Crystalline Entity
Crystalline Entity is the boss of Zone 1. It is a large mass of crystals with 30 hull (
Hardest: 34 hull) and no shields. It is also referred to simply as "big crystal".
Layout
The Crystalline Entity is 12 spaces wide, composed entirely of crystals. These crystal parts are labelled as cannons.
On Hardest difficulty, three random parts are replaced with empty parts, which appear visually as clusters of tiny crystals. Additionally, all of the boss's parts (empty or otherwise) will shuffle positions at the start of each turn.
Behavior
Attacks
The Crystalline Entity's attacks are wildly unpredictable, as it can attack from any of its parts (except the empty ones). Its damage output starts low, but gradually increases over the course of the fight.
The boss's total damage output starts at 4, and increases by 1 each turn with no limit. This damage is spread out randomly across all of its cannons. This means that on turn 1, it could do four 1 damage attacks, one big 4 damage attack, or anything in between, all from randomly picked cannons. Note that cannons won't do multishots; all of the damage assigned to a single cannon is released in one attack.
On Hardest, there are less cannons for the Crystalline Entity to attack from, so the average damage of each cannon tends to be higher.
Evasion
The Crystalline Entity never moves, unless you are too far away from it. Specifically, if you have 4 or more ( Hardest: 3 or more) ship parts that are not facing any of its parts, then it will move towards you to catch up. The amount of spaces it moves depends solely on how many turns have passed, no matter how many spaces away you are.
On turns 1-3 it will move one space towards you to catch up. Starting on turn 4, it will move two spaces. On every 5th turn afterwards (9, 14, 19...), the amount of spaces it will move to catch up increases by 1. This amount is capped at 12 spaces (the length of the "ship"), which is reached on turn 54.
Strategy
Because the Crystalline Entity's attacks are spread out randomly, you cannot predict what it will do and so you must be prepared for anything. Because its damage scales up rapidly, it is also important to deal as much damage as possible to destroy it before it can overwhelm you. Also conserve your evasion as much as possible, so you can be prepared for any high-damage attacks that may target your ship.
Patch Changes
- Patch 1.0.7 (2024-05-15)
- Crystalline Entity now shuffles all of its parts at the start of each turn on Hardest difficulty. (undocumented change)
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