Subset Games Forum

I'm having a heck of a time getting a victory on normal, and I've realized one big area where I'm wasting scrap. I spend too much of the early game trying to outfit my ship for a particular strategy only to find that the rest of the parts don't come in. I could afford to be a bit of a screwball on easy, but on normal there's a lot less scrap to go around.

It's luck, I know, and I just have to adapt, but I'm hoping we could all share our own particular adaptions:

- Is it worth dropping a bunch of scrap in the early game for a weapon that is much weaker later on if there's nothing else really available? Like, the hull lasers use more energy and their benefits diminish well before midway (few ships have empty rooms later on), BUT my rock ship has only expensive missiles. If I had stumbled across it, no problem I'll take it, but with a shop early on I'm stuffing my entire wallet, cards and all, into the vending machine and hoping it doesn't jam.

- Related; if a weapon is most effective combined with something else, like a beam or ion, is it smart to buy one and hope you get enough other stuff to bust through endgame shields? Ions in particular - it seems like you need to go all ion or go home, since only one or two ion damage isn't enough to cripple most endgame systems.

- Is it reasonable to try and turn a non-boarding ship (like the Kestrel) into a boarding ship, given how powerful boarding is? A teleporter is expensive in the early Normal game if you don't start with one.

- Should certain ships just pass on purchasing some weapons entirely, given their starting circumstances?

- We have to roll with the punches in the end. What's the most unusual weapon combination you've had to make work?

DoubleW wrote:- Is it worth dropping a bunch of scrap in the early game for a weapon that is much weaker later on if there's nothing else really available?

Depends on the ship— Stealth_B, for instance, need anything that could shoot ASAP, even if it's an shitty gun like a basic laser if it actually buy-able.

DoubleW wrote:- Related; if a weapon is most effective combined with something else, like a beam or ion, is it smart to buy one and hope you get enough other stuff to bust through endgame shields? Ions in particular - it seems like you need to go all ion or go home, since only one or two ion damage isn't enough to cripple most endgame systems.

This is a difficult question to answer... There's too many variables that have to take into account— it's not just weapons, but also drones and augments.

DoubleW wrote:- Is it reasonable to try and turn a non-boarding ship (like the Kestrel) into a boarding ship, given how powerful boarding is? A teleporter is expensive in the early Normal game if you don't start with one.

Telepad is so broken it will still be OP even if it's cost 200 to buy if it still work the same way as it is now..

I guess that answered your question.

DoubleW wrote:- Should certain ships just pass on purchasing some weapons entirely, given their starting circumstances?

Depends on preference; for instance, I hardly ever buy the 'normal' beam weapon while playing Kestrel_A (or any other ships for that matter) even though it may work well because you already got BL2 to crack the Shield.

DoubleW wrote:What's the most unusual weapon combination you've had to make work?

Slug Cruiser start-up weapon.

Joke aside : Burst laser 2 / Heavy laser 2 / Heavy laser 1 / Heavy pierce laser ... Me love Heavy lazors!

I wouldn't bet the house on finding the ideal complementary weapon after buying the first one early on. FTL playthroughs tend to be a "put whatever you found to best use" kind, rather that aiming for a specific build. I'm not the biggst fan of fire weapons or Burst Lasers MkIII but have been forced to use them and ended up using them well.

One other reason builds are impractical is the random nature of enemies. They will not all be the kind you can easily dispose of.

I would suggest to make initial upgrades small because the scrap earned is small initially but increases as you progress. Good things to buy are engine upgrades or shields because they can keep you alive. Weapons also if you need more power. Later you basically adapt your ship to your game and make the most of it. Some runs are barren though.

Except for a few of the odd starting loadouts, your early scrap is usually best invested in defensive improvements to minimize your repair bill and ensure you reach the later sectors where scrap rewards increase significantly.

As for weapons, the crew teleporter is by far the best; it renders conventional weapons mostly irrelevant, and by sector 8 you'll have so much scrap you won't know what to spend it on.

BKT wrote:

DoubleW wrote:What's the most unusual weapon combination you've had to make work?

Slug Cruiser start-up weapon.

