How far have you gotten in FTL

[Geo Da Sponge]

You guys who have done really well, can I ask what upgrades you prioritized? I tend to aim for a second shield as quickly as possible, then more power, then I start thinking about getting a teleporter or cloak. I suspect a lot of my failure is due to neglecting engine upgrades, but beyond that I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.

Well shields is basically your big priority unless you find new weapons to upgrade your capacity for. However, it's worth getting the first upgrades for both doors and sensors since they're dirt cheap and don't require any extra power (as well as effectively reinforcing those systems). The sensor upgrade is especially useful as it lets you make opportunistic attacks whenever there's a fire/breach/weakened crew member on an enemy ship. Upgrading engines about half way is pretty useful, as it makes you both better at escaping and evading individual attacks. It's also relatively cheap compared to upgrading shields.

So in terms of priorities... Yes, shield upgrades (and weapon upgrades if you need them) should be your main priority but it's worth putting aside some scrap for some of the less obvious upgrades (seriously, the sensor upgrade is worth it for the amusement factor alone). Generally a cloaking system is far too expensive to be worth it since you have to upgrade it for it to be much use, meaning you can buy an entire level of shielding for the cost of it. Teleporters are good, so long as you have Rock or Mantis crewmen to back it up. However boarding is pretty risky as you may have noticed. Also works best if you have a missile/bomb launcher of some kind to take out their medbay with minimal effort.

Oh, and I generally keep my reactor level at least equal to maximum power required by the ship minus one. That's probably wasteful, but since you can turn off your medbay at the beginning of a fight with no consequences it lets me fully power everything from the start.

EDIT: I realise that having only reached the second stage of the final boss on normal I may not qualify as having done really well, but that's my two pence worth of advice.

 

[Terminal Blue]

EDIT: I realise that having only reached the second stage of the final boss on normal I may not qualify as having done really well, but that's my two pence worth of advice.

Still much better than me, which is what I meant by "really well".

And yeah, the cloak is very expensive. I've been using it to jink missiles, but it's probably not worth it.

And yeah, I tend to upgrade doors at least pretty early on. Like you said, it's very cheap and useful for damage/boarding control. Heck, I've repelled more than one boarding action through suffocating the invaders without having to fight.

 

[SilverStrike]

I'm amused that everyone else is having as much trouble as I have been.
Mind you, beaten the Flagship 3 times now. Got the Rock ship as well, and all four of my ships B types unlocked. Love the Shivan reference.

I really want the stealth ship and the mantis ship for boarding.

My first kill with Flagship was surprisingly with the Engi ship, Torus.

Pro tip, middle right gun. DISABLE THAT FUCKER. That fires three missiles. Makes life easier if you take that out. Boarding parties for the win, because nobody can repair it.

Also, I won once with two halberd lasers. Disable shields. 8 damage per shot per laser. 16 hull damage ************.

Also, CLOAK. GET IT. Time it with when missiles/dronesomg/superduperbeam happens. Increases dodge chance, major bonus. Stealth weapons are a big help too if you can but they're rare.

 

[Terminal Blue]

Well, I just got to sector 8 with the red tail.. and got stalemated by the flagship.

I sent boarding parties to wipe out the isolated turrets, and found I could kill the crew slowly by dropping bombs in the medical bay and then teleporting into it while they tried to repair.. that is, until they decided to cloak just as I was attempting an extraction. Lesson learned, I guess.

Anyway, I ran out of bombs.. most of my good marines were dead, and I decided to break off rather than sending my entire crew in waves (which might actually have worked). Made one jump and died to a 4 shield AI missile cruiser.

Next time, bring enough missiles..

I really want the stealth ship and the mantis ship for boarding.

I almost got the mantis ship, but I think I was missing an upgrade required to complete the quest. I'm guessing my medical bay wasn't good enough.

It's a pity. The B layout in particular looks like it could easily be my favourite ship design.

 

[IMAGinES]

Close to the end of Sector 2 on normal. Low on hull and tried to get to a Store only to find the Rebel Fleet all over it like a rash. After that the exit system was locked off.

I kept hearing the Miracle of Sound track, "You Died" as I read this thread...

 

[lacktheknack]

Sixth sector with Engi ship.

No achievements.

I LOVE THIS GAME SO MUCH. WHY DOES IT NOT LOVE ME BAAAAAAAAACK?

 

[Loop Stricken]

Oh hey, I found a

Spoiler

alien!

Wanted me to take him to the Rock homeworlds.
Those were the systems I just came from.

Sigh.

 

[StashAugustine]

I was just about to fight the flagship for the first time when it circled around me and took out the base. I think I mighta been able to take at least a little of it, too.

 

[Hawkeye21]

I actually beat the game, but this was on easy mode... I was just BARELY able to beat the flagship the third time, by leaving two crewmembers (guns and piloting) behind and teleporting the rest to wreck havoc on the enemy's shield. Fortunately I've had upgraded doors to third level, so enemies had hard time getting through my ship, and my counterattack succeded just in time. Out of 5 people in my crew, 3 survived.

 

[Gennadios]

I've gotten to zone 8 and made the mistake of trying to help a civilian ship on the way to the Flagship. Got boarded, set on fire, and had all but my weapons guy dead by the time my warp drive recharged and I got the hell out of there.

The fight didn't go too well, i gave it everything but only got as far as about half health. I've realized how much beam weapons suck now and I'm working through on my Engie unlock now, Ion cannons and drones seem to be far superior in terms of keeping an enemies systems down.

 

[ShadowKatt]

Well, I made it to the flagship.

Once.

Even on easy this game is WAY hard. I keep questioning myself as to why I keep playing it.

