How to beat Marnie's Excavatron in Crimson Desert

Crimson Desert Marni's Excavatron — (Image credit: Pearl Abyss)

Depending on which quests you progress, Marnie's Excavatron might be the first proper boss you face in Crimson Desert. This strange machine is being used to mine in the Bleed Bandit-occupied Karin Quarry, and you'll have to defeat it as part of House Roberts' Stolen Quarry quest, which unlocks in Chapter 2.

Luckily, there's one skill gimmick that kind of trivialises this boss, which is good, because otherwise you're going to have to spend your time getting unceremoniously drilled to death.

How to beat Marnie's Excavatron in Crimson Desert

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Crimson Desert Marni's Excavatron - Force Palm — Level 3 Force Palm gives you a three strike combo that stuns the Excavatron(Image credit: Pearl Abyss)

The Excavatron is a difficult boss to deal with, mainly because it does a shit tonne of damage and stun locks you with its drills when it attacks—it really just takes a couple of good hits to kill you. While using sword and shield is obviously best here to block its attacks, there is one key to easily beating this boss: unlock Level 3 Force Palm to get the Expertise node.

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This allows you to perform three consecutive Force Palms, and on the third strike, you'll hear a loud 'thonk' noise and the Excavatron will get stunned, letting you get a couple of combos in and deal some damage safely. After that, back off, get some distance, and use Focus by pressing X (R3 on controller) to recharge your spirit so you can do another Force Palm combo. If you don't have Focus yet, then I'd suggest progressing Chapter 2's first Unexpected Gift quest—it's really quick and easy to complete.

The only other thing to look out for is when the Excavatron digs underground and chases you, stabbing upwards. You can avoid the stabs by sprinting, but you'll want to evade before the last one to avoid getting hit when the boss resurfaces. There are also some other Bleed Bandit enemies in the arena. I suggest killing two of them and leaving the third alive so no more spawn.

Besides that, you can just rinse and repeat your three-strike Force Palm to get damage windows without too much risk. Once done, you'll get the Mining Knuckledrill and a gold vein map.

Sean's first PC games were Full Throttle and Total Annihilation and his taste has stayed much the same since. When not scouring games for secrets or bashing his head against puzzles, you'll find him revisiting old Total War campaigns, agonizing over his Destiny 2 fit, or still trying to finish the Horus Heresy. Sean has also written for EDGE, Eurogamer, PCGamesN, Wireframe, EGMNOW, and Inverse.

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