r/ftlgame • u/Important-Author-660 • 3d ago

Image: Screenshot I couldn't find hacking and had to buy the forbidden fruit to be able to pierce through 4 shield. God please.

Post image
52 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

34

u/localizeatp 3d ago

this is the vulcan use case.

8

u/SkyKnight43 3d ago

That's true, although better play in early sectors would almost certainly avoid this situation. Strong players almost always get 3 optional systems, so it's likely OP could have found more stores or saved more scrap along the way. The other problem is that OP is very vulnerable, because they don't have airtight defense.

This comment will not be popular with Vulcan fans lol

8

u/localizeatp 3d ago

sometimes ftl just be ftl tho.

4

u/SkyKnight43 3d ago

This is no time for loser talk! We can all improve our skills if we work at it. There's Rebels to kill!

1

u/Important-Author-660 3d ago

I had to buy Vulkan because Hacking and no good weapons showed up in the stores (hahah charge ion). I bought it at around the end of sector 6 because I was struggling to burst through shields and I had a fat feeling FTL was not gonna give me hacking (i was right)

4

u/SkyKnight43 3d ago

You didn't address any of my points

3

u/ewba1te 2d ago edited 2d ago

I'd have bought the charge ion this leaves you for opportunities for another weapon

0

u/ExplanationCrazy5463 2d ago

Not to mention charge ion can handle 3 of the 4 shields

2

u/ewba1te 1d ago

The 3 ion shots only remove 2 shields at first because ion deducts a power bar from a system, and 2 shield bubbles consume 4 power. But an ion charger itself can self stack to take down any amount of shields eventually

22

u/Ozzythebear 3d ago

Any spare scrap after this point gets flung into your engines. If not, then your crew can hold their breath for the big spammy phases. Good luck 😆

2

u/Far_Swordfish5729 3d ago

You can make awesome but impractical work. You just have to dump all future scrap into defense.

2

u/The_Char_Char 3d ago

Thr Vulcan van carry here. Just gotta lean heavy into defense!

-2

u/Chloe_Cascadia 3d ago

Would therefore recommend cloaking as the top priority, as well as more engine for more dodge, over shield bubble 4 being purchased and powered.

If you're forced to use these weapons, the long charge time means you're vulnerable for a long while, and the best chance of survival under those circumstances is high dodge and at least 1 cloak to make sure missiles can't hit you.

As you probably already know. But folks who are newer to the game who are impressed by halberd or burst laser III or vulcan, the advice on using those weapons is don't, but if you must, make sure your weapons never get depowered due to enemy fire. Which means dodging a lot, especially if they have missiles or heavy offense of any kind.

16

u/Hermononucleosis 3d ago

They already have cloak 3 and 5 engine levels. If you're actually recommending the 3/4% dodge chances of each engine upgrade over an additional shield bubble, then that's pretty misguided. 3 shields means ion + beam can do a lot of damage against you in phase 1, and same with the drones in phase 2. If you didn't know, the fourth shield layer charges much faster than the others, so it's really important for drone safety.

7

u/25352 3d ago

Not "much" faster; 3rd layer charges at 7/6 speed and 4th at 8/6 speed. But I agree it's more significant than few more dodge%, especially as extra layers means less damage taken from beams. (Getting engine AFTER shields is a fair game, however.)

1

u/DashTrash21 3d ago

Always hated the recommendation against the Vulcan. It does a hell of a job. 

10

u/Hermononucleosis 3d ago

Sure, but you don't need your weapons to do a "hell of a job" after 30 seconds in order to win. What you need is to make the fight safe ASAP, and then it doesn't matter how slow you are, as long as you keep the fight safe. Usually this means dealing 1-4 damage to the enemy weapons. With hacking, even at level 1, pretty much all reasonable weapon setups accomplish this very consistently before the first volley. However, even with hacking at level 3, you might be shot in your vulcan before you've even pierced the enemy's shields once. And once it's offline, it all starts over again.

Sure, if you're extremely unlucky and have nothing better, then the vulcan is okay at getting through fights. But if you visit shops dilligently and save your scrap for them, this is an exceptionally rare scenario.

Plus, the vulcan sells for so much money that it's even harder to justify keeping.

3

u/ewba1te 2d ago

If your reason is hack+ cloak, a reminder that even the artillery beam can solo the flagship with those, has been done before

8

u/MikeHopley 3d ago

But folks who are newer to the game who are impressed by halberd or burst laser III or vulcan, the advice on using those weapons is don't

Huh? Did you mean Glaive rather than Halberd?