FTL: Faster Than Light

[Ruldra]

Just want to bring awareness to this awesome game.

FTL is a roguelike set in space. You control a cruiser ship, and you have to travel across 8 sectors to make it to the end. As you play you can unlock more ships, and each one has different room layouts and starting weapons and equipment. In total you have 28 ships to choose from.

There's a lot of strategy during ship-to-ship combat. You can disable the enemy shields with ion weaponry, use remote-controlled drones to shoot it down, use a teleporter to board the enemy ship with your crew, or just blast it away with a ton of weaponry. There's also environmental hazards, like solar flares which will start fires inside your ship (open the airlocks and suck the air out to put them out), or asteroid fields that will constantly hit you shields and hull.

There's also a whole bunch of non-combat events, in which your choices can give you rewards or lead to the death of a crewmember, for example.

In true roguelike fashion, all sectors, events and enemy encounters are randomized, and if you die you have to start over.

If you played this game back when it was released, a couple of months ago they released an update which adds a lot of new stuff, including a new ship and a type C layout for every other ship in the game. A hard difficulty setting was included too.

There's no demo to try it out, but I assure you it's a game worth your money. Check some videos on youtube first if you like.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQ4FRcu_bjs

The game is currently on sale: $7. Buy it here: http://www.ftlgame.com/

Feel free to talk about strategies and stuff too. I've been playing non-stop for a while now and could help you out if needed.

[BryanM]

Man I loved For The Lose games.



Some hardcore stuff there, yo.

[Eno]

I got tired of it pretty fast after I discovered the exploit to grind your crew to max rank with ships that can't penetrate your shields. Still couldn't clear easy mode, pathetic, I know.
Haven't played it ever since the expansion came out, will give it a try later.

[Ruldra]

I got tired of it pretty fast after I discovered the exploit to grind your crew to max rank with ships that can't penetrate your shields.

The benefit you'll get from grinding is pretty small and will hardly affect the outcome of the run. Over the course of the game your crew will reach max level anyway so you really don't need to do that.

[Lord Satori]

To hell with sliced bread, this game is the best thing since fire!

[Mischief Maker]

Captures the feel of Star Trek battles better than the official Star Trek games did.

But I HATE the new subsystems if you have advanced content on. What on Earth do ion weapons do that shield-ignoring hacking doesn't do more efficiently? And don't get me started on the mind control station.

But the vanilla FTL is better than ever!

[BPzeBanshee]

Yeah I've been giving this game a bit of a spin too. Got it gifted to me and it seemed like a good way to get the mind going.

Pisses me off something shocking every time I lose though. You think you're all set and then the RNG decides "nope, you're in for a downward spiral to GAME OVER now".

[Lord Satori]

I think the worst is when everything goes smoothly until the last stand generates an area that completely screws you over, and you're left facing the flagship with about 5 bars left.

[Moniker]

Really like this game. Haven't played it much since it came out (I marathoned it until I won on Normal), but it's definitely solid and inventive roguelike goodness. A bit more random than I tend to enjoy. May have to revisit. The requirements for unlocking all the different ships was too much of a pain.. and why I eventually moved on.

[Ruldra]

The requirements for unlocking all the different ships was too much of a pain.. and why I eventually moved on.

The fact that every ship brings something new to the table kept me motivated to unlock most of them. At the very least you should unlock the Mantis Cruiser. Boarding the enemy ship with Mantis is incredibly fun.

[Eno]

I got tired of it pretty fast after I discovered the exploit to grind your crew to max rank with ships that can't penetrate your shields.

The benefit you'll get from grinding is pretty small and will hardly affect the outcome of the run. Over the course of the game your crew will reach max level anyway so you really don't need to do that.

I was probably doing something very wrong then. Doing the exploit dramatically increased my progress. Doesn't matter much because it seems they fixed it on the expansion, most sector 1 and 2 ships I bumped into have ion, bomb or missiles now.

Anyway, does any of you guys play with mods? I didn't even know they existed until a friend recommended me one today. Downloading it atm, seems interesting, one of the optional features is a procedural weapon generation system which is something I'm a big sucker for(I feel for the game balance, however). Mod page, for those interested.

[Lord Satori]

I discovered mods recently, as well. I don't have very many yet, though.

