FTL: Faster Than Light

Introduction

FTL is my favorite game of all time. Why? Because the gameplay, the theme, the roguelike structure, the soundtrack, the replayability all connected with me at a formative time in my life. In many ways that is because FTL is best in class for the roguelike genre but it’s also because those gameplay mechanics were so novel to me at the time. My younger brother told me about FTL in my early days of PC gaming and at that time, my Steam library primarily consisted of games that I had already played on consoles. My knowledge of video games as a whole was fairly limited to sports games and old multiplayer hits of my childhood like Halo, Call of Duty, or Star Wars Battlefront. I had no idea what indie games were, so being on Steam in those days was like the wild west. I could pick up a game on sale and have no clue what I was getting into. My brother would recommend something, I’d see it for $2.50, next thing you know I was booting it up.

A Brief Recounting of My Gaming History

I will provide even more context because I want to try and convey the mind-expanding effect games like FTL had on me. Looking back to my teenage years, our family really didn’t play many video games and when we did, there was typically a familiar structure those games fell into. Examples would be a multiplayer deathmatch mode in a shooter or a career mode in a sports game. Everything else was unfamiliar territory, even the ever-popular singleplayer, linear, narrative-driven games.

If I had to lay out a progression of games that were both incredible and evolved my understanding of the medium, it would be as follows:

Half-Life 2: I played this around 2010ish, I was sixteen at the time. The tone, narrative, and interactivity of the world sucked me into the game. It was most likely the first singleplayer game I played through on my own.

Skyrim: My brothers and I all played this in the 2011-12 time range and we’d never played anything like it before. The exploration of a simply massive world and endless quests was what was so novel at the time.

Dark Souls: 2016 was enveloped by this game and its sequels. This analogy has undoubtedly worn out its welcome, but exploration of the widest ocean (Skyrim) feels very different than exploration of the deepest pond (Dark Souls). Add on the bonfire save system and I was in over my head with something very different.

FTL: In 2017 I gave this indie game a shot and six years later here we are. What made FTL so special at the time was that this was my first foray into the roguelike genre. Gameplay mechanics like permadeath, procedural map generation, and replayability were entirely foreign concepts. Even the real-time with pause combat and top-down ship management aspects threw me for a loop.

Rimworld: I had no idea what I was getting into with Rimworld in 2019… The colonist schedule, the AI storyteller, an entire globe of options etc. I haven’t played anything like Rimworld before or after playing Rimworld.

Escape From Tarkov: Early 2020 I convinced my brother to try EFT with me and holy shit was it an experience. Realism, tension, gunplay, horror, attention to detail, PvPvE, I could go on, but the bottom line is we were immersed as hell. EFT was a potent combination of gameplay elements I had seen before but in a permadeath, multiplayer, raid format that was very new to us.

So that leaves us at current times and looking back I see 2016-17 with Dark Souls and FTL as an inflection point for my taste in and knowledge with games. Since playing those games I can pretty much can lay out a family tree of other games I tried and enjoyed because of these two games. Slay the Spire, Spelunky 1 and 2, The Binding of Isaac, and Into the Breach are some of my all-time favorite games now and I tried them because FTL established my interest in the roguelike genre.

Why Replay FTL Again?

A trait I’ve noticed with these roguelikes is not only their replayability in the moment, but their replayability over the long term. I’m pretty sure with all the aforementioned roguelikes and certainly FTL, my first attempted playthroughs only lasted a couple runs and I ended putting the games down with maybe 10 to 20 hours played. I had a surface level understanding and appreciation, but that was it. In every case I returned and ended up playing hundreds of hours of these games. A parallel I draw with this phenomenon is the experience of watching a Stanley Kubrick film. If I were to ask someone if they’ve seen The Shining and they said yes, I’d be glad because it’s a fantastic film. I’d also feel like I must ask a follow-up question: “Have you rewatched The Shining?” and what I mean by that is have you seen it five or more times over the course of the last ten years? Sure, you can probably beat FTL in a couple runs on the easy or normal difficulty, but is that really playing FTL? Of course it is, but I hope you get my point, you start to see these types of games differently on repeat visits.

I equate this return to FTL as my fifth viewing of The Shining. I know the director, the actors, the plot, the setting, the characters, the secrets, but here I am captaining The Kestrel through sector one all over again.

A Hard Mode Playthrough

Promo Video:

Ground Rules:

1. Play each ship type once until victory or defeat. 28 runs, 28 ships.

2. Hard difficulty only.

3. Advanced Edition content enabled.

4. One ship, one shot. There will be no restarts or circling back to play a ship at a later date.

5. Randomized order. After completing a run, the “random ship” button will be used to pick the next ship to play. If it rolls a ship we’ve already play, we roll again.

   1. An exception will be playing the first run with Slug B (to be explained)

6. No modifications installed. This playthrough will be done with vanilla FTL.

From each run I will write up a report out. First, I will give my initial thoughts on the ship in a format that covers the systems, layout, equipment, and crew. Second, I will give a run report that will vary in content. Sometimes I will give a detailed progression of the run, other times I will breeze over the big picture and highlight something particularly interesting. Often, I will have takeaways from the run, highlighting areas of improvement or importance for future runs. Lastly, I will keep some running statistics like overall record, ship type record, and the streak length. Ok, so that’s it. Let’s get into the playthrough, this is going to be a long one. Hope you enjoy!

Slug B - The Stormwalker

Systems:
Why does the one ship without a medbay or clone bay have to be a boarding ship? I guess level-2 doors is nice and no sensors doesn’t really matter too much with a Slug crew.

Layout:
As with any ship that relies on boarding, early on your crew feels stretched thin and the ship layout can matter more. With the Slug B, I like the central location of piloting because while your boarders are away, the pilot can quickly cover critical systems.

Weapons/Drones/Augmentations:
The concept of teleporting a bomb onto your crew that detonates and heals them is pretty hysterical. In practice, it is ultimately frustrating and inefficient. Whether it’s the bomb missing when your crew is in trouble on an enemy ship or having to expend a limited resource just to top-off your boarder’s health, I think this gimmick stinks. Definitely makes the Slug B memorable though…

Crew:
I love Slugs. I just hope to keep them alive. Their lifeform sensing ability really matters here as you can quickly assess the threat level of the enemy crew without level-2 sensors.

Run Report:

When I last played FTL to exhaustion a couple years ago, I made it a point to go through every ship I had yet to win with on hard difficulty and do so. The Stormwalker is where I threw my hands up. I remember it was the last ship; the only one I had not defeated the flagship with on hard mode. It was probably a combination of burnout and the added difficulty of the Slug B that had me leaving this final challenge unaccomplished. Over the years the Slug B has lingered in the back of my head as a hurdle that I had failed to cross. Thoughts of returning to FTL to give it another shot always crossed my mind every couple months. So finally, now in 2023, I had enough separation from my previous attempts and the overall burnout that I knew I was ready to take The Stormwalker all the way and potentially do much more…

Onto the first run of the playthrough! I’ll be the first to admit it was an unfocused mess. Sector one played out very favorably. There was an abundance of enemy ships plus they were easy to board. End of the sector, I picked up a clone bay which gave me a world of confidence going forward. Now here’s where the confusion began; I got a free Burst Laser 2 in sector three. It’s my favorite weapon and probably everyone elses. I was getting a little nervous still only having three Slugs and the two-person teleporter is a bit slow, so I started to shift to building out my weapon arsenal.

Fast forward two sectors and I had picked up hacking and found a Mantis and all of a sudden boarding was back on the menu. This is where my rust is showing. My decision-making on how to spend scrap was all over the place. We won this run, but things felt like they fell very favorably the whole time. I mean the free Burst Laser 2 alone was a sign from a higher power that I needed this win with Slug B.

My main takeaways from my first run back are as follows:

• Crew kills are strong enough to fund my stupid spending decision, but we shouldn’t count on this.
• Flak 2 is downright bad, too expensive, too power hungry, huge charge time, inaccurate, the list goes on.
• Commit to either a boarding or gunship strategy, don’t dance in between.

Results

Run: VICTORY Overall Record: 1-0 Ship Type Record: 1-0 Streak: 1 Win

Mantis B - The Basilisk

Systems:
The only ship that starts with level-2 shields. Plus, I believe it’s the only ship that starts with a defense drone. All this is to say the Basilisk has its defense sorted out. The other strength of the Basilisk is the four-person teleporter. Although we won’t be able to take full advantage of it immediately, it’s a huge benefit to have long-term.

Layout:
A fairly compact design compared to other Mantis ships. The medbay and teleporter are conveniently placed adjacent to one another. Critical systems are all clustered together at the front of the ship. Pretty decent double-door airlocks too.

Weapons/Drones/Augmentations:
Starting with a defense drone is pretty sweet. It means missile ships are no longer a race against the clock to kill their crew. The boarding drone can be sold as soon as we get a deeper crew along with the Mantis Pheromones.

Crew:
It’s a thin crew to start off with, but Mantis are what we need. Adding anyone to the boarding crew will only make the Mantis we already have more dangerous.

Run Report:

The Basilisk is quite literally the antithesis of the Stormwalker. The Stormwalker’s goal is to make boarding very difficult. Besides the obvious lack of a clone bay or medbay, the Slug B sticks with the generic two-crew teleporter, it’s a Slug ship so you get weak boarders, and you get the bare minimum in support tools with an Artemis missile and Healing Burst. When you start a run with Slug B you’re immediately put on edge. When you start a run with Mantis B it’s like slipping under a warm, familiar sleeping bag filled Mantis’, shield layers, defense drones, and a medbay.

