Eureka - no chain bonuses ever anymore. Can someone explain?

Ok, I'm new to Eureka. I've only been in there twice and the first time I went in and just played around a little bit. I saw the chain bonus but didn't realize I needed to get it into the 20's or 30's to get that first protean crystal and I got to level four. So today I head back in and kill a few mobs and there's no chain bonus anymore. I tried lv. 1 -4 mobs and it never shows up. I was then told I need to join a chain group so I did that and still no bonus. AFter a gazillion more kills still no protean crystal. I have plenty of the other crystals and lockboxes but I can't do a thing with them because without that first crystal it's like i haven't technically started Eureka. This is so frustrating. Can someone please explain what I'm doing wrong? What do I need to do to get a chain bonus going in here?

I've noticed several things that take away from chain bonuses:
1) Having someone in the party more than ~4 levels higher than you
2) Having enough other players not in your group attacking the mobs you're on so that individual input counts too minimally
3) Fighting mobs below your level, as you only get chains on your level or above

What level are you and what mobs are you killing? You won't get chains from under-leveled enemies.

The way eureka works is that you get exp if you are within 1-2 levels of the mob. In a party, if you have anyone more than a few levels under or over you, exp dies.

The way to combat this is to A - stay around players your level with mobs 1 or 2 levels higher and chain. You get exp bonus per chains. 10x, 20x and so forth.

B - If you have party members that are much higher than you, you can farm NMs with them. You won't get any exp from the individual mobs but you will get big jumps when the NMs spawn and die.

Use the eureka potions to sustain your soloing against mobs your level or one higher until you finally get that first protean crystal. Chains help the odds greatly, but are not absolutely required. Then Krile will finally talk to you (not that anyone should want to have anything to do with the annoying potato). Once she gives you the first quest and you get your wheel going, you can just join the NM trains, which will be only good for experience until around level 12, when crystals/chests will drop on a regular basis.