Overview
Evasive Shot is a ranged combat skill in Crimson Desert, available to all three playable characters (Kliff, Damiane, and Oongka). It belongs to the Stamina (Blue) branch of the skill tree. While aiming, sidestep an enemy attack and release an arrow.
Skill Details
Detail | Info |
|---|---|
Character | |
Skill Tree | Stamina (Blue) |
Category | Ranged Combat |
Cost | |
How to Unlock | |
Input | Circle twice while aiming |
Skill Progression
Evasive Shot has 3 upgrades that branch from it as you invest more Abyss Artifacts.
Skill | Effect | How to Unlock | |
|---|---|---|---|
Increases the speed of Evasive Shot. | Raise Evasive Shot to Lv. 2 | Passive | |
Automatically fire two arrows in rapid succession during Evasive Shot. | Raise Evasive Shot to Lv. 3 | Passive | |
Fire an arrow into the ground that propels you skyward for aerial follow-ups. | Raise Evasive Shot to Lv. 3 or observe skill in action | R1 + R2 while aiming |
Combat Role
Evasive Shot is widely regarded as one of the four most important combat skills in the game. The community sometimes refers to it as the "dance dance revolution" technique because of the rhythmic dodging pattern it creates. By spamming Evasive Shot repeatedly, you can keep enemies and bosses in a permanent stagger-lock state, preventing them from ever reaching you. This makes it one of the strongest defensive and offensive tools in Kliff's arsenal.
Stagger-Lock Strategy
The core strategy is straightforward: fire Evasive Shots in rapid succession to keep a boss perpetually staggered. Once you have an opening from the stagger chain, switch to Charged Focus Shot to unleash a barrage of explosive flaming arrows for massive burst damage. This combination trivializes many encounters that would otherwise require careful positioning and timing.
Infinite Arrows Synergy
Equipping the Infinite Arrows 2 and Infinite Arrows 3 Abyss Gear pieces on your bow enables indefinite arrow spam. Load a single explosive arrow and continue firing without running out. Combined with the Bow of the Fleeting (which has innate +2 Critical Rate), plus +6 from Insight gears to reach the internal crit cap, every shot has a high chance of landing a critical hit. The constant crit procs ensure that Evasive Shot into Charged Focus Shot deals maximum possible damage.
This build is so effective that some players intentionally avoid using it because it removes the challenge from every encounter. If you want a more engaging experience, consider saving Evasive Shot stagger-locking for the hardest bosses rather than using it on every fight.
Tips
Invest in Evasive Shot early to unlock its full progression chain.
Watch for opportunities to learn this skill by observing NPCs or enemies using it in combat.
Keep an eye on your Stamina bar when using this skill repeatedly; running out mid-combo leaves you vulnerable.
Spam Evasive Shot to permanently stagger-lock bosses, then transition into Charged Focus Shot for burst damage during the opening.
Equip Infinite Arrows 2 and 3 on your bow to fire indefinitely without running out of ammunition.
Pair with Bow of the Fleeting and Insight gears to hit the internal crit rate cap for maximum damage output.
Use Forward Slash for sustained melee damage when you want variety, and switch to Evasive Shot when you need to control a dangerous boss at range.
See Also
Damiane Rapid-Fire Gun Variant
Beyond the bow use case, Evasive Shot chains equally well with firearms. On Damiane, the same input layers onto muskets and shotguns to produce a rapid-fire burst that drains magazine capacity much faster than a normal aimed-shot pattern but outputs among the highest single-target damage available to her. The sequence is to hold the aim input, press dodge twice, then hold or spam the dodge input so each additional press queues another gunshot. The character auto-locks onto the target as the shots fire, so repositioning mid-burst rarely breaks aim.
The two supporting skill-tree picks are Evasive Shot rank 3 (each activation now fires twice, effectively doubling the round count per dodge press) and all five points of Marksmanship for flat ranged damage. For single-target boss windows, the shotgun variant produces the highest burst because each pellet benefits from the ranged-attack damage multipliers, but shotguns burn bullets roughly three times faster than muskets do, so a musket is the default general-combat pick and a shotgun is reserved for hard fights where the ammunition cost is acceptable.
The weakness of the pattern is area-of-effect output, because each shot targets a single locked enemy. The standard mitigation is to keep a Rapier in Damiane's off-hand slot and rotate to Smiting Bolt when multiple enemies close the distance, since Smiting Bolt drops a lightning bolt on the targeted enemy for wide ground damage. The rotation is therefore gun rapid-fire for single-target burst, switch to rapier and Smiting Bolt for crowds, then swap back to the gun for the next boss window.
Ammunition Sustain
Bullets are the gating resource for sustained play. Every equipment-shop vendor stocks bullet packs and refreshes stock on a frequent timer, so the cheapest way to build a stockpile before a boss is a rotation around the major city vendors. For ongoing sustain while playing, the Research Institutes branch in Delissia includes a replenishing-bullets unlock that caps at 50 bullets held at a time. That cap is comfortable for musket combat but not enough for shotgun-based burst play, so a dedicated shotgun loadout still needs the vendor restock loop on top of the research unlock.