All this is to say, that this run was a cakewalk. We had so much scrap I decided to power up some weapons just for the heck of it. The Slug B had me forgetting how powerful boarding can be. The scrap rewards are higher and the chances to pick a new crew member seem higher as well. I had a full crew by sector four!

I do need to improve my handling of the flagship fight. I don’t think my tactics were sound and I took too much damage from the missiles in particular. In the first phase I hacked their medbay for some reason and immediately regretted it. I took out their ion and beam weapons quickly and relied on the defense drone to mitigate damage from the missiles. This did not work great. At one point my drone got shot down which only further exacerbated my poor decision. I made it through by slowly chipping down their crew and therefore making the subsequent stages far easier. In the end it didn’t matter, but that stage one was far too rough to be a sustainable strategy.

Results

Run: VICTORY Overall Record: 2-0 Ship Type Record: 1-0 Streak: 2 Wins

Lanius A - Kruos

Systems:
Not much more needs to be said other than that the Lanius A starts with hacking. It’s a huge leg up. It’s been a while, but from what I can remember hacking is the most versatile system in the game. It’s useful on all different kinds of ships. Boarding crews benefit from hacking locking down a room or draining health in a medbay. Gunships benefit from hacking stripping down shields or shutting down piloting. I think I need to use hacking smarter than I have in the past, I recall just being on autopilot and hacking shields when I needed to.

Layout:
Lanius A has an interesting, winged design that gets a bit awkward with our oxygen eliminating crew members. How are normal, oxygen breathing members supposed to safely walk the halls of our ship? I’m not sure…

Weapons/Drones/Augmentations:
Ion Stunner plus Chain Laser is a pretty underwhelming set of starting weapons. I’m not sure how I feel about the Chain Laser yet, but we all know the first volley is the most important. So, when you have to wait sixteen seconds and you only get a two-laser burst, that’s a little sad.

Crew:
Like I mentioned in the layout section, I’m not sure about the optimal way to position the Lanius. I don’t think a Lanius pilot is a great idea, but I also want other crew members to be able to pass through the back of the ship without suffocating.

Run Report:

From a cakewalk to a classic, grueling FTL run. I should’ve died ten times in this run, but I stayed the course, survived, and came out on top. The final picture is a bit deceiving. Two Flaks, a Burst Laser 1, and a Heavy Laser 1 is a formidable arsenal, but that was not always the case. I stumbled through six sectors relying way too heavily on the Chain Laser. I know I was on the fence in my initial thoughts, but now I’m firmly staking claim to the side of the fence opposite the Chain Laser. It’s just too slow, especially for the payoff! I took way too much damage way too often. I was getting chipped down or blown out of the water to the point where I was fleeing battles. It shows because I was barely able to afford cloaking in the end and therefore did not get much value out of it.

This is a lot of negativity for a run I did win. But any FTL player is familiar with the feeling of losing a run. It’s like there’s this dead weight on your chest and the only way to relieve it is to jump to the next beacon and try and slowly turn things around. You get this sense of urgency, like you need to catch up to the competition. Any event or battle that goes poorly feels like someone is tripping you up in a race you’re already losing.

Anyway, fortunes turned around when back-to-back shops in sector six had Flak 1s. I quickly went from limping along to blotting out the sun with Flak, the flagship did not stand a chance.

Results

Run: VICTORY Overall Record: 3-0 Ship Type Record: 1-0 Streak: 3 Wins

Crystal B - Carnelian

Systems:
Is this the only ship that starts with shields and cloaking? I think so, and for good reason because the combination is crazy overpowered. Not only that, but you get a four-person teleporter with a strong boarding crew, holy smokes… The only drawback is the weak weapon system, but that doesn’t stop the Carnelian from being the strongest ship in the game.

Layout:
Not great, pretty scattered with some long walks to piloting and cloaking. Its most annoying at the start of a run when you need to send your pilot to the teleporter before boarding.

Weapons/Drones/Augmentations:
Crystal Vengeance makes for some nice scrap at the first store.

Crew:
Three Crystal crew members is a very strong start. With a four-person teleporter these three can wreak havoc on enemy ships by locking down rooms.

Run Report:

As if the Carnelian wasn’t enough of a cakewalk, FTL tossed a free Flak 1 and Pike Beam into my lap as ship rewards. I was cruising along so I held onto them just in case. Then I got offered a Flak 1 in a late store and I couldn’t resist. This topped off one of the more versatile ships I’ve ever captained. A deadly four-crew teleporter plus a shield-busting Flak-Beam combo meant the Carnelian was both a formidable gunship and a top-tier boarding ship, the flagship folded quickly.

One takeaway I had with this run though was that auto-ships can be a real hindrance to early boarding runs. Before I had any weapons, I ran through a couple nebula sectors and couldn’t stop running into auto-ships. I don’t know if there’s higher chances of finding them there, but it’s definitely going to cross my mind down the road. This made the start of the run harder than it needed to be because yes I could teleport in, bust a system, and get out, but how would I deal the final blow? This is why I held onto the free weapons, but I also started thinking about how much better clone bay would be for boarding runs. In the past I’ve always just stuck with whatever was default to the ship, whether that be med or clone bay. This run made me start considering switching it up when advantageous and I think the Carnelian is a perfect example of that.

Results

Run: VICTORY Overall Record: 4-0 Ship Type Record: 1-0 Streak: 4 Wins

Federation A - The Osprey

Systems:
Standard systems plus artillery, which is more often than not a downside because it takes up an all-important system slot. Maybe I could see it coming in clutch if you can’t find any decent weapons, but that’s about it.

Layout:
Aesthetically it’s a 10/10. Functionally and practically, Federation ships are a pain in the ass.

Weapons/Drones/Augmentations:
Not much to say here, we have a Burst Laser 2 and that’s all one really needs in life.

Crew:
One of the best starting crews in the game, four-deep and very diverse. I’ll probably swap the Engi and Mantis’ positioning and maybe put the Rock in piloting.

Run Report:

I’m going to keep this one short, because once again this was an absolute cakewalk. This run had it all, the dream weapon loadout (2x Flak 1, Burst Laser 2, and Heavy Laser 1), cloaking, and hacking, what could go wrong? Well in this case, nothing. 😊

One unique aspect of this run was that I picked up two Lanius crew members. Since I had all my other members trained in their stations, the Lanius became my boarding protection. The combination of venting plus sending in my Lanius crushed enemy boarders swiftly.

Results

Run: VICTORY Overall Record: 5-0 Ship Type Record: 1-0 Streak: 5 Wins

Zoltan B - Noether

Systems:
The Noether trades a strong weapons system for weak shielding. I like this tradeoff mostly because Zoltan Shields exist but also because it’s easy to slot a wide variety of weapons into a four-power system.

Layout:
The layout is okay. Fires through that main hallway could be a pain to deal with especially with low HP Zoltans.

Weapons/Drones/Augmentations:
Zoltan Shields need no introductions… also the Pike Beam goes down a lot smoother with that time buffer provided by said shields. This is a really strong equipment loadout overall.

Crew:
Triple Zoltans is pretty cool, but with a medbay I’m a little concerned about their survivability.

Run Report:

Sooooo, I can explain… the ship below dealt the final blow, but it was the prior ship that tore my hull apart. It was at the start of sector two when I ran into a Zoltan ship with not only the obvious Zoltan shields and an arsenal that included a Burst Laser 2 and Artemis missile but also a mind control system. These Zoltans really messed my day up, but in the end, it was a couple follies on my end that should be noted.

First off, level-2 shields is really, really important. I don’t know what I was doing sitting there, ship fragmenting apart around me with a cool seventy-four scrap sitting in my cargo hold. I have no excuses for this, it’s a pretty bad error. I think I was a little overconfident with my own Zoltan shields and when I met my match, I had no answers. This ties into my 2nd note…

Overhauling my weapon loadout this early was probably not the right move. At a shop late in sector one I was offered both a Halberd Beam and Burst Laser 1. I sold my two Ion Blasts and Pike Beam and bought both plus I had to put one upgrade into the weapons system to get everything powered. In retrospect, this is a nice idea but probably too expensive for how early in the run this was. The Noether’s starting arsenal is actually really strong and totally suitable for sector two, it’s just the Halberd was so tempting.

Results

Run: DEFEAT Overall Record: 5-1 Ship Type Record: 0-1 Streak: 1 Loss

Crystal A - Bravais

Systems:
Default A variant systems.

Layout:
Very spread-out. I do not like weapons being out on an island. Also, there’s plenty of airlocks, they’re just not in convenient positions.

Weapons/Drones/Augmentations:
I’d be okay with crystal weapons if they didn’t sell for a measly ten scrap. The fact that they’re pretty much unusable past sector two and you get nothing from flipping them is really unfortunate.

Crew:
A deep crew that is necessary to man this lanky vessel.

Run Report:

In the last run, I overhauled my weapon loadout too drastically too soon. On this run with the Bravais I certainly did not make the same mistake. Here, I purchased cloaking and hacking too close together, too soon and suffered the consequences of a limited arsenal. These last two runs I simply lacked balance in my scrap usage decision-making process. It’s a simple observation but in practice, knowing when and how to spend your scrap is the most important skill to have. Clearly, I’m still knocking off some barnacles from the last three years.

Results

Run: DEFEAT Overall Record: 5-2 Ship Type Record: 1-1 Streak: 2 Losses

Zoltan C - Cerenkov

Systems:
Starting with drone control and backup battery is quite nice. Level-2 backup battery is very nice. This ship starts with a weak reactor (making the first column of upgrades more expense) but counterbalances that with the battery and four Zoltans. This is a pretty sweet tradeoff, once past the early game I think this ship will be flush with power.

