I need some advice on unlocking ships and beating the boss.

[Dr_Zegobob]

Hello FTL forums, I have only had this game for a few days and I would like some advice or opinions on the following things listed below. I have not gotten far in the game and I am working my way through it, but I keep having difficulties while doing so. I will list my ships below to help explain my questions. Please do not spoil anything about ships that I have not earned or weapons that I don't have on my ships yet, because I would like to find out some stuff about this game myself.

My current ships:
Below I will list my current in-game ships.

Kestrel Cruiser A
This ship is the default one that everyone gets from the start, but I was considering using it to destroy the boss because of its decent starter weaponry. A question of mine: is it a good idea to try to unlock Kestrel B for fighting the boss? I know that the Kestrel B starts out with some pretty good weaponry, but is it worth the time it takes to unlock?

Engi Cruiser A
This ship is an easy one to unlock for just about everybody, as all it requires is to get to sector five. I was thinking about using this one for the boss because I have my highest score on it and I somewhat like the weaponry and drones that it starts out with.

Stealth Cruiser A
This ship is one that I enjoyed unlocking however it does not do very well with ships that carry attack drones because it does not start out with shields. I played a few rounds with this and got to the first stage of the boss in one of them, but I died after getting hit by his missile launcher too many times. My question here is should I try to unlock Stealth Cruiser B? I have one of the three ship objectives completed, and if I get another completed, I will unlock Stealth Cruiser B.

Stealth Cruiser B
I have only recently unlocked this ship , but I was wondering how good it would be for a boss fight. I played through on this one once, and it was very difficult with only one weapon (even though it's amazing). I died on the second sector.

Zoltan Cruiser A
I unlocked this ship recently as well, and it seems quite hard to play with. Should I try to use it to fight the boss? Is this better than I think it is?

My questions:
Here are my questions that I would like to ask this community. Also, you should know that I am playing this easy difficulty since I am not experienced in this game.

What ship?
My first question is what ship of mine would be the best for destroying the Rebel Flagship (for a newbie)? Should I try to go for Kestrel B or Stealth B to fight the boss with?

What weapons?
I would like to know what weapons I should arm my ship with. Should I keep the starter weapons or should I sell them to buy/find some better guns?

What system upgrades?
What systems or sub-systems should I upgrade in my ship before I face the boss? What would be the most important upgrades for my weapons system?

What strategies?
How should I go through the sectors to get enough scrap to make upgrades and get better weapons/ships?

So these are my questions, and thank you for reading them. I would like to get at least a couple replies on how I should defeat the Flagship. As I said before, please try not to spoil game content. Thank you!

[Klive5ive]

A lot of your questions have already been answered on this very forum. Try looking around.
I would suggest yes you unlock KestrelB since it's imo the easiest ship to win with. Then you need to practice using the teleporter. Once you get the hang of it you can take an early teleporter and dominate the mid-game, setting up for the boss.

[BKT]

- There're many way to kill the boss and how to survive against his attack. One of the most effective and simplest starts VS the boss involve the use of Telepad, so you might want to familiarized yourself with it.

- Engi A probably is the best bet for newbie; if you got Drone recovery arm augment, you can go full drone centric strategy, which is very simple to play, and, if you managed to get an Anti ship MK2 drone, this strats is very powerful.

- Unless you know what you're doing, try to upgrade your defensive system first; most ship can be play up to sector 3 without any offensive upgrade. Only upgrade your offensive capability if you actually have a confident that it will actually benefit you.

- Most starting weapon for most ship are also the best weapon you could get your hand on, so you usually don't want to sell it.

[Dr_Zegobob]

Thanks for the replies guys. It seems like most of you are saying the teleporter is a good idea, and I actually have never tried that before. I think I will make a few runs with the Engi Cruiser A and try to learn the teleporter and get the drone arm.

[UltraMantis]

Welcome to the forum.
We're glad to have you, but since you're worried about spoilers, you should really avoid reading much of it while discovering stuff on your own. Do share your victories and failures with us, and ask anything anytime.

