0-36 now on Ipad

[Ebolav]

Wow I suck. Of my 36 losses (all on easy), I make it to the rebel cruiser about 75% of the time. Of those ~25 fights, I have only made it to the third stage 3 times. By the third stage my ship is so damaged I don't stand a chance. I'm trying to win with Engi to get the 3rd ship.

1. I see lots of strategy of different weapon layouts, and that's all well and good, but if you don't see the key weapons for each layout you're screwed it seems, so there's a lot of luck involved. For example, I have gone entire games without seeing any other ion weapons, etc.
2. Related to this, is the key for sector 8 having a hull drone between fights? I know there's repair stations but typically I can only get to 1 during the fight, one is often next to the flagship, the other gets swallowed up while I'm busy fighting.
3. Also, having multiple strategies for different rebel ship layouts seems like it would be prohibitively expensive.

Clearly I love this game since I've played it 36 times, but it's getting frustrating

[English Narwhal]

Wow I suck. Of my 36 losses (all on easy), I make it to the rebel cruiser about 75% of the time. Of those ~25 fights, I have only made it to the third stage 3 times. By the third stage my ship is so damaged I don't stand a chance. I'm trying to win with Engi to get the 3rd ship.

1. I see lots of strategy of different weapon layouts, and that's all well and good, but if you don't see the key weapons for each layout you're screwed it seems, so there's a lot of luck involved. For example, I have gone entire games without seeing any other ion weapons, etc.
2. Related to this, is the key for sector 8 having a hull drone between fights? I know there's repair stations but typically I can only get to 1 during the fight, one is often next to the flagship, the other gets swallowed up while I'm busy fighting.
3. Also, having multiple strategies for different rebel ship layouts seems like it would be prohibitively expensive.

Clearly I love this game since I've played it 36 times, but it's getting frustrating

I hate to spoil it, but FTL is not easy. Ever. Most people aren't as lucky as you- I didn't get to the final sector until run 40. The best players out there don't win all of their games.

[Ebolav]

Good to know, though I'd *really* like to win sometime I'm all for a challenge, I've beaten demon souls, and both dark souls 1 and 2, so I'm in it for the long haul. I just feel like so much is luck-based on the equipment you see at stores, and healing in the final sector seems *so* based on if you have a hull drone...

[5thHorseman]

Do you have the ability to record your play and post it to YouTube? Just the final part where you first jump to the boss for the first time to the end. This game is complex and giving general advice not even knowing what you've got is not enough.

Or at least a picture from the jump right before the first boss fight, and a list of any augments you may have.

[Ebolav]

I'm sure I do, will at least take a picture of this playthrough (I'm 0-52 now) pre rebel ship. Thanks for the offer!

One recently frustrating thing is being denied three different ship unlocks due to fulfilling their quest conditions 'too late...' really irritating since I have no input over where the homeworlds are put on the map. Oh well.

[Ebolav]

I just wrote down my stats going into last sector. I feel like I should be able to win with this, but have felt that way 3 times before, only to lose in the 3rd part of the fight:

reactor-maxed
shield-maxed
engine-lv 5
med bay-2
oxy-2
weapon-5
drone-5
hack-2
pilot-1
sensor-1
doors-2

6 crew (never found a lot)-2 engi, 2 human, zoltan, slug. pilot, shield, weapon, eng all maxed

weapons
ion blaster lv 2 (engi A ship)
laser burst lv 3 (5 shot one)
ion bomb

Drones
combat 2
defense 1
boarding

augment (never found good ones)
drone recovery
engi medibot

cargo
fire bomb (seems good for hitting the missile launcher in lv 1, but not so good otherwise)
hull laser lv 2
shield overcharger

[Merudo]

Seems like you have a very good chance to win this.

I'm personally not a big fan of Ion weapons for the last boss, as they won't help kill crew - and I prefer to kill as much crew as possible in the earlier phases to make the later phases easier. But, I'm sure other people will disagree with me on this.

