New player - got to final boss and lost; need tips

[Boooster]

I remember hearing about this game awhile back but for some reason never got into it - I picked it up a few days and I am hooked!! I played (only on normal - never tried easy) and died a number of times, with my 4th playthrough getting to sector 7 (that playthrough I didn't even realize you can vent out your ships for fires... so many mistakes that run). After many poor starts I finally got to the final boss only to lose on the 2nd round, and I was hoping someone can tell me what I was doing wrong. I'll outline my ship from memory:

lvl 6 shields (3 bubbles), lvl 6 engines, 2 med, 6 weapons, max reactor, 3 cloak, 3 drone (never used*), 3 teleporter, 2 sensor, 2 door

crew was
human pilot (max pilot)
rock engine (max engine)
Engi on shield (Max everything - Virus)
human weapon gunner (max guns)
2 max fighting mantis (one was Khaaaaza)
1 max fighting rockman
another rockman

Weapons were:
burst mk 2 (starting)
heavy laser 1
fire beam
artemitis missile (starting)
(In hold - heal bomb, hull missile (5 shield/2 hull)

During the initial fight I beat it without any real issues, sending in my mantis to kill/disable the main guns while whittling away at shield with missile + double laser and setting ship on fire.

During the second round I tried a similar strategy but they sent in the damn boarder drones that wreaked havoc on me + the energy burst that sent a ton at once (cloaking helped a little for this but when it went off the boarder drones would come inside). I kept killing and more kept coming - I wasn't able to defend my station while piercing their shields because my missile was useless as they had a defender drone (which made my fire beam useless...). Here is where I know I messed up because I am not familiar with an integral game mechanic - I had lvl 3 drones, and a defense drone 1 and defense drone 2 that I didn't deploy. In fact, I got the achievement technophobe that game.

My questions:
1. How can I defend against hull breach drones in general? Do defense drone 1 or 2 stop them consistently?
2. Should I have been more aggressive with my boarders at the risk of losing my ship? I took out most of their main weapons (2 out of 3) after I had one of their beam weapons do ELEVEN damage (or maybe it was 1 and then 1...), but sending in 2 mantis and 2 rockman to fight while their medbay was still up didn't seem to make sense... especially not when I was being hull breached and pounded by 2 attack drones all the time.

Good news though - at least I unlocked Kestrel B and Mantis... I almost got the stealth ship but it was towards the end of the sector and I replied that there wasn't enough time to undertake this quest... bummer.

In a way I'm glad I lost to the boss for the first time - I played ADOM for years so don't mind getting my butt kicked and learning . Shame I discovered this amazing game so late.

[SelphieSelfie]

Where were the boarder drones being sent?
In a 4 square room, it'd be reasonable to kill it with 4 maxed out fighters but if it were a 2 square room, I'd have distracted in with 2 mantises and 2 rocks alternately just long enough to disable their drones system then start attacking others.

Looking at your setup tho, I don't think it was sufficient. I'd add a combat drone or two there instead of having def I and II (Don't get me wrong, these are useful drones but you should really have cloaking take care of your missle problems by sector 8) OR replaced fire beam with another piercing enough to get through that thick shield layer(flak I is good).

[stylesrj]

Hello and welcome to the FTL community. We're everyone can help you with your flagship problems.

Anyway, I can already see your strategy needs a bit of work. But you've outlined the areas you need help in, so let's look at that.

1. How can I defend against hull breach drones in general? Do defense drone 1 or 2 stop them consistently?

Do a single point of damage to the Drone Control. Then the drone won't function. Although it might pose an issue if it lands in Piloting.

2. Should I have been more aggressive with my boarders at the risk of losing my ship? I took out most of their main weapons (2 out of 3) after I had one of their beam weapons do ELEVEN damage (or maybe it was 1 and then 1...), but sending in 2 mantis and 2 rockman to fight while their medbay was still up didn't seem to make sense... especially not when I was being hull breached and pounded by 2 attack drones all the time.

In Phase 1 of the Flagship fight, you remove all the crew except for the guy in the triple burst laser. Then you'll have free free reign of the ship for the next two phases. Then you won't need to worry about their drones (except for the Power Surge but you can cloak through that or take a few hits) and make the shields easier to take down.

Best strategy for Phase 1 is to disable the Medbay then send your crew in. Or Hack (buy that instead of Drone Control next time) their medbay and send the crew in, so while they're scrambling out of there to avoid being killed, you can speed up their demise.
If there's still crew in Phase 2 (or no crew), you didn't do Phase 1 correctly
You do not want to eliminate all of the ship's crew. That's bad. Hence why the guy in the triple laser is to be left alive. Because there is a 3rd phase and it's not pretty.

It has Mind Control. And 10HP Zoltan Shield. Prepare to lose/have badly damaged crew or systems until you can take it out.
And it has a Power Surge to which I like to call the "Death Blossom" (used to be BS Barrage, but I saw The Last Starfighter and it's more appropriate for what it does.)

Also, if you haven't, enable Advanced Content. Just do it. Please. You'll love it.

[Boooster]

Thanks for the tips!

This was my third run past sector 5, so I still have a lot to learn about the late game. Man this game is fun!!!

I didn't enable advances content yet but will do so now - will the new event reduce my chances of getting ship unlock events? I really want to unlock everything (was so bummed I missed the stealth ship).

