| 1 | All factions and races in VideoGame/FTLFasterThanLight. |
| 2 | |
| 3 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 4 | |
| 5 | !Factions |
| 6 | [[folder:The Federation]] |
| 7 | !The Federation |
| 8 | TheFederation is a formerly-great alliance of alien species, now fractured and on the brink of destruction at the hands of the Rebels. What few ships and bases that remain are under siege by both Rebels and pirates, but they will help you if they can. The player's goal is to reach and defend the Federation base in Sector 8, The Last Stand.\ |
| 9 | |
| 10 | The most common Federation member species are the humans, followed by the Engi, Zoltan, Rockmen, Mantis, and a few Slugs. All of these alien races however have sizable populations outside of the Federation, with the Rock and Zoltan homeworlds being self-governing, the Mantis being split among various warcamps, and the Engi living in nomadic bands. As of ''Advanced Edition'', some members of the newly-reawakened Lanius species have also aligned themselves with the Federation.\ |
| 11 | |
| 12 | The Federation makes use of the refitted Kestrel Cruisers (The Kestrel, Red-Tail,[[note]]Kestrel B[[/note]] and The Swallow[[note]]Kestrel C[[/note]]), the advanced Federation Cruisers (The Osprey,[[note]]Federation A[[/note]] Nisos,[[note]]Federation B[[/note]] and The Fregatidae[[note]] Federation C [[/note]]) and the Engi-built prototype Stealth Cruisers (The Nesasio,[[note]]Stealth A[[/note]] DA-SR 12,[[note]]Stealth B[[/note]] and Simo-H[[note]]Stealth C[[/note]]). Smaller Federation Scouts and Federation Bombers are also occasionally seen as non-player ships, usually commandeered by pirates in the wake of the Federation's fall. Federation ships in service have a simple white paint scheme with orange stripes, although most of the playable ships have varied color schemes with only the type A Kestrel and Osprey featuring default Federation livery. |
| 13 | ---- |
| 14 | !!Tropes relating to the Federation and its ships include: |
| 15 | * AchillesHeel: The Stealth Cruisers already have a hard time staying alive due to the lack of starting shields, but they are ''especially'' vulnerable to beam weapons, due to having no shields and beams being [[AlwaysAccurateAttack 100% accurate]]. Activating the cloak will only delay the firing of beam weapons instead of making them miss. Beam drones are even worse, since they ''constantly fire''; seeing one in the first sector [[PressStartToGameOver may as well summon the game over screen]]. |
| 16 | * TheAlliance: The Federation is exactly this, an alliance between pretty much all races and sentient species, human and alien. |
| 17 | * ArmorPiercingAttack: The Osprey and Nisos' Artillery Beam weapons ignore shields, but cannot be manually aimed to make up for it. |
| 18 | * BreakOutTheMuseumPiece: The Kestrel is an old model retooled for a desperate mission. |
| 19 | * FailedState: At the start of the game, the Federation is all but defeated, with only the starting hangar, a few scattered bases and a single sector left under their control. Even in sectors that have yet to fully fall under rebel control, federal authority is weakened to the point of non-existence, with rebels and pirates rampaging and harassing the locals largely unopposed. Things aren't much better in the final Federal sector either, with the rebels already in the process of overrunning the place by the time the player gets there. |
| 20 | * TheFederation: It's in the name. |
| 21 | * FragileSpeedster: The Nesasio starts with four levels of engine power (with a pilot and zero-rank engine officer in place, that bumps up the evade rate to 30%, which is pretty high for a starting ship) and fast weapons (that can, in conjunction with Cloaking, disable most early game enemies' offensive capabilities without taking major damage), but the ship has no shields. |
| 22 | * GlassCannon: |
| 23 | ** In a sense, the Nesasio. It can do a surprising amount of damage to early-game ships if you know how to manipulate the Mini Beam's path to maximize the number of rooms hit (beam damage is based on number of rooms hit times beam power, as opposed to being directly based on the length of the beam), and its weapons charge pretty quickly. [[FragileSpeedster But with no starting shields, it relies on combining a strong engine with a cloak to reduce its chances of getting hit, rather than blocking attacks entirely.]] |
| 24 | ** The DA-SR 12, sacrificing engine power and fast-charge weapons for a stronger cloak and powerful Glaive Beam. Once again, it has no shields, relying on its cloaking and the OneHitKill power of its Glaive Beam to carry it through early sectors, until a shield system can be installed. The in-game ship description even references the trope name. |
| 25 | * JackOfAllStats: The Kestrel Cruisers, all of which are extremely adaptable and easy to handle. |
| 26 | * LastStand: They are having one in Sector 8, but they can win if you destroy the rebel flagship. |
| 27 | * MultinationalTeam: More like a Multispecies Team. The Federation includes members from every race, and many of their ships start with multi-species crew. The Slugs are generally shunned by the Federation because of their ConMan antics, but even still, a few of them are seen as ship crew, mostly because of how useful their telepathy can be in tactical situations. |
| 28 | * TheRemnant: There isn't much left of the Federation during the game's events, only a few scattered outposts and ships, the Hangar in which the game begins, and the last Federation Base making their Last Stand in the final Sector. |
| 29 | * ShoutOut: The default name of the Stealth B (DA-SR 12) references the Normandy SR-2 of ''Franchise/MassEffect''. Further supporting this is the fact that its starting weapon is the Glaive Beam, which is similar to the Normandy SR-2's Thanix Cannons. |
| 30 | * ShinyLookingSpaceships: The Stealth Cruisers. |
| 31 | * StealthInSpace: Their Stealth A and B cruisers come pre-installed with a cloaking device (whereas most other ships have to buy it at a shop for 150 scrap), letting them more easily dodge attacks, however this comes at the cost of a pre-installed shield system. Averted with the Stealth C ship, which swaps out the cloak for a Shield Overcharger+. |
| 32 | * SuspiciousVideoGameGenerosity: Right as you reach the Last Stand, they give you a major hull repair and restock some of your resources on the house, and there are repair nodes throughout the sector that will give you more supplies and repairs, also free of charge. You will likely need all of this help, because this sector has you fight the [[FinalBoss Rebel Flagship]]. |
| 33 | * VestigialEmpire: The Federation is in shambles thanks to the successful Rebel uprising, and your entire mission is to reestablish contact with the isolated main fleet. |
| 34 | * WaveMotionGun: The Stealth B's Glaive Beam qualifies, as does the Artillery Beam of the Federation Cruisers A and B. |
| 35 | [[/folder]] |
| 36 | |
| 37 | [[folder:The Rebels]] |
| 38 | !The Rebels |
| 39 | [[quoteright:135:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rebel_4734.png]] |
| 40 | The Rebels are a large, technologically advanced, organized faction of militaristic humans. It is implied that a large section of the Federation's former human populace became what is now the Rebellion, which seeks to overthrow the Federation. The Rebel fleet has already destroyed most of the Federation, and relentlessly hunts down the player throughout the game. Should the Rebel fleet overtake a beacon, the standard event located at that beacon will be replaced by a fight against a powerful Rebel Elite Fighter, with practically no rewards for victory. The fleet thus serves as an AdvancingWallOfDoom, forcing the player to move on to the next sector and continue with their mission, and limiting the time available in which to explore each sector.\ |
| 41 | |
| 42 | As the Rebels are a human faction, their crews are composed entirely of humans. Rebels make use of diverse and advanced technology, with their Riggers utilizing drone technology on par with the Engi, and Fighters possessing heavy weaponry of all known types, as well as teleporters for boarding actions. The Rebels also field a large fleet of fully automated ships which serve as scouts for their main fleet (the Auto-Scouts), but are sometimes armed well enough to be legitimate fighters on their own (Auto-Assaults). These automated ships possess no life support, since they have no crew, and can thus only be defeated by destroying their hulls. As of Advanced Edition, Rebel ships now utilize Clone Bays, Hacking and Mind-Control, as well as dangerous Flak weaponry and the Vulcan laser.\ |
| 43 | |
| 44 | Finally, the Rebels possess perhaps the largest and most powerful ship in the game, the Rebel Flagship, which serves as the game's FinalBoss. Defeating it is the player's ultimate mission, and is vital to the survival of the Federation. |
| 45 | ---- |
| 46 | !!Tropes relating to the Rebels, including their ships and flagship, include: |
