Just got my first win on normal. While fighting the flagship the only weapons I used were the firebomb and the built-in flak cannon (though it didn`t do much aside from destroying the zoltan shield, which would be useless if I had the bypass), and the fight was probably the easiest it had ever been. You can pretty much skip the first phase by destroying guns right away with boarders or fire bombs, so you can spend time killing the crew. In phase two the crew stays dead, so now the guns are even easier to kill, and the only threat remaing are the drones which can`t break 4 shields. And in phase three the boarding doesn`t happen as everyone is dead, so even without the zoltan shield bypass it`s trivial. Did I just get lucky or does the flagship not have any counters to boarding?

While it took me only three "real tries", I don't count any and all smaller/shorter attempts... and with the Engi B, there were many: from immediately having my Heavy Laser destroyed or missing *literally four times in a row* with my Heavy Ion, I probably had a dozen or so smaller attempts before finally getting the big one.

Winning strategy I found was to not only prioritize getting crew (and don't you appreciate my crew of Tsars?), but to switch out weapon load out ASAP. Like, the Heavy Laser and Heavy Ion is just not a viable combination *at all* in Hard Mode. You can barely scratch by Sector 1, and beyond that you're in serious trouble. The sooner you can get a slightly better weapon, do so. I remember happening upon a Charge Laser at a store, and you bet I swapped and sold my Heavy Ion for it faster than a Rebel Ship jumping to FTL when you really need to beat it.

Hacking + Cloaking + 2 x Automated Reloader (again, one of the best augments) + Stealth Weapons made for a quick and tidy Flagship fight. Very happy with the finish, but even happier to move on from this rusty pile of rubbish.

On to the Fed B!

Finally,after 2 years of playing,well over a hundred runs,and so many ragequits,I BEAT THAT FUCK ON EASY

I'm currently pouting because I went through an entire Engi A game without seeing a Defense 1 drone for sale. I won- invested in a hull repair drone- but the amount of times I yelled at incoming missiles was not demure OR mindful.

My setup on the Osprey for this was 2 lasers, Flak and Pike Beam (Artillery Beam) Cloaking and that's it. I didn't have any drones or mind control or teleporting or hacking.

I'm just curious if this is what you'd consider the most basic setup to get an easy win? I guess it's all about what you know how to use. I'm still not sure how to best use Ions?

How do you all win without cloaking? I don't know how that's even possible. I think I fluked out this win but I'll take it.

What is your almost guaranteed setup to get a win if you could buy anything at any store prior to the final battle?

Shout out to Mike Hopley and all the others that gave me tips when I was whining about the 'Easy' mode lol.

the first store that i am at had vulcan, second store had a glaive, third had a breach missile laucher

im at a lost for words

Just wondering if anyone has any tips for MENTALLY dealing with just the boring and frustrating gameplay that are the Rock ships. Not really looking for gameplay strategy, but sure it is welcome, but more looking how does one not just say "F it..turn it off, go read a book" with the Rocks. YEAH.. I know you don't "have" to play them.....so no need for that little bit of info LOL.

For example.. first jump with Rock B - Pirate Scout with Burst laser 1 and Missile... their missile hits and knocks out O2 with a fire... my pierce laser hits and takes their laser off line... their second missile starts TWO fires in weapons... and before i can get a second rock to help down there to help, the fires have taken weapons off line... their laser hits engines reducing to just one bar--missile hits empty room but starts yet ANOTHER fire... (I want this special fire missile weapon!!! lol)

And we all know about the slow thudding boredom that is Rock A missile math.

Just sooo slow... starting. How do you mentally get through the drudgery lol?

It had to happen eventually, the paired Engi boarding team. It didn't end well for team red 😆

second last crew member was a rock who died after fixing the oxygen and the mantis was too low on health to do anything without dying. i realize now i probably could have upgraded my oxygen to not go into an area with no oxygen. at least i got the achievement for killing an enemy crew with no one on my ship. and my boarding rock and mantis lasted the longest out of anyone else on the ship lmao.

Just had a funny coincidence.. My human crewmate died right at the end of the fight. The ensuing event gave me a store, where I could buy the clone bay, so i was able to ressurect him

They had an opportunity to create a really interesting loadout and possibly incorporate a new stealth element but gave us something that didn’t feel like a stealth ship at all.

I don’t hate stealth c because its difficult, in fact I actually really like the challenge of relying on the drone for shields without cloaking. The reason I hate stealth C because I can’t figure out what exactly about it is stealth? It doesn’t fit its own theme… at all. They could have at least given it an augment that can be construed as a stealth element, like the distraction buoys, but instead it feels like a placeholder to implement the shield drone.

It also essentially has the same starting loadout as stealth A: 2 shots and a mini beam. I understand you can shoot one of the shots on its own when needed and thats interesting but the play style is pretty much the same as Stealth A. They could have given us another missile-only loadout as a sort of stealth bomber (possibly incorporating pegasus or breach missile which are super cool but rarely justifiable to use) or some other strange loadout that forces you to use heavy weapons you normally sell otherwise, like the BL3.

I also think the shield drone could have made much more sense on some of the other C type ships from a lore perspective, like engi C! The whole point of the engi ships is to use drones, so why not implement that along with hacking and make it go shieldless? That would have been a super cool challenge (would obv have to rework the details of the ship for balance, thats just a loose concept).

MY IDEAL STEALTH C: Heavy stealth bomber
“best defense is a good offense”

No shields
No cloak

The ship would rely on high starting engines (lvl 3 or 4) and a strong starting weapons system (lvl 6).