I never saw a hacking addition in any of my games (is it advanced?) - I actually picked up the drone because I had credits to spare and wanted the achievement to unlock Kestrel B.

I noticed in phase 2 the crew didn't respawn - if I leave the single guy in the weapons bay (which should I leave alive? From 1-4 is 1 is left and 4 is right). can I send my crew in to disable the drone bay immediately? That would seem to make phase 2 quite easy.... can't wait to see what phase 3 has in store for me - trying to avoid spoiling myself

[stylesrj]

I didn't enable advances content yet but will do so now - will the new event reduce my chances of getting ship unlock events? I really want to unlock everything (was so bummed I missed the stealth ship).

Nope. It might make it easier, or harder depending on what you buy or what the enemy has to block your path

I never saw a hacking addition in any of my games (is it advanced?) - I actually picked up the drone because I had credits to spare and wanted the achievement to unlock Kestrel B.

Yup, advanced content. Honestly, Drone Control sucks compared to hacking or Mind Control.
Also, you can replace the medbay with a Clone Bay. No more worrying about someone dying in Phase 1 when that ship cloaks.

I noticed in phase 2 the crew didn't respawn - if I leave the single guy in the weapons bay (which should I leave alive? From 1-4 is 1 is left and 4 is right). can I send my crew in to disable the drone bay immediately? That would seem to make phase 2 quite easy.... can't wait to see what phase 3 has in store for me - trying to avoid spoiling myself

In Phase 1 of the Flagship fight, you remove all the crew except for the guy in the triple burst laser. Then you'll have free free reign of the ship for the next two phases. Then you won't need to worry about their drones (except for the Power Surge but you can cloak through that or take a few hits) and make the shields easier to take down.

In other words, the one that's to the left of the Flagship's Shield Room. Keep that dude alive. Do not attack him (or her).
That triple laser isn't much of a threat in any of the 3 phases. The Ion Cannons and Halberd Beam are the ones that break off when the Flagship is defeated in each phase.

Just so you know, this tactic won't work on Hard Mode. The rooms will be connected so you'll need to find an alternative means. The AI prioritises fixing shields above all else on any ship, so keeping one dude alive and occasionally send a guy into the Shield Room or damage it to allow free reign. This also works on lower difficulties too if somehow the guy in the laser room dies.

[The Captain]

I wonder if you are spending as much time in each sector as possible (i.e., farming). I would have wanted weapons with more shots. I would have sold off the Artemis and gotten another weapon; I prefer bombs to missiles (especially Ion Bomb or Breach Bomb Mk II). Max Shields wouldn't hurt either (although that's not required).

Defense Drone Mk I will shoot down a boarding drone, but not always. I think it has a lower chance than shooting down a missile. Of course you might have a run of shooting down several boarding drones, or you might miss the first one.

Level 2 O2 will counter a breach if you open all the internal doors, so it will help if you're fighting a boarding drone.

I don't think it's worth spending the scrap to buy a Clone Bay if you already have a Medbay.

[Boooster]

Woohoo just beat it with the Mantis B (unlocked the Mantis A and got 2 achievements but had really bad weapons by sector 7 so couldnt do anything).

Early game was a breeze - sector 1 only gave me a bit of trouble with the scouts who I ran away from, everything else was boarded. One of the ships I boarded I got a human who became my desginated pilot. Sector 2 was rock/mantis controlled and I rescued another human and rockman. Also found a heavy ion blaster which was nice (as well as a few missiles which I didn't use).

At around sector 4 I got a burst MK II (the one KEstrel A starts with) and a crystal bomb that locks a room down. I also found and hired 2 zoltrans, lost my rockman to oxygen loss, so was down to 3 boarders (stupid mistake I was so pissed about). Next I went to Mantis Homeworld hoping to found the khaaaak Theif - and luck was with me! Only I made a really stupid mistake and didn't upgrade to Med 2 (arrrrrgh) so couldn't recruit him. I found another Mantis a sector after that so my final boarding crew was 3 mantis 1 rockman. In Engi homeworld picked up an engi hoping to get the stealth quest. When I got to sector 8 I was rolling in scrap but almost ran out of fuel in sector 7. My loadout was:

Burst mk 2
Heavy Ion
Crystal lockdown missile

Defense drone 1
Defense drone 2

I picked up cloaking late in the game as well.

First round boss was a bit difficult, but I took out the main weapons aside from the far right (mistake - realized when I reached round 3). After they were out and my team of 4 were back and ready to go I jumped into the shield room let 3 guys in and used the crytal bomb (first time using a missile weapon all game!) and took out the crew. Once they were done I took out the rest of the ship and jumped my men out before destroying.

Round 2 I was more prepared for and immediately had my team go into the shield immediately. I managed to time the cloak to dodge most of the missiles and slowly took out the ship, starting with shield, drone room, and then just following up with lasers.

Round 3 I wasn't sure what to expect, but knew it would be against the AI of the ship, so immediately sent my crew to take out shields. Took a few hits with the triple missile that my defense 1 and 2 drones weren't able to block as much as I hoped for. After taking out the shields I alternated in pilot and teleported room just for the 1 damage and used my burst laser to whittle away. Used my cloak when I could to avoid the big blast, but still took a number of hits.

Overall was a challenge but this ship is a beast with 4 crew teleporter. And now I'm off to try the slug cruiser