 

[Bertylicious]

I've beat it with the kestrel, the osprey and the torus but the Zoltron cruiser is doing my fruit. Beam lasers are all very well but they're only good once you've got Ion/burst lasers to drop shields and you end up getting rinsed early game by the enemey shooting missiles at you before your cumbersome halberd beam can deck them.

Anyone looking for help; ion cannon FTW.

 

[juyunseen]

I beat it today on easy! Score:3239, with an Engi Type-A cruiser. My final weapon loadout was two Ion Cannons, a burst laser, and three attack drones.

Something I haven't seen anywhere else is a tactic I like: Leave the doors open for all non-essential rooms, so that fires don't start, and invaders are forced down certain pathways.

I'd considered leaving most of the ship open, but I always get to a point where I get flustered and my crew members suffocate. I guess I should try it again.

 

[Mirroga]

I finished the game with the default ship on the easy difficulty. It took me about 3 layers of shield, max engine dodge, full weapon power, lvl 3 cloaking device, and my weapons are 2 Burst Laser IIs and 1 Burst Laser III. Everything in that run was a full-on gattling assault to focus-disable anything I don't want working while I put my faith on dodge and manually dodging using cloaking device. It's not worth it to max out shields especially if you cannot incapacitate your enemy's weapons or if they have Ion weaponry.

I'm enjoying unlocking the other ships and modes right now considering I love the different tactics and game styles of every ship.

 

[TheRussian]

Final boss. Died horribly. It was expected though, I had survived up till then by sheer luck, and hadn't sufficiently upgraded my ship to take on the boss.

 

[AngleWyrm]

The thing I like most about this game is how it plays outside the life of one playthrough. The thing I like least is how little impact the player has on the outcome. For instance, you might learn that the antmen cruiser is only available from antmen homeworld sectors. But you don't actually have the opportunity to plan to go to an antmen homeworld sector. Instead you can only restart a bunch and play through a game with a lot of red sectors, hoping to find one. Somewhat missing the boat on what it means to 'play' a game.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

It took some doing, but I finally got the game to work on my PC, but the resolution/graphics quality is borked. It's still playable. I tend to get to the final stand and fight to boss ship about 80% of my runs, though I play on easy(Not a true label).

I've only been able to destroy the first section of the boss. I can't stand that it is scripted destruction points. Because after I found out about the drone section in the second stage of that battle, on my next run I tried to destroy the drone side of the ship first. That of course doesn't work.

I've been switching off between sci-fi show themed crews and ships. The one that lasted the longest was the USS Defiant, with Captain Sisko, Worf, and Miles O'Brien. The ending statistics on that one gave me a good laugh because they fit perfectly, because Worf was listed as having the most combat kills, and Miles O'Brien had the record for most systems repaired.

I wish that I could get more people in the beginning, because I want to start out with a full cast crew complement.

My Kestrel died a slow and gruesome death in the first battle of the final level. Upgrading your shields to 3 keeps your alive alright. I survived quite a few planets with nothing but a Captain and a repair bot. But damn it felt like a miserable and slow death.

I think it is all a matter of luck to beating the game. My one ship I talked about above, I arrived at the final stand with the full four layers of shields, my engines, engine operator and pilot were at a level that allowed me to have a 52% evade ability, my weapons and shield operators were also at top levels, and I had four extra crew to keep up with repairs.

With all that, I still couldn't get passed the second stage of the boss fight. That boss just had too much firepower, accuracy, and insane evading skill that I just couldn't put a big enough dent in it quick enough.

 

[The Madman]

Picked this up when it came out and just last night managed to beat the final boss for the first time. Not gonna lie, it was the first time in ages a game had me standing up shouting 'YES'. So damned satisfying!

Such a good game by the way, probably my favourite roguelike in ages.

The ship you get from beating the game on normal is also a lot of fun, though how well you do with it seems to vary wildly depending on whether you can get more guns for it or not. That beam however is devastating and definitely worth sinking some scrap and power into levelling up. Would definitely have beaten the final boss with that ship when I was playing earlier had not my shield guy died a horrible death leaving me exposed and vulnerable.

If only he hadn't died I'd have won. Amazing how one crew can make all the difference sometimes!

 

[Mirroga]

I was so close to beating the third phase of the Rebel Flagship, still on easy, with the Man of War. Too bad in between 2nd and 3rd fight, I wasn't able to heal up anywhere because the **** rebels have occupied 2 previously open repair beacons and a store.

 

[ShadowKatt]

I think it is all a matter of luck to beating the game.

It's all luck based. I've been playing the game for four days now(not continuous, mind you, but every day). I have not beat the final boss yet. I've tried just about every weapon in the game, I've gone in with ships with max shields, weapons, and cloak. I've used drones, I've used fire, I've used Ion weapons and beams. I've used everything short of boarding parties on the final boss, because even with a full crew I'd be outnumbered 2-1.

I've heard of people beating it, but I'm convinced at this point that they're just lucky. It doesn't really matter your loadout; if it's marginally workable then you have a marginal chance of beating the final boss. However, I've been hit by the final boss by everything, even while cloaked, so I'm not sure the game even plays by its own rules. So actually defeating the mothership is purely chance, all the skill in the world will not help you if you don't have luck on your side.

Edit: Not to mention that every game is random. All the people in this thread talking about the builds they used? While it is good advice, they did little to nothing except stumble across some good gear that worked well. I've had games where I've gone end to end with the starter weapons because every single store I crossed carried everything BUT weapons and I picked up nothing from random events. Knowing what weapons combos work is good, but if you don't get anything, you can never win the game.