STEALTH B on Hard.... what to upgrade?

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slattikarma
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STEALTH B on Hard.... what to upgrade?

Postby slattikarma » Sun Nov 16, 2014 11:42 am

Hi guys,

Keep coming back to FTL every now and again to try and get 100% on hard mode.

I've almost clocked every achievement, but Stealth B is giving me a mega-hard time. I was wondering how people approach upgrades.

It seems clear that your first 50 scrap must go to Level 3 cloak (just to give some ability to withstand drones and give you time to doge the first volley and get your glaive charged), and perhaps the next 20 goes to +1 reactor.

Then, there's a real dilemma as to what you push for next. You need to get shields as soon as possible, but you also need to start thinking about a secondary weapon (and extra weapon slots + reactors), as once the enemy starts having two shields, you won't be able to take out their weapon bay with one hit like with one shield guys.

I've tried both methods, and they both lead to pain. Going for shields means that by the time I get shields, my weapons are too weak. The other route means I am too open to being decimated by drones and zoltans, and cop heaps of damage along the way.

It gets easier if you a gifted a weapon early on.. but it is still a real struggle to get enough scrap for shields and an extra weapon by Sector 3/4.

What are people's strategies for Stealth B on hard?

Annoyingly, I had one run when I got gifted a Flak II, but unfortunately died before I could get enough scrap together to run both the Flak and Glaive together. Had I got that up and running it would pretty much have been a cake walk.
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stylesrj
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Re: STEALTH B on Hard.... what to upgrade?

Postby stylesrj » Sun Nov 16, 2014 11:48 am

What are people's strategies for Stealth B on hard?


Hit Esc, then Hangar, then List, then Type B, then Lanius Cruiser. :P
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5thHorseman
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Re: STEALTH B on Hard.... what to upgrade?

Postby 5thHorseman » Sun Nov 16, 2014 12:09 pm

slattikarma wrote:What are people's strategies for Stealth B on hard?


I have many similar problems that you have with the B. I've actually never beat hard with it myself.

I think you need to be willing to toss the Glaive aside for weapons with shorter cooldown times. For example, 2 Flak 1s, a flak 1 or BL2 and a pike beam, etc. If you get gifted - say - a BL1 and come across a BL2 in stores, you may be better off selling the Glaive and buying the BL2, ESPECIALLY if you get that before you buy Cloak 3.

Then, with your two weapons that you can easily power, you should wipe the floor with most enemies in sectors 1-2-3 and shields should be easy.

I hate recommending a strategy that essentially circumvents the intended use of a ship, but feel that in this case (and this case alone, Stealth B in Normal can be a joy if you carry the Glaive and L3 cloak to the final boss) it's warranted.
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RAD-82
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Re: STEALTH B on Hard.... what to upgrade?

Postby RAD-82 » Sun Nov 16, 2014 4:32 pm

Hacking


I've only played Stealth B on Hard once so far. It was rather painful, yet I somehow made it to the end for a win. I didn't even get shields or any engine upgrades until Sector 5.
slattikarma
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Re: STEALTH B on Hard.... what to upgrade?

Postby slattikarma » Mon Nov 17, 2014 5:57 am

@5thHorseman

Yeah, I had considered the 'selling glaive' option, but never went through with it. But I can see in hindsight how on my run with the FLak II, trading it for a lower laser or beam would have helped immensely. It's just given the stealth's only got 3 weapon slots, it is so important to have a meaty weapon.

@RAD-82

Interesting, hacking is always a later game acquisition for me, so getting it early to complement the glaive is an option I didn't consider. However, it is still a relatively expensive early game purchase, plus level 1 is fairly weak, so you need to upgrade early too, plus get more reactor power. So in effect, it's no cheaper than a secondary weapon, and will cost as much as shields.

What were you mostly hacking, their shield bay or weapons/drones?
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RAD-82
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Re: STEALTH B on Hard.... what to upgrade?

Postby RAD-82 » Mon Nov 17, 2014 7:31 am

Hacked shields. It's the only thing I could hack, since I never had any other weapon to help lower shields.

I wish I could say more, but I can't quite articulate it.

edit: http://i.imgur.com/jPXnY99.png
Here is a screenshot of my victory so you can see how poor my run was. My weapons and Engi were late acquisitions, so they didn't get to help me much through the run. Because of the small bomb, phase 3 was the only time I didn't hack the shields, because I really needed to borrow their mind control for survival from all of their boarding. The only augment I had was an Automated Re-loader, which was very helpful. That's an augment that I would recommend putting extra priority on if you see it for sell, because that extra 2.5 seconds off your glaive make it much easier for your cloak to do it's job.
slattikarma
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Joined: Mon Mar 03, 2014 10:56 am

Re: STEALTH B on Hard.... what to upgrade?

Postby slattikarma » Sun Nov 23, 2014 3:08 am

Well, oddly enough, after posting this thread, I cruised to an easy victory on my next Stealth B run on hard.

Not sure why but for some reason I just had a very strong opening Sector, when I took very little damage, managed to upgrade to cloak 3, +1 reactor and buy a Flak 1 in a merchant shop, and left the sector with enough cash for shields in early sector 2. Got a store selling shields within a couple jumps, and then managed to get gifted another flak and an ion bomb in two successive fights. I then proceeded to use a Glaive/Ion bomb combo for the next few sectors, comfortably dealing with most threats until I could afford enough weapon slots to run a Glaive and dual Flaks 1s together. Got gifted a rock and a mantis to deal with boarders, and engi for shields, and then it was just smooth sailing all the way, maxing out shields, getting to level 6 engines, getting defensive drones to deal with the odd hack/boarding drone and finally getting hacking (although I rarely even used it in the end). A sector 6 auto-reloader gift was the icing on the cake. Had an unlucky breach missile incident that killed two crew who were fighting in a room, but I managed to recover and get replacements.

Can't explain why it was so easy apart from a really strong opening sector which netted me a lot of cash, a lucky higher than normal frequency of weapon/augment gifts, which were either directly useful or got sold for valuable scrap.

Next on the list is Stealth C on Hard.