| 47 | * AchillesHeel: Their AI ships and the Rebel Flagship's AI can't repair hull breaches, and the game engine doesn't allow repairing damaged systems that are in the same room as a hull breach; the breach has to be repaired first. In other words, turning a system red and breaching its associated room means you've effectively permanently destroyed that system, unless you jump away and come back. |
| 48 | * AdvancingBossOfDoom: |
| 49 | ** Their fleet acts as this, forcing the player to keep moving or face being overwhelmed by unlimited numbers of powerful ships. |
| 50 | ** The flagship acts as this in the final level. If it reaches the Federation base you get a game over. ''Advanced Edition'' makes it so the Flagship has to be there for three turns, which makes this much less likely to happen. The base starts out further away, though, so they'll probably reach the base at least once, then retreat. |
| 51 | * AlienInvasion: Inverted; they want to invade alien territories, and they're doing a damn good job of it. |
| 52 | * BeamSpam: One of its phase 3 power surges fires a large volley of lasers at your ship. |
| 53 | * BigBad: Whatever leader the Rebels may have is not mentioned or presented to us, so the faction as a whole serves this role. There are other factions and individual ships that try to kill you, but you are constantly being pursued by the main Rebel fleet and the goal of the game is to help the Federation bring them down. |
| 54 | * ClippedWingAngel: The third phase of the flagship makes up for its lost weapons with a powerful Zoltan shield (that will occasionally be restored) and a BeamSpam LimitBreak, but it has less normal weaponry and likely has less crew to play with this far into the battle. |
| 55 | * TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: Some enemy ships on Normal and Hard can pack as many as ''five'' layers of shields when you yourself can carry only four. Elite Fighters can also have up to 10 weapon power, whereas the player ship can only have 8. |
| 56 | * ContractualBossImmunity: If you kill all of the human crew members on the Rebel Flagship, an AI takes over to keep fighting. You have to destroy the ship outright. |
| 57 | * DayOfTheJackboot: They defeated the military of TheFederation and occupied much (but not all) of its former territory, causing a [[VestigialEmpire massive power vacuum]] that [[CrapsackWorld messed up the galaxy pretty bad.]] |
| 58 | * DeadManSwitch: If you completely kill the crew of the Rebel Flagship, the Flagship's A.I. takes over and repairs its systems. |
| 59 | * DidntNeedThoseAnyway: The Flagship loses the cloak, hacking and triple ion cannon after the first phase, then the drones and Halberd beam after the second. It can still fight very effectively without them. |
| 60 | * FantasticRacism: At best, they are apathetic towards the other species. A few are openly racist and seem to believe in human-supremacy. They are, however, on relatively good terms with the Zoltans. |
| 61 | * FashionableAsymmetry: Their ''Rigger'' and ''Disruptor'' class fighters have a RamScoop in the middle and an offset cockpit. |
| 62 | * FinalBoss: The Rebel Flagship. [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] in that it's the only mandatory boss in the game. There are lesser bosses in the game, [[OptionalBoss but none of them are necessary to complete the game]]; most of them provide UnlockableContent when beaten. |
| 63 | * FinalBossPreview: Before fighting the Rebel Flagship at the end of the game, those who visit the Rebel Stronghold can find and fight a [[spoiler:second one in drydock. It is in very unfinished condition when you find it, missing many systems, weapons and crew.]] |
| 64 | * FinalExamBoss: The Rebel Flagship employs basically every form of attack and defense in the game. ''Advanced Edition'' gives it a few new tricks, though with all the additional content it isn't able to use everything. |
| 65 | * KeystoneArmy: Despite the overwhelming strength of the Rebel fleet, Federation victory will be assured if you destroy the flagship (even if the player dies in the process). |
| 66 | * HumanityIsAdvanced: Mildly. The Rebels possess every form of system and technology known in the game. Their automation and drone technology is advanced even beyond that of the Engi. |
| 67 | * HumansAreTheRealMonsters: The Rebels like to heavy-handedly [[DeadlyEuphemism "keep the peace"]] over any and all alien settlements in sectors they've captured. |
| 68 | * LightningBruiser: |
| 69 | ** The Auto-Assault drones, particularly in later sectors, tend to have very dangerous weapons, very high evasion rates, and on Normal and Hard, up to [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard five layers of shields]]. |
| 70 | ** The [[FinalBoss Rebel Flagship]] has four very dangerous weapons, four layers of shields, plenty of hull integrity that it restores twice before being destroyed for good, and a very high evasion rate. |
| 71 | * LimitBreak: In its second and third phases the flagship periodically has a power surge, which releases a swarm of drones (phase 2), lasers (phase 3), or restores the ship's Zoltan Shield (phase 3). |
| 72 | * MacrossMissileMassacre: The Flagship can fire ''three'' missiles per volley, unlike almost any other NPC ship in the game.[[note]]Player ships can pick up Swarm Missiles with the Advanced Edition enabled, which ''can'' fire up to three weak missiles; and Pegasus Missiles regardless of AE, which fires two strong missiles. [[spoiler:The other NPC ship that can do so is the aforementioned second Flagship.]][[/note]] |
| 73 | * MookChivalry: Averted by the Elite Fighters in ''Advanced Edition'', who will fight you one-on-one like any ship encounter in the game, but will take the support of Anti-Ship Batteries mounted on distant cruisers, which pierce all shields and do heavy damage as well as a guaranteed hull breach if they hit. |
| 74 | * NonStandardGameOver: One achieved by letting the [[FinalBoss Rebel Flagship]] reach the Federation Base. |
| 75 | --> "The Rebel Fleet is within range of the Federation Base. All is lost, they've won." |
| 76 | * OptionalBoss: [[spoiler:A second Rebel Flagship that's under construction]] can be encountered in the Rebel Stronghold. [[spoiler:It has the same layout as the normal Flagship on Hard difficulty phase 3, but without the benefit of its [[LimitBreak power surge]]. Defeating it delays Rebel encroachment for two turns and rewards you with a lot of resources, along with the Federation cruiser if it has not been unlocked yet.]] |
| 77 | * TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized: They enact their rebellion through violent and brutal warfare against all non-human races, as well as humans sympathetic to TheFederation. |
| 78 | * SecretAIMoves: |
| 79 | ** The AI drones and flagship don't need crew to survive, and some ships can have 5 shields whereas 4 is the usual limit. |
| 80 | ** The flagship also has several unique weapons, including a triple missile and triple ion gun (while ''Advanced Edition'' added similar weapons for the player, they are less potent). It's also the only non-Zoltan ship to have a Zoltan Shield, and the only ship that can restore it when it goes down. |
| 81 | * SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil: They are openly stated to enslave the various aliens they encounter. |
| 82 | * TimeLimitBoss: During the [[FinalBoss Last Stand]], a counter shows how many jumps the Rebel Flagship has left before it reaches the Federation Base. In vanilla ''FTL'', if the Flagship reaches the Base, it's a NonStandardGameOver, although defeating one of its forms will force it to retreat for a little bit. In ''Advanced Edition'', if the Flagship reaches the Federation Base, you're allowed 3 turns to let it stay there before you lose; defeating its first or second form will force it to retreat and reset the counter back to 3 when it comes back. |
| 83 | * TooDumbToLive: Occasionally in asteroid fields, you'll encounter a Rebel Scout...that has no shielding. It's not known whether this is the result of ArtificialStupidity or human controller error, but at any rate, [[WinsByDoingAbsolutelyNothing it'll blow up without requiring any offensive effort on your part]]. |
| 84 | * TurnsRed: Killing all of the crew members on the Flagship causes an AI to take over, which provides a default crewman manning bonus to every system, and slowly repairs any damaged systems. |
| 85 | * WeaksauceWeakness: |
| 86 | ** The flagship's conventional weapons are each in isolated rooms guarded by single humans (who don't respawn between phases), meaning even a weak boarding crew can make short work of defenders and take the weapon offline. Furthermore, if you can manage to kill the main crew despite their level 3 medbay (not easy since there's eight of them, not counting the weapon room crew), you can easily take out their shields and piloting system, making the fight a breeze.[[note]]Averted in Hard difficulty, where the two primary weapons are now connected to the rest of the ship, meaning the tried and true strategy of killing everyone but the guy on the plasma cannon isn't quite as viable as it once was. Now if you want to leave at least one guy alive, he'll be running around the ship fixing things (certainly better than the AI doing it, though). The FinalBossPreview version also has connected weapon rooms, but without a backup AI, killing the crew means you win.[[/note]] |