Kestrel Cruiser A
This ship is the default one that everyone gets from the start, but I was considering using it to destroy the boss because of its decent starter weaponry. A question of mine: is it a good idea to try to unlock Kestrel B for fighting the boss? I know that the Kestrel B starts out with some pretty good weaponry, but is it worth the time it takes to unlock?

Not the easiest ship to unlock, but it can be done. The B type has an arguably better start, but the starting weapons don't cut it in the late game. Failing to acquire better firepower due to rotten luck can spell defeat. The A type is probably the easiest ship to win in because it has good starter weapons that remain usefull for the entire game.

Stealth Cruiser A
This ship is one that I enjoyed unlocking however it does not do very well with ships that carry attack drones because it does not start out with shields. I played a few rounds with this and got to the first stage of the boss in one of them, but I died after getting hit by his missile launcher too many times. My question here is should I try to unlock Stealth Cruiser B? I have one of the three ship objectives completed, and if I get another completed, I will unlock Stealth Cruiser B.

The B type is the 2nd hardest ship to play and has an extremely challenging start. FTL + Extreme should tell you all about your chances. I do like the ship, but man oh man is it tough. Reaching sector 3 in it is almost like winning. EDIT - Despite not having shields, the Nesasio has a good start because it's cloaking abilities and starting weapons allow it to maul opposition in the first three sectors. It also has fast engines and a Long Range Scanner. Be quick to deal damage, and target drone controll if you face enemy attack drones.

My questions:
Here are my questions that I would like to ask this community. Also, you should know that I am playing this easy difficulty since I am not experienced in this game.

What ship?
My first question is what ship of mine would be the best for destroying the Rebel Flagship (for a newbie)? Should I try to go for Kestrel B or Stealth B to fight the boss with?

I would suggest the Kestrel unless you unlock something else. But winning is more about learning what can kill you in this game and avoiding it if possible. It does help if you become proficient in playing one ship because they all play slightly differently.

What weapons?
I would like to know what weapons I should arm my ship with. Should I keep the starter weapons or should I sell them to buy/find some better guns?

Allways make the best of what you got. Some games you will have really good stuff, other games very poor choices. Excellent weapons include: all bombs except Small, Burst Laser MkII (ace weapon), Ion Blast MkII (also golden), Halberd Beam. But make the best of what you get EDIT - Not a weapon but Auto-Reloader augs are very valuable, as is the Pre-Igniter and the Scrap Recovery Arm.

What system upgrades?
What systems or sub-systems should I upgrade in my ship before I face the boss? What would be the most important upgrades for my weapons system?

You want high evasion. 3 shields minimum. A cloaking device helps, as does a teleporter. Enough firepower to punch through 4 shields of an enemy with very high evasion, and a lot of dirty tricks up it's sleeves.

What strategies?
How should I go through the sectors to get enough scrap to make upgrades and get better weapons/ships?

That is entirely up to you. Some like to fight a lot. Most like to explore as much as possible. Some avoid hazards, others jump right into them. I personally hate going up against Zoltan ships so i avoid their space, and i love nebulas and Mantis turf, while others prefer to stay out of both. Sometimes hoarding scrap is preferable to spending it on small upgrades, and sometimes it's the other way around...

It isn't allways possible to have it all go your way. Be prepared for anything. Your early upgrades should be engines and shields but sometimes other systems take priority. And even secondary systems can make a huge difference. For example upgrading doors early when you have wimpy crew can go a long way towards softening up enemy boarders.

EDIT - Speaking of boarders. If you have some extra crew (Not Zoltan or Engi), invest some scrap in a teleporter. Upgrade it and also upgrade the Medbay. Then pursue a career in piracy and plundering. Fire weapons can also "depopulate" enemy ships, allowing you to capture them intact.

