Crucible is Amazon’s free-to-play PvP hero shooter. While the game’s launch has been somewhat lackluster, the game has promise. It takes place in a sci-fi setting and mixes elements of Overwatch and League of Legends for some unique gameplay. Crucible is a MOBA at heart — each character has unique abilities to master and strategize around.
Crucible has just one game mode right now: Heart of the Hives, which revolves around destroying dangerous hives spawning around the map and capturing the hearts before the other team. The other initial game modes, Alpha Hunters and Harvester Command, are retired so that Relentless Games can focus more on polishing the game.
In this guide, we’re providing a few tips and tricks to be successful at winning matches in Crucible, whether you’re just picking it up or have been grinding at the game since launch.
Five essential tips for Crucible
Find the perfect character and upgrade abilities
Crucible‘s character lineup consists of 10 unique characters with varying playstyles. Jumping into a match with a character that you’re unfamiliar with can lead to a lot of unsatisfying moments, so we recommend starting off in training mode to get a feel for which character fits your style of play. Each character has unique abilities that cater to specific styles. Trying to play with a character like Tosca, when you are a person who prefers a slower playstyle, will not make for a great experience.
Some characters are better for early in the game, whereas others perform better at later levels or once their upgraded abilities get online. Character upgrades are significant — what you decide to upgrade your character to determines what that character will play like in the later parts of the game. Based on upgrades, some characters turn from a hybrid tank to full-on damage sponges. Having the right upgrade to fit your character and your playstyle is essential to how effective you are through the entire match.
Character roles include tanks, damage dealers, and supports. There’s a character for everyone, and all excel in some areas more than others due to their abilities. If you’re more familiar with tank roles, then the duo Rahi and Brother may be of interest. If you like to get in and out of battles with ease, then the evil genius Tosca is your best bet. If you want passive play, then the friendly robot Bugg is perfect for team buffs and enemy debuffs. If you are not familiar with team shooters or MOBAs, then Captain Mendoza offers straightforward play, similar to that of Soldier 76 from Overwatch.
Don’t forget to farm essence
One aspect of the MOBA genre that Crucible implemented was farming XP, or “essence.” Essence can be collected from various sources around the map and is what allow players to level up and gain ability upgrades throughout a match.
The primary sources of essence around the map are A.I. creatures, amplifiers, and essence siphon. In Crucible, there is always something to do during downtime; walking around aimlessly only puts you and your team at a disadvantage. Farming is what’s going to keep you ahead of the enemy team.
Claiming essence siphons, but also stopping the enemy team from leveling up, is essential. Roaming the map efficiently is key to winning in Crucible, but slowing down the enemy team is just as important.
Always keep medkits on hand
Before any fight with the enemy team, make sure you have medkits ready just in case you need to retreat and heal. Medkits are found in various areas throughout the map. Having Captain Mendoza on your team helps with this because he can call in a medkit for someone to pick up.
Ambush the enemy!
When it’s time to secure an objective, flanking and ambushing the enemy team can be more effective than attacking them head-on. In Heart of the Hive, if the enemy team approaches the hive before your team does and they’re close to taking out the hive, swoop in and destroy the hive when it is almost close to being killed.
Fighting the enemy head-on can make it difficult for your team to destroy the hive. Let the enemy team do the hard work, and then just take the hive out after the enemy team right after.
Know your incoming events
Before the start of a match, players will get a glimpse of what events will occur during the game. These events are randomly triggered and dramatically change the way the game goes forward.
In Heart of the Hives, there are two types of events:
Critical Events: These events are rare and are designed to increase your chances of gaining essence to be more productive during battle. There are seven types of significant events to be on the lookout for:
- Damage Energizer
- All Hunters’ weapons are increased by 50 seconds for 120 seconds by The Unity.
- Essence Canisters
- Locked essence containers are scattered across the surface of Crucible by a crashed shuttle that was carrying these canisters. The Unity has dropped a couple of unlocking stations that give players access to these canisters. Each canister provides 600 essence.
- Essence Eruption
- Boiling pools of essence puddles are all around the map; however, this pool grants 500 essence for the sake of damage being dealt with players. This event lasts for 120 seconds.
- Essence Siphon
- A device is beaming down to extract essence directly from the environment. Any hunter that has control of the device gains 75 essence per second for 10 seconds, but their location is revealed to the enemy team.
- Evolution
- When this event is active, all creatures are stronger and give players 50% more essence.
- Global Scanner
- For 60 seconds, all hunters are revealed to each other on the map.
- Mini-Harvesters
- Ten mini-harvesters are dropped around the map, granting 75 essence per 10 seconds.
Major Events: These events are very frequent and give characters significant stats boosts. There are 12 types if Major Events that can occur during a match of Crucible:
- Biotic Converter
- If interacted with, it converts max HP to a significant amount of essence and stops when the hunter reaches 100 HP or stops interacting with it.
- Cloak Plant Bloom
- More cloak plants appear on the map.
- Damage Boost Pods
- Damage boost pods are dropped, increasing damage by 1% per pod.
- Damage Amplifiers
- Objectives around the map are revealed. Capturing these objectives grants 8% damage boost.
- Harvester Master Control
- This objective grants complete ownership of all Harvesters.
- Health Boost Pods
- Capturing these small pods grants healing and a slight increase of max HP.
- Health Amplifiers
- Capturing these objectives gives increased health to hunters and their team. Each objective grants 12% increased health based on a Hunters’ max health per level.
- Interaction Shields
- Grants a capture shield that triggers an overshield equal to 30% of base HP.
- Medkit Amplifier
- Hunters gain extra more inventory for medkits. When this event is triggered, the medkit inventory is immediately filled.
- Medical Station
- This objective heals Hunters upon interaction and stops when HP is full or interaction stops.
- Regeneration Amplifiers
- Objectives reveal across the map that grant a continuous regeneration bonus of 5 health per second for the Hunter that activates it and their team.
- Scanning Station
- A scanner reveals the locations of all Hunters when standing in it.
- Upgrade Station
- This objective, when captured, adds a tier 5 upgrade to the Hunter if it was selected.
- Stomping Herd
- A vast amount of Stompers spawn in the safe zone.
- Stomping Gathering
- All Stompers that are not engaged in combat will move toward one point on the map.
- Spitter Colony
- A group of Spitters is revealed on the map. Killing them will provide a valuable prize.
Knowing what events are coming and how to position yourself to take full advantage is essential. Furthermore, events are randomly selected, giving each match a different feel.
