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[Mengy]

Sorry I still think you're completely delusional with that flight plan. It advances too fast to make that many jumps and if you can't clearly see that with the images I don't know what to say to you.

And the game isn't worth it for me to argue about or waste more time on, either. Winning is not a big deal to me, but being interesting is. I do not find the repetitive battles of this game worth the trouble. Now, after seeing the sales today, I'll go and be salty as fuck that giving this game a chance led me to miss X3 yet again.

The game is not for you. Every one of your complaints seems silly to me, because they have all been answered but you just aren't finding it fun to play or interesting to keep at it. I don't think a space rogue-like is for you. To me it sounds like you just haven't played FTL that much, but you did post screens and seem to have a general idea of what the game is about. You just don't seem to find the game fun, that's all.

And that's okay. So please stop playing and go play something else. You'll be happier for it, and so will we.

 

[The One Who Knocks]

I'm about to fight the Rebel Flagship and this is my current status (the colour is due to f.lux, I apologise, I just don't notice it while actually playing so forgot to turn it off while taking the pictures):

(the name of the ship and characters isn't because I enjoy the Mass Effect franchise [although I do] but so that I can easily remember which character is which)

The crew stats are as follows:
Shepard - Fully Yellow in Pilot
Tali - Yellow in Shield
Jorlock - Yellow in Repar and Half Yellow in Engines
Legion - Yellow in Weapons
And everybody else is mostly untrained and are simply there to assist repairs.

Anyway, as can be seen I lack any drones and I focused significantly on offense as opposed to defense but as I fight the Rebel Flagship for the first time, after hearing about how difficult the final boss is many times, I'm questioning my ability to survive the battle and I'm wondering what some of the people here would feel is the most effective survival tactic with the above equipment. I don't usually ask for help during a game (while playing the game) but I think FTL will be an exception considering the difficulty I'm having in reaching the fourth sector, let alone the final one and, as such, I would appreciate any help (if possible) from those who are more knowledgable at the game than I am; thanks.

EDIT: Also, not getting Drone Control or Teleport wasn't a choice I had made earlier. They only showed up in the three shops in the final two sections and in those I was spending almost all of my scrap on fuel (I had gone through the final two sectors without exceeding a total of five fuel) and hull repairs so I had to leave them.

 

[RPG Wizard]

Holy crap, you beat it using those weapons, no teleporters and no drones? Not a small feat indeed!
I find it strange that you didn't find shops that sold systems; about half of all shots sell systems. Did yo priorize nodes with a lot of connections to unexplored nodes? You can see shops from one jump away, so making sure you have been at most one jump away from every node helps a lot.

I tended to prioritize nodes that would get me nebula nodes, so I could get more jumps. Downside was that I'd often either miss shop nodes entirely or forego a shop node so I could get some lovely lovely scrap/other events. (Wasn't a big deal, all I needed was the cloaking which made all of the power surges easy to handle. 40% evasion is awesome too.)

Anyway, as can be seen I lack any drones and I focused significantly on offense as opposed to defense but as I fight the Rebel Flagship for the first time, after hearing about how difficult the final boss is many times, I'm questioning my ability to survive the battle and I'm wondering what some of the people here would feel is the most effective survival tactic with the above equipment. I don't usually ask for help during a game (while playing the game) but I think FTL will be an exception considering the difficulty I'm having in reaching the fourth sector, let alone the final one and, as such, I would appreciate any help (if possible) from those who are more knowledgable at the game than I am; thanks.

EDIT: Also, not getting Drone Control or Teleport wasn't a choice I had made earlier. They only showed up in the three shops in the final two sections and in those I was spending almost all of my scrap on fuel (I had gone through the final two sectors without exceeding a total of five fuel) and hull repairs so I had to leave them.

...you don't/barely have enough offense or defense to survive it, as far as I can tell. You're not going to be able to get through phase 2 without a significant degree of luck, due to what looks like a limited ability to tear through four shields while coping with the drones. Switching out your artemis and ion cannon for your hull laser and burst laser may just barely be enough.

And the fact that you can only supply 6 power to your weapons systems suggests to me that you don't have enough firepower to win on offense, and your TWO shields and potential 37% max evasion suggests to me that you don't have nearly enough defense.

I'm of the opinion that with tactical cloaking and some well placed shots, you can beat phase 1. But you will not beat phase 2 without a lot of luck. And phase 3 will probably destroy you.

 

[A Human Becoming]

Is there a store in sector 8?

 

[Achtius]

Is there a store in sector 8?

Out of the 3 times I reach sector 8, I encounter a store once.

 

[Maxwood]

Yeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Oh, it's still alive? Crew, repair the small damage done and jump to finish this one and for a....

....

 

[The One Who Knocks]

I tended to prioritize nodes that would get me nebula nodes, so I could get more jumps. Downside was that I'd often either miss shop nodes entirely or forego a shop node so I could get some lovely lovely scrap/other events. (Wasn't a big deal, all I needed was the cloaking which made all of the power surges easy to handle. 40% evasion is awesome too.)





...you don't/barely have enough offense or defense to survive it, as far as I can tell. You're not going to be able to get through phase 2 without a significant degree of luck, due to what looks like a limited ability to tear through four shields while coping with the drones. Switching out your artemis and ion cannon for your hull laser and burst laser may just barely be enough.

And the fact that you can only supply 6 power to your weapons systems suggests to me that you don't have enough firepower to win on offense, and your TWO shields and potential 37% max evasion suggests to me that you don't have nearly enough defense.

I'm of the opinion that with tactical cloaking and some well placed shots, you can beat phase 1. But you will not beat phase 2 without a lot of luck. And phase 3 will probably destroy you.