Layout:
I don’t love how far critical systems are from airlocks. Some sections of this ship might as well be of Rock construction…

Weapons/Drones/Augmentations:
Zoltan Shields steals the show here. It’s an incredible augment that gives you a head start in every fight. The Charge Ion, Beam drone combo is a strange one. I despise relying on drones for damage, but at least this one can’t miss.

Crew:
I love quadruple Zoltan crew, especially with clone bay where you don’t have to worry so much about their fragility. Getting a pilot replacement early on is nice too because it essentially buys you a power. I also love doubling up Zoltans in shielding for an ion-proof shield layer.

Run Report:

Right of the bat I’ll tell you the key to winning this run was buying Hull Laser 1 in sector two. Old me might have looked at it and thought, “a two-burst laser for two power and a fourteen second charge time? I’ll pass.” But new me is buying laser weapons early. Hull Laser 1 might not be an ideal late game weapon, but it’ll sure help you get there. I ended up with the holy trinity of laser weapons (BL2, Flak 1, HL1) but that was because I made it to shops with scrap to spare thanks to the Hull Laser.

Another learning was that a four Zoltan starting crew with clone bay is super strong against boarders. No one will survive your suicide bombing green men as they chain together explosions upon death. A minor downside is that your crew is slow to develop skills due to all the cloning, but at least your ship is clear of boarders. A big downside is power management. That’s the gimmick with Zoltan C, you start with a weak power system (two bars and expensive upgrades for the first column) but get four Zoltan crew members. This makes moving crew around a nightmare. For instance, if you get attacked in piloting and send in two Zoltans to deal with it, you essentially lose two power bars. One the flip side, I put a high priority on finding a new crew member of a different race to pilot the ship. This gives you back a power bar as you can now move your Zoltan pilot to a system that needs the power. But what’s really nightmare inducing about this? Glad you asked, because it really all comes down to the sound:

Now that is a sound that will send chills down your spine. And if you’re not careful, that silly mistake of sending your freshly cloned Zoltan back to their station could pull the cord on the next one.

Results

Run: VICTORY Overall Record: 6-2 Ship Type Record: 1-0 Streak: 1 Win

Lanius B - The Shrike

Systems:
Starting with mind control and a teleporter is pretty strong but also mean you can only get either cloaking or hacking. Of course, it’s very nice to start with these luxuries. The weak weapon system kind of stinks but is worth it for the starting weapon.

Layout:
The critical systems are pretty central while auxiliary systems are out on the wings. Having Lanius is nice here because you can vent out the wings, then send them in to repair or fight off boarders if necessary.

Weapons/Drones/Augmentations:
Starting with the best weapon in the game is pretty sweet… one power, three projectiles, eight second charge time is nutty. Adv Flak is a little awkward starting out as you’ll want to board with your Lanius and its inaccuracy can be annoying, but you can’t beat it, it’s the best weapon. Emergency Respirators is icing on the cake as in a little extra scrap at the first shop.

Crew:
Double Lanius boarding crew with mind control is a potent early game offense. An Engi is always nice to have around too.

Run Report:

This run is what FTL is all about. An absolute nail-bitter from sector one until the last stand. In sector three I made the grievous error of losing my two Lanius borders to a fleeing rebel ship. My crew never really recovered. I got unlucky with events and ship rewards and was never able to fill out my roster. I resorted to buying a Rock in sector seven because of this… I always knew trained crew members were an important component to a successful run, but in this run I really felt it. I kept losing skill points because the clone bay was working overtime as the bulk of the run I only had an Engi and Zoltan for boarding defense. This meant no dodge, slow weapons, and I whole lot of scrap spent on repairs.

There comes a time in the back half of a run when you can sense that you’ve spent too much on repairs. It hurts and really makes you buckle down and think about how to invest your remaining scrap. Here, I bought level-4 shields just prior to stage one of the boss fight. What I really needed though was a better engineer, more evasion, and cloaking. Most of the boss stages I was unable to get my evasion high enough, resulting in the drone/power surges lighting me up.

One positive from this run was the weapons. Similar to the last run, I invested heavily in weapons pretty early and the Adv. Flak, Flak 1, and Heavy Laser 2 did work. Most battles were over quick, and luckily so because my defenses just weren’t there.

One last note, it’s pretty nice starting with teleporting and mind control systems… However, you do have the best weapon in the game already, so should you be boarding? It’s a tough question because ideally with boarding strategies you want precisely targeted damage to deal with a specific system, medbay for insistence. I think you have to see what cards you’re dealt in the run and decide as you go. Here, I lost my boarders, so at some point my teleporter broke and I never bothered to fix it. In the end, unfortunately the teleporter became a wasted system slot. The Shrike also doesn’t start with sensors, so mind control is also a wasted system slot some of the time. I think the best way to sum it up is that the Lanius B is strong but clumsy.

Results

Run: DEFEAT Overall Record: 6-3 Ship Type Record: 1-1 Streak: 1 Loss

Stealth C - Simo-H

Systems:
The Simo-H can be summed up as the only ship without shields or cloaking, oh and no sensors to add insult to injury. The systems on this ship are downright sad. Major work is needed to get this thing functional.

Layout:
The layout’s fine, nothing really to write home about. A little spread out, but plenty of airlocks.

Weapons/Drones/Augmentations:
A redeeming quality of the Simo-H is it equipment. I like the weapons, Charge Laser and Mini Beam sync up well with a quick charge time. Long Range Scanners is an elite level augment, starting with it is lovely. Lastly the drones are an unfortunate necessity to start but can be sold for a decent chunk of scrap down the road.

Crew:
I like the Simo-H’s crew, really solid. Definitely recommend moving the Slug to piloting, Human to engines, and Rock to weapons.

Run Report:

The Simo-H is a doozy and sector one is always eventful when you don’t have shields or cloaking… Towards the end of sector one, we got to a store, but they didn’t have shields for sale. All things considered it was a good first sector, we took a lot of damage but were never in jeopardy.

Things stabilized a bit when I found shields early in sector two at a store. I traded in all my junk drones too and upgraded to level-2 shields straight away. That’s a big sigh of relief haha. Towards the end of the sector, I made the tough decision to pick up the Heavy Ion. The power requirements plus the slow charge time for an ion weapon made this one a tough pill to swallow. But I was getting antsy thinking about going into sector three without a little more firepower.

Then in a cruel turn of fate the Heavy Ion ended my run when I failed to identify it on an opposing ship. My hull was running a bit low due to all the recent store purchases, but I didn’t think there was any immediate risk. Early sector three I jump into a beacon and encountered an auto-ship with two Ion Blasts and a Halberd Beam.

I played the encounter in a standard manor. My first volley had to wait for the Heavy Ion to charge and travel to the auto-ship but by the time it hit I realized I had fucked up. My shields were down completely, and I had only a second or two to take down their Halberd. What the fuck happened?!? I used the Mini-Beam to target from piloting to weapons in hopes to guarantee the Dual Laser connecting with its target. Of course, the auto-ship had level-2 piloting and one of my Dual Laser bursts missed. The Halberd remained powered and struck four rooms quickly ending my run.

So, you guessed it! One of the Ion Blasts was not an Ion Blast, it was indeed the much-maligned Heavy Ion. Annoying in my own hands yet deadly in the opponents. This one’s super frustrating because it felt like I was turning the corner and then that extra ion damage seemingly came out of nowhere… This one’s definitely one me haha.

Results

Run: DEFEAT Overall Record: 6-4 Ship Type Record: 0-1 Streak: 2 Losses

Engi A - The Torus

Systems:

Typical A variant default systems and subsystems. Level-3 in weapons and drones is nice.

Layout:

I love the boxy layouts of the Engi ships both aesthetically and practically. I don’t love the lack of airlocks near engines and shields, but having two Engis mitigates that concern a bit.

Weapons/Drones/Augmentations:

I have mixed feelings about Ion Blast 2, but I lean a bit negative. Three power for an ion weapon doesn’t feel great. But then there’s the four second charge time, now that’s pretty sweet. With a trained crew member, this thing pumps out ion blasts like a machine gun. On the Engi A, the weapon system is limited to three slots, meaning I want high power weapons in each of those slots. This is where the Ion Blast 2 is weird, because it is high powered, but it doesn’t do any damage… Then you pair it with a combat drone and now I’m pulling my hair out. Offensive drones are frustrating because you can’t decide where the shoot and in particular this combat type because they don’t even guarantee a hit. So, after you take down an enemies shield the combat drone will most likely hit an empty or inconsequential system room and when it looks to be targeting weapons, that’s when it’ll miss.

Crew:

I really like Engis, I think they’re pretty great. Starting with two is fun. I keep everyone where they’re at, the human in piloting and the Engis in weapons and engines. Adding a Mantis to this crew feels great as it rounds it out really well.

Run Report:

I know I already said it, but I hate combat drones… waiting for them to shoot the wrong system then seeing them target the right one only to have the laser missing is incredibly infuriating!!! Some of this is my own fault. I need to iron out the timing of the Ion Blast 2 and powering the drone and also what to target with the ion. Most of the first two sectors against opponents with one shield I was targeting weapons. This was pretty effective in keeping down their weapons but not very effective when it came to my drone doing damage. There was this kind of dance going on where ions would knock down shields then start hitting weapons while the drone did one or two damage then shields would come back up only for the drone to hit them down and for ions to continue hitting weapons. It seems like more micromanagement is necessary here to get the most out of this setup.

The end of sector two was creeping up on me and I was feeling the pressure of not having a 2nd weapon. With no stores in sight, an event popped up where a Lanius ship offered a random weapon for forty-five scrap. I took it and had a momentary celebration before I realized I had received a Flak 2 not 1.

