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Crystal Quest

Crystal Quest Nasty Guide

At A Glance

Get an overview of every nasty you'll encounter in Crystal Quest.

As you pilot your ship through 60 waves, you collect crystals and evade the nasties. These unique baddies—each one different—emerge from portals on each side of the screen. Fire your weapon at them, or deploy a smart bomb to vaporize every nasty on the screen. Grab all the crystals to open the gateway at the bottom of the screen. Here are a few tips to help you get the highest score.

At the start of a wave, quickly scan the crystals and plan the most efficient route.
Leave crystals nearest the exit to last.
If there are crystals near the portals (the side-pods that spawn the nasties), shoot continuously into the portals as you approach and collect the crystals.
Preserve smart bombs—you're going to need them for certain waves.
If you want to get on the leaderboards, you'll have to play at skill level 10.
There are a number of nasties that are worth big points and can be worth smarting screenfuls of, just to harvest points. Don't go crazy—you need those smarts to survive later on as well.
No more nasties come out if you stop collecting crystals, so don't try hunting. Just clear the wave and move on—time bonuses are good anyway.
Don't die for the sake of a bonus crystal, they're not worth it! If one turns up, stop firing, or once you've mastered the game, only fire away from it. Try to collect it whilst going about your business of collecting the small crystals. Stopping everything and crossing the entire screen to go get it usually ends in tears.
When the exit starts sliding sideways in later waves, match your horizontal speed to it before diving through, particularly on skill level 10 when touching it means instant death.
Master shooting and moving independently.

Nasty-by-Nasty Guide
There's a new type of nasty every three waves. Each time a new one is introduced, there's an introduction wave with nothing but that nasty in it, followed by two waves of a mixture of predominantly the new one plus an assortment of types that you've already encountered.

	Annoyers These just bob about aimlessly. Pretty harmless really, but try not to get too close as they can move quite unpredictably.
	Worriers Worriers bob around like Annoyers, but fire at you as well. They fire their shots in your vague direction only, not right at you. However this strategy is fiendishly effective, because you can stumble into their fire by mistake. Worriers are one of the nasties that are most affected by skill level. Quite innocuous lower down, but at level 9 and 10, these things are hell! Shoot them the moment you see them.
	Pest Pests move in arcs, dropping false crystals. These look different enough to real crystals for you to easily avoid them, but in the heat of battle, things can be quite different. Their main threat is that they can block in real crystals so you can't get to them, and they can even block the exit at times. Smarting clears them, but the better strategy is to shoot the Pests themselves as soon as they arrive, before they get a chance to lay down too many falsies.
	Dumple Dumples are big fat wobble lumps of space jelly. Not much of a threat really, but they're big and they take four shots to kill so before long they're not leaving much room on the screen for you. Best strategy with these guys is to remain calm. When firing at them, don't spray around wildly – concentrate on them one at a time and kill them with a sustained burst. Worth quite a few points so a smart bomb can be lucrative if you've got a screenful. Also worth clearing up stragglers before going through the exit as the time bonus you'll lose is in this case outweighed by the points you'll get by killing them.
	Trimpet Trimpets move horizontally and vertically. They can't be killed by being shot, they only go to sleep for a while. Watch out for sleeping ones that might wake up near you. Keep firing shots into sleeping ones, as it keeps them asleep. Watch out for the area of screen between the two spawning portals, as this is a very dangerous area as Trimpets always spawn moving horizontally. Because you can't kill them by shooting them, Trimpets are worth lots of points. Smart a screenful and you've hit the motherlode! Consider using up five, maybe even six or seven smart bombs on levels 14-16 to get your score jumping up.
	Husket This is where you really regret using up those smarts on Trimpets. Huskets are super-Worriers. They move fast and fire lots of high-speed bullets. On lower skill levels, simply concentrate on shooting them the moment they arrive. At higher levels, this is more difficult and you're going to have to smart them, particularly on wave 17 when they first turn up. Like Worriers, they shoot in your general direction, so it's also a good idea to keep moving around the screen a lot, so they are always shooting in the wrong place.
	Tentawarble One of the more clever nasties, these guys seem to amble around aimlessly, being pretty harmless. Until, that is, you slow right down or stop. The moment you do this, they pounce on you at the speed of sound! Keep moving at all times, getting all the easy-to-get crystals first (leaving difficult ones like those that are near mines). When you've got just the tricky crystals left, smart the Tents and quickly go get the remaining crystals.
	Zarklephaser You thought Huskets were mean? These guys have an even higher rate of fire, but have a tendency to try to get as far away from you as possible and pour shots out at you from a distance. Tactics are very similar to those for Huskets—shoot them the moment they get on the screen; if they start getting the upper-hand (particularly at higher skill levels, where these guys are completely mad), smart 'em! At skill level 10 you won't get on the leaderboards if you haven't kept smarts in hand to get past these waves.
	Menace Menaces are something of a respite after Zarklephasers! These nasties fire out horizontal and vertical laser beams, therefore try to avoid being directly above, below, to the right or to the left of them, especially if they stop moving (which they do just before firing). On their own, Menaces are not a big threat, but they come into their own in combination with other nasties as their long laser beams block your path when running from Parasites, trying to keep moving to stop Tentawarbles from pouncing, or just general dodging of bullets.
	Bane Banes fire out bouncing bombs that keep bouncing forever. However you can shoot the bombs (in fact you can shoot any Nasties shots in Crystal Quest, but it's only really significant for Banes). Shoot Banes the moment they turn up, otherwise you're going to find your screen full of bouncing hardware before you know it. If this happens, you can always smart, but another technique is to get to the edge of the screen and lay down a continuous, horizontal stream of fire. This helps clear the screen of many of the bouncers (if you can stay alive for long enough to do this).
	Shrapwarden Shrapwardens are relatively harmless. Unless you shoot them … They explode in a shower of high speed deadly shrapnel. You can dodge this, but it's not easy, so you're better off not shooting them at all. The flip side is that they're worth lots of points, so if you feel lucky, pop away! The best tactic on the first wave: Don't fire at all. Go about your business, collecting crystals, and smart them for huge points bonuses every time they build up. Don't be afraid of using a few smarts in this wave (just like the earlier Trimpet wave) and you'll get big scores. After this wave, it's a bit more difficult as you'll need to shoot because of the mixture of other nasties. Try to listen out for the noise Shrapwardens make when exploding and get ready to smart the moment you hear it (before their shrapnel reaches you).
	Parasite Parasites are the simplest Nasty in all of Crystal Quest, but also the most deadly. All they do is to chase you. Relentlessly. Remorselessly. Before long you'll have a pack of them on your heels … It may seem they're faster than you, but actually they're quite a bit slower. The trick is to keep calm, and to move in long sweeping arcs. If you change direction suddenly, they get the chance to close up on you. Move about, and learn to master the technique of shooting independently from moving so you can shoot behind you and take them out. At higher skill levels they pour out of both portals at once, and you'll find that you need to lead them to the top of the screen whilst blasting a hole in their line of defence ready for you to arc around to the left or right and dart through it. Once you've got them in a pack behind you it's all a bit more manageable.