Well, you were right, thanks for the help. I got through the first phase almost completely unscathed by using the Artemis at the start to destroy the shield generator on the Rebel Flagship which started a fire in the room while the blaster and ion beams combined removed the shield and the beam did a small amount of hull damage and by repeating that I survived mostly unscathed but with only three missiles remaining (and I'd started the penultimate sector with 30 which I hadn't expected to burn through as I did, poor planning unfortunately). As you'd suggested I swapped out those weapons for the hull laser and burst laser but got completely obliterated as I was able to do only a tiny amount of damage. Thanks for the help.

 

[A Human Becoming]

Yeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Oh, it's still alive? Crew, repair the small damage done and jump to finish this one and for a....


....

Well, you did better than me.

Went in like this:

Came out like this:

Transporter was a bad investment.

 

[RPG Wizard]

Is there a store in sector 8?

Yes. Good luck finding it before the rebels smash it though.

Transporter was a bad investment.

You didn't really have enough crew to go teleporter happy. You needed another bug or rock.

I just came out of what was a promising run with the Red-Tail. Stupid Zoltan elder going and causing my mantis boarder to vanish from existence. And then the subsequent: EVERY SHIP HAS TWO DEFENSE DRONES... *sigh* Just couldn't catch a break.

Well, you were right, thanks for the help. I got through the first phase almost completely unscathed by using the Artemis at the start to destroy the shield generator on the Rebel Flagship which started a fire in the room while the blaster and ion beams combined removed the shield and the beam did a small amount of hull damage and by repeating that I survived mostly unscathed but with only three missiles remaining (and I'd started the penultimate sector with 30 which I hadn't expected to burn through as I did, poor planning unfortunately). As you'd suggested I swapped out those weapons for the hull laser and burst laser but got completely obliterated as I was able to do only a tiny amount of damage. Thanks for the help.

The interesting thing about the fight is that the first phase is deceptively easy. No surges, no special tricks. Yeah, it's got four weapon rooms, but they're all isolated and easy to take out.

The second phase on the other hand... Boarder drone + DRONE ASSAULT SURGE...

Well, you tried and you failed, but you learned a bit! Maybe next time the Browncoats will win?

 

[Weltall Zero]

Finished the game again, with the Crystal ship this time. It's not nearly as overpowered as one'd expect, as it has a terrible layout, but the starting weapons are nice. Had a very easy time from the midpoint on, mostly thanks to a Heavy Laser II I bought combined with the starting weapons. Unlocked the Rock ship (yes, weird as it seems, the Crystal ships was one of the first I unlocked) but didn't get a single ship achievement; they seem very luck-based unless you force them (I even went to the Rock howeworld). I did get the "Astronomically Low Odds", because I didn't buy a drone system and all the spare money went to upgrading all my other ship systems 100%.

The scoring system is busted, though. All my Easy completions have made my one Normal completion drop off my best five! Easy should either award no score or have a much harsher penalty (50% or less), as it stands you still get better scores in Easy than in Normal thanks to all that extra scrap and steamrolling everything.

I'm now looking forward to unlock everything so I can switch to Normal; Easy is starting to become a bit boring.

Rotate them? I unlocked the ship with the green aliens that are immune to fire, I think this is my best ship at the moment. Fire breaks out easily and these guys don't lose hp when they stomp the fire out.

By rotating, he means bring refresh troops. Send the injured ones to the medbay and bring new ones, the boarders can't follow them because they can't open your doors. Anybody in the ship can move except the pilot, you can unman some station until the boarders are dead.

All I dreamt about last night was FTL. Those FTL-dreams are relentless.

God, I'm glad I'm not the only one. The dreams aren't the worst, but the half-awake dreams. This is worse than Tetris. :/

I'm about to fight the Rebel Flagship and this is my current status (the colour is due to f.lux, I apologise, I just don't notice it while actually playing so forgot to turn it off while taking the pictures):

Ouch, I'm afraid you're toast. Your ship is massively underpowered for level 8; it looks like how it should be early sector 2 :S Heck, props for making it so far like that... although I'm guessing you entered a slippery slope of wasting a lot of money on repairs, making everything worse.

(I had gone through the final two sectors without exceeding a total of five fuel) and hull repairs so I had to leave them.

That might be your problem; if you only used 5 fuel, you missed most of the nodes, i.e. opportunities to grow stronger. Try to hit every node you can!

Yeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Oh, it's still alive? Crew, repair the small damage done and jump to finish this one and for a....

Heh. Yeah, stage 1 is a warmup, it's stages 2 and 3 that are murder. It's a good idea to try killing the gunners during stage 1, as they don't resurrect; particularly easy with a teleporter.

Well, you did better than me.

Went in like this:

Came out like this:

Transporter was a bad investment.

One question: why is your medbay not only powered, but using two bars? It should be off everytime nobody is in there. Same with oxigen, it's on two bars, when one or even none (power it back occasionaly) will suffice. You had two engines bar that you could have filled, that's 10% extra evade.

Again, transporting your two mantii straight to the missile launcher gunner as soon as the flagship decloaked would actually gone a long way towards your survival...

It's totally awesome that one of your mantii is named Picard, though. Never say that random name before.

A bit of bragging time (my collection of victories, all on easy except, ironically, the first one). This should give you an idea of what kind of ship build is good for beating the game. It's funny to note that as time goes on, I finish with more and more hull left. In later games I do all three phases straight, without bothering to repair.

Last one is the ??? ship, so linked because spoilers.
http://i4.minus.com/iblqe3UHNQZFV7.jpg

Also, it's amazing to compare the very first shot with the rest, where I had Better Planets and Backgrounds v1.2 installed.

