Overview
These are the ships that I’ve mostly used during my playthroughs of Faster Than Light. This guide does not currenty feature all of the ships in the game, only ones that I have good experience in using, so I can give good advice for each individual ship. I will get around to adding strategies for every ship however once I get more experience for every ship under my belt. All of the ships here have the same basic plan in the early game, get level 2 shields, get engines to 3 or 4, get a good crew, get some weapons, in the first few sectors of the game. However, there are specific strategies that can be used for the different ships. The key to a good Faster Than Light run is getting off to a good start within the first 3 sectors. If you can get your start right, then the rest of the game can be reasonably easy compared to the start. I’ll also list the strengths and weaknesses of each ship.EDIT: 6th February 2016 – Simo-H added.
Kestrel (Kestrel Cruiser A)
This is actually one of my favourite ships to play through with. It might be the starter ship with just basic systems and crew, but it can do just about anything you want. It can get any mix of systems or augments, but because it doesn’t start with any, this does mean that it will cost you extra over other ships for specialised systems and augments.
The layout of the ship is eh overall due to everything being relatively far away from each other and the middle of the ship is susceptible to beams. The important systems aren’t close enough to easily be hit together by beam weapons but it’s not a great layout overall. The cockpit is also quite far from the rest of the ship so a Rockman is a good choice as the pilot. The medbay and where the crew teleporter will be is also a large distance. The back of the ship is fairly easily ventable although you have to vent through either the weapons or engine room which is bad and the front half of the ship is not easily ventable either, having to go through multiple rooms. This means that fires are more problematic on this ship, so getting blast doors early on isn’t a bad idea.
Early weapons aren’t as needed on this ship like most other ships, as you have 2 of the best weapons in the game to start with (of course any weapons you do find can help). This means that you can focus straight on your defense for the first couple of sectors. The Artemis will drop off hugely in the late game, but it’s very good early on when you need it to be. With 3 Humans as crew, they are not the most diverse lot but they can go their job well, and can function in all roles. Do look at getting some other races for extra crew however, some Engi for better repair or some Mantis or Rockmen for a boarding crew.
Overall I feel this is an above average ship, largely because of it’s starting weapons. Burst Laser Mark II is excellent for the entire game and the Artemis is great early when you need it to be. It’s biggest weakness is that there are no special augments or systems so you will be paying more than most ships for what systems you want.
Ratings
+2.5 Burst Laser Mk II
+0.5 Artemis
-1 No special augments or systems
-0.5 Mediocre layout
Total: +1.5
Red-Tail (Kestrel Cruiser B)
The 2nd version of the basic cruiser, this ship functions in a similar way to the Kestrel but there are a few major differences. Firstly is the weapons systems. 4 Basic Lasers work amazingly well together on a short cooldown and can easily destroy everything up to about sector 4 or 5, where you will need to replace at least some of the Basic Lasers. But because you have 4, you can periodically upgrade 1 Laser at a time when you do find better weapons or if you buy some in stores.
The Red-Tail also has a much better layout than the Kestrel although most of the major systems are at the back, so can be victim to a well placed beam. One major plus is the medbay is right next to where the crew teleporter would be, so boarding crews have easy access to the medbay once they come back. One downside is that the cockpit is also extremely far from the rest of the ship, so a Rockman pilot is likely preferred. However, the ship is fairly ventable even if at the back of the ship you have to vent through a major systems room.
The crew is also much more diverse then the 3 humans of the Kestrel, with 2 Humans, a Mantis and a Zoltan, although there’s very few “blue” event options available from just your crew. Get the standard defensive measures in the first couple of sectors then look at a crew teleporter and grab some weapons around sector 4 if you don’t find any before then. You already have half of a boarding party in a Mantis and Humans are ok at everything, so another boarding crew and some more system manning will come along nicely.
