Overview
This guide will show you all the ships in FTL (Currently at the time of 18/5/14). It will also give you a small insight into how to use them to their full potential
The Kestrel (A),Red-Tail (B) and the Swallow (C)
The Kestrel.
The Kestrel, as you probably know is the first ship you have, it is pretty basic and lacks any qualities that makes it stand out. It is good to start with, but I have only really used it until I got the Type B and C variants, along with the Engi ships.
Red-Tail
This is a fun ship to play with, it starts with 4 basic lasers which although may need upgrading when you get past sector 4, is a great setup, the inclusion of a mantis and zoltan to start with also helps with some blue event paths and can get you the upper hand in the first few sectors.
The Swallow
Like all type C ships, the swallow comes with a clonebay, which is a must have for any ship. The ion stunner is a good addition and the ship also comes with a lanius crew member, if you train him in combat and you have a teleporter, he is a force to be reckoned with.
The Torus (A),The Vortex (B) and Tetragon (C)
The Torus
The Torus is a great starting ship because of it already posessing a drone room. The combat drone and the ion blast work well together in the first few sectors, long enough for you to get some better drones/weapons.
The Vortex
This ship, has only 1 engi crewman.Thats it. But the ship uses drones to keep it running with 2 repair drones and 1 anti-personnel. Who needs friends when you have robots?
Tetragon
The Tetragon’s main area of consideration is hacking, it starts with basic hacking and also the defence scrambler augment, which stops all the enemies defence drones from doing anything. The beam and the laser also make a good combo, similar to the Torus
The Osprey (A), Nisos (B) and The Fregatidae (C)
The Osprey
The Osprey may not seem to be all that good of a ship, but it is great, the rock,mantis,human and engi mean that blue events are all going to you. While the burst laser may not seem like much, it is supported by the Artillery room. The Artillery is exclusive to these ships, and will fire a laser which will go through all shields.
Nisos
The Nisos relies more on the artillery compared to the osprey due to its weak weaponry, however the artillery is level 2 at the start with this ship.
The Fregatidae
THIS SHIP IS GREAT.No weapons I hear you cry? who needs them? with a crew teleporter, a clone bay and FLAK artillery (7 shot burst).This ship is insane, although it takes time to get used to.One tip would be to not use the mantis in combat but the zoltan’s, due to them having a tendency to explode on death.
The Adjudicator (A), Noether (B) and Cerenkov (C)
The Adjudicator
The Adjudicator is the 1st of the zoltan ships, which means that is has a zoltan shield, so dont expect early teleporters or hacking drones coming to your ship anytime soon. It also comes with a halberd beam. To save missiles in the first few sectors, dont use the Leto and instead start your laser over their shield room, with any luck, the shields will go down (because it does 2 damage per room hit, if it hits the shield, it will go through and do 1 damage instead) and normal damage will occur to any other rooms your laser passes through.
Noether
This Ship may have the zoltan shield for defence, but not much else. it starts with a weakened shield system and so a level 1 shield will require 100 scrap in upgrades. However the 2 ion blasts and the pike beam does balance the ship. making it a good all rounder in terms of combat.
Cerenkov
This ship starts with a chain ion and a beam drone, it should be fine, right? Wrong. The reactor is so small that the backup battery has to be used for the ship to have power,so end your battles quick or you are in some trouble
The Nessaio (A), DA-SR 12 (B) and Simo-H (C)
The Nessaio
This ship starts with cloaking, which is great, if it wasnt for the lack of shielding, and that god-awful mini beam.The creator of that beam deserves to die at the hand of giant alien spiders. To make up for then lack of shileding as well, it comes with level 4 engines, for dodging. If you use this ship, make sure to replace the mini beam as soon as possible.
DA-SR 12
The description of this ship summarises it pretty well. ‘Glass Cannon’. The glaive beam can destroy most ships in one hit, but you need to wait 25 seconds for that to charge, you need to make sure that you remain safe while it charges, or you will have a bad day.
