Crystal
Alert
Combat
Support
Type
Power to Refract
Multiplies Primed Pod By Itself
As an actor, during a clash, you or any of your allies may use this power to scrap a pod from their cache with an aur value that matches their fleet’s primed attack pod to square the might of your primed attack pod.
Legacy: After contact, during a clash, an actor may scrap an attack pod with an aur value that matches their fleet’s attack pod to double its value.
The power of the ancient Crystals is said to rival even that of the almighty Virus. Though possibly more impressive is their ability to refract their power onto other aliens, temporarily granting use of it. Scientists and innovators once studied Crystal’s power in order to develop the flares commonly wielded in the modern day.
Actor: Clash
Optional
Wild Flare
As an actor, during a clash, if more than one alien in your fleet has the same number of ships in the encounter, you may discharge this flare to double the might of each of those ships.
Actor: Clash
Super Flare
When another alien uses your power, you may discharge this flare to duplicate the scrapped pod and add it to your cache.
Actor: Clash
Modifications
- Original Crystal is a mandatory power that has the same effect. I converted it to an optional power that any ally can activate, a novel effect for Crystal.
- Original Wild Crystal allows you to rearrange your ships at the start of any invasion. I modified it to be more closely related to the theme.
- Original Super Crystal is almost exactly the same, except they don’t explicitly use your power and get the pod itself, rather than duplicating it.
- Crystal’s legacy gives all aliens the ability to use a nerfed version of Crystal’s base power, doubling the value by scrapping a copy instead of squaring it. Aliens that can gain many pods like Healer or Remora can take advantage of it, and aliens like Fodder and Porcupine can combine it with their existing combat power to resupply their hand faster while scrapping other pods. Original Cosmic has no legacies.
Tips
- Crystal’s combat power is second-to-none. If you have a duplicate attack pod, you can virtually guarantee a win from an encounter, even if the entire enemy force is against you. Unless you are zapped, even two 4-pods can be a challenge to overcome.
- Unlike Virus, Crystal is dependent on allies in order to get more use out of its power. A standard resupply is unlikely to contain more than one or two duplicates, and each pair only gets one use. By taking advantage of the caches of other aliens, Crystal has a higher chance of getting the utility.
- When priming an attack pod with sponsors, priming more common pods like 06, 08, and 10 can maximize the odds that another alien can use your power. While you are dependent on them choosing to use it, the timing of during the clash means primed pods have been revealed, so they will generally know if it is necessary or not. Since most players want to win encounters, it’s a good idea.
- Crystal’s activation requirement also makes it valuable to commission, since you can play a pod that Crystal or another ally can refract, effectively making you Crystal when you invite Crystal.
Development Notes
- The timing of Crystal’s power is somewhat awkward, since multiple players may step over each other trying to use it. This seems to be an issue with both my version and the base, as multiple players trying to use it at once would reveal one player is holding the card. CEO employed a system of first-come first-serve with things like the Clone and Filch interaction, so I think something could be done that allows players to hit a modular “use power” button that locks other players out from using theirs until it resolves (giving time for someone to zap).
- Wild Crystal’s flare has the potential to be incredibly oppressive if the user takes advantage of it. Two aliens with 4 ships each will commit 16 base power. Three aliens raise it to 24. It reflects the combat power of Crystal itself, and Crystal being in the same game is capable of competing with it. Since my Cosmic doesn’t force resupplies, a player could theoretically win as the invader using only the Wild Crystal flare and some allies. However, having no allies makes the flare useless, and ships are committed before commissions, requiring that risk to be taken ahead of time. If the allies undercommit or join the enemy, the flare has no value.
- The power of Crystal is one of the only ones in the game capable of directly competing with and even surpassing Virus’s numbers. Virus with 4 ships and a 40 pod can reach a height of 160 base. Crystal can’t usually duplicate a 40 since there’s only one (unless Clone clones it or another is drafted from the dark forge), but the largest duplicate pod of value 20 takes Crystal’s fleet up to a colossal 400 power.
- Super Crystal’s ability to gain scrapped pods when other aliens use its power is a fantastic way to up the power of an amazing combat power without supercharging the combat power even more like how Super Virus works. It’s a great bit of flavor that helps to distinguish Crystal and Virus’s identities. By using skillful refraction, Crystal is able to create “hard light” and crystallize the refracted attack pod into a brand new pod. By adding more copies of pods, Crystal is more easily able to activate its power, especially when dealing with higher value pods that only have 2 or 3 copies in the forge. I also like how Super Crystal tends to copy more common pods like 06s and 10s, while Clone would prefer to clone the 40 over and over.
- Crystal’s power is based off the theme of refraction, like the rainbow that appears when light passes through a crystal. I can abstract the idea of taking an encounter pod and refracting light through a Crystal’s body in order to square its power tenfold when combined with another attack pod on the same wavelength. Crystal’s ability to pass its ability over also makes sense if it can refract its light onto something and have it adapt its properties.
- Crystal’s understated ability that lets other aliens use its power gave me the idea to tie it into the lore as the inspiration for alien flares. Crystal is one of the Prime 6 that took the might of Virus to overcome. It makes sense that they have significant historical value in the Cosmos.
- The way Crystal’s power spreads and makes other aliens Crystal almost makes it work just as well for the theme of Virus. However, the mental image of light refracting through a prism to make a rainbow carries a strong visual that makes enough sense to avoid changing the theme. A virus wouldn’t just go away after breaking contact like how refraction would stop once the light fades.