Tips for Faster Than Light?

[jake557]

-Long ranged sensors is quite possibly the best augmentation in the game. At just 30 scrap this should be an instant purchase if you see in a store. Being able to avoid solar flares/asteroids/ion storms will save you from cheap deaths, and being able to see where enemy ships are means you never have to waste fuel jumping to an empty beacon. Even if you get it late in the game it will almost always pay for itself.

-Gather as versatile a crew as you can. Different races open up different blue options and events, aim to have at least one of each. If your playstyle involves a lot of boarding you'll obviously want to stack up on rockmen or mantis, but if not then zoltan are the way to go. The extra energy is invaluable late in the game and gives you some extra protection against ion weapons.

-Don't spend your scrap until you have enough to actually reap the rewards. Buying just 1 bar of shields, or energy toward a weapon you can't use yet doesn't help you at all. Better to save that money and buy it all in one go, that way if you encounter something awesome in a shop before then you still have the scrap on hand to buy it.

-Upgrade engines! Getting your dodge rate up to at least 30% is relatively cheap and works wonders for your survivability. It's especially important if you're playing without defense drones, stealth, or the zoltan shield and have no way to block missiles.

 

[Tohuvabohu]

I'd like to throw in some advice I haven't seen anyone mention yet.

Learn to love fire and breach weapons.

They may not suit your style. But I suggest you try getting the hang of them as they're not only sadistically fun to use, but can aid immensely in taking out enemy ships.

The great thing about fire weapons is the effect they have on an enemy crew. Damaging them is just the start, but when you start some fires on their ship - it causes their whole crew to panic and peel away from their stations to stop the fires. This alone greatly reduces the effectiveness of an enemy ship, and if you cause the pilot to panic, it drops their evasion to 0.

Then add to the chaos by disabling systems (Or letting the fires do it) like Oxygen and medical. The fires start spreading faster than the crew can put them out, and they won't be able to breathe nor heal themselves.

Once that happens, you're free to end the fight however you wish. Easily blow the ship to pieces, or sit there and enjoy a beer while the enemy crew burns/suffocates to death. Fire beams especially can be doomsday weapons against pretty much any non-rock ship. A single beam can start a fire across the whole ship, and the downward spiral begins immediately after.

Breach weapons can fit a similar role but function differently. They have the bonus of damaging ship/systems while causing hull breaches in the process. Simultaneously breach their ship while taking out a system, and it doubles their repair time and damages crew in the process. Again, doing things like breaching their Oxygen room and Medibay causes chaos for the crew. And if they have no engi crew (especially if they have mostly mantis crew) chances are the depressurization will kill them before they finish closing the breach.

 

[Daverson]

Multiple Burst Lasers. If you've got 2, you can basically penetrate any shield (except the fancy Zoltan ones), if you've got 4? ...Yeah... >=)

Also, I'm certain the name of your ship is most the important thing ever. I've scientifically tested this, the first ship I won the game with was called "HMS Victory", so I decided to make a ship called "HMS Friday" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Friday]. It didn't make it out of the first sector.

 

[Zenn3k]

Yes, I know, I'm drastically late to this particular party, as per usual. I finally snagged this sucker during the Steam sale after hearing you people bang on about it. Turns out, it's actually nearly as good as folks have been saying. I'm not totally taken with it (the encounters that give random negative consequences without any indication of actual odds can all go fuck a pineapple thank you very much) but it's fun and addictive and at $3.00 was quite the bargain.

Thing is, apparently I suck at it. After 25 rounds I haven't won once and only reached the final fight twice (both times with the Engie cruiser). I probably could have taken it the second time, but I didn't realise that the big bad ship didn't actually have to get all the way to the endpoint in order to game over my sorry arse.

Sooo... now I'm done with that somewhat verbose intro, does anyone have any tips to offer?

