IDNTG - Crystal

Crystal is one of the two starter characters along with Fish. This gives her a very simple character loadout kit as well, as her extra health and ability to shield makes her built completely around extra defense. While her powers may seem simple they work very well for all areas in the game, and works very well for those trying to learn the game as she allows for plenty of breathing room, with being able to take an extra hit or two usually and protect from oncoming damage.

Both of Crystal's ultras let her lean heavily into the most defensive builds into the game, as with the right mutations she becomes a near unstoppable force that can take on any threat. For this reasoning she has the best score ever obtained by a normal character, and holds the top spot of all the characters due to how consistent she is in all parts of the game. She is strongly recommended for all parts of the game, especially when trying to reach new personal bests.


Icon	Crystal B Sprites	Icon
Idle		Idle
Walk		Walk
Death		Death


	Crystal
	Unlock	Default
	B-Skin	Reach 4-? as Crystal
	Weapon	Revolver
	Active	Can Shield
	Passive	More Max HP

Abilities

Active: - Crystal can shield. This allows her to create a (somewhat) impervious barrier that blocks many types of enemy damage. She cannot use weapons while in this state, and has a small cooldown until she can shield again. Weapon cooldown will happen even while shielded. The shield lasts about 1.5 seconds, however it can also be spammed in quick succession with some cooldown to be spread apart.; - The shield can make hostile projectiles change teams and damage enemies instead. This includes enemies common bullet shots, shell shots, and makes disc shots friendly. It can also deflect thrown cars from snowbots, and maggots spat out by jungle flies.; - The shield can also erase enemy projectiles. This includes pellet shots, toxic clouds, fire, plasma orbs, T2's laser beam and horror's rad beam. It can block enemy missiles, however this is incredibly risky as it does not protect from explosive damage.; - Crystal's shield does NOT make her invincible. She can still take damage from explosions, melee damage, laser beams/T1's laser and lightning damage. She will also take contact damage if enemies can make contact, however they may be pushed away depending on your position.
Passive: - Crystal starts with 2 extra max HP, for a total with 10. This can stack with Rhino Skin to give her a total of 14 instead of your usual 12.
Thronebutt:: - Crystal will shield for roughly 1 second, and then teleport to the location of the cursor. Immediately after teleporting she is subject to taking any source of damage, including contact. If the player's cursor is over a wall, then Crystal will simply not teleport, however the reduced shield time is retained.
Ultra A: Fortress: - Gains an additional +6 Maximum HP. This can put Crystal anywhere from 16 - 20 Max HP depending on Rhino Skin.
Ultra B: Juggernaut: - Allows Crystal to move while shielded. The shield still acts functionally the same, just that the player can move in any direction. Hammerhead can be used while in this state. If running thronebutt, the reduced time will be retained.

Preloop Guide

Starting out with Crystal, one may notice that her perk is a shield that makes her stay stationary. This may seem like a mixed power, as the player can open themselves up to more damage by being stationary for too long for when the shield goes down, but it's something that only needs a little practice to make perfect, as the shield just needs to be timed right and can always be undone manually by letting go of the active button. This makes shield a primary form of defense to use as a crutch, as one can simply block bullets while waiting for weapon reloads and possibly have those deflected bullets to chip enemy health. This makes Crystal extremely viable for learning the game, as the player can focus on learning the rest of the game mechanics / focus on progressing even further, as her simple shield can come as a natural response to dangerous situations. One should take note of the tech above though as her shield cannot save the player from every situation.

Crystal's 2 extra HP is a nice bonus as well to make her require more hits to be killed. A mutation like Rhino Skin is still really useful at this part of the game, however if taken it is strongly recommended the player takes at least one healing mutation(Bloodlust, Rabbit Paw, Second Stomach), as rebuilding her vitality takes longer than other characters. This is especially true in cases of taking Strong Spirit, if it is lost it may be difficult to recharge because even more health kits are needed to build back to full, which means more dangerous situations without Spirit. These are both reasons on why healing mutations should be highly valued, however Crystal largely plays like any other mutant otherwise, so any other good mutation also applies here.

With all this in mind, giving advice on Crystal in preloop is a lot more like giving general advice to players. There's slight preferencing on mutations and practice needing shielding, otherwise her gameplay here is extremely simple. Which while learning the game should be seen as a great perk.

Loop Guide

When entering loop Crystal is faced with two very viable ultras. Either choice greatly increases her defensive capabilities and makes most interactions with enemies far more forgiving. Because of this, either ultra can be seen as strong choices for looping.

