So I just beat FTL...

[Redflash]

The key to winning is to buy ALL THE GUNS.

Zigzag around each sector to find shops, and then loop around to hit as many systems as you can to maximize scrap for purchases. Only upgrade when you need more shields or weapon energy. Most upgrades are not as useful as adding more firepower.

Stacking lasers works well for most encounters but you'll want missiles or bombs for the flagship. Just one small bomb launcher or breach bomb is enough to basically win the game for you.

I don't like ion guns--why disable systems when you can break them? I also don't like beams. They are useless until you disable enemy shields, but at that point anything is effective. Beams are slow and have high power costs, might as well use something that has more general purpose utility. The exceptions are the bio beam or the fire beam, because they lend themselves to crew killing strategies.

People say you need a teleporter and a cloaking device--trust me you don't. Sure, teleporting crew to wreck the flagship's weapon systems is an effective strategy. But so is dropping a few bombs or missiles in there, which is usually faster and doesn't tie up extra power and crew. The cloaking device is a straight up waste of scrap. Focus on getting level 8 shields and weapons.

A drone system is insanely useful with a defense drone, not just for the flagship but for all the random encounters with missiles. They are really common and I always find one by the final sector.

Sorry holmes, I just have to correct some of your opinions there.

1. Ion guns are totally valid. If nothing else a little ole ion blast can take out one layer of shields guaranteed for a very low energy cost, whilst a mk.2 (granted not too effective against the boss' first form due to its cloaking) can pretty much get you through the entire game otherwise, given it can peel away four layers given enough time.

2. Whilst beams aren't ideal towards the end game since, as you say, getting through your opponent's shields is essential, in the first few sectors a beam weapon can be very useful whilst the halberd and the glaive are totally legit for the entire game, including the boss.

3. Tier 4 shields are the straight-up waste of scrap COMPARED to having a good evasion (high engines) and a good pain-dodging strategy for the boss, which means cloaking. True, defense drones are good throughout the game but they're not much good against the flagship, given that they let at least one and most times two of its three missiles through and are no help whatsoever against the stage two drone spam and the stage three laser spam.

 

[TheSYLOH]

activate it, the hacking device closes the doors and causes the medbay to decrease the health of the occupants instead of increasing it (i dont know if this affects your crew as well)

It does not affect your crew last I checked.
Go ahead, board in the med bay and kill everyone who comes in.

Hacking a med bay seems to be the most evil thing ever, which is why it is awesome.

 

[NuclearKangaroo]

The key to winning is to buy ALL THE GUNS.

Zigzag around each sector to find shops, and then loop around to hit as many systems as you can to maximize scrap for purchases. Only upgrade when you need more shields or weapon energy. Most upgrades are not as useful as adding more firepower.

Stacking lasers works well for most encounters but you'll want missiles or bombs for the flagship. Just one small bomb launcher or breach bomb is enough to basically win the game for you.

I don't like ion guns--why disable systems when you can break them? I also don't like beams. They are useless until you disable enemy shields, but at that point anything is effective. Beams are slow and have high power costs, might as well use something that has more general purpose utility. The exceptions are the bio beam or the fire beam, because they lend themselves to crew killing strategies.

People say you need a teleporter and a cloaking device--trust me you don't. Sure, teleporting crew to wreck the flagship's weapon systems is an effective strategy. But so is dropping a few bombs or missiles in there, which is usually faster and doesn't tie up extra power and crew. The cloaking device is a straight up waste of scrap. Focus on getting level 8 shields and weapons.

A drone system is insanely useful with a defense drone, not just for the flagship but for all the random encounters with missiles. They are really common and I always find one by the final sector.

this is all kinds of wrong bro, pretty much all weapons and systems are useful

 

[NuclearKangaroo]

activate it, the hacking device closes the doors and causes the medbay to decrease the health of the occupants instead of increasing it (i dont know if this affects your crew as well)

It does not affect your crew last I checked.
Go ahead, board in the med bay and kill everyone who comes in.

