Support NeoGAF

[fifasnipe2224]

I just got this game on the $2.49 sale. LOVE IT!
I have not gotten past the half way point yet (medium) but my current ship is doing pretty well. I have a 5 man crew. Pilot, Engineer, Gunner, Shield Operator, and an extra man on repairs (the class that gets 2x speed for repairing) I also have my first 2 droids that both do repairs also. Cant wait to see how far I get. So far I have lost about 6 times.

Its tricky but super fun.

 

[ScOULaris]

Glad to see an influx of new players after the recent sale. One of the best games to come out in the last few years!

 

[Celegus]

Yeah, $2.49 was a steal if you didn't have it already. Awesome game, though I'm still a little sour atfer the last time I played a few weeks ago when I was this close to getting the Crystal Ship.

 

[Weltall Zero]

Disabling a ship by boarding gets you more scrap than destroying it. If you have a good boarding team then you have another option by which to take out enemy ships. Some builds you come up against might be hard to take out by conventional fire but have a squishy crew that'll be easy fodder for your mantis/rockmen.

It's a good way to make use of extra crew if you go on a run where you have lots of extra mens.

Since you basically dismantle and ransack the enemy ship, it actually gives more of everything, not just scrap; it's an awesome way to get extra fuel, missiles, drones, etc. To top it off, sometimes the ships are carrying prisoners, who will join your crew upon freeing them. The slaver ships have three possible outcomes after boarding: no crew members, one extra random crew member, or one extra crew member you get to choose from three races. This, of course, on top of the boatload of scrap, fuel, etc.

Killing off the enemy crew (which is most easily done via boarding, but can also be done by fire, suffocation, bombs, etc.) is by far the preferred method to end a battle, and doing so regularly will allow you to stay ahead of the difficulty curve more easily, especially on Normal.

Glad to see an influx of new players after the recent sale. One of the best games to come out in the last few years!

Yeah, exactly what I was thinking. It's awesome to see new people get into the game.

 

[Fjordson]

Man, I've completely ignored boarding enemy ships in all of my playthroughs. Might need to get into that. I can make it to the final boss, but then I just get fucking wrecked.

 

[Freeza Under The Shower]

instead of boarding, you can also use the bio-weapon, which is default on the slug cruiser.

Just wait for your lasers to drop the shield (either manual fire or autofire, but without giving your bio-weapon a target) and then waste the fuckers. Fire-beam as third weapon was quite hilarious, I might add, since that puts all his crew IN ONE SPOT. Works on every ship with 2 shields, does not work quite as well with 3 shield or that goddamn flagship. I couldn't get another laser and the halberd beam does not appear to actually cut through shields, despite its description. Drone stage left me with no means of taking down its shields, so once again: defeat.

It does not work to unlock the mantis cruiser though, which you MUST board. Also, you can't board it after buying a teleporter and jumping back to its location. :'( :'( :'(

 

[fifasnipe2224]

I am still new to the game. I usually attack their Shields first and then their Engine. So what you are saying is that I can get more resources if I kill them by knocking out their Oxygen? Should I still knock out their Shields first or should I go straight to the Oxygen? Also, about how long does it take for an enemy crew to die from no Oxygen?

 

[Azih]

I am still new to the game. I usually attack their Shields first and then their Engine. So what you are saying is that I can get more resources if I kill them by knocking out their Oxygen? Should I still knock out their Shields first or should I go straight to the Oxygen? Also, about how long does it take for an enemy crew to die from no Oxygen?

Killing them by taking out their Oxygen is pretty hard to do as they will be pounding the hell out of you (and their crew can fix up the O2 pretty fast) and it takes a pretty long time to die of asphyxiation (just as long as it would take for your crew to die, it's the same rules). It's not really a viable strat. I've done it, but only for the achievement.

Boarders, bio beam, fire beam work much better to kill crew.

What you attack first really depends on what you're facing. I try to attack their weapon systems if they're packing something dangerous. Buys time to pick at the rest.

I think attacking the pilot is probably more effective than attacking the engines. Any FTL vets care to comment on engines vs pilot?

