I just had a shit-show of a run where I had 3 crew for the vast majority of the game and had no battery and 2 open system slots by time I made it to Sector 8, only buying a drone system along the way. I somehow translated this into a win. 4 shields + Defense 1/Anti-Drone makes you nigh untouchable to the mothership. I used to think that cloak was damn near required to beat the mothership, but now I may opt for 4 shields instead.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
FTL: Advanced Edition |OT|: Now on iPad (and free update on PC!)
- Thread starter chickdigger802
- Start date
Weltall Zero
Member
Did the anti-drone work on the power surge drones? I'm assuming no, but I'm curious.
SecretMoblin
Member
I had only played here and there after it first came out, but the AE stuff is so good... I've been able to unlock all the ships (A Layouts, at least) except the Crystal one and I just need one more achievement with Rock A until I can get it with Rock B > Rock C/Crystal crewmember > easier questline > Crystal ship. I figure that will be easier than trying to luck into triggering all the quest events, at least.
As satisfying as it can be to take down the final boss, it really is annoying. :/ If it hacks your shields/weapons or sends a boarding drone into the wrong room it can really destroy any reasonable chance to beat it.
The better backgrounds and planets mod is so incredibly awesome.
As satisfying as it can be to take down the final boss, it really is annoying. :/ If it hacks your shields/weapons or sends a boarding drone into the wrong room it can really destroy any reasonable chance to beat it.
The better backgrounds and planets mod is so incredibly awesome.
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
Is there a video of this?
troopershades
Neo Member
Today was my first time in getting to the boss and actually able to fight. I was so stoked when I hit him one last time only to find out that he survived. The second time around I couldn't even touch him. Rage quit ensued.I've been playing the game on the iPad, and while I played it on the computer quite a bit, I'd forgotten how much I hate the last boss. I hate hate hate hate hate it. I can get through the entire game without losing a crew member, without repairing my ship, but when I get to the last boss, I fall apart. I can get past the first form OK, but the second one stomps me. It wouldn't bother me that much if the game was progressive in its difficulty, but it is a cakewalk until those final battles.
I hope someone gets the save hacking up and running for the iPad
PastorOfMuppets
Banned
Finally beat the game with the Mantis Cruiser B. It's an insanely fun ship to play with because of the starting crew and the 4 man teleport pad but you need a lot of luck to avoid Zoltan and autoships in the early goings.
Basically:
- Found a Burst Laser III on my very first jump
- Found a Chain Laser on my third jump along with a mantis crewmember
- Flack Cannon in the second sector
- Did the Zoltan special quest and got a hold of the Zoltan shield
- Picked up Reconstructive Teleport in Sector 2
- Did the Mantis special quest and got my fourth boarding member as a maxed out Mantis
- Kept Defense Drone 1 for the entire game, added Anti-Drone Drone to deal with the second phase of the Boss ship and Anti-Personnel drone to deal with Phase III when he uses boarders
- Rest of my crew: 2 zoltan, 1 engi and a rockman
- Level 3 shields, 45% evade, maxed cloaking
Basically:
- Found a Burst Laser III on my very first jump
- Found a Chain Laser on my third jump along with a mantis crewmember
- Flack Cannon in the second sector
- Did the Zoltan special quest and got a hold of the Zoltan shield
- Picked up Reconstructive Teleport in Sector 2
- Did the Mantis special quest and got my fourth boarding member as a maxed out Mantis
- Kept Defense Drone 1 for the entire game, added Anti-Drone Drone to deal with the second phase of the Boss ship and Anti-Personnel drone to deal with Phase III when he uses boarders
- Rest of my crew: 2 zoltan, 1 engi and a rockman
- Level 3 shields, 45% evade, maxed cloaking
SecretMoblin
Member
I find advanced easier :/
Ion spam is really annoying, though. And the charge weapons feel largely pointless, especially since you can't set them to auto-shoot after a set amount of charges (I think?). But I only started winning with the Advanced Edition stuff, and the only ship I have left to unlock is Slug C. It made the game much more fun for me, personally.
- Mind control prevents enemy AI from repairing or putting out fires, so it makes killing off the crew way easier. It's especially nice when you have multiple enemies repairing a breach or putting out a fire and you mind control one of them, causing a fight that usually stays in the room and makes killing off the crew simple.
- Hacking is broken because of the room lock.