 

[RPG Wizard]

Finished the game again, with the Crystal ship this time. It's not nearly as overpowered as one'd expect, as it has a terrible layout, but the starting weapons are nice. Had a very easy time from the midpoint on, mostly thanks to a Heavy Laser II I bought combined with the starting weapons. Unlocked the Rock ship (yes, weird as it seems, the Crystal ships was one of the first I unlocked) but didn't get a single ship achievement; they seem very luck-based unless you force them (I even went to the Rock howeworld). I did get the "Astronomically Low Odds", because I didn't buy a drone system and all the spare money went to upgrading all my other ship systems 100%.

The scoring system is busted, though. All my Easy completions have made my one Normal completion drop off my best five! Easy should either award no score or have a much harsher penalty (50% or less), as it stands you still get better scores in Easy than in Normal thanks to all that extra scrap and steamrolling everything.

I'm now looking forward to unlock everything so I can switch to Normal; Easy is starting to become a bit boring.

What's your top easy score? I've got somewhere in the range of 4800 for my Normal completion with the Kestral, which dominated most of my easy scores by a good 500+ points.

 

[The One Who Knocks]

Ouch, I'm afraid you're toast. Your ship is massively underpowered for level 8; it looks like how it should be early sector 2 :S Heck, props for making it so far like that... although I'm guessing you entered a slippery slope of wasting a lot of money on repairs, making everything worse.

That might be your problem; if you only used 5 fuel, you missed most of the nodes, i.e. opportunities to grow stronger. Try to hit every node you can!

Well, that was certainly a long post. The bolded was indeed the problem but, when I meant "not exceeding five fuel" I actually meant that I had between zero and five fuel for the sectors (I apologise for my poor wording) as I was hitting every node possible (in most cases looking for shops to buy more fuel). As you've mentioned, with the cost of repairs and fuel there wasn't enough money to continue upgrading the ship. In general, battles consisted of: Artemis missile to reduce the shield, ion beam on autofire to further reduce the shield, lazer burst on the weapon system (damaging the shield if it was still activated) and then either the beam or the second lazer burst depending on what was put on the ship.

I really must thank you for your advice to Dice on the previous page, it really has helped me in playing the game (especially your advice on how to plan the route), I really didn't expect it to be as addicting and challenging as it is.

 

[Weltall Zero]

What's your top easy score? I've got somewhere in the range of 4800 for my Normal completion with the Kestral, which dominated most of my easy scores by a good 500+ points.

Whoa! My highest Easy score is 4598 (the Crystal cruiser run), then 4479, 4203, 3815 and 3431. My Normal score is a mere 3650, which I guess makes sense as I guess I won by the skin of my teeth (had had the game for like 1-2 days at that point). I have the feeling I would score quite higher if I were to finish the game on Normal now, since I know the game so much better now.

Well, that was certainly a long post. The bolded was indeed the problem but, when I meant "not exceeding five fuel" I actually meant that I had between zero and five fuel for the sectors (I apologise for my poor wording) as I was hitting every node possible (in most cases looking for shops to buy more fuel).

Ah, I see. Yeah, that's low indeed. I try to have at least 15 fuel at all time, and tend to purchase fuel at the "bargain" events (where you can get 12 fuel for 24 scrap). If you find fuel to be a problem in subsequent runs, you might also want to try a boarding strategy, as killing the enemy crew tends to give a lot of fuel.

As you've mentioned, with the cost of repairs and fuel there wasn't enough money to continue upgrading the ship. In general, battles consisted of: Artemis missile to reduce the shield, ion beam on autofire to further reduce the shield,

With an ion weapon (beam? you mean laser? is there actually an ion beam? sounds horrendously overpowered ), you should have no need at all to use missiles to weaken the shield. I guess it doesn't matter as long as you don't run out of missiles, but then again you miss on the missiles-for-scrap deals.

lazer burst on the weapon system (damaging the shield if it was still activated) and then either the beam or the second lazer burst depending on what was put on the ship.

Something is off if you need missiles, an ion weapon AND two laser bursts to take down the shields. Are you shooting them all in a synchronized barrage? You might want to actually target the shields, or even different systems to keep the enemy crew occupied.

I really must thank you for your advice to Dice on the previous page, it really has helped me in playing the game (especially your advice on how to plan the route), I really didn't expect it to be as addicting and challenging as it is.

You're more than welcome! Did you check my long-ass post with tons of tips? I even update it regularly:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=45775649&postcount=1191

There's also another with tips for the boss battle, conveniently in spoiler tags:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=45834724&postcount=1221

 

[Danielsan]

Okay, can someone explain to what the hell just happened. I blew up the Flag Ship, as you can see above. But then the game gave me another jump, after which it said the Flag Ship had gotten too close and all was lost. How the hell did I lose after just wooping its sorry butt like no tomorrow?

 

[Holden]

Okay, can someone explain to what the hell just happened. I blew up the Flag Ship, as you can see above. But then the game gave me another jump, after which it said the Flag Ship had gotten too close and all was lost. How the hell did I lose after just wooping its sorry butt like no tomorrow?

Spoiler

has multiple stages, it moved too a different location

 

[Danielsan]

Spoiler

has multiple stages, it moved too a different location

Fuck...

 

[Holden]

 

[Achtius]

Just beat the game on easy was using the engi ship with ion and beam weapons/drones

 

[A Human Becoming]

One question: why is your medbay not only powered, but using two bars? It should be off everytime nobody is in there. Same with oxigen, it's on two bars, when one or even none (power it back occasionaly) will suffice. You had two engines bar that you could have filled, that's 10% extra evade.

Again, transporting your two mantii straight to the missile launcher gunner as soon as the flagship decloaked would actually gone a long way towards your survival...

I like to keep the medbay on since the ship can heal crew members outside the medbay. Still, it would be a better use of my power if I only turned it on when people were hurt. I just assumed people would get hurt quickly.

I usually aim for the shield and engine first, but in this fight it would be better to attack the missile room I realize now.

It's totally awesome that one of your mantii is named Picard, though. Never say that random name before.

Probably from the mod I'm using.

 

[JoseJX]

Finally beat the game on Normal using the Kestral B. Having a defense drone really helped with the 2nd form, it shot down all of the boarding drones for me!

Still an awesome game, hours and hours of playing later!

 

[Weltall Zero]

I like to keep the medbay on since the ship can heal crew members outside the medbay. Still, it would be a better use of my power if I only turned it on when people were hurt. I just assumed people would get hurt quickly.

Aah, you got the Engi Medi-bot Dispersal. Contrary to its name, it doesn't come as standard equipment on Engi ships (I have a feeling that was planned at some time, but probably was deemed too strong with the Drone system coming preinstalled as well?).

I usually aim for the shield and engine first, but in this fight it would be better to attack the missile room I realize now.

Yeah, especially using a teleporter, as all these rooms are cut off from the ship and only have a puny, helpless human on them that your mantii can shred to ribbons with impunity. I have a suspiction that they are there specifically to provide a tactical advantage to having a teleporter. I also suspect the power surges are there for the same reason with cloaking; I mean, they synch perfectly with the cloak's cooldown, that can't be a coincidence.

Probably from the mod I'm using.

Ah, there's a mod to add sci-fi names to the random ones? That makes a lot of sense, I'm tempted to get it.

 

[A Human Becoming]

I should have upgraded the drone bot some more to use the defense drone instead of the repair one. Besides that I think the rest of my ducks were in a row.

Progress!

 

[DY_nasty]

That missile launcher on the boss has to be the #1 priority. Even if your engines are maxed out and you've got DII drones that thing has 3 missiles and all it takes is one to get through to fuck your whole plan up.

 

[Weltall Zero]

That missile launcher on the boss has to be the #1 priority. Even if your engines are maxed out and you've got DII drones that thing has 3 missiles and all it takes is one to get through to fuck your whole plan up.

This man speaks the truth. Missile launcher is by far the biggest threat on phase 1, and almost certainly on phase 3 if you have a cloak. Send someone over there to bring it down, I think it's the fastest way.

 

[inky]

I just came to this thread to share I finally beat the game (more like the boss), and twice in a row! (on easy ) First with the engi ship, then with the Osprey which I just had unlocked. After 7-8 hours of learning the ropes and exploring I felt so pro when I got past the drone segment of the boss battle.

It seems like still there's a lot to discover too, going by some posts and screens. This game is just too fucking awesome, so I don't want to get too spoiled. I actually want to discover some of the different ships by myself, but I just wanted to share that first big step.

=D

 

[Weltall Zero]

I just came to this thread to share I finally beat the game (more like the boss), and twice in a row! (on easy ) First with the engi ship, then with the Osprey which I just had unlocked. After 7-8 hours of learning the ropes and exploring I felt so pro when I got past the drone segment of the boss battle.

It seems like still there's a lot to discover too, going by some posts and screens. This game is just too fucking awesome, so I don't want to get too spoiled. I actually want to discover some of the different ships by myself, but I just wanted to share that first big step.

=D

Damn, I might have spoilered ships with my "victories" post. :/. Perhaps I should go back and make them links.

Edit: went back and made into link only the last one (the ???), as the others are pretty much given away by the ship selection screen.

 

[inky]

It's OK, don't worry too much. I just want to find out how to unlock them by myself, instead of knowing exactly how to get them, so I just skimmed through the thread. I didn't even expect for there to be mods either, but it seems there are several I now found out.

 

[Macmanus]

Just beat it for the first time on easy. Engi ship with a balance of weapons/drones as well as engi/human/mantid crew mates.

Its mind blowing how good this game is.

That missile launcher on the boss has to be the #1 priority. Even if your engines are maxed out and you've got DII drones that thing has 3 missiles and all it takes is one to get through to fuck your whole plan up.

This must be in relationship to normal, because on easy I didn't target them at all. I had the fire power to punch through the shields and mess up the haul on all three phases without an issue. Defense II drone helps a lot.

 

[balddemon]

It's OK, don't worry too much. I just want to find out how to unlock them by myself, instead of knowing exactly how to get them, so I just skimmed through the thread. I didn't even expect for there to be mods either, but it seems there are several I now found out.

let me just give you two tips in regards to unlocking ships. it will make your life so much easier.

1. always be the nice guy
2. learn to destroy crew members

 

[TerminalDogma]

Alright so...I'm probably an idiot but I can't figure out how to get the Better Planets mod working? I downloaded it, and I downloaded the Grognak Mod Manager. But when I download it its a .TZ file instead of an .FTL file? and it wont' show up in the mod manager? I'm confused.

 

[JLG-]

Alright so...I'm probably an idiot but I can't figure out how to get the Better Planets mod working? I downloaded it, and I downloaded the Grognak Mod Manager. But when I download it its a .TZ file instead of an .FTL file? and it wont' show up in the mod manager? I'm confused.

It's a .7z file. You need to extract the file with winrar.

 

[Weltall Zero]

This must be in relationship to normal, because on easy I didn't target them at all. I had the fire power to punch through the shields and mess up the haul on all three phases without an issue. Defense II drone helps a lot.