Hacking a med bay seems to be the most evil thing ever, which is why it is awesome.

i checked the wiki, hacking the enemy med bay does affect your crew... it makes the enemy med bay HEAL them, wow now thats an overkill

 

[Isalan]

I can't remember how I killed the Flagship first time around, it was a while ago, and I'm on a new computer now so all my save data is gone. My most recent victory though came from the game just dumping like 6 weapons on me in the first 2 sectors. 4 jumps in I got my second Burst Laser 2, and by the end of Sector 1 there was a Flak Cannon too. Somewhere in sector 2 I got a Vulcan (can't remember if it was numbered) and after 20 secs of fighting that was firing a shot every 2 seconds. By the time I'd upgraded my weapons to full, my opening volley was 6 shots, followed by a further shot every couple of seconds shortly after.

Poor Flagship never really had much of a chance.

That being said, any times I have succeeded have been on Easy. Can't see me beating Normal without putting a fair bit more time in.

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

Mostly good points, but some bones I'd pick:

I don't like ion guns--why disable systems when you can break them?

Ion II is one of the best weapons in the game. It stacks with itself until even level 4 shields will be ionised constantly, meaning every hit does damage. It also fires so fast that you get a skilled crew in no time.

I also don't like beams. They are useless until you disable enemy shields, but at that point anything is effective. Beams are slow and have high power costs, might as well use something that has more general purpose utility. The exceptions are the bio beam or the fire beam, because they lend themselves to crew killing strategies.

Beams are basically there to do craptons of hull damage. Something like the pike beam can easily do 5 points of damage when the shields are down, and as for the glaive beam, oh boy...

People say you need a teleporter and a cloaking device--trust me you don't. Sure, teleporting crew to wreck the flagship's weapon systems is an effective strategy. But so is dropping a few bombs or missiles in there, which is usually faster and doesn't tie up extra power and crew.

Not everyone has the luxury of both finding bombs and having enough space in the weapons bay to use them - plenty of ships only have 3 slots. Teleporting is a good alternative, but I do like bombs. Fire bombs are the best.

The cloaking device is a straight up waste of scrap. Focus on getting level 8 shields and weapons.

This I just flat out disagree with. The cloaking device is excellent at keeping you alive when shit gets real - say all your shields go down just at the wrong moment: you pop the cloak and dodge everything incoming. You don't get it before having decent shields, and you can ignore it if you have decent drone defences, but it's not a waste of scrap.

 

[NuclearKangaroo]

taking notes, ALWAYS upgrade the cockpit before fighting the 3rd phase of the last boss, i had defeated the first 2 phases losing only 1 hull point, but i got completely wrecked on the third phase because the boss mind controller my pilot, my super engine was completely worthless

 

[Chessrook44]

While I'm not certain about the exact progress of the battle, I actually documented my first victory and kept a pic of it.

Thank the Lord for high evade. I don't think it could have been closer.

Oh yes, and I'm pretty sure it was on Easy.

 

[FliedLiverAttack]

Long winded FTL story.

Spoiler

Just went back to FTL to try the new advanced edition stuff. Went with the Federation type B. Got really lucky scrap recovery arm ion resistance, 3 mk2 burst lasers, maxed beam, shields, and doors, 6 points in dodge, hacking, and a drone bay with a defense drone and a hull repair drone, with a 6 man crew. Two points of hull damage for the first two stages of the Flagship. Only I forgot to buy autopilot. Had all my crew tied up with the teleport so I moved my pilot one room over to fight a fire, then my weapons and engines spontaneously combusted and the over shield popped back up. Ran around with ran around in circles screaming until I exploded. Then two seconds later the victory tune played while the Flagship blew up due to a fire I caused at least two minutes before, before the over shield popped up. Never laughed so much in this game.

Also hacking the mind control module is also quite glorious. I wonder what would happen if you hacked the cloning bay while it's making a new dude. I will be really disappointed if it doesn't spawn an "evil" clone.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

The key to winning is to buy ALL THE GUNS.

Zigzag around each sector to find shops, and then loop around to hit as many systems as you can to maximize scrap for purchases. Only upgrade when you need more shields or weapon energy. Most upgrades are not as useful as adding more firepower.

Stacking lasers works well for most encounters but you'll want missiles or bombs for the flagship. Just one small bomb launcher or breach bomb is enough to basically win the game for you.