The required three system power plus a twenty-one second charge makes the Flak 2 a real pain to use, not to mention it does not synergize with the Ion Blast 2 at all…

The icing on the cake was my next sector choices: uncharted nebula and Rock controlled. Desperate to find a store I chose Rock controlled. Now I can firmly say Rock sectors suck. Missiles, flak cannons, asteroid fields, cloaking, you name it, if it’s annoying to deal with, the Rocks have it. I didn’t last four jumps. I think I’ll avoid early Rock sectors at all costs now. Without cloaking or a defense drone, it just feels like there’s too much guaranteed damage coming your way. I also need to keep in mind the criticality of finding a first or second viable weapon early on in runs. On this one I took an Abandoned sector in sector two and a Rock controlled sector in three and saw no stores. I forget what all my sector options were but going forward I’ll make a point to go through a friendly sector in two and/or three.

Results

Run: DEFEAT Overall Record: 6-5 Ship Type Record: 0-1 Streak: 3 Losses

Federation B - Nisos

Systems:
Very default systems. Artillery beam sucks and is only slightly useful early on. Late game it’s a wasted system slot.

Layout:
Just awful. The layout is horribly stretched out. Forget about Rock crew members being helpful. Actually, anyone and everyone has trouble being helpful haha. I will say, on a positive note, I found it extremely easy to vent boarders. After manning the door system and putting in one upgrade, boarders never gave me problems.

Weapons/Drones/Augmentations:
Dual Lasers is sweet. I love having a solid, one power weapon. It makes upgrading weapons easier because you can slot it in and out as you need. Leto missiles are fine, I switch them out for lasers ASAP.

Crew:
A nice mix. I love a Slug pilot, so I’ll move them there. The human in weapons is fine and then the Zoltan is good in engines. This group plus the layout feels very week to boarders early on. Getting a Mantis or upgrading doors will go a long way.

Run Report:

A blessed weapons run, finally! So, you start with Dual Lasers, awesome! Then, the first ship surrendered, offering a Halberd Beam, WOW! The pirate captain offering us his finest weapon as his ship is falling apart around him:

Currently the Halberd is unusable, but it’s something to build towards. In sector two, I picked up Flak 1, the perfect short- and long-term weapon solution. Then, in a sector five shop, Burst Laser 2 appears, and yeah, I’m getting that…And to cap it all off, another Burst Laser II as a ship reward in sector six! sheesh! So, what’s interesting here is getting the Halberd first, it made the timing of the weapon system upgrades important and then swapping loadouts around to determine the best weapons for each fight. I didn’t end up using the Halberd all that much. First it was DL + Flak 1, then Flak 1 + BL2, then Flak 1 + BL2 + DL, then Flak 1 + BL2 x 2, and finally then Flak 1 + BL2 x 2 + DL. The Halberd slid in there sometimes, but quicker charge times and more concentrated damage won out in my thought process. So, thanks to all these lasers, I ended up selling Halberd in sector seven for some spare scrap.

Entering the final sectors, I was flush with weapons but had not filled out my system slots. Going into sector six I had just upgraded to level-3 shields but otherwise was sitting with just the other default systems, un-upgraded. I made it a point to find stores to hopefully purchase hacking and/or cloaking. My search was not fruitful, so I had to whip up a plan B. What I did was buy a drone control system but with combat drone, not ideal, and then picked a defense drone. Last minute, I picked up mind control and backup battery and then I stumbled on what is essentially cloaking lite. I typically hold off on engine upgrades because I feel like I always pull power from there first, so it feels a bit wasted. But here I upgraded engines and backup battery and used the combo to increase evasion at critical moments for the flagship fight! It wasn’t perfect but after The Shrike flagship battle where the drone surge picked me apart, this did the trick.

Results

Run: VICTORY Overall Record: 7-5 Ship Type Record: 2-0 Streak: 1 Win

Slug A - Man of War

Systems:
Fairly default A variant systems, no sensors though, not a big deal with slug crew members. Level-2 doors is a nice touch, always enjoy that luxury.

Layout:
I like the tight layout, several important systems are adjacent making for easy boarder or repair assistance. Airlocks only being in the back make fires a bit awkward to deal with, but level-2 doors should help stop the spread.

Weapons/Drones/Augmentations:
This is a weird one. Anti-Bio Beam is bizarre and mostly useless. Dual Lasers on the other hand you love to see. Breach 1 is kind of ok. I’ll have to see how this run unfolds to comment more. How cool would a double Flak 1, double Anti-Bio Beam weapon loadout be?

Crew:
I love Slugs.

Run Report:

I was a little nervous about this weapon loadout… but wow, maybe I got a little fortunate but sector one was a breeze. I got the 2nd layer of shields pretty early and then was able to sit back and zap enemy crews. This also reminded me how crew kills definitely increase your chances of finding more of your own crew members, I added three by the end of the sector! So, my outlook has improved a bit on Slug A and the Anti-Bio Beam. I now see it as an early game crew killing machine that holds you over until you can get a real weapon.

Alright so cutting to the chance, this run met its end in a Rebel Stronghold sector 5. I want to focus on the last fight because I felt like this ship was cruising to a victory. I had level-3 shields, level-2 hacking, long range scanners, a Halberd beam, six crew members… things were looking up, then this rebel ship below fucked my day up.

At first glance I wasn’t very intimidated, two layers of shields, four laser bursts total seemed manageable, so what went wrong? Two words, Ion Intruder. Holy cow, I had no idea how destructive this drone can be. The drone landed in engines breaching the room then ionizing the system. My human engineer and my roaming Mantis nearly destroyed the damn thing, but it made over to weapons. What caught me by surprise was how quickly the drone’s ionization burst went off. I thought I had a few seconds, but it went off immediately and knocked out my weapons. The other surprise was how brutal the duration on that ionization effect is. It’s a four count which feels like thirty damn seconds.

In retrospect I mishandled this drone so bad. The breached room venting atmosphere plus the door adjoining weapons and engines being busted down meant oxygen was low and I let my guys get stunned… Another consequence of the drone hitting engines was that the enemy small bomb was absolutely shredding my systems. This is where my levels of frustration went through the roof. This small bomb sniped my piloting over and over again starting multiple fires and killing my Engi pilot, then killed my stunned, asphyxiated Slug weapons expert. WTF…

In all the chaos, I said “Fuck it, we’re leaving!” I looked at my FTL drive and yup it was essentially at zero charge. I prioritized fixing piloting and engines with my remaining crew, but it was too late.

In the end, what did I learn from this stunning defeat? My two big takeaways:

• My initial comments on fires with regards to the ship layout was some unintentional foreshadowing.
• My other initial comments on the convenience of having critical systems adjoining came back to haunt me.
• Ion drones/their drone control system are a high priority target especially when you have critical systems adjacent to one another.

Results

Run: DEFEAT Overall Record: 7-6 Ship Type Record: 1-1 Streak: 1 Loss

Mantis C - The Theseus

Systems:
Teleporter plus level-2 clone bay is very nice, otherwise the systems are pretty standard on this ship. The three-weapon slot limit should be no big deal on this ship.

Layout:
If feel like there’s so much free real estate on this ship… like there’s five four-tile rooms sitting wide open when you start out haha. That being said, most of the stuff that matters is pretty close by at the front of the ship. Engines is just out on an island, I guess. Love the wide selection of airlocks to choose from. You can’t get more than two rooms away from being vented, boarders beware!

Weapons/Drones/Augmentations:
The weapons are nice utility for your boarding operations, although I’m not sure how long I’ll keep them around. Pheromones is nice shop fodder.

Crew:
What an oddball bunch. The Lanius makes such an awkward boarding partner. Luckily, we have cloning! So, when I inevitably choke out my own Mantis because I locked him in a room with our O2-sucking crew member, he can pop right back into existence only to do it all over again 😁.

Run Report:

After an extremely frustrating loss, this was the sector one I needed: I went for the early upgrade to level-2 shields, found three crew members (two Rocks, one human), and bought hacking near the end of the sector. The starting crew is a little awkward but getting the early Rocks meant I had a dominant boarder squad for the rest of the run.

I’m not going to dwell on this one too much, it was one of the easier runs I’ve ever had. I was flush with scrap and had all the strong systems early, cloaking, hacking, backup battery. Although the game didn’t offer me a Zoltan Shield Bypass, it did cough up an Ion Charger and Stunner free of charge. Those made pretty quick work of the flagships phase three Zoltan shield.

Results

Run: VICTORY Overall Record: 8-6 Ship Type Record: 2-0 Streak: 1 Win

Federation C - The Fregatidae

Systems:
Level-2 clone bay is very nice, but the flak artillery and teleporter together are very awkward. The ship seems confused. Either way you go, boarding or weapons, you’ll have a system slot that is kind of wasted.

Layout:
I’ve already commented on my disdain for the layouts of federation ships. The Fregatidae does not look as bad as the Nisos. The choke point through the middle isn’t as severe and if you go boarding you can forget about the weapons up front.

Weapons/Drones/Augmentations:
Not much to say haha… Emergency Respirators is just a nice scrap boost at your first store.

Crew:
This is a pretty cool crew, although it’s a bit awkward to sort out at the start. Not sure how I will station my crew initially, do I go for a double Zoltan or Mantis/human boarding team? Either way power usage with the Zoltans isn’t optimal. Ideally, we find an early Mantis, then do a human pilot, Zoltans in engines and shields, and then Mantis boarders.

Run Report:

I wasn’t sure how this one was going to go… and at the end of sector one a store offered me a Zoltan Shield Bypass, hmmm. I took it, upgraded shields annnnd fuuuccckkk rock and nebula sectors out the wazoo.