Well yeah, a Defense Drone II would render the missile launcher harmless . But I've only gotten it once in over ten "complete" playthroughs (until sector 8, victory or not), plus you need the drone system as well. The teleporter is sold in over half of all shops in the game, and it costs less than just the drone system alone; it's therefore a much safer bet.
Not only that, a teleporter with 1 energy bar is good enough, while the Defense Drone 2 sucks 4 bars (it's still very good, though). And finally, with a teleporter you can kill enemy crew, yielding a lot more loot, which makes you stronger, needing less repairs...

Alright so...I'm probably an idiot but I can't figure out how to get the Better Planets mod working? I downloaded it, and I downloaded the Grognak Mod Manager. But when I download it its a .TZ file instead of an .FTL file? and it wont' show up in the mod manager? I'm confused.

As mentioned, use 7zip to decompress the .tz file. Also, again, I recommend Better Planets 1.2 rather than 1.3, as 1.3 has added a lot of quite garish backgrounds, many of which are repeats with a different hue.

Yesterday I actually made a mix of both Better Planets 1.2 and HD Backgrounds, another mod that replaces all original planets and backgrounds and is really beautiful as well (in case anyone wants to do that, it's not enough to rename and drop all files in a folder and recompressing, you also have to edit the .xml file). The result is an amazing variety of combinations. I'm tempted to ask both authors for permission uploading it, with links to both original sources, of course.

 

[ICKE]

By the Goddess, I DID IT! (Normal difficulty)

I basically had the perfect possible run before the final boss. In the end cloaking was fully powered and I also bought the weapon upgrade so I was able to fire while being hidden.

-I had three burst lasers (mark II) and the Artemis missile system, nothing was able to withstand my attacks.

-What about the intruders? Bah, I had an army of rockmen just itching for a fight. Rescued from the slavers and ready to die for the federation.

-The rebel flagship never stood a chance. Even the super weapon was completely useless as USS Ishimura's captain timed his cloaking maneuvers perfectly.

 

[Celegus]

And finally, with a teleporter you can kill enemy crew, yielding a lot more loot, which makes you stronger, needing less repairs...

Oh, really? You get more scrap and resources by killing the crew rather than destroying the ship? I'll have to try that next time, I know I don't use the teleporter nearly enough (since I have a bad habit of destroying the ship with my people still on it). Should work pretty well with the Engi ship and lots of Ion guns, if I can find some buggers.

 

[TerminalDogma]

Thanks for the help guys. I feel amazingly stupid now (it was late. Long day. blah blah bad excuses blah). By the way, I've had this game for 3 days and have already put 18 hours into it. It makes me feel bad for the other 10 games bought during this steam sale cus they are not going to be played for awhile now,I can already tell. And also thanks to Weltall for all those very useful tips!

 

[Artofwar420]

Really liking the drone + ion combination. Though at about the third sector I start losing most of my crew until they were all gone but one.

I did manage to fight half of sector 4 with just 1 guy though, was kicking ass until 4 dudes boarded me. Incidentally his name was Jean, captain Jean went down with his ship.

 

[Balehead]

The problem with teleporting guys is that all the teleporters I've bought have been 2 man models, makes fighting in ships damn difficult later on. You're basically forced to TP into 2 man rooms and have the enemy shuffle between medbay and that room.

 

[drizzle]

God dammit FTL!

I finally managed to get a break (on easy): First two extra crew were Mantis, this was clearly a transporter run. Took me a while, but I managed to get a transport...

and then everybody but 1 human and both Mantis died! I though I was screwed.... but alas, I wasn't..

Not only I managed to recoup my entire crew with randoms, I managed to get the 6 races on the First Ship achievement! All was fine and dandy. I was oozing Scraps (playing on Easy with Transporter strategy and two mantis!), I managed to (finally) get to the eight sector and actually play the boss battle properly.

I didn't have a Cloak device, but I had a couple weapons and a Titan Missle Launcher with plenty of missiles, so I was confident. Also, I was transporting my Mantises to the forward weapon caches of the main ship, so they would be destroyed. I lost a little more than one third of my Hull on the first encounter, but I was feeling rather lucky...

And then I lost everything because if the rebels take control of the entire map, the game is over? FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!

Yeah yeah, I know it says right when you're explaining your situation to the whatever ship commander, but I didn't pay much attention.

Well, at least I got the Kestrel B. Fuck this game, I love it!

 

[LordAlu]

The problem with teleporting guys is that all the teleporters I've bought have been 2 man models, makes fighting in ships damn difficult later on. You're basically forced to TP into 2 man rooms and have the enemy shuffle between medbay and that room.

If you play with the Mantis B ship you get a four-man teleporter. Yeah baby!

 

[RPG Wizard]

Well, that's victory with the Red-Tail, (on normal of course) and with a full United Federation crew to boot. (Stupid slugs taking forever...good thing I know there are four lights--er, seven moons.)

Managed to get 4 Burst Laser Is. 8 shots is enough to drop almost anything. My Mantis boarding crew took out all of the weapons except for the Triple-Heavy Laser in the first phase, and then I shot out the shields and medbay, and then sent them in to finish off the crew. (And then I clicked the wrong teleporter button and accidentally sent my Rockman in to die instead of pulling them out. Bloody hell I hate making stupid mistakes.) Took out most of their crew anyway.

Phase 2 I turned on my anti-personnel drone, had it fight the boarder which kept my systems up and running, and proceeded to shoot out the missiles once again. Shot out the beams, shot out the shield and just kept firing. The phase was over before I knew it, and only one power surge occurred. (Which I cloaked through. Bwahahaha.)

