There are over 70 bosses for you to fight in Crimson Desert, and many of them will serve you a beating. One in particular has been terrorizing the community for a while now, igniting a conversation around boss design in Pearl Abyss’ hottest action-adventure RPG. The consensus seems mixed, but the root appears to be the same: Maybe it’s not the bosses, but the combat itself.
Kliff battles a mechanical fire-spewing Beyblade called Storm Crusher in Chapter 11. This spinning tank deals extremely serious damage at close range, often killing you in one hit by ramming its mechabody into you. And it targets you at long range with homing projectiles that can stunlock you. It’s a nuisance of a boss, according to a number of players frustrated by the fight.
Now that millions of players have begun exploring Pywell across consoles and PC, new players are encountering the Storm Crusher, too, and they’re getting crushed.
Redditor ittibittytitty posted a video on April 13 of their encounter with the spinning tank. “I really hate this boss,” they titled their post, as their Kliff was battered and then tossed out of the arena by the Storm Crusher.
Another Redditor, _Xraith_, posted their killcam on April 14, with their Kliff getting flattened like roadkill.
There are a lot of comments in both posts offering tips on beating the Storm Crusher boss, as there are multiple ways to do so. Catching its projectiles with the Nature Snare skill, hitting the top of its head (its weak point) with something like Force Palm, and firing arrows to detonate missiles. But the sentiment is the same across both comment sections, at least for the Skull Crusher: It sucks to fight because of the mechanics.
Remarkable_Sea_5109 posted on Reddit two weeks ago that, although they love the game, none of the boss encounters are “even a little bit fun.” In the video, Kliff’s body flails across the screen as the Chapter 7 boss, Awakened Ludvig, teleports around the arena and calls forward lightning strikes like he’s Zeus. They eventually defeat the boss, and the commenters started discussing how the combat impacts the game’s responsiveness.
“If I could move when I actually hit the button it would alleviate 99% of the frustration,” said one Redditor in the comments. “They need to separate roll and dodge to different buttons. I feel like that would make it feel more responsive,” quipped another. “Game is fantastic but the bosses are really crap,” replied a third Redditor.
The discourse came up again one week ago over how annoying “some of the bosses” are. Then again, on April 15, when a user posted what was basically a dissertation on how misunderstood bosses actually are. It all centered around Crimson Desert’s combat mechanics, and more specifically, the cues it takes from fighting games. The commenters weren’t having it, though, because the game felt unresponsive when it mattered.
“To me all of this info is good and well, however my actual issue with the bosses is they highlight how unresponsive the inputs are and how unreliable the camera is,” said one Redditor. “Yeah I dislike the boss fights because of the input delay,” chipped in another.
Pearl Abyss has been working on the game since it launched on March 19, releasing patches to address the frustrations with inventory management and replace “unintentionally included” AI art assets. (Something that should come with more scrutiny.) One of them, the same-day Version 1.00.02 Patch, “adjusted the combat balance of certain bosses, including Reed Devil.” The Reed Devil boss, battled in Chapter 3, is often considered the game’s first real “check” to test you.
The South Korean team is listening to the community, as stated in a developer blog outlining new features coming to the game in the future that include more mounts and difficulty options. There may be some changes to the Skull Crusher in upcoming patches, but at the very least, as the team explained in the blog post, there will be “new combat-focused content.” Maybe this will help the combat feel more refined or smoother.
While this conversation is heating up, other parts of the Crimson Desert community are wrapped up in other activities. One player learned that you can tame a big, fat cat. Others are offering tips, like waiting to take key items or you’ll break your quests. Some are looking for the best NPCs to become best friends with for the best friend hookup. But most players are hunting for the best drip.