Fortunately, I picked up two Rocks and two humans in the sectors two and three so my boarding squads were now set. This ship took a good bit of chip damage throughout but in general coasted into sector six. There, I finally picked up hacking and then decided to also buy a Breach Bomb 2 and Small Bomb. Man, I love how flush with scrap you are on boarding runs. One big downside with the Fregatidae is the Flak Artillery, especially when you go boarding. If not for that, I could’ve also picked up cloaking and been unstoppable, similar to last run.

All in all, another breezy victory, but please, let me play a gunship next. Oh also, please stop throwing auto-ship after auto-ship at my ship which is incapable of dealing hull damage. My crew is tired of beating ships apart from the inside while they’re asphyxiating.

Results

Run: VICTORY Overall Record: 9-6 Ship Type Record: 3-0 Streak: 2 Wins

Rock C - Tektite

Systems:
Not much to say here, a very default starting setup. Always nice to have clone bay of course.

Layout:
I like the layout quite a bit. I like the cluster of weapons, engines, and shields in the back, makes assistance very easy. Gotta love the airlocks, lots of double airlocks too. Between the Rock crew members and the many airlocks, fires don’t look that scary to me.

Weapons/Drones/Augmentations:
Overall, pretty below average. I think the crystal weapons are extremely annoying. Bottom line is the shield piercing does not offset long charge times and past sector two synergizes horribly with other weapons. Swarm missiles are ok and sell for a nice price. Rock plating is some nice scrap too.

Crew:
Not too shabby. Definitely a strong but slow outfit. I’ll probably keep the starting crew where they’re at. Getting an Engi and Mantis would be pretty sweet to run around repair stuff and fight off boarders.

Run Report:

Quite the straightforward run! Never really at risk, but also never running away with the victory either. I’ll just run through a quick progression of the run, there were two sticky points but that’s it.

Sectors one and two were pretty smooth, picked up two Heavy Laser 1s (one free, the other at the shop), upgraded to level-2 shields, and found a Mantis and Rock crew member. All round, very solid.

Sector three I was flush with scrap and looking for another weapon. I really wanted to sell of the Swarm missiles and Crystal Heavy Laser but after coming up blank in the 2nd shop of the sector I made the call to buy cloaking. This was a sketchy pickup in retrospect. 150 scrap is a lot in sector three and level one cloaking is pretty mediocre.

I still had enough scrap to buy a weapon down the road, so when a store popped up first thing in sector four, I was ok. Unfortunately, there were no top-notch weapons available, and I had to settle for a Hull Laser 1. I stewed over this one for quite a bit. It’s hard to stomach the fourteen second charge time on this thing, especially for only a two-burst laser. Buuuuutttt, turns out some lasers are better than no lasers. The Hull Laser 1 ended up carrying me all the way to the flagship fight. It wasn’t pretty, but the Hull Laser 1 plus two Heavy Lasers took me far enough until I got hacking and Burst Laser 1. So, I think that’s my main takeaway: don’t trick yourself into thinking you’ll find a better weapon in the next sector or next store. That probably won’t be the case and if it is, the more the merrier!

Results

Run: VICTORY Overall Record: 10-6 Ship Type Record: 1-0 Streak: 3 Wins

Kestrel B - Red-Tail

Systems:
Solid across the board. Starting out with level-4 weapons is very nice.

Layout:
A bit more spread-out than I’d like, but most of the critical system are clustered at the rear. Piloting is kind of on an island. Getting a strong crew member manning the door system would probably help that pilot feel less exposed.

Weapons/Drones/Augmentations:
The Red-Tail gets to start out with what the Burst Laser 3 wishes it was, four basic lasers. This is a really strong starting weapon loadout. In a 10 second charge time, you’ll get a four-laser burst, wow!

Crew:
Always love starting with four crew members, because then you can fully reap the benefits of training at your first chance. I’ll probably switch the human to weapons and Zoltan to engines and keep the Mantis in shields in case he needs to run around.

Run Report:

FTL hurts sometimes, like really, really hurts. This loss I felt deep in my soul. If you take a look at the screenshot below you may be able to diagnose the source of my angst. First off, this is sector five and you’ll note I have only default systems and subsystems. If not for a free Heavy Ion in sector three, I’d only have my starting Basic Lasers. I have 229 scrap, one fuel, and obviously zero hull, while having level-3 shields, level-4 engines, and level-6 weapons. Unpictured is my cargo that contains an Ion Intruder, Repair Burst, Combat Drone, and Chain Ion… Based on this information an experienced FTL player may be able to deduce that I had not seen a store since sector two.

I’m never super confident in FTL, but this run felt like a shoo-in victory if I found a store with anything remotely decent in it. That why this loss was so demoralizing. To lose with such a strong ship and so much scrap unspent hurts. I won’t even mention how the enemy Artemis missile hit me three times in a row when I had 40% evasion, landing the killing blow a millisecond before a could jump away…

Results

Run: DEFEAT Overall Record: 10-7 Ship Type Record: 0-1 Streak: 1 Loss

Stealth A - The Nesasio

Systems:

Other than the obvious tradeoff, the three-slot weapon system really sucks…

Layout:
Decent layout, everything is pretty centralized. The airlocks are very limited, so I don’t love that.

Weapons/Drones/Augmentations:
A nice starting set of weapons. Good damage and quick charge times with minimal power usage. However, with a three-slot weapon system we’ll need to find more impactful weapons for long-term success.

Crew:
Three humans as your starting crew is super bland but one man for every critical system is convenient. This means we should be able to take advantage of early training opportunities and get the most out of our manned systems.

Run Report:

When FTL has you feeling down, sometimes the stars align to lift you back up. After whiffing on a couple early stores with the Stealth A, I was getting nervous heading into sector three. I was having visions of the Red-Tail run where once again I was stuck with starting weapons well into sector 5. Then a store appeared near the exit on my sector two map… Opening the store menu I saw Shields available for 125 scrap, nice! But wait, there it is, the most beautiful sight in all of gaming:

The Burst Laser Mark 2… and it was at that moment I knew I was safe from the bullshit that was the Red-Tail run. But hold-up again, can I afford both shields and the Burst Laser 2? I did the math and if I sold Titanium System Casing and the Mini Beam I would have exactly 205 scrap, perfect scrap usage! WOW!

From this point on, it was smooth sailing. I picked up hacking and a Pike Beam a little later and the flagship was toast. One take away I had was that it was nice seeing the 5-power weapon loadout be so successful. This was the definition of low cost and high impact when combined with hacking.

Results

Run: VICTORY Overall Record: 11-7 Ship Type Record: 1-1 Streak: 1 Win

Engi C - Tetragon

Systems:
Starting with hacking is huge. It’s a versatile tool that is useful through every sector. Having it from the start means you don’t have to worry about finding the right time to buy it at a store. Otherwise, clone bay is nice and a weak weapon system is a minor annoyance.

Layout:
Boarders teleporting into the top half of this ship is absolutely hilarious. Watching them blasting through your doors to escape asphyxiation only for you to pop the hatch on the next room once they’re through never gets old…

Weapons/Drones/Augmentations:
Dual Lasers is very nice but here we are again relying on drones for damage, I don’t like it. The sooner we can sell of the beam drone and defense scrambler for a 2nd weapon and a defense drone the better.

Crew:
The Tetragon crew is interesting. Engi are sweet for repairs but where should I station the Lanius? Piloting doesn’t feel right, engines seem nice and secluded. Boarders are definitely a threat, so upgrading doors should be a priority.

Run Report:

Some runs are quite simple, you get Long Range Scanners and Flak 1 in a sector two store, and it is game over. This run we also picked up Burst Laser 2 and a Halberd Beam, completing the holy trinity of FTL weapons, all bow before their majesties.

The holy trinity is the perfect, albeit hard to find, solution for three-slot weapon systems. It’s the perfect mix of shield breaking, selective damage, and big spread damage with a reasonable charge time that also comes in at only seven system power.

Results

Run: VICTORY Overall Record: 12-7 Ship Type Record: 1-1 Streak: 2 Wins

Rock B - Shivan

Systems:
No doors…

How am I supposed to vent enemy boarders? Do I even bother buying a door system at some point?

Layout:
I don’t hate it, but with four Rocks as the starting crew everyone gets to start on their own little islands. Goodluck if a couple Mantis teleports into your wing, a friend will be over to help in a couple minutes.

Weapons/Drones/Augmentations:
Like crystal weapons, the Heavy Pierce Laser is very awkward synergistically with other weapons. It’s totally satisfactory in the first two sectors, then forget about it. On the other hand, I have a soft spot for fire weapons… something about starting fires on enemy ships and watching them scrabble is so cathartic. Unfortunately, Shivan has level-3 weapons control and both starting weapons are two power, what the hell.

Crew:
What goes through my head playing the Shivan:

“I am a rock, I am an iiiiiisslannndd”

Run Report:

I may be starting to sound like a broken record, but the end of sector two was approaching and three stores in a row were complete whiffs. Out of frustration and overabundance of scrap, I purchased cloaking. I’ve been known to do this previously albeit with very mixed results. I was nervous about the decision, but a small merchant ship popped up at the next beacon…

The free Flak 1 plus a little twenty-five scrap kicker is just a sight of pure beauty… This run took off after this. I ended sector three with Flak 1, Burst Laser 1, and Heavy Laser 1, plus cloaking and hacking. With a favorable sector map, I smoked the rest of the competition. I ended up buying a door system at the last store just for the heck of it.

