This game balance is all over the place, rest of the game is trivia at that point including rooms before, but can’t beat the Crucible Boss even with broken, life on hit rings , if I dont doge charger Im dead from 100% there is almos no window to attac him, he is spamig abilities no stop and every hit take 1/3 and I have 700 armor.
There are various complaints from various posts and topics about the current iteration of the crucible.
Here are some examples:
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It takes too long to get to the boss.
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Getting to the boss is NOT engaging enough.
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There should be a Cerim Whisper in front of the boss after reaching it.
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The crucible run needs to feel more unique.
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Crucible rooms are too easy once you get to level 20+.
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At this stage of the game, we have enough healing items.
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Most of my deaths are due to ledges or fall damage.
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Being stuck at the boss fight and having to do all the rooms over and over.
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People can’t reliably practice the boss.
Here is my redesign of the Crucible
Remember to upvote if you like this idea.
Moon has a very talented team; their art is extremely unique and the explorable maps feel fun and unique. Even after farming them several times, I don’t get bored. Let’s capitalize on this and turn the crucible from being 6 randoms rooms into something different.
Let’s make it an explorable dungeon but with a gauntlet twist.
Here is how I envision it:
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The crucible is now its own instance.
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It would be similar in size to the current sewers, with lots of exploration, levers and maybe some simple puzzles.
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Mobs are not placed randomly, and every encounter is handcrafted like with CRPGs. Meaning every encounter is its own challenge. There are traps and multiple mob types to fight in line with the setting of the instance.
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You would enter it with only your equipped gear. Food items and potions have to be crafted and can’t be found.
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There is a special vendor to whom you can sell found items to purchase other items and recipes.
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You get to keep what you end the run with.
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Foods, Materials, Potions are rechargeable within the instance. This means if you used a consumable but died you get it back. Even if you kill the mini bosses, you get them back.
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After a mini boss there is a chest and a key which is required to unlock the next area.
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There are Cerim Whispers before every boss fight.
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Exploration is rewarded with chests, items, puzzles and lore.
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Farmable resources and chest don’t reset.
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The instance resets daily, there are 5-6 more crucibles to come so you can farm 6-7 of them once a day. Your potions are consumables are stored to the run.
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Activating a Cerim Whisper prevents the previous encounters from respawning. Bosses don’t respawn.
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Crucible unique gear and Tier Sets.
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Speedrun Records.
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Every death, you need to sacrifice a new ember.
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You can only reach the next encounter by clearing the previous one.
The Base Layout
I do think some sort of half broken castle with some verticality would be really cool. We could start by crossing a draw bridge and opening the gates and enter a courtyard. And as we progress we explore the castle. Similar to Mariner’s keep.
Start
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Sacrifice Ember
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Encounter 1
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Encounter 2
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Cerim Whisper A + Vendor
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Explore & Farm
Massive door behind which the Echo Knight is.
We go Left and explore and farm as we go.
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Encounter 3
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Encounter 4
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Encounter 5
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Cerim Whisper B
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Mini Boss 1
Besides dropping loot, they drop 1 of 2 keys required to unlock the door to the Echo Knight.
- Back to Cerim Whisper A
We go Right and explore and farm as we go.
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Encounter 6
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Encounter 7
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Encounter 8
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Cerim Whisper C
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Mini Boss 2
Besides dropping loot, they drop the second key required to unlock the door to the Echo Knight.
- Back to Cerim Whisper A
We open the massive doors.
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Encounter 9
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Encounter 10
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Cerim Whisper D
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Final Boss, the Echo Knight
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Loot! You get to keep what you have gotten during the gauntlet.
END
That’s it, thanks for taking the time to read it. If you like the idea, please upvote it 
If things are unclear, please let me know in the comments below.
Sounds really familiar. 
And I like it. 
The initial analysis is also pretty accurate.
It is at least better that what we have now. 
Super into your suggestions.
Would love to see intricate layouts with some light puzzles, platforming, possibility for stealth etc, with a bunch of different artistic templates, etc.
I’d like if the devs came and gave some of their thoughts and intentions too. So we could have a glimpse of the big picture too.
And what the vision with this game truly is.
For me, that sounds like another part of the story/campaign. With the fixed design, objectives, and so. If that’s what it would become, just make it into a mission? Sure, it can’t be replayed, but replayed the same puzzle again and again in a static map would lost its charm after few runs.
I think what they want to do with Crucibles is a roguelike. And judging from that idea, no checkpoints, no “trial run” againts bosses, etc are common theme in roguelikes. NRFTW is a lot more forgiving since you can bring your levels and items from outside of the realm. Traditionally, you start clean for every roguelike run except very few exceptions. I do think current iteration has something to improve.
