The Crucible – Fable II

This guide will help you complete The Crucible quest in Fable II.

The Crucible Walkthrough

After reaching the Westcliff camp at the end of the Road to Westcliff quest, your next task is to enter The Crucible and fight for your life in front of a bloodthirsty crowd. Speak to Mad-dog “The Strangler” McGraw in front of the main gate and express your interest in becoming a contender. If you have enough renown, you’ll be allowed entrance. If not, you’ll have to go complete some side quests, pay the friendly bard, or show off some trophies to meet the requirement.

Once inside The Crucible, you’ll be facing eight rounds worth of creatures. Each round has a specific target time associated with it, so you’ll want to slay all the creatures within that time period to maximize your rewards. Beat the time and that round is deemed a “Perfect Round”. Your primary target is to achieve five Perfect Rounds, but if you’re able to achieve all eight Perfect Rounds (on consecutive attempts, anyway), a special prize awaits you. Don’t worry about shooting for that lofty goal just yet – you’ll be able to return to The Crucible as often as you like afterward. In addition, the crowd will throw down sacks of gold to you as your “Excitement” multiplier builds each round. To increase the multiplier, deal as much damage as you can without taking any yourself. Oh, and between battles you’ll often times be given an opportunity to buy weapons or potions, so you’ll probably want to splurge a bit to make sure you have enough healing to make it through alive.

The first round pits you against three waves of Giant Beetles. If you’ve invested at least 3-4 points into speed or an area of effect spell, you should have no problem beating the target time of 1:45. The second round brings forth three waves of Hobbes. Once again, a well-trained area of effect spell is the easiest way to beat the target time of 1:50, though Time Control and Raise Dead aren’t too shabby either. The third round pits you against Hobbes again, though this time the room is much bigger and you’ll have to deal with the occasional suicide-bombing Hobbe. There are also explosive barrels scattered around the central pit, so try to use them to your advantage in order to beat the 2:25 target time.

For the fourth round, you’ll have to deal with three large waves of Hollow Men. You’re going to have to be pretty quick to beat the target time of 2:30. Area of effect spells (especially Inferno) and a fast, high damage weapon are your friends here. Heading into the fifth round, you’ll be facing three waves of bandits. In order to beat the 2:10 target time, you’re going to have to position yourself in such a way that the bandits along the bridge are easy targets. I recommend running under the bridge and moving around to the end of the bridge to the right. From there, you can use area of effect spells and your ranged weapon to bring everything down fast.

The sixth round features another large room with explosive barrels, only this time you’ll be fighting Highwaymen. The groups that assault you here are spread out, so being fast and accurate with a ranged weapon is key to beating the 2:00 target time. You also have one major advantage here – step on any of the pressure plates in the center of the chamber and the appropriate flamethrowers along the wall will begin firing jets of flame at any unsuspecting Highwaymen firing at you. This is a great tactic for sending groups of the bastards to their death into the pits below.

The seventh round against Balverines is surprisingly easy. If you’ve made it this far, then just about any tactic you can come up with will be enough to beat the 2:35 target time. It’s the eighth round where things get a little trickier. Here, you’ll be facing off against a Rock Troll. Because there are only certain windows of opportunity to shoot its weak spots, you’ll have to be near-perfect with your dodging to beat the 1:50 target time. You’re also going to have to dispatch any Hobbes that enter the fray quickly so you can concentrate on the troll. Keep circling the troll to hit every weak spot and the beast will eventually sink into the ground, defeated.

As long as you’ve achieved five Perfect Rounds, you’ll earn 10,000 gold and the Crucible Trophy. For whatever reason, it doesn’t appear that eight Perfect Rounds does anything for you unless you’ve already completed The Crucible once before. If that’s the case (and you’re technically on “The Crucible Champion” quest), then a side room will open up and you can loot Mad-dog’s legendary axe, The Chopper, from a chest inside.

Now that you’ve become a Crucible champion, you’ll emerge from the arena to cheers and congratulations from the Westcliff citizens and Hammer. You’ll also have earned the Lionheart title, should you want it. From here, you can either jump right into the The Spire quest or finish up any side quests that you haven’t already completed. A handful of them will not be available to you when you return from the Tattered Spire, so you should do them now if you’re looking for some extra renown, experience, or loot.