Crystal Ship Quest: Do ship crew names need to be changed?

[Dr.Chang 🎄]

Currently tackling the Crystal Ship Quest, the third Rock ship starts with a Crystal crew member. Should the Crystal crew member's name be changed to trigger the Crystal Ship events?

[Skinny Pete]

It has no benefit any more. You need to get the Crystal named Ruwen from the two events that are part of the original quest.

However, if you do have a Crystal crew, you can get the blue event that unlocks, at a beacon with "no ship presence." Obviously, choose the blue option. Renaming the crew member (if you do the Rock C method) no longer automatically gives you a quest marker.

So if you aren't a total lucksack LRS is your best option to increase the odds of hitting this rare beacon.

[thelefthorse]

Originally posted by Skinny Pete:

It has no benefit any more. You need to get the Crystal named Ruwen from the two events that are part of the original quest.

However, if you do have a Crystal crew, you can get the blue event that unlocks, at a beacon with "no ship presence." Obviously, choose the blue option. Renaming the crew member (if you do the Rock C method) no longer automatically gives you a quest marker.

So if you aren't a total lucksack LRS is your best option to increase the odds of hitting this rare beacon.

Have some points for teaching me my new favorite word: lucksack.

[Dr.Chang 🎄]

Damn, what a crappy design! Finally figured it out!

Suggesting to use the Rock Ship C instead of struggling with the Crystal Ship.

I'm not sure if the crew name has to be "Ruwen" necessarily. I'm using the Simplified Chinese version, and the name has been changed to "鲁文".

After clearing the first world, check the subsequent worlds. If there are no red sectors past world 5 (indicating no rock planets), it's basically a reset.

Crystal quest: Even if you have a scanner, it won't show. However, at least you can know that if a sector has a "yellow alert", it's unlikely to be the hidden crystal quest world. You can exclude it and look elsewhere.

Just had a run using the Rock Ship C, and worlds 6 to 7 were all rock worlds. Missed the first rock world, but managed to stumble upon the hidden crystal world in the second one.

Damn, what a freaking nightmare.

This design is downright trolling~

[New Moon On Monday]

The Ancient Device event is guaranteed to be one of the beacons in Rock Homeworlds. So if you are playing Rock C and you do find the Rock Homeworlds sector, you could consider making a copy of your save file (continue.sav). If you don't find the Ancient Device the first time through, you could revert to the old save file and take another path through the Rock Homeworlds.

[Dr.Chang 🎄]

Originally posted by New Moon On Monday:

The Ancient Device event is guaranteed to be one of the beacons in Rock Homeworlds. So if you are playing Rock C and you do find the Rock Homeworlds sector, you could consider making a copy of your save file (continue.sav). If you don't find the Ancient Device the first time through, you could revert to the old save file and take another path through the Rock Homeworlds.

Where is the save file located? I'd like to try if using a crew name other than "Ruwen" can also access the crystal world.

[New Moon On Monday]

Originally posted by Dr.Chang 🎄:

Where is the save file located? I'd like to try if using a crew name other than "Ruwen" can also access the crystal world.

On my computer, running Windows 11, it's in: Documents/My Games/FasterThanLight

The game save file is: continue.sav

The file that keeps your stats and unlocked ships is: ae_prof.sav

I have Steam Cloud turned off to keep the files local on my computer.

A continue.sav game save file is only present when you have a game in-progress.

Using Rock C is generally much quicker than going through the full Ancestry quest line. Even without the Ancient Device beacon marked for you (which is what you get with Ruwen), you have better than even odds of finding it anyway. And of course if you want, you can reload the save file and try again.

[New Moon On Monday]

The Crystal Cruiser also unlocks after you have unlocked the A & B layouts of every other ship, except the Lanius ships. Depending on how many of those ships you have left to unlock, that could potentially be the quickest way for you to unlock the Crystal Cruiser.

[daggaz]

Get rock C. Get LRS. Go to rock homeworlds (sector 5 to 7, red). Visit unmarked beacons (there is no quest tag going this route) : no hazards, no ships, no distress. Get lucky. Go to Crystal sector, don't die, get to the quest beacon.

[Dr.Chang 🎄]

Originally posted by daggaz:

Get rock C. Get LRS. Go to rock homeworlds (sector 5 to 7, red). Visit unmarked beacons (there is no quest tag going this route) : no hazards, no ships, no distress. Get lucky. Go to Crystal sector, don't die, get to the quest beacon.

Certainly!

These are all valid points!

But... should the crew member's name be changed to Ruwen?

[daggaz]

Literally the first sentence of the first response in this thread answers that. I gave you a list of what you need to do. Changing the name is not on the list for a reason, though I could have added "don't lose your crystal crewman" for foolproof completion.

LRS is optional btw, it just greatly increases your odds because you can avoid incorrect beacons and maximize the ones that might be the quest line. Not an issue if you savescum, but at that point you may as well edit the ship in to your player file.

[New Moon On Monday]

Originally posted by Dr.Chang 🎄:

But... should the crew member's name be changed to Ruwen?

Like Skinny Pete pointed out, renaming one of your crew does not help.

When the game was first released, you could play Rock C, rename the Crystal guy to Ruwen, and that would mark the Ancient Device beacon with a Quest marker if you got to the Rock Homeworlds. However, that was an exploit that was eventually patched.

Now, your Rock C Crystal guy will unlock the Crystal Cruiser if you find the Ancient Device in the Rock Homeworlds. However, the Ancient Device beacon will not be marked on the map for you.