Overall the Red-Tail is a different take on the basic cruiser and again the weapons of the ship shine here. The weapons are weak in the later game and will need to be replaced in the mid-game but are very strong early when you need them to be and has some other factors that makes this better than the Kestrel.
Ratings
+3 Basic Laser x4
+1.5 Starting crew
+0.5 Fairly good layout
-1 No special augments or systems
Total: +4
Swallow (Kestrel Cruiser C)
The Swallow is the 3rd ship in the Kestrel Cruiser range and from the initial view of the ship, it doesn’t look much different from the other 2 ships apart from the Clonebay. However, this ship is definitely the worst of the 3 and doesn’t actually have all that much going for it.
The Dual Lasers and Ion Stunner do a good Burst Laser II impression in the early game, even with 2 weapon slots being used. These are both fine weapons and will do well in the early game but they will drop off once you start hitting 2 Shield enemies. And where the Kestrel gets the Artemis to help punch through said enemies, there is none of that here. You have to get lucky to be able to get through the Shields and then do hull damage.
The layout of the ship is very similar to the Kestrel and is lacklustre overall due to everything being relatively far away from each other. The important systems aren’t close enough to easily be hit together by beam weapons but it’s not a great layout overall. The cockpit is also further away from the rest of the ship compared to the Kestrel and it’s even harder to vent. All the Swallow needed in this regard is an airlock at the Doors room or something like that, but without it, the layout is very mediocre. One plus I guess is that you’ll likely use the Lanius as your pilot which does give better protection against boarders and fires.
Normally the following is a non-issue and doesn’t normally factor into my rankings, but being the ship with the lowest scrap worth in the game, along with 0 special augments or systems (the Clonebay replaces the Medbay) means that you are behind every other ship in the game. Even ships with bad equipment and augments can at least sell those items for some scrap income, but you can’t do that at all here.
Overall I feel this is a below average ship. The weapons are fine early but will drop off, and there is nothing else to help in your quest. There are no significant drawbacks, but there really isn’t strengths either, this is overall just a very mediocre ship.
Ratings
+1: Dual Lasers
-1: Lowest starting scrap worth
-1: No special augments or systems
-0.5: Mediocre layout
Total: -1.5
Nesasio (Stealth Cruiser A)
The stealth cruisers are very difficult to play, in that you will be relying on your dodge chance from cloak and engines to mitigate damage instead of shields. Be warned, all the stealth ships require high skill to use effectively and avoid disaster.
The Nesasio starts with level 4 engines, which gives a very good 30% dodge chance right from your very first beacon (assuming manned cockpit and engines) even without the cloak. However, the huge drawback is that there is no shields to protect you and you have to buy them from the stores for 125 scrap just to get level 1 (reduced from 150 with AE). This is an extreme expense in the early game and you will have to save for it, because no matter how good your cloak and engines are, you can still take damage because of the random nature of how dodge works. Level 2 cloak is something you’ll definitely want to invest in early though, the 10 second cloak is basically a free volley for you with your low cooldown weapons.
You get 2 great augmentations in Long Range Scanners and Titanium System Casing although they are great in different ways. Environmental beacons are terrible news for this ship, especially the asteroid fields so avoid every single environmental beacon like the plague until you get shields. One thing that the Long Range Scanners cannot see are enemy ships with drones, which are something else to try and avoid like the plague. Any Beam or Anti-ship drone on it’s own will wreck you, so you need to destroy drone control rooms ASAP. Long Range Scanners are also the best economic augment, as you’ll always find more ships to destroy than without them. The Titanium System Casing has a 15% chance of preventing the damage done to a system which is ok, but the hull will still be damaged, so it’s not as great as it first seems. But it has a resale of 40 scrap to stores, so this is a great use of the augment.
