Master Skills in Crimson Desert by Observing Enemies and Bosses in Action

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The concept of ‘Observing skills in action to learn them’ in Crimson Desert is a blast, as it allows you to unlock abilities without spending your valuable Abyss Artifacts. Simply watch an enemy or boss perform their moves to learn their tricks and use them against them.

Skills available for observation are marked in the skill tree, so consider holding off on purchasing these unless they are crucial for your playstyle. If you encounter an enemy that uses a skill you want, you can always respec to learn it, giving you an extra point to allocate, but it might be wiser to wait. Here’s how to observe and learn skills, along with the opportunities I’ve discovered so far.

During battles in Crimson Desert, when an enemy executes an attack, the game slows down momentarily. A “Learning” bar appears in the top left, showing the skill name and a count like 1/3. This indicates how many times you need to witness that skill to learn it—once you hit that number, a pop-up will explain how to perform the skill.

If you spot a regular enemy using a learnable skill, try to prolong the fight as much as possible. I recommend taking out all other enemies first and then baiting the one you want to learn from until you’ve mastered it. In boss fights, you’re likely to learn skills more easily, as it’s rare to defeat a boss so quickly that you miss the opportunity to observe their moves.

Here are all the observable skills I’ve come across so far:

Skill	Location
Pump Kick	During the fight with Matthias in Hernand during Chapter 2.
Drop Kick	Learned from one of the bandits keeping Wooly the sheep hostage during the Missing Companion quest in Chapter 2.
Evasive Roll	Learned during the fight with Kailok the Hornsplitter in Chapter 2.
Swift Stab	Learned during the Reed Devil fight in Chapter 3.
Focused Force Palm	Learned en route to Scholastone in Chapter 4.
Aerial Roll	Learned during the Crowcaller fight in Chapter 5.
Clothesline	Learned from many of the Black Bear enemies you encounter in Chapter 6 and 7.

As you can see, most major bosses offer at least one skill to learn, but there are also some random enemies that can teach you skills during combat.