Subset Games Forum

I've been playing the game for a while on easy, and it's becoming, well, too easy. I decided to delete my profile and re-unlock everything by playing only in normal mode, no more easy mode. That might have been a mistake because after all day playing (literally, 103 attempts) I never won once. I only came close once, dying to the Flagship in the 3rd stage because my weapons were a Burst Laser Mk II, Murst laser Mk I, and a Flak Cannon Mk I. Pretty good against anything that isn't the Flagship it seems. Furthermore, without cloaking, hacking, or a teleporter, I was basically doomed. Even on easy I've never beaten the flagship without killing all but that one guy manning the triple laser by hacking the medbay, depowering it, damaging it my one bar so it's orange, then letting one (and only one) guy in to fix it; and then re-powering the hacking module and draining the life out of the poor guy. Every time. Rinse and repeat.
Then I just board it to finish it up and at the point I'm free to run around destroying systems in all 3 stages (I even used a Zoltan Shield Bypass once).
Okay basically what I'm trying to say is that I never seem to have a lot of scrap on me on Normal because I keep spending too much on repairs.
Also, I'm curious to know what other people's favorite ship it.
For me, that would be the only ship I've ever beaten Normal Mode with, and that's the Stealth Cruiser A.
If you ask me, starting with the rare $150 stealth and long rage scanners beats starting with $125 shields. Mostly because the Titanium System Casing gives you $40 when sold, so you really only need to get to $85 and you automatically have a beast of a ship. Also, cloaking out missiles is much more preferable than just bending over and going "Yup, here you go missile, please don't be too painful" in the first few sectors when you have no defense drones (which are a must to me).

Any tips on how to use the Kestrel? I think I might have gotten too used to the Stealth Cruiser...
The Crystal Cruiser is also pretty frikken beastly by the way.

The main difference between Normal and Easy is the starting scap and the enemies in the first few sectors.

I suggest you prioritize on all ships 2 shields (4 bars), 4 engines, and 6 power to use on those 8 slots. Try to get all of that in sector 1 and assuredly don't leave sector 2 without them.

In addition with the Kestrel you want to ditch that missile ASAP for a better weapon, like a Flak, BL2, BL1, Heavy Laser 1, or Hull Laser 1. The Heavy can just replace the Artemis but the others will require a (very worth it) weapons upgrade.

As far as enemies go, take out their important weapons first (Weapons are only important if they're LIKELY to hurt you. With 2 shields you will frequently be in a position in sectors 1 and 2 where the enemies can NOT hurt you at all), then go for shields and pilot so more of your next vollies will go through. Also, volley your shots!

While you're stuck with the Artemis, shoot it at shields to take them down and then BL2 the next important room (Weapons or pilot or engines, usually). When you've got a better second weapon than the Artemis, it depends but try to spread it out. If your other weapon fires anything other than basic 1-damage laser bolts, make sure that weapon always fires AFTER the burst laser fires, so it will have more of a chance to hit the ship.

Prioritize augments like Long Ranged Scanners, Scrap Recovery Arm, and Automated Reloader (3 of the best augments in the game) and don't be afraid to sell the marginal-to-bad augments like Repair Arm (the worst in the game) and Fire Suppression.

Discussions of tactics can be deep, and for that I humbly suggest you watch my YouTube series. I'm well over 100 episodes in season 4 which is all Advanced Edition. I don't always win, and I don't always play optimally, but I do pretty well and you may learn a thing or 2.

I would agree with most of the above advice, except, in my opinion you should not sell the Artemis. Yes, it's a missile weapon, and you don't start with a lot of missiles, but it can do very good work even into the middle and late-game. For the opportunity cost of only a mere 17 scrap (which you can do without in the opening game) and needing to keep missiles instead of selling them, you get a weapon which charges fairly quickly, requires only one power, and is essentially a Heavy Laser that pierces all shields (and can get shot down by Defense I, but that's fairly uncommon).

It gets even better later in the game when you have something like Hacking or Mind Control to ensure that it lands, and you can always put the Artemis launcher all the way to the right of your weapons setup so that it acts as a single weapons buffer point for the rest of your weapons.

Of course, if you happen to get four other good weapons, then you can sell the Artemis, but I'd much rather tough it out and have a Burst II, a Burst I and an Artemis in the early game than just the Burst II and the Burst I.

ZPERO wrote:Also, I'm curious to know what other people's favorite ship it.
For me, that would be the only ship I've ever beaten Normal Mode with, and that's the Stealth Cruiser A.
If you ask me, starting with the rare $150 stealth and long rage scanners beats starting with $125 shields. Mostly because the Titanium System Casing gives you $40 when sold, so you really only need to get to $85 and you automatically have a beast of a ship. Also, cloaking out missiles is much more preferable than just bending over and going "Yup, here you go missile, please don't be too painful" in the first few sectors when you have no defense drones (which are a must to me).

Stealth A is a good ship. It does have some pretty big weaknesses though. A simple beam drone could destroy the ship in sector 1 for instance. It's not certain doom, but a little bit of poor RNG and you're done for.

My favorite is Mantis B. 2 layers of shields, defense drone, a couple mantis crewmen and a 4 person teleporter!? Sign me up. Weapons? psssh who needs em? That ship is so much fun and the bonus rewards for winning battles by killing the enemy crew are awesome. If you can get a couple more mantis boarders you can really shred enemies.

That being said going all in on boarding is a pretty advanced strategy. Some situations take a good deal of micromanagement. That's part of the fun IMO.

Anyway keep at it and read up on some tips and tricks. FTL is all about exploiting every edge you can gain. The more you learn the more it starts to snowball.

I've been following this strategy in easy mode and it always ALWAYS guarantees a victory:
Try to restart the game until you begin exactly near a store.You might want to try to restart until you begin near two distress signals and see if they give scraps/crew members/weapons.If you are satisfied by their result you might not need scrap recovery,but I doubt it.Scrap recovery is usually the best starting option.
This store needs to have a scrap recovery arm.Since you are starting with Kerstel,you can't sell augmentations to buy the weapon,so you've got to gather scrap from nearby sectors.Next good buy should obviously be cloaking and teleport.Successful boarding means you gain a huge boost to your scrap income,which combined with a single scrap recovery arm increases your scrap income dramatically (I usually end up with 8 crew,full system/subsystem/power ).

Once that is done,you just do whatever you do in easy mode.I'm kind of a new player so I haven't unlocked everything yet (my save was wiped and I had to reunlock everything ).
If you manage to defeat the game with human ships (gratz to you) ,you can try to do the same strategy with ships that have augmentations.If these ships contain mediocre (in my opinion) augmentations like mantis pheromones or rock plating ,you might want to try and sell them to get yourself a fast scrap recovery arm.I don't think it works on hard though since iirc you begin with 10 scraps and these augmentations usually give less than 40 scrap.

Hope you the best in your efforts cap'n!