Crystal Ship Unlock...

[The Captain]

I think you might get that Stealth achievement with a fully powered max Cloak if after the triple missile fires, you wait a bit, and cloak just before the missiles reach you, then it should last till the power surge burst.

Or you could do it with a max cloak in a later-sector asteroid field when you have three shield layers.

[zeek]

I don't think they should rework the crystal ship unlock. Sure it's incredibly difficult to unlock, but it's the secret ship after all. It should be the most difficult to unlock. I played for around 200 hours always making the crystal quest my top priority. It took me a long long time to find it, but when it finally happened it was so rewarding. That's the way it should be in my opinion.

[UltraMantis]

If anyone is having problems unlocking the Mantis cruiser, i'll trade you my hunders of unlocks for a single Shivan. I unlock the damned thing every time i play. Every. Time. No joke.

[nikto]

I unlocked it in Advanced Edition today. By beating rebel flagship with all ships of type A and type B.
BTW, in original game i never was able to get Mantis type A ship. I was surprised when launched Advanced Edition for the first time - got Mantis type A in my hangar for free, because ship, next to it in chain was unlocked.

[keptick]

I actually unlocked it LEGITIMATELY on easy mode in the pre-patch version (the super improbable unlock one). I can't tell how many runs it took me but it was LONG. My best advice is to use the stealth ship as it comes with the long range sensors. Then just strategically jump to sectors that have distress for the first part and plain becons in the second. I probably got extremelly lucky too .

I must say though, the second variant is the ultimate boarding monster.

[Jai]

Now with AE, there's an Easy(er) Way to unlock the Crystal Cruiser:

Rock C(Tektite)

This ship comes with a crystal crew member pre-installed, letting you skip the asteroid field and zoltan research station.

On the down side, you won't have a quest marker for the crystal ring in the rock homeworlds, but you still get the quest to unlock the Crystal Cruiser when you arrive in the Crystal Sector.

This also makes it realistic to complete the Ancestry achievement.

It's possible this is a bug/oversight. Hopefully they'll leave it in.

[Elhazzared]

Huh... Interesting
I guess I'll have to play the shit out of the rock C then. XD

[Nater99]

Hi there!!
To unlock the Crystal Cruiser in FTL, use the Rock Cruiser to find a distress beacon in Engi, Pirate, or Rock sectors where you can pick up a stasis pod.Next visit a Zoltan research station in Engi or Zoltan sectors to activate the pod and gain a crystal crew member.Then navigate to the Rock Homeworlds to unlock the Cruiser. This method is highly luck-based, but it’s the most consistent approach