Crystal Ship Unlock?

[relliott]

I know this probably gets asked a jillion times

BUT

I'm trying to unlock the Crystal Ship using what I've heard is the most straightforward method -- use the Rock C, play on Easy, run through the first sector and restart until you see a clump of red blobs in sectors 6-7, and then just try and hit the Rock Homeworlds.

But even that's not working -- for some reason the Rock Homeworlds just haven't been spawning? I'm probably just getting unlucky, but I'm realizing that even best-case scenario I can look at max 3-4 red locations in sector 6-7 to check if they're the homeworlds or not. So that's 3-4 chances per run. And if none of those turn out to be the Rock Homeworlds -- well, there's an hour gone. Better restart the run.

Is there an even MORE reliable way to unlock the ship? Because this is already getting tedious. Or should I just give up on forcing the unlock?

[Ruggy]

Yeah, RNG is basically what determines if you get the crystal or not. However, using the same strat you're doing right now was how I unlocked the crystal ship. Long range scanners help out a lot, as you can avoid fights and find the asteroid field with the crystal pod more easily. You start out with 30 scrap, which is enough to buy the long range scanners too. Basically, be as quick as possible and avoid as many fights as you can. Otherwise, I'm not aware of any other reliable ways to get the unlock. Good luck :)

[Brosef Iosif]

There is an even more straightforward method. In fact, it works all the time! First of all you need to pick the Kestrel, the very basic ship, then you need to win once, only once. Then you need to... do this with all the ships layout A&B excluding the Lanius Cruiser.
Eh it's tedious but you're playing different ships! You can do it in easy, as long as you beat the game with the 16 different ships once with each, it works.

[Ray Robertson]

Not sure what is tedious about winning with all the A and Bs? I mean you are playing the game with a different ship every time, I'd call that the opposite of tedious.

[Biohazard063]

Well... one option to lower the grind a bit would be to use the FTL profile editor. It has an option to look at the current run which means you can check the sector map as well. So you can see if the Rock Homeworld is present for your current run.
Might be more work than it's worth, but at least you won't do half a run just to realize it wasn't possible to begin with.

[Skinny Pete]

If you insist on the "traditional" method, it's best to try from the beginning. Start by unlocking Rock A.

If you don't mind cheesing a fair amount, there's this method:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=170464357

[Brosef Iosif]

Originally posted by Ray Robertson:

Not sure what is tedious about winning with all the A and Bs? I mean you are playing the game with a different ship every time, I'd call that the opposite of tedious.

Well I'd argue it's only relatively tedious in the sense that you have to play at least 16 games instead of just one proper, but I certainly agree that re-playing again and again the same ship can and probably is more of a bummer than playing all of the various ships. Also, winning all the ships is typically helped by the fact that, at this point, you've probably win with several of the ships already.
However, it's also true that, to be able to do it, you have to unlock all of the 16 ships, then you have to win them all. It's "tedious" because it's ultimately much more time consuming than just rolling with the Rock C. But eh, you're playing the game so...

tl;dr "tedious" probably wasn't the right word, "time consuming" would be more precise

[Skinny Pete]

The main gripe with the strategy that gets you Crystal B after every other ship is that you miss getting to use the ship when it would actually be fun to be able to play it and stomp everything with some super ship at a time when you're actually struggling with regularly winning.

By the time you win with every ship and unlock Crystal B, it's a ridiculously OP ship it's practically impossible to lose with.

[Mike]

Originally posted by Skinny Pete:

By the time you win with every ship and unlock Crystal B, it's a ridiculously OP ship it's practically impossible to lose with.

I can absolutely lose with Crystal B, or any other ship. I just need a really (really!) bad sector 1.

To be clear, I've never lost a game with this ship (I think!), but that's just because I haven't played enough games. The most efficient way to lose is thinking, "This ship is so OP, I could never lose".

[Skinny Pete]

Originally posted by Mike:

Originally posted by Skinny Pete:

By the time you win with every ship and unlock Crystal B, it's a ridiculously OP ship it's practically impossible to lose with.

I can absolutely lose with Crystal B, or any other ship. I just need a really (really!) bad sector 1.

It has to be worse than will finish most other ships, and worse in a way that specifically targets its lack of crew and weapons. Like a series of automated ships with drones and BL II and missiles and other combos like that.

[Mike]

Originally posted by Skinny Pete:

It has to be worse than will finish most other ships, and worse in a way that specifically targets its lack of crew and weapons. Like a series of automated ships with drones and BL II and missiles and other combos like that.