| 87 | ** The Flagship AI takes over repairs if the entire crew is defeated. What it won't repair, however, is hull breaches, just like with the automated ships. A breach in a system room blocks the associated system from being repaired. Conclusion: Breach Bombing an AI-controlled Flagship on the last phase ensures that whatever systems are associated with the breached rooms will never, ''ever'' get repaired, at least unless you jump away. |
| 88 | [[/folder]] |
| 89 | |
| 90 | [[folder:Pirates]] |
| 91 | !Pirates |
| 92 | [[quoteright:117:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ftlpirate_4416.png]] |
| 93 | Pirates have little involvement in the war between the Federation and the Rebels, and instead make a living for themselves by hijacking ships and plundering other ships for spoils.\ |
| 94 | |
| 95 | Pirate crews and their slaves come in most races, and pilot all kinds of ships; a pirate Rebel Fighter, for example, will often have non-human crew, whereas non-pirated Rebel ships only have human crew. |
| 96 | ---- |
| 97 | !!Tropes relating to pirates and the ships they use include: |
| 98 | * ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Pirate ships have crude purple paint stripes across the hull exterior. The Kestrel C gets a pirate paint job, and the Federation C gets one in black and red, as opposed to the standard purple splotches over the original color of the hull. |
| 99 | * EqualOpportunityEvil: Pirates can consist of any mix of the standard races. [[spoiler:However, you won't find [[SecretCharacter Crystal]] pirates outside of their own sector.)]] |
| 100 | * SlaveLiberation: Certain pirate ships are slaver ships, either offering to sell you a slave or demanding you turn over one of your crew as a slave. If reduced to low hull, they may offer you a slave as a surrender bribe. If you can kill the crew without destroying the ship, you can usually find a slave after the battle is over, though not always. You even get your pick of species if you're lucky. Finally, if you have an upgraded teleporter, you can try to beam a slave off their ship before the battle even starts (which will make them attack you), potentially netting you two new crew from one battle if you follow it up by killing the crew or forcing a surrender. |
| 101 | * SpacePirate: Obviously. |
| 102 | [[/folder]] |
| 103 | |
| 104 | !Playable Races |
| 105 | |
| 106 | [[folder:Humans]] |
| 107 | [[quoteright:100:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/6744116eb2fe3df723fbd0f274b35da7.png]] |
| 108 | ->Humans are common and uninteresting. |
| 109 | |
| 110 | Humans have average ability in all areas, but possess almost no special abilities or events. Their only benefit is that they learn skills slightly faster. Humans were the only race with multiple sprites (male and female) before the Advanced Edition, and can found in both TheFederation and as the only member species of the human-supremacist Rebels. For tropes relating to human-crewed ships, see the pages of those factions. |
| 111 | ---- |
| 112 | !!Humans feature the following tropes: |
| 113 | * BoringButPractical: As of the Advanced Update, the only bonus of using a human is a 10% reduction in the amount of points necessary to level up a skill. |
| 114 | * ButtMonkey: Humans often get the short end of the stick in various events. Unknown disease spreading around a mining colony? It's a colony of humans. Come across a station where the crew have gone mad? They're humans. Stranded crew's ship has been eaten by Lanius? The unlucky owners are human. Flavor text says there's even a cult whose goal is to get rid of "humanitis". |
| 115 | * CrutchCharacter: Finished maxing out the skill(s) on a human? They no longer have a special ability and most other races can fulfill a role better. Indeed, humans tend to be the first character kicked out of a full ship. |
| 116 | * HumansAreAverage: As the description notes, humans are [[JackOfAllStats competent at everything]] but have [[MasterOfNone almost no special attributes nor any special events]]. The Kestrel fits too, being the default ship with no special attributes, and only human crew. |
| 117 | * HumansAreDiplomats: Averted. Other species have multiple events where they convince others or use their powers to defuse a situation, but until ''Advanced Edition'', humans had none. Now they have one. Only one. [[spoiler:You can use a human to calm down a confused Mantis who believes he is human.]] |
| 118 | * HumansAreTheRealMonsters: They're behind the rebellion you are fighting, which wants to put all other species under its jackboots. This is averted on your end: the Federation was founded by humans and is composed mainly of humans. |
| 119 | * HumansAreSpecial: ''Advanced Edition'' gives humans a 10% increase in skill acquisition, fitting the usual "adaptability" archetype. |
| 120 | * MasterOfNone: Humans have no special abilities in ''FTL'' vanilla, and cannot trigger blue events by themselves. ''Advanced Edition'' attempts to correct this with the boost in skill mastery and a single blue event. |
| 121 | * NoPartyLikeADonnerParty: There're a couple of events where you'll come across a ship or station that seems deserted. If it is, you're a witness to the aftermath of the starving humans killing each other. If it isn't, you'll be fighting boarders and may even lose a crew member during the event. |
| 122 | * PowderKegCrowd: An event involves a disease spreading through a human colony. Everyone's panicked and on the verge of a riot, and the colony's leaders ask for your help. The only way you're successful at controlling the crowds without a blue option is by threatening them with your weapons. |
| 123 | * PunyEarthlings: "Humans are common and uninteresting." In the vanilla game, Slugs have the same average stats but come with telepathic abilities and several blue events. |
| 124 | ** Humans are also one of only two races not to have an augmentation with their name on it, the other being the Lanius. |
| 125 | * PurelyAestheticGender: A human can be represented by a male or female sprite in three different tones, while all the others sans Engi have only [[PaletteSwap Palette Swaps]]. The only differences between male and female humans are their cries upon death and the available default names to each gender - i.e. "Jon Caldwell" is always represented by a male sprite, and "Lana" is always represented by a female sprite. |
| 126 | * SupportPartyMember: Since they're not specialized to do anything, many players have them fill whatever system on the ship that needs someone, often doors or sensors. |
| 127 | [[/folder]] |
| 128 | |
| 129 | [[folder:Engi]] |
| 130 | [[quoteright:63:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/engi_444.png]] |
| 131 | ->It's unclear if the 'Engi' are partly organic or entirely mechanical, but it's well known that they make exceptional engineers. |
| 132 | |
| 133 | The Engi are a vaguely mechanical, semi-humanoid species whose bodies are composed of swarms of nanobots that collectively use a sort of aerobic metabolism. In gameplay, Engi have unparalleled repairing ability, fixing systems twice as quickly as a human could, but are awful combatants, doing half the damage that a human would (or a third of what a Mantis could do).\ |
| 134 | |
| 135 | Engi are masters of drone design and utilization, with the Engi Cruisers (The Torus,[[note]]Engi A[[/note]] The Vortex,[[note]]Engi B[[/note]] and Tetragon[[note]]Engi C[[/note]]) all starting with Drone Control systems and at least one drone schematic, and all of them have an extra drone slot at the cost of having one less weapon slot. Non-player Engi Scouts and Engi Bombers, sometimes encountered as enemies, also invariably field several drones. In addition, the Engi also have a penchant for ion weapons, which can disable shields to pave the way for drone, laser and beam attacks. And finally, in ''Advanced Edition'', they've taken up hacking. Engi ships are aesthetically utilitarian and boxy, but are also very compact and feature concise ring-shaped layouts.\ |
| 136 | |
| 137 | The Engi within the Federation military exist in an organization known as the Engi Brigade, headed by General Turzil. The Stealth Cruisers were also designed and built by the Engi under contract from the Federation. Engi are the second most common Federation member species, following the humans. Outside of the Federation, many Engi live in nomadic bands, and their 'homeworlds' are adoptive, for no one knows where they actually came from. Being a fairly docile, almost timid people, they are sometimes preyed on and enslaved by the marauding Mantis, who use them to repair their ships, a task which the Mantis themselves are not very competent at. |