Both systems are very rare on enemy ships (at least on Easy, not sure about likelihood on higher difficulties).
- Flak annihilates Zoltan and multi-stage shields, which makes the beam weapons much more useful.
- Lanius boarding parties are broken by themselves and especially in combination with breach weapons or by taking out the Oxygen systems and parking in that room.
- Chain Vulcan and/or Swarm make the boss's defenses a joke.
- Anti-Ship Fire Drone is way, way too fun to use.
Ion spam is really annoying, though. And the charge weapons feel largely pointless, especially since you can't set them to auto-shoot after a set amount of charges (I think?). But I only started winning with the Advanced Edition stuff, and the only ship I have left to unlock is Slug C. It made the game much more fun for me, personally.
PastorOfMuppets
Banned
I actually find Advanced to be a lot easier. You just need ways to deal with multi-level shields and missiles/flak
For multi-level shields:
- Hacking
- Boarding with crystal dudes (for lockdown) or lanius dudes (they suck the oxygen out of the room so enemies don't stay for too long; AI doesn't send their units into rooms with no oxygen or 3+ squares of fire)
- Bombs/missiles/flack
Even without any of those, I actually found that with certain weapons, I could just break the shields down with certain volley combinations. My most recent victory, I didn't have any extra systems except for cloaking and I managed to beat the boss using Burst Laser III and Chain Laser to gradually strip the shields down.
It's Reyn Time!
Member
Today I got to experience the utter joy of equipping four flak cannons and a weapons pre-igniter.
KojiKnight
Member
I had this happen the first day of AE and it really sold me on flak canons. It's just so beautiful... beat easy mode like it was actually easy.
It's Reyn Time!
Member
It's the best luck I've had so far, and the first half of that run was a nightmare as I was going for the Lanius A achievement to get 600 scrap stockpiled at once. I got to a store with about 530 scrap and just decided to sell off my equipped weapons to get the achievement then quit. I sold everything but my one flak cannon and decided I might as well see how that run ends.
I bought a second flak cannon from that same store, the next jump gave me another store with ANOTHER flak cannon and the weapons pre-igniter and the next zoned dropped more flak from a defeated ship.
Everything from that point on just died within seconds, it was beautiful. To go from horribly underpowered to just absolutely devastating so quickly was joyous.
Here's what I was thinking for the second half of the game:
Boo! *chokchokchokchok*
*pause*
*blatblatblatblatblatblatcrunchkaboom*
*BOOM!*
Rinse and repeat.
I bought a second flak cannon from that same store, the next jump gave me another store with ANOTHER flak cannon and the weapons pre-igniter and the next zoned dropped more flak from a defeated ship.
Everything from that point on just died within seconds, it was beautiful. To go from horribly underpowered to just absolutely devastating so quickly was joyous.
Here's what I was thinking for the second half of the game:
Boo! *chokchokchokchok*
*pause*
*blatblatblatblatblatblatcrunchkaboom*
*BOOM!*
Rinse and repeat.
SecretMoblin
Member
congrats
if you want the other easy mode ship you'll have to work for it, but it's also a lot of fun
now unlock the rest of the layouts!
if you want the other easy mode ship you'll have to work for it, but it's also a lot of fun
now unlock the rest of the layouts!
PastorOfMuppets
Banned
Lanius B is even stronger. It starts with a unique one power flack cannon that has a faster charge speed than the normal flack. My first Advanced Edition victory on normal came via the Lanius B.
SecretMoblin
Member
nice job!
drones make the final fight much, much easier than all other options (including cloak) for me.
drones make the final fight much, much easier than all other options (including cloak) for me.
Wolf Akela
Member
I wish they'd release the Android version already. Been craving to get back into the game for quite some time but I'd really much rather play it on my phone so I can play everywhere. Vita would be nice too.
Been craving to get back into the game for quite some time but I'd really much rather play it on my phone so I can play everywhere. Vita would be nice too.Layout B for the Crystal Cruiser is by far my favorite ship.
