Elden Ring Crucible Knight tips and strategy

How to prepare for Crucible Knight

The Crucible Knight simply attacks with physical-based slashes, but it still hits hard. To that end, we'd highly recommend kitting yourself out in your best physical defence armor possible, as there aren't any elemental-based attacks you need to worry about in this fight.

Preparing for this fight can be a lot different, depending on whether you're good at parrying or not. If you feel confident in your parry abilities, kit yourself out with a shield, because the Crucible Knight is one boss that's incredibly vulnerable to being parried.

No worries if you're not a dab hand at the parry though, because simply dodging this boss' attacks is a viable option.

Crucible Knight tips: How to beat Crucible Knight

Chiefly, the Crucible Knight performs slashing and stabbing attacks with his big sword. Learning the timing of the swings is absolutely paramount, because once you've got them down, this fight become a lot easier.

A general rule for the boss fight is to always roll into the Knight's attacks, instead of away from them, so you can follow up the roll with a quick slash attack of your own.

Another rule is that the more you chip away at Crucible Knight's health, the more chain attacks you'll see. For example, the boss typically pulls off one or two slashes at once near the beginning of the fight, but this number increases to four or five attacks in a row.

Generally, if the Knight's attack ends with his sword on the floor in front of him, you're good to strike him, but if his sword finished a swing behind him, be prepared to dodge again.

When the Crucible Knight races forward with his shield, be prepared to dodge into the boss at the last possible second. This is a shield-based attack that'll fling you up in the air and leave you on the ground for a few seconds should you get hit by it, and this is one attack you seriously want to avoid.

If the boss raises his leg up, with or without his shield equipped, you want to be mid-dodge by the time his foot hits the ground. This is an area-of-effect shockwave attack, and it's also the beginning of a four-hit combo, meaning it's deadly if you get caught out by this first strike.

At roughly half health, the Crucible Knight sprouts wings and a tail. Dealing wit the former is pretty simple, as the Crucible Knight will periodically rise up into the air, before screaming down at you in a line.

Simply dodge roll to either side of the boss when he's merely a few feet from you to avoid this attack entirely.

As for the tail, things are a little more complicated. The Crucible Knight will now chain a tail whip onto most of its regular combos and attacks, meaning there's one more dodge you need to pull off at the end of the majority of combos.

Remembering this is paramount, because it can stun you and leave you open to another attack from the Knight.

If you see the Knight whip its tail around while stood a good distance from you, be prepared to dodge roll. While the smaller tail whip simple goes out to the standard range, there's actually a far bigger tail whip that follows this attack up, stretching over roughly half the entire arena.

Crucible Knight reward

When the Crucible Knight is finally down for good, you'll be rewarded with 2,100 Runes. You'll also bag the fantastic Aspects of the Crucible: Tale Incantation, which actually grants you the ability to summon your very own tail for a swiping attack in front of you.

With the Knight dead, it's time to head back up to the open world of Elden Ring and continue your journey to become an Elden Lord.