FTL - a spaceship Rogue-like

I got through another Rock B run yesterday. I don't know if it's luck or programming, but that hacking module in the first phase is a MENACE. I need my shields, and yet that thing isn't just damaging them, it's reversing them.

Second Phase, delaying the time between droid launches is actually a buff to it, because they can't burn through their entire reserves in the first, hectic few seconds, so you can't shut down the permanent assault droids in the first minute with well timed attacks.

The mind control system in the final phase was a surprise, but all I did was have my rock troop run around the ship until it wore off.

Frankly, I don't care much for any of the new systems, but that's plausibly because I haven't had any chance to test any except the cloning bay, and replacing the medbay with that completely inverts what the game has been teaching me up until now.

I discovered during my first successful playthrough that you can cancel a mind control with one of your own.

If I ever find one I can afford, I'll be sure to give it a try.

I just beat the Flagship on normal. I got lucky with weapon drops, really. I was using Fed Cruise A, so I had the artillery beam, I managed to get a second burst laser II, so I was able to fire them in sync, and then I got a Pike for when the shields were down. I think it was probably my most successful flagship fight.

I tried the Lanius and lost in the second sector on Easy.

Odd, I easily won with Lanius A on my first try on easy. I was a bit lucky in that the flagship hacking module only got my emergency battery rather than anything important, but it doesn't seem like that bad a ship in general.

I seem to have run into a problem where Easy is too easy and Medium is too hard for me. The problem is that success snowballs.

but that's plausibly because I haven't had any chance to test any except the cloning bay, and replacing the medbay with that completely inverts what the game has been teaching me up until now.

I just upgraded my clone bay to max and then treated it much like a regular med bay. The main difference is that I had to juggle boarders to avoid any one unit taking too much damage. Also, cloning bay means you're actually happy when you get to an empty jump because it means more healing. I didn't actually have very many deaths.

Hacking is moderately useful. The key is that you can use it on Medbays to make boarding easier, and it temporary locks down room access to, like a crystal member. The main drawback is that you can only use it on a single room, so you have to pick carefully. Prior to getting a boarder strategy set up, I mainly used it on missiles to delay the damage until I could take down the ship.

I haven't tried mind control at all, but it doesn't sound that useful.

Yeah, you need missiles or multi-shot weapons.

Or you can just do the normal boarding strategy. In my experience, that's by far the easiest method. Admittedly, it's pretty much the only strategy I try.

Um, you can actually do that in default FTL. Just hold down.. shift I think, and it'll set whichever gun you're using's targeting to Autofire or Fire.

Learn something new every day.

edited 19th Apr '14 11:23:24 AM by storyyeller

So, doing a run on Lanius B.

Boarding, when you have a clone bay, is fun.

If I could make custom ships, I'd make one with 4 Lanius, a clone bay, a four square teleport, and a Boarding or Ion Drone.

ARGH. Whoever came up with the idea to make the "Tough Little Ship" achievement part of the ones to unlock one of the other Kestel layouts is an idiot.

edited 19th Apr '14 5:33:53 PM by theLibrarian

For that one I found an asteroid field, defeated my foe, then turned the shields off for a while.

Ah, yeah. That's a good idea.

Yeah, it's not that hard to get with the asteroid trick.

I did notice that you can no longer train your shield and evasion skills in an asteroid field after defeating the enemy though.

edited 19th Apr '14 8:30:21 PM by storyyeller

I'd add to that you should have a clear route to a store, as well. Really wouldn't want to run through a well armed missile ship, or so help you, the enemy fleet, on just one hit point remaining.

You can check whether there's an adjacent store before letting yourself get damaged.

Alternatively, it's OK if the store isn't next to you if you can get to it by jumping to empty, previously explored beacons.

So I'm playing Stealth C again...only having 3 weapon slot HURTS! Also don't have any good gun, so facing final boss with the starting Chain Laser, Burst Laser Mk1 and Small Bomb with no boarding or defense drone? Bad idea.

@storyyeller: To my knowledge, you never could train evasion that way, but you could train shields. I guess it was a loophole, that was just closed.

So far I have unlocked every single ship (BUT crystal) and every single layout, except for Engi C and probably one other I am forgetting. I really hate the crystal unlock, and it's just as impossible to unlock it the other way, too.

If only Rock Homeworlds were more common.

There can't be more than one of each "homeworlds" per map.

So stealth-B is absolutely insane if you can survive past the first few sectors/luck into an early pre-igniter.

There can't be more than one of each "homeworlds" per map.

Yeah, but it barely ever appears even once. If the crystal quest only required the first two events, I would have unlocked it a dozen times by now (possibly not a dozen, but at least 6). But noooo, it has to require a rare sector on top of that.

Its not that rare in my experiences ._. I guess its just bad luck for you?

It is rare to get crystal crew before rock homeworld though :P Since after all,its rather possible that you choose wrong path or you find crystal crew member too late.

I have already said it, but it's important to know as fast as possible when the quest is borked: At first you need access to two civilian (green) sectors to get the pod and the Zoltan search station, and the Rock homeworlds are necessarily a red one that's not The Last Stand.

So if at the end of a sector you notice you no longer have a chance to stumble on the right sectors, you can just hit ESC and restart.

Yeah, but even with early aborts, the RNG still keeps trolling me.

In my most recent playthrough, I decided to try Stealth Ship for once and got a crsytal crew against all odds. Sector 7 was a choice between two red worlds, but nope!

edited 22nd Apr '14 8:05:16 AM by storyyeller

Also, Rock Homeworlds always spawn between sectors 5 and 7 inclusive. So if your last red beacon is in Sector 4, you definitely can't complete the quest this time.

I think the worst of all time though is one playthrough where I got a crystal crew all the way back in sector 2 and then proceeded through 4 or 5 different red sectors without finding a single Rock Homeworlds.