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That has to be my favorite FTL boss battle story I've ever heard. Being given such a crappy weapon selection, and having a useless Pre-Igniter to boot, is just too hilarious. Awesome win there. Oh, btw, I think having boarders fighting in the piloting room reduces the enemy's dodge change, but whatever.

aaaaaa50 wrote:That has to be my favorite FTL boss battle story I've ever heard. Being given such a crappy weapon selection, and having a useless Pre-Igniter to boot, is just too hilarious. Awesome win there.

Thanks. It really seemed like I'd run out of bombs before I got two hits in a row between cloaks, but I kept going in case I did.

Oh, btw, I think having boarders fighting in the piloting room reduces the enemy's dodge change, but whatever.

I believe that as long as a room is manned, you get the benefits, even if you're fighting. Of course, if a skilled pilot has to run to the Medbay, leaving an inexperienced one there, you'd lose the skill benefit, but who knows what the enemy crew's skills are like?

There are a number of achievements which I did on Easy, and I'm trying to do them on Normal now, just for the hell of it, even though some are rather silly. I took the Stealth A and knocked out three of them in one go, getting to Sector 5 without firing a shot, upgrading a system or reactor, or repairing at a store. Of course, having a damaged, crappy ship unable to defeat many ships in that sector meant I didn't make it out. The Zoltan one getting to Sector 5 without upgrading the reactor is tougher, not having Long Range Scanners. I thought I had done it, only to find it was only Sector 4. Made it to 5, upgraded my reactor to power some weapons I had found, but they weren't too good. I don't think I made it past the next sector.

A couple Engi A wins included ionizing 4 systems and powering up 3 drones (which I did in the course of normal playing, not just trying to do the achievement). Also had a Fed A win with not upgrading the weapons till Sector 5.

But all that leads to trying to light a whole ship on fire, for which I chose the Rock B, christened Burn Baby Burn. Oh, little did I know how prophetic that name would be.

I only had the Fire Bomb, and tried it on those little Slug ships. One blew up when fire killed a system when it had 1 HP left, the other's crew died. I didn't have upgraded Sensors, so I had no idea how close I was to the achievement. Then I ran into a Mantis ship - and transport! I got boarded by three (four?) Mantises from the transport, then two from the ship. I had 5 Rocks, but of course they're slow. I sent three to help fight in Weapons, then got boarded by the 2nd party, so stopped one to fight on the bridge. Of course I got my ass kicked, being outnumbered at the points of attack at the beginning of each melee, so had to flee to the Medbay. While I was oh so slowly healing in my Level 1 Medbay, with injured waiting in Engineering, four Mantises took out my Weapons, while another worked on my Shields.

Oh, did I mention the Mantis ship had a fucking Fire Beam? It was lighting me up while I sat healing. Finally I tried to go put out fires and fix things like O2 - no, go fix the Weapons - Engineering, oh no, now the fire's spread to the Medbay - the Mantises have left, I can try to fix Shields - and that fucking Fire Beam is still going off!!!



Needless to say, with half my ship on fire, one layer of Shields, no weapons powered, no dodge, it was only a matter of time before the other Mantis weapons took me out. I thought I had a Defense Drone up, but it must've gotten shot down, and I was too overwhelmed to notice. Burn Baby Burn, indeed.

I wrote a story about this in my story thread, but it bears repeating.

I was having a really good run in the Osprey A. I got good weapons and a full crew early on, which left me with plenty of scrap to upgrade the bejesus out of the ship. I only lost 3 crewmen - one in Sector 4 or so, who was quickly replaced... and two - my boarding party - just a few jumps away from Sector 8.

So I went into the Last Stand shorthanded, but I still had 2 spare guys to use as boarders. Easily defeated Phase 1, but (I forget how this happened) my boarders died before I could teleport them back - leaving me with just a skeleton crew. So with a heavy heart I went into Phase 2 - but, to my pleasant surprise, defeated it without taking much damage myself.

Then I think FTL became self-aware and decided to kill me. Phase 3 began and I took several hits from the Death Blossom, crippling vital systems and setting fires throughout my ship. And to make things worse, the Rebels sent a boarding team too. I retreated in hopes of salvaging the situation, but O2 was knocked out and everyone died... everyone except one lonesome Engi. I knew I couldn't win with a one-man crew, but hey, it's called The Last Stand - so I made one. I sent the Engi through the ship and repaired everything, then faced off with the Flagship one final time. Unfortunately I died rather quickly, but I still think it was a pretty awesome way to die.

"Ravenous IV, boarding party of four? Right this way."

With the two Mantises, Rock and Human boarding party off killing the crew of a pirate, that left the Human pilot alone on the Mantis B. Unfortunately, before the battle was over, the pirates lasers had knocked out my Teleporter and set fire to it. No problem, right? I'll just open the doors and - dammit, the Door Control was taken out, and it's on fire, too!

So the pilot rushes over, fights the fire and puts it out - but then a fire pops up in his square. Fighting that is a losing battle, because he's getting quite crispy. I thought this was going to be an FUFTL moment, but it turned out to be a minor one, not a game-ending one. Too late, I tried to get the pilot to the Medbay, but the corridor outside was on fire, too, and he didn't make it.

And now the shuttle from the other ship is available for use, and my boarding party comes back, heals, fights fires, heals, puts fires out and repairs the ship. And heals.

But why the hell did my pilot have to die first? I was expecting the shuttle dialogue to pop up once I had won.

I was doing a Carnelian run, with a weapon pre-igniter, stealth weapons and one other thing (I forget).
I have an ion bomb, a halberd beam, and two BLII's. So my fully leveled boarding crew gos to an enemy ship one jump before the last stand beacon, and I figure, "let's take out this guy." But I maaaayy have forgotten to keep an eye on their health bar, and they may have exploded.

