FTL: Faster Than Light - Page 27

On April 16 2014 21:20 jampidampi wrote:

There are four main ways to get trough shields: a lot of lasers, chaining ion damage, missiles/bombs and boarding. The easiest is to fire a bomb or a missile to their shield system. Once it's damaged they lose shield levels and it should be easier. Repeatedly firing enough ion weapons at the shield will stack the ion damage, eventually breaching them. However you need good ion weapons for it (a Ion Balst II, a Chain Ion, or two of Heavy Ion, Ion Blast, Ion Stunner, Ion Charger). The many lasers aproach requires not only having many lasers, but also firing them at the same time. Their will block a number of lasers equal to their level, but not any more. So instead of firing your Burst I and Hull Laser II whenever they are avaible letting their shields recharge between the volleys, you should fire one big volley of lasers. Boarding is completely different and I won't cover it here.

Or perhaps your problem is not getting enough weapons? If that is the case I would recommend visiting sectors with more stores. Engi and civilian sectors have 2-3 stores, zoltan and rock sectors have 2 stores, others have 1-2 (not sure about the new abandoned sector). The green sectors are also more likely to give you free items.

As for more general advice: visit as many beacons as possible in every sector. There's no need to rush through the sectors, take your time and farm as much scrap as possible. This includes fighting all possible battles, since winning gives you better rewards than not fighting. If you save someone from a pirate/mantis/rebel, they may give additional rewards, so you should almost always fight whenever you notice that you're fighting for someone else.

On April 19 2014 02:28 Leporello wrote:
Mantis B is one of the strongest ships in the game. It starts OP in a way that let's it accrue lots of scrap. No other ship starts with a double shield, or with a defense drone. Mantis B has both. No ship can hurt you for the first few sectors, you just board ships and collect the scrap bonuses at your leisure, without likely needing any repairs, unless you hit an asteroid/automated ship combo or something. The boarding drone can kill most automated ships until you get your first weapon.

The Rockship B isn't too bad, with the piercing heavy laser. The Lanius B is arguably stronger than the Lanius A, having a unique weapon and a teleporter.

Otherwise I agree that B layouts are generally weaker. I've been having a horrible time with Engi B, the ship is a pile of vendor trash and one crew member.

On April 19 2014 05:44 Pwere wrote:
Add Zoltan Shields and Clone/MedBay to the list for Mantis B, and defense/anti-ship drones kill your boarders. It does get very strong, but it's hardly reliable.

Engi B was easy enough. Finding a 2nd ion early makes the whole run a breeze. You can suffocate any crew easily with heavy ion + ion blast, which tends to let you find prisoners.

The Slug, Stealth, Mantis C (and the stupid crystal) are the only ships I don't have yet, and I don't see myself getting them on normal anytime soon.

On April 19 2014 05:44 Pwere wrote:
Add Zoltan Shields and Clone/MedBay to the list for Mantis B, and defense/anti-ship drones kill your boarders. It does get very strong, but it's hardly reliable.

Engi B was easy enough. Finding a 2nd ion early makes the whole run a breeze. You can suffocate any crew easily with heavy ion + ion blast, which tends to let you find prisoners.

The Slug, Stealth, Mantis C (and the stupid crystal) are the only ships I don't have yet, and I don't see myself getting them on normal anytime soon.

On April 23 2014 15:05 figq wrote:
I just got finally into FTL and it's amazing! It even takes me away from playing too much Hearthstone, because I can't resist playing too much FTL right now. This game turned out to be a lot more than I expected. So addictive!