Strategies for Eternia Crystal defence

Voyager

Headless Horseman
Just had my first go at this. Definitely good to have a turret on one side while you are on the other.
Only got to wave three though, so I can use pointers.
 
Actuated lava pits with spiky balls and spears. Didn't try them myself, but they won't hurt.
 
Just had my first go at this. Definitely good to have a turret on one side while you are on the other.
Only got to wave three though, so I can use pointers.

Basically make sure you are collecting the green mana crystals that the enemies drop (this is where knowing Dungeon Defenders a bit helps to be fair) as this then acts as "ammo" to summon more sentries/towers as waves progress. Think it's 10 mana/ammo per tower. My run this morning before work I had about five turrets each side and I'm playing Expert pre-Hardmode with my first run at a summoner build.

Outside of the event being triggered is when you can't summon more than one sentry without gear.
 
Thinking about this I am pretty sure a carefully designed arena is in order- Spiky balls, flame traps, geysers, etc.
I didn't know what the crystals were, I thought they had something to do with the currency lol.
I am all the way at post game so I probably have the toughest opponents, the fliers are annoying.
 
Have a character that has beat all expert pre-hardmode bosses except skeletron and wall of flesh. Easiest way for me to beat crystal defense so far is with 4 imps(sumoner potion needed), bee armour, hive pack, bees knees, and bee gun. With the bee gun I never see the ground force until the 4th wave(stay in center by crystal. Mage boss gets onscreen but you have to really focus on the flying dive bombing enemies. Place all summons I can each wave. Started with exp traps then got balista. First time I tried, they killed me the same time I won. Worm scarf, band of regen, and lightning boots are the other items. Died miserably on wave 4 using diamond staff and demon scythe first time I played.
 
Ok, I just found out that the mobs have some sort of defense against traps. They are appearing somewhat ghost-like and they hover about 3 blocks above the ground. This may be due to my arena design (the crystal is elevated from the main level) but I doubt it.
 
Well, by putting a timer into the mix it showed that they can still take damage from the traps but they cannot activate them through the pressure plates.
 
Well, by putting a timer into the mix it showed that they can still take damage from the traps but they cannot activate them through the pressure plates.
Well, yes and no. They activated the geysers and take damage, but my nifty teleporter trick that sends them back to the beginning didn't work.
I am using red and yellow pressure plates with 15 spears and 4 geysers on each side and it works OK, but not good enough even with a Lunar Portal Staff.
I haven't tried a summoner attempt yet because the arrows are taking lots of damage.
 
Well, yes and no. They activated the geysers and take damage, but my nifty teleporter trick that sends them back to the beginning didn't work.
I am using red and yellow pressure plates with 15 spears and 4 geysers on each side and it works OK, but not good enough even with a Lunar Portal Staff.
I haven't tried a summoner attempt yet because the arrows are taking lots of damage.
If you can, get the Valkyrie's Armor and the Ballista Staff and use the Daybreak. If you can't yet get the Daybreak, then use (Melee): Terra Blade, Flairon, North Pole or The Eye Of Cthulhu, (Ranged): Phantasm, Tsunami, Stake Launcher, Candy Corn Rifle, Coin Gun or the Xenopopper, (Magic): Charged Blaster Cannon, Magnet Sphere, Nebula Weapons, Razorblade Typhoon, Razorpine or the Shadowbeam Staff, (Summoning): Stardust Dragon Staff. (keep in mind that I haven't tried the listed weapons, just what I think would be effective).
 
What class are you playing anyway? My post Moon Lord experience (so nothing from Tavernkeep yet, only other endgame stuff) turned out this way...

Arena - just a long plain, no traps, clean and easy. Crystal Stand in the mid.

