Subset Games Forum

Title.

Is it the ship I'm using? Is it my scrap usage and my upgrade priorities? Or am I just unlucky?

Without knowing any details I can't say for sure, but with 110 losses I'd guess it's your strategies.

Here is my personal checklist of things to do. I try to follow it with most every ship:

Before the end of sector 1, 2 shields (4 bars)
Before the end of sector 2, 4 engines.
Before the end of sector 3, 3 shields (6 bars)
Before the end of sector 4, 5 engines.

Also, you need to have a way to get through:
Before the end of Sector 2: 2 shields (Most ships can do this)
Before the end of Sector 4: 3 shields (This usually means you need to buy weapons or a teleporter in sector 3)
Before the end of Sector 7: 4 shields (or the Boss is gonna suck)

Note: to get through 2 shields, you need to do 3 laser shots. Or have 2 ions and a laser/beam/whatever. Or have a teleporter. Or a bomb. Doesn't matter what.

THEN I start thinking about upgrading other things, like doors and O2 and medbay and stuff.

Most of the time I don't reach these milestones, and I end up not getting my 4th engine until midway through sector 3 or something. No biggie, as long as you keep trying.

Try to get 2 of these 3 things before you meet the flagship: Teleporter, Cloak, Defense Drones. A cloak and a level 5 engine will make you unhittable while the cloak is on, and you'll be dodging 1/3 to 1/2 of all shots fired when it's off. Add in a defense drone and you're essentially safe from most everything but the occasional lucky shot (and bombs, but those generally aren't a big deal as most can't damage hull). 2 mantises and a teleporter are your friend, make it a priority early so by the time you get to the later sectors your mantises are fully leveled up, and they will be killing machines.

Ions are great in groups, but not so great by themselves. 2 Ions will eventually take down ANY shield so long as your opponent doesn't dodge too many of them. An Ion and an Ion 2 will reliably take down ANY shield eventually. Once those are down, you can use your other weapons to actually damage the ship.

If I may humbly suggest, I've beaten the game on camera with every ship in the game (and a few mods) on Normal and while I get into (and out of) some sticky situations, for the most part I walk over the bad guys because I stick to what I've said above. Check out my thread here.

Honestly I'm not the most experienced FTL player in the world, but for 90% I agree with what is written above. I beat the game on every 5th to 6th try (on easy I confess) meanwhile, following instructions like those given by 5thHorseman.

For beating the casual beacons, from early on I try to keep my shields over the damage that is expected by the enemy's laser weapons in this sector, leaving me with rockets to care about for the most part. I upgrade doors one time early in sector 1 or 2, because the most dangerous thing out there is not enemy ships, it's fires and boarders when you are still low on crew members. When I visit a shop in the first few sectors it's for buying a teleporter for the most part. Even without mantis crew, having high shields, a teleporter, a running medbay, some kind of boarding crew (not engi, obviously) and enough patience will let you kill the enemy crew in 1/3 of all encounters, which means more scrap and other bonuses.
For the final encounter, the rebell flagship, I saw my own priorities just yesterday, when I beat the game with the Mantis Cruiser (which I just unlocked minutes ago) on the first attempt. Meeting the boss I had full shields, full engines (not necessary, but it helps) a teleporter (lvl3, but it didn't matter I guess), stealth (lvl2, but anything would be enough), a rocket launcher of some kind, a small bomb, and a crappy laser. To not embarrass myself, I will not tell you, that I had just killed my 2 Mantis with **-combat skills in the encounter right bevor the flagship... So it was up to a human and a slug who both had never ever beaten a girl befor, to do the boarding action.
Lvl 1) First thing to do: get rid of that rocket launcher! Easiest way: teleport your crew in that room. Do so with every other weapon EXCEPT one (the beam if you like) because you would not want the enemy's AI to handle things. So now the flagship phaser-beams your shields, great. Now, using my boarding crew, my missiles and some micro, I finished off the rest of the crew on that ship, save the one guy at the beam. Sure, they run to the medbay, when they are low on health, but they don't run far, when 2 rockets hit the room. (By the way, I didn't use rockets at all in all the previous sectors, so I was sitting on at least three dozen). Now kill the flagship to your likings.
Lvl 2) Those drones hitting your shields constantly are a problem and the boarding drone hitting your systems and crew is even worse! So where do you think, did my first few rockets go? Not to mention that my boarding crew was punching that rocket launcher again. From there it was just a bunch of drones knocking on my shields, a leak in the floor, which had to be fixed before the whole ship flushed out of O2 and a few more rooms, my boarding crew would want to visit. With (almost) no crew left on the flagship there was nobody repairing the drone-control or stuff like that, so it was again just a matter of time.
Lvl3) With almost no rockets left and the super-shield online, this was a game of patience. So my laser nibbled the shield down until my boarding crew (still, just a human and a slug) could do their job with the rocket launcher and what was left in the ship. What came of rockets and laser volleys in the meantime was easily dodged by the stealth system (like before), sure a few things hit me, but that was not as bad. Accidently I startet a fire on the flagship which spread to the weapon room (I didn't know that was possible) that was still operated by the loner, so he was killed and the AI startet to repair things. But with a heavy fire on the ship meanwhile, my boarding crew in the rocket launcher room, knocking it constantly, what harm could it do? When the shields where extinguished by the fire, my tiny laser began finishing that rebel ship off.

