Darksiders II

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!

Just a heads up, you do not need to complete all 100 waves in one sitting without dying.
For advice on builds/weapons/specific waves, check the other guides with in-depth info. There is nothing to add there.

I tried the crucible on level 25 on apocalyptic and was killed on wave 100 (duh). When I came back after I beat the game with lower difficulty and talked to the crucible master, something along the lines of "I choose my own path/way" could be chosen. The options are Wicked K, waves 26-50, 51-75, 76-100. I chose the last option, beat the last 25 waves and got the achievment. Same goes with

Best to wait until you max your level for this one. Use all your best defensive gear, and try to equip scythe/secondary weapons that can both hit for lots of damage and also give you either wrath/health to minimize your dependency on using your potions, which you'll want to save for the harder levels toward the end of the crucible (when I got this achievement I didn't use a potion before wave 75, but I ended up having 2 health and 2 wrath potions left over after beating the crucible and wicked K, so obviously you might be able to get away with using potions before wave 75 if you have confidence in your dodging ability.

Personally, I found it easiest to simply keep your wrath up with your pistol and the occasional melee combo, while throwing in the occasional Teleport Slash to regain lost health and hit for massive damage on the heavy enemies. Kind of a repetitive/monotonous way to fight, but it was an effective way to retain most of my health and ultimately got the job done. It took me around 4 tries to beat it, including one deflating loss at wave 99 (probably the hardest wave btw...don't hesitate to use those health potions and wrath potions to keep it a ranged battle. he can kill quickly.) so don't get frustrated if you fail a few times, because you will ultimately earn some awesome gear for beating waves 25, 50, and 75 that may prove useful in finishing the crucible.

Hi all,

I just finished this and wanted to give a heads up for those players who played on easy/normal for their first run, and did Apoc on their second (crucible) run.

Some waves can be tough on Apoc but there is NO NEED to put yourself through this. Instead, wait until you have finished the game and defeated the end game boss in the Well Of Souls. This will pop the 'A True Horseman' achievement and when done just head to the options tab in the pause menu and lower the difficulty to easy. Then go and breeze through the crucible :)

First of all, I will give a few suggestions for easier completion...

-1. Get to at least level 28 or so.
-2. Complete the Sticks and Stones side quest. This will give you stones that you can turn in for increases to a multitude of attributes (See Solution for "All You Can Eat Buffet").
-3. Get the Abyssal Armor. Get the 2 abyssal armor pieces that are not Crucible related first. The first is found by breaking the pots in the 4th Vulgrim death tomb (See Solution for Abracadabra), and the second is for returning all the relics to Ostegoth. The remaining 2 Abyssal armor pieces are prizes for completing level 50 and level 100 in the Crucible.
-4. MOST IMPORTANT, make weapons with Health Steal. This is VITAL for survival.

The primary weapon that I used was a pair of Possessed Scythes and have the following characteristics:
Health Steal - +30%
Ice Damage - 61
Critical Chance - +32%
Arcane - 77

The secondary weapon that I used was a Possessed Glaive with the following:
Health Steal - +28%
Shock Damage - 81
Critical Chance - +30%
Arcane - 72

My Skills were maxed out in the following Skill Trees (all adjacent attributes included) for the following effects:

Harbinger:
Teleport Slash - Used Primarily for Healing
Harvest - Used when surrounded by multiple enemies
Unstoppable - Increases Strength, Crit. Chance/Damage

Necromancer:
Frenzy: @493 Arcane, Deals 1067 damage per projectile (approx 10 projectiles).


Once combined with the three early pieces of the Abyssal Armor (not including the one from Crucible level 100) and a good talisman, my weapon stats were as follows:

Primary Weapon:
Damage per second - 4091
Critical Chance - 105%
Critical Damage - +130%

Secondary Weapon:
Damage Per Second - 4528
Critical Chance - 103%
Critical Damage - +130%


With Health Steal on both weapons and every hit being a critical hit, you gain approximately 400-500 points of health PER HIT...essentially making you invincible.

NOTE: If you leave/die between levels 26-50, you can restart at 26...levels 51-75 start at 51, and levels 76-100 restart at level 76.


As is stated in other solutions, I found the trickiest levels were levels 70-75, and 90-95...primarily because you can become quickly overwhelmed (especially with the Maelstroms shooting fireballs...Kill these first!).

If there are suggestions on improving this solution, please comment or leave message.

GOOD LUCK!!!