Crimson Desert: How to beat the Excavatron

Crimson Desert is not a Soulslike. However, bosses can prove to be quite an epic challenge. After battling your way through mountains of regular enemies, you might think it'll be a similar walk in the park as soon as a big red health bar pops up at the top of your screen. You would think wrong, and while you may have learned this after engaging in a kicking match with Matthias, you're sure to be reminded by the Excavatron, an enemy linked to a side quest you can pick up at the beginning of Chapter 2.

The Excavatron is an absolute unit, and if like me you found yourself losing heart after getting one-shot multiple times by his drill attacks, then you'll want to keep reading through this guide to help turn that mortal enemy into a sack of scrap.

Firstly, we strongly advise you don't take on the Excavatron as soon as you can in Crimson Desert. Unless you've done loads of exploring, fighting, and grinding in Chapter 1, which can be tough, you'll likely be unable to survive one or two hits against this boss. It's tempting to smash your head into the wall over and over, thinking it'll break, but if you go back to the main quest, do some other side activities, or simply enjoy other parts of the sprawling open world, you'll just have a nicer time against the Excavatron when you do want to face him again.

It's worth getting yourself some health and stamina upgrades with Abyss Artifacts, but if there's one skill that proved vital in us turning him from treasure to trash, it's the skill in the Spirit tree that gives you a moment of slowed-down time when you evade. That is a life-saver, as otherwise even if you dodge away from the drill attacks, you can get caught up in them. Blocking doesn't help much, too, unless you go ahead and up your defence with greater bits of armour. In short, that's health, dodge skill, and armour as the three most important things you'll want to sort out before tackling the Excavatron again.

When you are ready to jump back into the quarry arena, it's not just about having enough health to tank a couple of hits. Here, you'll want to be cautious with when you go in to strike. The Excavatron hits hard, and so getting in close with a sword might not be your best bet. If you are willing to take him head-on, then be sure to cook some food ahead of time. Crimson Desert is kind enough to let you pause fights, have a snack to restore health, then carry on. Otherwise, if you'd like to keep away, perhaps think of switching to a spear, or stocking up majorly on arrows to deal with him from range. Even then, relying too much on the safety of distance can lead to losing a lot of health when the Excavatron burrows underground.

Luckily, there's a major counter to his burrowing power. When the Excavatron jumps in the air and starts digging towards you, there's no need to run away. Instead, if you jump and click in the right stick, you'll use a palm strike that immediately forces him out of the ground and stuns him. This is your moment for big damage. Considering how much the Excavatron loves going underground, the boss fight really loses a lot of its initial scariness once you know this trick. The Excavatron can still do a lot of damage though, so make sure you get out of his way fast when he stands back up after being stunned.

So long as you keep your distance when he's attacking, which is usually preceded by him winding up a drill arm or a flashing light coming from his mech suit, and punish him for burrowing underground, you should be able to take the Excavatron down. Don't worry if you need to go off and come back to him, as we abandoned the fight for most of Chapter 2 and only came back at the point we'd got more gear. When you're ready, hopefully you can take him down like in the video below: