FTL: A space based roguelike

[zespri]

Thank you every one for advice.

So after 14 hours "played" I finally got to sector 5 for the first time =) At this time I'm not yet concerned about the final boss fight, I'm more concerned how to reliably get there. I agree about luck, because one "bad" encounter can ruin so far a good run.

So regarding the ship I'm using - it's the default ship, since I unlocked Engl just now. My usual strategy is this. (Of course it also depends on what drops / is in stores)

Since in the first sectors the enemy shields are pretty weak and you rarely encounters missiles I usually put the default Burst Laser II on auto-fire and aim at weapons. After a couple of victories I upgrade shields and from now on I start aiming at shields instead, since first sectors fire does not penetrate shields as a rule but hitting shields makes the fight shorter.

Next couple of sectors I keep using this strategy, adding missiles into the mix when a ship has two bubbles of shield and mean missiles.  Note, that the default burst laser can go through even 2 bubbles a lot of time, it just does it more slowly. When I use lasers and missiles in combo, autofire does not work as well, so I have to time it manually.

My crew is usually at helm / shield / weapon.

I'm constantly quite frustrated at the randomness of choice at stores. Guys, I have no idea where you get better weapon. During my 14 hours of play I found something better than default just about 4-5 times, and only once a better laser (the other times it was missiles, or bombs, or beams).

When I get to a store the first thing I usually do is to repair hull. And then I usually have no idea what to by (or what to upgrade on the ship). Weapon sucks. Sometimes there is a useful subsystem (such as teleport) and once I found an augmentation that heals every where on the ship not just in medi bay and another time there was augmentation that has weapons charged up immediately when you surface from a jump.

But most of the time what is in store does not look all that useful. I usually by crew in my experience it's available quite often, more often than weapon. If I lucky enough to get a teleport subsystem then I have some fun with the boarding.

Sooner or later I get killed, because I don't have enough firepower.

What I'm doing wrong?

[madcow]

That's basically the same issues I have. I try to missile only the shields to bring it down while using lasers on the weapons.

[Mánagarmr]

Stores are hit and miss. Most useful weapons I get, I get from simply finding them in space, or buying from weapon traders that pass me by. Stores are for stocking up and repairing, usually.

I would also suggest not going TOO heavy on shields, as shields are completely open to missiles. Rather try to place your first crew on Helm, weapons and engines. Don't underestimate the extra 10% dodge from even an unskilled engine crew. Investing points into engines allows you to avoid a LOT of damage by mid game.

[madcow]

Stores are hit and miss. Most useful weapons I get, I get from simply finding them in space, or buying from weapon traders that pass me by. Stores are for stocking up and repairing, usually.

I would also suggest not going TOO heavy on shields, as shields are completely open to missiles. Rather try to place your first crew on Helm, weapons and engines. Don't underestimate the extra 10% dodge from even an unskilled engine crew. Investing points into engines allows you to avoid a LOT of damage by mid game.

Interesting, my tactic has always been shield heavy defense, ignoring engines altogether really. I'll give this a try.

[Wingflier]

If you're going heavy shields then make sure you have an Defense Drone to shoot down the missiles.  Otherwise it's better to just get level 2 shields and upgrade your engine until like Sector 8.

[Mánagarmr]

If you're going heavy shields then make sure you have an Defense Drone to shoot down the missiles.  Otherwise it's better to just get level 2 shields and upgrade your engine until like Sector 8.

This I've found as well. Combo it with a cloak and you are untouchable for large portions of the fight. Naturally, if you go engine heavy, you are instead very susceptible to Beam type weapons as they have an inherent 100% accuracy, regardless of dodge.

[icepick37]

Burst 2 is like the best weapon in the game. Burst 3 takes longer to charge and isn't as good as two burst 2's. Though finding another burst 2 is usually hard.  :p

So best weapons loadouts are either straght pew pew (ie some form or laser) or else a combo of laser and beam.

Or bombs. Ion bomb is king of bombs. Just bomb down some of their shields, then lay in with lasers or laser/beam combo. Missiles are the same, but they are susceptible to def drones. So I usually drop them for bombs when/if I can.

I also like ion builds, but they kind of depend on drones for damage. Two ion burst 2's is mind-numbingly effective, but any combination of ion 2 and some other ion will work almost as good.

[eRe4s3r]

dual ion MK2 and dual drone attack is one of the 100% win strategies (beats boss usually before phase 3)

Sadly, I found this combo in playthrough 2...

[keith.lamothe]

dual ion MK2 and dual drone attack is one of the 100% win strategies

Unless the attacker nails your drone room and/or weapons room

[Mánagarmr]

dual ion MK2 and dual drone attack is one of the 100% win strategies

Unless the attacker nails your drone room and/or weapons room

Yeah, that strategy dies fast to concentrated boarding efforts, especially those bloody boarding drones. Missiles are also an issue. Especially Pegasus.

[LaughingThesaurus]

Is it just me or would a PvP game formatted like this one not be so bad? Moonshine, you totally inspired that thought.

[Mánagarmr]

Is it just me or would a PvP game formatted like this one not be so bad? Moonshine, you totally inspired that thought.

It has been mentioned on the FTL forums, I think. At least a multiplayer variant.

[LaughingThesaurus]

That honestly does not surprise me. That human element could make for very interesting combat for me to watch at least.

[eRe4s3r]

dual ion MK2 and dual drone attack is one of the 100% win strategies

Unless the attacker nails your drone room and/or weapons room

that's bad-luck That would lose you the game in nearly any situation anyway, no matter your equipment.

[Wingflier]

So I just did something that I didn't even think was possible:  Beat the final boss with only 2 crew members.

At this point I've become so proficient at FTL that it typically doesn't hold my interest as a lone activity, but as something I do while doing something else which also doesn't hold my interest as a lone activity (such as talking on the phone).  Don't get me wrong, I like talking on the phone, and I like playing FTL, but neither of them alone really uses my full brain power for the most part, so I start getting incredibly bored unless I'm doing them both simultaneously.

In Sector 7 or so, I started getting into a deep part of the conversation during some major ship fire + boarding attack, and lost 2 of my important crew members (a Zoltan and a Human).  Unfortunately the human was my level 2 weapons guy (OUCH), and the Zoltan was my engine guy (bye free energy).  After the battle ended, I considered restarting the game because I knew it wasn't possible to win with just 2 crew members, even if my Stealth Ship was pretty tricked out with weapons and gear.

My weapons (probably the best setup I've had so far against the boss [well it would have to be to win with 2 crew members]) were an MK3 Burst Laser, a Small Bomb, and a Lance Beam.  At the beginning of the battle I would cloak my ship (Level 2 - so 10 seconds), then when that ended, I put the Bomb into the Shield Bay.  After Bomb exploded, I would hit the Shield Bay with my 5 Burst Lasers.  Then I would Lance the ship, making sure to hit the shields in the process.  I also had a nice Beam Drone making chopped sushi with the enemy ship once the shields went down.  Against the boss it typically took two volleys to get the shields permanently down (so that my Beam Drone could go to work), then after that I just ripped him to shreds.

After the second phase of the boss fight, I got extremely lucky and found a second Engi as part of a random scenario, on the way to a healing station before the last fight.  I'm not sure I could have won the last fight without that 2nd Engi, and without some luck in terms of not losing the wrong subsystems at the wrong time.