| 138 | ---- |
| 139 | !!Engi and their ships feature the following tropes: |
| 140 | * AFormYouAreComfortableWith: Engi take a humanoid form, which many races are more comfortable with. It's mentioned that the Engi only form a bipedal shape "out of habit", instead of necessity. |
| 141 | * AmbiguousRobots: As the description notes, they show signs of being mechanical, but they'll die if there's no oxygen. |
| 142 | * AttackDrone: Engi ships begin with a 3-slot drone system and drones are the Engi A's only source of damage (at first). |
| 143 | * BizarreAlienReproduction: According to one event, Engi ships can themselves reproduce by, essentially, crashing into each other. |
| 144 | * BoringButPractical: |
| 145 | ** An in-universe example: Their ships are described as looking like boxy pieces of junk, yet highly efficient in suiting their needs. |
| 146 | ** Their passive doesn't augment combat in any direct fashion, instead repairing damage at a higher rate than other races, which can often make or break a battle just as much as enhanced HP, free energy, or improved hand-to-hand combat damage. |
| 147 | * TheEngineer: Engi know technology very well and are natural mechanics. In the game, they repair and put out fires faster than any other race and often employ drones and hacking systems in combat. |
| 148 | * TheMedic: Engi make terrible fighters but have doubled repair speed. Plus, they're immune to human diseases, making them perfect for curing infected space stations. An Engi augment also extends a weakened version of the Medbay's healing effect to your entire ship. |
| 149 | * {{Nanomachines}}: |
| 150 | ** A recurring theme of the Engi. Engi A starts with a special "nano-bot" augment that constantly heals every crew member on the ship at a slowed rate (not as fast as a Medbay), only requiring a powered Medbay to function. |
| 151 | ** The Engi themselves are composed of trillions and trillions of nanomachines. |
| 152 | * {{Nice Guy}}s: Generally the least hostile of the races; most of your communications with them will be for distress calls rather than battles. You'll generally make it through Engi sectors with less damage than you would take in other sectors. They don't hold grudges against you if you are unable to or refuse to donate supplies to them when asked, though you should anyway if it's feasible so you can get rewards. |
| 153 | * OrganicTechnology: Some random events show Engi building structures using this trope. It's implied that the Engi themselves are this, since they are at least partially robotic, but still die if there is no oxygen. |
| 154 | * RoboSpeak: They do not use "to be" verbs (i.e. "is", "were", etc.) or pronouns, they often speak in computer-y terms like "syntax error", and their sentences are short and to-the-point. |
| 155 | -->"Satisfactory. Delivery of tech will assist in Federation cause. Gratitude alone insufficient. Commencing ship repair and compensation."\ |
| 156 | "Beneficial. Subject goal: long, long journey. Remains compatible with transfer of goods from Engi." |
| 157 | * RobotMaster: Engi ships favour drones. The Engi B in particular only has one crew member and relies on drones to assist with repairs and fighting boarders. You usually won't encounter hostile Engi ships, but when you do they tend to pack at least two Defense Drones, making missiles and Boarding Drones unwise choices for combat. |
| 158 | * StarfishRobots: Engi are made of nanomachines, so they aren't always vaguely human-shaped but keep that form around other species. |
| 159 | * TheStoic: Zig-Zagged. It's implied from their speech patterns that they're the calmest of the races, and some in-game text mentions that Engi cannot feel fear. They apparently can be embarrassed, though, since your Engi crewman haltingly explains [[TheTalk why those two Engi ships are stuck together]], if you ask. |
| 160 | * SupportPartyMember: Engi crew are great at repairing damage but suck at fighting. |
| 161 | * TakeAThirdOption: Engi frequently allow you to do this in random event scenarios, with their technical prowess and part-machine nature often allowing them to devise solutions to problems, without the drawbacks that the direct approach option would usually have in such events. |
| 162 | * WhatAPieceOfJunk: She may not look like much, but [[Series/{{Firefly}} she'll fool ya]]. The Engi A starts with the Ion Burst II, a rapid-firing ion weapon capable of disabling any amount of shields on its own as long as you don't run afoul of enemy evasion, and a drone to deal damage. This makes it [[LethalJokeCharacter capable of defeating the flagship using only default weaponry]]. |
| 163 | -->''"You see a number of Engi space stations and fleets nearby. Despite looking like piles of junk loosely tied together, they are actually the model of efficiency. They just lack a certain aesthetic emphasis in their constructions."'' |
| 164 | ** Due to the way defense drones intercept attacks, Engi ships also have the benefit of being more reliable with them than other, wider ships, since all the rooms are concentrated in an equally spaced box. |
| 165 | [[/folder]] |
| 166 | |
| 167 | [[folder:Mantis]] |
| 168 | [[quoteright:39:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mantis_1303.png]] |
| 169 | ->The Mantis' disregard for individual lives lead to their evolution as a vicious, warrior race. |
| 170 | |
| 171 | The Mantis are an alien species of, well, human-sized praying mantises. Mantis do an 50% extra damage and move 20% faster relative to a human, making them excellent in melee combat and for boarding. However, their repair rate is only half that of a human, making them less effective at holding ships together.\ |
| 172 | |
| 173 | Mantises are an aggressive and violent warrior race. They follow a MightMakesRight and DefeatMeansFriendship mentality. While some are indeed members of the Federation, most of them are independent pirate crews, or parts of warbands, seeking profit and glory in combat. Their ships focus on boarding tactics and taking enemy ships intact by crew elimination for greater rewards, a set up that takes advantage of the Mantis' melee combat prowess. The vast majority of enemy Mantis ships will have teleporters and will try to send boarding parties, and all three of the playable Mantis Cruisers (The Gila Monster,[[note]]Mantis A[[/note]] The Basilisk,[[note]]Mantis B[[/note]] and The Theseus[[note]]Mantis C[[/note]]) expect you to act similarly. The Basilisk and The Theseus start with no anti-ship weaponry at all, but feature double-size teleporters capable of sending four crew members per wave into enemy ships to wreak havoc. Aesthetically, Mantis ships are symmetric, with hulls painted blood-red and layouts often featuring many large, square rooms. |
| 174 | ---- |
| 175 | !!The Mantis and their ships feature the following tropes: |
| 176 | * BigCreepyCrawlies: Their sprites look very similar to Earth mantises, and they are as tall as humans, if not taller. |
| 177 | * BloodKnight: Every single one of them has a thirst for killing of some sort. |
| 178 | * BoardingParty: The Mantis B mandates this approach, possessing a crew teleporter and boarding drone but no weapons, although the ship starts with two layers of shields and a Defense Drone to keep the ship safe while its crew make waste of the enemy ship's crew. A fully leveled-up boarding team of four Mantis will rapidly turn the enemy ship into a space coffin. |
| 179 | * DefeatMeansFriendship: The unlock quest for the Mantis ship involves battling a feared Mantis captain, then rescuing him from certain death afterward. He then joins your crew, gives you the coordinates of a nearby stash, and gives you his ship. |
| 180 | * InsectoidAliens: Clue's in the name. |
| 181 | * IntelligentGerbil: The Mantis are an alien race whose appearance is a very close match to the Earth insect of the same name. |
| 182 | * LightningBruiser: They are faster and deal more damage than any other race, and their Mantis Pheromones augment makes them even faster. Only a Rockman can take a Mantis one-on-one thanks to their higher HP, and the outcome of that battle will be really close (who wins usually depends on crew training and who hits first). Only drones are superior thanks to having Mantis-like damage combined with Rockman-like durability, and a Lanius in a depressurized room will win thanks to the quick health drain caused by suffocation. |
| 183 | * SlayingMantis: They're essentially huge praying mantises, and they're great at combat thanks to being able to move quickly and deal high damage. |
| 184 | * StoneWall: The Mantis B ship starts with no weapons, but begins with two layers of shields and a defense drone, making it near-immune to early game attackers. It also comes with a teleporter, so your crew can kill the enemy crew while your ship remains safe. |
| 185 | * ViolenceReallyIsTheAnswer: Where other races have special options that resolve conflicts and solve problems, Mantises have only one. It involves violence. |
