to the ground and will be stunned for a few seconds, hit him with everything you got. Then he will repeat his previous attack pattern. His attacks don’t change during the fight and he only has 1 phase. Most of his attacks don’t deal that much damage. Occassionally some robots will also join the arena (flying bugs and big robots), but they die in a few hits, faster than normal. Take out the big robots whenever they spawn.

When the dragon sits on the front left corner he will shoot rocks and breathe fire. When he sits in the back left corner he will drop explosives from the sky which are indicated by orange outlines on the floor. When he sits on the right wall his claw is exposed and you can hit him with melee attacks – he will breathe fire there but you can climb the wall to avoid it.

After depleting his health you automatically get a cutscene where you finish him off, then skydive back to the ground near him to get another cutscene.

Boss #23 – Cloud Fortress Orbian

• Main Quest: Cloud Fortress Orbian

Important: Don’t die during the boss fight or you’ll respawn at the start of the fortress and must redo the quest! If taking any damage, immediately heal back fully, and use a Palmer Pill if you die.

This is a special type of boss, it’s the core inside Fortress Obsidian, looks like a golden eye and has 1 healthbar. Bring a bow to this fight and have the blue skill “Charged Shot” and the green skill “Nature’s Snare” at Level 2.

All you need to do is shoot the boss with Charged Shot. Hold / to aim and hold / to charge a shot. It takes some Spirit to use. You must have a bow equipped. Alternatively, if you don’t have a bow or arrows you can use the green skill “Nature’s Snare” at Level 2 to catch the projectiles the boss shoots at you and throw them back. Go into Focus Mode and rotate the right stick to catch the projectiles, then press the Right Stick to throw them back. Another method is to latch onto the core with Axiom Force then use Force Current skill (if you have it unlocked) to immediately stun the boss, do a few charged shots while it’s stunned.

The boss only has one attack which is shooting projectiles. When his yellow stunbar is full, he will “shut down” for a few seconds and takes massive damage from your next hit, so be quick to shoot him when this happens (takes out 25% of his health in one hit). A pretty easy and quick boss once you have the right skills.

Boss #24 – Corrupted Caliburn

• Main Quest: A Shadow in the Void

Corrupted Caliburn is a human boss with 3 healthbars. He will often summon shadow copies of himself to attack you with sword slashes and stab attacks.

Most of the fight will be spent dodging the shadow copies that attack you. Whenever these aren’t attacking you, focus on dealing damage to Caliburn. He will do some sword slashes himself, and sometimes he floats in the air to shoot you with a bow. Sometimes he disappears and drops explosives on the floor but those are easy to dodge.

Whenever he stands still, it’s best to dodge behind him, land a heavy attack combo and follow up with light attacks. Dodge his next wave of shadow copies, rinse and repeat. In his 2nd and 3rd phase he still uses the same attacks, but he will spam the shadow copies much more frequently and you have less time to attack him. As long as you’re always dodging till he stands still, you can tank through his melee damage by healing while dealing him damage. His most damaging move is a jumping sword attack which takes most of your health in one hit, but if you’ve invested time into refining your equipment and upgrading your health stat this fight isn’t too bad. Bring 100 grilled meat as usual.

Boss #25 – Myurdin, the Avatar of Umbra

• Main Quest: Blinding Darkness

WARNING: DON’T CHOOSE THE “GIVE UP” OPTION IN THIS FIGHT / DON’T CLOSE THE GAME! IT WILL SPAWN YOU FAR AWAY AND THE GATE TO CORRUPTED CALIBURN CAN’T BE ENTERED AGAIN. THEN YOUR BEST OPTION IS TO RELOAD THE MANUAL SAVE BEFORE CORRUPTED CALIBURN AND DEFEAT HIM AGAIN TO GET TO MYURDIN.

Umbra Myudrin has 2 healthbars, he is a much more powerful version of the Myurdin you fought earlier, using a variety of all the strongest boss attacks you encountered throughout the story.

You absolutely will want to go into this fight with 100+ Grilled Meat remaining, a few Palmer Pills for revives, high refinement level equipment, level 10 health stat. Umbra Myurdin has many attacks that can kill in 1-2 hits, depending on your stats.

Focus on dodging all his attacks, parrying is too risky and too inconsistent because he often uses magical attacks that can’t be parried. Always dodge behind him, let him miss his attack, then land a combo on him. Rinse and repeat.

His most dangerous attack is when he shoots red lasers from the sky. While it’s possible to dodge them and heal immediately if you get hit, the best option is to use the green skill “Nature’s Snare” (Level 2 – Nature’s Retribution). It allows you to throw back projectiles. It takes some practice to recognize the attack, as soon as he charges up the red lasers you must use Nature’s Snare to catch them. When he stops shooting, he will do a jump attack after a short 2-3 second delay, so get ready to dodge immediately when the lasers stop.

At some points he might disappear. It’s unclear if this is a bug or not but he will spawn elsewhere in the arena. He often gets stuck somewhere on the rocks in the middle, or appears on the opposite side of the arena. Run around and watch for his red dot on the minimap to find him again.

He will hit harder in the second phase, save up some Palmer Pills for revives, it makes the fight significantly easier. It all comes down to how many Palmer Pills and Grilled Meat you bring, and having 100+ Defense stat will help too.

Boss #26 – Umbra (Final Boss)

• Main Quest: Blinding Darkness

After defeating Myurdin, you immediately go into the true Umbra boss fight.

Umbra is a big flying angel and the final story boss in Crimson Desert. You fight this one while riding your dragon. The boss has two moves: shooting rocks and lasers at you. The good thing is, if you die you don’t need to fight Myurdin again. The boss’s health doesn’t regenerate either when you die.

Fly close enough where your projectiles can hit the boss, but don’t get too close or Umbra makes a shockwave to knock you back. When you’re at a suitable distance, just fly left and right to avoid the lasers, stop flying forward. Shoot fire balls at the eye in the middle until the yellow stunbar below the boss’s health is full.

Once the yellow stunbar is full, you must jump off the dragon, glide toward Umbra’s eye, use air dash ( / ) to reach the eye and hit the eye with Force Palm ( / Mouse Wheel). This works similarly to the Tenebrum boss you fight in Scholaship Institute. Landing a Force Palm deals massive damage and takes away about half the healthbar. Repeat this 2-3 times to defeat Umbra. Afterward you will trigger the game ending.

For more guides check our Crimson Desert Wiki.