Crystals

The Crystals Mini-Game is an arcade machine within the Center of the City. It is specifically located right between the other mini-games, Cards of Fate and Expedition.

Crystals is a match-three type game, but does not use a score system as many tend to. Instead, the player is tasked with matching gems of 3 or more of the same color, to clear out golden panels marked on the board.

Ranks
Here's a table showing energy, experience and coins for each rank of the Crystals mini-game. These may be different depending on a players rank.

Gameplay
The Crystals game is geared more towards the swapping of the gems. Doing 'combos' by matching multiple rows using one movement does not award the player in any way (despite the sound queues becoming higher pitched).

However, there are certain power-ups that do aid the player's attempt. Two specific Tools are unique to this game: The Supercrystal and Bomb. While not very useful on their own, there are a few special combinations the player can perform.
 * Combining four of any color of Crystals in a row will produce a gemstone charged with lightning of the same color. It will eliminate an entire row or column when matched again.
 * Matching four in a row horizontally produces a crystal that aims vertically, and vice-versa.


 * Combining three crystals of the same color, but in multiple directions (a 3x3 'L' or '+' shape) produces a bomb.
 * Combining five of the same color in any way will produce a Supercrystal, and bypass the requirements above.

Combinations
As stated before, the game is more oriented towards the swapping of the Crystals. Secret moves, not told to the player are possible as follows:
 * Swapping two lightning crystals will hit both the row and column they are located in.
 * Swapping a Bomb and a lightning crystal will produce a 4x4 '+' cross shape.
 * Swapping a Supercrystal and a charged crystal will make every crystal of that color become a lightning crystal and immediately match all of them; this is powerful enough to singlehandedly win rounds at lower difficulties.


 * Swapping a Bomb and Supercrystal will make the Supercrystal destroy two colors instead of just one. This is risky due to the nature of the bomb being able to destroy the Supercrystal.
 * Swapping Two Bombs makes them both explode (This merely covers an extra row or column of range, thus is inefficient).
 * Swapping two Supercrystals will destroy the entire board.


 * Running out of possible moves will scramble the board.

Types of Spaces
While matching three of a kind is generally simple, the game board comes with several slots on the board that are detrimental to the player's progress:
 * Yellow Cell: These are where crystals need to be matched to clear the game.


 * Holes: No crystals are active on these spaces, and no crystal can be swapped to them.
 * Ice: There is always a yellow tile underneath, but one set of gems must be matched near ice to break it first.Crystals Ice Tile.png
 * Double yellow cells require two matches on them to clear. They are basically two yellow cells on one tile.Crystals Stone Tile 2.png
 * Stone: Hiding the yellow cells underneath, these slots require two combinations adjacent to them to break.Crystals Stone Tile (Cracked).png
 * Chains: Cells with chains hold a crystal of a random color that cannot be moved. Matching with this square will break the chain and become a normal space.Chained Crystal.png
 * Double Chains: Same thing as a normal chain, but will need two matches to break the slot free.
 * In addition, gems 'fall' onto the board; if certain tiles such as Ice do not allow them to fall to a certain area, the player must break them to get more gems to fall in.
 * All of the above applies to the Magical Items version of Crystals.

Tips and Triva

 * The Crystals game at higher ranks is often heavily reliant on random chance; resetting the game is often better than losing energy and progress towards the Puzzles Totem; failure is almost inevitable even without mistakes from the player.


 * Charged and Supercrystals should often be prioritized over Bombs unanimously; they have global range, whereas the bomb is short-ranged and can interrupt other combinations.
 * In addition, having lots of lightning crystals is useful in case one hopes to use a Supercrystal tool manually.
 * The Discoverer's Magnifier is best used on corners, and when there is a low amount of yellow cells left; it will only target a single yellow square, and only damages ice and stone tiles, rather than getting the cell underneath.
 * There are currently 8 colors of Crystals: Red, Orange, Green, Blue, Cyan, Magenta, Purple, White.
 * All colors are rarely if ever used in one play.
 * Some attempts will only provide the player with four of the colors, giving incentive to create the Supercrystal or 4-of-a-kind combinations.
 * The Bomb is shown in the game's trailer.

Related Pages

 * Hidden City Home


 * Anomalies
 * Cases
 * Events
 * Exploration Modes
 * Locations
 * Monsters
 * The City's Dungeons
 * Quests
 * Tips and tricks