| 186 | -->''Once on board, it becomes clear that nothing is wrong with their O2 system. [[DissonantSerenity Almost expecting this, your Mantis calmly responds to the trap.]] Once a couple of the Slugs have been spread across the walls of their ship, the rest surrender.'' |
| 187 | * WeaksauceWeakness: The Mantis B ship, being weaponless, runs into a couple early-game snags that aren't a problem for other ships if it takes too long to find a weapon: |
| 188 | ** They struggle against automated ships, due to those ships not relying on crew to operate. The ship ''can'' slowly take them down with Boarding Drones and a level 2 Teleporter but it takes too long. |
| 189 | ** They can't penetrate Zoltan Shields in any way, forcing them to abandon the battle entirely. ''Advanced Edition'' introduces the Zoltan Shield Bypass augment, but that's not guaranteed to show up in Sector 1 (or at any point in the run, for that matter). |
| 190 | * ZergRush: A frequent tactic of theirs - teleporting entire Mantis crews onto the enemy ship and tearing the enemy to shreds with sheer numbers and damage. The four-person teleporter, seen on some Mantis layouts, encourages this tactic as well. Numerous Mantis events involve them boarding your ship en masse to tear you crew to shreds; expect to be swarmed by as many as ''six'' Mantises ([[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard you can only ever teleport up to four at a time]]) at a time. |
| 191 | [[/folder]] |
| 192 | |
| 193 | [[folder:Rockmen]] |
| 194 | [[quoteright:75:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rockman_7709.png]] |
| 195 | ->The 'Rockmen' of Vrachos IV are rarely seen and are known for their fortitude. |
| 196 | |
| 197 | The Rockmen are a race of large, tough humanoid beings akin to rock golems. Vrachos IV and the Rock Homeworld sector is not their actual place of origin; their ancestors hailed originally from a distant sector of space which, at some point long ago, got cut off from the rest of the known galaxy.\ |
| 198 | |
| 199 | Rockmen move at half the speed of a human but have 50% extra health, making them tough to kill. Furthermore, they are immune to fire thanks to their rocky composition. In-game, Rock controlled sectors tend to be heavy in asteroid fields and red giant stars.\ |
| 200 | |
| 201 | Rock ships, both playable and enemy, have a special rock plating augment that has a 15% chance of negating incoming hull damage, and a preference towards missile weapons. Rock Cruiser type A (The Bulwark) and type C (Tektite) both field missile launchers at the start of the game, with the former relying solely on missiles to deal damage until a teleporter or energy weapons can be acquired. The Rock Cruiser type B, the Shivan, meanwhile, is built around the Rocks' immunity to fire. With no airlocks, it relies on them to put fires out, but, conversely, possesses a fire bomb launcher which can be combined with Rock boarding parties to devastating effect. Aesthetically, most Rock ships feature bulky, segmented sandstone-brown armor, with black hulls beneath.\ |
| 202 | |
| 203 | The Rock people are noted as being stolid, conservative and religious. Rocks are one of the rarer Federation species, with most of them living in self-governed sectors or under the rule of their homeworld. Rocks are fairly aggressive and some take up piracy, but they're not as violent as the Mantis. They have a strong sense of pride, and do not like asking for help, occasionally going to the extent of HonorBeforeReason. |
| 204 | ---- |
| 205 | !!Rockmen and their ships feature the following tropes: |
| 206 | * ArmorPiercingAttack: The Heavy Pierce Laser that is unique to the Rock Cruiser Type-B is a Heavy Laser Mk.I that ignores one layer of shielding. |
| 207 | * ArrangedMarriage: On occasion you'll find one in the Rock Homeworlds, and are asked to escort the fiancée of a major Rock figure, the Grand Basilisk of Numa V. |
| 208 | ** If you refuse to hand the RunawayFiance over, she'll join you, though you'll be forced into battle with the Basilisk's escorts. |
| 209 | ** If you do surrender her, [[WhatTheHellPlayer she curses you out as she gets taken away]] in exchange for scrap and an augment. You did, after all, ''[[YouBastard sell her out for your own benefit.]]'' |
| 210 | * CrutchCharacter: The Type A cruiser starts out with two powerful missile weapons, allowing it to pretend that enemy shields don't exist. However, if you don't find non-missile weapons or a teleporter soon enough, you'll run out of missiles and be out of offensive options. |
| 211 | * DishingOutDirt: They're immune to fire damage and throw rocks at enemies as their ranged attack. |
| 212 | * FantasticRacism: Some Rock ships in distress will state they consider you "repugnant", and refuse your help without another word. It's also mentioned multiple times in the flavor text of Rock-controlled or home sectors that they dislike other aliens going into their territory, though they do seem to admire Zoltan wisdom. |
| 213 | * HoldTheLine: Unlocking the Rock Cruiser requires fighting a very specific quest enemy ship and letting it jump away without destroying it. While at a [[LethalLavaLand sun beacon]]. |
| 214 | * IdealIllnessImmunity: Rocks have powerful immune systems, enabling them to subdue riots on a plague-afflicted station without fear of infection. Their digestive systems are also strong enough that in a blue option in a random event where a Slug captain offers a drink, your Rockman will resist if the Slug had laced the drink with anesthetic. |
| 215 | * ImmuneToFire: Rockmen are immune to fires. Do note, however, that fires eventually drain oxygen from a room if not put out, and Rockmen are ''not'' suffocation-resistant. |
| 216 | * {{Irony}}: Although Rockmen are immune to fires and the Rock B cruiser starts with Fire Bombs, said cruiser is also weak to fires itself, due to the initial lack of door control and the permanent lack of airlocks. |
| 217 | * KillItWithFire: The Rock B cruiser starts with Fire Bombs. Combined with the Rockmen's immunity to fire, all you need is a teleporter to do some serious damage to the enemy crew. There's even an achievement for killing an enemy crewman with your own crew inside a room that's on fire. |
| 218 | * MacrossMissileMassacre: The Bulwark, the Type-A Rock Cruiser, starts with two missile weapons and a large stock of missiles. One achievement requires destroying a ship equipped with Defense Drones using only missiles. |
| 219 | * MadeOfBologna: Rockmen are noted in one event as lacking internal organs in one gory display. |
| 220 | * MightyGlacier: Extra HP and fire immunity, but very slow. |
| 221 | * PercussiveMaintenance: They stomp on fires and whack hull breaches and damaged systems until they are fixed. Surprisingly, this seems to work. |
| 222 | * PrecisionFStrike: The Rock ships have an exclusive blue option for the "Mantis ship with Rockman remains slathered all over them" event, labeled "Ram the ''bastards''."[[note]]The event checks for the augment Rock Plating, which is part of all Rock ship's starting kit.[[/note]] |
| 223 | * ProudWarriorRaceGuys: A race full of them. |
| 224 | * RammingAlwaysWorks: In response to the previously mentioned gory sight if you have Rock Plating you can retaliate by ramming them, [[PrecisionFStrike with some of the rare use of foul language]] doing damage and disabling their engines permanently. |
| 225 | * RockBeatsLaser: Most races uses lasers in melee combat. The exceptions (Rock, Mantis and [[spoiler:Crystal]]) are the [[{{Pun}} only ones likely to beat a Rock in combat]]. |
| 226 | * RockMonster: As their name implies. |
| 227 | * WeaksauceWeakness: The Rock B cruiser is the only playable ship to have no airlocks, something that cannot be remedied in any way. This means the only way to create an isolated and controlled lack of oxygen (to deal with boarders or flames in a manner that doesn't directly involve crew) is to [[ViolationOfCommonSense drop a Breach Bomb in the target room]]. |
| 228 | * WorthyOpponent: [[spoiler:You must earn their respect by impressing their champion before they'll lend you their aid and unlock their ship.]] |
| 229 | [[/folder]] |
| 230 | |
| 231 | [[folder:Zoltan]] |
| 232 | [[quoteright:51:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/zoltan_6993.png]] |
| 233 | ->The 'Zoltan' are close allies of the 'Engi'. Their innate energy is strong enough to power ship systems. |
| 234 | |
| 235 | The Zoltan are a race of green glowing humanoids who have aspects of being EnergyBeings. Gameplay-wise, they possess the special ability of providing one unit of power to the ship system whose room they occupy, at the drawback of having 30% lower HP than a human, and otherwise act just like humans. While their fragility makes them weak in direct hand-to-hand combat, the ''Advanced Edition'' gave them the special feature of exploding upon death to damage all enemies in a room. When combined with a clone bay, Zoltan can thus become moderately effective, if suicidal, combatants.\ |
| 236 | |