Melee (tried beating event with him first) in Solar Flare armor with wings, boots, ankh, shell, warrior and destroyer emblems (all warding) using Terrarian, Eruption, Meowmere, Star Wrath and 3 stardust summons plus some ML sentry while buffed up with every single possible melee buff/potion - NO LUCK. At Betsy ofc (wave 7). Waves 1-6 are easy, but with Betsy I was either able to try killing her or preventing monsters below from eating Eternia Crystal alive. Didn't even manage to kill her once after crystal got destroyed and started the fail animation (she was low tho). Classical melee build just seems to have lower DPS and so-so AOE options. Didn't actually try flying around in the saucer and switching to more DPS accessories (or even reforging out of "warding", but it's kinda uncool). Hm. Might have actually worked, I'll give it a try later.

So I gave up and tried Ranger. He's kinda my least favorite one tho, but I'm pretty aware of his potential. Vortex set, SDMG, just Endless Musket Pouch, no buffs (except food, pies are always on). Wings, boots, ninja gear, shell, ankh, sniper scope (all warding). Rainbow Crystal and 2x Stardust Cells (Bewitching Table used) I understand luminite bullets would have been better, as well as DPS trinkets, but whatever. Waves 1-6 killed easily without moving, no matter in or out of stealth mode. Betsy died after crystal got destroyed. Over. So with just a little more tweaking (or mind you - buffs!) no-etherian-mana I'm sure Ranger will easily kill em all.

Next was Mage. Mostly used Lunar Flare on the first try, also checked Blaze/Arcanum, turned out Prism is kinda laziest one mostly due to having huge range with AOE built-in so no moving required. No buffs except food, Mana Regeneration Potion, Crystal Ball and Bewitching Table was too lazy to move to get nebula boosters, only picked them before Betsy spawn and on. Wings, boots, ankh, shell, ninja gear, destroyer emblem. Sentry, 2 Minions. Betsy died on the very first try. That was the first win on this event for me. I think reasons are that Mage has very high DPS and a sexy AOE. So I was mostly shooting/dodging Betsy and when I saw usual wave monsters getting too close to the crystal I just turned on them from whatever angle/position for a couple of seconds and wiped them to hell. And yes, ranged with piercing bullets could do that almost as easy by landing on either side and shooting horizontally for a couple of seconds, I do realize this now.

Summoner. I love this class, it's so AFKish :p Stardust armor, wings, boots, ankh, shell, ninja gear, Papyrus Scarab (all warding). Of course, as minions don't change their damage after the summoning I do switch some gear when I call them. Hercules Beetle, Summoner/Avenger emblems, Necromantic Scroll (all menacing) go instead non-damaging trinkets in the process of summoning. Also I sit on a Cute Fishron in some pond/honey reservoir. Long Stardust Dragon and a single Stardust Cell, my usual all-round party. Food, Bewitching Table. Did use Summoning Potion a couple of times, but they run out so fast... meh, too lazy for that. Rainbow Crystal/Lunar Portal refreshed on one side, Stardust Guardian on the other (might skip him actually). AFK kill waves 1-5. You might get hit for a couple of hundreds HP, but it'll regenerate to full pretty fast anyway. Wave 6 generally requires some dodging (and in unlucky cases even shooting not to lose too much crystal HP), dragon doesn't react fast enough to prevent damage from ranged and divers. Betsy died after crystal was destroyed. Then I realized that summoner might use some weapon as well. Last Prism (did use Mana Regeneration Potions and Crystal Ball with it then) or Star Wrath (might sharpen it then) did well in killing minor enemies. Not as devastating as in Mage's hands, yet acceptable. Addition of possibility to order your minions to focus on some single target is pretty neat. Did some tries, successfully for the most part. So Summoner works quite well there for me. Might be slightly luck dependent (dragon is quite silly, yeah), but kinda same overall DPS/efficiency as Mage.

