Why Are They SO Slow!

… This is pretty much what everyone says about this faction. So how can you use them effectively?

The blue Crystalline faction is the one at the center of the galaxy. They have a lot of health, some missiles, and a lot of pink turret fire power. They are also the slowest faction in the game. But instead of focusing on their weaknesses, let’s see what they do have going for them.

Efficiency of Mass

Their big hull block has 3,043 health which is second only to the Sentinels armor block. However, the Crystalline block is larger, and as we all know – bigger IS better. Generally in Reassembly it’s better to have one big block than it is to have many small blocks because there are less connections between blocks. More block connections usually means a more fragile structure. The other good side of this is armor costs nothing. No P cost, no resources used, no energy cost. Viola! Add on all the mass you want. It’s just like adding on pure muscle.

But mass is heavy you say? Yes, yes it is. Remind me why we care. – No, we’re not going to win any tournaments with a big fat block of blue hull, but in the regular game it doesn’t matter so much. The Crystallines already occupy the center of the galaxy. What better place to be? Also, you don’t need one big tank ship with armor, you can have a fleet of damage-shrugging thugs. Again, armor is free, so feel free to pass it around. You’ll also notice that the Crystallid’s Command Module shatters easily. Use extra armor to protect it from splash damage.

You probably will want some small fast ships, but as a general tactic if you already know you’re slow – go ahead and make the most of it. We also don’t care so much about moving for one other reason.

Missiles

Not just any missiles. These are the longest range missiles in the game. They will chase you forever. Not very fast, but they will go a long way. You can just fire away and they will hit enemies that are outside your screen of view. However, the range is not the best perk. The Crystalline missiles cost zero energy to fire. You got that – zero. No generators needed. You can have an 8000P ship equipped with all missiles and not a single generator, so all that P you would normally have to put into generators, can now go towards more missiles.

There are two versions of this missile, a big one and a small one. If you compare them on paper you’ll see that the small one does 90 damage for 43P and the big one does 120 damage for 79P. Sounds like the small missile is the better deal. It’s about 2 damage per P rather than the 1.5 damage per P of the larger missile. But, that does not account for the explode radius. The larger missile applies it’s damage to twice as much area, so effectively 1.5 x 2 = 3 damage per P. So again, bigger IS better.

The bad news is the missiles are slow. But they are the long range option for this faction. The best way to maximize their strength is to use them liberally in a fleet of ships. The enemy will have a harder time trying to dodge them when there is a wall of missiles coming from multiple directions. This weapon won’t be strong enough to win battles verse agents however. For that you need this factions hammer blow.

Pink Turret Firepower

The Crystallines have good armor, but the reason they’re called brutes is the strength of their turrets. The largest one does more than twice as much damage per second as the largest turret from the Terran faction. It will chew through armor and shields quickly. Again the problem is speed. The big turret does not track well against fast targets. The solution is the same as with the missiles, lots of ships with turrets equipped so the enemy can’t get away from them.

The other aspect of the turrets is they are also your only defensive weapon. You should use the smaller turrets liberally to ward-off attacking missiles and drones, and you also have a decision to make. Tiny Plasma turret or Plasma Diffractor.

Ten tiny turrets cost 120P for 1500 damage per second, and ten Diffractors cost 150P for 700 damage per second – but the Diffractors also have splash damage, so I think they’re about even. The difference comes in when you look at the energy cost and range. The turrets have about double the range, but also use about twice as much energy and because generators explode when damaged – having more of them is a liability. Your decision should come down to what your goal is. If you have a smaller ship, you’ll probably want the range. If you have a large ship, you’re probably looking for cheap point defense and you can do that with the Diffractors and not have to add as many generators.

The Solution of Momentum

Now to tackle the biggest challenge of this faction – lack of speed. There are two possible options handling this problem.

1. Lots of thrusters all going in one direction. If you have a big fat ram ship, you’ll need a few thrusters to steer with, but otherwise, forward is the only direction you need to go in. These ships will not be dog-fighting the enemy, so consider optimizing the thrust force only in one direction.

2. This also involves lots of thrusters all going in one direction, but how about doing that around a circle. A spinning ship works because of the wind-up of thrust. Initially it may be slow, but as momentum builds it’ll bounce around much quicker than it’s size would otherwise allow. Match this tactic with the long-range missiles and you have a ship that will stand back from the enemy and spray destruction in all directions.

Overall Strategy

I like to think of the Crystallines as Faction 3 that don’t suck. These guys are not individually powerful, but as a group they can be very powerful. They are also relatively cheap to produce since the only expensive block is the largest Plasma turret, everything else is cheap. They have no shields to pay for, and are relatively low-energy compared to most other factions so you can design high health ships for 3000-4000P easily. Equip factories to all these ships and they will replicate quickly.

If you do want to produce large 8000P ships, you’ll have to build special ships or bases with extra generators. Not for power, but for resource capacity. This faction has no cargo containers, so the only way to store enough resources is with generators, which hold 200R. To build a full 8000P ship, you’ll need 40 generators equipped. You won’t want these ships to be your heavy hitters though as the cost of all these generators takes away from what you could be spending on firepower.

Handling Agents

Refer to the above section. You want muscle and firepower in numbers. A fleet with a good mix of smaller fast ships, and a good quantity of giant meat-head battleships to soak-up damage (again, bigger IS better). Have some ships that are good at close-quarters combat with heavy armor and large turrets, then other ships focused on long-range with masses of missiles. Don’t overpersue. You won’t be able to run-down a fast Agent ship, so don’t try. He will come back to you, or follow him at your own pace with allies around you. Even if their ships are lightning fast, they will eventually just hit an asteroid, then your guns and missiles will chew him up.

 

Well I think that’s it for now. I’ll add more to this post as I find time.