How to beat the Crimson Nightmare in Crimson Desert

Beating the Crimson Nightmare boss in Crimson Desert is part of House Roberts’ faction quest. The count has a bit of a thing for sending you after annoying bosses, since previously you had to head to Karin Quarry and defeat a diving suit-looking robot by the name of Marnie’s Excavatron. This time you’re going to the Bleed Bandit-infested Fort Perwin to face a seemingly sentient cloud of red gas.

This boss can be extremely annoying if you approach it in the wrong way, or don’t grab the item that counteracts the annoying damage-over-time when you’re close to it. Either way, here’s how to easily overcome the Crimson Nightmare.

How to defeat the Crimson Nightmare in Crimson Desert

Though it might seem like a rather irritating boss at first due to the fact it damages you when you’re close to it, and the fight is slap-bang in the middle of a Bleed Bandit fort, it’s easy enough to beat if you follow these tips:

• Grab a Scarlet Blades Gas Mask: This piece of gear is a potential drop from the Bleed Bandits wearing the masks with black eye lenses, but if you equip it, you become immune to the Crimson Nightmare’s gas. This means you can get close and deal damage. I found multiple of these when killing bandits around the fort, so keep an eye out for one dropping.
• Use Axiom Force to stun it: You can basically trivialise this fight if you use Axiom Force, as in the video above, to target the core at the centre of the Crimson Nightmare and then wrench it out. This will knock it to the ground and give you some time to deal damage. If it recovers, simply do it again.
• Take out the bandits before you start the fight: While there’s no point fighting every bandit around the outside of Fort Perwin, once you get inside, I recommend killing every bandit in there as well as those in the boss arena before you enter. Simply bait them out with a bow if they won’t move. It might take a while, but the boss is unlikely to take you more than one attempt if you use Axiom Force correctly.
• Make sure you have enough health and stamina: You won’t need these in the boss if you’re using Axiom Force, but they’ll make clearing the fort easier. Honestly, having more health and stamina versus loads of fancy abilities is the one tip I’d give for beating any boss in the game. The same applies for bringing some food to heal with.
• Refine your weapons: Again, dealing more damage just makes bosses quicker, and refining only costs iron and copper for the initial stages, making it well worth the investment.

I did come to the Crimson Nightmare late, as you can see in the video, but so long as you have the Scarlet Blades Gas Mask to counteract its fog, use Axiom Force to chain stun it, and deal with the bandits before attempting the boss, it’s really a piece of cake.