My suggestion would be:
- Make every run a clean slate. No items, no equipment only few unalocated attribute points.
- Stagger the difficulty with mobs and minibosses. For example, a total run could consist of 20 levels/stages with minibosses at level 5, 10, and 15. This is to give some sense of achievement and reward based on their skill level. In current system, you can die at level 1 or 6, it doesnt matter except for the for loot you found. In my proposed idea, dying at level 6 would still give some kind of achievement since you still defeated a miniboss, a milestone.
- Have a rest area where players can log out of the Crucables without erasing its progress. For example, there could be rest area at level 11. Players can leave to the overworld, leaving all of the acquired items behind in the Crucables, doing whatever they want to. And when they come back, they would start at level 11 with previously acquired items and continue there. If they die at level 12, they would of course start at level 1 again. This is a breathing point for player so that they can take a breath before continuing the gauntlet.
- Enemies and items scales with levels/stages. Lower level would yield less valuable items and higher levels have more valuable items and harder enemies.
- Everything else, I still can’t decide. Like the rewards, the cost of doing it, item spawn, etc.
My suggestion is adhering to devs’ wishes of doing a roguelike dungeon for their “endgame content”. I think the core concept of roguelike is you start as minimal as possible, the only one being tested is your skill. Not your items or consumables. This would make every Crucable run unique and rewarding. Learning by dying is too common in roguelike. With clean slate as your reward.
I wager that the crucible is quickly put together to give some “endgame early access” content for the time being.
@RomoloHero
We know from Thomas’ points on twitter that they intend to expand on crucible in a bunch of ways to almost make it like “Hades” within Wicked. So it’s just a matter of waiting to see what they have already built and intend to build I suppose.
I think the chalice dungeons in Bloodborne are a great place to look for inspiration. Random generated elements for sure, but rooms that are designed with deliberate careful play, some traps, winding paths, etc
A lot of this idea comes from one of my favorite game Vagante that I’ve been playing since 2016. But it has a boss fight for every dungeon in a 3 x 4 stages and rest area after every stage. It even has common theme for every 3 stages (3 caves, 3 forest, 3 catacombs, and 3 flying city(?)) with final boss at the end. Every run is a clean slate except for little unlockable perks.
A thing I didn’t mention is, after a while 12 stages in vagante become “too easy”. So it has a hidden difficulty level for people that likes to torture themself. Every bosses drops a key that could be used to open chest that grants consumables and equipment, but the key could also be used to access a hidden dungeon with different (harder) boss. So choosing it would basically sacrifice the loot for extra difficult stage. Completing those hidden stages unlock final boss’ 2nd form.
With that in mind it also has a hard mode. So in total it has 4 difficulty level with normal difficulty (which’s already hard enough for new player), normal + hidden, hard, and hard + hidden. That’s a tons of replayability.
For the power fantasy parts, I think it could be done in different Crucables. Orban Glades has Crucable, right? That one could have different mechanism of having items, but less valuable reward the more “overleveled” you are for the Crucable.
Hades is one of the best roguelikes out there, arguably the very best for how it combines industry leading mechanics and polish with a super deep story that almost never ends.
On a mechanical level, I think the crucible could do well to have multiple different modes, one that allows you to test your current build, and one that is a Roguelike that has you start with nothing and build up your build according to RNg choices throughout each run, with some persistent upgrades between runs as well
Near boss fight alvays must be a save point. It’s a really bad idea to make loooong fight road with huge boss on the end.
its not a bad idea 
Totally agree.I’ve done the crucible quest right now and i’m a little disappointed. i mean the story is great,level design absolutely gorgeous, but i see a lack of balance. I get to that point at level 15 and the crucible is designed for level 21 and above. So the game force you to get back farming exp and then return and going on with the main…bad idea in my humble opinion.Crucible quest should be a side quest or at least an “activity” the game present you as part of the endgame.So i suggest to move this quest later in the game or manage crucible like and endgame activity.
Guys, do not dwell on this boss, after the release of updates there will be a bunch of other altars, which will be other challenges and bosses, this is just the beginning, this boss will soon be forgotten for everyone. Or am I wrong?
Yeah you are correct. Also they intend to rework the whole crucible for 1.0 to be more Hades like.
Currently it’s just a placeholder.
yeah probably you’re right. But the point for me is the choice to including crucible in the main quest.In the future we have more dungeons or more crucible like sure, but the timing u get the access is the key. you have to unlock a dungeon for your current level not a dungeon u cant’ complete and force u farming. this is a gameplay i’d not like to see.
I never played Hades, what is that gameplay like and how would it work for the crucible?
I haven’t played it either. But it is said to be amongst the better made “roguelikes”.
It’s like a 10 minute road. It’s supposed to be a challenge.
Boss fight is already a challenge.