Crystal Dragon Overview

Crystal Dragon Overview

Crystal Dragon

HP: 21542
STR: 122
INT: 98
VIT: 93
WIS: 101
AGI: 80
LUC: 93

Skills:

Form Change: Changes between Dragon and Speed forms. Used a random number of turns between 4 and 6, or when Crystal Dragon has taken 10% of its max HP as damage since the last form change.
Prism Ray: Uses the arms. Deals 2-5 instances of 120% ranged INT-based damage to random party members. Can hit the same target multiple times. The element can be fire, ice, or volt. Has a 50% speed modifier and a base accuracy of 200%.

Dragon Skills:

Debilitating Breath: Uses the head. Deals 140% ranged INT-based fire damage to one row of party members. Reduces hit targets' magical defense by 30% for 4 turns. Has no speed modifier and a base accuracy of 99%.
Crystallizing Breath: Uses the head. Deals 3-6 instances of 65% ranged INT-based ice damage to random party members. Can hit the same target multiple times. Attempts to inflict petrification on hit targets, with a 20% base chance. Has no speed modifier and a base accuracy of 160%.
Binding Breath: Uses the head. Deals 150% ranged INT-based volt damage to one party member, with line-piercing effect. Attempts to bind hit targets' arms, with a 30% base chance. Has a 120% speed modifier and a base accuracy of 99%.
Clear Breath: Uses the head. Deals 60% ranged INT-based almighty damage to all party members. Purges all buffs from hit targets. Damage is doubled for each buff removed, up to 6x for three buffs. Has no speed modifier and a base accuracy of 99%.

Speed Skills:

Razor-Sharp Claws: Uses the legs. Deals 140% melee STR-based cut damage to one row of party members. Has no speed modifier and a base accuracy of 160%.
Rock Ballad: Uses the legs. Deals 140% melee STR-based stab damage to one party member, with line-piercing effect. Has a 120% speed modifier and a base accuracy of 99%.
Sonic Blow: Uses the legs. Deals 110% melee STR-based bash damage to one party member. Has a 1000% speed modifier and a base accuracy of 99%.
Unending Bray: Uses the head. Attempts to inflict sleep on and bind the heads of all party members, with a 40% base chance. Has no speed modifier.

Drops:

Normal: Crystal Horn. 100% chance. Sells for 6000 en.

1 needed to make Blue Moon Warbow (+90 ATK, +60 MATK, Annihilating Arrow, Gold x3).

Conditional: Sacred Lightwing (Kill while arms are bound). 100% chance. Sells for 11400 en.

1 needed to make Brahmagiri (+150 ATK, +210 MATK, Debilitating Breath, Gold x6).

Dragon Damage Resistances:

125%

75%

75%

Speed Damage Resistances:

75%

125%

125%

Disable Resistances:

50%

75%

50%

25%

75%

50%

10%

25%

50%

General AI Notes:

Crystal Dragon never uses the same skill twice in a row until it is at 50% HP or lower, except for Unending Bray; applies to both forms
Clear Breath is only used starting when Crystal Dragon is at 75% HP or below; it has a low chance of being used
Prism Ray is used in the following ways:

As the most likely follow-up to Sonic Blow in Speed form
As the most likely skill on every even turn of Dragon form from 50% HP to death
Randomly from 50% to death in Speed form

Speed form's AI has a few special caveats:

Unending Bray has a 30% chance to be casted on any turn once Crystal Dragon is at 75% HP or below
Sonic Blow has a 30% chance of being used on any party members with ailments once Crystal Dragon is at 75% HP or below
If any party members are asleep when Crystal Dragon is at 50% HP or below, Sonic Blow has a 40% chance of being used on the asleep party member
If any party members are asleep when Crystal Dragon is at 50% HP or below, it will not cast Unending Bray or Prism Ray

Crystal Dragon's primary gimmick is just the fact that it's basically two different enemies that only share one real skill in common. Nothing terribly interesting, if you ask me, but eh.

