Updated: 23 August 2013 for Patch 0.7.1694
Beta Crystite was a currency introduced as compensation for existing resources at the time becoming obsolete. Beta Crystite could be used to purchase a range of cosmetic and functional rewards, and was intended as a reward for long-term testers.
Note that Beta Crystite rewards can still be purchased – as of Patch 0.7.1694, Ratchet is back in Copacabana. However, you’re no longer able to create new Beta Crystite, so spend your remaining reserves of it carefully!
Beta Crystite Sources
Beta Crystite appeared when Patch 0.6 was released in late March. It came from three sources:
- All pre-patch crystite was automatically turned into Beta Crystite at a 1:1 ratio.
- All pre-patch resources could no longer be used to craft anything, but a new recipe was introduced to refine pre-patch resources directly into Beta Crystite at a 1:1 ratio.
- All pre-patch sifted earth was automatically turned into Granulated Earth. It too could be refined only into Beta Crystite.
Beta Crystite could also be created using the Crystite Beta Conversion recipe at the printer, to turn Crystite into Beta Crystite at a 1:1 ratio. It can no longer be created by any means, however.
Beta Crystite Rewards
Players can spend Beta Crystite with an NPC called Ratchet, who is near the Accord area in Copacabana. (For those of you who remember her from the old days, she’s moved from her spot near the Copa nanoprinter.) She sold the following items until Patch 0.7.1667, and again from Patch 0.7.1694.
Boosts
- +50% resource boost, 60 minutes: 10,000 β-CY
- +5% resource boost, permanent: 15,000 β-CY
- +10% resource boost, 6 months: 250,000 β-CY
The +5% and +10% boosts don’t stack, but do overlap, so if you bought both the 5% and 10% boosts you’d get 10% for 6 months and then it will drop to 5% permanently. The temporary +50% boost stacks with either the 5% or the 10%.
Resource boosts apply to all sources of resources: thumping, blowing up surface nodes, opening supply chests, completing missions, etc. And the temporary boost kicks in as soon as you buy it, so you couldn’t buy a stack of them and stockpile them for a year.
Permanent Items
- T.E.X. Leash: 20,000 β-CY
- Cobra LGV: 75,000 β-CY
- Crystalwing Glider Pad: 20,000 β-CY
- Diamondwing Glider Pad: 100,000 β-CY
- Angel Wing Glider Pad: 300,000 β-CY
T.E.X. is a robot minipet with a cowboy hat. The Cobra LGV is the same model as the Damaged Courier Cycle from Crashed LGV events (and the bike you use for Race Missions), although it has a red and grey warpaint. (See our Firefall Vehicles Guide for a look at the Cobra LGV next to the other LGVs.) The Glider Pads are placeable glider pads that give you differently-styled glider wings. They share a cooldown with each other, but not with the existing craftable Glider Pads or the Rechargeable Glider Pad available for 50
. (Check out our Guide to Gliders for a look at the different glider pads.)
Other
- Beta Crystite Pack: 10,000 β-CY
- Beta Crystite Crate: 100,000 β-CY
The Beta Crystite Pack contains three random items: one boost (short-term increase to XP/resources), one consumable (identical to the crafted versions), and one single-use version of TEX, the Cobra LGV or one of the glider pads. There’s also a small chance of getting the real permanent version one of these items.
Red5 also wanted to add some cosmetic items like warpaints, but were not able to surmount the technical difficulties in time.
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Nice guide! You got even retweeted from Red5 Studios. ;)
So how/with what recipe does one refine Crytite into Beta-Crystite?
Thanks! Glad it’s helpful :)
As far as I know, the Crystite -> Beta Crystite process is not yet implemented; it’ll probably come in when the Beta Crystite vendor is added to the game. Most people are hoping that’s in this week’s patch (which Phobos has said they’re hoping to implement on Thursday), but nobody knows for sure outside the devs and they’re not talkin’ yet. ;)
There is already a Beta Crystite Refining process in the printer, mind you, but that’s the process to convert old pre-0.6 resources 1:1 to Beta Crystite.
Are the glider pads forever, or are they a limited quantity and you use them up?
Also, its stated that the resource bonuses don’t stack. Does that mean that these beta crystite resource bonuses don’t stack with each other, or that they don’t stack with any other bonuses, like the poi bonuses? I have never bought any bonuses, but I see in the upper left that I have a 13% resource bonus forever, and 5% XP bonus forever. I don’t know why. Will the beta crystite bonus stack, or just overlap until I leave a poi?
Also, thanks for making these guides! They are far more instructional than anything I have found, including Firefall forums. Keep it up!
The glider pads listed under “Permanent Items” are forever; they’re a cooldown item with a recharge timer (1 min 45 seconds). There are also one-shot glider pads that come out of the Beta Crystite Packs; these are distinguishable in your calldowns menu with a “1-Use” prefix in front of their name.
As far as stacking bonuses, Syrstorm said that you can have three different resource boosts active at the same time:
1x long-term boost (the 10% or 5% boosts)
1x short-term boost (the 50% boost from Ratchet, or one of the 20% boosts that are random drops from the Beta Crystite Packs)
1x ambient boost (the boost from having Thump Dump under Accord control, varying in size based on its power level)
(And you can also have 3 XP boosts active on top of the 3 resource boosts.)
The 5% XP boost would be from having Sunken Harbor under Accord Control, and I think the 13% resource boost would be from having Thump Dump under Accord Control and at Level 3. (I’m not 100% sure of the boost Thump Dump gives at each level; I need to look into that.)
Thanks for the article but I have a quick question for the sake of clarification…
When you say that the Beta Crystite ends on “midnight on July 9th” I’m assuming you mean the moment July 9th starts (not the end of the 9th) but for which time zone?
Thanks!
American Pacific Time, as far as I know. And yeah, it’s midnight at the start of the 9th, not the end. 5.5 hours from now, at the time of writing this comment. ;)
That’s what I figured too since they usually list times in PST/PDT, but their website wasn’t to clear on that detail so I figured that it wouldn’t hurt to double check.
Thanks for replying!