So I Decided to Farm Crystals in the Endgame...

[Seeking Solace]

Critical Chance and Critical Damage reign supreme as per usual in most RPGs. Other stat boosts are capped really low (MAG +30% isn't actually +30%, more like 8-10%). Meanwhile CC and CD are flat boosts, and are pretty significant.

Sienna with Bandit Emblem, Life Thread, CC UP, CD UP, 2 CC rank X crystals, and 2 CD rank X crystals:
85% CC
300% CD

Ba'thraz with Gambler Emblem, Magic Poleyns, CC UP, CD UP, 2 CC rank X crystals, and 2 CD rank X crystals:
70% CC
300% CD
Magic Crit Galore!

You get the idea. I thought: "How bad can farming crystals be? I've played countless RPGs before, I'm used to it."

... This is among the most painful farming experiences I've ever had in RPGs.

• Crystal Sources drop only 3 crystals.
  
• Crystal Sources respawn every 15 minutes.
  
• The best crystal farming spot in the game, the isle of messages, doesn't actually have that many sources either.
  
• 90% of crystals can't get to rank 10 because of too low purity.
  
• There are dozens of different effects. (Most of which are trash)
  
• The penalties of removing crystals from equipment are disgustingly horrible.
  
• Let's not even talk about size 1 rank X crystals...

... Why?

Did the developer not think any of this through? Farming and min-maxing crystals remains mostly unfeasible even after finishing the game. Thankfully no achievement requires fiddling with crystals at all but I have a bad case of OCD where I can't leave the game satisfied without having all my characters as powerful as they can possibly get.

[phenir]

Stat boosts are based off stats before gear and skills so it is actually 30%... of your attack if you didn't have anything equipped.
I read that crit damage is capped at 200% so one rank x crit damage crystal or rank 3 skill caps you. So if you want more damage you either use atk+ or elemental attack combined with resist reduction from victor or robb or dry/heavy/oil/wet.
There is a clan member that makes it so only certain types of crystals drop.

[Zalugar]

The crystal system isn't as bad as most think if you don't aim for size 1 rank X crystals. So most crystals can actually get rank X or even rank XV+ if you want.

This is due to the crystal reset done by removing it from armor. Let's say you remove your Rank IX gem from gear and it becomes a size 3, 0 purity Rank IX gem now. However, it's no longer a fused gem (indicated by asterisk). That means if you take a size 1, purity 1, Rank 1 gem, and fuse the purity 0 rank IX gem into it, you now have a size 2 rank X gem. Wanna switch gear it? Do it again and get a size 2, rank XI gem. X isn't the end point; there is no end point.
It's a bit of a hassle to do, but it allows you to use the same set of gems for the entire game.

Sure some QoL could make the experience better, and there has to be some hassle involved with it since the game is already balanced around not using crystals and use of them can make the game ridiculously easy.

If you wanna get a full set of size 1 rank X then yeah, that's hard to do and not worth doing for anything other than the ultimate gear, if you even want to do it.

[Seeking Solace]

Originally posted by phenir:

Stat boosts are based off stats before gear and skills so it is actually 30%... of your attack if you didn't have anything equipped.

I see. Still, my point remains, stat boosts are fairly minor compared to the critical boosts.

Originally posted by phenir:

I read that crit damage is capped at 200% so one rank x crit damage crystal or rank 3 skill caps you.

Huh... I see. So full CC it is then.
Edit: I've been looking at the game's code for a few minutes now. Learned some interesting stuff regarding the damage formula and the like, but the CD modifier doesn't seem to be capped. I will test what I observed in-game and share my findings in a post tomorrow.

Originally posted by phenir:

There is a clan member that makes it so only certain types of crystals drop.

Yeah, I'm aware of that.

Originally posted by Zalugar:

This is due to the crystal reset done by removing it from armor. Let's say you remove your Rank IX gem from gear and it becomes a size 3, 0 purity Rank IX gem now. However, it's no longer a fused gem (indicated by asterisk). That means if you take a size 1, purity 1, Rank 1 gem, and fuse the purity 0 rank IX gem into it, you now have a size 2 rank X gem. Wanna switch gear it? Do it again and get a size 2, rank XI gem. X isn't the end point; there is no end point.
It's a bit of a hassle to do, but it allows you to use the same set of gems for the entire game.

Wait... You can remove the fused gem status by un-equipping? Meaning you can fuse it into another gem while retaining its rank? Seriously!? That does indeed change my perspective of things lol.

[Moxey]

Its just a extra feature. Game is so easy by default you never need any crystals. I just slap in random ones when bored

[Seeking Solace]

Listed some of my findings while observing the game's code in this small guide:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2925984202