Then I returned to Warrior (melee). Nothing new,no enough DPS. As I had a ton of Defender Medals I decided to try it the intended way. Valhalla Knight armor, Ballista Staff, wings, boots, ankh, shell, ninja gear, destroyer emblem (all warding), Terrarian only, two-segment dragon, food, Bewitching Table, Sharpening Station. Could also use up to 4 (5 with one of those new accessories) Rainbow Crystals/Lunar Portals, but thought I'd give it a try this way. Easy peasy. Ended up not even spending wave 6 mana, stored it in a chest dunno what for. On Betsy only focused her, buffed ballistas do wonders vs usual monsters there. Bonus is awesome as well, very self-consistent - get hurt by Betsy from time to time - ballistas wreak havoc below even better (like they didn't do that good enough already) - you regen health back extremely fast. Sweet.
 
My advice for arena setup:
100% flat, to avoid any ghostly enemy funny-business.
Minimum the width around 120 blocks (large screen size) but biggest is generally better.
Raised edges to keep mana inside and bounce shots off (if applicable).
Traps are of limited value. Temple traps are devastating against Tier 1 (when you shouldn't have them) but not that great against 2 and 3. And they can actually get in the way, either by hurting you or causing piercing-damage invulnerability. Some super dart traps overhead to soften up flyers may help though.
If you want to get fancy, you can have conveyer belt floors deliver mana to the middle.

For weapons, anything that pierces multiple enmies is your best bet, be it humble jester's arrows, tarrablade or last prism.
For the same reason, the the ballista is my preferred sentry. Though some lightning traps right by the portals are a good way to get rid of the weaker foes.
Whatever minion you can get your hands on will help too.
 
I found that temple traps aren't really the effort, but maybe that's me. They don't really seem to do much damage and get in the way of me running up and down to collect stuff.
They even hit the crystal if you're careless with placement.

Try to get your hands on the summon/trap weapons the barkeep sells. Personally I love putting down 1 electrical trap over the crystal, 4 electrical traps on each side near the portals and have 6 ballistas in the middle. (You have to be able to reach wave 7 for this quantity of summons though.)
Also remember that you can reforge these weapons. Every little bit helps. The two without knockback can only go to Demonic (although Ruthless might still be better, didn't check).

For weapons: Anything that pierces multiple enemies.
Haven't tried it, but the waterbolt might be especially amazing when you get it. You could put up some walls on the outside of the arena and the waterbolts would pierce enemies, bounce off the walls and keep piercing some more.
 
Dayum, tnx for starting this thread, it actually did lead me to a new level of understanding of melee builds :D

ManaUser above does have some nice advises btw, yeah, turned out I came to some of this things too.

So I went testing melee with more DPS-oriented accessories. Solar Flare armor, Ankh Shield, Celestial Shell, Celestial Stone, Destroyer Emblem (all warding), Mechanical Glove and Warrior Emblem (lucky ones, I just had lucky prefixes and didn't go reforging). Two-segment Stardust Dragon, no sentries. Well Fed, Sharpening Station, Bewitching Table.
Fight went on as usual, but then I thought that I run from side to side too much kinda, as Terrarian has a pretty short range, and remembering how nice and easy it was like with Ranger/Mage (just sitting on the crystal and shooting left-right) I got jealous of that cheap tactic. Double checked the list of available melee weapons in my piggy, took Meowmere (as it had the longest range) and started shooting.
In 10 sec they all died for good and I realized than I can sit in the middle and just keep spamming cats just like I did with ranged classes. Here came the realization of why exactly Meowmere works now and didn't before. I have 25% more melee speed from that glove and stone that I didn't have before (well, pretty much more plain damage and a little crit as well). And that makes wonders for catsword, unlike yoyos (that simply hit 6 times per second on a single target and bonus melee speed just increases their reach slightly). Also, second big thing - on first tries I just had this plain in the sky, only later I added walls to the sides (as ManaUser pointed out) cus I saw mana falling from the edge sometimes and it looked so bad. So Meowmere cats actually started bouncing back this time (they "pierces multiple enmies" too, tnx again ManaUser), increasing DPS dramatically. Betsy was a joke this time (I mean the need to kill other enemies became practically non-existent, as cats that you shoot as Betsy eventually kill them too).

