The Crystalline Entity is a fleet action that plagues many a player who are constantly hearing conflicting explanations on how exactly to defeat the cosmozoan life form. This guide will hopefully clear things up, and provide a few tips on what sort of strategy to form when approaching this behemoth boss character.
Stages
There are generally three stages of the Crystalline Entity that players should be aware of.
High Health
Between about 66% and 100% Hit Points, the Entity will send out Crystalline Fragments. These regular-sized enemies will follow players that aggro it. Within 1 km of starships or any form of weapons, they will explode. The damage they inflict goes through all forms of shields and directly damage your hull. It is at this stage that the Entity fires its laser-like beam weapon at whichever player currently has aggro on it; this beam weapon inflicts shield damage as normal beam weapons would do.
Medium Health
Between about 33% and 66%, the Entity will stop firing its beam weapon and will send off Crystalline Fragments at a faster rate than before.
Low Health
Below 33%, the Entity begins to also send off Large Crystalline Fragments (as well as the regular Fragments from before), which are faster and do nearly twice the damage of regular Fragments. If they explode from hitting a starship — or a mine — they will then spawn three Small Crystalline Fragments, which then head back toward the Entity, carrying the energy from their splintering back to it to heal it for roughly 1% of its health each — 3% total.
It is important for some players to focus on the Small Crystalline Fragments and destroy them so that they do not return to the Entity to heal it, while most of the other players continue to focus their attack on the Entity itself.
Strategy
It is generally recommended to focus on:
- Outrunning the Large Crystalline Fragments at all times (so as to not be destroyed by them, and to not allow them to splinter into Small Fragments to heal the Entity) while kiting them;
- Firing at the Entity to lower its health;
- Using special abilities to temporarily debuff, confuse, or halt the Entity, its attacks, and its creation of Fragments; and
- Staying at least 5 km away from the Entity during the third stage when Large Fragments will splinter into Small Fragments if impacted.
Special Abilities
The special powers in item #3 above are described below.
Tactical
- Attack Pattern Beta will put a debuff on the Entity, reducing its damage resistance for a period of time.
- Attack Pattern Delta puts a buff on an ally that puts a debuff similar to Attack Pattern Beta on anything that attacks the player. When applied to the player that has Entity aggro at that moment, during the first stage, will cause the Entity to receive progressively more damage from all sources every time it attacks the buffed player. This only works with the Entity's beam weapon; therefore it will not work past the first stage.
- Fire on my Mark (Space) will put a long-lasting damage resistance debuff on the Entity. This increases the damage it takes from all attackers.
Science
- Sensor Scan gives the Entity a damage resistance debuff and all enemies within proximity of it. Equipping a Deflector Dish and Consoles that increase Sensors, Sensor Array or Starship Operations stats will increase the effectiveness of this ability. The Science Team ability will also increase the strength of your debuff.
Kiting the Fragments
With a Tier 2 ship, 75% power to weapons and engines is sufficient for Escorts and Science Vessels to outrun the regular Crystalline Fragments. Cruisers, however, may need additional power to the engines, a Ship Device such as an [Engine Battery], or the Evasive Maneuvers ability.
We recommend you use the top-Mk engines available for your Rank (e.g. Mk IV for Lieutenant Commanders and Mk VI for Commanders).
Since Large Fragments are much faster than regular Fragments, additional power may need to be diverted to the engines in order to properly kite them.
If you are hit by a Large Fragment, immediately switch your attention to the resulting Small Fragments to destroy them before they reach the Entity to heal it.
Suggested Roles
We suggest players divide themselves into two roles:
- Large Fragment Kiters should focus on aggro-ing Large Fragments and kiting them to places not immediately near any other players, so they do not detonate. (They will detonate even if not targeting the object they impact.) Orbiting around the Entity at a distance is recommended while doing this.
- Entity Attackers should be in greater numbers then Kiters, and should focus on attacking the Entity and lowering its health, as well as apply self-buffs and enemy debuffs to improve the chances of taking down the creature.
Weapons
Disruptor weapons have a 2.5% chance with each shot of putting a 10% damage resistance debuff on the target for 15 seconds, so this weapon will be quite useful in your attack on the Entity.
Mines are not generally recommended, and should be avoided when used for attacking any Fragments. One exception is to use Mines to set up a perimeter around the Entity that will kill any returning Small Fragments that hit them.
Scramble Sensors
The Scramble Sensors ability is very useful in the battle against the Crystalline Entity. When used against the Entity itself, nearly every Large Fragment will stop all movement, and ALL Fragments will cease their ability to explode upon impact with any other object. Once the debuff wears off, anything within 1 km of the Fragments will cause it to explode as usual.
- Small Fragments are not affected by Scramble Sensors and will therefore continue to move toward the Entity to heal it.
If there are multiple Science Vessels, it is possible to have them keep Scramble Sensors constantly applied to the Entity.
Final Notes
This fleet action pretty much requires the cooperation of most, if not all, of the players in the instance. It is a battle designed to be best won with some amount of planning and coordination. If any one player intentionally causes anything to backfire (i.e. a griefer), then you can pretty much forget about destroying the Entity and should consider moving to another instance, along with whomever is on your team.
Whereas most fleet actions are simply a group of players against an immense number of enemies, the Crystalline Entity is quite different. It's a complicated enemy with a very particular methodology and pattern. As such, players must truly team together, in the truest sense of the word, in order to overcome the odds and defeat this opponent.