| 237 | Zoltan are a highly technologically advanced species and their ships, both playable and NPC, possess a special augment called the Zoltan Shield, or supershield. This augment forms a non-regenerating green energy barrier every time the ship jumps that encases the ship, consumes no power, and blocks everything until its hitpoints get worn away. By everything, this means it blocks drones, hacking, mind control, teleporters, bombs, and missiles, all of which pass through normal shields. The supershields aren't very tough though, and take double damage from ion weapons, but the advantage they provide is notable nonetheless. The playable Zoltan ships (The Adjudicator,[[note]]Zoltan A[[/note]] Noether,[[note]]Zoltan B[[/note]] and Cerenkov[[note]]Zoltan C[[/note]]) are built around using powerful weaponry and their supershield to fight quick, decisive ship-to-ship battles, with main shields not needing to be powered until the supershield falls. Zoltan prefer beam weaponry, frequently using beams together with lasers, ions, missiles and drones. Because of their supershield, Zoltan enemies can be punishing to players who are using unarmed or weakly-armed boarding ships, although ''Advanced Edition'' introduced an augment that allows key boarding strategy components - crew teleporters, bombs, and mind control - to bypass the barrier. Aesthetically, Zoltan ships are rounded and asymmetrical, with green hulls and round orange external lights/portholes.\ |
| 238 | |
| 239 | Zoltan are seen both as members of the Federation and as organized self-governing peoples, likely ruled from their homeworld sector. Zoltan try to be fair and just, and like to enforce the laws of their space strictly, but can at times devolve into ObstructiveBureaucrat or LawfulStupid behavior, which is the cause of most hostile encounters with them. They try to be pacifistic and diplomatic in ideals, but their heavily armed and shielded warships and frequent combat exercises imply that they're ready to back their diplomacy up with firepower when needed. They're also a highly scientific civilization, often encountered conducting experiments. Nonetheless, after the fall of the Federation, incursions by Rebels and Mantis into their space have become a fairly common occurrence. |
| 240 | ---- |
| 241 | !!Zoltan and their ships feature the following tropes: |
| 242 | * AchillesHeel: The supershields that the Zoltan Ships initially possess take double damage to ion weapons. They're also especially weak to attack drones, which have fast firing rates that will quickly chew through the shields; the Beam Drone in particular has perfect accuracy with its beam, meaning that if you see one around your ship, your supershield is basically gone already. |
| 243 | * ActionBomb: Zoltan become this in ''Advanced Edition'', with the new ability to explode on death, damaging adjacent enemy crew for 15 damage. Fighting more than two will almost certainly kill your boarders, and two is still pushing it. Still laughing at their 70 HP capacity? Add in a Clone Bay to throw your own exploding Zoltan at the enemy! |
| 244 | * BeehiveBarrier: The Zoltan Shield. |
| 245 | * TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: Random-event boarding parties (not the kind that teleport from an enemy ship you're fighting) will still teleport onto a player-controlled Zoltan ship, even though Zoltan Shields are explicitly stated to block teleportation. |
| 246 | --> [[LampshadeHanging "You don't know how the intruders got past your Zoltan Shield!"]] |
| 247 | ** Averted with ''Advanced Edition''. You can buy the augment that these boarders have been using. Revenge has never been sweeter. The event itself now also specifies that the boarders are using said augment. |
| 248 | * CursedWithAwesome: In ''Advanced Edition'', their reduced HP is actually beneficial for a Cloning Bay + Teleporter setup, since dying faster means they'll explode sooner. |
| 249 | * EnergyBeings: The Zoltan are composed, apparently, of pure energy, enough to power ship systems. |
| 250 | * GlassCannon: To an extent, the Zoltan type B ship, Noether, is this. It has no operational shields at the start, relying purely on its supershield and its fantastic firepower to prevent damage in the early game. Unfortunately, unlike the Stealth Cruisers, it has no long-range scanners, so be prepared to take a hit or a few if you get unlucky and fly into an asteroid field, where the supershield will do you little good. |
| 251 | * LimitBreak: The theme of the Zoltan type C ship, Cerenkov. With its upgraded backup battery, it goes from being woefully underpowered to above-average, and with its ion weapon and beam drone, can deal severe damage per second, but only for 30 seconds until the battery runs out. Usually, this is all you need. |
| 252 | * MartialPacifist: Although they (mostly) profess to be a peaceful and diplomatic race, they do not hesitate to engage in combat if needed (and occasionally are overly quick to do so in some encounters) |
| 253 | * NoBodyLeftBehind: Instead of keeling over like humans, Slugs or Mantises or crumbling like Rocks or Engi, they just disappear. In ''Advanced Edition'', they ''[[MadeOfExplodium explode]]'' instead, damaging all enemy crew in the room for 15 damage. |
| 254 | * NoSell: Two Zoltan put into the shield room will create an ion-immune layer of shielding, though the system will still be unable to be manned as long as the ion effect is in place. Put four into the room and you get two layers of ion-proof shields. |
| 255 | ** {{Irony}}: Zoltan Shields take double damage from ion weapons. |
| 256 | * ObstructiveBureaucrat: Most battles with Zoltan ships are the result of a mishap with weapons licenses and entering a restricted area and the like. |
| 257 | * PlayingBothSides: The Zoltans are officially neutral in the conflict and willing to give support to both the Federation and The Rebels. |
| 258 | * ProudScholarRace: They're a race that prides itself on focusing on racial diplomacy and scientific research, rather than warfare (hence their specializations focusing on additional power and improved shields, rather than directly improving combat capabilities) |
| 259 | * SecretTestOfCharacter: [[spoiler:You'll be presented with one in the Zoltan Homeworlds, in an quest involving negotiations with an unarmed Zoltan peace envoy (and eventually, the Rebels). Passing will unlock the Zoltan cruiser and provide other rewards.]] |
| 260 | * SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: The race most inclined to speak like this. A few pieces of game text mention what some Zoltan say to you is either gibberish or beyond your understanding. |
| 261 | -->"Egalitarianism is a cornerstone to a successful cohabitation. Please, enjoy the fruits of your labor." |
| 262 | * ShoutOut: While the name of their type A ship, The Adjudicator, refers to their lawful nature, the type B and type C are called Noether and Cerenkov respectively, both references to real-world 20th century physicists. |
| 263 | * SpaceMadness: Some events suggest that Zoltan may be susceptible to this, and that they may be doing research on the issue. |
| 264 | * SquishyWizard: They have lower max HP than any other race. |
| 265 | * SupportPartyMember: Zoltan crew can give power to ship systems, but their low health means that they're not good for fighting. |
| 266 | * TakingYouWithMe: In ''Advanced Edition'', Zoltan crew members will explode upon death, damaging and possibly killing the enemies they were fighting. |
| 267 | * TeleportInterdiction: Zoltan Shields prevent bombs and boarding parties from teleporting past. Unless, of course, they have a special augment. |
| 268 | * TooDumbToLive: Zoltan border patrols will sometimes intercept you inside asteroid fields. These are perhaps the worst place for Zoltan vessels to fight, since the asteroids rapidly wear away their supershields and negate the advantage which makes them so annoying to take on otherwise. |
| 269 | [[/folder]] |
| 270 | |
| 271 | [[folder:Slug]] |
| 272 | [[quoteright:39:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/slug_6573.png]] |
| 273 | ->These telepathic Slugs were shunned in the Galactic Federation for their constant thievery and manipulation of other sentient beings. |
| 274 | |
| 275 | The Slugs are an alien race of human-sized... slugs. They're telepathic, and are in lore able to sense the thoughts and intentions of other sentient beings. In terms of gameplay, in the vanilla game Slugs are able to see into adjacent rooms and are able to sense lifeforms on your ships and enemy ships as red dots, and in ''Advanced Edition'' their telepathic sensor power was improved so they can now identify the species of the lifeforms and sense their actions (movement, fighting, repairing, etc.). Having a Slug crewman can often make upgrading sensors unnecessary and make nebula sectors easier by compensating for the fact that sensors don't work in nebulae. Additionally, thanks to their telepathy, Slugs are uniquely immune to mind control.\ |
| 276 | |
