Crimson Desert players have discovered a new strat for the game's punishing combat, and it involves a ton of bees.
As posted by YouTube user Club_of_Gamers, a video shows protagonist Kliff getting into a fight with the Machina Knight boss with the Marni Longsword, and instead of swinging for the boss to engage in a heated sword fight, they instead go straight into their inventory and start releasing bees that they had previously captured onto the battlefield. This trick actually manages to take down the entirety of the boss's HP, and Kliff continues to dodge his enemy for the entirety of the duel – although the video was sped up had a time-skip during it, so it's not clear how long it actually took.
The strat – which is also dubbed the Beekeper Build – is also employed in a second video, in which tough bosses, the likes of Beloth the Darksworn, Bradie Gu, and the White Bear of the High Mountains are all felled by the power of bees.
I'll admit – despite being so terrified of bees as a youngun that I had to play Crash 2's bee levels on mute – stuff like this will convince me to play Crimson Desert more than it having a massive open world, endless content, or beautiful graphics. It's a daunting prospect simply for how long the game seems to be, but I have a massive soft spot for games that just let you mess about and do what you want. It's why The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Metal Gear Solid 5 are the pinnacle of open-world games, it's why Dragon's Dogma 2 is one of my favorite RPGs ever made. Let me mess around and try out silly stuff, and my heart is yours.
Be sure to check out our Crimson Desert review to find out of its worth playing amid the many other new games for 2026.