 

[Sushigod7]

Had to pop in and say I just had the most amazing round of defeat. I was in a Nebula and a pirate ship attacked, I had a delay on all my weapons for some reason some interference with the nebula I guess. So I got boarded by just one guy in the engine room ahh well easy take down for two of my guys. Then with no weapons I take a hit to the shields, then a barrage of fucking missiles. I get one room of fires out then another hit etc finally weapons come online I scramble to take aim at their weapon system. Pulse lasers blazing I get a few hits on the pirates weapons down! Now to get my ship fixed, oh shit more missiles and fires. Two of my crew die while trying to extinguish those fires. So I decide fuck it open all doors and keep my pilot safe up front till everything is out then he can run to fix the O2 room before he runs out. Meanwhile the pirates are destroyed and fires are out. I close all doors and make a run for the O2 room oxygen at 2% then 0 my guy already had taken some damage he make it to the room right next door then dropped into eternal sleep. Fuck the unknown Nebula's but what fun. Love love love this game.

 

[Fjordson]

Man, seeing that recent topic about this on sale on GOG has me addicted all over again.

I just wish I had more ships unlocked. I only have the default Kestral and the Engi cruiser right now. And I still haven't beat that last ship on easy :lol

 

[Mindlog]

Yeah, I've played a game or two since the sale. Popped on the Descent Into Darkness mod. It's incredibly unbalanced, but still fun and different. The hull-puncturing cannon slaughters crew.

 

[super-famicom]

I am still new to the game. I usually attack their Shields first and then their Engine. So what you are saying is that I can get more resources if I kill them by knocking out their Oxygen? Should I still knock out their Shields first or should I go straight to the Oxygen? Also, about how long does it take for an enemy crew to die from no Oxygen?

My strategy is to always attack the weapons systems if they have level 1 shields(sometimes level 2-3, depends on my weapons). The first shot will take out the shield then damage the weapons. A Burst Laser Mk2 can go through two shields and hit where you aimed it at, barring misses and evasions.

I hit shields first if I can't break through the shielding in one attack. Once the enemy's weapons are down I'm free to not worry about taking damage until it gets repaired. I then go for engines so the enemy can't escape, then target oxygen. I'm pretty sure the enemy prioritizes repairing life support over all the other systems.

If the crew dies by asphyxiation, fire, or your boarding crew and the ship doesn't blow up, you get more resources. Some species take longer to die from lack of oxygen. Mantis have their HP deplete the fastest, Rock have more HP so it takes longer, and Crystal dudes have a resistance to vacuum exposure. Zoltan have only 70 HP, so they can die faster. Humans and slugs are base models at 100 HP and standard rate of HP decrease. I *think* slugs take at least 45-60 seconds to die.

QUOTE=Azih;65980261]FTL vets care to comment on engines vs pilot?[/QUOTE]

I usually target engines over pilot, especially if I have a beam weapon so I can hit multiple rooms(engines are almost always next to weapons on rebel ships). A good rule is to attack whatever the smaller of the two rooms is, because it will have the fewest number of people repairing it. If the cockpit only has room for 2 and the engines room for 4, engines can get repaired faster. But if you have bombs, one strategy is to damage/destroy systems in a 4 man room, then spam bombs there to take out the crew repairing it.

Wow, typed all this on an iPhone!

 

[Trouble]

ZOMG 4 Burst Laser II's

I was fucking godly that run. So irked I was 1 race away from the cheevo.

 

[Fjordson]

I'm jealous. Still keep dying to the final ship.

I think my problem is I go through sectors too quickly. So that I don't really have a great ship / weapons by the end of my run since I'm not experiencing enough events and encounters.

 

[super-famicom]

I'm jealous. Still keep dying to the final ship.

I think my problem is I go through sectors too quickly. So that I don't really have a great ship / weapons by the end of my run since I'm not experiencing enough events and encounters.

Yeah, try to explore as many points as you can before moving to the next sector. Having Long Range Scanners or paying a mercenary to scout ahead can be helpful in plotting your course.

 

[Divius]

lol so I played 3 rounds on easy just to see how it differs from normal
1st time: made it to the boss battle, died.
2nd time: died in sector 3 due to a lot of bad luck.
3rd time: beat the game

easy mode is way too easy ;_;

 

[Sushigod7]

lol so I played 3 rounds on easy just to see how it differs from normal
1st time: made it to the boss battle, died.
2nd time: died in sector 3 due to a lot of bad luck.
3rd time: beat the game

easy mode is way too easy ;_;

I'm clearly playing wrong I think on Easy I've got to sector 5 a few times but never the final boss and I haven't beat it yet. lol

 

[Divius]

I'm clearly playing wrong I think on Easy I've got to sector 5 a few times but never the final boss and I haven't beat it yet. lol

Oh, well maybe I just got lucky in my encounters. On easy I do go through most battles without taking damage.

