Fighting the Reed Devil in Crimson Desert is the first boss that might potentially challenge you, especially if you didn’t find Hornsplitter all that hard. Part of the difficulty of this fight is that you come to it after having fought your way through a whole army of the Reed Devil’s minions as you pursued him from the Reedfield Graves.
You finally catch up to him at Reedwind Valley—a pretty field of flowing grass—which is to be your arena. I’ll run through some tips to prepare for the Reed Devil fight (including a nearby fast travel point so you can return later), plus a handy trick to deal with his annoying clones and totems before the second phase.
How to beat the Reed Devil in Crimson Desert
First thing’s first, you’ll want to unlock the Abyss Cresset just next to the Reed Devil’s arena on the hill. If you exhausted all of your food fighting your way through the Reed Devil’s minions on the trail up to Reedwind Valley, there’s no shame in retreating and coming back later. In fact, I did just that because it was clear that the Reed Devil was too strong for me in my current state, though he has been nerfed since then.
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Just northwest of where it says Mountain of Frozen Souls on the map, you’ll find a Mysterious Energy circle and a little Abyss Cresset you can activate if you climb up, plus you’ll get an extra Abyss Artifact.
Now, here are some tips to prep for him:
- Bring a lot of food and equip it in your consumables wheel: This fight can be quite attritional, so cook up lots of food to bring with you. I personally followed the river south of Hernand where there are loads of deer, killing them all, then cooked my gains into a tonne of Modest Grilled Meat. If you haven’t equipped any food via your consumable wheel yet, hold F3 (Right D-pad on controller) and move the arrow over the food. This will equip it and let you consume it using F3 or right on the D-pad.
- Refine your weapons and armour: It’s easy to sleep on improving your gear, but it’s so cheap to do at the Smithy and gives you both extra damage and defence. If you need some better gear, try the Contribution Shop in Hernand Castle, or talk to Rhett, since he starts selling more armour as you progress.
- Respec into the fundamentals: If you’re anything like me, you used your Abyss Artifacts to purchase lots of fancy skills, but didn’t grab the most important stuff, namely: health, stamina, and spirit. Stamina, in-particular, is absurdly valuable in boss fights, since you can block most attacks at the cost of stamina without taking damage. Lots of stamina is great against the Reed Devils fast flurries.
- Bring a sword and shield: You’ll already have the Sword of the Lord you got from defeating the Hornsplitter in Chapter 2 and this is a great weapon. Shields are also more stamina-efficient for blocking attacks versus double-handed swords and spears, plus they have a decent attack speed. Also visit a grindstone if you can to buff your damage—there’s one in Thinker’s Meadow, just to the southeast of the Greymane Camp at Howling Hill.
- Grab Keen Senses Level 2: The first level of this spirit tree skill you automatically unlock gives you a parry, but the second level gives you an enhanced evade that’s much better than the regular one.
And here are some tips for the fight itself:
- Use Force Palm to build his stun meter: In-particular, the three-hit Force Palm you get at Level 3 with the skill will do massive stun damage to the Reed Devil. Remember that you can also use Focus to regenerate spirit when he’s further away.
- Perform finishers: When the yellow stun meter below his health reaches max, you’ll have time to deal some damage, but you can also perform a finisher if you get close. Press the left and right mouse buttons (RB and RT on controller), though the window is quite long, so you’ve got time to hit him a few times first..
- Keep some distance: Reed Devil is really hard to fight close up, since he’ll appear and disappear all around you, and while you can parry him with the block button, it often won’t stun him and he’ll just pop up behind you. It’s better to keep your distance, blocking attacks, then damaging him when he’s sheathing his sword post-combo. You can also catch him with running kicks if you press F (or Y on controller) while he’s circling you, or with Force Palm strikes.
- Evade the red flashing attacks: In the first phase when he charges up and you get to observe and learn Swift Stab, you’ll want to evade. The same goes for the combo where he fires a series of red blades at you in the second phase.
- Oneshot the totems with Turning Slash: Arguably the hardest part of the fight is between the second and first phase where he summons copies of himself and you have to break totems to get rid of them. The Turning Slash ability is perfect for this, since you’re hard to flinch when charging it. Simply run up to a totem, hold the left and right mouse button (RB and RT on controller). After a short charge, you’ll smash it in a single strike. The rest of the time, keep sprinting to avoid Reed Devil’s clones.
Honestly, Reed Devil only seems scary because you arrive at him with no food after having fought through endless hordes of his minions. The most important thing, depending on when you arrive at him, is to prep correctly, bring enough food, respec if you’re lacking health and stamina, and make sure your gear is in good shape.
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