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What you need to know about FFXIV’s Crystalline Conflict
With the release of Final Fantasy XIV’s Endwalker expansion, the popular MMORPG’s got a new vision for the future. We’ve taken a look at the changes to Jobs as well as new and old game modes.
Final Fantasy 14’s PvP received sweeping reworks on its elements ranging from Job actions, to a new series/rewards system, and new game modes. Crystalline Conflict was the newest addition to PvP, and delivered a smaller activity where two teams of five compete to push the tactical crystal to the opponent team’s goal, along with many other challenges like arena events to make matches more exciting.
To get into the PvP, there are a few requirements, with the main one being the completion of “A Pup No Longer”. This quest can be found where your respective Grand Company is located. Once this quest is completed, you may access Crystalline Conflict from the Duty Finder.
FFXIV Cloud Nine Map
© Square Enix Co.
Crystalline Conflict
Crystalline Conflict is Final Fantasy 14’s latest PvP game mode, with a much smaller pool of players compared to Frontlines. Players will be divided into two teams of five: Umbra and Astra. The objective of this game mode is to fight for the control of the tactical crystal that spawns in the middle of the arena, and escort it all the way to the opposing team’s goal. Crystalline Conflict comes with 3 unique arenas, and two of them contain their own set of distinct environmental events. Alongside the effects provided by these events, all maps have Sprint Zones which allow players to swiftly return to the action or even flank their opponents, as well as Medicine Kits for quick heals on the field.
The Palaistra is a simple olympic style arena with sprint zones extending far along the sides of the map. The Palaistra lends itself to all of the classes due to its wide expanse and lack of barriers allowing for all types of play whether you prefer long range or close quarters melee. Confrontation is necessary and immediate as there are no walls or tight corners between the opposing teams and the crystal, which is housed right smack in the middle of a wide open space. Along with its Sprint Zones, it allows for a mosh-pit style of combat where all players eventually and can quickly coalesce onto the crystal no matter how far either side it is.
FFXIV Palaistra Map
© Square Enix Co.
Volcanic Heart showcases an erupting battleground at the base of a volcano. This arena has an event that occasionally scatters dangerous and damaging bombs at different parts of arena. Once exploded, bomb cores will remain at the sites of devastation that when picked up grant an effect increasing damage dealt up to a stack of 10 as well as a boost to your limit gauge. Contrary to The Palaistra, Volcanic Heart’s crystal is actually to the middle left of the arena.
So players can engage in combat before even reaching the objective of the map. Volcanic Heart offers tight corners and alleyways for sneaky melee or ranged classes to flank or fire away from a range but the inverse as well for players who wish to not be easily marked and dispatched. However, once a crystal makes it far enough to any team’s spawn it becomes very hard to dispatch the winning team's momentum and if there isn’t any coordination or strategizing, things can spiral and end up really badly for the losing team.
The 3rd map, Cloud Nine, has a different sort of arena event. A cluster of islands high on the cloud tops, this maps arena event features what is called Turbulence. Small tornadoes swirl upwards, sweeping up players into the sky and dropping just as fast giving them fall damage. Sometimes, while in the air however, players can pick up black chocobo feathers that grant a soft landing, a boost to attack and movement speed, and a minor boost to their limit gauge.
FFXIV Volcanic Heart Map
© Square Enix Co.
You may nullify Turbulence all together by casting the Guard action. Instead of sprint zones, Cloud Nine utilizes jump glyphs to get around the map quicker. Cloud Nine, is like a hybrid of the previous two maps, where it’s main nexus point is similar to The Palaistra, the map offers walls and corners to play off of. So even with wide open areas, teams and players may leverage using covers to pick off their opponents before committing to escort the crystal. But that is where the arena’s events come in, with the Turbulence effect players that are comfy in their spots may get swept up and dropped right into the heat of battle offering a sense of urgency and injecting a bit of chaos.
Crystalline Conflict comes with a casual queue as well as a ranked queue. In ranked queue, each season players can compete to receive the top standings as well as the highest rank, Crystal. The ranks range from Bronze which is the lowest, to Crystal, the highest.
Rewards
On top of competing to reach the highest rank and standing, Endwalker’s new revision of PvP came with a brand new suite of rewards to attain from titles to mounts. It introduced the Series Malmstones system, a new auxiliary way to earn additional loot for playing PvP.
By playing any PvP modes, you gain Series EXP and level up your Series level to earn the unique kinds of loot at the different tiers such as the Determined Emote and the Archfiend Armor Set. Players can also convert their Trophy Crystals to Wolf Marks or Wolf Collars to obtain many other rewards found in the Wolves Den Pier.
With this new breath of fresh air to Final Fantasy’s PvP, the Garo Collaboration has also made a return granting players a chance to earn the once exclusive Garo gear previously!
The Crystalline Conflict Community Cup
With the introduction of Crystalline Conflict, Square Enix announced a competitive exhibition series for both EU and NA and it’s data centers. 16 teams will be selected randomly from the the registration pool and will engage in best of one rounds to compete to win some of FFXIV’s most exclusive glamour prizes.
With the EU exhibition we were given a great showing of FFXIV’s new PvP and seeing FFXIV in a competitive setting besides World’s First Raiding is quite refreshing. And NA this September, with some exciting moments throughout the weekend!
What’s next
Nonetheless, we can look forward to the future of FFXIV’s PvP knowing that it will shape and freshen up the game in new ways that we haven’t seen before. With three revamped modes, Crystalline, Frontlines, and the newly updated Rival Wings we can expect to experience an amazing year of FFXIV PvP.
