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So, I think this deserves it's own thread. For anyone that doesn't know, FTL stands for Faster Than Light, a rogue-like space game in which your rag-tag crew and flying garbage heap of a ship attempt to cross the universe with important information regarding the war effort. It's hard, it's random, it's super super fun. You will die, either when your ship is blown up, or you run out of oxygen, or you encounter a being of energy inside a nebula that de-ages your crew into nonexistence (it happened to me).

http://www.ftlgame.com

In this thread, we talk about our adventures and share tips. My biggest tip so far? Upgrade your engines! Shields are your best defense early in the game, but in the later sectors they'll get torn to shreds, and shields don't do anything to stop missles! With fully upgraded engines, and a pilot and engineer both at gold skill level, you can have a 50% chance to dodge every single attack sent your way!

I've heard good things about this so far. Not sure if I want to pay 10$ for it yet, but maybe.

Amazing amazing game. Has taken me away from all the games I had on my -Currently Playing- list for hours. I'm not very far in, only have ENGI ship unlocked and always get torn up by the 5th space sector but damn am I enjoying the hell out of it.

The best part, since it has ROGUE like features the game remains fresh no matter how many times you play it.

I also learned really quickly not to name my ship or my crew as dying is guaranteed 99% of the time and I don't need another -I'm a leaf on the wind- moment.

Another tip: don't fight near stars. Just don't do it. If your next jump puts you near a star, your primary concern should be to get out of there asap.

I jumped and landed near a star, and lo and behold there's a Rockman interceptor just hanging out there, and he turns hostile to me. Rockmen are immune to heat, so the solar flares battering our ships does little to them. The rockmen open fire, damaging our shields, but we're able to repair them and almost get them recharged when a solar flare hits the ship. Fires break out, the engine room is hit hardest. Damn, we can't charge the FTL core to get the hell out of here if the engines don't work! My chief gunner abandons the weapon systems in an attempt to help my engineer put out the flames and repair the engines when a rockman missle takes out our O2 scrubber, now the fires are using up our oxygen. Another solar flare hits, the cockpit is on fire, and my brave pilot dies extinguishing the flames. The engines finally come back online, I divert all remaining power to them, and my shield operator takes up position in the pilot's seat, performing an FTL jump the moment the core comes active to get away to freedom! The ship is on fire, we have maybe 5% hull integrity left, but we've managed to escape!

And ran directly into a Mantis pirate ship, asking us to pay a toll of 50 scrap or fight. We only have 5 scrap...

Just vent the remaining oxygen into space. We don't want to be awake to see what's about to come.

I get torn up whenever playing the Human Freighter by invaders. I barely survive when using the ENGI ship and anti-invader measures (Anti-personal Bots + Blast Doors) but even then I truly know no fear until I see a Mantis ship and 2+ invaders seconds later.

Wish there was an anti-teleporting augment.

Gilgamesh said:

I get torn up whenever playing the Human Freighter by invaders. I barely survive when using the ENGI ship and anti-invader measures (Anti-personal Bots + Blast Doors) but even then I truly know no fear until I see a Mantis ship and 2+ invaders seconds later.

Wish there was an anti-teleporting augment.

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If you unlock the Zoltan ship, or manage to find a zoltan shield augment, you get a temporary shield that has to be torn down at the beginning of every fight before damage to your regular shield and ship can happen. Enemies also can't teleport onto your ship until it's torn down. This isn't true for random boarding events, though.

Fully upgraded blast doors and funneling enemy boarders to my medbay to fight them there seems to work best for me. If you can find a biobomb weapon, which teleports bombs that do damage to people but not systems or hull, that can be used to target rooms of your own ship as well.

Had the bio bomb but not the blast doors so they would destroy a room before I could get the bomb off.

So goes the luck of the draw I suppose.

Never teleport your crew onto an automated drone ship.

There's no air on those things...