I beat the final boss on normal with a slug/human boarding party of two, A dual laser, burst 1 combo, and the anti bio beam. Nothing like not being able to hurt the enemy ship until you've luckily killed most of it's crew and broken shields with a slug and a human as boarders.

DoubleW wrote: - Is it worth dropping a bunch of scrap in the early game for a weapon that is much weaker later on if there's nothing else really available?
- Related; if a weapon is most effective combined with something else, like a beam or ion, is it smart to buy one and hope you get enough other stuff to bust through endgame shields?

I generally buy a weapon only if it's a real improvement over the current situation and one I'll be likely to use later on as well. Likewise I prefer buying situational weapons only if I already have the other requirements ready as the RNG will usually laugh in my face otherwise.
It's often more effective to spend scrap on shields and engines than on weapons as there's always a good possibility that you'll get some nice weapon from a random event.

DoubleW wrote: - Is it reasonable to try and turn a non-boarding ship (like the Kestrel) into a boarding ship, given how powerful boarding is? A teleporter is expensive in the early Normal game if you don't start with one.

For me the deciding factor is usually whether I have a suitable crew for boarding ready.
If I already have one mantis/rock/crystal plus another guy I can spare for boarding, then I'll buy the teleporter.
Otherwise I'll wait and see.

I've also skipped the teleporter when I've already gotten lucky with the weaponry but most of the time the teleporter is certainly worth the price.

breadsmith wrote:I beat the final boss on normal with a slug/human boarding party of two, A dual laser, burst 1 combo, and the anti bio beam. Nothing like not being able to hurt the enemy ship until you've luckily killed most of it's crew and broken shields with a slug and a human as boarders.

I once having to kill all the boss's main crews (in 1st phase) using Engi_A with only Ion 2 + Fire Beam + Anti-bio Beam without any augment and not using telepad.

Took me forever to pull it off... But that sure was fun!

[quote="DoubleW"]
- Is it reasonable to try and turn a non-boarding ship (like the Kestrel) into a boarding ship, given how powerful boarding is? A teleporter is expensive in the early Normal game if you don't start with one.

it depends, if you have a suitable crew (mantis, rock) then it does make sense

Some cruisers in the game should definitely look out for a decent weapon early on. The cheapest weapons are around 60 scrap, most universally good weapons come at 80 scrap tops. Buying a 100+ weapons early is a desperation move.
Imho one can always buy the laser type weapons with no qualms.
Beams should only be bought if one can deal with shields quite good.
Ion weapoons should only ever be bought, if you either already have an ion weapon, or if it's a Ion mark 2 and you really need it.
Most bombs are astoundingly good, if you don't need missiles for anything else, consider it(small bomb is the "worst" and still quite good, situationally)
Missile launchers are again a desperation move. You can only buy Hull, Hermes, Breach and Pegasus and all have long wait time and 3 energy requirement(except for Hull). I would only ever buy Hull or Pegasus if I have lots of missiles to spare, unless in a real emergency.


Tip: A defense drone is among the best defensive investement you can make. Missiles are the only thing to pierce shields and a single drone shoots 95-100% of non simultaneous missiles.
A Teleporter on the other hand is an investement into getting more money. Boarding is 75% of the time more difficult than just blowing the enemy up. If you can survive that though, the endgame will be a piece of cake.



I don't remember any weapon loadout I had to work with as strange.
The most unusual I got was 3 anti ship drones with the Torus along with a second Ion weapon. Which was incredibly lucky and felt weird. Was super effective though, 3 Drones tear anything to shreds. Had to substitute one for a defense drone in the end anyway.
Yes, I consider getting dream setup going strange, because getting it is one of the rarest things.

Mataza wrote:Ion weapoons should only ever be bought, if you either already have an ion weapon, or if it's a Ion mark 2 and you really need it.

Just wanted to quickly disagree with this. Allways consider your situation carefully. All ion weapons are good:
- The smallest is pretty fast and takes only 1 power. It fades in importance in the late game though.
- The heavy is slow, but deals 2 pts of ion damage. It can knock the last bit of Zoltan supershield and carryover to the normal shield in one hit. 2 power used.
- The Blast MkII is just cake. Rapid fire ionising but at the cost of 3 power.