No, not necessarily worse. But yes, bad in a way that exploits the weaknesses of the ship.

Early-game safety relies on using Crystal lockdown to shut down enemy weapons. That is a very powerful tactic and guarantees safety in most fights, but it's still possible to get into bad situations.

Not having weapons is a serious weakness. It's not a weakness that usually hurts you, because the strengths usually (more than!) compensate. Nevertheless Crystal B has a weakness that most other ships do not. It can lose to situations that most other ships would handle easily.

Take a look at this run, where Billy Kirby loses with Crystal B. It's instructive to see how the best players lose. While it's not perfect play, bear in mind that he has a 67-ship win streak.

https://www.twitch.tv/billy1kirby/video/364389795

[Skinny Pete]

Originally posted by Mike:

Originally posted by Skinny Pete:

It has to be worse than will finish most other ships, and worse in a way that specifically targets its lack of crew and weapons. Like a series of automated ships with drones and BL II and missiles and other combos like that.

No, not necessarily worse. But yes, bad in a way that exploits the weaknesses of the ship.

Early-game safety relies on using Crystal lockdown to shut down enemy weapons. That is a very powerful tactic and guarantees safety in most fights, but it's still possible to get into bad situations.

It's still a nearly insuperable advantage as you can not only nuke the weapons (and keep them down) but even more or less board while ignoring things like medbays, since you can keep enemies from getting into them before you kill them.

I've also definitely lost with Crystal B. It's just much less common than with ships like say Federation C which can easily get hammered hard early.

[Mike]

Well yes, it's obviously much better than Fed C, which has almost the same weaknesses and none of the strengths. But Fed C is an awful ship.

Better to compare it with something like Kestrel A. Those nasty fights against a Pirate Rigger in an asteroid field? Crystal B can handle them with very careful micro, but Kestrel A just shoots out their weapons.

Technically I think Crystal B is still better here. You can bait the weapons crew out the room, sneak back in, and lock it down. I can't think of a situation where that fails. But I wonder what percentage of the player base knows how to do this correctly?

And when you get it slightly wrong, bad things can happen. For example, you board into the weapons room, they have a Mantis. You lock it down immediately, but the engines crew gets inside anyway -- and it's also a Mantis. Now you have two Crystals locked in a room with two Mantis. Then the enemy hits your teleporter, triggers Crystal Vengeance, and guess where that shard is heading?

Technically, I think you're right. It's an insuperable advantage if played exactly right. But when you see top-level players lose with this ship, it makes me think the lower-level players are over-confident.

I feel it's a similar situation with Mantis B. Most players rate is as top-tier, because it gets OP really easily. But it has a unique weakness that makes it fragile in the early game, and the early game is almost the only part that actually matters.

[Skinny Pete]

Originally posted by Mike:

I feel it's a similar situation with Mantis B. Most players rate is as top-tier, because it gets OP really easily. But it has a unique weakness that makes it fragile in the early game, and the early game is almost the only part that actually matters.

Good point, and Mantis B is very similar in its strengths, other than that a 4 Mantis boarding crew substitutes simply causing massive damage very quickly for the slower but more reliable 3 Crystal+whatever strategy of locking down. Mantis B can easily destroy an enemy crew before the first volley with slower firing weapons.

It actually has a slight advantage over the Crystal B in that it can fairly often (although somewhat RNG dependent) take out automated ships with the Boarding Drone. Doing it with no damage requires it land conveniently (or that it not land in the cockpit in the ships where the cockpit is separate). Still, that is something Crystal B can't do.

[Mike]

Mantis B can easily destroy an enemy crew before the first volley with slower firing weapons.

Indeed, 4 Mantis are hilariously good at chewing through crew. But again, that's not the situation you start with. On the first jump, Mantis B can literally just go die in a fire.

Getting more crew, especially an Engi, removes that weakness.

it can fairly often (although somewhat RNG dependent) take out automated ships with the Boarding Drone

Yes; the boarding Drone can destroy automated ships 90% of the time (or 100% if you have teleporter-2). That figure does not take into account the possibility of the enemy running away, or that you might need to run if it can hurt you.

[Skinny Pete]

Originally posted by Mike:

Mantis B can easily destroy an enemy crew before the first volley with slower firing weapons.

Indeed, 4 Mantis are hilariously good at chewing through crew. But again, that's not the situation you start with. On the first jump, Mantis B can literally just go die in a fire.

And that is the most common way it dies. It does not like fire one little bit.