Jesse Cox (one of my personal favorite game reviewers) plays FTL. Nice glimpse of the game if you're not sold on the text reviews.

Going to start a new game tonight. Going to name the ship Halforum and create names for the first crewmen. I assume the new crew you get to join you can be renamed?

Ya me neither, my rock guy's name was riidiculous, sounded a lot like cumcquat.

I was like... WAT

Uuuuuuuuuugh, just popped again in 4th sector. My ENGI ship is amazing until I get boarded. Uuuuuuuugh.

Get 2 Rockmen and a Mantis and borders wont be a problem anymore.

Gilgamesh said:

Uuuuuuuuuugh, just popped again in 4th sector. My ENGI ship is amazing until I get boarded. Uuuuuuuugh.

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Upgrade your medbay, the bonus gets applied to your shipwide healing to help offset how squishy engi are

Ravenpoe said:

Upgrade your medbay, the bonus gets applied to your shipwide healing to help offset how squishy engi are

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Wow, thanks for that, I thought the upgrade was for Medbay only. That would be SUPER helpful. Oh and by the way, the advice on focusing on Engine upgrades is awesome.

Gilgamesh said:

Wow, thanks for that, I thought the upgrade was for Medbay only. That would be SUPER helpful. Oh and by the way, the advice on focusing on Engine upgrades is awesome.

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There are quests and random events that benefit from an upgraded medbay, too.

In other news, guess what happens to your crew if they're aboard an enemy ship when it ftl jumps? I can only assume they're all slaves now.

Ravenpoe said:

There are quests and random events that benefit from an upgraded medbay, too.

In other news, guess what happens to your crew if they're aboard an enemy ship when it ftl jumps? I can only assume they're all slaves now.

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GODDAMMNIT I'M TRYING TO BE PRODUCTIVE FOR MY MOVE IN OCTOBER BUT NOW I'M A SPACE CAPTAIN.

Based on how much fun everyone here seemed to be having with this game, I bought it last night, just to kill a little bit of time... an hour or so... 5 hours later I went to bed.

Aaaarg.Goddamn slugs! First they psyhack my medbay and then board me!

A little diplomacy goes a long way. Zoltan Cruiser unlocked!

Yeah, so far I've unlocked the federation cruiser, the Engi ship and the Zoltan cruiser.

Federation cruiser is a beast.

I have yet to complete the 5th sector.

If I power up against transport, I get demolished by missiles.
If I power up against missiles I get demolished by transport.
If I power up against missiles AND transport I get demolished by droids.

I am having the best time of my life being frustrated

I'm not ashamed to admit I unlocked the cruiser on easy and on an unbelievably lucky run.

I've yet to beat the final boss, but I can make it to him easily...on easy.

And then I get obliterated.

Burst lasers, all shot at the same time, was how I did it. Burst lasers rule.

And cloaking when it does it drone storm thing in the second phase.[DOUBLEPOST=1348084466][/DOUBLEPOST]I have no idea how you'd do it on normal without insane luck getting there, which I have yet to accomplish.

Also, micromanage each battle. Someone shoots at you, pause and transfer as much power as possible (without disrupting your weapons or shields too much) to engines for the evasion chance, etc.

On... Easy? I didn't even think of that....

I micro manage mid battle, years of Starcraft reflexes I'm happy to say. Yet I can't get past sector 5 on Normal. Boooo.

I get to the boss on every playthrough... and beat the first wave of the Rebel Flagship every time. Then I get obliterated by the stupid drone storm... every time.

I'm going to have to try Frank's advice on the cloaking though. That might be the edge I need in that battle.

Sector 4 death again.

Why do I insist on playing on Normal? Uuuuugh.

GODDAMN FINAL BOSS.

BananaHands said:

GODDAMN FINAL BOSS.

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My thoughts exactly.

Haha yesss final boss is blowing up I... WHAT IS THIS BULLSHIT?!

*droidocalypse*

Ravenpoe said:

Haha yesss final boss is blowing up I... WHAT IS THIS BULLSHIT?!

