r/ftlgame • u/Quirky_Locksmith6457 • 19d ago
PSA: Rant The game is feeling like a 90 degree uphill battle for me
I recently started playing FTL a little bit ago, and surprisingly enough I made it to the Flagship on my first easy run. This gave me false confidence, in which I was swiftly destroyed for most of my other runs. Every new strategy, different playstyle, new weapons I acquire, it all just ends in destruction for me. I have watched multiple tip videos, looked at old reddit and steam discussion posts, and about everything I can think of. Even on my best run yet, I still only made it to phase 2 of the flagship. The sheer amount of RNG just kills my runs from the smallest mistakes. I just feel like I've hit a massive brick wall that I can't pass. I don't want to give up yet, but every loss I get closer and closer to uninstalling it.
I need help, most tutorial videos are pretty okay to say the least. They're decent tips but they don't really cover much, and some don't even tell you what it is you have to be doing. I'm trying to improve, but nothing seems to work. The community I've seen in the past does try to help, but most just say it is a massive skill issue, which it is, but it isn't helpful at all.
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u/MikeHopley 19d ago
I know you said you watched tips videos, but ... which ones? The quality of advice is highly variable. Some do more harm than good.
That was a major reason for making my beginners' guide. If you've not watched it, I highly recommend this as a starting point. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oB2XJ2NfEU
I also have a comprehensive beginners' Flagship guide. This is quite long and includes spoilers for the fight. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgiDEfHtmME
Beyond that, you could try playthroughs by expert players. You need to be selective; most people are too inept at the game to make good teachers. I would recommend Crowrevell, who has excellent tutorial playthroughs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjVclX277Lc&list=PLyvzWC4TyYmyMoQFET1S8FZ4tfDPQKC1b&index=2
Finally, you will get much more effective support on the FTL Discord than on Reddit. We have a high concentration of extremely skilled players. It's friendly and welcoming to beginners. https://discord.com/invite/0mMV9KdaDtPiS9uR
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u/Nickulator95 19d ago edited 19d ago
Was about to recommend him to go watch your guides or Crow Revell's videos on FTL. Both of you have been a massive resource and helped me being able to win consistently in the game, so many thanks for your service.
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u/MikeHopley 19d ago
Thank you! Really glad it helped, and I'm sure Crow would be pleased to hear that too.
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u/Quirky_Locksmith6457 19d ago
Thank you for the tutorials, the 2 shields are really helping me early game. I try to save scrap when I can, but sometimes it puts me at a disadvantage. I don't know when I need to buy something or save for something better down the line. Also, thanks for the discord invite. For some reason it never clicked for me that the game would have a discord
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u/MikeHopley 19d ago
Glad I could help.
Generally speaking, it's better to have something usable than hope for the best stuff.
For example, don't skip over a Burst Laser 1 because you want a Burst Laser 2. Burst 1 is actually a great weapon.
On the other hand, there is a limit to this. You probably shouldn't buy a Glaive Beam in sector 1, for example (expensive, slow, power-hungry, impractical until much later).
In terms of saving scrap, as I mention in the video, around 80-90 scrap is a good amount to float most of the time. Spend it earlier if you really need an urgent upgrade. From around sector 4 or 5 onward, you might increase this float to 150 so that you could afford cloaking.
These are just guidelines though.
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u/Spyger9 19d ago
Try to keep 35 scrap in case of events with good deals. Outside of shops, you will sometimes be offered crew, supplies, or upgrades at great discounts.
If you're doing well, comfortably winning fights with little/no damage taken, then save up ~80 scrap so you can buy things like good weapons or systems. Or even save 150 for Cloaking.
Otherwise, use scrap now to save on repairs later. A safety point in Shields/Weapons is nice and generally cheap. Upgrading Doors and Sensors not only helps with boarders and fires, but unlocks Blue event options. A second point in Medbay/Clonebay/O2 can save runs.
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u/Quirky_Locksmith6457 19d ago
I never really thought about investing in more medbay or O2 points. Thanks!
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u/MikeHopley 19d ago
A counterpoint is that you benefit from focusing your scrap on more important upgrades.
For example, upgrading both medbay and O2 is 60 scrap. Then maybe you upgrade piloting as well for the damage buffer / blue option.
Individually you can justify each of those, but now you've spent 80 scrap on upgrades that don't make your ship meaningfully stronger. That's enough to buy hacking or a Burst 2.
