FTL Faster Than Light discussion thread

Gary Sax wrote: I couldn't figure out what the correct cloaking strategy was against the boss, I cloaked when it said power surge but I'm not sure that was right.

I never upgrade the cloak since you just need it briefly and want it to recharge as soon as possible for the next use. Also, mind your weapons. If you are about the cloak, turn off auto-fire so they don't fire and decloak you before it does its job.

Round 1: I just use it to dodge the missiles until I can take them out. The cooldown isn't fast enough to dodge every volley, but it does help.

Round 2: When it says Power Surge, it sends a bunch of extra beam and laser drones at you for a short time. Use the cloak when they appear, shortly after the power surge warning. Also can be used for missiles if you have an opportunity.

Round 3: The Power surge on this one either shoots 8 lasers at you, or recharges the super shield. So wait until it actually fires the 8 laser volley, pause, the cloak to dodge them.

That's my cloaking strategy.

Gary Sax wrote: I couldn't figure out what the correct cloaking strategy was against the boss, I cloaked when it said power surge but I'm not sure that was right.

Press the button when you see the missiles, drones or lasers being fired, not when the "Power Surge" alert shows up on the screen.

Now using the a boarding strategy with the Mantis ship A. It requires VERY careful active attention. I'll get through 4-5 sectors and then make a single timing mistake and both of my awesome boarders are dead. It is a huge drawback that it has a 2 teleport capacity room. It's for balancing, I understand, but... I'm trying to figure out how much weapon or drone I need to combo with two very lethal boarders w/teleport rank 3.

You can power off those drones when the boarders are doing their thing. Probably smart. Also, I haven't turned on Autofire except on Ion weapons for a long time now. Timing the shots really is way more effective.

The challenge I have with boarders is taking out the MedBay. I usually send them over, let them occupy a couple or three guys in O2 while I rain hell on the rest of the ship and beam them back before I obliterate it. I did have a couple of really good boarders in one game and switched to the beam-them-over-and-kill-everyone game, but that was by accident more than design.

Mantis A does not have the med bay problem since it starts with the bomb that destroys systems. The medbay becomes a bloodbath as you pump a bomb in, they rush guys to repair, and you beam in two hardass mantis boarders to murder the repairers.

You folks have me hooked on this stuff now, thanks.

I've died twice at the boss level, I guess I'll keep trying. Usually by the time I'm at the boss level I've got about 5 scrap and 5 hull squares left. Once I learn enough to ask useful questions I'll pester everyone.

I've been toying with Zoltan B for a while and it's so bad on so many ways it's quite dull to play with.

- You need to spend 100 scrap just to have the same shields a normal ship has
- The layout makes it very hard to defend against boarders (lots of small rooms, no way to vent).
- Doors aren't upgraded
- The weapon choice is terrible. The Pierce Beam only does one point of damage, which means that unlike the Halberd Beam of the Zoltan A, you always need to take down all the shields and even then the damage is pitiful. This means that once enemies have two shields, you are a in terrible position because two Ion shots don't disable two shields. This means you need to hit all 4 of your shots without missing just to deal any damage and it won't happen.

Basically, the shields are awful, the layout is awful, the doors are awful and the weapons are awful. There's no advantage to the ship, to do well to it you have to replace it part by part until it's not the same ship anymore. It's bad in an unfun way.

Erik Twice wrote: I've been toying with Zoltan B for a while and it's so bad on so many ways it's quite dull to play with.

I disagree. I really like Zoltan B, I've beat the game multiple times with it. The Pike Beam will do 5 damage when it cuts across the entire ship. Just pick up and additional weapon at some point to soften the shields enough for the Ion Blasts to take out the shields, then tear it apart with the pike beam.

Erik Twice wrote: I've been toying with Zoltan B for a while and it's so bad on so many ways it's quite dull to play with.

- You need to spend 100 scrap just to have the same shields a normal ship has
- The layout makes it very hard to defend against boarders (lots of small rooms, no way to vent).
- Doors aren't upgraded
- The weapon choice is terrible. The Pierce Beam only does one point of damage, which means that unlike the Halberd Beam of the Zoltan A, you always need to take down all the shields and even then the damage is pitiful. This means that once enemies have two shields, you are a in terrible position because two Ion shots don't disable two shields. This means you need to hit all 4 of your shots without missing just to deal any damage and it won't happen.

Basically, the shields are awful, the layout is awful, the doors are awful and the weapons are awful. There's no advantage to the ship, to do well to it you have to replace it part by part until it's not the same ship anymore. It's bad in an unfun way.

The one I had this reaction with is Engi B. The one with one crew member. I mean, yeah, it's a novelty to be able to vent the entire ship at the beginning except the pilot, but you're still at a horrible disadvantage...

Engi B is terrible, but the A model is one of the best ships in the game.

Phase 2 of the boss battle is definitely the hardest. If you plan to take out the drone bay and missiles and manage to pull it off, you've won. Killing most of the crew in the first phase makes it much easier to pull off. After that, phase 3 is cake.

That probably makes it seem too easy, this game is hard as hell and Hard mode would require a seriously huge horseshoe to be wedged up your ass.