*droidocalypse*

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What... the... fuck....
I finally did the same. How do you stop that many droids? I had everything firing at their droid center and I had a Defense Mark 2. They just blew through my entire 100% Hull bar and double shield in less than 4 turns.

Decided to give the game a try, it's pretty addicting, but man can I hate roguelike games. It's so sad getting so far only to get blown to shreds. I almost want to use the quicksave cheat.

I have yet to reach the final boss, but my best run took me pretty far. I got lucky in the first two sectors in which I was hailed by a slaver four times. Instead of paying them for a slave I attacked them, and once I beat them they gave me a slave for free. I soon had a nearly full crew with Mantis, Rockmen, and Engi all working on various systems or support. The rockman was pretty much entirely on fire duty.

The ship finally met it's end near the final sector, when I get roflstomped by a famed pirate before I could jump to FTL.

Gilgamesh said:

View attachment 8130

Nebula Map

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That would be my dream map.So much time to grind.Get a Long Range Scanner and you are golden.

Another tip,if you get boarded and still dont have good fighter units.use the button to open all doors then send all your units into the infirmary (manualy close doors there) and then open airlocks.Enemies will make a beeline towards rooms that have air and inside the infirmary you are guaranteed to win.

Gilgamesh said:

What... the... fuck....
I finally did the same. How do you stop that many droids? I had everything firing at their droid center and I had a Defense Mark 2. They just blew through my entire 100% Hull bar and double shield in less than 4 turns.

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I think Frank had the answer in another thread. Upgraded cloaking system to keep the droids from blowing the crap out of you... I'm going to try this on my next playthrough.

Don't know if it makes you feel better but on my best playthrough I had full weapons systems with 2 level 3 burst lasers and a level 2 heavy laser, full shields, tons of reactor power, a fire bomb launcher, full veterancy on all systems crew members... and I still got torn apart in not much more time than you did by the droid storm. Frustrating.

Gilgamesh said:

View attachment 8130

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Restart.

I love nebulas. Grind grind grind.

Yeah, you can only cloak once every two droid assaults but if it's killing you in 4 shots, that would bring it to 8, giving you enough time to hopefully pummel it's hull down. Taking out the weapon systems doesn't hurt. Taking out the mother's droid control in phase 2 doesn't stop the droid storm (though it does stop the boarder droids).

As an aside, has anyone gotten boarder drones yet? I have yet to see any.

Frank said:

As an aside, has anyone gotten boarder drones yet? I have yet to see any.

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I had a chance to buy some once but I didn't have a droid control and not nearly enough scrap to get both, so I ended up just skipping it. Would have loved to try them out.

So hooked. Beat the game on easy after about 6 tries, and the run that beat it I got incredibly lucky (unlocked the stealth engi and rock ships on the same run, I think the rock skin upgrade really made a difference in the final fight). I was doing pretty well against the end boss with my first try on easy with the fed cruiser, but the second stage kept peppering me with boarder drones and by the time I drove off the other ship and got my O2 system repaired everybody had died from asphyxiation except my lone Rock crewmember who had to spend 20 minutes running back and forth between the med lab and all the hull breaches, repairing them.

Soooo I went into the final final FINAL boss round with just one crewmember, and while previously I had him on shield duty it only made sense to keep him on the helm for the boosted dodge chance and let the level 4 shields tend to themselves. The boss kept teleporting over boarders and my answer was to (naturally, having only 1 crewman) void the entire ship except the bridge to space. Unfortunately, the overload laserblasts and such eventually took their toll, and without my engines, weapons and shields manned I just couldn't keep up. Got close though. If only I'd been able to find slightly better weaponry than I did. Another thing what made the difference on the one ran where I win was I managed to find, luck of the draw, a second level 2 burst laser. That means 6 shots simultaneously instead of 3. Chewed right through shields.