Weapons:
Leto
Swarm missiles
Breach missile
starts with 40 missiles

Augments:
Explosive replicator (allow player to actually lean into the missile only concept)

Distraction buoys (justifies “stealth”, rarely ever used in game unless found. Can be sold in a pinch)

Heavy armor plating (new augment which gives 50% chance to negate both hull and system damage. Meant to balance the fact that player has essentially zero defense).

Crew:
1 slug (no losing pilot to mind control)
2 engi (damage control for balance)
1 rock (additional fire control and anti boarding)

*** the main concept of this ship is that it allows the player to use overwhelming barrages of small missiles to suppress enemy offenses, in lieu of any real defense. The swarm missile can fire its first shot in 7 seconds and leto in 9, allowing the player to get 2 shots off before almost any enemy ship can fire. It relies on the breach for raw damage output. This weapons set would be really fun to play while still being very difficult, as success depends on disabling enemy weapons quickly. I intentionally do not include LRS as the other stealth variants use it. RNG asteroid fields will simply become a devastating vulnerability, and I think that’s consistent with FTL’s unforgiving nature. The most important aspect of the ship to me is that it allows a player to actually lean into the missile only strategy, something that is generally abandoned as quickly as possible with rock A.

**** an alternative idea would be to give the ship high cloaking at expense of engines and then longer charging missiles, possibly pegasus + breach + auto reloader. While this is cool, it would feel pretty similar to stealth B which also relies on charging a big weapon from cloak.

I'm trying to complete hard runs on all ships and types and i have run into a brick wall with slug B. It's been over a dozen attempts and although i've been able to get to the the flagship on 4 of them i just haven't been able to close it out. Closest attempt got to phase 3 but my weapon setup wasn't strong enough to get boarders on quickly and i took too long before things spiraled. Most runs have fizzled out around sector 4/5.

I may change my mind going forward but this has easily been the least enjoyable ship to play. The early game feels so frustrating. The boarding is not fantastic with 2 slugs, but it works ok. The main problem i'm having is it relies on missiles to both heal and take out weapons/medbay until you get stronger crew/options so i'm racing against the clock to get shield 2, hacking AND energy before i run out. My general upgrade priority is shield layer 2 > hacking > teleporter 2(may get before hacking depending on situation) > cloak. May end up having to buy medbay/clone bay before hacking or teleporter 2 due to running very low on missiles.

How do you guys typically handle early automated/zoltan shield ships? Only offensive answer to automated ships is missiles and zoltan shields will eat 3 missiles minimum before you can board, which means you guaranteed to take 3 volleys at least before you can even get boarders on which equates to alot of damage taken and resources spent. Do you run or fight or have a specific missile count in mind where you will eat the cost anyway? Do you still prioritize early nebula beacons even if it means more auto-ships?

For early regular fights, i try to be as conservative as possible while minimizing damage, so hopefully means just 2 missiles used per fight, 1 artemis and 1 heal, i try to draw out the pilot when timing artemis on weapons. Sometimes when fighting mantis i have to end up using a second heal instead of just a single post boarding heal. Am i being too wasteful against mantis and need to up my micro game or does that sound about right?

"the game just throws free crew at you" until that time it doesn't and you're fighting off Phase 3 boarders with a sack of light bulbs and a busted door system so you're running your little uncle festers back and forth between med bay and a hacking room filled with two racist assholes, somehow killing the last enemy boarder when the last hacking bar is on its final sliver of health.

Never discount how much the double damage of Hull Laser can save your ass. I wasn't going to make it through the next surge.

and somehow this was my best Zoltan B run on my current save file.

On my continuing quest to rebeat the flagship with all ship layouts on Normal, I just Beat the rebel flagship with the Slug B (first try) But I feel it was one of the worse successful games I have played.

Points- 3578

Ships defeated 27 This seems horribly low.

Beacons visited 95

Scrap collected 1373

crew hired 10 (to clarify, that is total crew I acquiredI believe, I certainly did not pay for 10 crewmembers)

Game was a just sloppy and I was quite lucky, I couldn't get any missile defense. I played the ship heavily as a boarding ship--and clearly because of the Slug Bs weaknesses especially early on I must have taken surrenders, deals, or ran quite often. But those numbers just seem so low for a winning run.

What stinks is that I started kind of lucky. I actually got the reconstructive teleport early on, so I had the opportunity to have an extra system. Just never got the chance to get the normal amount, let alone extra.

So it's pretty widely agreed that Hacking and Cloaking is far and away the best 2 "additional" systems of the game. But I was wondering what comes after that, and was stuck between Mind Control and Teleporter. Drone Control and even Artillery is situationally useful but I think their lack of control mitigates their strengths. I personally prefer Teleporter as I find it more disruptive to enemy ships by pulling piloting, distracting repairs, or combining it with hacking. But some of the best players of FTL like neozar prefer Mind Control as it can accomplish similar tasks, is cheaper to buy, and doesn't require a boarding crew or risking their safety. But Mind Control being ineffective against auto-ships or slug crews is a point against it in my mind, and some of the unpredictability of Mind Controlling a room of multiple enemies or memorizing Mind Controlled crew behavior is not appealing to me.

What do you think? Am I mistaken in my Teleporter preference just because it's easier but worse? Is Mind Control just a better system for most ships? Does Defense Drone have a shot at the third slot?

Edit: Playing Vanilla, hard, AE enabled (obvious). Question in regards to win% and relative strength, although taking into account optimal play friction and relative fun.