Results

Run: VICTORY Overall Record: 13-7 Ship Type Record: 2-0 Streak: 3 Wins

Kestrel A - The Kestrel

Systems:
Default systems.

Layout:
Average layout. Not too spread out, not very compact.

Weapons/Drones/Augmentations:
Artemis missiles plus Burst Laser 2 is a pretty sweet starting weapon loadout. It’s versatile and strong in the short term and obviously you have BL2 for the long term.

Crew:
Not much too say here…

Run Report:

I was wondering when The Kestrel would finally show up on this playthrough. The pressure is on… I really want to get an emphatic victory with the ship that is essentially the face of FTL. It has an enduring design that is connected to every players first run. The Kestrel’s systems, crew, and loadout are intentionally basic; a somewhat blank slate to build upon. The start of a Kestrel is FTL stripped down to its basics. This ship in particular demonstrates the strength of FTL’s foundation, the gameplay. Alright, so enough with the preamble, let’s get into the run.

It was an up and down start. First off, I received Long Range Scanners as a ship reward early in sector two. An excellent early reward. Before the end of sector two I went back and forth on purchasing a Laser Charger. I ended up making the purchase then immediately received and Heavy Laser 2 for free, well I guess I’m set on weapons for the run.

Early in sector three I ran into an event with a super dangerous Rock ship. Wasn’t even in a Rock sector, but here I was fighting a ship with cloaking, a Burst Laser 2, a Mini Beam, and an Artemis missile, what the hell. Cloaking plus an Artemis missile alone is dangerous. The short charge time and the two-damage missile is something I need to pay attention to in the future, the one-damage Leto is a little easier to brush off. In this particular encounter the Artemis probably did ten hull damage.

Aside from the rough brush-up with that Rock ship, the early sectors went by smoothly and I had all the right pieces going into sector 5. Buying hacking plus getting a free 2nd Laser Charger meant I was set offensively and defensively, I was able to upgrade to level-3 shields. And then disaster struck… my daughter returned home and immediately upon crossing the door threshold demanded pasta. I guess my wife divulged while out on the walk that daddy was making penne alla vodka for dinner. I had just finished a mildly annoying fight with a slug cruiser that I had to counter-hack, so I jumped up and started getting her plate ready. I got her ready to eat, got myself a 2nd portion, and sat down with her for dinner. We wrapped up and I started to load the dishwasher when I caught a glimpse of my monitor in the living room. My heart skipped a beat because I saw a whole lot of red….

I ran over to my PC and smacked the space bar! What the hell happened?!?!?!? I just choked out five of my seven crew members, the two living only survived because they happened to be in medbay and it was powered! Not to downplay the survivor’s part in the crew but of course it was all my trained operators that died. My weapons expert, gone! My high-level pilot, vented! My best engineer, asphyxiated! My veteran shields operator, dead… But I digress, I’m lucky this run isn’t over, or is it? All I have left are two untrained, glorified bouncers/doormen.

Before the end of sector 5, I saw a store pop up on the sector map. I thought to myself, since we are in a Slug controlled nebula, the perfect purchase would be a trained Slug pilot, that could get us back on track. We stopped at the store and sure enough there was a Slug pilot for hire! This lifted my spirits a bit and compelled me to push on into sector 6. I rarely ever buy crew members, but we were in such a good spot in terms of systems and weapons that I felt this was the right move.

The little string of luck continued when I picked up two Zoltan crew members in sector 6, one being a shield expert. We were back and really thriving. I absolutely love the combo of hacking piloting and Heavy Laser Mark 2. If you have something to break shields (BL2 in this case), I love the guaranteed 4 damage to a single room with two chances to breach and start fires. It’s a potent recipe for disaster for the enemy ship and crew. In these final sectors, with any moderately dangerous ship, I was simply hacking piloting and bombarding the enemy’s weapons. Something about the Heavy Laser 2’s sound effects are so satisfying and when capped off with the hull breach sound effect, oh baby that’s music to my ears.

I know I’ve gotten away from the drama of losing pretty much my whole crew, but that’s how this run went. I lost most of my crew, but the ship was so well outfitted already we barely skipped a beat. So yes, we defeated the flagship with hardly a scrape on the hull and yes, this run was definitely more dramatic than it needed to be.

Results

Run: VICTORY Overall Record: 14-7 Ship Type Record: 1-1 Streak: 4 Wins

Stealth B - DA-SR 12

Systems:
Level 2 cloaking is this ships only saving grace. The low engine level means cloaking is not even close to 100% evasion though.

Layout:
I like the layout. Nice and compact with decent airlocks.

Weapons/Drones/Augmentations:
You start with an all-time great augment and all-time bad weapon. Everyone knows the deal with this ship, it’s the glass canon.

Crew:
Meh. Pretty suspectible to boarding parties. I’ll probably move the Zoltan to engines to not risk losing power on the Glaive Beam.

Run Report:

First fight:

(L) First volley hits weapons. (C) Second beam swipe nicks weapons. (R) Third beam swipe starts a fire in weapons...

Fourth fight:

Results

Run: DEFEAT Overall Record: 14-8 Ship Type Record: 1-2 Streak: 1 Loss

Rock A - Bulwark

Systems:
Standard A variant system, nothing to note.

Layout:
Starting with Rocks always make ship layouts feel worse than they really are. Getting doors, oxygen, or shields knocked out looks like it will suck…

Weapons/Drones/Augmentations:
Oh how I wish the Bulwark started with Explosive Replicator not Rock Plating.

Crew:
Fairly strong against boarders. Repairing systems that the Rocks are not already stationed at will be fun though.

Run Report:

Getting a Halberd Beam in sector one with the Bulwark turns out to be pretty awkward. Definitely not complaining because the Hull missile is a mess but the long charge was getting me lit up all throughout sector two and three. This was a run where I could feel that I was taking too much chip damage. I was getting to a store and having to spend too much scrap too frequently on repairs. It’s a bad feeling.

At the end of sector three, I was able to pick up Flak 1 in a shop and things were looking up and then I ran into an ion storm. With my power reactor cut in half, I powered up Flak 1 and two layers of shields. The enemy ship powered up a Basic Laser and Mini Beam, so I felt safe, then I heard a drone power up. A combat drone, ok this could get a little sketchy, but wait that drones’ moving a bit fast. I audibly gulped as I realized it was a Mark II combat drone. That damn thing tore my shields apart so fast; I didn’t stand a chance.

In retrospect, I could’ve hacked their drone control system and maybe exploded the combat drone. But then I’m sacrificing either shields or weapons. I was hoping my Flak 1 would knock out the drone by doing enough system damage, but they had a buffer level! What?!? This run was about to take off, I had just gotten Burst Laser 1 as a ship reward. I needed only a few more profitable beacons and it was over.

Results

Run: DEFEAT Overall Record: 14-9 Ship Type Record: 2-1 Streak: 2 Losses

Kestrel C - The Swallow

Systems:
Very default C variant systems with a random level-2 sensors system thrown in.

Layout:
The Swallow has a bit of trip from stem to stern. The back and middle of the ship have very nice airlocks, I’ll definitely keep the Lanius in engines. The front has no airlocks, but with a strong crew member manning doors, protecting piloting shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

Weapons/Drones/Augmentations:
Dual Lasers is above average, Ion Stunner is below average. The mix is totally serviceable for starting sectors.

Crew:
Not much beats the Red-Tail’s crew, The Swallows certainly doesn’t. The Lanius is fine as you can keep them out of the way in engines. Until someone else is added, the Lanius might have to chase around boarders while I vent the ship.

Run Report:

This run had some regrettable decision-making. What can I say? It’s been twenty-three runs now and I have yet to get the Fire Beam going. So here I was, exiting sector two with my starting weapons and a store only offers me a Fire Beam and two other missile weapons. I had to take it; the Fire Beam is too much fun.

Crew killing with the Fire Beam worked for a while until I hit a rough patch. In a nebula at the back-half of a Zoltan sector I hit four empty beacons in a row… I then exited to sector five which added another empty beacon, then another two empty beacons before encountering a Rebel ship. That was a total of seven empty or fruitless beacons in a row and I was pulling my hair out!

In the end chip damage caught up to me, I was probably being too greedy with the Fire Beam…

Results

Run: DEFEAT Overall Record: 14-10 Ship Type Record: 1-2 Streak: 3 Losses

Zoltan A - The Adjudicator

Systems:
Default A variant systems. I love starting with level-2 doors, it really helps with a weak crew like this one.

Layout:
It’s not as bad as it looks…

Weapons/Drones/Augmentations:
Halberd Beam and Zoltan Shield is the best starting equipment in the game and it’s not really that close in my opinion.

Crew:
Weak but powerful. Getting a better pilot early is top priority.

Run Report:

I got Flak 1 in a sector two store.

On a serious note, the Zoltan shield turns this run into a cakewalk if you get any complimentary weapon for the Halberd Beam. The difference is evident when you compare this run to the Bulwark run. Comparable weapon loadouts, but the Zoltan shield prevents so much chip damage.

Results

Run: VICTORY Overall Record: 15-10 Ship Type Record: 2-1 Streak: 1 Win

Mantis A - The Gila Monster

Systems:
With the Mantis A you get a teleporter but at the cost of sensors and a weak weapons system. No sensors is interesting. It means you have no intel on your enemy before you drop in your Mantis. A couple things could mitigate this issue: upgrading the teleporter to be able to pull your crew back faster, buying sensors, finding a slug crew member, we’ll see how it plays out.

Layout:
This layout makes me want to hold onto Mantis pheromones…

Weapons/Drones/Augmentations:
Small Bomb and Basic Laser are the cheapest/simplest solution for a couple gaps in a boarding game plan. Small Bomb for targeting a specific system, Basic Laser for chipping down Zoltan Shields or an auto-ship.