 

[Fjordson]

I've gotten to the last sector like 10 times and still have never beat the final boss on easy :lol

 

[Azih]

ZOMG 4 Burst Laser II's


I was fucking godly that run. So irked I was 1 race away from the cheevo.

Laser Spam is by far my most favourite method of attack. There's no situation that it doesn't work in. It drops shields (lol zoltan), drops hulls, has a good chance of hitting evasive mofos, AI ships, crewed ships, doesn't matter what race. Just Bursting Laserz all day err day man.

Too bad Burst Lasers are hard to find. The RNG was kind to you that run.

 

[Weltall Zero]

I'm jealous. Still keep dying to the final ship.

I think my problem is I go through sectors too quickly. So that I don't really have a great ship / weapons by the end of my run since I'm not experiencing enough events and encounters.

I've gotten to the last sector like 10 times and still have never beat the final boss on easy :lol

Second quote is a clear indication that the first quote is true. My huge hints post has an entire section dedicated to how to squeeze the most out of each sector.

 

[Fjordson]

Yeah, definitely.

I'm going slow right now and am getting pretty powerful. I have a two man mantis boarding screw and they're just wrecking people, and my teleporter is fully upgraded so I'm able to teleport them back home in 10 seconds if they're in trouble.

Getting me a ton of scrap and supplies. Have a few decent bust lasers, shields are maxed. This is definitely my best run thus far.

 

[Azih]

Yeah, definitely.

I'm going slow right now and am getting pretty powerful. I have a two man mantis boarding screw and they're just wrecking people, and my teleporter is fully upgraded so I'm able to teleport them back home in 10 seconds if they're in trouble.

Getting me a ton of scrap and supplies. Have a few decent bust lasers, shields are maxed. This is definitely my best run thus far.

Another thing you can do with an upgraded teleporter is send over additional borders in 10 secs to backup your two core attackers. Works well if you get a good crew run. Throw a few rockmen in there while your mantises are wrecking shop will make you one hell of a pirate. Hell Humans work well as supplementary boarders.

 

[Weltall Zero]

Yeah, definitely.

I'm going slow right now and am getting pretty powerful. I have a two man mantis boarding screw and they're just wrecking people, and my teleporter is fully upgraded so I'm able to teleport them back home in 10 seconds if they're in trouble.

Getting me a ton of scrap and supplies. Have a few decent bust lasers, shields are maxed. This is definitely my best run thus far.

Awesome to hear! Just don't get overconfident and above all don't blow up the enemy with your guys in there. Remember that each ship system destroyed deals 1 hull damage, including ones destroyed by your crew or fires. My rule of thumb is to evacuate if the ship drops below 5 hull points, unless the enemy crew is almost dead.

 

[Parallacs]

I think attacking the pilot is probably more effective than attacking the engines. Any FTL vets care to comment on engines vs pilot?

Most guides tell you to take out the pilot instead of the engines as they are easier to disable (AI puts more points into engines).

However with some enemies I face, I like to take out the engines. For example the vertical rebel ship with the engine in the middle. I usually start by damaging the shields or weapons depending on what weapons I have and what weapons I am facing. Then, I attack the engine which causes pilot to leave the cockpit to walk all the way down to the engine room. If I had attacked the cockpit, the pilot would have repaired it in just a few seconds.



I've been replaying the stealth ship a lot as I have only won with it on normal a few times. I have started to realize just how scary drones are. I think it is very valuable to pause and take a second and look at what drones are out and what weapons are on the enemy ships. For example, if the enemy has burst laser II and a beam drone, you are in serious trouble (assuming you don't have leveled up shields). Sometimes those are the types of encounters you just have to run from.

 

[Fjordson]

Fuck fuck! I just bombed my boarding crew to death. Unbelievable.

I guess I can't talk on the phone while playing FTL. My brain can't handle all of it at once. I knew they were low on health and was ready to teleport them back but for some reason my breach bomb II was on auto fire and was set to hit the room my two mantis were in. I didn't notice until it actually hit and then they were toast =[

My ship's still pretty powerful, but those guys were pretty powerful when it came to melee combat. I fucked up big time :lol

 

[Divius]

Me beating the game must have been a freak accident because I've been getting my ass kicked ever since. Pff.

