The Crystalline faction are brutes of durability and firepower. Their armor is made up of large blocks with lots of health and big guns with lots of punch. However, their weight also makes them slow and cumbersome. This faction holds the center of the galaxy in the campaign.
Once a player has killed 1000P worth of Crystalline ships, the faction will be unlocked and they can start a new game as a Crystalline.
Blocks
Crystalline blocks use the penrose shape set. They scale to a large size, have a good deal of health and weight. Crystalline have no shields, so you’ll want to had plenty of armor to protect the command module.
Armor
Crystalline armor has a lot of health and weight. The large size blocks will help protect against splash damage better than the smaller scales.
Thrusters
Crystalline thrusters have a lot of thrust, but the ships also weigh a lot, so their ships are never really fast. That lack of mobility makes them vulnerable to kiting by the other factions.
Missiles
Both sizes are very good and are Crystal’s only long-range weapon. They also use no energy, making them relatively cheap compared to some of the other factions missiles. They also have huge range and fly for a very long time. Their only down-side is their lack of speed.
Cannons
Plasma Condensers: There are four sizes of Plasma Condenser, getting more expensive and hard-hitting as they scale up. The larger ones will be more desirable because of their range. Only the Tinkrell modular guns provide better dps.
Plazma Diffractor: The tiny Plazma Diffractors are a short-range point-defense weapon. They actually offer a good source of splash damage, but they do have a very short range.
Generators
The Crystalline generators are very similar to those of other factions. The thing that’s different about them is that the Crystalline have no other blocks that can hold resources. Crystalline factory ships will need lots of generators to hold the R needed to build large ships.
Crystalline Tricks
No Energy Ship: The missiles don’t need any energy, so you can build a ship that uses nothing but tons of missiles, and it won’t need any generators.
Bases: Make sure you have a large base design, that way when you unlock a base-point you’ll get a free battle-station.
Nuke Defense: Sentinel Nukes are a serious problem for Crystalline. To help protect yourself spam lots of missiles to pre-detonate the nukes before they get to your ships.
Root Block: The Crystalline actually have a root block that lets you build buildings similar to the Bees, but it’s only accessible from the Sandbox and does not appear in the normal campaign. There’s actually no way to create buildings without a little modding.