The Crucible Knight is an optional boss in Elden Ring, that you should search for and defeat. This is a holy dark Knight that will rise to ensure your fall. Sorry for the really bad dark knight pun. What makes him dangerous is his mastery of both melee and magic attacks. While he doesn’t do any ranged attacks his melee attacks are more than enough to compensate for it. So let us quickly check how to beat Crucible Knight in Elden Ring, and how to cheese him.
How to Defeat Crucible Knight in Elden Ring
This is a mediocre fight it is not too tough, but definitely not easy. You can defeat the Crucible Knight by attacking him in between his moves. A very important thing to note about this fight is his moves deal a lot of damage but are somewhat slow at least in the first phase. So if you can learn its moves then you will defeat him in no time. He has two phases let us check the moves in both phases.
Phase 1
- Ground Stomp: Starting with his most deadly attack. The Crucible Knight will stomp his foot on the ground that does AoE damage to the front. You should roll back to avoid it or if you are very close to him then you can try rolling towards him to get behind. Although the second method isn’t recommended. You can recognize this move when he wields his sword with both his hands. After the stomp, he will also do a slash. This is a very strong attack as he is wielding it with both hands so dodge this attack by all means. Sometimes he will also do a follow-up spin attack to slash twice.
- Shield Charge: He will charge and thrust his shield towards you in an upward motion. This attack is quite slow so you should be able to dodge it easily by rolling back or two the side.
- Forward thrust: He will do a small dash and thrust his blade forward.
- Two slashes: This attack mostly consists of a backslash followed by a thrust. You can try to run behind during the slash or maintain distance. And roll to the side or forward towards him during the thrust.
There will be plenty of room for you to attack, especially when you are close to him. Chip away his health as much as possible. Once his health reaches near half you will see him release an orange aura and spread his wings. This is your cue for phase 2 of the fight.
Phase 2
- Flying thrust: Crucible Knight will spread his wings and launch himself in the air. Next, he will dive forward to you while keeping his blade forward in order to impale you. The best way to dodge this attack is by rolling towards it. Alternatively, you can also roll to the side just before it connects.
- Tail Whip: This is a rather troublesome move especially if you fight melee. The attack plays like any other slash attack but if you are behind him. He will sometimes create a magic tail to whip you with.
- Two Tail whips: What is more annoying than a tail whip attack? You guessed it! A double tail whip attack. Crucible Knight whips out its tail and spins twice. The best way to avoid this attack is to roll back as many times as needed to get out of its attack range.
Other than the above moves he will also use his moves from phase 1. This is a good thing as it is the best time to attack him instead of during his phase 2 moves. Once you learn the above moves you can defeat him in no time. Alternatively, you could also cheese him.
How to Cheese Crucible Knight Boss in Elden Ring
Not saying mages have it easy, but for this fight, you can kind of cheese him. To keep the cheese method simple create distance between you and the Crucible Knight. Time your magic attacks so that it hits him when the Knight is attacking. During the time he attacks, there will be some opening that can deal him some decent damage. Try not to attack all your attacks at once as his shield does block a lot of magic damage. You can chip away his health but the attacks would be more effective if you could hit him when there is an opening.
This method works well for ranged attackers too, in case you use arrows or bolts. But remember to conserve them, as magic damage might chip away his health but arrows or bolts he can completely block.
That sums up this guide on how to defeat the Crucible Knight in Elden Ring and how to cheese him. You can also check our other boss guides on how to beat the tree Sentinel, Godrick the Grafted, and Starscourge Radahn. For more things on this game check out our dedicated Elden Ring guides.