All of the Dragon skills have pretty nasty side effects attached to them, and Clear Breath can potentially be an out-of-nowhere total party wipe, but the damage on all of them can be reduced to non-lethal levels through a high-level Material Guard. In the absence of that, a Shaman elemental Prayer or a Mist will do okay, but you're probably not going to be covered against every element. Crystallizing Breath especially can be a nasty surprise for parties relying on an Illusionary Fencer, since not only does it have noticeably higher base accuracy, it can seriously fuck up anyone it hits more than once. The petrification doesn't help, either.

As for the Speed skills, Unending Bray should be your biggest concern, since a few unlucky sleep tags can result in a swift game over. Doesn't help that Herbalist healing skills rely on the arms, either! Your best bet for Speed form is just binding CD's legs, since it's not particularly resistant to those.

Prism Ray might seem like a really dangerous special skill, and that's because it can be if you don't really know when it can come out, and/or if you don't have a Dragoon. Material Guard trivializes Prism Ray, honestly--it cuts each hit from 120% INT damage to 40% INT damage.

With all of that in mind, party members:

Alexis: Alexis is, to be blunt, a terrible defensive support for Crystal Dragon. The only random-target moves Crystal Dragon has are Crystallizing Breath and Prism Ray, both of which have well above average base accuracy. Even with Sharp Thrust and Unburdened, Alexis does not have enough evasion for me to really feel comfortable gambling on him dodging them. Aside from that, the only other situation where he might be useful is for Sonic Blow...but even then, if Sonic Blow is being used in response to someone having an ailment/being asleep, Crystal Dragon's AI is specifically set to go for that person.

Iseria: With proper stab/elemental support, I firmly consider Iseria one of the best offensive options for Cyrstal Dragon, mostly because due to how composite damage works, no matter what form Crystal Dragon is in, she'll always be hitting an element it's weak to. Remember, though: proper stab/elemental support. This includes characters that can consistently deal elemental damage (Kaelin, arguably Lanzon, really arguably Mio, really arguably Magda--or anyone that can throw Jars), or can equip bows or otherwise deal stab damage (Alexis [please don't though], Kaelin, Gram, Mio, Dosen, Magda). Worst comes to absolute worst, an elemental Prayer from Mio can give everyone the ability to deal elemental damage with normal attacks, but that's getting kind of desperate by that point.

Sasha:

General: Line Guard and Material Guard make Sasha an extremely good support for Crystal Dragon. Line Guard helps with a lot of Speed form, and Material Guard makes both Dragon form and Prism Ray far more manageable.
Adamantine Dragoon: Divide Guard can be used to save an asleep target from Sonic Blow, potentially. Aside from that, erm...
Gunpowder Dragoon: The only thing that would really differentiate Gunpowder from Adamantine is Pillboxes. Don't get me wrong--Pillboxes are actually pretty great for Crystal Dragon, since they're good at eating casts of Debilitating Breath, Crystallizing Breath, Razor-Sharp Claws, Sonic Blow, and Prism Ray. On top of that, since Pillboxes can't really be one-shot unless the attack they ate would've dealt, like, 500 damage or more, it's fairly likely that they'll get a counterattack or two off. Do remember, though: the drawing row attacks to the summon row thing is less good if Lanzon or Gram are also tagging along.

Cecil:

Combo Boxer: I still thoroughly believe Combo Boxer is the way to go for everything if you're not going for weird Ougi or Back from the Dead cheese, and Crystal Dragon is no exception. Head binds completely shut down the Dragon form, leg binds almost completely shut down the Speed form, and arm binds aren't worth worrying about since they only really stop Prism Ray, which shouldn't be a problem if Sasha is there.
Devastating Fistfighter: There's something to be said for using the endure Ougi plus Dragon's Roar, I guess? I never really know how you're supposed to use Devastating Fistfighter.

