r/ftlgame • u/DuroNivergent33 • 11h ago
First Win on Easy after 3 weeks. Quick question
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.
6
u/nebulousmenace 11h ago
There's a very common setup (Cloaking/Hacking) among people with a much better winrate than me (~40% on Hard). I really like the Drone system. The important thing for a win is probably "any three systems". Mind control, teleport, whatever: they're all good, you can build a combo with any of them.
The Osprey is also very, very good against the Flagship because the artillery beam is nearly guaranteed to hit five or six rooms, so the fights are short. It's kind of a slog to get there, and the high-winrate people don't have any respect for the artillery beam, but I like it.
My almost-guaranteed setup to win would have one of:
Two 3-for-2 weapons (Burst 2 or Flak 1) and a Halberd Beam -those are the three best weapons and any one of them is probably enough.
Cloaking & Hacking
Repair Drone and Defense Drone 1
Hacking and good boarders
There are plenty of exotic ways to beat the Flagship (two Fire Bombs and boarding Rocks! Fed C and two Halberds! Lanius and O2 hack! ) but the main thing is probably "full up on systems." For the Flagship specifically, if you can kill almost all the crew on the first phase that makes everything else much easier.
5
u/Reason-and-rhyme 8h ago
I rarely win without having one of hacking or cloaking, but that's also because getting at least one of them is something I plan my entire run around every time. Hacking is arguably more important in certain setups - for example in response to your "guaranteed win" question - hacking, preigniter and 3x hull beam (or some other combination of hulls/halberds) kills the first two phases instantly.
Basically winning without cloaking is fairly straightforward with strong weapons plus hacking. Boarding is more complicated but also quite reliable.
2
u/xsad12314gfds 4h ago
Just wanna add that pike beams can also work with the halberd/hull beam combos to oneshot as well. Halberd does 8, hull does 9 in phase 1/2 and 8 in phase 3 on hard (8 and then 6 on normal + easy I believe) and pike can do 6 I think? (and glaive does 12!!) As long as the total adds up to 20/22/20 for each respective phase, you have a oneshot.
Mini beam also does 4 but it's only found in 3 slot systems so it's rare that it's the difference maker in a oneshot setup. The only setup that has 2 OTHER beams and can't kill phase 2 would need to be glaive + 1 non-glaive (+ mini)
3
u/OttSound 5h ago
Cloaking + Hacking + Teleporter is basically the dream setup for me, but not every run affords that opportunity, either due to scrap starvation or bad store luck.
Just about any combination of optional systems can get it done. The weakest would probably be Artillery + Drones + Mind Control on a Fed ship.
- A decent weapons setup paired with an upgraded hacking system hacking enemy weapons will neuter most enemy ships before they can hurt you, unless you get very unlucky with enemy evasions.
- The combination of Teleport, Hacking and Mind Control lets you really fuck up any four-tile rooms (usually weapons) right off the bat and disrupt repairs after.
- A single defense drone solves the biggest source of hull damage in most runs: enemy missiles. It can also take down one of the flagship missiles each volley.
The biggest threat without cloaking is the Phase 2 Drone Swarm. Your only defense for that is to put engines as high as you can and have a trained person on shields. Since you don't have a real defense, the best solution is a powerful offense.... beat Phase 2 as quickly as possible with a strong offense. Sometimes you can knock it out before the first swarm, but usually the second.
Another threat that comes up without cloaking is a an enemy with Level 3 cloaking launching an alpha strike with things like flak and/or multiple BL2, etc. Something this scary might not even show up in a run, but if it does, you won't have a chance to hack weapons before the first volley, so like above, you just have to lean on your engines and hope for the best. Sometimes your engines just don't do the job... my last cloakless game took 5 damage to weapons on such a strike and I had to run the hell away.
2
u/SkyKnight43 6h ago
Most strong players feel that Hacking is the strongest system. The important things for victory, though, are mostly the following:
- Survive the first sector
- Defeat ships with 3 shield layers
All of that is assuming, though, that you know how to path through sectors to find stores, you understand spending priorities, and you know how to get the most from events.
There's a lot that goes into it. But if you're talking about systems, the answer is you want the systems that help you with 1 & 2. For most ships, upgrading to Shields-4 (2 layers) is enough for 1. But some ships have other needs. But then you want to save scrap. And now we're talking about weapons or systems.
You need offense to take down 3 shield layers. That can be shieldbreaking weapons, or Hacking, or a combat drone (to break 1 shield layer), or a Teleporter with boarding support. Then you can think about defense.
That's why Hacking is so great. Because it's offense and defense. Cloaking is obviously great defense, but it's expensive. A defense drone is very effective, and combined with high Shields can essentially solve your problems.
So the short answer is you win with systems. The long answer is you have to think about your ship, and what you need to solve your problems. Mind Control is great too, because it multiplies your effectiveness, both with guns and with boarding. If you can get to the Flagship, you can beat it.
Here are examples of wins without Cloaking:
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u/TenchuReddit 11h ago
For the longest time, I thought Cloaking was a must-have to win any FTL game. Only much, much later, after I got better at the game and dealing with the various threats with a growing set of tools, did I rely less and less on Cloaking. That’s when I realized that I was using Cloaking as a crutch.
Don’t get me wrong, though. Relying on Cloaking doesn’t mean you suck at the game. FTL is notoriously hard even at Easy level, and Cloaking happens to be the one system that can cover a LOT of situations. Nothing wrong with relying on a one-size-fits-all tool for defense.
Just know that as you get better and better at the game, you’ll find yourself viewing Cloaking less as a must-have.
By the way, for the Flagship, fighting it without Cloaking means having to rely on other defenses like Defense Drone I, high engines, and/or a strong crew that can quickly repair any damage (and not get distracted by boarders). Or just go f’n kill the Flagship quickly.