Phase 3 had the three remaining crewmen throw themselves at my teleport bay, where the anti-personnel drone butchered them, and then after I shot out the missiles, I shot up the shields and teleporter and let the fires finish the rest. Alas, poor laser crewman, this is what your rebellion has demanded of you. A suicide mission as the integrity of your capital ship's hull fails due to copious fire. Was it all worth it? No, no it was not! AHAHAHAHA!

4878 final score. Could've been a bit higher but there was some instances where I failed to have good enough luck with my 8 lasers to prevent jumpers, and so I always jumped before they did to prevent the penalties.

I think my favorite strategy is to find a crappy rebel rigger or auto-bomber, or some other ship that cannot get through level 2 shields within the first two sectors, and then just leave the game for about 5 minutes while my engine, pilot and shield crew all max out their skills. (If you have an ion cannon, you can max out your gunner too.) Having golden crew with respect to dodging and restoring shields is a major difference in places like asteroid fields.

 

[O.DOGG]

So that just happened today...

That's normal difficulty. Oh, yeah, my first time. Feels good!

 

[Weltall Zero]

By the Goddess, I DID IT! (Normal difficulty)

I basically had the perfect possible run before the final boss. In the end cloaking was fully powered and I also bought the weapon upgrade so I was able to fire while being hidden.

-I had three burst lasers (mark II) and the Artemis missile system, nothing was able to withstand my attacks.

-What about the intruders? Bah, I had an army of rockmen just itching for a fight. Rescued from the slavers and ready to die for the federation.

-The rebel flagship never stood a chance. Even the super weapon was completely useless as USS Ishimura's captain timed his cloaking maneuvers perfectly.

Awesome story and great run. /salute. Somehow reading the success stories of other people is every bit as exciting as finishing the game for the first time.

Oh, really? You get more scrap and resources by killing the crew rather than destroying the ship? I'll have to try that next time, I know I don't use the teleporter nearly enough (since I have a bad habit of destroying the ship with my people still on it). Should work pretty well with the Engi ship and lots of Ion guns, if I can find some buggers.

Yes, there is an entirely different event text if you kill all crew in a ship, and a different loot table. Typically you get a lot more of everything (the game typically tells you you take your time emptying the vessel and scrapping it), often a weapon ("with the crew dead there is no one to stop outfitting this weapon to your ship"), and for example in slaver ships, you often get a crew member in addition to other rewards, and sometimes, you can even choose between three races (as you free all slaves and choose one to serve with you). It's really awesome an daddicting, balancing the fact that it's the hardest way to deal with a ship.

All of this is mentioned in my huge-ass tips post, earlier.

Thanks for the help guys. I feel amazingly stupid now (it was late. Long day. blah blah bad excuses blah).

Well, if you had never encountered a file with that extension, there's nothing stupid about not knowing what to do with it. ^_^. A stupid man would not have asked and would remain in the dark instead.

By the way, I've had this game for 3 days and have already put 18 hours into it. It makes me feel bad for the other 10 games bought during this steam sale cus they are not going to be played for awhile now,I can already tell. And also thanks to Weltall for all those very useful tips!

You're welcome! I've only had this game for a week, and I'm up to 50 hours now. I feel even guiltier as I was actually gifted a couple of games and they have been untouched. Fortunately I'm feeling the FTL crave starting to subside slightly now, to the point that I can actually function as a normal human being... mostly. I've also had headaches as of late, possibly due to my wisdom tooth extraction a couple weeks back, so I haven't been able to play much of anything.

The problem with teleporting guys is that all the teleporters I've bought have been 2 man models, makes fighting in ships damn difficult later on. You're basically forced to TP into 2 man rooms and have the enemy shuffle between medbay and that room.

All teleporters are 2 man, except for the Mantis B which starts with a 4-man version... and no weapons at all . A 2 man is enough when you send two mantii to a ship which already has dead crew, or if you power the telepad to level 3, you can send them and then bring them back before they die (or, if you're feeling courageous, send another two as backup and move to a 2x2 room). Yes, you're meant to juggle them between the telepad and the medbay. And of course, an enemy medbay is a huge pain in the ass when boarding; disable it first.

God dammit FTL!

I finally managed to get a break (on easy): First two extra crew were Mantis, this was clearly a transporter run. Took me a while, but I managed to get a transport...

and then everybody but 1 human and both Mantis died! I though I was screwed.... but alas, I wasn't..

"Alas"? You wanted to die already?

Not only I managed to recoup my entire crew with randoms, I managed to get the 6 races on the First Ship achievement! All was fine and dandy. I was oozing Scraps (playing on Easy with Transporter strategy and two mantis!), I managed to (finally) get to the eight sector and actually play the boss battle properly.

I didn't have a Cloak device, but I had a couple weapons and a Titan Missle Launcher with plenty of missiles, so I was confident. Also, I was transporting my Mantises to the forward weapon caches of the main ship, so they would be destroyed. I lost a little more than one third of my Hull on the first encounter, but I was feeling rather lucky...

And then I lost everything because if the rebels take control of the entire map, the game is over? FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!

Yeah yeah, I know it says right when you're explaining your situation to the whatever ship commander, but I didn't pay much attention.

Well, at least I got the Kestrel B. Fuck this game, I love it!

That sucks, man, I'm sorry. You don't lose when the rebels take control of the map, you lose when the flagship jumps into the Federation base. The game tells you how many jumps (turns) you have remaining for that. Remember the flagship jumps once every two jumps you make. It should be plenty of time if you make a beeline for it... which is the exact opposite strategy than any other sector, so I completely understand how it gets people a lot.

Well, that's victory with the Red-Tail, (on normal of course) and with a full United Federation crew to boot. (Stupid slugs taking forever...good thing I know there are four lights--er, seven moons.)

Whoa! That's one of the achievements I haven't got yet. I assume the 6 alien crew has to include the secret race, yeah? It seems like a bitch to get.