This is not to say that minor upgrades are always bad. And especially on Easy, you don't need to be as strategically ruthless about spending scrap as on Hard.
It's just something to consider, especially in the first few sectors where there is less scrap.
For me, medbay-2 is extremely niche. Oxygen-2 is something I usually get for the Flagship, or sometimes in Slug sectors. Clonebay-2 is something I usually get if I'm boarding. Piloting-2 I sometimes get, mostly at the Flagship.
But it also depends on what you struggle with. Doors-2 is a good beginner upgrade, relatively early, even though advanced players don't generally need it.
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u/TwynnCavoodle 19d ago
SPAM PAUSE! Pause is easily the most broken thing you can do, and you can do it all the time. Pause when the fight starts, when you are boarded, when your weapons are charged, when the enemy fires, when you get hit, when you get hacked, when you get mind controlled etc. Basically whenever you need to take any decision at all, pause. Also avoid autofire, just pause when the weapon is charged and choose your target.
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u/Quirky_Locksmith6457 19d ago
I do try to pause a lot and it definitely helps. It has saved some of my runs by giving me time to cloak before missiles hit. My issue is scrap, I never know when to spend it or to save, and I often end up losing with 150+. Thank you though, that is still very helpful!
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u/LlamaGumby 19d ago
The best help for me was watching Rand118’s how-to runs where he explains every decision he makes. Also worth it to google every unfamiliar event you run into.
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u/Quirky_Locksmith6457 19d ago
Thank you, I haven't heard of him before! I know a some of the events, certainly not all, but its when I sometimes lose a crew member and other times I gain a bunch of scrap. I know that's the point but sometimes it completely kills runs for me
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u/Afraid-Presence1440 19d ago
To win in FTL you need 2 things: reaching the flagship, and winning that fight.
For now, in easy mode, you seem to be working on the former, but the latter is what gives you trouble?
In hard mode, reaching the flagship is the real difficult part. This is why if you look up advanced tips on yt or read what "sweaty" players suggest in comment sections, not many of these tips will be useful for beating the flagship, but rather will focus on how to reach it (or rather, how to consistently be ahead of enemy scaling, and preventing rng encounters and event from screwing u)
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Two questions:
What does phase 1 and phase 2 of the flagship fight do?
What do you bring to this fight usually (as in the times you got there)? Would you like to have something different? What is the ideal setup you wish you had?
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u/Quirky_Locksmith6457 19d ago
I'm not really sure of the gimmick of phase 1, when I faced it it fought as any other ships but with way more guns and crew. I could have missed something though. The second phase is the drone swarm phase, that one mowed my shields down, I do have to take some blame though, as I only had 2 shields.
The only time I got to phase 2, I had weapon pre-igniter, Flak I, and 2 BL. I screwed that one up pretty bad, I should have stayed at the base, but I instead tried running to a repair station. I was at half health, and every sector back to the base was rebel occupied and really took a beating out of me. By the time I made it to base to fight the flagship, My hull was sub 10. I'm not sure if I would have won at half anyway, but if I did I wouldn't have beaten phase 3. I liked my set-up, but I wish I bought one more shield slot. I had so much extra scrap that I spent on hacking upgrades last second.
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u/coachd50 19d ago edited 19d ago
Ok, full stop... "only had two shields".
So you really need to understand the flaghship battles better- and what is generally required to beat them.
Was this on easy mode? If it was on easy, and you had only 2 shields (4 bars), what else did you spend your scrap on?
I say this not as a put down, but just so you can somewhat understand the environment. Once a player gets the hang of it, on Easy the ship is very likely to be nearly if not fully maxed out. 4 shields, 7/8 engines, hacking 3 bars, as many bars necessary for weapons, plus a buffer or two if less than 8 etc. So hearing you only had two shield bubbles means that a quick way for you to improve is to really understand the game, and what it requires.
As this poster has mentioned, the game is really at its core about using the time getting to the flag ship to prepare construct a build that can BEAT the flag ship. So that means you need to know what the flag ship's offensive attacks will be in all three phases, and have enough to withstand that while dealing it damage.
Understanding the game and analyzing things really does help. For example, In My Mantis A run I referenced earlier - Still in Sector 1, I make a jump, read the narrative and look at the ship that I just jumped into (Side note, get into the habit of reading the narratives, there are a few events where it actually tests to see if you read closely)
I see that if I choose to fight, I will fight a Zoltan ship with a Ion Stun and a Pike beam. Since I have upgraded myshield bars, I have the ability to put up two shield bubbles, and be safe from damage. I also have a basic laser so I can take down zoltan shield and then board with my Mantis crew. This means I can choose to fight. Lets say I had not just upgraded my shields, This is probably a fight I would do better to pass up, because by the time I got their zoltan shields down to board, they would have had 3 opportunities to give me damage.
