Billy the pickpocket is the unluckiest man in Crimson Desert

I met Billy in a Hernand alley on my first day in Crimson Desert. There I was, just minding my own business, chatting to a beggar, when this numpty bumps into me. “Rude!” I think to myself. Then he immediately legs it, a millisecond before I realise my pockets are feeling a touch lighter. The villain!

Unfortunately for Billy, he’s not very fast, and I am extremely fast. In a split second he’s pinned to the ground and I’m smashing his dumb face in. It turns out, Billy is a wanted man—since he seems to be Hernand’s only pickpocket.

Since this was just the start of my adventure, last week, I hadn’t started picking up bounties yet. Also, I ain’t helping round up people to toss them in prison. That’s not how you solve the systemic social problems in Hernand that thrust potentially otherwise good people into a life of crime and banditry.

OK, so my reasons weren’t actually as noble as that. I’d just been too busy petting cats and dogs.

Anyway! Despite not having a quest to hunt down Billy, here he was, in my clutches. Out of pure vengeance, I brought the light-fingered idiot to the guard and received my reward. And off I went. But I keep thinking about Billy, and how if he’d just wandered down a different alley, or had just kept his fingers to himself, he’d still be a free man.

But it turns out that Billy can’t help getting himself thrown in jail, and he might be the unluckiest fella in Crimson Desert.

Over on the Crimson Desert subreddit, iamhakanlol posted a short clip of an effortless bounty hunt. It’s brilliant. In it, they’re reading a bounty poster. It’s for Billy. And right that very second, who should walk by but the man himself. He does his classic bump and steal, and a moment later he’s on the ground getting battered.

Bounty hunting is hard work… from r/CrimsonDesert

The comic timing is just exceptional. But it’s clearly not accidental.

Indeed, this seems to be how a lot of people encounter Billy. It’s how Pearl Abyss introduces you to bounties—even though some of you will have already started grabbing those posters. And it’s a really smart way to do it.

While most criminals can be found scattered around the wilderness getting up to no good, Billy is merrily wandering around Hernand—though he’s not the only crook you’ll find in town. But since he’s a pickpocket, it’s almost inevitable that you’ll encounter him, as he’s effectively hunting down your purse. If you just saw him sauntering about and you’d yet to engage with the bounty system, you’d have no reason to chase him down. But since he can’t keep his hands to himself, you’re naturally going to give him a beatdown, introducing you to the system organically.

Even with that in mind, though, Billy really picked the worst possible moment to mess with iamhakanlol.

For those of you yet to encounter poor, unfortunate Billy, I’d like to make a suggestion. Just let him go. No matter how hefty your coin purse is, Billy never takes more than a handful of coppers. This is not some hardened criminal looking to rob you of all you own. He’s just taking a bit here, a bit there. Maybe he’s got kids to feed. And with you solving all of Hernand’s problems solo, there’s probably not a lot of work going around. Consider it an act of charity. He really needs it.

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