Managed to get 4 Burst Laser Is. 8 shots is enough to drop almost anything. My Mantis boarding crew took out all of the weapons except for the Triple-Heavy Laser in the first phase, and then I shot out the shields and medbay, and then sent them in to finish off the crew. (And then I clicked the wrong teleporter button and accidentally sent my Rockman in to die instead of pulling them out. Bloody hell I hate making stupid mistakes.) Took out most of their crew anyway.

Not two days ago, an enemy ship jumped with two of my crew still on board. This is after I've been warning people over and over about that very same danger. This game has a way of having one make stupid mistakes. Or perhaps, it simply doesn't forgive mistakes as much as other games.

Funny how most of those are related to boarding, heh.

Still, AMAZING strategy! Could you believe I never thought of leaving alive one of the four weapon crew rather than 1-2 crew in the main body? Your strategy is so much better since you can fire at the main body and set it on fire without either having to worry about killing the remaining crew, or even having anyone repair those systems. I really have to try that next! I'm tempted to put it on my tips, would it be ok for you? I'd credit you.

Phase 2 I turned on my anti-personnel drone, had it fight the boarder which kept my systems up and running, and proceeded to shoot out the missiles once again. Shot out the beams, shot out the shield and just kept firing. The phase was over before I knew it, and only one power surge occurred. (Which I cloaked through. Bwahahaha.)

Phase 3 had the three remaining crewmen throw themselves at my teleport bay, where the anti-personnel drone butchered them, and then after I shot out the missiles, I shot up the shields and teleporter and let the fires finish the rest. Alas, poor laser crewman, this is what your rebellion has demanded of you. A suicide mission as the integrity of your capital ship's hull fails due to copious fire. Was it all worth it? No, no it was not! AHAHAHAHA!

4878 final score. Could've been a bit higher but there was some instances where I failed to have good enough luck with my 8 lasers to prevent jumpers, and so I always jumped before they did to prevent the penalties.

I actually have no clue about scoring in this game. Is there anywhere that shows what gives you score and what detracts? As my highest score is in the 4500s (on easy) and 3800 (my one normal run) I think I could use that.

Edit: I've just read that defeating Rebel ships (in already occupied systems, which is trivial in a good run) actually nets you the same 20 points per kill (plus Normal +25% if applicable) as any other ship, meaning you can easily farm them for score. Someone did just that and got 8000 score. Unless they fix that I guess I'm not going to care about score a lot from now on...

I think my favorite strategy is to find a crappy rebel rigger or auto-bomber, or some other ship that cannot get through level 2 shields within the first two sectors, and then just leave the game for about 5 minutes while my engine, pilot and shield crew all max out their skills. (If you have an ion cannon, you can max out your gunner too.) Having golden crew with respect to dodging and restoring shields is a major difference in places like asteroid fields.

I'm not going to be popular at all, but I really really wish they patched a limit on how much skill you can get per fight. In my opinion it really sucks that grinding like this is the optimal way to play the game. I refuse to do that out of principle... which means I guess it doesn't affect me, so I guess I'm complaining for the sake of complaining.

So that just happened today...

That's normal difficulty. Oh, yeah, my first time. Feels good!

Congratulations! You'll find the game becomes much easier when the pressure of "finishing it at last" is off.

 

[ICKE]

Awesome story and great run. /salute. Somehow reading the success stories of other people is every bit as exciting as finishing the game for the first time.

Thanks!

It's a great feeling to beat FTL on normal difficulty.

People complain that you need to be lucky but I think it's essential to optimize and avoid taking risks. For example I escaped a few fights during my run. I also think one should definitely try to buy good equipment from stores ASAP.

It really helps, because then you can activate "blue" choices, avoid taking damage and so on.

 

[drizzle]

"Alas"? You wanted to die already?

That sucks, man, I'm sorry. You don't lose when the rebels take control of the map, you lose when the flagship jumps into the Federation base. The game tells you how many jumps (turns) you have remaining for that. Remember the flagship jumps once every two jumps you make. It should be plenty of time if you make a beeline for it... which is the exact opposite strategy than any other sector, so I completely understand how it gets people a lot.

Most of the times, yeah. Once shit hits the fan, I just wish everybody die already so I can restart. Not this time!

 

[DY_nasty]

The problem with teleporting guys is that all the teleporters I've bought have been 2 man models, makes fighting in ships damn difficult later on. You're basically forced to TP into 2 man rooms and have the enemy shuffle between medbay and that room.

Just gotta time it perfect. My last run I kinda got screwed and was riding with 2 beams and a missile.

Wasn't about to waste 5 missiles dropping shields so I teleported my elite mantis bros into the engine room which was just a 2x1 room. Dudes come and try to fight them off but of course thats a fight that no one is going to win so they were cycling out to the medbay and back. Came out of cloak to fire one missile at the medbay and splash

their evade was screwed because the engine was taking hits, the 2 dudes in the medbay took a big hit AND weren't able to heal in time, and mantis bros had a quick and easy shot at dat ass since the healing was gone. only had to fire one shot.

 

[RPG Wizard]

Whoa! That's one of the achievements I haven't got yet. I assume the 6 alien crew has to include the secret race, yeah? It seems like a bitch to get.

No. Humans are still an alien race! (Everything is alien to something else.) Human, Bug, Slug, Rock, Engi, and Zoltan will qualify for the achievement. It is significantly easier on the Red-Tail because it starts with a Zoltan, who along with the Slugs are obscenely rare. You can always "liberate" a slave ship for Rock, Mantis or Engi. Much easier than trying to get the secret race, who is an absolute jerk a lot of the time. (Oh, I found part A, but required event to get to part B never happened. Etc. etc.)