As you can see, I made a few mistakes during that encounter, didn't have the optimal weaponry and killed my most valuable crew even before, but in the end it is just a matter of knowing the threats and where you have to strike first!
I hope there was something helpfull inside this blethering and if you take what 5th told you and match it with the "when and why" I tried to make clear here, you should have some success soon.
Best luck, you gonna need it.

You did not mention what exactly kills you. Do you die at the boss fight? What stage? Or is it somewhere along the way?

There's good advice in previous posts. All i can add is:
- Try to stick to one ship and master it. Different ship require slightly or more than slightly different gameplay.
- Each ship has it's own vulnerabilities. The Kestrel is pretty strong with no major downsides, but whenever you get destroyed, try to cover yourself against it next time. If you have some specific scenarios that repeat post them.
- Regarding the Kestrel: First two sectors are where you are absolutely strongest. Farm these sectors for all they're worth. You can have 2 shields and 100+ scrap before you jump out of sector 1.
Wait for the Artemis to charge, and let it fly into the enemy shields. If it hits, fire the BL2 at their weapons. Shields and weapons should be weak now so you can finish the job with the BL2 and save missiles. If the missile misses, then fire the BL2 at the enemy engines or helm to reduce evasion. When the Artemis recharges take another pop at the shields. Your aim is to shut down their weapons quickly and shooting the shields/engines removes their defense. Aiming the Artemis on the weapons right away can also be usefull, like if you spot a nasty weapon on their ship. But mainly i think of it as a shield popper.
- Speaking of defense, play defensively yourself. Upgrade shields, but also engines because higher evasion = longer lasting shields. Buy Drone Control and get your hands on a defense drone (missiles, asteroids and boarding drones). Upgrade life support and helm. Why? Because they are terribly fragile with only 1 power, and losing either will give a penalty until you repair. Cloaking is expensive and only really important in later sectors, dont waste time with it early. Buy fuel. Buy fricken fuel. Be a puasewhore during combat. Esp. when bad things happen.
- Don't buy weapons at all unless you spot a BL2, Ion2, Ion Bomb or Halberd/Pike Beam. Dont touch your weapons bay until you have weapons that actually need more power. You Artemis will serve you well for a while, but later i suggest you ditch it for a beam weapon. Beams dont miss and you already have a BL2. All you need is another 2+ shot weapon or Ion2/Bomb and you're set until sector 6/7 when enemy evasion becomes a headache.
- Cloak smart. Bait the enemy into firing most of their stuff at you then cloakdodge. If their weapons are slow but heavy, fire your volley first, then cloak to delay them, then fire again as you uncloak.
- Boarding... either ignore it or invest everything into it. I mean lvl3 tele + medbay and pour all your available crew onto their ship. If you're struggleing with winning as it is, i suggest you ignore it. It's strong but divides your attention. You do want a teleporter for the final fight though, just to help disable bossweapons.