Raven:

Death-Bringing Reaper: Same deal as the Undead King fight, really, except Raven's innate multi-target utility isn't useful at all for Crystal Dragon.
Death-Warding Reaper: A lot better for here than it was in Undead King, I'd say. Wall of Miasma, if I'm slightly lucky with predicting when Unending Bray might happen, can save a run, and Blood of Atonement can be a decent panic button in case of a bad Unending Bray. Brittle Miasma's also a pretty decent way of increasing the party's damage without putting me at risk of being severely injured or wiped by Clear Breath.

Kaelin:

Master of the Six Ways: Coverage of both physical and elemental damage types is a boon for Crystal Dragon, due to it changing what it's weak to with each form. Spamming Earth Spike during Dragon form is basically a persistent reduction to all the damage Crystal Dragon can do, and I can just spam an elemental followed by Rockfall during Speed form, because of Reserve Magic. I could try Alter, too, depending on available skill points.
Ruler of Fire, Ice, and Lightning: Far less useful than Master of the Six Ways, mostly since Kaelin will end up spending half of the fight having to spam Magic Weapon.

Lanzon:

General: As always, remember that Necromancers do not, generally, play nicely with other summons.
Spirit-Summoning Necromancer: Open Grave could potentially have its uses during the followup turn after Unending Bray, and Ghost Dance can potentially lay on some hurt.
Spirit-Destroying Necromancer: I could, like...cheese Crystal Dragon with the whole "three 9999 HP ghosts plus Equivalent Exchange" thing, but that wouldn't be very fun, now would it? I'd have to respec Lanzon to really do the normal Spirit-Destroying build, which could still be useful, but again, it really relies on Lanzon having the summon row to himself.

Gram:

Falcon-Accompanied Hound: For Dragon form, big damage and potentially very useful head binds, thanks to either Flying Talon Strike or Sky Dive. For Speed form, not much to talk about.
Dog-Leading Hound: Defense Command can come in handy in case of Unending Bray follow up, and Foot Pierce means I get a little bit extra damage on top of disabling Speed form's damage skills--even if it's still reduced by resistances.

Jana: Gonna level with you here, both specs for Jana really accomplish the same thing, and neither one of them is really better than the other for Crystal Dragon. The only thing to really worry about is her getting potentially pasted by Razor-Sharp Claws or unlucky targeting of Crystallizing Breath or Prism Ray.

Mio:

General: The big thing to keep in mind with Mio is that there's always that 10% or so chance that Clear Breath can just ruin everything if I have even one buff. You shouldn't let that cloud your perception of her for this fight, mind you. Also, Oracle: Dance is still just as useful as always for a party that has, say, both Iseria and Kaelin.
Heaven's Wrath Shaman: Oracle: Three Runs can really fuck up Crystal Dragon during Speed form, and Channel the Gods can basically nullify most damage coming out of Crystal Dragon for one turn.
Heaven's Love Shaman: Prayer: Exorcism lets me rest a bit easier with regards to Unending Bray, as does Sanctuary.

Dosen: Dosen's two primary uses from here on out are buffing up the front row's HP with Line Herb, and attempting to recover from unlucky status ailment skills with Refresh Herb and Recovery Herb. Buffing up the front row's HP during Dragon form especially is actually pretty helpful, since most classes I'm gonna stick there tend to have bad WIS. Combine with Sasha for an extra layer of party-wide durability!

Magda: The fact that Crystal Dragon doesn't resist petrification means Magda can potentially have a field day with Smoke Solid, Smoke Rot, and Smoke Bomb, especially if Crystal Dragon is in Speed form, and double especially if we have other elemental damage sources like Iseria, Kaelin, or a Heaven's Wrath Mio.

Vote for a maximum of four party members, with at least one vote towards either Alexis or Sasha, and a maximum of one vote per character. I would also ask that you maybe try to avoid just giving me free votes, although I'm not going to outright ban them.
Next Update
Previous Update
Table of Contents