Spend an Imbued Sword Key at the Four Belfries, fight the Crucible Knight on the Siofra River cliffs beyond, and you walk away with 3,080 runes. Other knights of Godfrey’s old guard pay out in armor and incantations. This one pays pocket change.
And it isn’t the only one handing out nothing but runes. The base game puts 16 Crucible Knights in your path, two of which only show up as spirits conjured by a snail, and Shadow of the Erdtree adds a seventeenth in Devonia. The rewards range from a full armor set down to a few thousand runes, so it helps to know which fights pay before you empty your flasks on them.
All rune figures below are for your first playthrough. They climb on NG+.
Leave the Bleed Build at Home
Every base-game Crucible Knight is immune to bleed and madness, so Rivers of Blood and friends won’t help you here. Poison, scarlet rot, frostbite, and sleep can all land, but the knights resist them heavily. The first proc takes about 517 points of buildup on the Stormhill and Stormveil knights and around 565 on the Farum Azula pair. The next proc takes roughly 290 more, and the one after that needs another 450 or so. The spirits at Road’s End Catacombs ignore every status effect completely. If you’re running a status build, plan on one proc of frostbite or rot early in the fight and let your weapon handle the rest.
Limgrave: The First Parry Exam
Stormhill Evergaol
The evergaol sits on the cliffs above Gatefront Ruins, a short distance southeast of the Stormhill Shack grace. Riding up from Warmaster’s Shack gets you there with less trouble than climbing from Gatefront. You can’t bring spirit ashes or co-op partners into an evergaol, so this is a straight duel against a knight with 2,782 HP. Aim for somewhere around level 30 before you step inside.
Reward: Aspects of the Crucible: Tail incantation, 2,100 runes
Stormveil Castle
This knight guards a hidden seaside ledge. From the Rampart Tower grace, follow the ramparts northwest until a small side area opens up on your left where a Warhawk sits. Drop down, follow the ledges, and keep going until the floor above the sea gives way under you. The knight waits at the bottom. It carries only 1,391 HP, half of what its evergaol cousin brings, and a lift right after it takes you back up to Rampart Tower. That lift can also send the knight tumbling to its death if you lure it close.
Reward: Aspects of the Crucible: Horns incantation, 1,613 runes
Caelid: Redmane Castle
In the plaza at the far end of Redmane Castle, next to the Chamber Outside the Plaza grace, you’ll face the Crucible Knight and Misbegotten Warrior fight. The pair only appears while the Radahn Festival isn’t running. If the festival has already started, you need to beat Starscourge Radahn and come back. The Misbegotten Warrior opens the fight alone, and the knight (4,515 HP) joins a little later. Both have to go down for the win.
Reward: Ruins Greatsword, 16,000 runes
Liurnia: Road’s End Catacombs
The boss here is a Spirit-Caller Snail, and the Crucible Knights are its hired muscle. It first summons a knight wielding Siluria’s Tree, and a second knight with Ordovis’s Greatsword joins later. The snail brings dead knights back, and you don’t have to kill them at all. Find the snail itself, which teleports around the room when hit, and the spirits vanish with it.
Reward (from the snail): Glintstone Sorcerer Ashes, 3,000 runes. The knight spirits drop nothing.
Below Ground: Siofra River and Nokron
The Four Belfries Knight
Remember the pocket-change knight? Use an Imbued Sword Key on the waygate labeled “Night Sky Unceasing” at the Four Belfries, and you arrive on a high cliff above Siofra River. Work your way down to the stone walkway to find it. It has 2,730 HP, and spirit ashes are off the table.
Reward: 3,080 runes. Nothing else.
Siofra Aqueduct Pair
From the Aqueduct-Facing Cliffs grace, drop into the round, open-sided room below. A sword-and-shield knight paces the walkway between that room and the next one. Cross over, continue northeast, and you’ll spot a spear-wielding knight gazing out over a waterfall. Take the stairs ahead and turn right through the doorway to reach it. You can fight each one on its own, and both have 2,730 HP.
Rewards: Crucible Hornshield (sword knight), Somber Smithing Stone [6] (spear knight), 3,080 runes each
Altus Plateau and Mt. Gelmir
Auriza Hero’s Grave: Ordovis and Partner
The final fight of this chariot-infested dungeon just outside Leyndell pits you against two knights at once. Ordovis carries his greatsword and shield, while his unnamed partner fights with Siluria’s Tree. Each has 5,460 HP, and you need to drop both. No other Crucible fight in the base game pays out more.
Reward: Ordovis’s Greatsword, the full Crucible Axe set (Helm, Armor, Gauntlets, Greaves), 28,000 runes
Volcano Manor: Tanith’s Knight
You’ll only meet this one if you want to. Push Tanith’s quest to the point where she’s feeding on Rykard’s corpse, then kill her. Her knight guardian invades shortly after, near the Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy grace. No spirit ashes allowed.
