There are hundreds of different encounters in the PC game FTL: Faster Than Light. Space battles are generally rather similar, depending on the layout of your ship, but text encounters vary greatly. In a text encounter, sometimes you will have a blue option. Blue options are almost always universally better than normal options, but can only be unlocked by possessing a specific piece of equipment, specific system upgrade, a specific race of crew member. Having a Crystal crew member on your ship offers you up to three different events where you can gain a blue option. These blue options always result in good resources, which is a nice side benefit to the work required to unlock the Crystal ship which gives you Crystal crew members. The following guide to Crystal crew member blue options will help you maximize your chance of finding and taking advantage of these options in FTL: Faster Than Light.
Curious Civilian Vessel – You can only find this event in the Hidden Crystal Worlds sector at a beacon that does not detect a ship or a distress call. If you have a Crystal crew member, a blue option is available to send that crew member to answer the questions of the curious civilian. This results in free resources with absolutely no danger to your ship or crew. You can potentially get slightly better rewards from the first normal option, but since the rewards are entirely random, there is no assurance. And, since you can also be forced to engage in a battle if you take the normal rewards, you should always take the blue option unless you really have no use for fuel and you are certain you can engage in a battle with rebel ship safely.
Cache of Crystalline on Asteroid – This is another event that only occurs in the Hidden Crystal Worlds and only at a beacon without a ship or distress call. The advantage to having a Crystal crew member in this event is that you can assuredly investigate the cache without losing a missile or risk of failure. But this is a mixed blessing, since you need a Clone Bay, level 6 Engines, or a level 2 Crew Teleporter to assure that investigating the cache doesn’t cost you a crew member. If you don’t have any of those things, take the normal option instead. It could still lead to investigating the cache, but you have a chance that it leads to nothing, which is better than losing a crew member. Overall, this event has a high chance to give you a weapon, but only if you investigate the cache.
Crystal Cruiser Unlock – This is an odd event, because you can potentially reach it in a number of different ways, but always in the Rock Homeworlds. It can either be a quest beacon or a normal beacon. You will know the event because you will discover an ancient device orbiting within crystal rings. The blue option from your Crystal crew member has a chance of unlocking the Hidden Crystal Worlds sector, transporting your ship there, and putting a quest marker on the map. At the quest marker, you can unlock the Crystal Cruiser if you don’t already have it. Since it is possible to get a Crystal crew member without already having unlocked the Crystal Cruiser, you should definitely go to this quest marker if you haven’t yet unlocked the ship. Even if you have, you gain fuel from the marker, so you should head there if it isn’t out of your way. You might get unlucky when you take the blue option and only get fuel, but that is still better than both normal options which lead to either no rewards or a battle.