The 3 Humans means you can man all the systems you still have (weapons, engines, cockpit) and the weapons you start with are very useful for at least the first few sectors for a low power usage of 2 and short cooldowns. Equip the Dual Lasers into slot 1 and use them to take out the enemy shields, while the Mini Beam is used to hit multiple rooms (preferably things like the cockpit, engines, shields and weapons room together). The Mini Beam has a short length, but you can still hit 4 rooms with careful aiming (3 is the norm though). Both weapons are very power efficient and can take 2 shield enemies as long as both laser shots hit. However, they do fall off later into the game and you only have 3 weapon slots, so you will likely want to replace at least 1 of the weapons later on, if not both.
The layout of the ship is not great with only 2 airlocks, and the engine room and where the crew teleporter would be are hard to vent. But it’s not a terrible layout, it is easy enough to get around the ship. Against some enemy ships, you’ll want to cloak immediately to try and take out their first weapons in your first volley before they can get their first volley off. Against other ships, you’ll want to cloak during their first volley so you’ll effectively get 2 volleys against their weapons. This is one of just many skills that you’ll need to practise to be able to use this ship effectively.
The ship does start with very good engines and cloaking, but the lack of shields is definitely a huge drawback. This ship is definitely one that can easily die before you get shields if you aren’t careful and it can be tough to get it out of the first few sectors intact. The weapons are excellent early but do drop off alot in the later game and you only get 3 weapons slots total. It is skill intensive but can be excellent in good hands but the lack of shields means that this can’t be higher than a mid-tier ship.
Ratings
+2: Cloaking
+2: Starting Augments
+2: Starting Weapons
+0.5: Level 4 Engines
-3: No Shields
-2: Maximum of 3 Weapon slots
-0.5: Mediocre layout
Total: +1
DA-SR 12 (Stealth Cruiser B)
Both of the stealth cruisers are very difficult to play, in that you will be relying on your dodge chance from cloak and engines to mitigate damage instead of shields. The DA-SR 12 is even harder to play, as there is a huge luck factor involved with this ship. Either you get lucky and crush all opposition (finding a Weapon Pre-Igniter or something like that) or it gets unlucky or a mistake was made and just dies almost immediately.
The DA-SR 12 starts off with lower level 2 engines, but has a level 2 cloak straight off the bat and starts with the ultra powerful Glaive Beam. This is definitely a weapon you can use through the entire game, but the problem is the extremely long cooldown of the weapon. And because you start with no shields this is even worse, as any damage to the weapons room means that cooldown will start again. You don’t even start with the Titanium System Casing like the Nesasio does. Sure the Glaive Beam can take out ships in one blow, but how often will you get to use it without taking huge chunks of damage? The Glaive Beam early game is simply overkill. Upgrading the cloak to level 3 is mandatory, as it’s another 5 seconds of precious cloak time.
Like the Nesasio, this ships absolutely hates drones and environmental beacons so the same rules from the Nesasio apply here. Keeping the Long Range Scanners is mandatory. The layout of the ship is ok and is easy enough to get around with the 3 airlocks make it slightly easier to vent than the Nesasio, except for the cockpit. However, this ship only gets a 2 person medbay, 3 weapons and 2 Humans and 1 Zoltan as crew, so overall it is definitely lacking compared to other ships. Stick your Zoltan in the engine room with the Humans in the cockpit and weapons room.
The ship was likely designed as a later game Nesasio with the Glaive Beam, but the chances of making it to the late game are much lower than the Nesasio. The Glaive Beam is extremely powerful but is the main reason to play this ship and it alone does not make up for its huge number of flaws. 1 hit of the weapons room before the Glaive Beam can fire will likely mean taking tons of damage and this ship is so fragile it can’t take it. This is definitely a lower tier ship with some strong drawbacks.