By way of exchange, I offer a tip of my own:
For the love of all that is good and holy, buy blast doors as soon as possible. They stop fire from spreading and enemy boarders have to break through them to pass, which takes a while. It almost turns fire into a non-issue since you can just seal off the burning room and then open the airlock(s) and vent the room. However, the real beauty of blast doors is that they make dealing with boarders so much easier. Just vent whatever room they're in and watch them suffocate. Even if they manage to get through the blast doors in time they'll be severely damaged. I've fought off 4 Mantis boarders with just a few Engie crewmen using this tactic.

Really its a game thats 80% about luck. It took me 3 months to finally beat it, because the luck finally got in my favor, since then I haven't really played it much.

-Blast doors are certainly a good one, since you can kill intruders easily with lack of O2.
-Get the augment that increases the scrap you get ASAP, if you haven't gotten it by the 3rd sector...restart, its really THAT important.
-Don't be afraid to RUN AWAY in the later sectors, sometimes you are just simply out matched and running is a better option than trying to win the fight and taking tons of hull damage.
-Ion bombs are amazing and basically required for the final boss.
-Pause, PAUSE, PPPPAAAAUUUUSSSEEEEEE. Use that a lot. I like to have cloaking on my ships, so the moment they fire a missile at me, I pause...then quickly pause and unpause until the missile is close, then cloak to get as much cloak time as possible.
-Get the 2nd version of the 1st ship and use that, the non-human crew makes it a superior ship, plus I think it has a better layout as well, fairly easy to get.

 

[blazearmoru]

The first time I won, I had 4 burst lazers. I think I must of gotten like 10 shots a round or more. On top of that I had cloaking so whenever the ship tried to do mass missles, or mass lazers I would just cloak and avoid everything. :| I got really lucky it would seem.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Sooo... now I'm done with that somewhat verbose intro, does anyone have any tips to offer?

Tons of good advice in this thread, I'm not even going to bother quoting/compiling, so I'll risk repeating what others have said when offering my own...much of which you seem to have figured out already.

1. Explore as much as possible before leaving a sector. It only gets harder as you move along, so you want to maximize your time in-zone. In the first zone or two it can sometimes even be worth it to risk a rebel encounter if you think you can survive/escape with minimal damage.

2. Boarding parties are completely OP and make your game much, much easier. A pair of Mantises can make the game almost trivial if you can get them early, keep them alive, and level them up. Killing crew and taking intact ships gives you a lot more loot, which snowballs into better weapons/systems, easier wins, better loot, etc.

3. Long range sensors is one of the best upgrades you can get. Get this early if possible, and don't get rid of it until close to the end.

4. Engi make great "extra" crew members as a roaming repair squad. Try not to put them on systems.

5. Target weapons first. Always. I've done entire games doing nothing but targeting weapons. Winning and taking damage is a Pyrrhic victory, you will eventually succumb to your wounds if you play an attrition game. Crippled weapons allow you to take your time toying with a ship. Naturally this requires bypassing their shields, but it's not difficult to maintain weapons sufficient to punch through shields. Take down their weapons, send in the Mantises, count your money.

6. Don't autofire. Stagger your attacks so they all hit in close conjunction to punch through shields. The AI won't do this, and that's a serious advantage for you. ESPECIALLY if you're using a beam, timing your attacks is essential.

7. A good mix of species will give you lots of blue text responses in special events.

8. Don't overdo it on shields. At best you need level 3. Level 4 is overkill and will divert too much power from other crucial systems, like drones for missile defense, or potent weapons.

Spoiler: Killing the Boss

There's obviously lots of ways you can go about doing this, but the way I generally do it is like so:

1. Phase one, you want to send your boarding party into the weapon capsules. Kill all the guys in the missile (1st), Ion (2nd) and Beam (3rd) rooms. Leave the blaster room. Blasters can miss if your pilot is good (he should be good). You can then set about trying to kill off the crew in the main body of the ship at your leisure. It might take a long time, but kill as many as you can.