Not two days ago, an enemy ship jumped with two of my crew still on board. This is after I've been warning people over and over about that very same danger. This game has a way of having one make stupid mistakes. Or perhaps, it simply doesn't forgive mistakes as much as other games.

Funny how most of those are related to boarding, heh.

Still, AMAZING strategy! Could you believe I never thought of leaving alive one of the four weapon crew rather than 1-2 crew in the main body? Your strategy is so much better since you can fire at the main body and set it on fire without either having to worry about killing the remaining crew, or even having anyone repair those systems. I really have to try that next! I'm tempted to put it on my tips, would it be ok for you? I'd credit you.

Not my strategy. Either one of the wikis or the FTLgame.com boards suggested it. And I took it to heart because it is SIGNIFICANTLY better than wiping out all four weapons. With 3 or 4 shields, there's honestly no reason not to leave the Triple-Heavy Laser crewman alive. And as you stated, it does let you burn the whole ship down. Bwahahaha.

I actually have no clue about scoring in this game. Is there anywhere that shows what gives you score and what detracts? As my highest score is in the 4500s (on easy) and 3800 (my one normal run) I think I could use that.

Edit: I've just read that defeating Rebel ships (in already occupied systems, which is trivial in a good run) actually nets you the same 20 points per kill (plus Normal +25% if applicable) as any other ship, meaning you can easily farm them for score. Someone did just that and got 8000 score. Unless they fix that I guess I'm not going to care about score a lot from now on...

Seems about right. It surprises me that you'd have the time to amass an 8000 score unless the flagship somehow failed to make the necessary moves. Admittedly, one could crank out obnoxious scores with some of the mods available as well.

I'm not going to be popular at all, but I really really wish they patched a limit on how much skill you can get per fight. In my opinion it really sucks that grinding like this is the optimal way to play the game. I refuse to do that out of principle... which means I guess it doesn't affect me, so I guess I'm complaining for the sake of complaining.

Fun thing about most games with heavy randomization (including rogue-likes) is that anything that reduces the randomization in your favor is always worth doing. So yes, it is annoying that it's optimal strategy, but it's entirely worthwhile.

 

[Weltall Zero]

No. Humans are still an alien race! (Everything is alien to something else.) Human, Bug, Slug, Rock, Engi, and Zoltan will qualify for the achievement. It is significantly easier on the Red-Tail because it starts with a Zoltan, who along with the Slugs are obscenely rare.

Well screw me, I always though it needed the secret race. They really need to fix the description.
Yeah, slugs are rare. I love their ability so much, though, especially on nebulae. I dunno, i just love the red dots marking life signatures. Makes me feel like a Predator.

You can always "liberate" a slave ship for Rock, Mantis or Engi. Much easier than trying to get the secret race, who is an absolute jerk a lot of the time. (Oh, I found part A, but required event to get to part B never happened. Etc. etc.)

Indeed, I only got them like once or twice. The very first time I lucked out immensely and got the entire chain to the end in my first try; consequently, the secret ship is one of the first I got, before the rock, mantis or slug (which is actually still locked for me).

Not my strategy. Either one of the wikis or the FTLgame.com boards suggested it. And I took it to heart because it is SIGNIFICANTLY better than wiping out all four weapons. With 3 or 4 shields, there's honestly no reason not to leave the Triple-Heavy Laser crewman alive. And as you stated, it does let you burn the whole ship down. Bwahahaha.

I'm thinking the beam weapon could be even more beneficial to leave up, since unless you mess up a cloak/power surge phase, there's not a lot that can drop your shields for it to even do damage. Also it doesn't seem to be a very strong beam weapon, it only does 1 damage per room IIRC, right? Unless it's a 2 damage and I got hit with one shield up.

Seems about right. It surprises me that you'd have the time to amass an 8000 score unless the flagship somehow failed to make the necessary moves. Admittedly, one could crank out obnoxious scores with some of the mods available as well.

Remember you can get Rebel ship fights in ANY sector, simply complete the sector then go back to the Rebel sphere of influence and fight one ship after another. It doesn't have to be in sector 8. In fact, it'd be easiest in sector 1, where even Rebel ships have usually 1 or at most 2 shield.

Fun thing about most games with heavy randomization (including rogue-likes) is that anything that reduces the randomization in your favor is always worth doing. So yes, it is annoying that it's optimal strategy, but it's entirely worthwhile.

Yeah, but it seems like cheating, so that's why I don't do it. I'm not looking to win, I'm looking for a challenge. Since I already know I can beat the game in Normal without it, there's no reason for me to do it.

There's another reason not to do it, and that's that it simply removes the fun of seeing your crew level up during the trip. I kind of like the "pling" they make when they reach each mastery level, and don't really want to associate it with leaving the game on for five minutes at the start.

 

[dark_inferno]

One question. How can i prevent that i cant see my empty rooms in my ship when im in the Nebula Fog?

Lost my whole Team in an instant because they couldnt breath anymore. Was in S7 with a really really good build.

 

[LuffyZoro]

I came so close to beating the game for the first time on easy when a passing Rebel ship managed to wipe me out mid-boss fight. It was so much easier using the Engi Cruiser though. I only had three crew members and was still kicking ass. My main problem was that I ran out of available power to use on things, so I only had level three shields and two weapons. Still, a score of 4698 isn't bad.

 

[Raptomex]

So after playing on normal for a while and rarely getting very far I decided to try easy mode. I finally unlocked a new ship. This game rules even though I suck at it. I think my problem is I don't know what I should be upgrading and buying first. I usually don't have good enough weapons to penetrate shields by the third sector.