Devious Crimson Desert players are sending NPCs tumbling to their deaths by weaponizing their insatiable apple cravings

Damiane in Crimson Desert. — (Image credit: Pearl Abyss)

Crimson Desert might defy comprehension, but one thing is certain: It's a lot. There are more mechanics than even the game itself seems to know what to do with. You can coax razor clams out of their mudflat holes with salt. You can cook meat with reflected light from your sword. You can waterski with secret shoes.

And, as one sinister player in Korea discovered, you can manipulate NPCs into falling from lethal heights by exploiting their profound hunger for delicious apples.

떨군 템을 NPC가 먹는 이유..ㅠㅠ - YouTube

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In Crimson Desert, NPCs have a reliable (and relatable) behavior pattern: If you drop an item—particularly food—nearby, passersby will pick it up for themselves. This can be an issue if you accidentally toss something you'd intended on keeping, because an NPC could pocket it for themselves, and then your only recourse is the kind of behavior that constables tend to frown upon.

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But NPCs and their packrat protocols offer an opportunity if you're, you know, a sociopath.

In a display of what could arguably be described as ingenuity, YouTuber moshola_aaa devised a method for delivering NPCs to an untimely end using only a bridge, a tantalizing apple, and a carefully-positioned log. By extending the log over the side of the bridge and placing an apple upon it, moshola_aaa presented NPCs with a paradox most cruel: An apple they can never reach, but which they must secure.

The pathfinding of Crimson Desert NPCs unfortunately isn't up to the task of navigating the obstacle of the log, but so great is their apple drive that they choose the worst possible solution: They jump for it.

Backed by a soundtrack of piano and heartwrenching Korean vocals, moshola_aaa treats us to a tragic montage of NPCs taking running leaps in the hopes of claiming the treacherous fruit, only to thud helplessly against the log and tumble to their deaths in the canyon below.

It is, I'll admit, pretty funny. And given the constant conveyor of Crimson Desert clips I've been fed since its launch, I'm sure there will be plenty more elaborate player-made NPC deathtraps to look forward to.

Lincoln has been writing about games for 12 years—unless you include the essays about procedural storytelling in Dwarf Fortress he convinced his college professors to accept. Leveraging the brainworms from a youth spent in World of Warcraft to write for sites like Waypoint, Polygon, and Fanbyte, Lincoln spent three years freelancing for PC Gamer before joining on as a full-time News Writer in 2024, bringing an expertise in Caves of Qud bird diplomacy, getting sons killed in Crusader Kings, and hitting dinosaurs with hammers in Monster Hunter.

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