Ratings
+2.5: Level 2 Cloaking
+1.5: Long Range Scanners
+1: Glaive Beam
-3: No Shields
-2: Maximum of 3 Weapon slots
-1.5: RNG dependant
-0.5: Small Medbay
Total: -2
Simo-H (Stealth Cruiser C)
This ship is fairly infamous for being a bad ship, but is it really as bad as most people say it is? The previous cruisers in the Stealth line of Cruisers forego Shields for Cloaking, but with the Simo-H you get a buffed Shield Overcharge Drone and an Anti-Drone Drone instead of the Cloaking. This has some advantages and disadvantages and leads to a very unique style of play. There really is nothing else like this ship but has an incredibly high skillcap to be able to use effectively.
However, there really are some punishing drawbacks, the most noticeable one being the defensive capabilities of the ship, or lack there of. Apart from the defensive Drones, there’s really nothing else apart from the dodge chance from the Engines. No Shields, no Cloaking, nothing. You will be exclusively relying on your defensive Drones to mitigate damage. The Shield Overcharger (buffed by having it’s power consumption reduced to 2) is basically a part Zoltan shield, where every 8 seconds you get 1/5th of a full Zoltan Shield that will keep stacking up to full until it takes damage. Against low power weapons and even surprisingly missiles, this is quite handy but against any sort of strong weapon setup means that you’ll likely take damage in a longer fight. Against enemy attack drones, you must power up your Anti-Drone, the Shield Overcharger is simply too slow to keep up with the attack Drones. The first upgrade should always be to your Drone Control, to allow you to be able to run both Drones at the same time.
The extremely weak defenses means that you will take lots of damage in any sort of extended firefight, which means that you need good weapons that are able to dish out damage fast, which luckily the Simo-H can do. The starting Weapons are excellent, if early game focused. It’s basically a Nesasio on offense with the buffed Laser Charger and Mini Beam. The Laser Charger is effectively a Dual Lasers, as the charge time per laser is 5.5 seconds and the power consumption is lowered to 1. Both weapons have very close cooldowns so are incredibly efficient together and are very strong together. You really can rip through ships but be warned that some ships will get the first shot as while the Simo-H’s Weapons are quite fast, there are a number of weapons that are faster. If you can get the first volley to successfully hit the weapons (which is by far the #1 priority), then your terrible defenses won’t come under fire.
The Long Range Scanners are still incredibly good for plotting the best course through sectors while avoiding environmental beacons which WILL kill your ship, while the starting crew is decent if not exciting. Use the Slug as your Pilot while the Rockman should sit in the Engines room. The layout of the ship is not great, as it’s a fairly long trip from the front to the back, but the number of airlocks means that venting shouldn’t be a problem. The lack of the 4th Weapon slot is also a large drawback and it means that your starting weapons will need at least 1 of them repleaced in the mid game, if not both. Another drawback is that you start with no Sensors, and will likely have to pick them up and the ship starts with above average level 3 Engines.
This really is a polarising ship, which a number of good advantages compensated by a number of potentially catastrophic drawbacks. The abysmal defenses means this is a low tier ship, but the excellent starting weaponry and Long Range Scanners means that there are quite a few ships that are worse.
Ratings
+2: Starting Weapons
+1.5: Long Range Scanners
+1: Drone Control
+1: Useful defensive Drones
+0.5: Starting Crew
-3: No Shields
-2: Maximum of 3 Weapon slots
-1: Very reliant on Drones for defense
-1: No Sensors
-0.5: Mediocre layout
Total: -2
Gila Monster (Mantis Cruiser A)
The Mantis are definitely combat oriented and this ship is no exception. Possessing a 2 man crew teleporter plus the crew to actually use it straight away, means that this ship is designed to board other ships also taking other factors into account. The 3 Mantis and 1 Engi are excellent crew to start with, having a boarding party and a couple of system manning. Sure the mantis isn’t great for system manning, but he’ll be best as the pilot while the Engi should sit in the engine room. Because you only have 1 crew member that is good at putting out fires and repairing, the lack of sensors means it is much more difficult to keep on top of boarders, fires and breaches. It’s hard enough repelling boarders, putting out fires and repairing breaches, even tougher if you don’t know where they are.
