This is an idea that I thought up while listening to a piece of Starbound music, Crystal Battle 1. As such, it is a creature intended mainly for crystal worlds. Please note that I have no artistic talent, so I would greatly appreciate any artistic impressions of your own you could provide. I will give credit wherever appropriate. Physical description The Crystal Crown is a huge, floating creature in the shape of the head of a trident, always upright. It is formed from purple crystal. The two prongs at the sides are shorter than the central prong, and sharp protrusions are visible at the base of the shorter prongs, jutting down underneath the creature. Three large eyes which look like featureless blue orbs are located at the base of the central prong. The central eye is larger than the other two. Below the eyes is a circular opening which appears to be the creature's mouth. The Crystal Crown's movements appear deceptively slow for its size, but it can outrun the player. However, it has heavy inertia and very slow acceleration, so a clever player can easily outmaneuver it. Attacks that hit its eyes do extra damage, but the constant movement of the creature makes this difficult, and simply standing directly beneath the creature for a clear shot is suicide. Behavior When first encountered, the Crown descends from above. It's approach can be detected by the shadow it casts on the ground before it comes into view. It is slow to move into the fray, but as soon as it is in sight, its eyes begin to glow brightly and then fire three powerful beams straight down. This attack is devastating, so it is important to avoid it when the Crown first arrives. Once battle has begun, the creature begins following the player, trying to stay directly above them. If there is more than one player or creature attacking it, the Crown has a chance of switching targets each time it attacks. Throughout the fight, thin, crystalline filaments will slowly grow outward in a fan pattern from the underside of the Crown. They can grow to an incredible length, and can reach through all but the most heavily reinforced obstacles. Luckily, the filaments cannot inflict damage on their own, but ranged attacks pass through them without effect. A few hits from a melee weapon can break a filament, and one strike can hit several of them at once. However, once broken, they immediately begin to regrow. The Crown has several attacks. Firstly, it can rapidly grow and drop crystalline shards from its underside, like a kind of rain, except that the shards are razor sharp and will inflict a small amount of damage on impact. Individually, they aren't very powerful, but there are so many of them that they are difficult to avoid and can rip an unwary player apart in seconds. This painful crystal rain continues for a few seconds before the Crown switches tactics. Secondly, the Crystal Crown can fire its prongs into the air (they regrow in seconds). A few seconds later, the huge crystal spikes drop from the sky at high speed, and it can be difficult to tell where they are going to come down. When they land, they shatter in an explosion of crystal shards, dealing moderate physical damage to everything within their small blast radius. The creature's third type of attack is the one it began the battle with; three powerful beams fired directly downward from its eyes. Players can see this attack coming by watching the eyes, which begin to glow shortly before the beams fire. Unlike the initial version of this attack, the beams are maintained for several seconds, although the Crystal Crown's movements are drastically slowed during this time. The beams quickly burn through softer materials, such as dirt and wood, but are stopped by more solid materials, such as stone and metal. The Crown is much more likely to use this attack if the player stays directly below its eyes for too long. During these attacks or in between, the Crown can channel electricity through the filaments growing out of its base. When this happens, two or more filaments begin to glow, but remain harmless until their charge is released. When this happens, bolts of lightning arc between the filaments for a few short moments. The lightning deals moderate damage if touched. Second-stage Battle After it has been reduced to less than a third of its maximum health, the Crown's crystalline shell begins to crack and break apart. The crystal filaments all break and no longer regrow. Some of the crystal around its mouth shatters with a thunderous roar, revealing a mass of oversized fangs. The sharp protrusions at the base of its smaller prongs break apart, revealing claws. The prongs themselves partly separate from the main body of the creature, revealing crimson-fleshed limbs, thick with muscle. The creature becomes much faster, and no longer has such heavy inertia. The Crown's attacks change at this point. It no longer uses its crystal rain attack, but it uses its eye beams more often. It sometimes descends into melee range and makes sweeping attacks with its claws, which deal moderate damage if they hit. It ascends out of reach after this melee attack. It occasionally aligns itself directly above the player's head, then lets out a mighty roar before dropping straight down with its mouth open. This is its most powerful attack. After striking the ground, it becomes partly embedded, delaying it for a few moments as it tries to claw its way free. When defeated, the Crystal crown lets out one last roar of rage, then crashes heavily to the ground, dealing heavy damage if the player happens to be underneath it at the time. The player will have ample time to get out of the way, however. Treasure This monster drops a great deal of treasure when killed. The items dropped by the Crystal Corwn are listed below (Includes suggestions by Bombermansam): Diamond - Rare material. 5-10 chunks. Crystal Fragment - Common material. 35-50 pieces. Crystal Filament - Uncommon material. 15-25 pieces. Crimson Tendon Common material. 25-35 pieces. Blue Diamond Orbs - The Crystal Crown's eyes. Unique material. These can be used to make some extremely rare items, or broken down into individual blue diamonds, which are also an exceptionally rare and precious material. Let me know what you think of this idea, good or bad. I appreciate any feedback.
I like the idea, however I disagree with the amount of diamonds dropped by the boss which should be reduced to 5-10 chunks, maintining the rareness of the substance. Since diamonds are supposed to be a rarer mineral and are nearly impenetrable, to make the boss seem more sensible as it is not invulnerable and is composed of mostly crystal, not mostly of diamonds, thus the diamond drop should be reduced and the crystal drop to be increased to 35-50 pieces to make up for the lost mass. Some other drops for this boss could be: Crystal Focusing Lens - Rare material. 1-5 Crystal Filaments - Uncommon material. 15-25 Crimson Tendon - Common material. 25-35
~~Edit~~ Makes sense. I adjusted the item amounts and added the items you suggested. The large total of items would be enough to account for the creature's mass.
I will go back and read the description in a moment, but I would fight this boss a hundred times just to hear that music. EPIC. Updated: Ok, now that I've actually read the details - I like it, it's definitely unique and the variation of loot is a nice touch.
lol, I was starting to create a few bosses because of how much I love the crystal battle, well thats one more crystal boss!
SHUT UP AND TAKE MY PIXELS! also, on a more constructive note, maybe you should shape the orbs into focusing lenses? for a solar death ray, or maybe a power station. and with the crystal, maybe a refractive suit of armor that sends deflects lasers/energy blasts away from you?
