Darksiders II Deathinitive Edition

Hey all, I just 1000'd the game and would like to share my strategy for the Crucible with all of you, as it is probably the most challenging achievement in the game (since it is like a Soul Arbiter's maze on steroids).

Obviously SPOILERS below.

This will primarily concern going through waves 1-100 in one sitting since if you want to beat the Crucible boss, Wicked K (and there is an achievement for doing so), you need to accomplish this.

First of all, wait until New Game+ to do this, since there is a level cap of 22 on your first playthrough and you need to be level 25 to unlock waves 75-100. Also, and this should be a no-brainer, drop the difficulty down to Easy. For this reason I did my first playthrough on Apocalyptic so I could drop it down to Easy immediately upon starting NG+. On easy, I was able to complete the Crucible at level 25 (although getting to 30 first would certainly make it easier) without too much trouble. This took me a little under two hours.

As you will soon see, it is all about the crit, and I did it using a strength/Harbinger build. Necro is viable, but I have no experience with it so you will need to look elsewhere or respec. Sorry!

For weapons, it is almost required to have a weapon with health/wrath steal, because it will allow you to get through almost all waves without using potions (as an example, I only used potions on waves 92, 95 and 100). You also want to stack crit chance and damage. For example, my weapon was a set of level 23+5 possessed scythes called Last Rites (because I am a boss at giving weapons cool Death-fitting names) with the following stats:

Damage: 188-214
Critical Chance: +26%
Critical Damage: +30%
Health on Crit: 51
Health Regen: 113

In retrospect, ditching the health regen for more health on crit would have been better, but this gives you an idea of my setup.

My secondary weapon was a purple armblade setup that had wrath on crit and increased crit chance. You can use a possessed set and level these attributes if you want a really fast way to grab a shitload of wrath.

For armour, I used two pieces of the Abyssal set (that you get from collectible quests) and other pieces that maxed crit chance and damage. If you don't have all the collectibles, just stack crit chance/damage.

You will have a much easier time if you have finished the 'Sticks and Stones' collectible quest as you can trade in stone combos for permanent +2% Crit Chance or +10% Crit Damage. I believe I did 6 crit chance combos and 5 crit damage combos. That +12% chance / +50% damage stacks with everything else across everything, and is huge. Also, If you collected all the Ostagoth relics and completed the sidequests, you will have a number of extra skill points for your build, as I show below.

By the time I was outfitted, I had approximately 60% crit chance and +375% crit damage. Critting almost every other strike really brings the pain and the health steal will keep you topped up for a long time.

For builds, I had full Harbinger as my gear was strength focused, but I have heard that if you stack Arcane/Arcane crit abilities, the Crows turn into a death machine. Either way, stacking crit is by far the most important

My build was full Harbinger, with (All Maxed):
Teleport Slash/ Immolation/ Unending Fury/ Death Blossom/ Inescapable/ Rage of the Grave

Unstoppable/Inevitability/Empowerment/Call of the Grave

Teleport Slash, combines with the health on crit steal and the increased crit chance from its tree, will give you a _lot_ of health back. Unstoppable, when popped, will give you an extra 40% crit damage and 20% crit chance, and will murder most early waves incredibly fast.

As for the waves themselves, I used an excellent guide that details exactly which enemies you will face and gives you some basic strategy:

http://segmentnext.com/2012/08/17/darksiders-2-crucible-mode...

With my build, waves 1-69 or so were no trouble. Pop unstoppable and go to town. If you need some room, dash away and hit a few teleport strikes to bring the hurt and fill up your health. To get wrath, use Redemption (the pistol) a few times or pull out the armblades/secondaries with wrath steal (if you have them, if not, the pistol should be fine).

Waves 70-100 are more difficult because of the enemy combos. Read the guide for more. Watch for wave 75 (the Deposed King) - that spin attack is dangerous. If you have completed the game, you are familiar with the Maelstroms you encounter in Shadow's Edge (the red liches that shoot a 5-combo fireball at you). These are very dangerous because of the extremely high burst damage they do (even on easy) and because potions give you a HoT rather than a burst heal - the fireballs can overwhelm the potions and kill you, especially if you are frozen or stunned (wave 70 or especially 73). You only encounter them a few times, but when you know they are coming up, pop unstoppable before they spawn and hit them with a couple teleport slashes to kill them fast. On wave 92 (where you encounter two of them and where I almost died because of the burst damage) I had to pop Reaper form.

For wave 100 (endgame boss), just spam teleport strike, stay away from him and use as many potions as you need to to survive. Once you beat him you unlock Wicked K (who in my opinion was easier - I killed him in 5 Teleport Slashes using the same build/weapons)

Note that once you do beat wave 100, you can leave and re-enter and still have access to Wicked K as an option from the Arena Master's dialogue wheel when you select which wave to start from. Also, you need the deathgrip to get to Wicked K after the pathway opens up, so rush the Foundry to do so (I did not and had to spend 90min doing Lost Temple/Foundry - not fun!).

Good luck all - it is hugely satisfying to know you beat this test of endurance!

Credits: Chimaera36