Regardless of playstyle or personal preference, priority 1 is to stop taking excessive damage and bleeding scrap on repairs. Get a second shield and pump up engines, then you will have more scrap left on your hands for other stuff. Like 3rd shield and even moar engines.

Twinge livestreamed a very detailed tutorial/tips video: http://www.ftlgame.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=16910

First off, pick a ship and stick to it. For reliable I like the Kestral A or B, lasers means no scrap wasted on ammo, starts with solid defenses and doesn't take much of an upgrade to weapons to advance, your choice may vary.

Looking through your past posts, boarders and boarding seem to be a weakness. Contrary to other advice, I'd say practice makes perfect. Learn to board and micromanage boarders by attacking with non-Mantis/Rockmen. Once you can do that, ship defense against boarders, even Mantis, should go smoother. I'm not sure if you keep spending scrap on crew, but get better at managing crew and that is scrap spent on bigger and better things. A lot of the trick to boarding is knowing when to run away in order to get ported back to heal.

Most of the game, imho, is minimizing scrap loss (taking less damage), maximizing scrap gain (hitting as many beacons ahead of the rebels) and thus staying ahead of the game's power curve. Do this well and you should reach the boss with all systems, enough weapons, max power and more upgrades than you can power at once.

Take too much damage thus losing scrap on repairs (or lose too many crew and waste it replacing them) and you soon find yourself with a weak ship that can barely defend itself that also has a hard time stopping an enemy. This is ultimately the death-spiral.

Often the difference is just minimizing mistakes.

As a disclaimer, I've beaten FTL with most ships and most layouts on normal. For your first time, I would stick with Kestrel A or Kestrel B. They are well-rounded ships with favorable layouts and starting weapons.

Since you've played 110 games already, I would assume that you know the game mechanics. I would like to echo everything that Dontmindme has said. Not only is boarding an excellent way to generate scrap, relying on boarding strategies allows you to defer upgrades to your weapon systems and instead into shields and engines, thereby minimizing damage to your hull.

I find that I spend my first scrap upgrades on an improved med bay. An improved med bay will give you more options at distress points, and it is a very cheap upgrade. If you find this to be too risky, (I usually go for med bay level 2 and sensors level 2 if there are nebulas in the first sector I plan to explore), you should just prioritize obtaining drone control and a defense drone as soon as possible.

I often stockpile scrap for expensive upgrades at stores, and if there is nothing at the store that I want, I invest in the ship.

Well, if you're still playing the game after 110 straight losses, maybe that's the problem .

To be fair, everyone has a style that they play. I generally go for a basic rule: improving defense may reduce the amount of damage received, but improving offense does as well. You have won the encounter once the enemy's weapons are disabled.

If you're having trouble, take an easy ship. With 110 games, you should have unlocked the Kestrel-B (aka the "Red-Tail"). This is an excellent ship for someone having difficulty. With four laser cannons, you start out dealing 4 synchronized 1-shot blasts every 10 seconds. One the first two sectors (when just about all ships have 1 or 0 shields), that means that you can usually disable their weapons systems in 12 seconds, at worst 22 seconds. At worst, you'll take two missiles during that period. Most of the time, you won't get hit at all. Your gunner will level up so fast that your firing time decreases.

