Final Fantasy XIV Crystalline Conflict Guide

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Emily is our resident MMORPG specialist here at Final Fantasy Insider. While she has a soft spot for the FF main titles, it is FFXIV that has truly sank its hooks into her psyche, and as a result, her free time is usually spent grinding away online. Outside of FFXIV, she loves mainstream RPGS and survival games, with Ark Survival Evolved being her main squeeze.

Crystalline Conflict Overview

Time Limit – 5 minutes
Team Size – 5
Number of Teams – 2 (ten total players)
Role Requirements – War or Magic
Max Number of Players in Party – 1

Whenever you queue for Crystalline Conflict, you get to choose casual or ranked matches. The only difference is that you can gain or lose stars when you play ranked. Otherwise, the rules are the same.

You can only enter queue with one player unless it’s a custom match. Make sure you check your abilities at Wolves’ Den Pier before entering a match, as your PvP hotbar will be different than your PvE hotbar.

How to Unlock Crystalline Conflict

You can play Crystalline Conflict after you complete the A Pup No Longer in your Grand Company’s questline. Then you can access the game type after you complete The Crystal (Line’s) Call.

Unlock Grand Company in MSQ

After you reach the level 20 Main Scenario Quests, you will come across the point when you must choose a Grand Company. This quest is called The Company You Keep. After you complete it, you will have one of three quests.

Till Sea Swallows All (Malestrom)
Wood’s Will Be Done (Twin Adder)f
For Coin and Country (Immortal Flames)

Unlock My Little Chocobo

Once you complete the unique quest for your Grand Company, you can unlock your first mount. My Little Chocobo is the name of the quest. To do this, you must buy the Chocobo Issuance from your Grand Company. Use it to unlock the chocobo.

Complete A Pup No Longer

After you unlock the chocobo, the first thing you can do is A Pup No Longer. This consists of traveling to Wolves’ Den Pier, which is the PvP area. You can buy special items with PvP currency and set up your PvP hotbar here.

The Crystal (Line’s) Call

A Pup No Longer is the quest that will unlock Crystalline Conflict, hence the name. This is not a Grand Company quest, but instead, it’s a standalone quest in Wolves’ Den Pier that’s sole purpose is to unlock this game mode.

How to Play Crystalline Conflict

If you’ve played many PvP games, then the Crystalline Conflict concept will be easy to understand. All you have to do is escort the crystal to the enemy’s base. This is like a moving Capture the Flag or Escort (from Overwatch) only both teams are attacking/defending simultaneously.

You can’t control the crystal, you simply follow it along to progress it along the preset lines it will follow. This is your only goal in Crystalline Conflict, everything else overlaps with this.

Team Division

The match begins by revealing the teams of five. The teams are called Umbra and Astra. You will stand at your base for thirty seconds with your team before the game starts. In Crystalline Conflict, there is no free chat. You can only use presets such as “Hello!”

This is controversial, but it does help eliminate trash-talking, grieving, and trolling.

Combat

Combat is a secondary objective in Crystalline Conflict. You can win a game without ever going into combat. No one has to die. But it’s more common for continuous team fights to go on so you can clear the crystal of any threats.

In Crystalline Conflict, you must use your PvP abilities, which you can set up for each class by going to Wolves’ Den Pier. If you forget, you can go to your profile (P) and move the abilities to your hot bar.

Check Points

As you progress through the battlefield, you will reach a checkpoint. When you reach this checkpoint, the c5rystal will stop moving. This gives the enemy team a chance to catch up and turn the game around.

However, if you can hold the crystal there while the gauge reaches 100%, you will be halfway to the win. The more team players in the crystal when it freezes, the faster the gauge charges.

Winning (and Overtime)

To win, your team must escort the crystal all the way to your goal near the enemy’s base. If neither team has won at five minutes, the game goes into overtime. When this happens, either team can win.

If you’re winning, then you must keep the enemies out of the crystal’s circle for three seconds. If you’re losing, then you must gain more progress than the enemy team has to win. If neither happens, then it’s a draw.

Crystalline Conflict Maps

There are three maps for Crystalline Conflict. Each map gets 90 minutes to shine before it is rotated and another map is chosen. So, you will always know which map you will enter when you enter queue.

Palaistra

Palaistra is a racetrack-like map with Greek and Roman influences. There are also sprinting zones, which increase your movement speed. They are hard to miss and there is always one near the base to help you get back with your team.

The Volcanic Heart

The Volcanic heart is the Pompeii of maps, located near a volcano and hot springs. There are also sprinting zones here, as well as a unique eruption event. When this happens, you will take damage and a stack of vulnerability if you don’t get out of range.

Cloud Nine

Cloud Nine is the third map. There are no sprinting zones, but there are glyphs that launch you back to the field, which is practically the same thing. There’s also an event called turbulence on this map.

Turbulence knocks everyone in the air, giving you a chance to get black chocobo feathers. If you do, you get a boost to the limit gauge, a soft landing, and increased speed (including attack speed.)

Reading the Progress Bar

The progress bar isn’t all that straightforward. It took me a couple of games to notice it and a couple more to realize what it meant. The gist of it is that it tracks the progress of the game and crystal.

Team Progression

The team progression is easy to see as there are percentages on the bar. The percentage is the progress your team has to reach the end. Each progress percentage is independent of the other team’s.