You’ll want to rely on your crew taking out enemy crew (this is a boarding ship, not a gunship) although the starting weapons means that you will be able to battle any ship unlike some other specalised boarding ships. You’ll likely want to upgrade the teleporter to level 3 early on, as 4 crew means you can send more people over at a 10 second cooldown.
The starting weapons are ok, you get the weak Basic Laser and a Small Bomb. They can do some good work early in the game but after that you will find they are severely lacking. The Small Bomb is very good against enemy Medbays and Clone Bays however, so it is definitely something you should consider keeping. However, you only get 1 power in the weapons slot initially so you can’t use both from the start of the game and it costs more to upgrade it to level 2 than the next 2 upgrades. Also, there are only 3 weapons slots available on the Gila Monster which is actually quite a significant drawback.
You’ll want the standard defenses in the early game but you’ll need the extra scrap for sensors and the 2nd capacity for the weapons as well. Luckily killing the enemy crew gives you more scrap than just simply destroying the ship. The layout is not too good but not shockingly bad either, but it is tough to be able to vent certain rooms, especially near the extremes of the ship. It’s easier than it looks to get around the ship though, due to the Mantis Pheromones augmentation you get. Another mild plus is that the teleporter is somewhat close to the medbay.
This ship can be deadly if used correctly as a boarding ship rather than a gunship. It’s not the best boarding ship overall but it is definitely a good boarding ship, the question is whether the boarding can make up for it’s flaws.
Ratings
+2: Crew Teleporter
+1.5: Starting crew
+0.5: Small Bomb
+0.5: Mantis Pheromones
-2: Maximum of 3 Weapon slots
-1: Level 1 Weapons
-1: No Sensors
-0.5: Mediocre Layout
Total: 0
Basilisk (Mantis Cruiser B)
Like the Gila Monster, this mantis cruiser is designed to destroy enemy crew. Possessing the extremely rare 4 man crew teleporter where only 3 ships in the game can get it, this makes boarding exceptionally strong against anything not unmanned or Zoltan. Having only 2 Mantis as starting crew means you can’t use it to its full potentially early and you’ll likely have to teleport both to be able to take enemy crews. Getting crew early is a must for this ship, you’ll want system manning and to finish off the boarding crew as well. Sending over all your crew in the early stages is risky, but that’s what the Mantis strategy is all about. This ship however, starts with with 0 weapons which is strange for a race so in love with combat, I guess it’s for balance reasons. Additionally with the Basilisk only getting 3 weapons slots instead of the usual 4.
The ship also has very good defenses at the start as well to make sure needless damage isn’t taken. Possessing level 2 shields from the get-go, this is the only ship that starts with this and is a good amount of scrap saved to spend elsewhere, as you want level 2 shields early on anyway. Sending over all your crew will mean a dodge chance of 0% (and no point with upgrading the auto-pilot either early), which means that the Defense Drone Mark I you get is so much more vital against missiles. You also start with 11 reactor power, which is by far the most power for any ship at the start of the game.
Boarding drones are even useful against more numerous crew, and can even be used against unmanned scouts. The 5 room scouts which are all connected are easy to take down with patience, as the boarding drone can damage all the rooms. The scouts with no connected rooms is a bit more difficult, but still possible to destroy if you upgrade your teleporter to at least level 2. So unlike another ship with the 4 crew teleporter, you can destroy scouts, although Zoltans still are impossible with the starting systems and equipment.
The layout of the ship is also quite good, apart from the less important systems being stuck in single entry areas near the back of the ship which makes them not easily ventable. The majority of the important systems are close together at the front of the ship for easy access and easily ventable although beams might be slightly more problematic. The medbay and crew teleporter are also right next to each other, which is great for a boarding ship. This layout is even easier to get around, due to the Mantis Pheromones.
This is the one of the bests ship in the game, only behind the Carnelian (Crystal B) and the Shrike (Lanius B). The Carnelian gets a godly crew and cloaking, where the Lanius is an insane boarding/gunship combo.