I don't like ion guns--why disable systems when you can break them? I also don't like beams. They are useless until you disable enemy shields, but at that point anything is effective. Beams are slow and have high power costs, might as well use something that has more general purpose utility. The exceptions are the bio beam or the fire beam, because they lend themselves to crew killing strategies.

People say you need a teleporter and a cloaking device--trust me you don't. Sure, teleporting crew to wreck the flagship's weapon systems is an effective strategy. But so is dropping a few bombs or missiles in there, which is usually faster and doesn't tie up extra power and crew. The cloaking device is a straight up waste of scrap. Focus on getting level 8 shields and weapons.

A drone system is insanely useful with a defense drone, not just for the flagship but for all the random encounters with missiles. They are really common and I always find one by the final sector.

And then the Endboss hacks your weapons and you're fucked.

People go for the teleporter instead of missiles/bombs is due to it being a reliable (if slow) way of taking out the weapon rooms that can also greatly increase the amount of scrap you can get by slaughtering the crews of enemy ships in the preceding sectors. Cloaking is also a good choice as not being targeted for several seconds will allow you to bypass the bulk of the burst damage the boss does in its second and third stage much more reliably than upgraded engines and drones.

 

[Terminal Blue]

My only normal victory so far relied heavily on fire bombs. Although many people say you shouldn't kill the crew because it switches to AI and starts auto-repairing, fire makes the whole question redundant because it does more damage than the AI can repair.

Also, the artillery beam is kind of amazing. Playing with the federation cruiser (you can get it by beating the game on easy, and it's great for normal runs) you can basically focus on turtling up with maximum shields, evasion and defence drones, and use the artillery beam to kill everything. Not particularly great until you get to the boss, but against the boss any source of reliable damage is worth it. That Zoltan shield on the third stage messes with this strategy, but as long as you have a backup weapon it can still work

 

[Hieronymusgoa]

Never never never was able to finish it until the expansion came out. The most important thing in the final fight was the hacking system. I used it to decrease the shields of the flagship whenever possible which then made my Halberd Beam and Attack Drone take care of the rest. It still was an intense fight and I had my heart literally pumping a lot but I didn't realise how agitated I was until after the flagship was destroyed

 

[Geo Da Sponge]

People seem to really overrate cloaking on here, at least comapred to my experience. It's never part of my long-term strategy; level four shields plus good evasion is enough to prevent pretty much all damage from the Flagship's level 2 and 3 bursts. Cloaking seems much less reliable, given that you have to rely on it not getting damaged and syncing up its very long recharge time with the energy burst.

Cloaking is extremely expensive, and with the advanced edition takes up a slot which could be used by hacking or mind control for example, both of which are extremely good for helping you against the Flagship. A teleporter is extremely useful, especially if you can get a good boarding crew early on and so reap the rewards, but enough fire power can make up for it otherwise.

 

[NuclearKangaroo]

People seem to really overrate cloaking on here, at least comapred to my experience. It's never part of my long-term strategy; level four shields plus good evasion is enough to prevent pretty much all damage from the Flagship's level 2 and 3 bursts. Cloaking seems much less reliable, given that you have to rely on it not getting damaged and syncing up its very long recharge time with the energy burst.

Cloaking is extremely expensive, and with the advanced edition takes up a slot which could be used by hacking or mind control for example, both of which are extremely good for helping you against the Flagship. A teleporter is extremely useful, especially if you can get a good boarding crew early on and so reap the rewards, but enough fire power can make up for it otherwise.

the thing with cloaking is that you can use it to stop enemy weapons from charging up, and you can fire your weapons while cloaked, altough this consumes cloak unless you have the proper augmentation

 

[Grampy_bone]

People seem to really overrate cloaking on here, at least comapred to my experience. It's never part of my long-term strategy; level four shields plus good evasion is enough to prevent pretty much all damage from the Flagship's level 2 and 3 bursts. Cloaking seems much less reliable, given that you have to rely on it not getting damaged and syncing up its very long recharge time with the energy burst.

Cloaking is extremely expensive, and with the advanced edition takes up a slot which could be used by hacking or mind control for example, both of which are extremely good for helping you against the Flagship. A teleporter is extremely useful, especially if you can get a good boarding crew early on and so reap the rewards, but enough fire power can make up for it otherwise.