I'd also feel more confident if you had another defense drone, or mind control / cloaking (even level 1 would help a lot)

Please do tell us how it goes - I'm curious about the damage you are going to receive during each phase, how you will use hacking, and how many crew will board your ship in phase III.

If you can't kill enough crew during phase I and phase II, the enemy may overwhelm you with boarders during phase III. This is problematic considering your crew is relatively weak at combat and that the enemy will use mind control. Consider hacking their teleporter to quickly send the boarders back if the boarders are too brutal.

[itg]

Yeah, you can definitely beat the flagship with that loadout. I'd suggest swapping the boarding drone for the shield overcharger, and you might swap the burst III for the fire bomb, if you have a lot of missiles. Like Merudo said, the 3rd phase is much easier if you kill the crew (except the guy in the laser room) during the first phase, and firebombing everything can make that happen. The ion + combat drone combo is good enough to beat the flagship for the other phases. The burst III is not so good because it's very slow and it's your only laser weapon.

[5thHorseman]

Yeah I like the fire bomb too, though I'm not a fan of your weapons level. BL3 costs 4 and Ion 2 costs 3. You should be able to run both of those! If you had mind control I'd say this'd be a lock, but even without it you're looking good.

I guess I'd go both bombs and the BL3, though if you had Weapon 7 I'd go BL3, Ion 2 and fire bomb.

First thing you want to do is fire bomb the missiles. Here's where mind control would come in handy Then ion bomb the shields and bl3 the missiles too. That should kill the guy and take them out. That's 50% of the battle there. Repeat on the ion and beam rooms, and then you can take your time and not ever take any damage.

Get a fire started in the cloak room, and if you can keep stoking it with more bombs the guys will give up on it eventually and run to the medbay. As soon as they arrive, BL3 it and bam, your problems are almost over. Assuming the BL3 didn't start a fire, drop a fire bomb in there and then you're done. They can't heal, so just wait for them all to burn up (except the laser guy) and BL3 the ship to oblivion.

Rounds 2 and 3 will be much easier with a fire bomb and no crew You could even kill the last guy and just get fires going everywhere. The AI will slowly heal systems and the fire will take them back out

[Ebolav]

Alright, I'm now 0-62, that's the bad news. The good news is:

-I've made the 3rd stage of the rebel ship 8 of the last 10 games
-I've unlocked 7 ships, obviously all via the alternate unlock.

As long as I have a way to disarm the missile launcher (boarding or firebomb) stage 1 is easy. Stage 2 seems to come down to taking out their weapons/drones faster than they can start disabling my systems.

Stage 3-???. Still not sure of a good strategy. However, I currently have the most ridiculous ship I've ever had, if I can't win with this I should just quit. I got 2 scrap recovery arms in sector one, and ended up with more money than I knew what to do with.

Federation A layout
Weapons-10/10, 2 burst lasers lv 2, 1 Vulcan=fiery death! Also have breach missiles.
Drone-5, combat 1 and defense 2. In reserve is ion intruder, and anti-drone
Shields-6, so level 3 (would be higher but not enough reactor power)
Engine-5
Med bay-2
O2-2
Artillery-4 (max)
Piloting/sensors/doors-all maxed since I had to the money to burn
Augment-long scanners, respirators, scrap arm-by the time the scrap arms were not useful anymore, I didn't find better ones like preigniter or shield recharger

Crew is suitably maxed, but not ideal makeup-3 human, 2 engi, slug, rockman.

Few questions re: lv 3 rebel ship/in general
-For most late-game ship I can't see the benefit of boarding. Basically I teleport in, wreck the first two crew down to critical, but before I can wreck the ship 2 new guys sub in, and I have to teleport out. Is it only worth it to teleport in against weak races (slugs, engi), or ships with less than 3 crew?
-Against lv 3 rebel ship, is it worth it to try and disable their drones instead of weapons systems, so I can then switch to my breach missiles without them being shot down? Seems like late game, missiles are too hard to hit with unless you focus so much effort on taking out the drone systems, effort which would be better on just hitting the weapons?

I'm pumped/nervous to proceed, this is the strongest ship I've had yet.