Need some tips and some kinda strategy for colossal Crystal challenge!

[badbob117]

Me and my two guildies keep failing this miserable. When we do complete we get around 21-50 crystals max. And this is a rare we actually complete.

So basically here is our game plan. We consist of a fvs , a barb and a sorc. At first we all run around trying to find crests and locate a door close to a two way tele spot. Then we open it . make a torch line to it and try our best to protect the kabold. One guy stays at the beginning, one guy protects the kobald and one guys either clears the line of trouble or looks for more purples.

Our best run was only around 200 crystals collected and in the end we only got 50 or so mats.. ;/ At this rate we wil be at it until next weekend!

So i we need your help.. We need the communities tips n strategies on how to pull a uber haul out of here. What are we doing wrong and how can we improve? What kinda strategy do you all use for this one.?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[simo0208]

Rewards seem to be bugged, so I wouldn't worry about that. I'd run it with 6 people instead.

Have one at the start, 2 go east, 2 go west scouting and collecting crests. 6th person clears north. use that door. It's always in that spot. Bring the two crests needed to him (having a ddoor caster present is nice for speed), set up the teleporter, run the torches, protect the kobold, win.

Because rewards are bugged, I wouldn't worry about the crystals other than to buy stuff. Guy staying at the start buys everything he/she can.

[Faent]

You have to get that big crystal FAST.

Once you know the crystal locations, immediately scout them. Two or three scouts is ideal. Try to find a big crystal with a nearby two-way circle and not too many crystals between the two-way circle and the big crystal. The scouter should have most of the torches, and immediately set the line up to the big crystal when the ideal location is called out.

While the scouts are doing this, set someone (even an arcane hireling) to defend the kobolds at the start. And have someone else with two or three torches scout (west is a good start) for some crystals to farm. You need to grab a few crystals (but not too many) in order to raise dying kobolds.

A final individual should be hunting crests.

As soon as the ideal location is secured, go for your big crystal. At this point, you already have enough crystals for raises. Grab your big crystal. Then let kobolds die!

[Valakai]

I feel your pain. Have done all the other challenges I can open solo at 3 stars. (cant seem to get past 3 but no biggie)

This one is causing me severe pain. I know how it operates. I know where to find the big crystal. However every time something goes wrong. Usually the stupid kobolds deciding to NOT follow the line of torches. Last time found 3 bat crests and the large I knew was Octopus. Hate this challenge almost as much as kobolds hate you!

[Shade]

This one does suck..

but I have had my epic colomel falcion for a bit now so I have a few tips:

Scout north first, it seems to be most commonly have the ideal point of power near it, there are a lot of crystals blocking it, but hey crystals = more rewards.. So get those too.

Crests aren't entirely random:
-The north door is always bat iirc. The slot type doesnt change.
-There also the security ward near that- ALWAYS DISABLE THAT. It's insanely hard to keep the kobodl alive if you dont, as the ambush is like 3x as hard.. So aside from maybe 1 run t oget teh star,, always disable it.
-The crest locations are all static, but which crest is in a location changes.. So just figure out a few easy to get to spots to check, and get em. I find the security crest east fromthe start near the power point 90% of the time (that power point is there 100%, its one of the only non random ones)

What to buy:
-All 5 workers, imediately haste them.
-a few torches, usually 8-9 + whats available is enough.
-All the barrels - have someone non critical hand these out
Both teleporters - NOTE: Do not every have both active at the same time, they can cause severe bugs which cause hte kobolds to get stuck on teh teleporter..
Workaround: Ddoor directly onthe kobold, then click it.. He should go thru and fix his ai.

What to do:

1 scout north, then west if north isnt good, usually one of those will work. He should also get the crests.

main torch guy: Get inital torches fast, all cept 2 can be taken.
head east, set teleporter, there are always lots of crytsal here and its not far at all, they arent always purple, but either way, start here. Theres a few mobs to clear here, so everyone should head there except the guy handing barrels and the scout,

I have never gotten more then 1 proginator.. But I did one very awesome run with a 300+ reward. (got the 200 quota, +over 300 extra)

getting all 3 proginators (star obj) seems impossible imo. The fact is the power points near them is random, and all 3 are NEVER there. Getting one without a nearby power point seems impossible, it would be something like 30+ torches ,and a ton of crystals to blast thru to get there, if you even had time after the easiest one,, which you wont.

[Valakai]

Thanks for the tips Shade. Have you done it solo? It seems its pretty difficult to get a mid level group going with this one. Been running and failing solo though last time I almost had it. Tonight I am going to nail it.

