[Spoilerish] A Friendly Guide For Crystals, And A Bit More!

A minor detailing of the crystals you'll find in Level 5 and their purposes, along with a few theories to kick off any discussion.

Fundamentals of Crystal Usage

Hello. I am Stabbykinz, and I'm here to bring you a quick touch up on using the crystals found in the fifth level of Exanima (mostly because I haven't seen the topic pop up a lot in the discussions or other guides). But I love my lore, and I love thinking about what elements and possibilities these wonderous things drive into the game itself, so I'll also be tossing in a few theories as to their involvement story-wise.

Starting off, I want to really hammer this point in for people who are just getting into the fifth level for the first time: these crystals are horribly finite. Limited in number and in the amount of power they have to them. So far, the only crystals that actually recharge are the encased blue crystal, found in the golem production facility in the north-eastern portion of the map, and most likely the large encased blue that you get to loot from the boss's corpse. The rest of them have a limited amount of power and in number (generally two per crystal in total), so it's best to keep that in mind in case you decide to use one.

The only exception to this case are blue crystals. You'll find a bunch of these from killing regular golems, but attempting to kill regular golems, even one at a time while wearing the best armor in the game thus far, is a chore and generally only leads to wasting your health reserves (like I did :<). At the same time, blue crystals get used up crazy fast, and you might want to try and stockpile at least five of them.

So far as I've been able to discern, green is used for healing permanent wounds, amber *might* be stamina boosting though I have yet to successfully activate it, and blue is mana empowerment. A black crystal is useless, all of its power has been used up and there is no way to recharge it.

How do?

Well, this bit you'll probably find upsetting. The crystals can't be used on their own, they have to be attached to pieces of gear that allow sockets. So far, there's only three that exist as of Level 5: the Strange Mask, 'Armor', and the Flanged Mace.







As you can see, the blue crystals embue the mace with an electrical spark. But blue crystals also work for the Armor. As it turns out, the suit of armor that the boss was guarding is actually the magical equivalent of power armor, if you have ever played any of the Fallout games. Despite have full manoeuvering capability, it grants the user MAXIMUM encumbrance. Probably effects movement speed (don't really see too much of a difference besides the stat itself), but more importantly it slows down your swing speed and makes a nightmare of fighting golems, while simultaneously making your odds of surviving even two golems at once incredibly high.

Despite this hefty downside, using a blue crystal...completely negates it. All of the dots in encumberance vanish, which leads me to believes that it's supposed to remain powered at all times via mana crystals. I believe this is where the auto-recharging blue crystal comes it, as it as smaller version of the golem's crystal. Similarly, I believe the armor itself was crafted from the same materials and, in fact, in the same facility as the golem production as it likewise has a dampened footstep as opposed to the usual clattering of metal-on-metal. An experimental set, I originally believed, but judging by the parchments found on the map, there may have been others with similar crystals that were taken. This would explain why there were multiple racks in the boss room with only one set of armor, as well as a single used crystal found with a green and amber crystal.

The mace work differently, as you can tell by the example provided. Rather than allowing the user to be more agile, a blue crystal embues the flanged mace with electricity, packing an additional punch ontop of impact and crushing damage, possibly the two most deadliest types of damage to pit against armored enemies. This makes the mace possibly more powerful than the maul, which actually has the potential to one-shot enemies with the blow to the head despite being an inferior version of the two-handed warhammer/mace varieties. Keep in mind, however, that the power armor, or mana armor, will both chew through an entire crystal in two-three swings, and that sprint (I think even just walking on a full charge too) will drain away at a blue crystal.

Unlike those two, however, the Strange Mask works off of the green crystals only, as far as I know, slowly healing any permanent damage. It takes a lot longer for it to drain a crystal, as opposed to the mace and armor with their respective crystals, but are best to be used sparingly. The mask itself can be found in the northern Eye 'sector' of the map, behind a door that's blocked in with a metal bench. You'll have to fight the deceased who's wearing it at the time, but it's an invaluable secondary source of healing with so few potions scattered throughout the game.

What could it mean?

So far, what we know is that we've stumbled upon cult that lived, seemingly, in another location or another dimension entirely. This cult may or may not have been responsible for summoning Sir, though whether or not Sir is actual related to the Guardian is currently unknown. But I think Sir maybe more linked to his own infernal realm than the likes of Death, if he is infact a demon. Additionally, this cult once had its own military branch, outfitted with Golems (which are most likely built with tortured souls, using methods apparently more heinous than our target's) as security against tresspassers attempting to breach the various sectors and armories of the base. The tokens in this case are used as a means of authentication, a brilliantly brutal form of security.

If I've interpreted the parchments correctly, there may have been a revolt. A group of insiders lead by one of the cult leaders who was unhappy with the vision of the cult staged a rebellion and took to cornering and sealing off key members of the cult from each other, raiding the armory with impunity before either being driven further into the depths below or wiping out their fellow cultists entirely. Alternatively, they could have summoned the demon as a distraction, kept most of their enemies out of the base, robbed it clean, then staged the rebellion but that is speculation at this point.

What is clear is that these crystals were likely being manufactured alongside their magic-using counterparts, and we're going to encounter more of them as we move towards the next level. And just as likely, we're bound to meet enemies with similar armor and a tenacity to match it. Given how vicious and unforgiving the golems were, and how defensive a lot of cult ghouls were, the next set of enemies will undoubtedly be more harrowing.

But on the bright side, given that we were able to loot the golem crystal. And we can drag and view the golem weapons...I think it might be safe to say that we can expect/hope to see some form of hulk/dragonbuster armor. That is to say, a giant, medieval mecha/power armor that we can pilot/don. A living embodiment of catharsis. It probably sounds a little silly, but this game loves throwing curveballs, and I really hope it comes to pass

[Yozas]

If you insert an orange crystal into a sword, it will burn with fire and illuminate everything like a torch, adding fire damage.

[thraes]

oops, i was reading the comments in reverse order

[thraes]

orange crystals go into the flaming great sword found in market level?

[McSqiggles]

amber is for the decorated greatsword

[McSqiggles]

bone sword takes green the blader slowly gets more slash as the crystal heals the bone sword

[McSqiggles]

i got a bone sword with a socket in the sewer

[Stabbykinz]

@Banana None so far, I believe. But it's been some time since this guide was released, and I haven't been able to broach some of the newer levels.

[Ulvheðinn]

Yellow is for some other weapon, I believe a delicate sword

[Kevippe]

so there really isnt a use for the large crystal found on the presidents body?

[reyzguen]

a greatsword in the new level