Subset Games Forum

Very nice! I'm still trying to break the 6000 points barrier in AE, my last run with the Gila Monster was also quite underwhelming regarding the score, but at least another flawless victory (this time with hull repair drone).





I got 3x 3 win streaks in AE Hard so far, but the Gila Monster took me three attempts - I was so good in the first run that I thought with 8 hull left I could easily take on another ship before going to the adjacent store and encountered a two missile launcher guy that immediately breached my cockpit... second run was suicide by boarding and then missing the exit beacon by a pixel and getting obliterated by an Elite Fighter.

Gila Monster: loss, loss, win (1/3)

My advice to anybody wanting 6000 points: Use the Red Tail.

5thHorseman wrote:My advice to anybody wanting 6000 points: Use the Red Tail.

I have really bad luck with the Red Tail, primarily due to the fact that I'm apparently using a different version of FTL from everyone else. Apparently in this other version I'm told of, stores sell weapons? It's crazy. Cats and Dogs, living together. I beat Hard with the Vortex and the DA-SR 12 before I did with the Red Tail!

I'm totally not jealous of your (and especially itg's) super scores *sniff*

However, I feel compelled to oppose 5thHorseman's advice using the Red-Tail for highscores, this ship is simply not built for highest highscores.

For those too lazy to click, this is the essential information from that link:



But seriously, I always had difficulties getting decent (> 5000 points) scores with that ship, that's the reason why I had to do an extra run in FTL Classic just to reach more than 5000 points despite having played the Red-Tail a lot, and I just got a little... carried away with the last run

Ha, that's awesome! I was never able to farm that far without taking at least some damage and eventually giving up.

Thanks There are two loopholes to exploit when going for a very high score even with relatively weak ships. The first is that Elite Fighters replenish when you save+quit the game and then continue. The second is that in nebula sectors, every beacon is an ion storm when overrun by rebels, so they only charge 2 shields even in sector 7. If you upgrade your ship with reactor bars and only power your weapons and very few other necessities (using only half your reactor bars), you have overwhelming weapon power against a weakened enemy. Weapon Pre-igniter helps as well Also recommended are Cloak and Defense Drone with Drone Recovery Arm (but sooner or later, you will run out of drones, so it's better to not use any drones for very high scores).

The same loopholes still exist in AE, only non-nebula sectors are a bit more challenging with their antiship batteries, but with very powerful and fast (Pre-igniter) weapons and appropriate augmentations you probably can also hop around in normal sector rebel fleet territory at leisure, but I haven't tested this yet. Not sure if I'll go for more high scores in AE, I hardly have time for basic playthroughs, unfortunately...

At least I finally cracked the 6k barrier in AE! Changed playing style to super risky and was crushed accordingly three times in a row with the Man of War, first time it was unwinnable. Had 20 hull and four engines in sector 1, when I met an autoscout with an Artemis, which got into my cockpit and set it aflame (2 flames). Next missile hit the weapons and then the engines (also aflame), then I had repaired the cockpit. Next missile again into the cockpit, two flames. My slugs had to heal themselves before going fire extinguishing again, took all missile hits in the meanwhile, repaired the cockpit, got a missile into the cockpit again, and as the autoscout had apparently at least 10 missiles to spend and each one hit, my 20 hull ship was destroyed. Breach I regularly missed (when available) and Dual Laser didn't get through two (? not sure, at least they never penetrated) shield layers... good fight!

The fourth run was blessed with lots of lucky drops and events, and I had some luxury problems in deciding which weapons to choose. Almost felt like cheating, as I upgraded Hacking to level 3.





Took one hull damage during the third incarnation, but luckily I had Hull Repair for the third flawless victory

Man of War: loss, loss, loss, win (1/4)

Phew!





Intense run, each survived beacon was a small victory...

Bulwark: win (1/1)

Could have and possibly should have turned the first flight of the Nesasio into a shieldless run, but instead saved scrap and got defeated by the third Lanius Bomber with four differently charging weapons in a row. No store up to there offered shields, and I visited all of them when found.

Second flight with the Nesasio got shields in sector 1 and a Burst Laser Mk II in sector 2 or 3, a Halberd Beam and a Breach II. Again, hardest thing was to choose which weapons to equip. Smooth flight to the end, and then I realised I forgot to rename the ship Also, no ship achievements unlocked, didn't get a Pre-Igniter, and in two sectors the only path to the exit was through a hazard. I wonder why I didn't get the last achievement during the last flagship fight, but I guess I deactivated the missile launcher too early and the laser barrage only has 8 instead of 10 shots as I thought before.





Nesasio: loss, win (1/2)

The first flight of the Kruos was glorious, I very much like that ship. I accidentally turned it into a boarding ship by clicking on Crew teleporter listed just above Cloak, and suffocated enemy crew left and right, although it takes a while when the little buggers are running. I aimed for the scrap and the oxygen achievement, when I was suddenly destroyed by a phantom shot. Oh well, I guess the rebel fleet got some really advanced long range ASBs or something.

Second flight was even better, I just wish I had found a third Pike Beam to engrave a Z into the flagship...





New highscore! Fourth flawless victory (again with hull repair, this is such a nice drone), and it beats 5thHorseman's Red-Tail!

Also unlocked the Federation cruiser via quest and the Lanius type B - now only the Mantis cruiser unlocking quest is missing, as well as the Crystal cruiser. All type Bs available except for Kestrel, Stealth and Rock cruisers.

Kruos: loss (by phantom hit), win (1/2)

Still hard to beat boarding all the way through, IMO.



Man, apparently even 33% resize is still too big