That's kinda it. Melee build found it's strategy as well. Well, other builds almost didn't even need a strategy tho, just ... kill things as usual, no arena required.
 
Yeah, Meowmere sure makes it easier. :)

The easiest method for me so far is to summon 4 Lightning Auras on each side, 1 on the crystal, 6 Ballistas around the crystal, have all the accessories to allow 10 summons and summon 10 Stardust Cells, spawn Rainbow Crystals around the crystal in the final wave, hide and get myself a drink.
This event wasn't designed for end-game stuff, but it sure is fun tearing the place apart. :happy:
 
Yeah, Meowmere sure makes it easier. :)

The easiest method for me so far is to summon 4 Lightning Auras on each side, 1 on the crystal, 6 Ballistas around the crystal, have all the accessories to allow 10 summons and summon 10 Stardust Cells, spawn Rainbow Crystals around the crystal in the final wave, hide and get myself a drink.
This event wasn't designed for end-game stuff, but it sure is fun tearing the place apart. :happy:

Hah, one more lazy player detected :p Your method sure sounds like an overkill, do you have to actually dodge Betsy that way btw, or she dies too fast?

For me Dragon does a lot higher single target DPS (easily x2 if target is almost stationary) than Cells btw, why people keep saying about them so much? Am I missing something?
You can spawn like.. two Rainbow Crystals? No set on, just one accessory, right?

Event is kinda nice anyway IMO, they did try making it less cheesy. Also, to get new sentries you still have to farm it somehow (not killing Betsy still yields Defender Medals, just a lot slower), so still pretty interesting.
 
...do you have to actually dodge Betsy that way btw, or she dies too fast?
If I hide she'll attack the crystal, so no dodging needed. But she doesn't die that fast. I think I saw a video around here somewhere where someone almost instantly killed Betsy with the Nebula Arcanum.
For me Dragon does a lot higher single target DPS (easily x2 if target is almost stationary) than Cells btw, why people keep saying about them so much? Am I missing something?
Well, the dragon can't be everywhere at once while the cells are just flying at light speed through the screen in all directions. Not even some sneaky flying mob manages to reach the crystal.
I haven't really tried the dragon though.
You can spawn like.. two Rainbow Crystals? No set on, just one accessory, right?
Yeah, with one of the accessories dropped in this event.
 
Aha, right, tried almost your setup now (with ballistas only, and a single sentry), Cells do kill flyers perfectly and are much more consistent in damage dealing, but kill Betsy slower. Same outcome with Dragon, just Betsy dying faster but flyers chipping much more crystal HP (shoulda have tried with a Lunar Portal, explained lower). Well, as I wrote earlier even a conventional Summoner works, what would we expect using special event sentries on top of that (yeah, no shooting happened here, I get that, but shooting as a Summoner is "mehly" weak anyway, sentries are the tits).

Retested with hiding explained - it actually works :D Was hiding below the crystal, used Dragon and a single Cell this time. And a Lunar Portal (it helps vs flyers, unlike Rainbow Crystal, but has lower DPS, pretty much same trade offs as Dragon vs Cells it seems) Betsy occasionally did attack me like 3 times, yet died fast, crystal was far from destruction.
 
I found the Valhalla Armor/ballista and the Daybreak combo is pretty good (surprisingly).
Nothing too surprising there, Valhalla Knight specializes in ballista, and although daybreak doesn't pierce it's a very strong weapon. Great for the ogres and Betsy. Also the Valhalla Knight's breastplate gives you an insane healing rate. I haven't tried the other Tier 3 armors yet, but it doesn't look like they have any comparable abilities. I'm wondering if that one might be a little overpowered.
 
For melee users, two of the new pieces of armor give you +20% melee swing speed so there is that if you are willing to break your set bonus. The armor you want is: Monk's Bushy Brow Bald Cap, Shinobi Infiltrator's Torso and the Solar Flare Leggings.
 
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