Ratings
+4: 4-man Crew Teleporter
+1: Shields Level 4
+1: 11 reactor power
+1: Drone Control
+1: Defense Drone Mark 1
+0.5: Boarding Drone
+0.5: Fairly good layout
+0.5: Mantis Pheromones
-2: Maximum of 3 Weapon slots
-1.5: No Weapons
-1: Weapons Level 1
-0.5: Starting crew
Total: +4.5
Theseus (Mantis Cruiser C)
I’ve seen this ship cop quite a lot of flak from many people online, and I’m not really sure why. Sure it only has one large draw to the ship, but it really is a massive item to have in your inventory. It could be that I am somewhat biased to great boarding ships, but being just one of 3 ships total in the entire game that can have the 4-man teleporter is certainly something of note.
The teleporter by far is the best part of the ship. It doesn’t start at it’s maximum capabilities because you start with 3 crew (and only 2 of them are useful boarders), but the potential payoff is huge once you get more crew. The Lanius and Mantis crew is definitely an interesting combination and one that looks very fraught with danger. And if the ship had a Medbay it would be, but luckily you start with a Level 2 Clonebay instead. Normally Mantis are your best boarders, but the Mantis here is more of a bodyguard to the Lanius who is more important overall. The Mantis keeps the Lanius from taking too much extra damage while the Lanius drains the oxygen to give you (hopefully) free reign over some rooms.
Medbays and clonebays are definitely an issue, so luckily there are some weapons that can help you against these pesky systems. The Stun Bomb and Lockdown Bombs you get are useful at taking out systems and enemy crew, but they cannot damage the enemy hull at all. So you will be exclusively boarding from the get-go with bomb weapons being the only support. The largest problem with these bombs is that they take a fair while to come online, at 15 seconds and 17 seconds for their cooldowns. The biggest strengths of the Crystal’s Lockdown ability is the ability to use it immediately so you can trash rooms from the start of the fight, plus if you have multiple Crystal crew then you can chain Lockdowns. They are handy in a pinch but having literally 0 other support for your boarders can be problematic. The potential chance to miss can also be annoying, but you can still play a few tricks with them. If you time it right (as there is a second or so delay from the bomb firing to hitting the room), you can get your boarders out of a room just in time for the Stun bomb to hit, stun their crew and then you have free reign. However neither of these weapons are as good as a dedicated laser or flak, so if you find something like a Flak I in a store, then selling both of these and the Mantis Pheromones if needed to get it is something I’ll support.
Your only weakness is Zoltan ships, as you have no way to break their Zoltan Shield, but you don’t care about auto-scouts as you have a Lanius and a Clonebay. Having a Level 2 Clonebay from the start is actually nice, as it can take 1 point of damage and still function which can be a huge problem for other boarding / Clonebay ships, as all the other ships only have a Level 1 Clonebay. The layout is also definitely a good one as well, fires will almost never be a problem due to having so many airlocks and those being spaced at good intervals. The extremes of the ship are a fair distance apart but that’s not a huge problem especially with the Mantis Pheromones. The defenses of the Theseus are just merely average, with 1 Shield bubble and Level 2 engines but this is very standard overall.
This is the weakest ship to have the 4-Man teleporter but the ship itself is still quite good overall. The defenses are the worst of the ships with the 4-Man teleporter but not bad by any means. And apart from the teleporter there isn’t an abundance of huge strengths but it still has some solid advantages and the teleporter counts for an awful lot just by itself.