2. Phase two. Take down that drone control! Throw everything you have at it. Boarders, bombs, shots. Get it down ASAP.

3. Phase three. If you've made it to phase 3, you've likely already as good as won. Their weapons are crippled, you just need to pile on damage and outrace their little super gun, which isn't too hard if you didn't take a ton of damage during phases 1 and 2, and you likely didn't. If you can bring the shields down (bombs work wonders here) reliably, you can absolutely go to town with beam weapons, as the capital ship has tons of small rooms to rake across for huge damage.

 

[Ryotknife]

You reached the final ship with the Engi cruiser?

You're a better man than I, Gunga Din.

really? my first win was with the engi ship.

Shipwide healing is really useful. I thought the engi ship was how you are suppose to beat the game the first time without the other ships as it is the easiest one to get (stupid kestrel ship sucks)

to be fair though.....i had 2x pegasus missiles and burst laser mk2 alongside defense drone and hull repair drone.

 

[Storm Dragon]

Stick your head between your knees and kiss your ass goodbye.

In all seriousness, though, make sure your shields are fully upgraded before the final fight and have at least a 45% dodge chance. The primary weakness of the Rebel Flagship is the isolated weapons systems, teleport a couple Mantis into each one so that they can kill the single crewmember and destroy the system. Since none of the Flagship's crew can access the rooms, once a weapon system is down it stays down. Prioritize missiles since they pierce all shields, then the ion cannon since it can disable shields, and then the laser cannon and beam weapon (Really, in any fight, you should always try to disable their weapons first if possible). Whatever you do, always leave at least one guy on the flagship alive; because once all their crew is dead, an AI takes over the ship that can repair all systems simultaneously.

 

[Neonsilver]

By way of exchange, I offer a tip of my own:
For the love of all that is good and holy, buy blast doors as soon as possible. They stop fire from spreading and enemy boarders have to break through them to pass, which takes a while. It almost turns fire into a non-issue since you can just seal off the burning room and then open the airlock(s) and vent the room. However, the real beauty of blast doors is that they make dealing with boarders so much easier. Just vent whatever room they're in and watch them suffocate. Even if they manage to get through the blast doors in time they'll be severely damaged. I've fought off 4 Mantis boarders with just a few Engie crewmen using this tactic.

Even without blast doors you can already stop fires by venting the rooms. While the standard doors wont stop intruders from leaving a vented room, you can force the intruders into the medbay were they have almost no chance at killing one of your crew if you fight them there.

My tip, get the cloaking system and use it when your enemy fires at you. If you time it right they will certainly miss and have to not only wait for you cloak to wear of but also for their weapon to reload.
It's very good in the final battle, since that ship has some nasty attacks.

The teleporter is very practical, use mantis and/or rock people as boarding party and try to take out the crew, if the enemy doesnt have a medbay or if you can take out the medbay it's very easy to win a battle (if the enemy ship doesn't get destroyed, i think you will also get more resources). If members of your boarding party get low on health and your teleporter isn't ready to get them back, let them run around. If the enemys are following them, they can't attack. Again very good for the final battle since the main weapons of that ship are cut off from the rest of the ship an can't be repaired if you take out the crew in that rooms.
But be careful if you shoot at a ship since you lose your boarding party if the ship gets destroyed. And getting at least one sensor upgrade or a slug crew member is also helpful since that will allow you to see where the enemy crew is located.

Plan ahead, if you want to use missile based weapons or drones make sure you don't waste them and that you have enough saved up for the final battle.

 

[Loop Stricken]

Personally, I find drones to be overpowered. Just remember that defence drones past Mk.1 are technically worse, as they'll often shoot down a harmless laser and let the bastard missiles through.

 

[bastardofmelbourne]

One of the great things about FTL is that there are multiple different winning strategies and playstyles depending on your personal preferences.

Personally, I unlocked the Kestrel variant as soon as possible, and built around firing as many consecutive lasers blasts as possible, with strategically placed missiles to disable shields. Once I realised that five lasers shots right after one another will go through any shield in the game, I stacked burst lasers like crazy. The Kestrel variant starts with four single-shot lasers, which sounds puny but in reality is enough to take down up to grade 3 shields, and has you set until late-game, where you can usually find a grade 2 or 3 burst laser.

