Subset Games Forum

I don't get how you're supposed to fight fire or a boarding party except for sending your crew in to the room the fire or boarding party is in.

Regardless, every time I do, they always die and I can never make it past the 4th jump...ever.

edited: removed my frustration
thanks for the info

Hello!

Sorry you're having troubles. Here are some tips for fires and boarders:

-On Easy, you can afford to buy Blast Doors (Doors Level 2) from the start. Blast doors will help slow the spread of fires and delay intruders from getting into rooms which can be very helpful.

-You have external airlocks that can be used to drain oxygen from the ship. Emptying rooms of oxygen will put out fires and suffocate intruders. If there is a lot of fire, it's generally safer to vent the room instead of sending people in.

-Take advantage of your medbay. Send people to heal if they are dying fighting a fire or intruders, then send them back to finish the job. You should get a beeping warning you of their low health.

-Typical early strategy for boarders if you're really having troubles would be to vent the entire ship of oxygen except for the medbay, and wait for them to come to you as they are desperate not to suffocate.

-Later in the game, use stronger blast doors (level 3) to trap boarders in low o2 rooms, bomb weapons that target your own ship, and Mantis/Rock aliens for fighting boarders.

-If you find an Engi alien (little grey guy), send him to deal with fires because he repairs and puts out fires twice as fast as normal crew. But don't send him to fight intruders, because he's very bad at that.

Hope that helps!

EDIT: This is unlikely to be a *complete* list. I'm sure others on the forum can provide more tips. Watching the streams, I'm regularly surprised by strategies that players have come up with that we as developers did not think of.

An unlucky boarding drone drop will always be a big headache. Also ships with Teleporters usually do have a melee advantage (4 Mantis aaaaargh). Fortunately they tend to split up and have priority on certain systems instead of just brutally murdering your crew, so you can maneuver around a bit.

Fire is horrible. Pray there's a clear path to airlocks if you are in combat. Otherwise the best you can do is throwing people at them as early as possible, and capitalize on your medic bay.

It's pretty much impossible to lose to boarding party events (unless there's an enemy ship complicating matters) if you:

1. vent literally the entire ship minus the medbay, and an adjacent room if you need more room to store your dudes. Boarders won't attack rooms with no air, they will try to escape to a room with air.

2. Fight the boarders in the medbay and adjacent room, if one of your crew in the adjacent room is getting to low health, rotate them with somebody in the medbay.

Also: knock out the drone system asap if there is an enemy boarding drone, all it takes is one hit to buy some time. Alternatively, deploy a defense drone, these shoot down the pesky things before they can enter.

E: Also on certain ships where the medbay is between two halfs of the ship (most notably the osprey), you can get away with only venting half, to herd the boarders into the medbay to fight your crew.

I've tried airing out the ship and they just keep moving and moving until they get to the cockpit, at which point i can't send anyone to the o2 (far back) because they die from lack of oxygen by the time they get there and because the door systems are broke.

This really needs to be looked in to.

snipun wrote:I've tried airing out the ship and they just keep moving and moving until they get to the cockpit, at which point i can't send anyone to the o2 (far back) because they die from lack of oxygen by the time they get there and because the door systems are broke.

This really needs to be looked in to.

I don't fully understand what it is you want it to do... Which doors do you have? I assume that you have the basic doors (rank 1) that doesn't stoop intruders? Expecting them to suffocate then is a bit puzzling. The game would be far too easy if the AI was that bad. Venting rooms is mostly to deny the boarders access to those room as they will pick rooms with air over rooms without. If you got the upgraded door system you can also inflict a bit of damage on the boarders through oxygen deprivation but its unlikely you will be able to kill them with it.

Why do you hoard them towards your cockpit instead of the med bay?
If you aren't hoarding them but they simply spawn closer to the cockpit, and despite you wanting them to go to the medbay end up in the cockpit, may I suggest you do not try venting the ship but send your guys to engage them and when they get low on health send them to the medbay?

Why does your guys need to run back to the O2 unit? Was it damaged by the intruders? Don't vent large part of your ship if that is the case. Goes double for if they are attacking your doors system. DO NOT VENT THE SHIP if you can't seal it again.

Venting is one strategy, it's not always the best strategy though.

snipun wrote:I've tried airing out the ship and they just keep moving and moving until they get to the cockpit, at which point i can't send anyone to the o2 (far back) because they die from lack of oxygen by the time they get there and because the door systems are broke.

I think you need to re-read the advice, because the idea is to vent then entire ship, except the med-bay. Not just compartment by compartment until you're backed up to the cockpit. That way the enemies are forced to fight you in the med-bay, where you have the advantage.

Once they're dead, you repressurise.

If the O2 room is damaged, then you obviously have to juggle the situation a bit more carefully, but that's no different than any time an important bit of equipment gets damaged.

This really needs to be looked in to.

No, it doesn't. Can boarding parties be hard? Yes, certainly, but this game isn't meant to be easy.
Keep practising and you'll get there, you're not meant to win every situation right off the bat.

I also am terrible at boarding. Upgraded doors help the most.

Boarding occurs most often in Mantis or Nebula space. If you are going into those sectors, you need to have level 1 doors upgraded to deal with them efficiently. It's quite possible to deal with boarders without upgrading doors, but it quickly grows impossible if an enemy ship is involved as well.

Utilizing your airlocks to vent the part of the ship that is burning/being boarded is incredibly important. In Nebula's, if I hear something burning and I have no sensors up, I vent every single room that is not currently occupied. It takes care of the fire. If I am being boarded, I immediately pause the game and vent every room that is not currently occupied. It softens up the boarders before I have to fight them with my crew, which is especially important against Mantis boarders.

Pausing your game a lot during combat is crucial to survival as every second counts in FTL. One wasted moment targeting a weapons system while your game is unpaused can lead to your missile being one second late to take out their weapons bay, meaning they land a hit on your critically damaged hull and you lose.

edit: Once you have paused once and vented your entire ship except for occupied locations, once you see your doors flashing red PAUSE AGAIN IMMEDIATELY and close up what doesn't need to be open. After a few seconds, once oxygen is restored to connecting segments, you need to gather your crew in the room the boarders are attempting to breach. Then you just overwhelm them with numbers. DOORS, PEOPLE. PAUSES AND DOORS, IT'S NOT HARD!