Starting out with shields, stealth, a 4 man crew teleporter, AND having three people with the crystal lockdown ability is disgustingly powerful. Once you add weapons to it and maybe a combat drone, it's gotta be one of the best ships in the game
Edit: Also a fully upgraded Artillery Beam on the Federation Cruiser ain't nothing to mess with
Starting out with shields, stealth, a 4 man crew teleporter, AND having three people with the crystal lockdown ability is disgustingly powerful. Once you add weapons to it and maybe a combat drone, it's gotta be one of the best ships in the game
Edit: Also a fully upgraded Artillery Beam on the Federation Cruiser ain't nothing to mess with
Wolf Akela
Member
Almost beat Easy after nearly 20 hours. Completely mess up the first fight against the flagship and took WAY too much damage. I could have easily won the third fight if my hull had more than 4 HP.
I read that they'll only put it on tablets. I have a Note 2 as well but I hope that they let us sideload it.
I read that they'll only put it on tablets. I have a Note 2 as well but I hope that they let us sideload it.
It's cheezy, but get a ship that comes pre-loaded with Crystal crew. Hint:
Rock
Rock C, unlocked by winning with Rock B
Long Range Scanners
check all systems with no ship, shop, environmental hazard, or distress call
SecretMoblin
Member
^
yeah unlocking it is messy, but it's very worth it... it's nice to be able to totally dominate everything sometimes.
still not as fun as fire-based runs though
yeah unlocking it is messy, but it's very worth it... it's nice to be able to totally dominate everything sometimes.
still not as fun as fire-based runs though
Biggu Bosu
Banned
It's on sale for the first time on the App Store for $5, I bought it even though I know I'm going to hate it because it's so hard. I read the "easy" mode is still very difficult
PalaceBrother
Member
I am ashamed to admit I still haven't beaten it on iPad.
Biggu Bosu
Banned
Is there an actual ending to the game?
DiscoShark
Banned
PalaceBrother
Member
Yeah. I beat it many times on the PC but never on iOS for some reason.
I finally beat FTL on Normal the other day. It was an amazing run and the Kestrel B is my favorite ship.
In fact, I kinda think FTL is the most endlessly repayable game of all time. I can easily see myself coming back to this 10 years from now. It almost doesn't even matter if no sequel is ever released.
In fact, I kinda think FTL is the most endlessly repayable game of all time. I can easily see myself coming back to this 10 years from now. It almost doesn't even matter if no sequel is ever released.
SecretMoblin
Member
the expansion that was added for free added so much, too, and the HD planets mod looks great
eking out a win is so satisfying.... the final boss is still annoying for a few bad reasons, though
eking out a win is so satisfying.... the final boss is still annoying for a few bad reasons, though
More_Badass
Member
Finally got this on iPad and it's easily the best IOS port I've ever played. The transition to touchscreen is just perfect
ohblahitsme
Member
I just bought it too! Spur of the moment kind of purchase but I'm having a lot of fun. What a strategies ar enough guys using? I made it to the last sector for the first time last night but I feel like I was really underpowered (and I quickly died).
So, Ben Prunty (the composer of the soundtrack for FTL) has released a new album which was inspired by people talking about how much they liked working to the FTL soundtrack:
http://benprunty.bandcamp.com/album/color-sky
It's really great!
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=45775649&postcount=1191
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=45834724&postcount=1221
If you're feeling underpowered, the easiest advice is that to maximize your time in each sector. You also need to spend a few runs seeing which strategies work against the final boss.
http://benprunty.bandcamp.com/album/color-sky
It's really great!
These are for Vanilla, but try these posts:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=45775649&postcount=1191
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=45834724&postcount=1221
If you're feeling underpowered, the easiest advice is that to maximize your time in each sector. You also need to spend a few runs seeing which strategies work against the final boss.
Nice! Thanks for the heads up.
ohblahitsme
Member
Amazing! Thanks!
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
Managed to get 4 lanius on the Mantis C (4 man teleporter).
I roflstomped everything. Everyyyything.
I roflstomped everything. Everyyyything.
Femmeworth
Banned
Fuck this game. :| The furthest I can get is the third sector if I'm lucky while playing on normal.
DiscoShark
Banned
At a certain point the game will just click, it just requires that you beat your face against a brick wall multiple times to get there. Took me 30 hours to beat the game on Normal for the first time so don't get discouraged! For most ships in the game I like to prioritize having both Tier 2 Shields (Level 4) and either upgraded weapons or around 4-ish engines by the time I hit the third sector. What ship are you using?
Femmeworth
Banned
Using the default. Should I play it on easy to unlock ships?
super-famicom
Member
Yeah, that's fine. The Kestrel (default) ship is fairly balanced, but some of the other ships may be more fun to use and set up custom builds with.