FTL : W-0 L-50

[latiasracer]

That's it, 50 fails, not one victory. This game is nuts, but it's somewhat addictive...

Now for some discussion value, How many tries did it take you? Have you even won?

And futher more, any tactics you'd care to share?

I Currently have Type A and B for the Zoltan and Engi crusiers, along with the starting ship. The starting ship being the only one that ever makes it to sector 8!

 

[Nomadiac]

I had 35 tries on Normal before I won. All of my best runs were with the Engi Cruiser Type A, and involved getting a good boarding party of Mantis/Rockmen up. If you're lucky enough to get a Crystal, their ability to lockdown rooms is a godsend.

For the flagship you'll need fully upgraded shields and evasion at about 40-45% (I had 48%), preferably with Level 2 Pilot and Engine guy.

Cloaking is really nice to use against the missile salvos the flagship fires. It also lets you charge your weapons while cloaked.

You'll need either supremely good weaponry or a boarding party for the flagship to disable the weapons. I got by with a boarding party to take out weapons, Ion weapons (an Ion bomb, I think) to disable shields and a Fire Beam to spread havoc around the various systems. Only use your boarding party for the isolated weapons systems, though, because the flagship has fully upgraded blast doors and if they get trapped they're dead. It happened to me on my winning run with the first stage, so I had to use my shields and engines guys to take out the weapons systems on the other stages.

Defense drones are great against missiles, which are the only things that should worry you much with 4 layers of shields.

And as you can probably tell, I like to use boarrding parties to kill enemy ships - you get so many more rewards (including scrap and missilles) from just killing the crew and leaving the ship intact than by blowing it up. For example, occasionally you'll get a prisoner who will join your crew. You'll also need a teleporter to unlock the Mantis Cruiser.

 

[General Twinkletoes]

The way I won:

-Use the starter ship type B.
-Try and get your shields and evasion up as high as possible.
-Get a few mantis/rockmen
-board the boss, try and kill everyone except one of the people who are seperated in the weapons. If you kill everyone, the ship will turn robotic and everything will repair itself without people needing to do it.
-Win. It has no systems working except 1 weapon (leave O2 on so he doesn't die.) The fight's fairly easy that way.

 

[latiasracer]

The way I won:

-Use the starter ship type B.
-Try and get your shields and evasion up as high as possible.
-Get a few mantis/rockmen
-board the boss, try and kill everyone except one of the people who are seperated in the weapons. If you kill everyone, the ship will turn robotic and everything will repair itself without people needing to do it.
-Win. It has no systems working except 1 weapon (leave O2 on so he doesn't die.) The fight's fairly easy that way.

Yeah, it's by far the most difficult and pain the ass to unlock though, relies to heavy on the luck side of the game...

I did have cloak fully upgraded in my last attempt, i guess i'll go with the teleporter next time.

 

[Chromatic Aberration]

Addictive doesn't even describe it: 72 hours later, 180 games and just 9 wins. However, I usually restart a lot of times in the first sector if I don't get some necessary items depending on the ship. For instance winning with the Mantis and Engi Cruiser type B is a nigh impossiblity if you don't get some more crewmembers/weapons ASAP.

In terms of tips we had a very exhaustive thread about that a while ago [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/9.397592.16229507]. Skim through; There are a lot of good tips in there. My personal favourites would probably be: fire your weapons in barrages and love the teleporter. The first will allow you to get through otherwise impenetrable shields and the second yields much higher loot through boarding than if you'd simply destroy the ship in question. Keep in mind, though that you have to somehow disable the medical bay of your enemy to make that work without too much of a hassle. The teleporter is also a blessing against the bloody flagship. Also if you ever encounter a rambling madman - NEVER bring him aboard.

 

[tme]

I've won alot of ways. Usually, getting a high enough evasion seems to be necessary. Other than that, once I kept 2 bombs in my bay, fighting with mostly lasers up until the end boss, then switching to bombs. With enough ammo, they can lock down the final boss soooo fast. Stop the drone system, stop the multi missile weapon, and as long as a person lives on the enemy ship, it's not getting repaired.

With the ship having the barrage laser system, I won with just that system. As it is not intercepted by shields (other than overshields), I concentrated on ship defense and repair drones, defending my ship, evading what I can, repair what I couldn't, drop a hull repair drone when necessary and came out a winner also.

I found that upgrading doors helps alot. If you don't, and you're not entered often (or never, which can happen when you select the right route), you get caught with your shorts around your ankles when they rummage through your ship and destroy key systems.