Now the hardest boss in the game is in fact the crystal entity it is not even an easy kill for admirals. This is largely due to the fact that most people do not understand how to beat him.

Here is what you need to know about the fight.
* The more damage you do to the entity the more fragments are created.
* If a fragment hits you or any other player it will heal the entity.
* Ramming the entity is no longer a viable tactic.
* I've noticed fragments are attracted to mines.

IMO from what I've seen the best strategy for killing the entity would be to alternate between the entity and fragments or prioritize certain people on the entity and others on the fragments. If you allow the fragments to add up the entity can go from 30% life to nearly full life just by killing all the players that allowed the fragments to add up.

The tactic I used is to skirt the 10 km radius with my ship - move towards the entity and fire photons, then move away and fire rear photons - rinse and repeat at approximately 10km (max range).

When a fragment got in my face I would kill it but other than that...

Surely, Escorts patrol the entity and kill fragments fast, Cruisers and science ships stay back and pummel from distance. might take longer but with all dps on fragments it will prevent the entity healing up.

Job's a Goodun!

I believe some crystals heal 1% and others 3%. The strategy is easy. I have used this strategy with a normal cruiser, but couldnt dps it down below 98% by myself. Could barely tank the dps from the crystal but that was my first cruiser. All you have to do is kite the fragments. You manually orbit the crystal at between 6-9km, loaded up with 250 degree arc beams with your power diverted to engines and shields (if needed...the fragments wont touch you if you stay moving faster than they are in a wide orbit). If your tank is good enough to survive the entity shooting you ( it should, it's just one energy beam) you can divert power to only engines and weapons to dps him faster. If you have a few people orbiting him, with the crystals following, his one laser wont kill you. you must keep an eye on the fragments though, as soon as they get within around 600-700 meters they will explode.

The point of the fight is to not kill the fragments ( because they heal thousands of hitpoints each), dps the entity, and avoid collision with the fragments. The natural answer is a speed tank for the fragments, and enough of a shield tank for the entity.