[Icarus]

The closest I've come to clearing this on Normal was when I accidentally acquired the Zoltan Shield quite late on, and managed to get to phase 3 of the final boss with it before it cleaned me out.
The final boss is mean stuff. :<
The game is really good, easily one of the best time-wasters you can buy. I have it on iPad for the commute and work breaks. :3

[Mischief Maker]

Important tip for the final boss:

Spoiler

Its 4 primary weapons are EACH manned by a single crewmember and cut off from the rest of the ship. If you can kill/incapacitate the crewmember and break the weapon, that gun's down for the duration of the fight (has to be rebroken each form). Incendiary weapons are great for this. I strongly recommend taking out the missile launcher first.

[Ruldra]

Spoiler

Fun fact: on Hard difficulty the Flagship's triple-laser and triple-missile are connected to the rest of the ship.

One thing often overlooked by new players is how good evasion is. Upgrade those engines and missiles become a lot less deadly.

[Moniker]

Important tip for the final boss:

Spoiler

Its 4 primary weapons are manned by a single crewmember and cut off from the rest of the ship. If you can kill/incapacitate the crewmember and break the weapon, that gun's down for the duration of the fight (has to be rebroken each form). Incendiary weapons are great for this. I strongly recommend taking out the missile launcher first.

I usually get those disabled by disabled by teleporting folks in. Gets around that annoying cloaking problem. Gotta be sure to zap them back out before the end of the fight, though.

[Lord Satori]

Important tip for the final boss:

Spoiler

Its 4 primary weapons are manned by a single crewmember and cut off from the rest of the ship. If you can kill/incapacitate the crewmember and break the weapon, that gun's down for the duration of the fight (has to be rebroken each form). Incendiary weapons are great for this. I strongly recommend taking out the missile launcher first.

Which crew member? There are 4 slots. Are you saying these slots are an illusion and destroying any of them will work?

Spoiler

Fun fact: on Hard difficulty the Flagship's triple-laser and triple-missile are connected to the rest of the ship.

One thing often overlooked by new players is how good evasion is. Upgrade those engines and missiles become a lot less deadly.

This makes sense, but it's hard to do this because shields and weapons are important as well.

[LtC]

I got into the game when advanced edition came out.

I absolutely loved it and beat it on hard with every single ship, I think all I missed was a few achievements. I also played a bit of Captain's Edition mod and after getting tired with the main game it was very enjoyable, even though it has some balance issues. Captain's Edition on hard is tough as hell compared to the vanilla and I only beat it three times.

My biggest complaint about the game was that it only had one end game scenario you always ended in. Would have been more interesting if it was more like Darius since with only one end the branching paths feel like wasted potential.

[Ruldra]

I absolutely loved it and beat it on hard with every single ship, I think all I missed was a few achievements.

Holy shit, awesome. I'm trying to beat hard mode in vanilla FTL but I've yet to reach the final boss. The scrap rewards are so small it's really making things complicated for me. Currently trying to do it with the Fed Cruiser B.

Which ship would you say is the easiest to beat hard mode?

[goldenegg]

For some reason, I was never able to get in to this game on the PC, while I can't stop playing the iPad port. I think it just lends itself to being a touch screen game.

[LtC]

I absolutely loved it and beat it on hard with every single ship, I think all I missed was a few achievements.

Holy shit, awesome. I'm trying to beat hard mode in vanilla FTL but I've yet to reach the final boss. The scrap rewards are so small it's really making things complicated for me. Currently trying to do it with the Fed Cruiser B.

Which ship would you say is the easiest to beat hard mode?

Fed B was actually the first ship I cleared hard with. It's not one of the easier ships though as far as I can remember. I think the best ships were Starter ships (Kerstel?) A and B and the Mantis ships. Stealth B is a beast as well if you can get past the first few sectors. I think Fed A and Rock B were good as well but I forgot what layout they had.

On hard what you really need to do is plan your jumps extremely carefully and you need to explore every beacon even if it means you have to jump through rebel fleet 3 times to get back to the exit beacon. Be sure to take full advantage of any nebula you can. Long range scanners are the most important thing you can buy and you should not even bother with scrap recovery arm. In general most augments should be sold as soon as possible. Luck plays a factor but even with relatively bad weapons the game is still beatable if you have played optimally. Most important sector to plan out is the last stand because it has biggest rewards. You basically want to explore as many beacons as possible before facing the flagship and running out of time. Once you beat hard few times it becomes a lot easier to get through it. I struggled more to get my first hard clear than with the harder ships like Engi B, Stealth C and Zoltan C.

