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[Urist Imiknorris]

Swarm missile?

[EnigmaticHat]

The four charge laser isn't BAD.  Its basically a poor man's burst laser 2 with some mediocre extra options.  I've never gotten ion charger but I would be surprised if it wasn't good given the way ion works.

More importantly, those two both look really badass.  Its great how the laser charger fires each barrel separately.

[Arcvasti]

I got an Engi with all Gold skills from an event in Engi sector. Something to do with a Virus? He's awesome.

[Leafsnail]

Swarm looks pretty good, actually.  It is ultimately the fastest missile in the game, which means you can potentially strike the enemy with 1 or 2 piercing damage to take out their missile before it fires (e: actually I'm not sure if it hits early enough to stop an Artemis).  It can also sneak 2 damage past defense drones (I think?) at a rate pretty comparable to the Pegasus Missile for 1 less power, or 1 damage past a defense drone before any of the big missiles are ready to go.

Also the Virus event is so good that I go to Engi sectors whenever I can.

Zoltan shields, Zoltan, Mantis, Lanius or Rockmen crew are really hard to beat with boarding and medbays or cloning bays are pretty nasty too. Higher level doors are also not fun. And I find that when the enemy boards YOU, you need your boarding Mantis's on your ship killing them instead of ripping through their crew while your own ship burns.

For Zoltan shields you just need to shoot at it with a weapon/drone, like with any other ship.  Zoltans are still pretty pathetic when it comes to fighting even with their explosion, it doesn't really make up for their reduced HP.  Lanius only appear in one sector which you can usually avoid.  Rockmen still usually lose to Mantis in a 1v1.  Mantis are a bit trickier, but you can deal with it by double teaming them or just teleporting back and healing.

You do of course need to take out their healing system, that's usually best achieved by getting some kind of bomb or any other kind of offence that can hit a bit of damage through their shields.

Enemy boarding parties really shouldn't be a problem if you have improved doors (either by purchasing the upgrade or having someone man the system).  You can just drain the room they're in, then drain the room they're about to move into, and keep them locked in a cycle of suffocation.  Alternatively you can drive them towards your medbay where basically any species will be able to take them on and win.  Unless it's a very serious invasion you should be able to fight it off without engaging any of the boarders in actual legitimate combat.

[Mr Space Cat]

I WAS on easy. I managed to get to sector 8, but the game kept throwing enemies at me that were able to pretty much negate either my offence or defence.

Your offense with Mantis B is boarders. Who in Sector 8 has the ability to negate that except the final boss?

I mean, you can't finish drones with it, admittedly, unless you're willing to sacrifice a dude, but you can still take out their weapons pretty easily and after that it's just a matter of time.

They kept getting wiped out by various things, majority of which revolved around bad luck. Get event, try to get extra crewmember from it to replace the one I lost.

Another crewmember died!

I finally learned to not touch those events when I had one boarder left.

Clone bays. You have no idea how great clone bays are for boarding runs. Clone bays are a must for boarding, it just makes it so much easier and less risky.

Also, upgrading your doors and asphyxiating enemy boarders can deal with, well, enemy boarders on your ship. enemy boarders will prioritize getting out of oxygenless rooms instead of attacking systems or crew. I've found that after your own boarders deal damage to the enemy ship the enemy boarders get recalled.

[EnigmaticHat]

Mantis are the easiest to board.  They come to you

[Arcvasti]

Mantis are the easiest to board.  They come to you

Especially if you have a lot of Lanius crew. Or Engi type B, I suppose. Either way, they suffocate pretty quickly.

[Rolan7]

Yeah, even mantis boarders can be reliably suffocated if you've upgraded your doors at all.  To do it faster and with less rooms evacuated, you can turn of O2 and/or send your non-combat personnel to delay the boarders in the vacuumed rooms.  They usually teleport back to their ship after 3-5 rooms.  There are a few layouts with hard-to-vent crannies, though... Durandal does not approve.

[EnigmaticHat]

One thing I would recommend is to stop using suffocation tactics once you have more than 4 crew.  If you drain oxygen from an important system and that system gets hit you can find yourself in deep shit.  Instead either swarm them in a four tile room, or get them in a two tile room and rotate your crew out so they can heal.  5 is the magic number for fighting off a standard 2 man boarding crew, as you can dedicate 4 crew to fighting while the remainder mans the helm.  This works even with Engi and Zoltan, in fact those race's weakness can be largely negated in combat if you use them properly.

[Leafsnail]

Just got a Hard win with Fed B.  I actually quite like the Fed Cruisers, the artillery beam is a weapon that will eventually kill any ship, so you can just focus on defenses (shields, engines, drones, hacking, bombs) for the whole game.

That said, that... isn't exactly what I did this time.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I'd been wanting to try out the Vulcan Cannon for ages, so I bought it even though it's an absolutely horrible fit for this ship.  It still owns.

This is me after activating the "shit everyone run at the weapons room to extinguish that fire" tactic.

This win was pretty lucky really, a serious blow to the weapons bay would have me dead.  That said Vulcan Cannon + Any Bomb is a really excellent offensive loadout, and if combined with actual defenses it would probably rip through the flagship really easily.

[EnigmaticHat]

And don't you see how that was more fun than the defensive build?

Seriously though, I won the game once, got the Fed cruiser, played a very boring defensive game and won for the second time, then never touched it again because boredom.

[Leafsnail]

FTL could really do with a fast-forward button, there are some fights where you know you'll win but it will take ages, especially as the Feds.

The Vulcan Cannon is by far the funnest weapon in the game though.

[Arcvasti]

FTL could really do with a fast-forward button, there are some fights where you know you'll win but it will take ages, especially as the Feds.

That might not be such a practical idea. Although it would be hilarious if you pressed that by accident in a close fight. Maybe that can be a new harder version of FTL where you have to react super quickly to everything. Bonus points if they take out the pause button.

[Neonivek]

FTL could really do with a fast-forward button, there are some fights where you know you'll win but it will take ages, especially as the Feds.

That might not be such a practical idea. Although it would be hilarious if you pressed that by accident in a close fight. Maybe that can be a new harder version of FTL where you have to react super quickly to everything. Bonus points if they take out the pause button.

Honestly I wouldn't mind a FTL with a longer campaign.

I know many people would disagree as the current 8 is long enough... but I wouldn't mind one that is like... 16 or 24 parsecs with minibosses and stuff.

[EnigmaticHat]

If you find a reliable shield killer early the best way to win is often to get a single hull killer and then focus on defense and weapon negation.  That can take a LONG time.

I won hard mode today with Engi C, I had a chain ion and a double laser for most of the game.  Added an ion stunner halfway through.  Took... maybe 3 hours?  I would set the chain ion to hit shields, ion stunner to hit helm, and double laser to hit weapons.  So yeah, I would have been using that fast forward.

On the other hand waiting for things to happen + the more atmospheric music can be soothing.  FTL has a peaceful feel when everything isn't on fire.