There was something that has been picking at the corners of my memory as I play this game, and I think I put my finger on it. Some of the soundtrack sounds very similar to other certain songs...

For instance, this battle theme at 0:15


sounds VERY similar to this music from Final Fantasy 1.



And the final boss fight music below, at 3:27 starts a melody that sounds very suspiciously like Deutschland, Deutschland Uber Alles.

I have 5 of the ships (Starter, Engi, Rock, Stealth, Fed Cruiser), and have started playing on normal. First try with the fed cruiser, I nearly got through the boss's second stage. I'm convinced a cloaking device is *manditory* for that second stage (or at least a defense droid II), to dodge the droid overloads. I had level 4 shields, 45% evade, 3 burst laser 2s and a breach bomb (all active at once), and it just wasn't enough because I had no stealth or droids. Of course, they got extremely lucky and got a boarding droid on the bridge on their first shot, so buh bye evade percentage. Then the first overload set fires everywhere, and it was just a painful slide into oblivion after that. And I went into round 2 at full hull, thanks to repair arm. So yeah... no cloak by sector 8 on normal? Pretty much might as well restart.

Oh, and on another run I got to try out boarding droids myself. They're kinda fun, but random since you don't get to pick where they insert or where they go once they do. Repair arm or repair droids (which is more expensive but repairs more) go a long way in normal mode.[DOUBLEPOST=1348650925][/DOUBLEPOST]

I've yet to come across boarding droids.

I've only come across boarding drones once.

I managed to put together an awesome boarding party my last game. A fully upgraded teleporter and four mantis crewmembers with maxed out fighting ability.

It was insane how fast they tore through ships.

.... I want this game so much now.... but I have no discretionary funds left... *weeps brokenly*

I never really felt the need for a teleporter, as easily half of what I run into are automated rebel drones. That, and it's rare I get more than 5 crewmembers, and only once has that consisted of more than one mantis. Usually I just have upgraded doors to protect my manned compartments and just space the compartments where there are intruders, or fight in the medbay, push comes to shove.

Officer_Charon said:

.... I want this game so much now.... but I have no discretionary funds left... *weeps brokenly*

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Are we Steam friends?

No, checking it, I guess not. That needs to be rectified. ACCEPT MY FRIENDSHIP.

INTERNET BRO-FIST ACCEPTED

Log into Steam once in a while dood!

Free time: I has little. *grins*

Stop playing with your dick and log on.

Je suis au travaille, hôsti pourri...

Officer_Charon said:

Je suis au travaille, hôsti pourri...

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Parceltongue!

Frankie... I don't know whether to hug you or curse you... I almost didn't come to work today because of this...

My first few tries, I let pride run the game, and started it on Normal. 'Twas not mere pride, indeed, but unrefined Hubris, and I paid the price (despite obtaining 7 crew members on the second attempt, I only made sector 4)

I'm still refining my strategies for sector-clearing, but it's obvious I'm going to have to be more aggressive...

Normal on FTL is like Hard/Expert mode for any other game. Easy is like Normal/Hard for any other game.

My conscience is clear

This was how I felt after finally beating the game on easy.

I've yet to beat it on easy. I've done nothing but create scores of timelines where the federation lies in ruins and my crew are nothing but frozen corpses slowly falling into a nearby sun.

I've beaten it on easy with the Kestrel, the Fed cruiser, the engi ship and the rock ship. I also have the stealth ship unlocked but can't beat it with that. It can't fight for a damn from the start, so grinding is nigh impossible, which means not enough scrap, which means woefully underprepared for the enemy flagship.

I've beaten it once, ONCE, on normal, with the fed cruiser. And I acknowledge it was more the capricious whim of fate than any sort of stratagem of mine (because later runs with the exact same strategy got my ass blown off).

