Can someone explain how to use the Crystal System effectively?

[Leenoco]

I have been searching on here and mostly seeing hate for the system, but no one is actually explaining the system. I know the basics from the tutorial, but I feel like I get stuck with a lot of P-0 gems that I cant do anything with and I feel like I am missing something that makes the system good. Can I have a "Crystals for Idiots" breakdown from someone smarter than me. Thanks!

(Or a mod that makes this simpler. >.> )

[Inspector Gesicht]

There are ten levels to a crystal, but only three tiers with any upgrade in effect: 2,5,10

You can only mix two crystals with the same ability.

Mixing two crystals makes an *artificial crystal.

*Artificial crystals can only be used as the base.

The base crystal lowers in purity by 1 when fused.

0 purity crystals cannot be used as the base.

Removing a crystal from gear removes all purity and sets the size to 3.

[trippywood [QC]]

Don't bother, it's a bad system. Hope they patch something about it someday.

[Xenocite]

Stats of Crystal
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Rank: The ability of a crystal basically can range from level 1-3. For example, the ATK UP ability gives +10% at level 1, +20% at level 2, and +30% at level 3. The level 1 ability is unlocked for crystals that are Rank III and Rank IV. Level 2 is Rank V - Rank IX. Level 3 is Rank X+. Higher the Rank the better. A crystal you mine can range from Rank I - III and combining is needed to go higher. Rank I and II crystals cannot be put into equipment.

Purity: Ranges from 0 - 5. The purity of a crystal is how many times a crystal can be merged together. Higher the Purity the better.

Size: Ranges from 1 - 3. An equipment has up to 4 sockets when upgraded twice. The size of a crystal depends on how many sockets it uses. A piece of equipment actually can only have a max of 3 abilities, so putting 4 size I crystals will only give you the first 3 abilities.



Combining
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You can combine crystals with the same abilities to each other. For example, you can combine an ATK UP crystal with another ATK UP crystal (with some restrictions) but you cannot combine an ATK UP crystal with a DEF UP crystal. When you perform a combination, the crystal becomes artificial (will explain this later). You select a Base Crystal and a Fuse Crystal.

Base Crystal - Can be any crystal with a purity of 1 or higher (pick the crystal with the higher purity)
Fuse Crystal - Can be any non-artificial crystal.

Combined Result:

The combined crystals will have the following stats:
Becomes artificial (has a * next to it)
Rank - Add the ranks of the two crystals together (e.g. III + III = VI)
Purity - The purity of the base crystal -1
Size - Average of the two crystals' sizes rounded up (1 combined with 1 will result in size 1, 1 combined with 2 will result in size 2, 1 combined with 3 will result in size 2, etc.)


Converting an Artificial Crystal to a Natural One
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There is a trick to convert artificial crystals into natural ones so that they can be used as Fuse Crystals. If a crystal is equipped to an item and then removed, the following happens to its stats:

The crystal is no longer artificial and can be used as Fuse Crystal
Rank - The rank becomes III, V, or X, rounded down from whatever value the original crystal was.
Purity - Purity lowers to 0 (can no longer be used as a base crystal)
Size - Size increases to 3


When Should I Farm Crystals?
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Later in the game, you'll get two upgrades. One lets you mine 3 crystals from a node instead of 2. Another lets you choose between whether you want to ores to only contain Status, Offensive, Defensive, or Utility crystals. I heavily suggest you wait until you get these two upgrades before you do any crystal farming.


Easily Make Rank X Crystals
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An easy way to make Rank X crystals without waiting for higher rank crystals and high purity crystals is to take advantage of the equipping and removing crystals to create Rank III and Rank V fuse crystals. However, due to how size of crystals change while fusing, it's impossible to get a Size 1 crystal in the end with this method.

Usually I make a Rank III and Rank V fodder, get a purity 3 crystal, merge those two into it and do one last fusion with a size I crystal to get a Rank X+ size 2. Alternatively, you can make a Rank X+ size 3 by fusing 2 Rank Vs into a Purity 2. If you want to make it size 2, you can convert this into a natural crystal and then use it as a Fuse Crystal for a size 1.



How to Make Size 1 Rank X Crystals?
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Every Crystal in the fusion process will need to be size 1. You'll want to start with a crystal of at least purity 3 (though 4 and 5 are prefered). If there are any abilities you are intested in, I would suggest you keep any size 1 crystals with a rank of II or III and save them for ultimate equipment/armor since you can't remove crystals without increasing their size. Also save up the size 1 crystals with a size of at least 4 to use for later as well.



How often do Crystals Repawn?
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30 minutes realtime.



What are some good places to mine crystals?
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Isle of Messages has about 10 nodes, Shambala northeast has 3 nodes clumped together and is good place to reach Isle of Messages from, Fiorwood on the elevated wooden bridge in the west and northwest have ~6 nodes, Ograne Grottos has a clump of 4 crystal nodes in the north west with 1 node along the way.

[Xenocite]

What I did is focus on having 1 crystal on weapon and 1 crystal on armor that's size 3 and remove/re-add it as I got newer equips. If I have a chance to upgrade them to Rank V or Rank X, I did that.

Since an unupgraded piece of equipment only has 2 slots and a removed crystal has size 3, I either need to upgrade my equipment once to fit the crystal or combine it with a size 1 to lower it to size 2.

I wouldn't use any Size 1 Rank X crystals with an ability I wanted on anything until I got the best equipment, but I suppose you can squeeze 2 crystals into an equipment if you make 2 Size 2s and fully upgrade the equipment.

Assume that only stat boosting effects that show a visible stat boost stack and all other effects don't stack. At the very least, the weapon master crystals don't stack and there's a crit damage cap of 200% (base is 150%).

Some abilities that I particularly recommend are:

AGI UP - AGI is one of the best stats in the game and a Level 1 AGI UP gives +15% instead of +10% like most other stats. Once you have enough AGI, your character can move multiple times before the enemies can move once.

HP Drain - If your damage dealers are strong enough, You basically heal to full from every strong skill you use. HP Drain works on magic and even summons. This is also easier to get than any of the status up crystals once you can select which type of crystals you want since it's a Utility Crystal and the pool for those is less diluted than status crystals.

Weapon Mastery - Boosts damage for the matching weapon. Gives you about as much of a boost as the ATK UP/MAG UP crystals.

Crit Rate/Crit Damage - Great for physical attackers. There's also an accessory that allows magic to crit.

ATK UP/MAG UP - Boost damage

Cloth/Robe/Heavy Armor/Light Armor Bonus - For when you just need a bit more survivability.

[Leenoco]

Thank you. That was super helpful. Now that I fully understand the system its much better than previous. A little tedious but nothing bad about the system now that I see how all its parts make sense. Hopefully they keep this system going forward now that I got it down haha. Thanks.