Do black crystals spawn on their own?

[movzx]

I've been all over the crystal cavern and there's not a single black crystal (plenty of light crystals). Will some eventually spawn on their own in one of tiles?

[chuk155]

I don't think so.
Are you sure there aren't any black crystals? They are black so they don't emit any light and are somewhat hard to spot.

For crystals to grow there must be water in contact with a black crystal, so theres no way to grow any without any to "seed" them.

[movzx]

I guess I will clear out all of the tiles in an effort to find one.

[chuk155]

If you do spend hours looking for one with no luck do tell us because that might be an issue with the terrain generation.

Best of luck then.

[movzx]

Welp I zig-zagged from the bottom of the ocean to the top of the place beneath the crystal caverns. I've got the entire place covered in lights, so there is nothing hiding in shadows. No black crystals to be found.

I also noticed that some crystals can spawn off screen and you can't use your gun to suck them up. I used my grenade launcher to cause all the off-screen crystals to break apart and none of those were black either.

Oh well.

[chuk155]

I feel like there should be at least 1 black crystal somewhere. The area is pretty wide so you might check side to side some (sounds like you did an entire vertical section).

Not much I can do about it though. Terrain generation just gave you a bad map :/

[movzx]

I did all the way across the entire area horizontally and vertically going down maybe every 5-8 tiles (whatever the flashlight range is), moving all the way to the left, going down, moving all the way to the right, repeat. I did this starting just under the sand and then all the way to the area beneath the crystal caverns.

[chuk155]

Okay then. That is a reall bummer.

You should send your save and log file to gaddy (details in the FAQ).

Because there should be at least one crystal somewhere. Something in the terrain generation messed up it seems and you got a borked work file (though those crystals aren't needed for progression unless i'm mistaken).

I take that back they are needed for the MK V autobuilder. Thats not good at all.

[Girard]

black crystals look like muddy versions of the light crystals. I've never seen a map with 0, but I suppose it is possible.

[movzx]

Alright, so I figured it out. There's more than one set of crystal caverns. The one I was tearing around in had no black crystals. I went to the opposite end of the map, dug straight down, and immediately found a black one.

[chuk155]

Oh good.
Save not ruined.
But still, you shoudln't have 0 crystals on either side of the map.

[WillieSea]

Its possible to have zero on the right side of the volcano, its a very small section. But on the left side there should be a few of them at least since its a much bigger area.

[Gaddy Games]

@movzx : could you please send me your saved game by email (check the faq to know where it is)? I'll check it when I come back in two weeks. I would be really surprised if there was really that few black crystals

[76]

Originally posted by movzx:

I did all the way across the entire area horizontally and vertically going down maybe every 5-8 tiles (whatever the flashlight range is), moving all the way to the left, going down, moving all the way to the right, repeat. I did this starting just under the sand and then all the way to the area beneath the crystal caverns.

You barely even need a flashlight let alone wall light to see in the crystal caverns.

[movzx]

@gaddy The problem was the spot I was calling crystal caverns was a very small area. It had no black crystals. On the right side was the end of the map, and on the left side was a material you can't dig through (at this point in the game). This made me think that this was the entire crystal cavern area.

When I went to the opposite side of the map (where the bats are) and dug down I saw that there is actually more than one 'crystal cavern'. This one actually had black crystals. I don't think there is an issue, just confusion about there being more than one crystal cavern area.

I'm not really sure how to improve on that experience. With hindsight it seems obvious that there would be more caverns elsewhere, but at the time it seemed like the game was purposely limiting me because of the wall I couldn't get through. Maybe a minimap would have helped point out there was a lot more map that deep? idk

@76 Yes, but there are still 'dark spots' and I wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything since I didn't actually know what black crystals looked like (having not seen one).

[chuk155]

Wait, so the crystal caverns you found at first was on the right side of the volcano (thing you can't dig through)?

That would make sense since the crystal caverns on the right side are very very small, small enough that no black crystals spawning is very possible (as WillieSea said).