Timer

The timer is dead center, but it does not include overtime time. Instead, it starts at five minutes and counts down. If it reaches zero and no one has won, it will start over with an overtime timer.

Checkpoints

You can see one checkpoint on each side of the bar. These are each team’s checkpoints. When you reach this, you will get a break from pushing, but it also gives a good opportunity for enemies to attack.

Crystal Location

The crystal location is easy to see. It’s a diamond that looks like the checkpoint diamond, but it is moving unless at a checkpoint. This is a good way to see how far away your team is when you die.

Goals

The goals are on each end of the bar. When you reach this with the crystal, you win. You can still win without reaching the goal if you end the game with a higher progress score than your opponent and keep them out of the crystal for three seconds during overtime.

After the Match

After each match, you are presented with match rewards. This happens whether you win or lose, so as long as you are present, you can reap these rewards.

Match Rewards

PvP Experience
Wolf Marks
PvE Experience
Series Experience
Allagan Tomestones (depending on level)

Crystalline Conflict Tips

Crystalline Conflict medicine — Image from ffxiv console games wiki

Get medicine – the medical kits can be used when you’re low on health. Note their locations so you can use them and turn around a 1v1 or team fight.
Use PvP abilities – you have three PvP abilities that can help you by shielding, healing, and removing debuffs. Don’t neglect them.
Play casual before going ranked – unless you want to lower the rank of everyone on your team, practice in casual before you go ranked.
Consider spectating – you can spectacle custom matches, allowing you to see how the game works before you commit to one.
Ranged guard the crystal – if you’re playing ranged, try to keep any enemies from entering the crystal’s field. Do this by staying in it yourself and annoying melee players.
Group up – this is true for all game types. Group up to spread their damage and do more damage faster. Win team fights, win games.
Communicate – this is hard, but the game gives you all the chat commands you need to communicate with your team.
Take breaks – I always suggest taking breaks to cool off if you start to get tired, burnout, or emotional when doing savage content. The same goes for ranked play.

Crystalline Conflict Ranked

Crystalline Conflict custom or casual matches don’t rank you up. But when you start playing ranked, you’ll notice a ranking system. Like most ranking systems, the tiers are based on precious metals.

Tiers

Bronze
Silver
Gold
Platinum
Diamond
Crystal

Risers

Each tier is divided into risers, which range from three to five, depending on the tier.

Bronze – 3 risers
Silver – 3 risers
Gold – 4 risers
Platinum – 4 risers
Diamond – 5 risers
Crystal – none

Rising Stars

Rising stars are awarded to players who win a ranked match and are removed when you lose a ranked match. If you get the maximum stars for your division, you will automatically rank up if your next game is a win.

If you are at zero stars and you lose, then you will drop a rank. If you go on a winning streak, you will start getting two stars per win. Crystal is the highest rank, so you won’t get stars, but instead, Crystal Credit, which will rank you among other Crystal players.

Season Rewards

Each season, Final Fantasy FFXIV players who have ranked will get rewards. The rewards vary each season, but it typically looks something like this.

First

Final Conflict Framer’s Kit
10,000 Trophy Crystals

2-30

Endless Conflict Framer’s Kit
6,000 Trophy Crystals

31-100

Rising Conflict Framer’s Kit
3,000 Trophy Crystals

Crystal

Crystal Framer’s Kit
6,000 Trophy Crystals

Diamond

Diamond Framer’s Kit
5,000 Trophy Crystals

Platinum

Platinum Framer’s Kit
4,000 Trophy Crystals

Gold

Gold Framer’s Kit
3,000 Trophy Crystals

Silver

Silver Framer’s Kit
2,000 Trophy Crystals

Bronze

Bronze Framer’s Kit
1,000 Trophy Crystals

Rank Rewards with Trophy Crystals

After season one of Crystalline Conflict, you could get Tropaois weapons, Virtu glam, and unique misc items from the Crystal Quartermaster. This is a different concept from The Feast rewards, which were automatic rather than currency based.

I believe that with each season, new rewards will be available at the shop. As to whether the previous season rewards will also be there is unknown. We will have to wait and find out. However, I suggest using your crystals just in case if there’s something you have your eye on.

FAQs

Question: How Long Can a Crystalline Conflict Game Be?

Answer: Without overtime, the game will last no more than five minutes. But with overtime, you can add a minute or so to your time. Most games use most of the five minutes, but some end at two or three.

Question: Can You Play Crystalline Conflict With Friends?

Answer: Only custom matches. While you can’t queue up with friends, you can create a custom unranked match for fun in Party Finder. This is an excellent practice without any pressure.

Question: Can You Lose Rank in Crystalline Conflict?

Answer: Yes. If you lose in Crystalline Conflict ranked, you may rank down. One loss won’t rank you down, but repetitive losses will. So keep an eye on your stars and take a break when you need to.

Conclusion

Crystalline Conflict is the PvP game type with the smallest parties. While The Feast had parties of four, it was discontinued with the release of Crystalline Conflict, which has parties of five.

I can’t decide which I like more. I believe that the objectives added in Crystalline Conflict work well with the game’s objectives (good, clean fun.) But I do believe that having a pure combat PvP will give certain players at outlet for their aggression. Maybe one day we’ll get that.