Crew:
A very nice crew for boarding. Deep enough to allow you to send out boarders without abandoning your own ship. Mantis are quick and deadly. An Engi is perfect for patching any holes on deck.

Run Report:

It happened again… the Heavy Ion got me. I was up against an auto-ship in sector five and I was cruising. I had everything I needed: hacking, cloaking, three layers of shields, backup battery, I even swapped over to a clone bay but that’s what nearly did me in.

I played this fight really dumb in hindsight. I need to do better about eliminating threats and utilizing hacking. This auto-ship had an Ion Blast, Heavy Ion, Dual Laser, and Heavy Laser 1, on top of that fairly dangerous weapon system they had hacking. What threw me off was that they hacked my clone bay and that did not jive with my strategy of beating their systems to a pulp with my Mantis boarders. I hacked their hacking and sent my boarders in to beat down their weapons. I cloaked through their first volley, then when my boarders died, I hacked their hacking to prevent losing my crew members for good.

At some point my hack caused their hacking drone to detonate and subsequently I didn’t realize that another hacking drone got launched out and attached itself to my shields! So, in all this mess, somehow my cloaking and hacking were on recharge and the enemy was now hacking my shields while two of my Mantis were in the cloning process. My boarders had chipped down their Dual Laser but sure enough the next Ion Blast plus Heavy Ion volley hit, knocking out my shields completely and everyone who’s played FTL knows there’s only one place the next Heavy Laser shot is heading, that’s right, the clone bay. Yup, that’s FTL. I know my shields were down, that’s on me, but I’m still sitting there with 40% evasion and about fifteen different rooms to hit…

There was no time for feeling sorry for ourselves because I still had two boarders suffocating on the auto-ship. I rushed my pilot and engineer, two Engis, over to the clone bay and repaired it in the nick of time. We ended up defeating the auto-ship but were in a very tough spot. The run had been blessed with plenty of crew members thus far, but primarily two Engis, not exactly the boarding crew replacements I’m looking for at this moment.

All of this ended up not matter too much. In the next store I purchased Zoltan Shield Bypass and a Rock and that was pretty much it, the flagship did not stand a chance. The cloaking, missile hacking, boarder strategy is essentially foolproof. What did I learn though from my close call in sector five? Maybe to consider level three clone bay to help protect from these freak scenarios. Also, hacking their hacking with your hacking can detonate their hacking drone but that puts your hacking drone out of sync with their next hacking drone meaning whatever system it lands in is getting hacked, a little bit. I’ll stop there.

Results

Run: VICTORY Overall Record: 16-10 Ship Type Record: 3-0 Streak: 2 Wins

Slug C Ariolimax

Systems:
Arguably the strongest starting systems in the game. Crystal B is in strong contention with the cloaking/teleporter start too. Having mind control plus hacking from the start is too much fun. I also just noticed too that the Slugs love level-2 doors; all their ships have them. I feel justified in my love for Slugs even more now as we both value a good blast door.

Layout:
A truly fantastic layout for a fantastic ship. A tight, symmetric design with decent airlock positions. Piloting, shields, and engines are easily supported. The one weakness is weapons being on an island in the front of the ship, definitely something to keep an eye on.

Weapons/Drones/Augmentations:
The lone, lackluster area for Slug C is the weapons. Chain Laser is not one of my favorites. It’s slow to charge up and can get reset fairly easily. This is definitely an area I’ll look to improve quickly. At least Slug Repair Gel can help offset that cost.

Crew:
I love Slugs.

Run Report:

This was just one of those runs where I always one step behind. Except for the start of course, which makes this result feel worse. Never enough fuel, always low of hull, barely able to break through enemy shields, I don’t know where it went wrong. This is a frustrating one to lose because of how awesome this ship is. But for how fun it is to start with hacking and mind control, it is equally not fun to start with a Chain Laser. When the enemy is not really threatening, it’s fun to turn the enemy turn on themselves and get crew kills that way. However, when the enemy is threatening, it’s a nightmare waiting for the Chain Laser to spin up and even when it is spun up you only get two shots! Hope both those shots land buddy!

Fast forward to sector five and I limped into an ion storm, oh boy… Things went from bad to worse when the enemy had a Combat Drone Mark 2. That drone torn me to shreds and I was barely able to escape with three hull left. Fortunes did not turn around though and even with hacking and damaging the auto-ship’s weapon systems, their hull missile stayed online and that was all she wrote.

Results

Run: DEFEAT Overall Record: 16-11 Ship Type Record: 1-2 Streak: 1 Loss

Engi B - The Vortex

Systems:
While I’m not a huge fan of the drone control system and drones in general, I like unique ship designs. The Engi B starts with both three-slot weapon and drone control systems, meaning you can equip less weapons but more drones than normal. The larger capacity for drones is one aspect that defines Engi ships and I like it in concept but in practice I think drones are too gimmicky.

Just throwing it out there, but I think there should be more drone slots and drones should cost less power to operate. I just think it would be super cool to have a whole crew of drones that you could power off and on depending on the current situation you’re in.

Layout:
I love Engi ships. The tight, circular design is aesthetically pleasing and practical to navigate.

Weapons/Drones/Augmentations:
The Heavy Ion and Heavy Laser 1 are a polarizing pair. On one hand you have the slow, limited Heavy Ion, on the other you have the fast, impactful Heavy Laser 1. The problem here is that the greatness of the Heavy Laser 1 is contingent on the Heavy Ion. That means you’re waiting nearly twice as long as the Heavy Laser’s charge time to fire and if the Heavy Ion misses, you’re dead in the water.

The support drones and augment are fun and thematic for this ship but are ultimately trade in pieces at the earliest store you can afford to lose them at. I’d like to hang on to them, but real crew members and a defense drone are way more high impact and versatile.

Crew:
My Engi pilot hiding in the cockpit as all the drones scramble around putting out fires and repelling boarders:

Run Report:

Moreso than the Chain Laser, my hatred for the Heavy Ion runs deep. This was the final boss of the entire playthrough, a ship where its entire offense relies on the Heavy Ion. I felt the pressure not only because of the Heavy Ion, but because this was it! The finale, the last run of FTL for some time. I wanted to go out with a win, I wanted to go out winning three of the last four, not losing two on the trot.

Sector one was a mixed bag. On one hand we quickly onboarded two more crew members, a Rock and another Engi. On the other hand, in a battle with a pirate cruiser, my Heavy Ion missed five shots in a row nearly giving me an aneurism. In sector two my hunt for a Heavy Ion replacement became more desperate. I hit two stores but came up empty, only missile weapons for sale. I entered sector three with a pit in my stomach knowing I had no way of dealing with two-layer shields. The only thing going in my favor was the sector itself, it was Engi controlled.

From the first beacon in sector three I was able to jump directly to a store, I had a chance! But of course, no weapons for sale… I opened the sector map again only to find another store one jump away! At this point, we were jumping deep into the sector in what was certainly not an optimal path, but this was our only chance. I jumped to the second store only to find, once again, there were no weapons for sale! What did I do to deserve this? Not even hacking was available at the last four stores! That was it, the run had reached the end of its rope. I opened the sector map one more time because, who knows, maybe we can hit a third shop in a row. Unfortunately, the one thing we had going for us, Long Range Scanners, told me we’re nearly entirely surrounded by ships we cannot defeat. In one last hail Mary attempt at survival, I jumped our ship into presumably empty space, who knows what could happen.

Holy crap is right. I’ve never been so happy to see a Laser Charger. In the moment I couldn’t believe it, after the fact there’s nothing to say except that this weapon floating in space saved the run. Sector four turned this around completely by finding a Flak 1 in a store, receiving a Halberd Beam as a ship reward, and earning the Zoltan Shield augment in the Zoltan Homeworlds questline. That sealed the fate of this run and the entire playthrough. We ended with a runaway but dramatic win on a difficult ship. Check out the screenshot below, zero damage taken through all three phases of the flagship. I think that was a first for this playthrough, not too shabby!

Results

Run: VICTORY Overall Record: 17-11 Ship Type Record: 2-1 Streak: 1 Win

Playthrough Stats

Record:

Wins: 17
Losses: 11

Longest Winstreak:

Winstreak = 5 (Slug B, Mantis B, Lanius A, Crystal B, Federation A)

Longest Losing Streak:

Losing Streak = 3 (2x: Lanius B, Stealth C, Engi A and Stealth B, Rock A, Kestrel C)

Best Ship Type:

🥇 Federation, Mantis (3-0)

🥈 Engi, Zoltan, Rock (2-1)

Worst Ship Type:

🥇 Kestrel, Stealth, Slug (1-2)

🥈 Lanius, Crystal (1-1)

Most Used Weapon:

🥇 Flak 1 (16 x)

🥈 Burst Laser 2, Burst Laser 1 (7x)

🥉 Heavy Laser 1, Halberd Beam, Laser Charger (6x)

Winningest Weapon (min 5 runs):

🥇 Burst Laser 2 (7x, 100% Win Rate)

🥈 Heavy Laser 1 (6x, 100% Win Rate)

🥉 Laser Charger (6x, 83% Win Rate)

Losingest Weapon (min 5 runs):

🥇 Halberd Beam (6x, 50% Win Rate)

🥈 Burst Laser 1 (7x, 57% Win Rate)

🥉 Flak 1 (16x, 81% Win Rate)

Most Used Auxiliary System:

🥇 Hacking (18 x)

🥈 Cloaking (13x)

🥉 Mind Control (10x)

Winningest Auxiliary System (min 5 runs):

🥇 Cloaking (13x, 92% Win Rate)

🥈 Teleporter (7x, 86% Win Rate)

🥉 Mind Control (10x, 80% Win Rate)

Losingest Auxiliary System (min 5 runs):

🥇 Drone Control (9x, 67% Win Rate)

🥈 Hacking (18x, 78% Win Rate)

🥉 Artillery (3x, 100% Win Rate, 0% of the reason we won)

Additional Comments

• When boarding was a primary strategy, we went 6-0. The one loss with a teleporter came from the Shrike and that was a gunship for reasons I don’t want to revisit.
• Despite the wasted system slot for artillery, Federation ships went 3-0.
• Unsurprisingly Burst Laser 2 is undefeated.
• In the middle of the playthrough there was a period where I won seven out of eight runs. The one loss was with the Red-Tail, that one hurts…

Playthrough Awards

Favorite Victory

🥇 Kestrel A - Losing five out of my seven crew and coming back was pretty awesome.