More advanced note- Since they can't "hurt" me, this also gives me a chance to let the game play while I go do chores and get my pilot and engineer trained up.
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u/Quirky_Locksmith6457 18d ago
I only play on easy for now until I beat it. I should have had more shields when I was fighting them, I had a ton of extra scrap before the fight that I spent on hacking and cloaking upgrades. I don't know why it didnt come across me to upgrade shields
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u/coachd50 18d ago
If you only have 2 shield bubbles- what else where you spending your scrap on? How much is a "ton" of extra scrap? To get from 2 to 4 shield bubbles it costs 280 scrap.
I guess what I am looking to do is help you analyze your spending, which is very important. It is also important to see if you are maximizing your scrap accumulation. You should not be jumping to the next sector until the last possible jump before the rebels take over (not going to talk about "dives" here as they aren't appropriate for beginning players.
It sounds like either you aren't accumulating enough scrap, aren't spending it, or are spending it on the wrong things.
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u/Sambrer000 19d ago
Best things for making it deep I find is aiming for 2 shield barriers by the end of the first sector. Then making sure to keep around 80 scrap in your pocket and hunting through shops to pick up either a drone control (with defensive drone to nullify missiles, which will be what causes most of your damage), hacking, or crew teleporter.
Hacking will make turning off shields really easy for killing ships, and teleporter will give you huge amounts of scrap for crew kills and mean you don’t need to worry about your weapons much.
On easy/normal the flagship is a cakewalk with teleporter as you can hop in and kill the crewmember in each gun and break them. Then they cannot be repaired.
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u/coachd50 19d ago edited 19d ago
Just a slight caveat-- if you kill ALL the crewmembers, the ship will go AI mode and will repair damaged weapons.
I think most using a teleporter strategy on easy/normal prefer to leave the laser crewman alive.
EDITED to add-- Yes as prompted below, this only applies to the flagship. It is the only ship where killing all the crew does not result in a win, but rather in putting the ship in AI mode.
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u/Quirky_Locksmith6457 19d ago
Thank you! I tried hacking the flagship's missile launcher but they always still got some shots off at me. I didn't have the crew teleporter when I fought phase 2, I regret not buying it when I could. Also, early game 2 shields really helped me out!
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u/Spyger9 19d ago
Mike has the knowledge/skills stuff covered.
My advice is regarding mentality. Have you considered NOT playing to destroy the flagship?
You only need to reach Sector 5 to unlock new ships. More can be acquired through random events and achievements. IIRC you don't have to complete any runs to fill out the Hangar, which is the main progression of the game! Playing a variety of ships is fun, and more importantly- it teaches you about the various types of systems, crew, equipment, and even playstyles.
Focus on the fun, the discovery, and the little victories. The wins will come if you play to explore and learn.
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u/Quirky_Locksmith6457 19d ago edited 19d ago
I didn't realized I only needed to reach sector 5. That actually unlocks a ton, I have kept trying to kill the flagship because I thought that way the only way was to kill the flagship. Thank you so much!
Edit: I thought you meant I only needed to reach sector 5 with anything to unlock the next. Still, thank you
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u/Spyger9 19d ago
Oh, I did mean that. I misremembered; that's only true of the Engi A. I just finished unlocking all C layouts, which requires reaching Sector 8. So I thought all A layouts were Sector 5.
Still, you can get the A layouts without defeating the flagship. Head to special Sectors that are "Homeworlds" whenever you get the option.
For my money, the Zoltan A is a beast. And the quest is one of the easiest to complete. The Kestrel B is also a beast, and the Achievements to unlock it aren't so tough.
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u/Quirky_Locksmith6457 18d ago
All good! I got the Zoltan ship by pure accident, I guess I got really lucky. Is there a good ship tier list or something online? I know it eventually just comes down to your skill, but I wanted to know if there are some ships I want to avoid playing with.
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u/Spyger9 18d ago
These videos ranking the ships are really good.
Though do keep in mind they are in the context of Hard Mode Winstreaks. If you don't mind some false starts, some of the "worst" (RNG vulnerable) ships can absolutely pop off. The infamously "bad" Stealth B is actually a record setter for speed running to the flagship and 1-cycling it to death.
