Beating the game in the Zoltan cruiser (without hull damage)

[wonderboy24]

Hello captains,

I just had an amazing round of FTL, in the Zoltan cruiser. I was starting off quite nicely in sector 1, I made it out with barely any hull damage, 2 mantis crew, and a crew teleporter. You can imagine I used these throughout the next sectors to take over ships for additional scraps. When I found a Mk3 burst laser (Fires 5 shots, 1 dmg each) in sector 3, I knew i was probably going to beat the game again.

I was able to upgrade all of my engines, and my shields to the maximum. I had a halberd beam, and a burst laser mk3, 55% evasion, 4 shields, shield recharge booster, Weapon pre-igniter, and the Zoltan shield. I've had alot of boss fights, but I was only able to beat him once before (On the kestrel) and knew what I had to do, and how to do it. I knew my ship was good, as I realized somewhere in sector 7, I hadn't repaired my hull throughout the entire playthrough yet.

1st stage: This was probably one of the easiest ones. I just boarded their small weapon rooms with my mantis crew, and destroyed all of their weapons. They weren't able to reach them, so they basically had no weapons after the first 2 minutes. (My shields and evasion were holding, I had no hull damage). Meanwhile, I was firing my burst laser and halberd beam at them, and repeated that until they were dead. No hull damage.

2nd stage: This was slightly harder, but I was able to once again, quickly take out their torpedoes in the beginning of the match. Those drones were a serious issue, but my evasion was holding, and I was also able to upgrade my stealth after the 1st stage, so I was able to avoid all hull damage again. I just repeated weapons fire, as they couldn't get through my shields. Those boarding drones caused one of my crew members to die, (Lewis, you will be remembered), in a tragic airlock accident.

3rd stage: This was probably the hardest. Because of their super shields I couldn't instantly take out their tripple torpedo launchers, but thanks to my stealth systems I was again able to avoid hull damage. As soon as their super shields were down, I just sent in my mantis guys again, and destroyed their weapons. Their 'super weapon' was sometimes able to get through 2 layers of my shields, nothing they couldn't handle. I simply repeated my strategy again. Cloak, shoot, shoot, shoot, cloak. The flagship was destroyed.


tl;dr version: Big overpowered zoltan ship goes pew pew. Flagship goes "meh, screw this" *Dies*

I was wondering, did anyone else beat the flagship without taking hull damage?

[Number43]

I know once I took only 1 point of damage during the boss.

[Darkelve]

Congrats!

Zoltan A is a really nice ship.

Tip 1: get the Defense Drone Mark II if you can, together with maximum shields and high evasion, your defense is practically impenetrable, because it shoots down missiles AND lasers.
Judging from my play yesterday, the Mark II can also shoot down incoming boarding drones if the drone system is down and the bot is just floating in the air! Shot the 1st one, the second one got through.

Even against those pesky beam drones in stage 2 and the super weapon in stage 3 the defense was holding. With a cloak, even for 1 point, I image this would mean near-invincibility.

Tip 2: hull repair drone+Drone Recovery augmentation = pure win

[wonderboy24]

<Message>

I would have, but getting a ship this advanced, with so many things maxed out, I simply didn't have the scrap for a drone system, drones, and enough power. Also, I didn't need hull repair ; ). I never repaired my hull in the entire game. I got it repaired by random events twice, but it wasn't needed.

Anyways, thanks, I'll try out drones, and a little more missile focussed weapon systems on my next playthrough ; )

[Darkelve]

Congrats!
No, you won't need the Defense Drone Mark II. Why? It's going to waste power, for one. That, and the lasers are harmless if you have high shields and evasion.

You don't *need* it, but if you have enough scrap, it's definitely worth it IMO. It stops some of those pesky rockets and acts as an extra shield layer.

You avoided the few laser shots that got through with high evasion. Even with full shields, the boss ship will still be able to get a couple of shots in.
But in my last game, no lasers could get through at all.

In my opinion, both are viable strategies. And after a couple of recent runs I really got to appreciate the Defense Drone II.

[hybridfive]

BUYING a defense drone mark II is never worth it.

Your primary concern with a defense drone is to shoot down missiles. Your defenses against missiles are defense drones, cloaking and your innate evasion, listed in that order in terms of quality. Your defenses against everything else is shields, innate evasion, defense drone mark II, and cloaking, in that order. On some level, you want lasers and beams to hit your shields. As long as they don't penetrate, you're fine. And with lasers, you have a chance to gain experience on two stations.

However, a defense drone mark II will not prioritize. It shoots whatever appears first. If the timing of enemy shots is close enough together, your drone will shoot down a laser, but not recharge quickly enough to shoot down an incoming missile. You get hit by a missile, despite the fact that you chose to buy an item specifically to protect you against missiles. That should cause you embarrassment. And then, you should learn to avoid that situation in the future.

All of this is on top of the power cost, the system upgrade cost, and the difference in cost between mark I and II. Additionally, when you buy the drone control system to begin with, you receive a defense mark I 33% of the time.

...

On topic: Zoltan Ships have some of the highest potential in the game. Almost all of the really good systems / subsystems are better on a Zoltan ship than on a non-Zoltan ship. The obvious exception is a teleporter. But a preigniter means that you get off two volleys before the enemy has fully penetrated your shields, or three volleys for some lower-recharge weapons. Getting cloaking on a Zoltan ship is similarly incredible, since the shield will probably hold long enough to cover the time of the first recharge. Offensive drones will typically play out like a better version of Torus, once you pay to get them. Long-range scanners help you psychologically, since you know you're not "wasting" your shields, and you can avoid some of the "random intruders without a ship" events that normally cause Zoltans problems. And if you're lucky enough to get Rock Plating, it's pretty hilarious.

[ZiMMy]

2x Defense Drones I are much better than Defense II.

[UltraMantis]

A laser shot that would be blocked by the shields will sometimes prevent the MkII drone from reacting in time to the missile fired ahortly after the laser. That's a huge liability that would not exist if you had 2 MkI drones. They could take down two quick missiles or a missile + asteroid or incoming boarding drone. You have shields anyway so it's better to concentrate on things that ignore shields. imo of course.

[Number43]

I often end up using a mk II defense drone in combination with a mk I.

[UltraMantis]

I often end up using a mk II defense drone in combination with a mk I.

That is a great combo. Takes up 6 power and needs 6 levels of Drone Control though. But worth it.