 

[Parallacs]

Fuck fuck! I just bombed my boarding crew to death. Unbelievable.

I guess I can't talk on the phone while playing FTL. My brain can't handle all of it at once. I knew they were low on health and was ready to teleport them back but for some reason my breach bomb II was on auto fire and was set to hit the room my two mantis were in. I didn't notice until it actually hit and then they were toast =[

My ship's still pretty powerful, but those guys were pretty powerful when it came to melee combat. I fucked up big time :lol

Yeah haha, this game is not for multi-tasking. there is no way I can play with my one year old on my lap. Even constantly pausing doesn't help.

That is the worst feeling though to screw up a good run because you killed your crew. It sucks killing your two expert mantis fighters and then being like "I guess I'll take Bob the human from the shield room and Frank the repair guy to form my new boarding party..." UGH

 

[Fjordson]

Yeah haha, this game is not for multi-tasking. there is no way I can play with my one year old on my lap. Even constantly pausing doesn't help.

That is the worst feeling though to screw up a good run because you killed your crew. It sucks killing your two expert mantis fighters and then being like "I guess I'll take Bob the human from the shield room and Frank the repair guy to form my new boarding party..." UGH

LOL exactly.

Right now I have Amanda my human repair specialist and my only rockman boarding ships and they suck in comparison. I really effed up that up badly.

I'm doing alright because I have full shields, cloaking, and some decent burst lasers, but I may be in trouble in the final sector =[

Still having so much fun with this game, though. Getting better at it now that I'm experimenting with different tactics. Have a feeling I'll be able to beat it soon.

 

[Divius]

Jeez, getting boarded by mantis is the worst.

edit: yay beat the game again

Spoiler

on easy

take that you mantis motherfuckers.

 

[Lingitiz]

I've gotten to the last sector like 10 times and still have never beat the final boss on easy :lol

Same here, just failed again on the 2nd phase. I'm never going to beat this game.

 

[super-famicom]

Same here, just failed again on the 2nd phase. I'm never going to beat this game.

You can avoid the drone attack in phase two with level one cloaking. Just activate it right after you hear the alarm go off and you'll avoid taking damage.

 

[Divius]

Or just focus heavy fire on his drone system so they can't even launch.

 

[Sushigod7]

Well got farther last night got to sector 7 with some nice upgrades then had hull breach somewhere with no camera and couldn't find it before my crew suffocated. Poor guys

 

[iFootball]

Woah this game is addicting!...

Best $2.49 dlls I have ever spent!... I'm barely scratching the surface and learning to survive, only reaching sector 6 so far, but it is sooo gooood.

 

[Weltall Zero]

I fucked up big time :lol

That could as well be FTL's tagline.

Me beating the game must have been a freak accident because I've been getting my ass kicked ever since. Pff.

The RNG god got angry at you for saying Easy is too easy.

Spoiler

It is, though.

Or just focus heavy fire on his drone system so they can't even launch.

Unfortunately, unless I'm mistaken, the flagship cheats; it can launch its "power surge" attacks perfectly fine even if the related systems are disabled. Cloaking level 1 is the ticket. Remeber NOT to cloak for longer than level 1, or it won't be off cooldown in time for the next power surge (yeah, its power surges charge even when you're stealthed too... ).

 

[gamma]

I had nothing to do the last few days so I started up FTL again. First I remebered how awesome it is. Then after playing a bit I remembered how frustrating it can be

First few runs were pretty good but never made it past Sector 4. But the last run was pretty good, made it Sector 7 alive. Then I made a huge mistake... Didn't pay attention and the let an enemy ship escape -> with my experienced Mantis boarding crew onboard... I raged and left the room, but forgot that I had turned off the O2 -> another crew member dead...

Wanted to restart but thought what the hell. Made it to Sector 8 with my sceleton crew and even managed to beat the flagship the first time but without a boarding crew I lost the second battle. If I hadn't made that one mistake I could've made it :/

Anyway, off to the next run^^

 

[Kak.efes]

SO, I purchased a crew teleporter, figuring why not, every other flagship strategy had failed, and I just so happened to have two mantis on board. So what ends up happening? They destroyed each and every weapon platform, rendering the flagship completely useless. Coupled with my conflagration strategy of setting everything, and everyone on fire, I finally killed the fucker.

