Stealth Ship B - how do you play on any difficulty other than easy?

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GilbertJobs
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Sep 19, 2019 8:26 am

Stealth Ship B - how do you play on any difficulty other than easy?

Postby GilbertJobs » Thu Sep 19, 2019 8:30 am

Im not a great player, but im not terrible - the stealth B seems IMPOSSIBLE - everything that can go wrong goes wrong even in sector one.

THe enimies ALWAYS target my weapons - even when using stealth, you cant always avoid a hit. The Glaive beam charges SO SLOW that i can never get a shot off before my weapons are again destroyed after beating them



I finally get into a fight I will win, and "the enemy appears to be charging their FTL drive..." again, the glaive beam is SO slow that the ship gets away before I can fire
grassy-seas
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Dec 25, 2019 10:48 pm

Re: Stealth Ship B - how do you play on any difficulty other than easy?

Postby grassy-seas » Mon Dec 30, 2019 12:22 am

It's an easy ship to win with once you get the idea behind it. With that said, it's one of the most RNG-dependent ships in the game, but at least that mostly matters early on when you can reset relatively easily. Once you get a good start, it's an easy ship to pilot.

There are tricks that are really important with the Stealth B. If they have a combat drone, then you shouldn't cloak until you see it aiming at something really important (the weapons system being the most important). This can buy you time that might save your ship.

For upgrades the urgent upgrade is Cloaking level 3. Then shields (or alternative). Put the Zoltan on engines. After shields maybe a coule upgrades for the reactor. That means you'll have barely enough energy to do what you need to do, so turn off oxygen as needed.
Alternative: Don't get shields yet, but instead get anything that lets you kill ships in your first volley. I'm not sure which strategy is better. This way you can kill ships in one volley and start your road to weapons improvement. However, not having shields can be difficult because your 1-volley kills won't always work out, and when they don't you won't have shields. On the other hand, if you get shields, then it might slow you down so that you can't get 1-volley kills. Now you have shields, but fights last longer. Ideally you'll be able to achieve your shields need and offensive needs both in time to survive. Both strategies are viable, but which is more viable and by how much is unknown. My own strategy is to opt for whichever path presents itself to me first, in case I don't get another opportunity soon.

Ideally you'll make it through sectors 1 and 2 and get shields. From that point on your defense is simply a matter of upgrades to your ship, and you'll have all you need if you have enough scrap. Your next goal should be to get a weapon or system that compliments the glaive beam so that you can destroy ships for the sectors to come. At this point the Stealth B is no longer a bad ship at all, and can easily destroy everything if you pilot it reasonably well.

And if you die, then reset. Some deaths with the Stealth B are due to player error, but some are due to situations that are impossible to overcome. Eventually you'll get the good launch off the ship needs.

Watch a strong FTL player for a demonstration on how to use the ship to maximize your odds of victory:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4i11nuh1_3E
john07
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Dec 09, 2021 2:47 pm

Re: Stealth Ship B - how do you play on any difficulty other than easy?

Postby john07 » Thu Dec 09, 2021 2:52 pm

I'm not sure that bears out in practice. Easy can hit 50 scrap for cloaking 3 significantly earlier, which implies the marginal odds of getting hit in weapons while doing oxygen deprivation and zolton power-robbing strats on hard probably don't lower odds of getting hit in weapons by enough to compensate.
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ScienceDiscoverer
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Sep 03, 2022 1:09 pm

Re: Stealth Ship B - how do you play on any difficulty other than easy?

Postby ScienceDiscoverer » Wed Sep 07, 2022 6:39 am

I would say, for any ship, and for Stealth B in particular, it is very important to get good early RNG. After finishing 2 sectors, access your systems (weapons in particular) to determine if you can kill every ship in next sectors in 1-2 volleys. If not, just restart, don't waste time.

The trick to this ship is to put ALL the upgrades into weapons. Got 50 scrap in 1st sector? Upgrade weapon system. Does not matter if you don't have extra weapon or energy to use it, just upgrade. Now, when you get hit in weapons by stray rocket/laser your beam will still be able to oneshot early enemies, even if they hit you. Don't upgrade cloaking/engines. Don't bother to buy shields. You will only really need shields/engines in sector 7-8.

The weapon will come from random event, or from store. If you don't get good weapon by sector 3 - restart.

Also the way you can reliably oneshot almost every ship in sectors 1/2 is by hitting shield first for 2 damage, this will disable the shield, so that all subsequent hits will do 3 damage. So you hit shields, then as many rooms as possible.

Here is an example of what a beast this ship can become with good early RNG, on hard mode:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRQmWzalpZg

This is literally my best result I ever had in FTL so far =)
battermull
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Dec 18, 2023 8:59 am

Re: Stealth Ship B - how do you play on any difficulty other than easy?

Postby battermull » Thu Dec 21, 2023 2:15 am

Hi. Cloaking level 3 is the urgent improvement in terms of upgrades. Next, shields (or substitutes). Start the engines on the Zoltan. Perhaps a couple of reactor upgrades come after the shields. Turn off oxygen as needed because you won't have enough energy to do what you need to.
As an alternative, acquire anything that enables you to destroy ships in your first volley rather than shielding just yet. I cannot decide which tactic is superior. In this manner, you can begin improving your armaments and destroy ships in a single salvo. It can be challenging, though, to go without shields since you won't always be able to complete 1-volley kills and then you won't have shields. However, shields have the potential to slow you down and prevent you from completing 1-volley kills. With your shields now, battles go on longer. basket random