Good god. I've been trying to watch "Lets Play" videos for FTL on youtube lately... people are so. very. stupid. Every single one of them started off by saying "Uhh ok so I have never played this before. Tutorial? Tutorials'r for FAGGITS, let's play! What is all this? Normal, cause that's how men play! GO! What is going on? what? what is this do? Jump! OMIGOHD I're be attacked! Pull ALL THE POWER FROM EVERYTHING AND PUT IT ALL TO WEAPONS! Shoot them! Shoot them! WHY SHIELDS NO WORK? Faaahhhk I'm ded!"

GasBandit said:

Good god. I've been trying to watch "Lets Play" videos for FTL on youtube lately... people are so. very. stupid. Every single one of them started off by saying "Uhh ok so I have never played this before. Tutorial? Tutorials'r for FAGGITS, let's play! What is all this? Normal, cause that's how men play! GO! What is going on? what? what is this do? Jump! OMIGOHD I're be attacked! Pull ALL THE POWER FROM EVERYTHING AND PUT IT ALL TO WEAPONS! Shoot them! Shoot them! WHY SHIELDS NO WORK? Faaahhhk I'm ded!"

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Then again he's the only youtuber I watch do Let's Plays.

Officer_Charon said:

Frankie... I don't know whether to hug you or curse you... I almost didn't come to work today because of this...

My first few tries, I let pride run the game, and started it on Normal. 'Twas not mere pride, indeed, but unrefined Hubris, and I paid the price (despite obtaining 7 crew members on the second attempt, I only made sector 4)

I'm still refining my strategies for sector-clearing, but it's obvious I'm going to have to be more aggressive...

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I hope you're enjoying it. I haven't played it much since Pandaria has made me incoherent with frustration and the little bit of Torchlight 2 I've been bagging in.

What always gets me are those stupid solar flare fights. Oh yes, I WOULD LIKE TO FIGHT OFF MANTIS BOARDERS WHILE MY MED BAY IS ON FIRE

I just can't unlock any variants to save my life. Not a single one of the variant achievements.

Really, I know the Fed cruiser has pretty easy ones.

Just unlocked the Zoltan cruiser on my most recent play-through.... the one where I had to start over because the damned Rebel mothership got TOO close to my fleet, because I HAD to repair... *sighs*

GasBandit said:

I just can't unlock any variants to save my life. Not a single one of the variant achievements.

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Engi ship achievements are easy. I got all three in a single playthrough.

I...I won?

I won! I actually finally won!

I'm going to Disney World!

.... FINALLY!!!! It took the Slug Man-o-War, but I FINALLY got it!

DAMN, Beam weapons are nice, but you gotta knacker the shields...

Officer_Charon said:

.... FINALLY!!!! It took the Slug Man-o-War, but I FINALLY got it!

DAMN, Beam weapons are nice, but you gotta knacker the shields...

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The sweet taste of victory!

Dude, it was worth almost oversleeping for work the next day. I moon-walked across my living room in my PJs

Everyone needs to play this game. It will train you to work under pressure.

It will also train you to work in zero pressure... Specifically a lifeless vacuum.

I want to wait for iPad. Because I hate buying games twice, and this seems perfect for iPad, and they've said they might make it for iPad, and please, oh please, make it for iPad!

FUKKIN' NEBULAS.

I've yet to beat the last boss yet but that cloak ship is awesome

I really need to unlock that cloak ship...

CrimsonSoul said:

I've yet to beat the last boss yet but that cloak ship is awesome

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Yeah. Awesome. I love starting with no shields.

Give me the mantis ship. At first I was like "LOL LOSER, your weapons suck". But then something whispered, "Board and eviscerate them" .

And all was well.

I can never seem to unlock that ship... I only ever encounter it when I'm not specced to properly seize it.

How do you get the cloak?

Officer_Charon said:

I can never seem to unlock that ship... I only ever encounter it when I'm not specced to properly seize it.

How do you get the cloak?

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The cloak ship you get from the engies. I just unlocked the rock ship it's starts with missles. I dunno If I like it though

FTL is 75% off, $2.49 today at steam:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/212680/