Reward: Aspects of the Crucible: Breath incantation, 2,000 runes
Leyndell, Royal Capital
Two spear knights with Siluria’s Tree patrol the capital. The first stands in a chamber on the east side of a fountain courtyard just off the main avenue, close to the Avenue Balcony grace. The second waits at the bottom of the elevator near the Erdtree Sanctuary grace. Each has 3,110 HP.
Reward: 3,840 runes each, no items
Deeproot Depths: Crucible Knight Siluria
Starting at the Nameless Eternal City grace, head northwest into the lower wetlands, swing west around the base of the building, then turn northwest again toward the Deeproot Depths West spiritspring. It drops you right in front of Siluria, who stands before an enormous tree branch. Oddly enough, one of the foremost Crucible Knights brings just 4,606 HP, less than the nameless spear knight back at Auriza.
Reward: Siluria’s Tree, 25,000 runes
Don’t leave straight after the fight. Walk further back into the arena to find a chest with the Crucible Tree armor set, the spear-knight counterpart to the Crucible Axe set from Auriza.
Crumbling Farum Azula
The crumbling city hides a pair armed with Ordovis’s Greatsword and the Crucible Hornshield, each with 5,512 HP. Neither uses the tail spin attacks. To find the first, ride the lift down from the Dragon Temple Lift grace, turn east, and start down the big spiral staircase. Halfway down, hop onto the floating rock chunks, follow them to another building, and go through its hallway into an open area with a dead dragon. The second is reached from the Dragon Temple Rooftop grace. Drop off the southeast edge of the dragon’s arena onto the platforms below, go through the building full of Banished Knights to a balcony, climb the ladder on the west wall, and take the lift. Straight ahead, you’ll find the knight brawling with Azula Beastmen.
Reward: 7,360 runes each, no items
Shadow of the Erdtree: Devonia
Requires the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC.
Devonia, the longest-serving of the Crucible Knights, left the lands of the Erdtree alone to hunt for the Crucible’s origin, and that journey ended in Scadu Altus. Look for a figure standing on a rock in a grove right before the Rauh Ancient Ruins, East grace. You can sneak past to light the grace first. Instead of a sword or spear, Devonia swings a great hammer and can shift into a centaur-like form for faster, quake-causing leaps. Once beaten, Devonia stays dead.
Reward: Devonia’s Hammer (upgraded with Somber Smithing Stones), Crucible Hammer-Helm, 16,289 runes
Side note for Faith builds: Three of these knights hand out Aspects of the Crucible incantations: Tail at Stormhill, Horns at Stormveil, and Breath from Tanith’s Knight. Devonia’s Crucible Hammer-Helm boosts exactly that family of spells. If you’ve been collecting the incantations on the way through the base game, the helm makes a good reason to finish your Crucible kit in the DLC.
What’s in a Name
The Crucible Knights served Godfrey, the first Elden Lord. They drew their power from the crucible of life, the primordial form of the Erdtree. Over time, the Lands Between came to see that power, and even the way the knights looked, as chaotic and shameful. Ordovis, Siluria, and Devonia line up with the Ordovician, Silurian, and Devonian periods, which followed one another in Earth’s Paleozoic era. Ordovis and Siluria are honored as the two foremost Crucible Knights. Devonia’s gear describes the longest-serving knight of the order, the one who went looking for where the Crucible came from. Devonia’s name comes from the youngest of the three periods, even though Devonia served longest.
Quick Reference
| Location | Knights | Runes | Item Drops |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stormhill Evergaol | 1 | 2,100 | Aspects of the Crucible: Tail |
| Stormveil Castle | 1 | 1,613 | Aspects of the Crucible: Horns |
| Redmane Castle | 1 (+ Misbegotten) | 16,000 | Ruins Greatsword |
| Road’s End Catacombs | 2 spirits | 3,000 (snail) | Glintstone Sorcerer Ashes (snail) |
| Four Belfries waygate | 1 | 3,080 | None |
| Siofra Aqueduct | 2 | 3,080 each | Crucible Hornshield / Somber Smithing Stone [6] |
| Auriza Hero’s Grave | 2 | 28,000 | Ordovis’s Greatsword, Crucible Axe set |
| Volcano Manor | 1 | 2,000 | Aspects of the Crucible: Breath |
| Leyndell | 2 | 3,840 each | None |
| Deeproot Depths | 1 | 25,000 | Siluria’s Tree (+ Crucible Tree set in nearby chest) |
| Crumbling Farum Azula | 2 | 7,360 each | None |
| Ancient Ruins of Rauh (DLC) | 1 | 16,289 | Devonia’s Hammer, Crucible Hammer-Helm |
If gear is what you’re after, you can leave the five runes-only knights for a completionist run and lose nothing but time.
Or forget the loot math and race them. The base game has 14 flesh-and-blood Crucible Knights, plus the snail’s two spirits if you’re a purist. One of them only turns up after you betray Tanith, and another vanishes for as long as the Radahn Festival runs. How fast can you clear the whole list? Just saying…
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