| 277 | Of course, the place where the vast majority of Slugs reside is within nebulae. The Slugs, despite being telepathic, are not very empathic, and will use their abilities to manipulate, deceive and steal from other beings whenever possible, resulting in them being shunned within the Federation. They are also hedonistic, and their goals are essentially to acquire wealth (typically by deceit) and spend it on pleasureful activities. While Slugs are unexceptional fighters (being equivalent to humans in hand-to-hand combat), they are pragmatists. They will try to take ships with intact hulls to maximize profit - eliminating the crew not by boarding and fighting, but by using indirect methods such as hacking, mind control and fire weapons. This trait can be seen in their playable ships, with the type A "Man of War" featuring an Anti-Bio Beam to snipe enemy crew members and the type C "Ariolimax" featuring both a hacking module and mind control. The type B "Stormwalker" is a singular exception, as it passes up manipulation for conventional boarding backed up by Healing Bombs (which heals allied crews in the affected room).\ |
| 278 | |
| 279 | Most Slug ships feature smooth, curved hulls painted a metallic light purple, and possess a repair gel augment to automatically seal hull breaches. Slugs typically use all forms of weaponry, and sometimes use cloaking.\ |
| 280 | |
| 281 | Slugs are rare among the Federation but still seen in the starting crews of a few ships, such as the Federation Cruiser type B and Stealth Cruiser type C. They're also among the rarest races to be encountered in general outside of their own nebulae. Having one can be highly beneficial however, since their telepathy can come in handy in a large number of random events. |
| 282 | ---- |
| 283 | !!Slugs and their ships feature the following tropes: |
| 284 | * BoardingParty: The Slug B cruiser is initially designed for this role, though in a very odd way; it has an Artemis missile launcher, a Healing Burst, a crew teleporter and ''no medical facilities.'' You basically spend ammunition to heal your crew. |
| 285 | * ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: A race that seems to be afflicted with this. You'll receive lots of [[SchmuckBait generous offers]] in Slug sectors, and it's even odds whether they're genuine or just looking for the chance to rip you off, smuggle enemies aboard, or sabotage your ship. |
| 286 | ** Subverted by your Slug crew, who are always loyal and reliable. |
| 287 | * CombatPragmatist: A frequent theme of their ships, tactics and events. Quite a few random encounters with hostile Slugs have them sabotage one of your ship's systems for the whole fight. Talk about dirty indeed. |
| 288 | * ConMan: A race full of them. |
| 289 | * HealingShiv: The Stormwalker (Slug B) comes with a Healing Burst. You are meant to board enemy ships, beam your crew back, and heal them by shooting it at your own ship (and hope it doesn't miss). |
| 290 | * IntelligentGerbil: Much like the Mantis, Slugs are aliens that are heavily reminiscent of Earth slugs, albeit human-sized. |
| 291 | * {{Irony}}: Despite being ostensibly untrustworthy as a species, their sensor abilities, blue event options and mind control immunity make Slugs exceptionally valuable and reliable as crew members. |
| 292 | * JackOfAllStats: They fight and repair just as well as a human, but also have sensor powers and immunity to mind control. |
| 293 | * MundaneUtility: As well as sensing enemies and taking part in psychic duels with other Slugs, their psychic powers also help them talk to animals and counsel insane people. |
| 294 | * NoSell: They cannot be mind-controlled, due to their telepathic powers. |
| 295 | * PsychicPowers: They can see into nearby rooms even when sensors are offline, see all lifeforms regardless of sensor status (''Advanced Edition'' upgraded this to distinguishing species and viewing actions, as well), and their telepathy comes in handy in several blue events. |
| 296 | * PsychicBlockDefense: As one might expect, Slugs are immune to Mind Control in ''Advanced Edition''. |
| 297 | * SpaceClouds: They reside in sector-wide nebulas that obscure your own sensors, but not their own sensor powers. |
| 298 | * SssssnakeTalk: Many NPC Slugs you encounter will speak like this. Funnily enough, Slug crew loyal to your ship will not speak like this. |
| 299 | * TakeAThirdOption: As with the Engi, there are several events where utilizing your Slug crewman is much safer than choosing the normal option. Sometimes, they're able to detect when enemy Slugs are up to no good. |
| 300 | * TelepathicSpacemen: They're telepathic slugs in space. |
| 301 | * TooDumbToLive: The NPC Slug Fighter possesses a ''somewhat critical'' flaw in that their engine and oxygen systems are each completely sealed off from the rest of the ship. Take them out, and they're doomed to suffocation and unavoidable attacks. |
| 302 | ** In Hard Mode, the second crewman starts out manning engines instead of shields, meaning that the engines can be repaired... but it means there is only one crewman in the main compartment, so if two systems are damaged in there they'll be repaired even slower. |
| 303 | * WeaksauceWeakness: The Slug B layout has ''no medbay'', meaning that it has to use Healing Bombs to heal its crew, which uses missiles. It's easy enough to run out of missiles, leaving the boarding-oriented ship with no way to restore health until they can get missiles through a RandomEvent or a store. |
| 304 | [[/folder]] |
| 305 | |
| 306 | [[folder:Lanius]] |
| 307 | [[quoteright:69:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lanius_8892.png]] |
| 308 | ->These anaerobic beings seem friendly enough. |
| 309 | |
| 310 | A new race added in ''FTL: Advanced Edition'', the Lanius are a species of metallic scavengers with a bizarre anaerobic metabolism that allows them to survive in the vacuum of space, drain oxygen from their environment, and manipulate metal. Gameplay-wise, they move slowly, at 80% the speed of a human, slowly drain oxygen from their surroundings, and uniquely, take no damage from being in a vacuum.\ |
| 311 | |
| 312 | The Lanius spend decades in dormancy, hiding away undetected from the other races, and awaken in the aftermath of a galactic war or the end of a civilization to feed upon the leftovers as scavengers. It is surmised that they are the reason why there is so little evidence of ancient civilizations in universe, for the Lanius have absorbed it all. Now, in the aftermath of the Federation-Rebel war, they are awakening once again. Lanius appear in Abandoned Sectors, areas of Federation space that were hit the hardest from the war and are now abandoned, from where they scavenge metal. While often misunderstood, they have established diplomatic relations with the Federation, and unlocking 4 ships will convince the Lanius to join the Federation cause and unlock their cruiser. The playable Lanius Cruisers, the type A "Kruos" and type B, "The Shrike", are the only Lanius ships which possess a life support system in order to accommodate non-Lanius crew; their NPC ships have no oxygen and are crewed entirely by Lanius, making boarding operations against them rather difficult unless the player has Lanius crewmen themselves.\ |
| 313 | |
| 314 | Lanius ships are a metallic silver with blue external lights, and they are shaped like symmetric switchblades. They often pack a lot of Advanced Edition features, such as clone bays, hacking modules, mind control, and flak weaponry. Additionally, their lack of oxygen dependence means that their boarding parties cannot be thwarted by venting and must be fought hand-to-hand. This can make the Abandoned Sectors rather tricky, but on the flip-side, they are practically the only places to get Lanius crew that you didn't start with. |
| 315 | ---- |
| 316 | !!Lanius and their ships feature the following tropes: |
| 317 | * BatmanCanBreatheInSpace: The only race that doesn't require oxygen to survive. In fact, they actually ''drain all oxygen'' from rooms they inhabit. |
| 318 | * BizarreAlienBiology: An alien race that actively drains oxygen is pretty bizarre. |
| 319 | * BlessedWithSuck: While their oxygen-sucking passive and suffocation immunity allows them to not need oxygen, this will become a problem if you're playing a Lanius ship and you decide to get a non-Lanius crewmember, or playing a non-Lanius ship and pick up a Lanius crewmember. |
| 320 | * BoringButPractical: The race benefits are entirely passive, making it easier to extinguish fires and damage enemies at the cost of speed. |
| 321 | * EatDirtCheap: They subsist on metal, particularly the ones used for shipbuilding. [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Kind of a problem if you're still in it]]. |
| 322 | * HordeOfAlienLocusts: They sustain themselves by absorbing minerals left in the wake of interstellar combat. Some have theorized that the reason there's little evidence of ancient civilizations is the Lanius absorbing them without a trace. Not all Lanius are content to wait until people are dead either, though most of the race is either willing to talk or simply unaware of other species. |
