The stealth ship

[headhunter99]

Can anyone give me some tips one the stealth ship it would really help

[UltraMantis]

I presume you mean the Nesasio (Stealth A).

- Save early scrap for a shield, until you get that you will waste a lot on repairs.
- Dont engage the cloak until the shots start flying or the attack drone gets in position. Precious seconds count.
- Use the cloak wisely. The longer you stay hidden, the longer you delay enemy weapons recharge/aim. It would be best to try and cripple the enemy with your first salvo. By cripple i mean take out it's weapons, or at least the ones that need a lot of power.
- The most important systems to target are shields, shields and shields. The minibeam cant miss, so evasion means nothing, but it will be completely stopped by shields.
- Take a very good look at the rooms on the enemy ship. You can tightly squeeze the beam between 3-4 rooms. Not only will you do hull damage, but you can also knock out various things on the ship. Hitting the weapons/drones is a priority, but try to whack the shields if they are nearby or any other system the enemy crew will be forced to repair.
- You can sell the Hardened Electronics aug for 50 scraps. It's a good aug but it's 50 scrap you will badly need.
- Without shields you must rely on high evasion and dodge incoming shots. Beams cant miss. They are the worst weapons to face. Fortunately most require a lot of power and have long reload times, so they can be knocked offline if you can hit the weapons bay.
- Keep the minibeam even when you get other weapons. It's quick to fire, uses little power, and can hit multiple rooms at once.

One of the problems is that you must find new weapons rather quickly. Once you are no longer able to strip shields, you cant use the minibeam. Any good burst will do, as will an ion weapon. Using bombs and missiles can help you as well. You gotta search the early sectors thoroughly because after s3, you will be in trouble.

I can't think of anything else atm. It's a beautifull ship to play, but keeping it in one piece can be a challenge.

[afedyuki]

Alternatively, instead of saving for early shields, upgrade your cloak to lvl 2 ASAP and try to maintain a weapon setup that is capable of severely crippling or killing most enemy ships after first volley (the lvl 2 cloak will ensure that you shoot first). The ship is equipped with good engines and long range sensors for a reason -- so that you can avoid unfavorable encounters and environmental damage altogether.

[Number43]

Still, without shields you're screwed if the enemy has an anti-ship drone. Also, you'll be hard pressed to cripple enemies in a single volley if they have a zoltan shield.

[UltraMantis]

Zoltans are the worst because they're guaranteed to hurt you at least. I have played the Nesasio without shields exclusively, and the cloak upgrade was allways the first. High evasion + cloaked first strikes is what keeps it alive. Unfortunately most of my runs were very poor mostly because i could not earn enough scrap to handle repairs AND upgrades. That's why i suggested the shields. They make a huge difference and completely negate the danger of wimpy beams that would ordinarily slice it to pieces.

All in all it's a very different ship any way you choose to play it.

[afedyuki]

Still, without shields you're screwed if the enemy has an anti-ship drone. Also, you'll be hard pressed to cripple enemies in a single volley if they have a zoltan shield.

What good is anti-ship drone if the drone control is busted? Now, Zoltan shield... that's bad news. Anyway, if you are unable to cripple enemy ship right after you decloak (lvl 2+) for whatever reason, take advantage of your lvl 4+ engines and get out. It also goes without saying that you should use your Enhanced Sensors to avoid environmental dangers.

Of course, if you are are unlucky and just can't find more useful things to spend that 150+ scrap on, such as stealthy weapons, burst laser mk 2, ion bomb, halberd beam, crew teleporter and mantis crew members, then by all means, buy a shield subsystem early.

Also, check out this thread:

http://www.ftlgame.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3676

[Mataza]

Still, without shields you're screwed if the enemy has an anti-ship drone. Also, you'll be hard pressed to cripple enemies in a single volley if they have a zoltan shield.

What good is anti-ship drone if the drone control is busted? Now, Zoltan shield... that's bad news. Anyway, if you are unable to cripple enemy ship right after you decloak (lvl 2+) for whatever reason, take advantage of your lvl 4+ engines and get out. It also goes without saying that you should use your Enhanced Sensors to avoid environmental dangers.

Of course, if you are are unlucky and just can't find more useful things to spend that 150+ scrap on, such as stealthy weapons, burst laser mk 2, ion bomb, halberd beam, crew teleporter and mantis crew members, then by all means, buy a shield subsystem early.

Also, check out this thread:

http://www.ftlgame.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3676

It´s not like you can choose what the shop has to offer.
I have maybe gotten a Burst Laser Mark 2 once in a shop, dropped twice. In 70+ games. The other things are a bit situational, like for example a Halberd Beam doesn´t help much if you can´t remove shield completely for a shot.
You can also have no luck and don´t get shields in the shop, but generally systems seem to be reliably offered(as most shops lack only 3 systems and you are mostly offered 2-3 of all the systems you don´t have)

[afedyuki]

It´s not like you can choose what the shop has to offer.
I have maybe gotten a Burst Laser Mark 2 once in a shop, dropped twice. In 70+ games. The other things are a bit situational, like for example a Halberd Beam doesn´t help much if you can´t remove shield completely for a shot.
You can also have no luck and don´t get shields in the shop, but generally systems seem to be reliably offered(as most shops lack only 3 systems and you are mostly offered 2-3 of all the systems you don´t have)

The halberd beam has partial shield piercing and does 2 damage per room. So that, if you can reduce enemy shields to one, you can start your slice at the shield generator room and do full damage to subsequent rooms it hits. Combined with a bomb and/or a decent burst weapon (does not have to be BL MK2) it works OK even in late game.

Also, good weapons frequently come from blue options. If you have upgraded your piloting, med bay and sensors and bought teleporter early (instead of buying shields) you will get *lot* more of those. All I really meant to say: if you buy an expensive item too early you will end up missing lot of opportunities.

A combined approach can be used: start saving for shield but if you see a really good item in a store then snatch it and use the rest of the scrap for upgrades. If you don't see anything good by the time you have 150 scrap, then buy a shield.