Last Updated on by Samuel Franklin
This Nuclear Throne best crown guide details the available crowns, the gameplay impact and when each is powerful (pre-loop and post-loop). This secret crown mechanic gives advanced players an opportunity to improve your chances of victory by altering core game mechanics with a single crown. For players new to the crown system I recommend the Crown of Curses (pre-loop) and Crown of Blood or Crown of Hatred (post-loop).
Table of Contents:
– Best Crown Summary
– Crown Mechanic Overview
Best Crowns
The crowns below are listed in alphabetical order split between pre-loop and post-loop crown options. The choice of crown is highly dependent on character, playstyle preferences and also if you are starting with the crown or picking it up during a run.
Each crown is rated on a scale of S > A > B below based on the how much the crown helps you extend your playthrough length although even the low rated crowns can be fun and worth trying.
| Crown | Crown Description | Notes | Overall Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
 Crown of Curses (pre-loop) |
A lot more cursed chests – Increases the chances that weapon chests will spawn as cursed chests (66% chance instead of 14%) | Cursed chests can be useful for their ability to give you weapons above your current difficulty progress although players cannot unequip cursed weapons until cleansed. Thankfully though you can swap them for another cursed weapon (provided you don’t have zero ammo for the equipped weapon) so this makes it easy to cycle through cursed weapons and effectively use weapons you wouldn’t be able to access otherwise. | S |
 Crown of Destiny (pre-loop) |
Free mutation, narrow future – Players can gain one random mutation instantly and mutation choices are now limited to one option (including ultra mutations) | Forcing you to tempt fate this crown does allow you to acquire an additional mutation overall but will significantly impact on your choices. For Horror this is not as bad given you’ll still have 2 choices but you’ll need a lot of luck for the additional mutation to outweigh the loss of mutation choices with each level up.
That being said from a gameplay perspective this is a great challenging crown that forces players to adjust to what mutations they are given. |
A |
 Crown of Guns (pre-loop) |
No ammo drops, more weapon drops – Removes ammo drops from enemies but adds 8% weapon drop chance to every enemy | Another unique crown that offers an interesting trade off given ammo can be gained in other ways through mutations and the fact that dropped weapons do give you some ammunition for that specific weapon type.
Provided you build appropriately to remove the negative factor from this crown this is one that you may not even notice while having the benefit of near endless weapon choices. |
A |
 Crown of Haste (pre-loop) |
Pickups fade fast, are worth more – Significantly increases the fade time of pickups (three times as fast) although gives you extra ammo and health from pickups. | Depending on your character, playstyle and weapon choice you’ll likely find that pickups are already timing out if you aren’t paying close attention. With this crown you’ll literally need to be on top of any pickups as they appear which will often cost you more in health and ammo in an attempt to collect pickups than the bonus is providing. | B |
 Crown of Life (pre-loop) |
No HP drops, big HP chests more common – Removes HP pickup drops but does improve your chances of spawning health chests | With some options to acquire health through mutations it is not too difficult to do without the HP drops when this crown is activated although the buff to big HP chests is simply not worth the loss of HP pickups. | B |
 Crown of Risk (pre-loop) |
More drops when at full HP, less drops when not – Enemies have +50% drop rate when your character has full health and -50% when not at full health | An interesting crown that turns your Nuclear Throne games into a feast or famine situation. if you’re already confident in your abilities and build your mutations appropriately staying at maximum health is definitely a possibility and will allow you to always have the pickups you want. However, if players do fall below maximum health for an extended period of time your run can quickly spiral out of control as you can’t acquire pickups you need to continue on. | B |
 Crown of Blood (post-loop) |
More enemies, fewer Rads – Greatly increases number of enemies but enemies drop 1 Rad less | With a significant boost to enemies at the cost of 1 Rad drop per enemy players will find that they come out ahead most of the time. By being ahead on Rad income overall you’ll level quicker and reach your peak potential sooner.
The increase in difficulty is not much as you might expect as enemies do have to group together quite tightly when using this crown so it is not significantly more effort to dispatch them particularly with area of effect focused builds. |
S |
 Crown of Death (post-loop) |
Bigger explosions, -1 max HP – Removes 1 HP from your character health pool maximum and adds enhanced explosions (spawned and mini grenades) | For only a single health point lost from your maximum health players gain a reasonable benefit to explosions. Note that unless you’re using some of the explosive weapons that fire mini grenades the number of times this activates is not as useful as it might seem but the negative cost is fairly low compared to other crowns. | A |
 Crown of Hatred (post-loop) |
Take damage and gain Rads when opening chests – Opening chests gives 16 Rads and deals one damage | 1 damage is most instances is not going to make or break a run for an experienced player especially once you have the necessary mutations to recover health with ease. This makes the Crown of Hatred essentially a boost to your Rad income to gain experience faster and reach your full character potential sooner. | S |
 Crown of Love (post-loop) |
Ammo chests only – Replaces weapon chests and radiation canisters with ammo chests | Ammo economy is generally not a major issue in Nuclear Throne as you’ll earn enough from your mutation setup and you are losing important resources in Rads and weapon variety to do so. | B |
 Crown of Luck (post-loop) |
Start areas at 1 HP, chance enemies have 1 HP – Enemies (not bosses) have a 10% chance to spawn with 1 health and players start each zone at 1 HP | Starting at 1 HP is a risky proposition in Nuclear Throne and while it is nice to be able to kill a small portion of enemies without much effort you are simply accepting too much risk for this to be an effective crown choice. | B |
 Crown of Protection (post-loop) |
Weapons contain HP instead of ammo – Walking over weapons gives 1HP instead of ammunition (excluding melee weapons) | Providing players an additional source of health regeneration is nice although you are sacrificing a source of ammunition to do so. This is most effective when used in conjunction with your mutations to ensure you have a balance of both health and ammo regeneration. | A |
Crown Mechanic Overview
Crowns in Nuclear Throne are secret modifiers that impact your game experience beyond mutations and also have a visual impact. Crowns can only be accessed through the Crown Vault which players can explore through the special Proto Statue spawn during your adventure. Visually these statues are presented as a diamond shaped structure and require players to deal damage to charge them. These will initially only spawn from Scrapyard 3-2 onwards with a spawn that repeats every other game area within the second stage. This means a spawn cycle of Scrapyard 3-2 and Frozen City 5-2 for a first playthrough and after players loop Desert 1-2 and Palace 7-2 are added.
The first time players visit the Crown Vault you’ll find the single Crown Pedestal where you can select a crown (or no crown) before leaving back to your Nuclear Throne run. During subsequent visits to the Crown Vault players will encounter Crown Guardians who are moderately difficult foes along with a Proto Chest (if entering with a crown) which allows for item transfers between game runs. Leaving a Crown Vault also increases the game difficulty resulting in improved weapon spawn chance and a greater number of enemies. Players are capped at a total of 3 Crown Vault visits per game run and the Proto Statues will cease to spawn after this point.
Players can only wear one crown at a time, they do not stack by selecting the same crown more than once and are split into two distinct crown pools which includes 6 pre-loop and 6 post-loop options for players to choose from. When you do have a crown equipped players can expect to spawn cursed weapon chests 14% of the time and have encounters with the I.D.P.D on exiting the crown vault or on 1-1 if a crown is equipped. Players can in time start with a crown if they sit on The Throne or loop the game with a crown equipped which makes it available to start with for that character only.
