Crimson Desert – How to defeat the Crimson Nightmare

There’s a terrifying creature you can bump into while clearing out camps in Crimson Desert’s early game. Surrounded by red smoke, the Crimson Nightmare is unlike anything you’ve fought up to this point.

Because it isn’t made of flesh and blood, your tactics have to change. Magic is how you’ll bring the beast (if you can call it that) down.

If you want to make the fight slightly easier, you can farm the normal enemies around Fort Perwin. Each one has a chance to drop a Scarlet Blades Gas Mask, which will mitigate some of the damage the Crimson Nightmare does to you.

For the fight, you want to make use of Force Palm (R3). Each Force Palm hit increases the Crimson Nightmare’s stagger gauge by about a quarter. Once staggered, it’s open to regular attacks and its health quickly melts away.

Of course, Force Palm uses Focus, so you’ll need to either eat Spirit-replenishing food or meditate (both thumbsticks) to charge back up. Meditation might sound risky, but it slows time and doesn’t leave you as open as you’d think.

Dodge back after each palm to avoid dying to the red smoke, and make sure to keep your health topped up with food.

You can make the fight easier by spending skill points on improving your Force Palm. Upgraded, you can land three Force Palm strikes one after another – useful in this fight, but just as useful for traversing the world because three jumping Force Palms allow you to get height on demand and fly across the map.