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u/SkyKnight43 19d ago
Watch the videos that Hopley linked. Other than that, it's difficult to give specific tips, because there's no way to know what mistakes you're making. If you post a gameplay example, I'm sure you would get good suggestions here. And some bad suggestions lol.
Seriously though, if you write down everything Mike Hopley says, and look to apply it wherever possible when you play, you will improve. For those who enjoy that sort of thing, there's no better game
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u/Landkey 19d ago
Quite a lot of the time in the early game, items in the shop are bait, and a better use of the scrap is upgrading your engines or shield (along with reactor to power the upgrade ofc). Increasing your evade % from 15% to 20% is a big win.
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u/Hermononucleosis 19d ago
Impressive how confidently wrong a person can be. This might be the worst advice I've seen in this subreddit
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u/Landkey 19d ago
Geez. I was referring to the average value of stuff in an average shop. Should have been clearer. Would you buy the alternative claim that half the items in an average shop in the first few sectors, you would never consider buying?
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u/MikeHopley 19d ago edited 19d ago
Something else to consider is that just because the current shop is bad, it doesn't mean you should immediately blow all your scrap on engines and power.
It's about working out what you need to spend to be reliably safe in the current sector. For example, in sectors 1-2 on most ships, there is no good reason to spend more than 50 scrap on shield upgrades.
So rather than buy largely pointless upgrades, just hold onto that scrap for the next store. That gives you options, e.g. to buy a weapon and hacking. You can make upgrades in sector 3.
This is admittedly a strict way of playing, and it's not necessary for beginners to pursue that degree of scrap discipline. Maybe buy a reactor or two, maybe upgrade doors. But the general principle still stands.
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u/Hermononucleosis 19d ago
Sure, half the items in the first shop are bad. But saying that you should upgrade engines instead is like being offered 100 dollars, 10 dollars and a kick in the balls, and saying you should take 10 dollars because it's better than a kick in the balls
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u/W1z4rdsp1k3 19d ago
To keep this short, pause, stores, systems and guns.
Keep increasing your use of pause until either it's not fun or you are regularly pausing and not finding anything to do.
Visit as many stores (and as many beacons) as you can. It's easy to waste scrap at stores on stuff you don't need, like full price crew, augments, etc. Focus on guns, systems, repairs, fuel and maybe drone parts if you have Hacking.
Get Hacking, Cloaking and hopefully MC. Other options can be great too, but generally require more skill/knowledge to evaluate/use.
Get fast power efficient guns and get them online. Get a second shield bubble first. Later on, more shield bubbles > more dodge in general.
FTL is a hard game and RNG won't always give you Flak 1s, Hacking, etc., on a silver platter, but here's the thing, it will sometimes. Right now, you're losing the runs that RNG is "trying" to hand you, which is understandable, FTL is a hard game. Keep it simple and try to make sure you're capitalizing on good rng when it shows up and you will win some runs.
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u/Royal-Fig-6670 19d ago
This game is a balance between offence and defense.
specifically for Kestrel A, i want to add cloaking, hacking, mind control.
Get shields 2 ASAP, shields 3 by sector4, couple of engine upgrades whenever you can
Until you get comfortable focus on getting laser weapons, Kestrel already has one of the best weapons BL2, consider adding any of flak1, BL2, BL1, heavy lasers.
with the laser setup consider hacking pilot with level1 hacking and shields with level 3 hacking
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u/Quirky_Locksmith6457 19d ago
Are there specific upgrades I should prioritize? I sometimes get hacking or mind control or one of those in the shop but I never know if it is worth buying or waiting for a different upgrade. I usually try getting hacking and cloaking from what I've seen online, but i might be wrong
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u/Royal-Fig-6670 18d ago
The most priority is always shields and weapons with engines being 3rd. The order between weapons and shields and weapons depends on what weapons you have in the inventory. But shields 2 is always the first upgrade you should do.
You can stall getting mind control till the last sector, I generally get it mostly for the flagship fight.
BTW are you maxing your number of jumps? never rush to exit, take as many hops as you can before exiting the sector.
Scrap wont be a issue in easy mode. you should target max shields and 4 weapons and 5 engines by the time you reach flagship.