[Dr_Zegobob]

-Snip-

Thank you so much! That really helped a ton!
I guess I'll try to go with the Kestrel A and the Crew Teleporter.
I'll try to spend the scrap mostly on shields, engines, and repairs if needed. I'll keep in mind the things you said in your quote as I play along.

[UltraMantis]

Thanks very much, glad to help. I've edited the post to include some other thoughts, but mainly to fix some atroicous spelling errors. Erm... also, those are just some ideas, and probably biased too. The beauty of FTL though, is that there isn't a best or ideal startegy. Many can work, your job is to figure out the ones that dont!

Good luck.

Oh yeah, you can also drop by #ftlgame on QuakeNet using an IRC client or webchat: http://webchat.quakenet.org/?channels=ftlgame&uio=d4 We're friendly, but there will be spoilers.

[Zumbo Prime]

Just a thought on making literally every battle easier. By the fourth sector I had managed to get a hold of 3 burst lasers. 4 of them for the final boss. Even when the rebel flagship has 4 shields and high evasion, there's not much it can do when there are 8-12 lasers heading straight for it.

[herbert]

Here are my questions that I would like to ask this community. Also, you should know that I am playing this easy difficulty since I am not experienced in this game.

You should familiarize with systems like stealth, teleport and drones (offense and defense). As said before there are various tactics to beat the game especially in easy mode. For example I'm watching vanguard of valor let's play, he likes to pump the engines for evade and don't like the drones; I do the opposite, I prioritize the defense drones over the engines. If possible I tend to buy the cloak as fast as possible and I've read somewhere on the forum someone saying to buy it near the end.
Kestrel A is a good ship to beat the game, engi A has an easy start and I enjoy playing it in easy but I think it is a lot more difficult to play on normal mode. Engi B and stealth B are not easy ships at all. Kestrel B has very nice start weapons but unlike the A type you cannot keep the laser till the end.
Also you will need more firepower soon or later so keep scrap for a weapon to buy, you cannot solely rely on the drops.
Against the boss, you will die, but for the next attempt try to study the ship layout and the attack patterns even though it is hard in the heat of the battle
And just keep playing, you will figure a lot of the things by yourself; don't hesitate to try new things!

unlocking ships is a pain in the **s, I did it with massive spoilers because I was bored playing the same ships again and again.

[Dr_Zegobob]

-Snip-

Thank you for the advice! I already have tried to beat the boss before, and I have gotten to the third stage a couple times with the Engi and Kestrel ships, however the third stage always kills me. I am learning the how to use the teleporter very slowly, but I have had some recent fails with it. The teleporter seems like a great thing to use in battle though.

In my current run, I am almost full power on engines and have three shields, and I already have the teleporter. I have not gotten to the boss stage yet, and I am still gaining scrap for upgrades and other things.

I did have a recent fail with the teleporter though:
I was fighting a Rock Scout, and I thought it would be a good idea to practice with using the teleporter. I sent two humans over and kept the pilot in his seat. I teleported the humans to the shield room, but then I was confronted by three enemy rocks. Since the rocks would overpower me, I just used the rocks' slow speed to my advantage and just sent my crew to run around and damage random systems on the tiny ship before the rocks could catch up to me. Then, I went to the shield room again to take it down, and started destroying it. A few seconds later, the rocks came in to defend their shields, but I paused and then targeted their shield room with my burst laser to damage the enemy crew. However I forgot to turn auto-fire off, and right when I was about to teleport my crew back, my laser destroyed the enemy ship and killed both the enemy crew and my boarding team.

I was left with only one pilot in my Kestrel, however soon I picked up a rock crew member who I put to work on the weapons. That is my run so far, and I'll work on it some more right now.

EDIT: I just died in an ion storm in Sector Seven.
EDIT 2: I played another round with the Kestrel Cruiser A and died again on Sector Six.
I don't appear to be having success with the Kestrel Cruiser. Is there any ship that I should try unlocking or playing with other than the Kestrel? A ship that I could unlock today or sometime soon?
EDIT 3: Literally just unlocked Stealth Cruiser B thirty seconds ago!