Of the ones I have tried so far this is by far least solo friendly. Just saying.

[balancetraveller]

getting all 3 proginators (star obj) without buying 30 min. from the DDO store seems impossible imo.

Ftfy.

[Shade]

Ftfy.

You can't buy more then 1 minute from the DDO store. Even with the xtra minute, its impossible imo.

None of the store stuff would have a major impact here imo. Most requesitions actually seem detrimental imo.

[badbob117]

Thanks for tips everyone.

We had a few runs that were a bit better but still nothing to brag about. Just getting 1 big crystal to the forman is satisfying. We are starting to get the hang of it.. Slowly but surely. This one seems all about practice!

Still taking a while to collect these mats and sometimes we have had the situation where there is no glowing two way teleporter spot near any of the doors. on 2 occasions we have had to recall because we just do not have the torches to get from closest two way to the door.

This is one of those missions where several things can go wrong. Sometimes we have 2 of every crest except the one we need.

Gonna try to kick its butt with some info from this thread tonight. And yeah i honestly do not know how the heck we are supposed to get all three crystals? I presume you just keep going from door to door hoping a two way is near every one and recalling if there is not . Unless i am missing something here the instance would have to be a perfect one to get all three. If that's the case it seems we are fighting probability!

Thx everyone. will post back later if we find any other tips n tricks along the way. gonna be a rough night farming this one.

[Valakai]

Some more tips from the few runs I did yesterday.

One person stays at center to protect foreman and workers. One person (with torches and teleporter) clears the way to BAT as this is very easy to reach and also quite fast to get back from. As soon as that person spots the closest teleport circle to bat he can put down teleporter and start making track towards the door. From the beginning bat is north - right on first intersection and left. It is easy to find. It is also close to the arena you can clear from giants to get 1 more star.

1 person goes left and another right. The right side is the one you will be coming back through so it is good to clear anyways. As soon as one finds the crest of bat the finder announces this and both right and left go to BAT - sometimes its easier to go to beginning and teleport from there to supply line which has already been made.

As soon as 1 kobold picks up the big shard buff him and protect him back to foreman. Protect him back to foreman.

Kobolds can be killed by NOT disabling the trap or you can make a line of torches through a lake of lava.

This way you can get 3-4 stars fairly easy. Also my opinion is that IF there is no teleport circle within torch path from BAT it might be wise to recall and try again. You will see if it does or not within 2 minutes. If you dont know the Octo and Scorp and the group is not 100% familiar with the quest going for these means failure more then 50% of time. So Imho it is more prudent to waste 2 minutes then spend 15 minutes with 50% success rate.

After you have secured success grab the teleporters and find a teleport circle with lots of purples nearby to max your shards.

Not very solo friendly. Will give it another try or two yet with bard hireling with healing and haste.

[FlimsyFirewood]

After the patch, kobolds carrying big crystals will be able to use teleporters, but only if they are placed inside a circle of power (i.e. "big enough to let a giant through" per Dorris' description).

[Seager52]

IS this an upcoming patch or the hotfix that hit because right now they dont take it.

I will say that I complete the majority of time on CR20 with 3 or more ppl and my stratagy is this.

I run on my FvS (for wings) and I take a portal and 2-3 torches. I go to the north big crystal first to check for the circle of power. If it is doable then I drop the tele to clear the crystals i then drop 2-3 tourches to show the way I want the line to go and my torcher takes over from there.

I then port back to start and get the second tele if there wasnt enugh crystals to buy from the begining (i.e. if a kobalt didnt find a close purple at start)

Then I scout east big crystal. If the North Big guy was a bad choice i go east and then if that is bad I go west. Generally it usually a good Idea to take one teleporter because if the est is bad and you have to go west then Its good to have someone else do it because you are running low on time.

Personnel Make Up;
One Scouter (Me)
One Middle Protection
One Crest Scouter and DD QRF (quick reaction Force)

Additional People are nice and you can put them were ever.

Generally you want to take a note of circles of power next to alot of purples if you have some time left but not enough for a second big crystal you can pop one there and get a few extra scorps.

Hope this helps

[Diyon]

Here's my strategy for this one (my groups tend to get around 180-250 per run ing):

1 party member protect the middle- typically someone who won't need any assistance.
1 Scout- typically a caster type, basically exclusively searching out the crests, bat and ward.
1 Crystal Gatherer- Grabs one teleporter at the start + the 2 torches by the exit, also someone who can handle themselves
1 Torcher- Grabs teleporter, torches, and kobolds if you have enough crystals by then.
2 Clearers- Typically have at least one healing type in this group.

