Us here at Just Push Start have put together a comprehensive guide to help you survive The Crucible and truly earn the title “Death”, but before we dive into the meat of the mode, let’s begin with the basics.
What is The Crucible?
The Crucible is an arena where Death can put his skills to the test in four stages. With 25 waves per stage, our Horseman must overcome 100 brutal waves that continuously increase in difficulty. To add a risk/reward factor to this exciting mode, Death is offered the opportunity to walk away with a prize after every 5th level or continue fighting on for greater loot and some legendary items. However, take the risk of continuing to battle corrupted creatures and fail, and all progress will be lost. Now that you have a basic understanding of how this arena mode works, let’s dive deeper into the specifics of The Crucible.
Unlocking Each Stage
All 100 waves of The Crucible are not available from the start. Substantial progress will have to be made and requirements met before the player can finish the arena mode. Once the preset goals are achieved, special Tarot Cards are awarded that unlock more of The Crucible’s stages. The following is a list of each stage, its corresponding Tarot Card and how to unlock said card.
Stage 1 (Waves 1-25): Tarot Card – The Fool
Stage 2 (Waves 26-50): Tarot Card – The Emperor
Stage 3 (Waves 51-75): Tarot Card – Strength
Stage 4 (Waves 76-100): Tarot Card – The Devil
Bonus Wave 101: Tarot Card – Death
Preparing for The Crucible
Since The Crucible is very demanding and all of its content can not be unlocked immediately, there are certain steps that should be taken before stepping into the deadly arena. Here’s a few tips to better prepare you for the lengthy battle that lies ahead.
– Compete in The Crucible toward the end of New Game+.
– Toward the end of NG+, you should have the best understanding possible of enemy types, strategies and effective armor/weapon combinations.
– At this point, you should have reached Level 30 with a full skill tree.
– Don’t forget to purchase new moves from Thane and Draven to ensure that you have a combat option for every situation.
– Assuming your skill tree isn’t maxed out, level up the Teleport Smash (found in the Recommended Build below) ability in the Harbinger tree for maximum health recovery as well as a quick way to avoid attacks or pass through enemies to attack their exposed backside.
– Also invest in the Murder (an optional addition to the Recommended Build below) ability and the Bless option in the Necromancer skill tree to gain both healing and damage dealing attributes from this useful power.
– ALWAYS stock up on Health and Wrath potions.