On top of that, I woud upgrade my shields, engines (because I wouldn't need to upgrade my weapons until later in the game) and blast doors, basically making the ship as tanky as possible - the downside to the laser build is that even though it goes through shields like crazy, it doesn't deal as much damage as a missile or beam weapon build, so you need to endure a lot of enemy fire as you whittle them down with timed laser barrages.

If you can find it, the Weapon Pre-Igniter is ridiculously powerful with this build - it lets you let off a full barrage at the start of the fight before your enemy has charged their weapons, which can potentially disable their shields or weapon systems before the fight has even gotten off the ground. It's a must-buy if it turns up in your game.

 

[Chromatic Aberration]

Personally won only two times in 33 hours of playtime in that bloody game on normal. And it was a painful flight all the fucking way - it is by far one of the worst offenders in the category "if the game doesn't want you to win - you won't" I have encountered in quite a while. One wrong encounter and you are stardust while usually having lost around hour of your lifetime. So, don't freak out if you lose - it's the most common state this game leaves you with.

As for tips, pretty much everything that I would have said, has already been mentioned around here: Fire your weapons in barrages, buy shields, defense drone 1 is awesome (and I heavily recommend to have two when trying to take on the final boss), a teleporter and boarding parties rock, always try to board if you can since it yields considerably more loot, protect your crew and level them, alien spiders are a no-no, know when to run, don't underestimate your engine capabilities and the enhanced dodge chance it brings, always fight down slavers, shot down their weapons and balance your need with what the game offers you, it's rarely as kind to give you any choice, so if it does, consider it carefully....

There's only one tip I could think of that hasn't explicitly been stated yet is a fairly obvious necessity: if a weapon is a better model or more expensive doesn't automatically mean it is really better. Burst Laser Mk2 for instance uses up only two power for three laser shots, Mk3 however uses four power for five shots along with a higher recharge time. Meaning, you get a higher fire frequency (if you fire in barrages anyway like you always should), less power usage and save more money if you just take the cheaper model that comes with only two lasers less. Pretty obvious point, yet one that needs to be mentioned I think.

 

[Pink Gregory]

You reached the final ship with the Engi cruiser?

You're a better man than I, Gunga Din.

really? my first win was with the engi ship.

Shipwide healing is really useful. I thought the engi ship was how you are suppose to beat the game the first time without the other ships as it is the easiest one to get (stupid kestrel ship sucks)

to be fair though.....i had 2x pegasus missiles and burst laser mk2 alongside defense drone and hull repair drone.

*shrug*

All my good runs have been with the Kestrel cruiser; I've barely got to sector 5 with the Engi Cruiser, usually because I get boarded when I've got a mostly Engi crew...

 

[Ryotknife]

You reached the final ship with the Engi cruiser?

You're a better man than I, Gunga Din.

really? my first win was with the engi ship.

Shipwide healing is really useful. I thought the engi ship was how you are suppose to beat the game the first time without the other ships as it is the easiest one to get (stupid kestrel ship sucks)

to be fair though.....i had 2x pegasus missiles and burst laser mk2 alongside defense drone and hull repair drone.

*shrug*

All my good runs have been with the Kestrel cruiser; I've barely got to sector 5 with the Engi Cruiser, usually because I get boarded when I've got a mostly Engi crew...

oh...yea boarding parties can be a problem especially in the begining.

 

[Pink Gregory]

One small snip for man...

oh...yea boarding parties can be a problem especially in the begining.[/quote]

Poor little guys
Those boarding drones are just too much for them...