The clearers immediately head north, clearing to the bat door. The torcher, once they have what they need runs in to join them. The scout once they have the bat crest/ward casts DD and runs to join the clearers. The crystal gatherer takes the teleporter and two torches and just starts running down the halls looking for circles of power with a nice stash around them. As soon as the kobolds clear it, they pick up the teleporter and start looking for another spot. If they find the bat crest, they put their job on hold to deliver it north unless someone else has also found one. Once the north path is clear, the torcher signals the crystal gatherer to pick up their teleporter so they can lay one down in the nearest north circle to the door. After they clear the crystals to the door, buff up the kobold picking up the big crystal, and invis him AFTER he picks it up. You should have 4 people here now to protect him and clear stuff. If possible, pull the monsters out of the return path.

If you get that far and have time, try to repeat the same thing cutting east off the north path, jumping off the waterfall and getting the octopus door. Scorpion door if you don't have that crest already. If you don't have that much time left, crystal gather as much as possible using the same method as earlier, with the rest of the party helping clear.

[Chimeran]

#1: Your success depends on where the power circles are.

#2: Know the locations of the gates and what crests open them.


If North ( Bat ) has a second power circle, this will become your play.
If North does not have a second power circle, then try West ( Scorpion )

Power circles allow you to bypass creating a very long torch line.

Long torch lines = more time wasted with Kobold travel.

You want Kobolds to use the circles and clear all crystals to gates as soon as possible.

Haste and displace the large P crystal Kobold.

Once you know the P crystal is safely out of the mob spawns, start finding the good power circles near purples and harvest.

All Kobolds should be barreled up, and hasted.
Only ever have 1 power circle teleporter running at a time, use the other to shorten travel distance for crystal drop offs.

Once you learn the layout for circles and crests, this quest is a walk in the park.

Tips:
You can trap a kobold down by gate with 2 torches, this way you can continue harvesting with all your other workers.
Just get a worker down there, then pull the line leaving the 2 torches closest to gate.
All you have to do is pop the gate and run a torch to P crystal, the worker you trapped will be more than happy to pick it up.

[voodoogroves]

I'm not 100% on this yet - still monkeying with it - while solo I can't decide if Bat isn't the right way if it's better to push through, or to reset and try another map.

Anyone been messing with this as well?

[Diyon]

I'm not 100% on this yet - still monkeying with it - while solo I can't decide if Bat isn't the right way if it's better to push through, or to reset and try another map.

Anyone been messing with this as well?

Only time I have trouble with bat is when no one can find a bat crest.

[badbob117]

Once again thanks for all tips guys. It really helped us a lot..


Noob Question: We got a skeleton key crest from one of the red guys we slayed. The description says it will fit into any socket! But when i went to use it it did not fit into the bat socket. I even tried putting it on hot bar and clicking on it. Did not work. Nothing i did would make it fit into the stinking crest socket.. >:I

Are these skeleton keys for this mission and has anyone figured out how the heck they work? i presumed we could use em since we got it from this very mission, but to my dismay it did nothing.

[Diyon]

Once again thanks for all tips guys. It really helped us a lot..


Noob Question: We got a skeleton key crest from one of the red guys we slayed. The description says it will fit into any socket! But when i went to use it it did not fit into the bat socket. I even tried putting it on hot bar and clicking on it. Did not work. Nothing i did would make it fit into the stinking crest socket.. >:I

Are these skeleton keys for this mission and has anyone figured out how the heck they work? i presumed we could use em since we got it from this very mission, but to my dismay it did nothing.

I thought they were just for the mansion, but I hadn't even thought about trying them here.

[Rizzia]

After the patch, kobolds carrying big crystals will be able to use teleporters, but only if they are placed inside a circle of power (i.e. "big enough to let a giant through" per Dorris' description).

Did this challenge tonight and the kobold just walked straight past the teleporter/circle, had to babysit him around half the map. (completed tho).

[Valakai]

Just to update because I ran it in a group that said this one is impossible to solo. Did 3 completed solo runs + hireling. Best one was 3 stars.

Had Arti doggie and bard hireling to guard middle and invited them to me when grabbed the big crytal. Only used bat. If bat was not option recalled. At level was fairly easy after some practise. Managed to find bat crest when going to clear the giants from arena either at entrance to arena or after arena at intersection turn right into a room full of lava. Behind the lava fall had bat crest 3 times so dont think it is 100% random.

There seems to be some bugs with this. Or at least 2 I found.

Did not disable the trap but failed it anyway.
Did not get a star for clearing the arena of giants and drow.
Sometimes they worked sometimes they did not oh well....