This, pretty much. My intention was not to bash people who love cloaking and teleporting. It just seems that in every FTL discussion you get people claiming the flagship is impossible without those systems, and I wanted to point out that that is not true. I've achieved plenty of wins without either.

Similarly, I wasn't saying Ion guns and beams were worthless, they are just too specialized (or gimmicky) for my tastes. They aren't useful on their own, they require other weapons to be effective, and the payoff is not worth it. I don't like that dependency. Bombs and lasers are always useful.

I really don't understand the Defense Drone bashing though. Those things are a lifesaver. You do all realize they shoot down invader drones and hacking modules right? So handy for the flagship.

 

[NuclearKangaroo]

i just beat the game with the engi ship now, first time with that ship, im on a roll, probably my best run as well, 3 drones out, the flag ship didnt stand a chance


i must say, i dont think i like the stealth ship anymore, not because is bad, is actually very good, but you must play much more different than with any other ship, it kind of messes with your concentration once you go back to the other ships

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

I've been watching Northernlion play this for a while now and I really like it. I would totally want to buy it...if it were on 3DS.

That would be awesome ._.

 

[Geo Da Sponge]

People seem to really overrate cloaking on here, at least comapred to my experience. It's never part of my long-term strategy; level four shields plus good evasion is enough to prevent pretty much all damage from the Flagship's level 2 and 3 bursts. Cloaking seems much less reliable, given that you have to rely on it not getting damaged and syncing up its very long recharge time with the energy burst.

Cloaking is extremely expensive, and with the advanced edition takes up a slot which could be used by hacking or mind control for example, both of which are extremely good for helping you against the Flagship. A teleporter is extremely useful, especially if you can get a good boarding crew early on and so reap the rewards, but enough fire power can make up for it otherwise.

the thing with cloaking is that you can use it to stop enemy weapons from charging up, and you can fire your weapons while cloaked, altough this consumes cloak unless you have the proper augmentation

Yeah, but now you can basically do the same thing (stalling the enemy's weapons while yours charge) much more effectively with a hacking system. Now admittedly you can't really hack the flagships weapons, but I find that cloaking really isn't reliable enough to prevent much damage against that.

I'm not saying that cloaking is never useful, but it's such a big investment that it's not really worth it in my opinion.

I really don't understand the Defense Drone bashing though. Those things are a lifesaver. You do all realize they shoot down invader drones and hacking modules right? So handy for the flagship.

Yeah, a simple level 1 Defense Drone is so cheap and shuts down so many dangerous weapons/drones that it's definitely worth it if you can get one.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Similarly, I wasn't saying Ion guns and beams were worthless, they are just too specialized (or gimmicky) for my tastes. They aren't useful on their own, they require other weapons to be effective, and the payoff is not worth it.

I've had the opposite experience; finding Ions a superior choice overall since they have synergy with all weapons.
Even missiles and bombs (hit shields, suppress weapons until solid weapon reloads, resume)

There are three reasons:
1) Ions charge fast. On average, faster than all other weapons in the game.
1a) Because Ions charge fast AND produce a lingering effect, Ions can soften up shields immediately, and with enough recharge reduction, can be autofired to make all subsequent volleys better.

When enemy shields are down, they can be used to tag key enemy systems (like their weapons, cockpit or medbay).

2) Ions are ammo-free. This is a godsend for early game, where all cruisers are at their most vulnerable.
Missed shots hurt the most early on when every iota of scrap matters.
(as anyone who has suffered the Bulwark long enough to do the Crystal Cruiser quest will know)

3) Ions are less prone to negation (Cloaking/Defense Drones/Zoltan Shields). Missing an Ion shot is annoying but not terrible (apart from Heavy Ion; which is just a bad weapon in general). Something like, say, a Hermes shot missing (or worse, being Cloak'd) is much worse since that's wasted ammo AND a long recharge.

For specialty weapons, Ions seem very versatile and reliable. Their only real weakness is that they need other weapons to do damage, but if you're playing to win, you will always need other weapons anyway (well, save maybe for a Vulcan).