About Crystal Blade
The curve that makes it a game
Banking pays 100 points per crystal plus 60 per crystal squared. One crystal is worth 160. Five are worth 2,000. Eight are worth 4,640.
That curve is the entire design. It means a player holding seven crystals is playing a completely different, far more careful game than the same player holding one, and the decision of when to cash in is genuinely interesting rather than obvious.
The current value of your load is printed at the top of the screen at all times. Showing the number is what turns 'should I go back' from a vague feeling into an actual choice.
Carrying slows you down
Movement speed drops by three and a half percent per crystal held, up to a floor of about a third. A heavy carry is measurably harder to steer out of trouble with, which is what makes the risk real rather than nominal.
Dropped crystals scatter and can be recovered, but they fade after six seconds and they scatter into the space you were just hit in. Recovering a full load after a hit is possible and rarely complete.
Enemies as friction, not as the point
This is the gentlest game in the fantasy category. The enemies exist mainly to make collecting awkward - they arrive slowly, they are not numerous, and killing one drops a crystal where it stood.
That last detail is what stops fighting from being a pure distraction. A well-placed kill is also a crystal, which means combat and collection point the same direction rather than competing.
The run is a hundred seconds. It ends on the clock rather than on your health, so the score is what you banked rather than how long you lasted.
How to play
- Press Start. WASD or the arrow keys move; the mouse aims your blade.
- Walk over a crystal to pick it up. Picking up does not score.
- Walk into the shrine in the centre to bank everything you are carrying.
- Banking pays far more per crystal the more you are holding.
- Taking a hit drops your whole carry. Dropped crystals fade after six seconds.
- The run lasts one hundred seconds.
Controls
| Where | What to do |
|---|---|
| Move | WASD or arrow keys |
| Aim | Mouse position, or your direction of travel on touch |
| Cut | Space, J, K, or click |
| Dodge | Shift or Z |
| Touch | Dodge and Attack buttons; drag to move and aim |
Scoring
These are the point values this game awards, before the combo multiplier is applied where it uses one. Hit quality changes the figure: a strike at the centre of the correct moment is worth substantially more than one at the edge of it.
Tips
- Five is the comfortable target. Eight is where the run is really decided.
- The number at the top of the screen is what your load is worth right now. Read it.
- Carrying slows you down. A heavy load steers badly, which is the actual risk.
- Kill enemies on your route - each one drops a crystal where it stood.
- Dropped crystals fade in six seconds. After a hit, take what you can reach and move on.
- The clock ends the run, not your health. Banking is the only thing that scores.
Common mistakes
- Banking one crystal at a time, which is worth about a tenth of banking them together.
- Holding ten and then taking a route you would not have taken empty-handed.
- Chasing every dropped crystal after a hit, which usually results in a second hit.
- Fighting enemies away from your route. The crystal drop only helps if it is on your way.
Features
- A banking curve that scales with the square of your carry
- The current value of your load shown permanently on screen
- Movement speed that drops as your carry grows
- Dropped crystals that scatter and fade rather than being lost outright
- Enemies that drop a crystal where they fell
- A fixed hundred-second run that ends on the clock, not on health