Fortress is often one of the crowning jewels of ultra mutations, allowing an extra 6 max HP along with Crystal's passive puts the player at 16 max HP. If going this route it is strongly recommended the player has at least one healing mutation for similar reasons mentioned in the preloop guide, but taken more seriously. It can also be stacked with Rhino Skin, with 20 max HP being the highest normally obtainable values. Vans and Laser Crystals both can do 20 contact damage, so she is not completely immune, however most forms of damage in the game can be recovered from. This makes loop play incredibly forgiving and is one of the best ultras in the game, and only improves as time goes on.

Juggernaut is often overlooked because of how powerful Fortress is, however in loop play it also stands up very well on its own. If the player is running without any healing mutations, this can be seen as preferable as more versatility in being able to move while shielded is a great way to compensate for having less max HP that one could have otherwise. It also makes playing without melee weapons more forgiving, but running them is still all the more helpful if built around them. Juggernaut is great for getting through choke points, as well as maneuvering around open levels that have dangerous long range capabilities, such as Desert or 3-3.

Overall Crystal holds up as a top tier character in Loop play as well for her sets potential, however there is not too much to comment/strategize with as she still leans into a pretty vanilla playstyle. Some players may find her boring for this reason, however she will always be reliable and consistent for those who wants a quick and easy run, or is looking to give major improvement to their personal bests.

Meta Guide

Crystal holds the global world record at Loop 22 as of the time of this guide. This is being mentioned to overstate on just why Crystal is considered the best character in the game. Many areas that are very dangerous for most characters in the game, she can recover quite easily from comparatively. If running meta, go Fortress. While Juggernaut is a nice mutation in loop, shielding becomes increasingly less important when running your average meta build. Crystal can also drop Rhino Skin from her meta set very easily, as 16 HP with an extra heal is seen as more useful than 20 HP build. 16 HP and 20 HP both should not be underestimated. The discussion for what mutations to get the next world record is a different conversation, as this is for general introduction/survival to Crystal in meta. So, how much max HP a player should have is dependent on how much max HP they want.

Because of playing at 16-20 HP, having at least one healing mutation is almost entirely required. All three healing mutations hold up really well. Bloodlust is great for situations such as being 15/16 HP and needing to recharge spirit. Rabbit Paw will give a crazy amount of drops at low HP. Stomach will help Crystal recover to max HP far quicker. So once again, it's a question of what the player thinks will suit them the best. Bloodlust is generally the best recommended if a starting point is asked for though.

Throne 2 Fight
T2 fight goes extremely well for Crystal. Her shield is quite helpful as it can completely erase an orb attack completely, and can also stall an orb stream. These can potentially save ultra shovel swings giving her more breathing room during the fight. Otherwise, her extra health just makes it overall a more pleasant experience.

Big Bandits Fight
Similar to T2, the fight is just a lot more forgiving on Crystal. She is more likely to be at a HP threshold to let her survive an accidental charge hit, and retreating from the initial bandit spawn is a lot safer from her excess amounts of health. Shield can be used to help stall out while waiting for charges, or IDPD respawns if in a tricky spot, otherwise she plays bandits pretty normally with the exception of more forgiving hits.

The Mom Fight
A trend that can be seen in these explanations is that "it makes the boss fight easier", and with the simple addition of a bunch of more HP, this is true for every boss. However for Mom this can be extra vital, as quite often taking hits from Mom can be unavoidable.. She simply moves around too fast in later loops to keep track of, so having a character as forgiving as Crystal for taking hits, she's absolutely seen as useful for Mom. Taking 10 contact damage at max HP means that the player is only down to 6 HP, versus 2 on other characters in meta. That means taking a hit doesn't require the player to spam ushov as much in a dangerous situation, less likely to drop spirit, and needs less heals in order to get back to the point they can tank yet another hit.

And that is sort of the point, Crystal is a character that makes every part of the game far more forgiving. Palace is another example where it's easy for a player to drop spirit from taking two dog hits in quick succession, Crystal can tank 2-3 and still be fine. One part where her shield does came in handy is the Throne. If Crystal is shielding, the Throne will lose track of where she is and can walk forward inbetween attacks. While this normally sounds dangerous, it can be abused to line up a SPC shot in close range and make the Throne eat the entire shot. Practicing this can be very risky, however being able to pull it off makes the fights substantially quicker.