Finally completed FTL

[cookyy2k]

So people let's hear your war stories successful or otherwise.

For my victory run I used the Kestrel, I had: 4 human crew manning the 4 stations all fully trained on their stations, 1 Engi crew on repair duty also fully trained and 1 Mantis crew on security only trained one level. I had the shields and engine systems fully upgraded. I managed to find a second Laser the same as the starting one so I could train both on the same target and have them fire simultaneously and I had a fire bomb so I could light rooms on fire (very handy for the final boss). My favored tactic was to destroy ship's oxygen generators then set the room alight, wait out the crew and salvage everything on board. I traveled mainly through mantis and slug space so had plenty of boarding and system "failures" along the way, at one point I had every system except the shields fully red, that was a panic moment! I also picked up the blueprints to the stealth federation ship along the way so that shalt be my next run through.

 

[Raziel]

Wow, congratulations. I got this during the last humble bundle and its kicking my a//. I think the farthest I've gotten was like sector 4. But I'm still figuring out the systems. I didn't even know you could level up the crew until my last game.

 

[Phrozenflame500]

First completed normal run: The Osprey, fully upgraded artillery beam, laser spam, no casualties. Pretty much the easiest way to beat the game.

Recently I started trying to use boarding parties as I heard they are amazing, but I always end up blowing up the ship while my guys are still in there and raging

 

[cookyy2k]

First completed normal run: The Osprey, fully upgraded artillery beam, laser spam, no casualties. Pretty much the easiest way to beat the game.

Recently I started trying to use boarding parties as I heard they are amazing, but I always end up blowing up the ship while my guys are still in there and raging

yeah I've been using boarding parties but it's not easy to balance keeping them doing their thing and stopping the enemy ship tearing yours apart.

 

[TrevHead]

To avoid destroying enemy ships it's best to have one or two low lv1/2 weapons. That Kestral with lv1 lasers is useful for this.

BTW has a hard mode been added to the game? As once I found out all the tricks to beat normal, the game lost it's appeal.

 

[cookyy2k]

To avoid destroying enemy ships it's best to have one or two low lv1/2 weapons. That Kestral with lv1 lasers is useful for this.

BTW has a hard mode been added to the game? As once I found out all the tricks to beat normal, the game lost it's appeal.

No, no hard mode, I'm trying with a different ship now instead.

 

[Neverhoodian]

The first (and only) successful run so far in the month or so that I've owned FTL has been with the Engi type A. I managed to kit it out with a Burst Laser Mark III, a Pegasus Missile, a Defense Drone Mark I and a fully upgraded cloaking device along with the default Ion Blast II and Anti-Ship Drone Mark I. I also picked up a few humans along the way, which bolstered my ability to repel boarders somewhat. It was a relatively simple matter of blasting the Rebel flagship's shields down with the Ion Blast and Pegasus missiles, avoiding the most dangerous return fire with my cloak, and finishing it off with the Burst Laser and Anti-Ship drone.

While I haven't had a successful run since, I've still managed to unlock a fair number of ships (Both variants of the Kestrel, Engi and Federation Cruisers, along with the Zoltan type A). I've also started toying around with various new ships and mods the community has come up with. I highly recommend checking out the Captain's Edition mod to spruce up the vanilla game. It adds all sorts of new weapons, enemies and events, all of which fit in with FTL's lore seamlessly.

http://www.ftlgame.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=15663

 

[Zakarath]

Most of my successes have been with the stealth ship variants; if I manage to find a shiny weapon or a crew teleporter before their beam weapons become ineffective, it's generally smooth sailing. Though my past several runs have been focused on looking for new ships rather than winning.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

My first successful completion of the game was in a Kestrel as well. I no longer fully recall the crew complement but I do know that among them were a pair of Mantis who had long served as a boarding party.

The final fight against the final boss went as most of the fights had. My weapon array consisted of a fire bomb launcher, some kind of missile, an a pair of lasers. My shields were maxed, I had elite crew at each of the stations, and thanks to my repair drones managed to get into the final battle in relatively good shape. The ship was undamaged but my missile supply had been dangerously depleted over the course of the fight.

I opened the fight by once again directing all my firepower at the shield generator. The mantis crew set to work slaughtering any remaining gunners in the enemy flagship and a running fight throughout the ship ensued. Ammunition quickly ran dry on the fire bombs and my previous strategy of keeping the med bay offline through fire was thwarted leading to tense moments where I pulled out the boarding party just before they were cornered to heal in my own med by before sending them back out again.

Unfortunately, without missile supplies, it became increasingly difficult to keep the shields down much less do any real damage to the ship. Eventually, in order to avoid near certain death, I cloaked while my burst lasers recharged. My own teleporter room was on fire as was much of the rest of the ship. The only thing keeping vital systems operation was the fact I had evacuated all air from non-necessary compartments. Knowing the cloak wouldn't last forever, my only option left was to uncloak and deliver one last barrage at the flag ship. The crew of the vessel lay dead and my mantises had done their duty well tearing into the systems keeping the ship running. I had hoped that exterminating the crew would end the fight but, alas, it appeared to have strong automation.

In the end, I uncloaked and had to open fire. I like to think that the mantis boarding party wanted me to shoot.

 

[Terminal Blue]

Mantis cruiser type B (I think, the one with the 4 person teleporter and 3 person medbay), a fire bomb launcher, crappy missile launcher, crappy beam weapon, max shields, teleporter, cloaking device and engines and a defence drone.. at least I think, this was a while ago.

Tactics versus the mothership were quite simple. Using missiles/bombs and boarders, I killed all the crew in the first encounter (where there isn't much danger once you've disabled the weapons) and then firebombed the door controls. With no crew, the AI tries to repair the ship constantly but as long as I didn't burn out the life support I could keep those fires going pretty much indefinitely so it made no difference. Burned out the shield generator and then just beamed it to death.

Second phase was much harder because the "OMG drones" attack can't be shut down. I had a cloaking device, so I could avoid the worst of it though. Boarders took out the weapons while I firebombed the shield generator straight away. I had spare firebombs so I set more fires and then beamed away once the shields went down and before the drones got too ridiculous.

Phase 3 was the tough one, because I didn't have very good weapons to get through the special shield it throws up. When I finally managed it, boarders and bombs went straight onto the weapons and shields respectively. My ship was pretty banged up at this point but I was very lucky to keep most of the core systems working for most of the fight. Still, the ultra laser attack would knock off a few health points each time it fired, so by the end my hull was only a few hits from imploding. Still, I got there first!