FTL - a spaceship Rogue-like

That's another reason to buy into Transporters. Shields become mostly irrelevant apart from the Zoltan ones.

So I got myself into a no win situation so as to level up all my crew to double star

It feels kinda cheesy but I don't think I mind that much

Also doors level one make killing the invaders by venting the oxygen much easier. If the enemy invaders destroy your oxygen system and sending someone to the repair means they die and posibly don't even get to repair it, you can upgrade the oxygen system so it can start pumping oxygen again.

If you are playing with the starting ship or have a missile launcher or bomb weapon, you can try attacking the shields room to drop the enemy shields one or two levels so you can figth.

So after maybe 7-10 deaths, I beat the game for the first time using Engi A on Normal.

And I agree with everyone else, this game is actually pretty easy as far as roguelikes and roguelikelikes go. I'm pretty sure I had a tougher time with both Isaac and Spelunky.

It's still great, though, and I intend on playing a couple more runthroughs with different ships.

Managed to get to the final boss twice on Easy. Easy just feels much more fun than Normal. On the Kestrel I managed to get a breaching missile, which pierces shields, does four damage and hull breaches. I managed to take down the first stage of the final boss before dying.

^ If you survived I feel the 2nd form might be problematic for you...that thing really kills ships that rely on missiles to pierce shields...

Yes, I think it has to do with the fact that you can pause the game to think your next move and that it is a lot less complex tan something like Dredmor or Net Hack and that is not a bad thing.

edited 6th Jun '13 3:05:44 PM by Joaqs

Just had an amazing run with the Zoltan A. Good weapon loadout, good boarding crew, even unlocked the Crystal ship before I even reached sector 6!

...naturally, the game crashes in sector 7. Son of a bitch. Still have the unlocked ship, though. That works as a consolation prize. I guess.

Update: took the Crystal A out for a test run (dubbed The Angry Zoltan, as a nod to my previous attempt). Through a complete stroke of luck, I unlocked the Crystal B within the first two/three sectors. And then the game crashed again. Which leaves the Stealth A/B, Mantis A/B, Rock B, Zoltan B, and Slug B left to unlock.

edited 21st Jul '13 4:21:10 PM by Blueeyedrat

Well just got my second ship to Last Stand, only had half hull when I got to the Flag ship so it went down like a chump, lots of lasers and fire bombs on the Kestel seemed to work rather well though. Also had my second attempt to unlock the mantis cruiser but of course I didn't have enough scrap for a second tier health so K died again.

Also to others that got the game recently, what your stories/strategies?

edited 24th Jul '13 2:36:59 PM by lordnyx

So far, I've scored three flagship kills— Engi A (ion + attack drones), Zoltan B (ditto), Crystal A (good boarding crew + Alpha Strike when the shields are disabled).

Regardless of loadout, a crew teleporter is really helpful against the flagship, since you can take out the individual weapon systems.

never killed the mothership.

the closest I ever got involved using the cloak to dodge as much damage as possible.

edited 24th Jul '13 4:38:22 PM by Lanceleoghauni

My method was to save up all the missiles, then mount a mess of Pegasus Missiles and a Fire Bomb. The Fire Bomb worked great for crippling the drone phase of the battle and the Missiles worked amazingly well.

I got this in the latest Humble Bundle, because while Roguelikes don't sound like my thing, this is very highly recommended and space-themed.

I feel like I should be getting stronger more quickly. I've played 20 games and haven't gotten to sector 5 once. I'm playing on Easy and I still had a game where I lost in sector one because I had a battle that wouldn't end and set my whole ship on fire.

I've never beaten the boss either, hahahah.

I've never gotten far enough to even smell the boss.

eh, you'll get the hang of it.

Even after I'd beaten the boss many times, I've still had a couple of games where I lost in the first sector (if we include my attempts to use the Engi Type B, which starts out with one crewman, more like a dozen). Bad luck, it happens.

Unlocking different ship types helps significantly. The starting Kestrel is probably one of the weakest, and I beat the game using at least three other variants before managing to reach the boss with it.

I've never beaten the boss in 60 hours. The furthest I've got is the second phase.

I beat the boss on my first run

I never understood how you can have trouble beating the boss oO
I mean, getting there is hard, but killing it? I think I managed only once to die against it, out of 20+ fights...
Are you, by any chance not gathering every peace of scrap that you can? You also have to try to repair as late as possible.
Not repairing=> more scrap for upgrades=> needing less scrap to repair=>more scrap for upgrades...

The Kestrel is actually a pretty good, versatile ship.

Also, the trick to the second phase of the rebel flagship is to knock out its drone system ASAP. It can still do the superhax drone swarm, but taking down the control system takes several drones out of the picture. Also, cripple as much of the crew as you can in the first phase (but not all of it), especially the crew in the weapon systems. This will allow you to easily disable them again in the second phase. Additionally, if you can, use a cloaking device to cheese the power surge abilities. The third phase is a joke compared to the second phase, so you don't really need to worry about it.

Just started a new match with the Kestrel on Easy to see what it was like in the beginning.

Finished the first sector with:

• +2 crew (one rescued from deserted moon, one from slaver surrender).
• 75% hull, no shops visited, no repairs, no system upgrades.
• 17 fuel, 5 missiles, 9 drones, 184 scrap, hull missile (loot)

Second sector:

• 2 shield upgrades, 1 engine upgrade, 2 power upgrades
• Engi Med-bot Augment (for being really generous to an engi ship short on supplies)
• teleporter and cloaking systems (I try not to spend scrap until I have the teleporter and either cloaking or drones—having these things early saves you scrap in the long run, no matter how tempting other items look)
• 100% hull, 9 fuel, 6 missiles, 13 drones, 1 scrap

How does this stack up compared to other forumites' early games?

Forgot to keep track of how many systems visited, but remember: always explore as much as possible! Don't beeline for the exit!

edited 21st Sep '13 5:40:54 PM by montagohalcyon

If there's one thing the Kestrel is bad at though, it's boarding...the dang thing has the teleporter room way too far from medical bay...

Also, just beat normal with Rock B...grind the heck out of final boss' crew with the crystal crew...still annoying though, I got crystal crew at sector 4, sectors 6 and 7 are red...but none of them are rock home sector...

edited 21st Sep '13 7:40:36 PM by onyhow

I can never beat the boss because half the time I can't penetrate the shields.

^ Get some bombs, then...or overwhelming laser fire...also disable the missile launcher first...

edited 21st Sep '13 7:41:39 PM by onyhow