Final Fantasy XIV: Crystalline Conflict review

Crystalline Conflict is a new PVP mode that was added to the game with patch 6.1.  The main goal for players in each fight is to control a specific crystal and transport it to the “gates”.

Matches in this PvP mode are for 10 players: two teams of 5 players each. You can have 4 healers and one DPS in the group, or not have any healers at all, and so on, there are no restrictions to roles. Not allowed only the same jobs in the same team.

How to unlock Crystalline Conflict and start the fight

If you want to participate in Crystalline Conflict PvP, you must first complete one of the following quests associated with your Grand Company:

• A Pup No Longer (Maelstrom). Location: Limsa Lominsa – Upper Decks (X：13.1 Y：12.8); NPC: R’ashaht Rhiki;
• A Pup No Longer (Twin Adder). Location: New Gridania (X：9.7 Y：11.1); NPC: Vorsaile Heuloix; 
• A Pup No Longer (Immortal Flames). Location: Ul’dah – Steps of Nald (X：8.4 Y：8.9); NPC: Swift.

For all quests, you must be a Disciple of War or Magic level 30.

To join Crystalline Conflict you must open Duty Finder – PvP, where you can see Casual and Ranked Matches. In casual mode, you don’t need to have any rank. You can be bronze or even unranked and play Crystalline Conflict with high-rating people. This is not a competitive mode, so you won’t lose any score in the case of failure and won’t get any points in the case of victory.

Ranked system

The rating system in Crystal Conflict has the following ranks: Unranked – Bronze -Silver – Gold – Platinum – Diamond – Crystal. 

Each tier from Bronze through Diamond is divided into smaller levels called “risers”. The number of risers varies by tier. Progress from Unranked to Diamond tiers is indicated by “rising stars”. When you win a match you gain one star and lose one when you are losing. If you won 3 matches in a row you will have a streak bonus and get 2 stars per win.

Once you have earned the maximum stars in one riser, an additional win will allow you to move up a riser. You can be demoted from risers, but you can’t be demoted from tiers. At the Crystal tier, you will not have stars anymore. At this point, you will earn or lose Crystal Credit. ​

Rewards

After the end of a match, you can receive various rewards: PvP exp, Wolf Marks, Series exp (for battle pass), and possibly some achievements. Additionally, at the end of a ranked season, the Top 100 players on each Data Center receive unique rewards like an adventure plate frame.

The general reward for the first Crystalline Conflict season you can see below:

• Crystal: 6,000 Trophy Crystals and a Crystal Framer’s Kit;
• Diamond: 5,000 Trophy Crystals and a Diamond Framer’s Kit;
• Platinum: 4,000 Trophy Crystals and a Platinum Framer’s Kit;
• Gold: 3,000 Trophy Crystals and a Gold Framer’s Kit;
• Silver: 2,000 Trophy Crystals and a Silver Framer’s Kit;
• Bronze: 1,000 Trophy Crystals and a Bronze Framer’s Kit.

If you surely want to obtain these rewards, you can order Crystalline Conflict boost from Overgear.

General rules 

At the beginning of each match, the most important tactical object, the crystal, is located in the central point of the arena. The crystal can only be moved along the Crystal Line, a dedicated path inside the arena.

If the ring around the base of the crystal is occupied by members of one team, they will be able to move the crystal. If someone from the enemy team enters the ring of the crystal, the movement will immediately stop.

Halfway between the center point and the goal of each team you can find a checkpoint where the movement of the tactical crystal will be temporarily stopped. To pass the checkpoint, it’s necessary to completely fill the progressing circle under the crystal. The team trying to get to a checkpoint must stay in the crystal ring to increase the rate of progress. More people – faster speed. In this case, the progress circle is filled even if there is someone from the enemy team standing in the crystal ring.

Overtime

If at the end of the match time (5 minutes are given for this) no one team has brought the crystal to the “gate”, then overtime begins.

The conditions for winning in overtime depend on the progress of each team at the start of overtime:

• If your team has more progress points: to win, you need to remove all enemy players from the crystal ring;
• If your team has fewer progress points: to win, move the crystal to increase your progress more than the opposing team;
• If both teams have the same progress points: to win, make more progress than the opposing team.

A draw is possible if both your team and the opponent’s team come out of the crystal with an equal amount of progress for both teams.

Communication tricks

Communication is a very important part of the match. Chat is not available in the game, but you can use quick chat functions instead.

Let’s look at some of them:

• Hello (as before in the Feast) can mean not only your desire to greet the party members but also can be a sign that your burst is ready;
• Limit Break indicates the charge of your limit break (or how many percent of the full bar is already there). Try to coordinate your limit break with the limit breaks of other players. This is extremely important for victory;
• MP command writes to the chat how many percent of MP you have left. You can thereby signal that you need to step back and use the restoring MP pot;
• Retreat signals to your party that you need to step back and regroup;
• Attacking target helps you coordinate the team as to which of the enemies you need to focus on;
• Charge writes to the chat “Everyone attack!”

