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[BFEL]

It sounds silly but I am really waiting for the FTL imitators to start coming out of the woodwork because every once in a while a game comes up with an idea you really feel should be more common or that could be used in more scenarios.

This game is appealingly close to a game I often wished was real. Basically Sid Meiers Pirates! in space, with the "manage your crew/fires/oxygen/etc." that FTL brings to the table.

[Scripten]

How could he have killed you with a missile barrage if you took out every system? 

I think he meant the power surge with all the green laser things in the third stage.

Yep, that was it. I assumed they were missiles because my shields were mostly full and I had a shield drone going. Felt really cheap, but I suppose it's just down to luck at that point. Funny thing was, I started the battle with full health since there was a repair station right next to the Fed base.

[Leafsnail]

So it managed to do 25 damage to you during the rest of the fight?

[mosshadow]

Dang it, got owned by the second round of the mothership twice in a row. I wish all those other federation ships would lend a hand and use their ASB units

[Scripten]

So it managed to do 25 damage to you during the rest of the fight?

Yeah. It was a battle of attrition. Really, I can't blame the game for it, since it was a roll of the dice, but the singular HP bar taunted me for my entire death animation.

[Jim Groovester]

Got to the boss with Kestral A, hacking, teleporter, and drone control, with a Flak II, and a Hull Laser I I couldn't power.

My defense drone shot down the first hacking thingy. The second one hit my cockpit. The battle did not go well after that.

Contributing to the loss was that the previous two jumps were rebel-controlled beacons so I had enemy crew on my ship to start the battle. I moved my weapons operator to help fight them and repair systems and never moved him back. Flak II's base charge time is one second more than the boss' cloaking cooldown, so I only got a shot off every other cloak.

I think I could've beaten it if the circumstances leading up to the battle were slightly more favorable.

[Urist Imiknorris]

That's what I love/hate about hacking drones. They're so damn fast that defense drones can't reliably shoot them down.

[Thexor]

It's kind of luck-dependent. Defense Drones have a fixed turning speed, so they can track too slowly for missiles that are too close. And of course their projectiles have a travel time, so they can miss missiles that are aimed at the other half of your ship.

They still get most projectiles, but don't count on 100% missile immunity even with a drone active. (On the flip side, it means you can sneak hacks and even occasionally missiles past an enemy drone if needed!)

[mosshadow]

That's what I love/hate about hacking drones. They're so damn fast that defense drones can't reliably shoot them down.

ALso dont enemy ships fire multi hacking drones as they get shot down?

[EnigmaticHat]

I think he meant that they fire another hacking drone the moment their first gets shot down.  Which is true.  Personally I think it should have the same cooldown as a destroyed drone, that would make trying to stop the boss's hack much less annoying.

[Urist Imiknorris]

It would also make my own hacking significantly more annoying unless I distracted the defense drone.

Fun fact: An anti-drone can target and shoot at a hacking drone, which will freeze in place for the duration of the ion effect. Once the effect ends, the hacking drone instantly accelerates to its previous speed.

[EnigmaticHat]

Yup.  Its why I don't use the damn things.  I once deployed both a defense drone and anti-drone drone against the flagship.  Still got hacked.

[Mageziya]

So, I've been playing this a lot, and I've noticed that you can now unlock ships by beating the game with certain ships. Somehow, I think via the only victory I've had with this game (Zoltan B, about a year ago. I took a looooong break.) I have ended up with the Mantis ship. Since the victory chains are guaranteed ways to unlock ships instead of finicky unlock quests, of course I want to win with the mantis.

Now does anyone have any tips on using the Mantis A properly? (Being competent with A is required to get the overpowered B in this case.) I've tried, a lot, and failed every time. I try to focus on upgrading shields and engines early, but apparently almost every freaking ship in the early game has missiles now. Almost, every, single, one. I've seen a guide that recommended upgrading the teleporter to lvl 2 and then medbay to lvl 2 before upgrading engines and shields, but it barely makes a difference when I try it.

I am playing advanced edition, since that's the reason I came back to this game.

[Mageziya]

I'm assuming with clone bay?

[EnigmaticHat]

That was an iffy guide then, medbay lvl 2 is always secondary at best.  2nd level teleport is nice because you can more quickly send a second wave of boarders in or retreat your crew in time to avoid asphyxiating on an autoship.  But still, Mantis A has enough problems even that might be a waste of scrap.

Mantis A is one of those ships where the RNG can ruin your game if it wants to.  Be prepared to run if you fight ships with no 02, and avoid abandoned/rebel sectors like the plague.  On top of that you have no sensors, so be cautious around any ship which might have dangerous crew or an anti-personal drone.  If you're OK with cheese strategies if you run your boarders around the enemy ship forever the enemy will only rarely be able to get hits in, which can save your boarders.  Always go to mantis sectors.  They'll teleport over, you'll kill or maim the boarders, then you can teleport over to their ship and finish them off.

Your bomb can be used for two variants of the 1-2 punch.  One is to bomb their medbay/clonebay and then teleport two mantis on top of it, forcing the AI to fight you without heals.  The second is to bomb their shields and then kill them with lasers.  Unfortunately your weapons are crap, so you'll need another laser or beam weapon to make this strategy practical.  Don't go for ion unless you get something more deadly than the basic laser.

Mind control SHOULD be great for this ship, but you don't have sensors so don't bother until you get something that enables MC.  Hacking is nice but you don't have many drone parts so meh.  Clone bay is arguably better than medbay but not to the tune of 50 scrap.  I'd say build wise you should sell your pheromones and then go with the flow.  This ship doesn't lend itself to any particularly great builds, so just hope you get a nice random drop and then transition into a build you know works.  If you get a lot of crew go for teleporter lvl 2 or clone bay, and then spam boarders all day long.  If you get a nice gun go for a conventional build.  If you get a slug crewman go for MC.  But yes, this is a luck based ship, as is the achievement for killing the crews of enemy ships (because you have to encounter crews to kill them).