With my boarders on board.

Yeah, that was a big facepalm moment.

So then I went on to the final boss and killed him anyway because of my fantastic loadout.

It was fairly silly.

The Blackout III (Stealth A) and the Three Charlies

Successfully downloaded data on my second jump. On the seventh jump I checked out the first store with 71 scrap - Drone Control? - but took no actions. I went to the second store on the tenth jump. Drone Control again? I decided to pass. Twelfth jump - quest = store! And it has Shields. Dammit, even if I sell my Titanium System Casing, I'm 2 scrap short! Could sell the Long Range Scanners, but I decide to keep them.

Second sector, third jump to store. No frakking Shields. I buy an Ion Bomb. After another jump, I find a second store and go there on my fifth jump. Still no frakking Shields! Upgrade Weapon Control and Reactor to power Ion Bomb. Seventh jump, successfully defeat autoscout and get sensor station data. There's another store, but it's east of the exit. Rebel fleet is closing in. Eighth jump, rebel rigger surrender offer includes Stealth Weapons. You're lucky I'm feeling merciful. Tenth jump to exit beacon, I fight the slaver and free a Mantis. If I go to the store, I'm going to have to fight a rebel elite. Never tell me the odds! I hit another beacon, win, then on my twelfth jump go to the store - and it has Shields! Sell the TSC, sell the Heavy Ion, which was in military storage six jumps ago, buy Shields and one power for it. Repair four hull with what I have left. Thirteenth jump back to the exit. I cloak when the reb fires, first volley (without Ion Bomb) takes one weapon offline, and I decide not to continue and jump to the next sector.

Going to skim to the end. I picked up a Hull Smasher Laser Mk II sometime in Sector 3, I think, but as it was going to be a while before I upgraded my Weapon Control for it, so I ended up selling it to get repairs. Surely, I'll acquire a more useful weapon, right? Unbeknownst to me, FTL replies: I stupidly lose my Mantis fighting off boarders. I needed to send it to the Medbay and send fresh security into the fight. But I did a group grab, which included the wounded Mantis, which died before I could correct the mistake. Further along I get a Human, Charlie. I get another Mantis, also Charlie. I have a two-Charlie boarding team. Pick up an Engi, and another Mantis in later sectors - also Charlie! Two Mantis Charlies board first, then Meatsack Charlie and Monsvik from Shields if I need more; Engi subs in at Shields.

I do not find another suitable weapon. Bought an Antiship Drone Mk I in the middle. Hoarding scrap late in the game, only to buy another Antiship Mk I. Did not find the store in Sector 8. I did pick up supplies from two repair stations. Not the most impressive offense: four Weapon Control bars (one for padding ) is the lowest I've had going in to the boss fight, and they were exceeded by the five bars in Drone Control (one for padding). The rest of the ship was in good shape: max Reactor, max Cloak and Teleporter, seven bars in Shields, seven in Engines, two each in Medbay, Sensors, and Doors, one each in O2 and Piloting.

Well, I needn't have worried about my weapons. The Ion Bomb was plenty powerful - and I didn't miss much. While I was boarding and taking out the usual suspects, I whittled away at the Cloak, Doors and Medbay, and the low damage helped in not taking out the boss too soon. After taking out the weapons, I used the Antiship Drones to help with Shield neutralization. After judiciously waiting for the boss to uncloak, I finally took the Medbay all the way out, depowered my drones and boarded there, sent in the B team when I could, and wiped out the main crew. Had to switch places, Humans for Mantises, as the latter were down to several hit points. Then I went and beat up on the Shields, beamed back and finished the round. Upgraded Piloting and O2 to level 2. I had a Defense Drone Mk I which I swapped in for the second round, and it shot down five of those frakking boarding drones, then I cloaked just as one was about to land (well, it was more because the triple missile launcher fired). It never did arrive, as I damaged their Drone Control. I only took a few points of damage that round, so went with both Antiship Drones for the finish. I also bought another level of Weapon Control.



Felt weird having both of those beginning weapons at the end, but they did their part.

Well, it happen just now. I was using The Torus. It has an ion blaster, 2 anti-ship drone, few augments and 3 crews (ori). When I arrive at the fourth sector, I encounter a mantis ship (not sure which one). Usually, the mantis' race use the teleporter to attack my crew.

Now this is the ridiculous part. Instead of sending 2 or 3 crew, they send all five to my ship. And since my main weapon is drones, they randomly shoots the mantis ship and disable their teleporter completely. That way, The mantises can't return to their ship because there's no one to fix the teleporter.

Because I was using torus, most of my crew is engi and can't fight very well. With all hope seems to be lost, I turn off the O2 system and open all doors,trying to suffocate the mantises in vain. In the end, they killed all my crew and the game over sign and my score pops up. But hey, on the bright side I managed to bring them down with me.

That's very unusual. The whole enemy crew cannot board you since the teleporter only allows 2 people, and the crew is programmed to stay on the ship anyway.

Maybe you triggered an event where your ship gets boarded and attacked by an enemy? If the enemy is Mantis they will probably send their own boarders as they normally do. That is the way you normally get excessive intruders. You can get even more if you jump from the previous encounter with intruders still onboard.

Yeah, and because they left a couple Mantises on the ship, when you took down their teleporter there wasn't any way they were going to fix it in time

Sucks you lost, though. Engi vs Mantis can be rough, esp with level 1 doors and a level 1 medbay. If you had either of those, you could have saved at least 2 of your Engi if not 3. I personally make Doors 2 a priority when I jump ANY ship into a Mantis sector.