 

[Teoes]

Just a few things to add to what's already been said:

Don't overestimate the importance of Life Support
A stray shot to my O2 systems, or an unlucky encounter in an ion storm used to have me panicking and keeping life support up at all costs. Don't do this, necessarily. Unless the whole fight is BOHICA you've probably got enough time to do without life support, win the fight, then repair it/divert power back to it from weapons or shields. This may be obvious too but know the signs: rooms go pink when running out of air, but are only harmful to health when the room gets a yellow border. Look out for this so you know when to evacuate a room or when it is safe to get back in there.

Blast doors and boarding defence - perhaps a little more detail
This may again be obvious but hasn't been explicitly stated yet in this thread and didn't fully occur to me for a while. Get lvl 2 or 3 doors. When boarded, pause the game and open all doors on the ship, including airlocks. Re-close the doors to any rooms your crew are occupying and switch off life support. The vented rooms will become vacuums almost immediately but your crew will remain safe long enough. Once the air's gone (rooms have yellow outline as noted above), re-close all doors. Now the boarders aren't just running through your ship looking for a safe room to breathe in - they have to fight through each and every door just to get from room to room. It only takes a couple before they're dead. Don't forget to turn the oxygen back on afterwards!

Finally, possibly the most useful of the tips I've picked up. Credit for this goes to various people, including Zzandrio on youtube (video linked below) and a post on the FTL forums by Darthcaboose (text almost plagiarised):

Crew positioning and the "crew shuffle"
When moving crew into rooms, the game fills the room prioritising top-to-bottom and left-to-right (i.e. that order for a 2-square room and 1) top-left; 2) top-right; 3) bottom-left; 4) bottom-right for a 2x2 room). So the game fills the top row first and if a fight occurs here, obviously you want your strongest crew occupying those squares. But what happens if that's not the order your crew takes when you send them in (say your poor tag-along Zoltan takes the top-left spot), or if one crew member has taken a beating and you need to swap him for someone in better shape? You do the crew shuffle.

Say you've got 4 crew members in a room: A (top-left), B (top-right), C (bottom-left) and D (bottom-right). You're dealing with 2 Mantis boarders (occupying the top row); A has taken a pounding but you don't want to send him to the Med-bay for fear of what the now unoccupied Mantis will do to other crewmembers. Ideally you want him to swap A with C, who is at full health.

Pause the game. Select A, then send him out of the room. Select C, send him out of the room but then immediately send him back in. Select A again, and send him back into the room. Unpause the game. When play resumes, A and C will simply swap places. C takes the brunt of the damage, A continues without further harm but without also abandoning the fight. Hopefully I've explained clearly enough but this [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZAD6Mcuv9o] video by Zzandrio (from about 34 seconds in to 1 minute 50) shows it too.

Use this to manage the damage your crew is receiving. It also works in 2-square rooms so you can ensure your Rock tanks while the Mantis can dps without worry. Beware you have to be able to leave the room though, so it might not be possible to do with a boarding crew if the enemy ship has upgraded doors - or the special weapon systems on the flagship, as those rooms are disconnected from anything else. The other complication is with systems in rooms. The console space (where a crew-member stands when manning that particular system) takes priority over the aforementioned left-right top-bottom placement.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

just wanted to share my strategy, as i finally beat the bloody campaign. (fuck you game, fuck.you.)

had a zoltan A ship, fully upgraded shields, and crew members that had full engine/piloting skill with maxed out engine, which means for the droid spam i was literally dodging every other shot, if not more. On top of this, i had a guy skill leveled up in melee'ing, so taking care of the bosses weapons was as easy as pie for him (took a little while, but due to my evasiveness between my engine and pilot both being badasses, i had time to spare.)

once you take out the weapons, the boss is pretty easy to pick apart, i had dual halberd beams slicing and dicing the subsystems after my Pegasus opened a pathway for them through the shields, on the 3rd fight with the boss, i had 4 health and got hit only once, it was insane how much easier the boss was this time around, i usually power up my drones for my playstyle, but this time they weren't needed at all.

the only shitty weakness is, they would send in a damn terminator and it would puncture a hole in my fucking medbay, so i couldn't heal until after i fixed that hole in the damn floor and killed the damn thing.