| 323 | * KungFuProofMook: Boarding is the preferred method to deal with enemy ships, since it gives increased rewards. Boarding a Lanius ship is generally a bad idea, unless you sport Lanius boarders yourself or don't mind pitching waves of clones at them. Furthermore, while fire does technically damage them, it will get put out very quickly since there's no oxygen. |
| 324 | * MeaningfulName: Lanius is Latin for butcher. And that is exactly what they do to metal ships and structures. |
| 325 | * MechanicallyUnusualClass: They don't need to breathe, so they have no life support systems. They also aren't concerned about hull breaches and fires for the same reason (although they understand their squishy friends don't like having holes/exothermic chemical reactions in their ships and will fix them). |
| 326 | * NonMaliciousMonster: Of the Lanius that aren't willing to wait until people die before eating their ships a decent chunk fall into this category. Many seem either entirely unaware of other sapients due to hunger or are unable to communicate such to realize they're murdering people by eating their ships. |
| 327 | * NoSell: They're immune to oxygen deprivation, to go with their trait of draining all oxygen from rooms they're in. |
| 328 | * ObliviouslyEvil: Some of the Lanius don't seem to realize that eating people's ships is a rather dangerous thing for them to do. Others appear to have a rule against devouring the property of sentient beings, not that that stops people from seeing them as terrifying monsters. |
| 329 | * RenegadeSplinterFaction: Any Lanius ship that attacks the player is explicitly said to have gone rogue and is no longer part of the main group. If the player has a Lanius on the crew, they can admonish the rogue captain for breaking the laws, which can either make the hostile ship fall back in line or double down. |
| 330 | * SpikesOfVillainy: Mostly Averted. While the Lanius, and their ships, are almost entirely ''made'' of spikes, they're not overtly evil (as discussed above), and most fights involving them come from misunderstandings. |
| 331 | * WalkingWasteland: They drain oxygen from their surroundings at about the same rate as a hull breach. |
| 332 | [[/folder]] |
| 333 | |
| 334 | [[folder:Secret Race (SPOILERS)]] |
| 335 | !Crystal |
| 336 | [[quoteright:63:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/crystal_7068.png]] |
| 337 | ->Ancient ancestors of the rockmen. |
| 338 | |
| 339 | Crystal beings are the ancient ancestors of the Rockmen, hailing from a distant sector of space beyond the areas known to the Federation. They traveled to the region now known as the Rock Homeworlds long ago via a long-range portal, but the portal closed at some point for unknown reasons, and the two populations were left isolated to evolve on their own.\ |
| 340 | |
| 341 | Crystalmen are the secret race and very difficult to obtain, accessible only as part of a tricky sidequest. They possess high HP (125% of the Human default), take half damage from oxygen deprivation, move slightly slower (80% of default), and possess a unique "Lockdown" ability that lets them seal off the room they are in with a crystalline barrier, equivalent in strength to high-level blast doors.\ |
| 342 | |
| 343 | Unless you have unlocked the Crystal ships already, or unlocked the Rock Cruiser type C in ''Advanced Edition'', the only way to acquire a Crystal crew member outside of their space is to acquire a 'damaged stasis pod' from a random event involving searching an asteroid field, then having the Crystal contained within the pod revived by Zoltan scientists. Having a Crystal crew member is necessary in order to reactivate the portal in Rock Homeworlds to take you to the Hidden Crystal Sector.\ |
| 344 | |
| 345 | The Crystal people are peaceful and inquisitive, but once exposed to the outside world again after their long isolation, they have a hard time, as the massive, nigh-unstoppable Rebel Fleet following the player arrives in their sector. Thus, they may not be entirely friendly, as they blame the player for leading the Rebels to their space, but the player's Crystal crewman, in thanks for taking him home, will grant the Federation the services of the massive, powerful Crystal Cruisers, the type A "Bravais" and type B "Carnelian". As of ''Advanced Edition'', the Crystals have established diplomatic relations with the Federation, and their off-shoots, the Rockmen, and the type C Rock Cruiser, "Tektite", is the resultant hybridization of Crystal and Rock technology.\ |
| 346 | |
| 347 | Crystal vessels feature black mechanical cores covered in blue asymmetric crystalline armor. NPC Crystal ships are, naturally, seen only in the Crystal sector. Both these, and the playable Crystal Cruisers, have two unique features - Crystal weapons, and Crystal Vengeance. Crystal weaponry is very similar to the lasers used by other species in performance, but with the added benefit that they ignore the target's lowest layer of shielding, which means that a target with one shield bubble is as good as having no shields at all. The drawback, however, is that Crystal weaponry is slower than comparable laser weaponry, and the shards they fire can be shot down by standard defense drones. Crystal Vengeance is a ship augment that randomly fires a missile-like shield-piercing crystal shard in revenge when the ship takes damage, which doesn't do much damage, but can be annoying for a player who's not expecting it while fighting the Crystals. |
| 348 | ---- |
| 349 | !!Crystalmen and their ships feature the following tropes: |
| 350 | * ArmorPiercingAttack: Crystal weapons ignore one level of shielding. |
| 351 | * BoardingParty: The Type B cruiser is designed around boarding parties; it starts with a four-crew teleporter and a cloak for evading enemy fire, at the expense of weapons. |
| 352 | * CrystallineCreature: They're humanoid masses of living crystal, and can fire shards of crystal as a ranged attack. |
| 353 | * CrystalPrison: Their lockdown ability creates one, barring access to the room they are in. This can be used to keep enemies out or to trap enemies in with you. |
| 354 | * GemstoneAssault: They throw crystal shards as a "ranged" attack against non-adjacent opponents. Their Crystal weapons also fire crystal shards. |
| 355 | * GuideDangIt: The sidequest to obtain a Crystal crewman is so obscure you could play the game for days without realising they even existed. |
| 356 | * InfinityPlusOneSword: The Crystals are excellent boarders, due to taking less suffocation damage and their CrystalPrison ability (which locks down a room, barring exit or entry until it wears off). The Crystal Ship starts with weapons that can pierce a single shield, which is all the shielding most enemy ships have in the first few sectors. |
| 357 | * LuckBasedMission: Reaching the Crystal sector requires no fewer than three randomly-generated elements: a specific augment only found in some sectors, then a random event also only found in some sectors, then getting to a specific sector that only appears once per playthrough where the beacon to jump to the Crystal sector is located. |
| 358 | * PaletteSwap: Crystals resemble and use the same animations as the Rockmen, though mechanically they are very distinct. |
| 359 | * PercussiveMaintenance: They hit hull breaches and damaged systems until the breaches and systems are fixed, and they jump on fires. |
| 360 | %%* {{Precursors}}: To the Rockmen. |
| 361 | * PurposelyOverpowered: Crystals and their ships are very powerful, in return for being hellishly difficult to obtain. To put it this way: The Type A layout has weapons that ignore one layer of shielding, and the Type B combines the best parts of the Stealth ships (cloaking system is pre-installed, and ''un''like the Stealth ships this does not come at the cost of a shield system) and the Mantis B ship (four-member teleporter). |
| 362 | * SecretCharacter: Aside from the extremely rare series of encounters and events that eventually lead to their potential unlock, there are absolutely no other hints in-game to their existence. |
| 363 | * StealthInSpace: The Crystal B ship starts with a cloaking device. Notably, unlike the Federation's Stealth ships, it also begins a shield like most of the other ships. |
| 364 | * WalkingSpoiler: Their entire existence is a secret, made only known to players who have completed two steps of the rather [[LuckBasedMission dice-based]] unlock campaign or put in the effort to unlock the Rock C ship layout. |
| 365 | * YouWillNotEvadeMe: This is one use of their Lockdown ability--to prevent an enemy from running away to their Medbay. |
| 366 | * ZergRush: The Type B layout has a four-person teleporter, allowing for strength-in-numbers boarding tactics much like with the Mantis B ship. |
| 367 | [[/folder]] |
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/context.php
FollowingContext Characters / FTLFasterThanLight
Go To
- Show Spoilers
- Night Vision
- Sticky Header
- Wide Load
