1 achievement left for 100%: they never saw it coming

[slattikarma]

Hello FTL forum,

I've pumped 140 hours into FTL and can't remember loving a game so deeply in ages.

I'm infuriatingly one achievement short of 100% (which I don't think I've ever bothered achieving in a game before but would love to get it on FTL) I've finished the game with every ship type on Normal and got all ship achievements and general achievements on Normal except THEY NEVER SAW IT COMING, which requires destroying a ship with a igniter in one volley.

This one is infuriating, as I probably was in the position to get it with past runs but I was concentrating on other goals. I've since only managed to get both the pre-igniter and strong weapons late in the game when enemy ships are too strong to knock out in one hit.

Is it largely up to luck, ie you need to get a pre-igniter and sufficiently strong weapons early in the game before enemy ship's become too strong? Can it be done in later sectors?

I was wondering if anyone had any advice to lower the odds on this one. Which ship types would be best? So far I was going for beams or burst laser II and 4 weapon slots, which meant I've been trying to get it with Zoltan A, Fed A or Kestrel A. I figure a beam is the only thing able to wipe a ship out in one shot, so you basically need the pre-igniter, beam and something to deal with shields in one go like a burst laser, and all before sector 5 to have any hope of pulling it off?

Are there any sector-choices/missions which raise the chance of finding a pre-igniter?

Any advice appreciated, because it feels like I'm so close yet frustratingly so far.

[shadowcrust]

I guess the achievement is easiest to get with the Stealth B, since the ship already brings the weapon that only needs to be paired with a Pre-igniter.

It was also my last achievement to get, by the way, since it is way more luck-dependent than most or all of the other achievements.

[5thHorseman]

When I lost my save data and had to start over, I had all achievements except the Rock one to get to the crystal sector, and the generic one for the boarding drone to kill 4 guys. It never bothered me that I didn't have them, they were both so specific you'd have to grind to get them and I'm just not into that.

But yeah, play the DA-SR 12 for a while. When you fall upon a lucky pre-igniter you will laugh at its awesome power.

[shadowcrust]

The Boarding achievement is not too difficult, you just need to figure out the faulty programming and work around it.

[5thHorseman]

The Boarding achievement is not too difficult, you just need to figure out the faulty programming and work around it.

It's more a problem that I sell boarding drones for scrap at the first opportunity. I bet I could count on my fingers the number of times I've actually fired one at an enemy ship.

Including that time I tested to see if they'd take down a Zoltan shield. They don't.

[shadowcrust]

Basilisk comes with a free one, and with that ship you don't need much, if any, additional scrap. Collect a couple of crewmates, soften up the enemy and then send in the boarding drone, achievement unlocked - or so you thought! There are some peculiar limitations as to when it counts as an achievement, but I won't spoil it here

[5thHorseman]

Basilisk comes with a free one, and with that ship you don't need much, if any, additional scrap. Collect a couple of crewmates, soften up the enemy and then send in the boarding drone, achievement unlocked - or so you thought! There are some peculiar limitations as to when it counts as an achievement, but I won't spoil it here

I'm not going to bother trying until Advanced Edition comes out. I'm going to wipe my profile (again) and start from scratch, only playing when I record. My goal is to unlock everything in the game while recording.

[slattikarma]

Thanks guys.

[Captain_obvious]

It is possible to get the pre-igniter through a random event. I once had a ship offer to surrender with a pre-igniter part of the bargain, couldn't click that 'accept' button fast enough.

It's not impossible to pull it off later game, but it does get harder. If you are going to try and farm for this achievement, my first advice would be to avoid jumping into any Mantis, Rockmen or Zoltan sectors, as their ships are generally too tough to burn down in one volley. Engi, Rebels, AI scouts and the small Fed cruisers are the easiest to get this achievement from.

You basically want one beam (glaive, halberd, hull or pike) and as many lasers or ions as possible. Hull lasers make this even easier. With that in mind, the best ships to try it with are Kestrel A&B, Fed A and Zoltan B. You could also pull it off with the stealth ships, but you get so badly screwed over every time you run into a beam or a drone early on that you'll be restarting far too often.

[muldrake]

Stealth B is the best to get this with. The difficulty is more in getting the pre-igniter. The only place I've seen this in the first two sectors is as a surrender gift. Specifically, Stealth B is great for this achievement because the Glaive Beam takes out most ships you encounter in one hit. Make the beam cross four rooms, knock the shields down if possible and they'll never see it coming.

Similarly, unshielded auto-scouts make this easy.

If you can't take any shields down, hit the shields room first (or at worst second) in line before anything else.