Simo-H
This ship, despite being a stealth ship, does not come with cloaking, and instead relies not only on a shield drone, but a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ MINI BEAM. UUUUUURRRRRRGGGGHHHHHHH!
Bulwark (A), Shivan (B) and Teklite (C)
The Bulwark
Being a simple race, the rock also have a simple ship. Well laid out and 2 missile launchers. it is rather powerful. But i wouldnt say it is weak, the rock armour augment can negate hull damage, perfect for brute force.
Shivan
No Airlocks does mean that this ship has a flaw, but with 4 rock people, fire isnt a problem, with a fire bomb and an exclusive heavy pierce laser that can go through 1 layer of shielding, it is a good ship to use if you want to burn everything to the ground, like this:
Teklite
This ship is a collaborative effort with the rock and crystal, with 2 rockmen and 1 crystal. The ship has some power if invaders happen to teleport on your ship. Also the heavy crystal and the swarm make this ship have some serious firepower
The Man Of War (A), The Stormwalker (B) and Arilomax (C)
The Man Of War
The Anti-Bio beam is a great inclusion onto this ship, it can help with giant alien spiders and also to disintegrate anything in its path (at 60 damage per hit). The slug repair gel augment is also handy for fixing a hole from an intruder bot or anything that can.
The Stormwalker
The boarding ship with a difference. The stormwalker has no medbay, or clonebay, and the only way your slugs will get healed is with the healing burst, but remember, using the artemis too much will mean that you may be in need of some health with no missiles spare to help you.
Arilomax
The slugs have always been tricky bastards, and this ship helps you to be.With mind control and hacking, you shall be the troll of the galaxy
The Gila Monster (A), The Basilisk (B) and The Theseus (C)
The Gila Monster
With a teleporter and 3 mantis crewmen, this is a great boarding ship, just be careful and make sure that your mantis dont die, because it doesnt have any stand out weapons that can take a ship down.
The Basilisk
A 4-man teleporter AND a boarding drone? this is the great CQB ship. Who needs any weapons when you have up to 4 attackers on their ship with 2 boarding drones?
The Theseus
A 4 man teleporter and a clone bay makes this great in itself, but with a stun and lockdown bomb as well, it makes it ideal for attacking their ship from the inside out, the lanius also makes it a good boarding ship due to his abilities of sucking the life out of the rooms he walks into, like a nerd at a party.
Kruos (A) and The Shrike (B) (No type C for Lanius)
Kruos
The Lanius A is pretty standard compared to the type C variants for other ships, hacking, clone bay and ion stunners, overally it is pretty good. But with the lanius, you have seen nothing yet…
The Shrike
Arguably the best boading ship in FTL, i have completed the game twice with this and it is easy to see why. A crew teleporter and a mind control unit as standard means that you can dominate the competition. The lanius has been previously mentionned for their great boarding abilities, and this meets their every need.
Bravis (A) and Carnelian (B) (No type C for crystal)
Bravis
This crystal ship comes with a heavy crystal launcher and a burst crystal launcher, both of which can go through 1 layer of shielding, making it a great ship to have for the first few jumps, also the augmentation of the crystal means that if you are hit, there is a 10% chance that a lump of crystal will fly off your ship and hit theirs,The ultimate revenge weapon.
Carnelian
I Said that the Shrike was considered to be the best by some, others think that this is. With a 4-man teleporter compared to the shrikes measly 2-man tele, boarding with friends has never been easier. Cloaking is also as standard which is extremely helpful and the only downside is that there isnt a clonebay (because it was in the game before the advanced edition) and there are no weapons at all. Apart from these problems that can be easily resolved, the crystals power of locking down a room with crystal means that the enemy doesnt stand a chance when boarding is involved. Quick tip, teleport to their med/clonebay and lock it down, there isnt usually people in their standing around so you can use the time to destroy it, so that they cant use it against you.
Help with unlocking
Use The wiki to get the info on how to get the Type A’s and B’s.
For type C’s you only need to get to sector 8, so upgrade engines and wait until a map like this appears:
Plain sailing. Easy.