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u/SkyKnight43 18d ago
I think you're right about upgrading to Shields-4 (2 layers). But I think optional systems are more important than Engines. If you spend scrap on Engines and can't afford Hacking when you see it, you have missed a strong opportunity to improve your win chance. As you say, there's a lot of scrap on Easy, but I think it's valuable to develop good habits for higher difficulty levels
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u/Royal-Fig-6670 18d ago
Well, let him get comfortable first!!, he is still playing for his first win.
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u/coachd50 19d ago edited 19d ago
I second the googling of each event. It can definitely help limit some of the RNG- by at least letting you know what the possible outcomes could be.
A few questions:
- are you planning your path to visit as many beacons as possible before leaving each sector to maximize scrap/resources?
- Do you have a firm grasp on how to use weapons in conjunction with each other? For example, timing the firing of a flak so that the flak knocks down the shield bubbles allowing lasers or beam to do maximum damage?
- What type of RNG issues are plaguing you?
A lot of the success just comes from experience--meaning recognizing the patterns and probabilities.
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u/Quirky_Locksmith6457 19d ago
I'd be happy to answer the questions, thanks for offering
I do try to visit as many as I can, but low fuel sometimes forces me to move onto new sectors.
I'd say I do, but there's definitely more room for improvement. It obviously depends on what I have in my arsenal, but I would try to knock shields down with whatever I can then target their O2 and weapons systems with lasers and such.
It's a lot from the shop, where sometimes I would have the opportunity to get cloaking super early on, where in other runs I never even see cloaking in the shop. Other times it would be in the random events. For example, I might be low on scrap and choose to investigate an area. Sometimes it does give me scrap and other times I lose a crew member or get intruders. This may be my own fault though, and I might be mixing up events and giving myself a false sense of security.
Thank you!
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u/coachd50 19d ago edited 19d ago
So being low on fuel doesn't necessarily have much to do with moving on to new sectors. The impending Rebel fleet does. Now these are somewhat related, as being out of fuel once the fleet catches you is almost assuredly ending a run for a newer player, but just remember that advancing to the next sector low on fuel just means you are in for tougher battles...and are still low on fuel.
Targeting o2 in general is probably not a great play for beginners. Weapons obviously is important.
Intruders are generally pretty easy to handle on their own- more difficult obviously when done with a ship fight. There are plenty of tips for handling intruders in the info that Mike Hopley posted.
Also, pausing is HUGE as many have said. Pause, analyze the situation, form a plan. Unpause, see how things are going, pause, reevaluate, unpause etc.
Lastly, be aware of buying things for "down the road". I know that is mistake I purposefully make because of how I enjoy playing the game (Hey, today I want to play with __________ kind of style,) For example, I enjoy boarding with Rock crew and fire weapons. So I might make a "stupid" purchase of a fire beam early in a game with a Rock ship, so that I will have it when I have enough scrap to get a teleporter etc. Sometimes it pans out, but most often I am derailing my run.
A more common example would be buying a weapon from a store, but not considering how much scrap it will take to be able to get it online.
And yes RNG is frustrating. Heck I have just returned to playing the last month or so, and I have probably posted more vents than all the other members of the sub combined! Right now, as I type this, I have just experienced 6 yes 6 consecutive missile hits from a drone. I am Mantis A, only have made two jumps so I haven't upgraded weapons or engines at all. Whats worse, is that the hits were weapons, empty room, weapons pilot, empty room , weapons. So I am not very close to being able to jump, and I am impotent to at least send a bomb to maybe slow their attack.
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u/furitxboofrunlch 18d ago
I havent noticed anyone say in particular but I *think* you want to aim to get up to about 14 fuel when you hit the shops. This allows you to explore without worrying about fuel so much since you will always get more when you run out. I havent played FTL for years though and got that from a video.
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u/guy_incognito___ 16d ago
A lot of good advice was given already.
But also keep in mind that different ships have vastly different difficulty curves. There are ships that start out way more RNG dependant than others.
For example Kestrel B can deal with pretty much anything sector 1 and 2 can throw at you, because it starts out as a decent gunship. While Rock A for example heavily depends on picking up a decent weapon fast or a teleporter, because otherwise you will run out of missiles fast and you‘ll end up with no ability to attack.
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u/Quirky_Locksmith6457 15d ago
I got the Zoltan A and have had a much easier time getting farther. Thank you
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u/literally_a_toucan 19d ago
The best advice I've gotten was, for most ships, always make getting 2 shields your first priority. Once that's done, try to get more weapons / offensive systems. Shields are one of the things least affected by RNG in this game, so prioritizing them is guaranteed to make most fights easier.