For some reason, I was never able to get in to this game on the PC, while I can't stop playing the iPad port. I think it just lends itself to being a touch screen game.

You can't use all the hotkeys on iPad though, can you? I don't think I could handle all the touch screen clicking myself, especially how much faster everything is to do with proper hotkeys

[Illyrian]

A note about this game:

The rank is detirmined by how much money you have. Avoiding stockpiling too much money wherever possible is a good idea. Also, once rank goes up it never goes down again.

If you want to see this in action for yourself, cheat the game files and see how much more difficult the game gets with more starting credits.

[Moniker]

Dammit, now I'm hooked again. Played the Zoltan ship on easy to get me back into things; breezed through the whole game until voila: pummeled by the Drone form of the final boss. I remember having trouble with that when I first started playing, but don't really remember what I did to counter.. Probably should've pummeled the Drone Control center with ion bombs... forgot I had 'em.

[Ruldra]

Picked the wrong fight with my Fed B ship and died because of it. Then tried using the Kestrel A and the run can only be described as miserable.

Then tried the Zoltan A and came out of sector 1 unscathed and with almost 150 scrap. Never had such a good start on hard mode before. Halberd beam kills sector 1 ships pretty quickly and the super shield stop those annoying missiles. If I can get good starts like this consistently, then this may be my ship of choice to get my first hard clear. Ironic because I hate playing as Zoltan.

pummeled by the Drone form of the final boss. I remember having trouble with that when I first started playing, but don't really remember what I did to counter.

What pisses me off the most during Phase 2 isn't the swarm of combat/beam drones, but the damn boarding drones. That's why I try to always have Defense I for this fight. Not only it shoots down missiles, but also boarding and hacking drones. Makes your life much easier.

[Moniker]

Zoltan definitely makes the early game easier. Free shields, good starting weapons, and 3 extra power. My main beef with Zoltan A is the ship layout. Only one set of doors, so putting out fires is a bitch, especially w/ the Zoltan low HP. IIRC, I was most consistently successful with the Torus (which starts with a drone, I think?).

Really like the new scattershot weapons in the expansion. Seemed pretty overpowered on Easy, since it knocks out all shields, and then you get to followup with whatever. Gonna give another run on Easy and try to better prepare for the Attack of the Drones.

[Lord Satori]

My biggest issue is mod compatibility. The developer really should have integrated it in better. I have no way of knowing (aside from mods released after AE) whether or not it will even work.

[Moniker]

Dang. Had to two sections of ship, including my O2 compartment, opened to vacuum to put out fires, then the O2 got knocked out by a missile. Lost all but two crew members (was maxed out before). Made it to a store but couldn't afford any new crew members, just some repairs. It was a Zoltan ship and I no longer had any Zoltans to boost my energy. Fled two fights and died on the third.

It also seems necessary in the expansion to have hacking just to counter hacking events. Don't know that it helps all that much on the offensive side. I was expecting an ion weapon-type effect. Instead it seems to just lock the crew member out of whatever computer is being targeted.

[Zaarock]

It also seems necessary in the expansion to have hacking just to counter hacking events. Don't know that it helps all that much on the offensive side. I was expecting an ion weapon-type effect. Instead it seems to just lock the crew member out of whatever computer is being targeted.

You need to push the power button next to the hacking bar to actually activate it. It's sort of like an ion, generally it disables or reverses the action of the system it's attached to for some time. It's very useful to hack piloting, since that way you can drop the evasion of any ship down to 0% even before removing their shields.

[Ruldra]

Note to self: after you complete Phase 2, pursue the Flagship, let 4 enemy crewmembers board your ship, retreat back to base, kill them and then wait for the boss to come at you for an easy Phase 3.

Just had a game ruined because I forgot this tip. Had this win in the bag

[Ruldra]

There you go, victory on hard...with the Mantis B. I was reluctant to use this one as I wasn't sure how to deal with enemy medbays, but in the end a group of 4 Mantis is pretty much unstoppable. Boarding is far more useful than I thought.

(Don't mind me, I like posting pics. Everything is better with them.)

Spoiler

Will play a bit more with the other ships for kicks and then move on.