Early Game:

Put the human in the engine room, the zoltan in the shield room, and the mantis in the weapons room. Set the weapons on autofire. Take your time moving to the exit: use the map feature to show all the paths out of future beacons, and have a clear idea of how you will proceed to maximize the beacon visits before the rebels. Don't spend scrap on things you don't need.
You don't need purchase slaves, unknown weapons, drones or missiles (early on)
You do want to trade for fuel, purchase fuel, purchase repairs.
Scout the sector if it's early in the sector; delay if it will help you get more beacons before the rebels come; fight if you want a challenge.


Try to keep lots of excess scrap on hand. If you see a distress beacon, that's a good time to upgrade your medbay to level 2 (there are several upgraded-medbay events); level 2 sensors might help as well. If you're heading into nebulae or Mantis Space, upgrade your doors to level 2.

When you dock at a store, repair your ship to 2/3rds (20/30). You may be tempted to repair it all the way, but there are events that give you free repairs, and 20/30 should be good enough.
If you ever see a weapon pre-igniter (120 scrap), buy it. Sell what you have to in order to buy it (well, keep at least four lasers). When you see a store, hit as many beacons as possible before going to the store (and leaving one unvisited beacon on the way out).

With an overpowered ship, you'll probably be good against the early level rebel elites, so you might want to consider exploring beyond the exit beacon after the rebels capture it (and returning to the beacon to fight rebels).

mid-game:
when the enemy has two or more shields, you'll probably want to damage them first.
weapons upgrades: with the Kestrel-B, good upgrades are:
Burst Laser Mk I or Mk II
Heavy Laser I.
Ion Mk. II
Halberd Beam.
Breach Missile
Breach Bomb
Others are less desirable. The top-tier weapons (Glaive beam, Burst III) use a lot of power an
Missiles can be nullified by an enemy's defense drone. Bombs miss a lot.
With a mixed arsenal, you'll need to turn off autofire. Use pause to fire all weapons in a volley. Fire the regular/burst lasers a half-second before the Heavy Lasers: the light stuff knocks down the shields, and the heavy stuff does the damage. Similarly, when the lasers knock down the shields, pause the game and target the beam weapon to hit as many boxes as possible. Try to start with the shield room (A shield operator will raise the shields quickly and block your beam; but if the shields are damaged, the operator switches to repairing the shields).

The teleporters can be quite useful for boarding enemies. If you have a boarding party, do not use autofire under any circumstances (just turn it off altogether).

If you're tempted by Drone Control, use drones sparingly.
By far the most useful drone is the Defense I. The Defense II, while faster, also targets lasers, which means that it's often engaging what your shields can handle (lasers) instead of what bypasses shields (that big fat missile, for example). Anti-Ship I is useful for giving you one less enemy shield to blast through enemies and II will keep those shields down for a while. The Boarding Drone can be hilarious. The system repair drone I'd only keep around to help with the giant spiders.

Special Upgrades that are particularly useful to this build:
Weapon Pre-Igniter (Again, keep money around just in case this shows up)
Scrap Recovery Arm
Long-Range Scanners
Cloaked Weapons


Endgame:
if you made it this far, you only really need four engines and three bars of shields to defeat the mothership, but four shields can be helpful.

As you upgrade, try to match your weapons. The other day, I got a 6400+ victory on the Kestrel-B with 3xMk I burst lasers (that just fell out of the sky) and 1 of the starting lasers. With a top-end crew, that's 7 points of damage every 9 seconds. With cloaked weapons, a pre-igniter and an Anti-Ship drone II, that meant that, in the final battle, I took down (and damaged) the mothership's shields as it de-cloaked (teleporting a crew to deal with the Ion weapon and operator), killed some shield operators 9 seconds later, cloaked for the first missile volley, destroyed the missile launcher at T+18, recovered the boarders once they disabled the ion weapon, and spent the next half minute destroying the thing.

You may find my detailed tutorial stream helpful: www.twitch.tv/darktwinge/c/2609597. It's unfortunately quite long, but information packed. I've had a couple people tell me they were finally able to beat the game after watching.

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