Skills

In Final Fantasy XIV, PvP skills are different from skills in PvE. In addition, you get them all at once as soon as you reach level 30 and get your job crystal. Some of the PvP skills have the same name and the same icon as PvE skills, and some have completely new icons and names. But no one of the skills from PvE works in PVP. 

All jobs have several common skills:

• Recuperate – restores own HP. Actually, this is the only skill that costs MP.
• Standard-issue Elixir – restores your HP and MP to the maximum. Cast-time 4,5 sec and casting may be interrupted if the damage is taken.
• Purify – removes Stun, Heavy, Blind, Silence, Half-asleep, Sleep, and Deep Freeze. Grants Resilience upon successfully removing one of the aforementioned effects. 
• Guard – reduces damage taken by 90% and grants immunity to Stun, Heavy, Blind, Silence, Half-asleep, Sleep, Deep Freeze, and knockback and draw-in effects (duration 5 sec). Movement speed is reduced by 50% for the duration of this effect. The effect ends upon reuse, using another action, or when the effect duration expires.
• Sprint – Increases movement speed. The effect ends upon the reuse or execution of another action. Has no CD, so you can use it whenever you want. 

Crystalline Conflict Arenas

Crystalline Conflict has three possible maps The Palaistra, The Volcanic Heart, and Cloud Nine. They are constantly rotated (depending on the time, it changes every 90 minutes). Each of them has its own peculiarity and mechanics, so let’s see every specific detail.

The Palaistra

This is, perhaps, one of the simplest maps with no additional “external stimuli”. Every team has a specific respawn location, checkpoints for crystal, and “gates” as a goal to match completion. All these details are marked on your mini-map. 

Also, you can find green marked lines in which you can get a movement speed bonus.

The Volcanic Heart

The main feature of this arena is a volcano, that periodically erupts, scattering self-destructing bombs across the field. Those who can’t escape their explosive radius will take damage.

The bomb cores will remain at the place bombs exploded (small orange balls), providing those who will pick them up with the following buffs:

• An effect that increases your DPS for a short time. It is stacked up to 10 times;
• A boost to the limit gauge.

There are also green zones with the movement speed bonus.

Cloud Nine

This map is very recognizable because of the turbulence effect. Sometime after the start of the match, the weather becomes windy. And circles with small chocobo signs appear on the ground. At first, they move slowly, then suddenly accelerate and then stop. After a few seconds, all the players are thrown into the air by turbulence. When landing players receive quite high damage.

However, if you stand right on the circle with a black chocobo, then you will be thrown up and you can hit the black chocobo in the air (it is located strictly above the circle) to get a stack of feathers from it. What do feathers do?

• A soft landing, nullifying the typical damage taken from turbulence;
• An effect increasing attack speed and movement speed for a short time; 
• A boost to the limit gauge.

Don’t forget only one player can get a feather from one specific chocobo circle.

Unlike other maps, there are no areas that provide a sprint bonus. But there are airways. To fly through the air, you need to step on a special sign on the ground that will send you up in the sky. 

At the beginning of the match, only one of them works from your side and from the opponent’s side. After your team passes the checkpoint, a second airway opens. The airway start point will be located in the middle of the map – you can find special marks on the mini-map, they are indicated by thin curved lines.

Useful tips

In the end – some common advice for everybody, who wants to try Crystalline Conflict: 

• One of the basic tips is knowledge. You need to understand what each job does in PvP and know its buffs and debuffs. You always can visit Wolves’ Den and test your abilities on a dummy. Also, go to the Frontline PvP mode with the job that you want to play or that you want to learn about. The experience there, of course, is completely different, but at least it gives you an opportunity to get used to your buttons;
• Try to communicate. To defeat the enemy, you need to coordinate burst phases. Be sure to do countdowns and use all your strongest skills in the burst window. Use the Limit Break ready chat command to indicate that you are ready to use it;
• Watch the actions of the enemy in order to use the Guard action in time. For example, when you see that an enemy dragoon goes into the sky before passing his limit break you can use Guard and receive 90% less damage from it. Also, try to bait enemies to burst phase into your Guard;
• Positioning is a very important thing. Try not to get outnumbered. Retreat if necessary.  But be careful of overtime and keep an eye on the progress of each team. Sometimes you need to be in the circle of the crystal in order not to lose.
• On the Cloud Nine map, it is better to use Guard during turbulence. Because there is a chance that you will not be able to pick up feathers (you will be too far from them or there will be two or more players on the spot) and you will receive damage.
• Don’t forget to use medical kits that appear on the ground. You can pick them up by simply running through them to restore 30.000 HP. Players with full HP cannot pick up medicine kits.

And do not hesitate to ask more experienced players after the match about the mistakes. The PvP community can be toxic during a match, but they may give you some insight afterward since you can get into their team again and again. And don’t forget, those pro players from Overgear are always ready to help you with various PvP content.