Where to Find The Crucible in MIO: Memories In Orbit

The Crucible is an optional area in MIO: Memories in Orbit, and you don't ever need to submit yourself to the torture there if you don't want to. That said, you can at least get there without too much hassle, although there is a pretty long list of things to do.

If you're hell-bent on visiting the Crucible to get the alternate ending, you'll need to complete a lot of things and do some of them in a very specific order.

Doing this without a guide would be virtually impossible, but that's why this guide is here. It'll keep you from running in circles while you attempt to make sense of the insanity the developers wanted to put you through.

How to Get to the Crucible

Getting to the Crucible will involve a ton of work and doing most of it in a specific order. We'll cover the specifics a bit later, but for starters, you'll need to have access to the Vaults and the Lab spawn points.

You'll need to get all the Overseers for the lower levels of the Vessel, and that starts with the Overseer for the Vaults. It'll be a bit easier to do this after you've also grabbed the severed fingertip you need for the Wheel.

Getting the Overseer

From the Vaults' spawn point, head left until you reach a large room that looks like it's for storing robot parts. Drop down, and you'll see an open drawer in the bottom right corner that conceals the secret entrance.

Take this entrance and follow the path, avoiding or killing the enemies in your way. You'll come to a large container of Gloomwater with disappearing platforms on top of it. You'll need to activate all the Gloomwater Pumps before you can progress to the next section.

This will follow the same path and instructions as most of the Getting Mel Back guide. From the area with the disappearing platforms, you should do the following:

1. Jump across the platforms to activate the first pump.
2. Head into the tube on the left side of the container that is being depleted.
3. Follow the path to the left.
4. Enter the tube and follow it to the next room.
5. Drop between the tubes in the room with the broken robot.
6. Head left and follow the path until you see the next pump.
7. Head through the tube to the right.
8. Follow the path until you hit another pump.
9. Drop to the lower level and proceed to the right.
10. Climb the metal grates with Striders.
11. Activate this pump and head back up to the top level.
12. Head to the right and jump across the metal pipes.
13. Follow the path until you reach the Overseer.

Once you've done all that, you can jump past the tube leading downward and open the door to go back to the Vaults' spawn point. Now you're done with that part, and you can make your way to the Labs after you've gotten the severed fingertip.

Crucible Chore List

This is where things start to get really specific. If you do this out of order, aside from mending the Overseer, you'll end up completely messed up and will have to start over.

It isn't incredibly difficult, but it is pretty time-consuming. Once you can move the Wheel, you'll realize you're just spinning the bottom of the Vessel 120 degrees each time you spin it.

While that is important, it won't give you the whole picture, but it will give you a clue. Now you'll need to do the following things in the correct order to reach the Crucible:

1. Go to the Labs spawn point.
2. Turn the Wheel to 0 degrees.
3. Mend the Overseer for the Vaults' Shuttle
4. Turn the Wheel to 120 degrees.
5. Fast Travel to the Vaults.
6. Take the tube above the Vaults spawn to get back to the Shuttle tube.
7. Climb up the tube by using Striders.
8. To make the final jump on the ice, climb up the side and jump, then single attack to slow your fall.
9. Reach the top and open the door to the Vaults' Shuttle spawn point.
10. Open the door to the right.
11. Get to the Promenade Entrance spawn point.
12. Use the Shuttle below the Promenade Entrance spawn point.
13. Head back to the Labs and the Wheel.
14. Turn the Wheel back to 240 degrees.
15. Take the Shuttle up and go to the Nexus spawn point.
16. Fast Travel to the Vaults' Shuttle spawn point.
17. Fall down the tube for the Shuttle there.
18. Unlock the Shuttle there.
19. Head to the right and enter the Crucible.

It isn't incredibly complicated, but if you're trying to do it on your own, you'll probably get pretty frustrated and confused. Depending on what spawn points you have unlocked, you may want to make adjustments, but this will definitely work for almost everyone.

If you mess up the order, you'll either need to start back at the fourth or fourteenth step. How you get from one place to another is up to you, but hopefully, at this point, you've unlocked plenty of fast travel spots to make things much easier.

Now that you've entered the Crucible, you'll meet up with Tomo and Samsk, who will give you a very difficult job that involves a lot of platforming. It's frustrating, but once you manage to complete both sides, you'll be rewarded with the Flowing Steps ability, which you'll need for the alternate ending.

Just like in every good metroidvania, you're still not done just yet. Now, with Flowing Steps, there's plenty more to explore and uncover, but you are closing in on the end of this crazy game.