Lightyear Frontier is a crafting game, which means you slowly unlock new things to cobble together with tape and twine over time. Once you get far enough into Lightyear Frontier, you’re tasked with finding a new material called Red Crystal.
Red Crystal is found in the Pine Heights area of Lightyear Frontier. It won’t spawn right away, however. You’ll need to visit Pine Heights to unlock a mission to clean the place up. Once you do, the crystals will start appearing in number. But there are a lot of steps to get to that point.
Lightyear Frontier: How to find and harvest Red Crystal
Red Crystal only appears in Pine Heights once you finish the mission ‘Restore Pine Heights’ in Lightyear Frontier. To beat the quest, you’ll need to find and equip the Irrigation Hose and Vacuum Harvester as part of the game’s introduction mission, ‘Find Your Tools’.
In fact, the game sets you up with the Pine Heights mission naturally by hiding the Irrigation Hose on the outskirts of Pine Heights. The quest is dumped into your lap as you seek out the tool.
You need to restore Pine Heights to its former glory. Use the Vacuum Harvester to suck in water from nearby sources like ponds to fill your mech’s water tank. Switch to the Irrigation Hose and clean up all the Noxious Slime around the area. After you complete the mission, go to sleep and Pine Heights will have new harvesting materials — Red Crystal included. Unfortunately, you can’t harvest Red Crystal until you upgrade your Spike Saw.
How to upgrade your Spike Saw in Lightyear Frontier
To upgrade your Spike Saw, you need to build the Upgrade Depot used to upgrade your mech. Harvesting Stone and Aluminum and you will eventually get the Upgrade Depot recipe.
For the Depot, you need:
- 24 Stone
- 4 Aluminum Rod
- 4 Aluminum Frame
The Aluminum Frames can be built using the Assembler, which you can craft after getting the recipe by gathering Aluminum.
Once you have the Depot made, use it to upgrade the mech with ‘Spike Saw Power I’. You will need Polyberry Oil, made from growing Polyberry and turning it to oil using an Oil Presser, and Aluminum combined in the Assembler to make 5 Aluminum Parts.
Whew. Lightyear Frontier sure is a crafting game.
With the upgraded Spike Saw, you can now go back to Pine Heights and harvest Red Crystal.
Check the map below for the areas in which Red Crystal spawns:
What is Red Crystal used for in Lightyear Frontier?
Red Crystal is a necessary material for two recipes in Lightyear Frontier. If you’re looking up how to get it, then I’m sure it’s for the first item: The ‘Merchant Landing’. The other recipe is for Red Crystal Dust.
How to make Red Crystal Dust in Lightyear Frontier
To make Red Crystal Dust, you need to first unlock the Grinder construct blueprint. You gain access to it after you complete the mission ‘Restore Edge Cliffs’ and gather up Copper Ore for the first time. For more, check out our guide on unlocking the Grinder.
Using the Grinder, you can turn Red Crystal into Red Crystal Dust.
The item is used for a handful of recipes and blueprints, such as:
- Red Glass
- Color Mixer
- Weather Station
All the recipes are important to learn as you progress through Lightyear Frontier. However, making Red Glass will lead you to making a Red Lens, which can be used later to upgrade your mech.