Some tips:

The fire beam is NOT a shitty RNG weapon drop. It's godly. What I ended up doing through the first eight sectors was taking shields down, followed by using the fire beam to cut across three different compartments, setting multiple fires to each. If a ships shield room is on fire, the crew can't repair it, giving you enough time to either take out their weapons, or medical bay. Once their medical bay is down, and half their ship is on fire, they can't heal, they can't run, and eventually they'll all be engulfed by flame.

 

[Weltall Zero]

The fire beam is NOT a shitty RNG weapon drop. It's godly. What I ended up doing through the first eight sectors was taking shields down, followed by using the fire beam to cut across three different compartments, setting multiple fires to each. If a ships shield room is on fire, the crew can't repair it, giving you enough time to either take out their weapons, or medical bay. Once their medical bay is down, and half their ship is on fire, they can't heal, they can't run, and eventually they'll all be engulfed by flame.

Indeed, the fire beam is one of the best weapons in the game. I'd go as far as to say it's overpowered; I'm not sure the game is balanced around being able to start five-six fires at once on a ship that has no airlocks (i.e. every enemy ship). Getting one is pretty much insta-win.

 

[Divius]

Once their medical bay is down, and half their ship is on fire, they can't heal, they can't run, and eventually they'll all be engulfed by flame.

I usually end up selling it if I find one. Next time I will keep it and play around with it.

 

[Anoregon]

I played my first round yesterday. Got to the 5th area, unlocked a new ship, and promptly lost due to boarding. I don't really get what I'm supposed to do about being boarded. The fact that I can't just use airlocks to jettison invaders into space bothers me.

Also not really sure how to get more crew members, is it totally random based on encounters?

 

[Sushigod7]

I played my first round yesterday. Got to the 5th area, unlocked a new ship, and promptly lost due to boarding. I don't really get what I'm supposed to do about being boarded. The fact that I can't just use airlocks to jettison invaders into space bothers me.

Also not really sure how to get more crew members, is it totally random based on encounters?

I'm new to this but what I have started doing is upgrading doors that stops invaders from just running the whole ship, then try and fight them off or eliminate oxygen in those compartments. It's sort of effective.

 

[Divius]

I played my first round yesterday. Got to the 5th area, unlocked a new ship, and promptly lost due to boarding. I don't really get what I'm supposed to do about being boarded. The fact that I can't just use airlocks to jettison invaders into space bothers me.

Also not really sure how to get more crew members, is it totally random based on encounters?

Getting boarded is one my greatest annoyances, I really hate it and it often will immediately end me or lead to my eventual demise if/when I lose some crew. Especially on the Engi ship (Torus?) it often causes a big problem.

What Sushigod said is right though. You can upgrade your doors so they can't come through as easily, and then remove the oxygen from those rooms. That, or/and get a decent fighting crew (rockmen/mantis). Rockmen have 150% health, Mantis do double damage in combat. If you can, try to fight invaders in the medbay. Get all your crew in there, remove oxygen from the rest so the invaders have no choice.

How you can obtain new crew:
- through random events
- buy them at certain shops
- get them from slaver ships by buying or attacking them until they offer you a free slave.

 

[Weltall Zero]

The fact that I can't just use airlocks to jettison invaders into space bothers me.

That's actually realistic, apparently.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ThrownOutTheAirlock

 

[Anoregon]

That's actually realistic, apparently.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ThrownOutTheAirlock

Who cares! Launching dudes into space is fun!

 

[gamma]

Who cares! Launching dudes into space is fun!

While you can't throw em out that way you can suck the oxygen out of the room they are in, although you need blast doors so they can't get in other rooms quickly.

 

[Bernbaum]

Bought this in a sale recently.

I loved it at first but after continually stalemating with the endboss to no avail for too many times, I think I'm done.

 

[Divius]

FTL is on sale again. $2,50

http://www.ftlgame.com/

Download FTL: Faster Than Light now, cross-platform, DRM free, and redeemable on Steam!​

Recommended it to everyone you know.

 

[Trouble]

I seem to be unable to unlock any of the ships in the 3rd column. ;_;

Or get the second layout for the rock ship with only missiles.

The reliance on random events and having the right equipment/crew to get the top tier ships is starting to annoy me.

 

[Weltall Zero]

FTL is on sale again. $2,50

http://www.ftlgame.com/

Download FTL: Faster Than Light now, cross-platform, DRM free, and redeemable on Steam!​

Recommended it to everyone you know.

Thanks for the heads up, gifting it to someone.