🥈 Lanius A - A classic nail biter, escaped death by inches too many times to count.

🥉 Engi B - The Laser Charger miracle will never be forgotten.

Favorite Defeat

🥇 Slug A - The absolute chaos incurred by the Ion Intruder scarred me for life.

🥈 Lanius B - An astonishingly similar run to Lanius A just with the opposite result.

🥉 Kestrel C - I lost using a Fire Beam, I’ll die on that hill every time.

Worst Defeat

🥇 Kestrel B - It’s so painful not finding stores and weapons.

🥈 Stealth C - I love getting screwed by Heavy Ion in multiple ways…

🥉 Zoltan B - Overconfidence man.

Post-Playthrough Ponderings

I am happy with the overall record of 17-11. When I had this idea, my conservative goal was to be over 0.500. I wanted to believe I was capable of better but was unsure about the ring rust. A strong start helped, with a bunch of very strong ships, but then my faith faltered as I definitely hit a rough patch. Looking back there are some losses I can brush off and others that will stick with me. Ships like the Stealth B and C, Engi A, and Rock A I can live with. Shit happens when you don’t have shields and your only weapon takes twenty-five seconds to charge. The losses with the Lanius B, Kestrel B, and Slug C hurt not only because those ships are blessed with luxuries other ships have to work for but also because wins with those ships would’ve put our total wins at twenty and losses in the single digits.

Ok, enough with the big picture stuff, let’s get into my takeaways, learnings, optimizations, random comments, and anything else I want to mention from my runs of FTL!

Here’s 28 Tips From 28 Runs

1. Have an efficient answer for two-layer shields before sector three.
2. It might be worth buying clone bay for a boarding ship.
3. Hacking piloting plus Heavy Laser 2 has to be tried by everyone.
4. Backup Battery can be cloaking-lite with high level engines.
5. The Ion Intruder/their drone control system are a high priority target especially when you have critical systems adjacent to one another.
6. Don’t trick yourself into thinking you’ll find a better weapon in the next sector or next store.
7. The Chain Laser cannot be relied upon.
8. Heavy Ion doing two ion damage is extremely useless. I’m not salty at all.
9. Rock sectors are really dangerous, avoid at all costs. Too much cloaking, missiles, flak, asteroids etc.
10. Hacking is incredibly versatile, be open to using it for a variety of purposes.
11. Be cautious buying cloaking in the early sectors. It’s hard to afford without sacrificing something else.
12. Look for opportunities to get crew kills with gunships, whether that’s with an Anti-Bio Beam, Fire Beam, mind control, suffocation, or fires.
13. Taking on the Rebel fleet becomes more valuable in the later sectors. Don’t worry too much about squeaking out extra beacons in the early game.
14. Always review the sector map ahead of time for dead-ends and traps.
15. Weapons like the Laser Charger, Burst Laser 1, and Hull Smasher 1 are not the most efficient or powerful, but they should not be overlooked.
16. Be careful with Zoltans moving through a clone bay.
17. Pay attention to weapon models so you can easily identify the threat level of the opposing ship.
18. Level-2 teleporter is very useful for getting new crew members.
19. In the early sectors try and always have eighty scrap on hand. Missing high impact purchases like Flak 1, hacking, or Burst Laser 2 can really hurt.
20. Early level-2 shields enables training opportunities against low-threat level ships.
21. Training the weapons control skill up to level-2 for the 20% faster charge can make a world of difference.
22. With level-3 hacking and cloaking, the flagship’s missiles are no longer a threat.
23. Do not underestimate the drone surge of phase 2 of the flagship. My one defeat to the flagship was because I had no answer for it.
24. Trapping flagship crew members with hacking and firing into the hacked room is a viable way to thin out the enemy crew before phase 3.
25. You can power combat drones on and off to try and sync up their lasers with your ships volley. This makes them a little less bad.
26. Always remember to buy fuel. If I have less than fifteen, I’m thinking about it at the shop. It’s too easy to hit a dry spell in this game.
27. Surrender offers are sometimes worth it. Sometimes I accept if they offer high amounts of fuel. If your ship relies on missile or drones, consider them too. Almost always accept if they offer equipment of some kind.
28. The skill of knowing how and when to spend your scrap is the most important skill in the game.

Closing Remarks

At the start of this article, I stated that FTL is my favorite game. I gave a couple reasons and then got into how FTL introduced me to the roguelike genre. What I’ve come to learn about the roguelike genre is that it’s fairly wide open when it comes to implementation of its core and ancillary game mechanics. Some games like FTL and Slay the Spire click with me, others not so much. After another round of FTL runs, my thoughts on why I enjoy FTL in particular have become even more cemented. I’ll highlight two reasons that stuck out on these latest runs to keep things brief:

Different tools, same toolbox. Different starting points, same puzzle.
Over the course of playing FTL, you learn about your toolbox: the weapons, drones, augments, systems, and crew that exist out there in the galaxy. However, any single run, your tools will be limited to what you have with your starting ship and what becomes available to you over the next eight sectors. Similarly, the FTL puzzle is learned as you play the game more and more. The progression of difficulty, the challenges of each sector, the challenge at the end of it all become more known and predictable with repeat playthroughs. That is the big picture. The mini puzzles that can be encountered at any given beacon; however, are never known and no outcome is guaranteed.

Offering a variety of starting conditions and then randomization within a known sandbox is what I’ve come to love about FTL. It all boils down to the fun of solving a known puzzle from random angles with a different set of tools every time.

Scope and format.
FTL runs for me last roughly two to three hours. There are twenty-eight ships, so playing through them all took me approximately seventy hours. Each beacon contains a bite-sized amount of content, maybe ten minutes at most. I am laying this out because I find this format to be very player friendly. It’s easy to pause at any moment. I can jump in and out of the game entirely and not really lose track of anything. You can get an understanding of your situation from essentially just the top-down, ship overview screen. All this is to say, the format and structure of FTL is very consumable, understandable, and player friendly.

With the scope, I’m referring to the number of weapons, crew races, enemy ship types, etc., essentially the amount of variety in the game’s systems. This is a tough one to articulate because it’s very much a “feel” thing. The way I’ll put it, is that over the course of playing FTL, the game’s scope allows the player to gain familiarity with all the various gameplay elements and their variations while still surprising and challenging the player. An example I can give is that I encountered the Burst Laser 2 five times (excluding the runs I started with it) over twenty-eight runs. Now imagine if the Burst Laser 2 was as easy to find as the Flak 1. I’d be pulling up to the flagship sporting two Flak 1s and BL2s every couple runs and just blowing the rebels out of the water. With FTL’s scope and balancing, this doesn’t happen, and it means who have to make do with the Hull Lasers of the world. You’re not continuously searching for what’s optimal, you’re searching for what you can get by with.

Ok! That’s enough! I’ll leave it at that before this article gets even more out of hand. I regret not being able to touch on the FTL’s theme, art design, events and such so I’ll leave you with a gallery of concept art and designs from the developers, Subset Games. I really adore the art design of FTL, and I think The Kestrel’s design captures what I love the best.

BONUS SECTION: Tier Lists

For the heck of it, here’s my gut feel on the ships and weapons of FTL. I’ve sorted them into tiers from S to F, the tiers themselves have no particular order. The weapons I did break out into some subcategories.

Ships

S-Tier

The best ship in the game:

A-Tier

A very advantageous start:

B-Tier

Has some advantages:

C-Tier

Middle of the road:

D-Tier

A few disadvantages:

F-Tier

Completely unreliable:

Weapons

S-Tier

The Best weapons in the game:

A-Tier

Great value:

Good damage:

Good source of laser:

B-Tier

At least it’s a laser, kind of:

C-Tier

Okay utility:

D-Tier

Used it, it stunk:

Didn’t use it, not sure about it:

F-Tier

Didn’t use it and it’s probably garbage:

Missiles:

BONUS BONUS SECTION: The Soundtrack

I could not end the article without commenting on the incredible soundtrack of FTL! It is the perfect sci-fi, space exploration accompaniment. The (Explore) tracks are groovy, light, and atmospheric. The (Battle) tracks can definitely still be groovy but in a punchier sort of way.

BUY/STREAM THEM! Ben Prunty knocked this one out of the park.

Ben Prunty's Bandcamp

Ben Prunty’s Spotify

I recommend putting on the entire album as background music while at work or school. If I had to pick out some of my favorites though, here you go:

Space Cruise (Title) - Top tier main menu and hangar vibes.

MilkyWay (Explore) - Energetic space exploration.

Rockmen (Battle) - As much battling Rockmen sucks, this track bangs.

Last Stand - An epic end.

Lanius (Battle) - Mysterious, bombastic, varied. Love finding an Abandoned Sector and getting to hear this tune.

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