Beloth is optional, but he does not behave that way

Beloth is one of the tougher optional fights in Crimson Desert. Compared with the other Antumbra-aligned bosses scattered around the world, he has far more health, he constantly inflicts ice damage, and he can freeze you at awkward moments. A few of his attacks can also one-shot you, even if you come back later in the game with better gear.

The bright side, if you can call it that, is that most of the fight’s more irritating parts can be controlled. Once you do that, the encounter becomes a straightforward battle with an ancient icy monarch who clearly missed the memo about fair play. Defeating Beloth also grants the full Shadow Armor set, including the ice-breathing helmet that is otherwise unavailable.

Preparation that makes the fight far easier

A few setup choices make a huge difference before you even start swinging:

  • Wear Frostcursed Armor, especially the cloak and chest piece. Their high ice resistance helps blunt the damage over time from Beloth’s frozen arena.
  • Enter from the western side of the arena. Unlock the Abyss Nexus just southwest of Beloth and use that route into the fight. Some players report ghosts joining the battle when they enter from the east, likely because they have accidentally aggroed them on the way in.
  • Use evasion to manage freezing. Look at the temperature gauge near the minimap in the bottom-left corner. If it drops to blue and stays there, Kliff will freeze. Evading pushes the temperature back toward green, so keep moving. If you do freeze, mash spacebar on keyboard or A on controller to break free quickly.
  • Bring fire damage. Fire weapons deal damage over time to Beloth. If you have not unlocked fire imbuement yet, the Groundsurge Abyss Gear is a good substitute because it creates a fiery explosion on Turning Slash. You can get it by defeating the second-to-last boss in Chapter 7. Another option is the Parting Gift Abyss Gear, earned by defeating Walter Lanford in the Nemesis’ Demise quest for House Serkis. That one leaves behind a bomb after an evade following damage, which then explodes in fire. You can also use a weapon with fire affinity, such as a Flame Spear, which can drop from Black Bear enemies in Pailune.
  • Stack Abyss Gear effects. Beloth’s health pool is large enough to make raw damage upgrades only part of the answer. I stacked Ator’s Orb from Darkbringer, Crow’s Pursuit from Crowcaller, and Shadow Claw from the Legendary Wolf quest to give Forward Slash three separate damage effects. You can do something similar with Turning Slash by combining Groundsurge, Wound of Darkness from Antumbra’s Sword, and the +35% Turning Slash damage gear from the secret chest in the Sanctum of Benediction.

It also helps to make sure you have a solid spread of Abyss Artifacts invested into health and stamina, along with some Palmar Pills. Refined Palmar Pills can be found in the chests while collecting the Frostcursed Armor, so it is worth checking every one instead of sprinting past them like a professional regret collector.

Beloth’s most dangerous attacks

Beloth has more than three moves, but only a handful are especially dangerous. These are the ones that matter most.

Double spear slams

Beloth flashes red, summons an ice spear in his off-hand, and alternates spear slams twice before leaping and creating an ice spike AoE in front of him.

The answer is simple: keep your distance, then dodge under him or to the side when he jumps. After the slam lands, move in and punish him.

Slash and spin

This one starts with Beloth swinging his spear twice. He then summons an ice spear, spins toward you, and follows with a stab that will usually one-shot you.

The key is to dodge through him as he spins in with the ice spear. That often throws off the follow-up stab. I still recommend dodging again right after, just to make absolutely sure the game does not decide to be inventive. Once the stab misses, you can safely counterattack.

Spin and drop

This is the rarest of the major attacks, but it is worth knowing because it is awkward and unpleasant in all the usual ways. The screen darkens, Beloth summons an ice spear, drops into a crouched pre-spin stance, and then spins toward you before disappearing. He reappears from above and crashes down, creating an icy shockwave around him.

This is not a great moment to go on the offensive. The pattern is harder to read, and the ice spikes that appear afterward are not especially interested in your wellbeing.

How the fight actually plays out

Beloth is a war of attrition, plain and simple. You evade, wait for openings, and then chip away at him after each safe dodge. That is the rhythm of the fight, even when he is trying very hard to make it feel less like a rhythm and more like a personal grievance.

A few more combat notes help:

  • Use Level 3 Force Palm combos to build his stagger meter.
  • When he goes down, finish him with the left and right mouse button combination, or RB and RT on controller.
  • Keep your temperature up by evading often, not just to avoid damage but to prevent freezing.
  • Keep your ice resistance high enough that the arena’s environmental damage does not turn the fight into an endurance test before the boss even gets involved.

The biggest differences in this fight come from three things: evading to avoid freezing in place, bringing enough ice resistance to reduce the damage over time, and entering from the west so you do not accidentally drag ghosts into the arena. In my run, no ghosts appeared during the fight at all, and I did not light any of the Hoenmark Ruins lanterns either.

If you prepare properly, Beloth goes from a miserable wall of frost and health to a manageable duel with a very good reward at the end. Which is, admittedly, how boss design should work when nobody is trying to be clever about it.