Ratings
+4: 4-man Crew Teleporter
+1: Starting crew
+0.5: Level 2 Clonebay
+0.5: Good Layout
+0.5: Mantis Pheromones
-2: Maximum of 3 Weapon slots
-1.5: No weapons that damages ships
-1: Some reliance on bomb weapons
Total: +2
Torus (Engi Cruiser A)
This is probably the first ship in the game that you’ll unlock, seeing that you only have to reach sector 5 to get it. This ship has a somewhat different playstyle compared to a lot of others, in that you’ll be using Ion weaponry to take out the shields and have drones do the damage for you (at least early). The Ion Blast II is an insane weapon, in that you can easily keep the shields locked down while your starting anti-ship drones destroys the enemy ship. Higher dodge chances during the later game will counter the Ion Blast II so you can’t rely on it on it’s own for the entire game. You also can’t choose where the drone shoots, although it can still do a lot of damage in a short time. This is actually a flaw though, as because there is no targetted damage you can’t choose what systems you want damaged and if you desperately need a system damaged, the attack drones won’t always damage it for you.
The Ion Blast Mark II is one you’ll likely want to keep for the entire game, but you will need some other weapons eventually and only having 3 weapons slots means you will be limited in choice for weapons setups. However the 3 drone slots means you can get 2 offensive drones in attack drones (not the boarding variety), 1 defensive drone and still do fine damage. The heavy use of drones means that you’ll want to pick up a Drone Recovery system very early, this will save you so much scrap over the course of the entire game.
The layout is very compact which is good for moving about the ship but bad against beam weapons and boarders until you get Blast Doors, and only having 2 airlocks means places like the Engines, Shields and Cockpit are very tough to vent out without half of the ship along with it. This is one of the least viable ships to get a crew teleporter due to the nature of the starting crew, although if you get some good boarders later you can still pick it up. 2 Engi and a Human means that repairs around the ship will come fairly promptly. However your crew may have to put out fires themselves so the whole ship isn’t on fire or vented. Basic defensive measures are standard in the early sectors, although defensive drones can be gotten easily for missile protection. An anti-personnel drone is sometimes an ok idea for this ship as the crew is very weak to boarders at least early on.
This ship has decent starting systems and equipment, although it does lack in a couple of areas. This is one of the best ships if you don’t feel like using a boarding crew and want to focus on Ion weaponry and drones, but seeing that this style of gameplay doesn’t usually lead to the most wins, it’s not exactly an amazing ship.
Ratings
+1.5: Ion Blast Mk II
+1 Drone Control
+1: Starting crew
+0.5: 3 Drone slots
+0.5: Engi-Med Bot Dispersal
-2: 3 Weapon slots
-1: Lack of targetted damage
-0.5: Mediocre layout
Total: +1
Vortex (Engi Cruiser B)
So where to start with this ship. This ship is definitely one that can be unlocked early on in the unlocking sequence, and boy is it a wake up call compared to the rest of the ships so far.
There are numerous disadvantages with this ship and the largest one is definitely the crew that you start with. You start with a single Engi and literally nothing else. Almost all other ships start with 3 crew with only a couple of ships starting with 2 members. Sure you can say, that the Anti-Personnel Drone and the dual System Repair Drones can do the jobs that extra crew do, and yes they can repair breaches, fight boarders and help put out fires. However the biggest drawback is the fact that there’s no system manning. Having gold experience on crew members is a huge boon, as a -20% cooldown on Weapons, 30% faster recharge on Shields and a +10% dodge chance from Engines is just massive at any stage in the game. Even with no experience, the bonuses are approximately half so literally having only a pilot means that your ship is just worse than every other ship out there from beacon 1. I guess this ship was designed to have the ship be run autonomously, but this is just a terrible way to play FTL.
The layout is fairly bad and a small medbay doesn’t help either. Infact, until you get more crew, you should just vent everything except the medbay and the cockpit so boarders are less of a problem. A maximum of 3 weapon slots also means that this ship will likely not even become very powerful in the late game, with nothing else to make it unique. You don’t even get good defenses to make up for the other areas that the Vortex lacks. You get 1 Shield Bubble with Level 1 Engines (subpar but not atrocious) and nothing else, not even a Defense Drone to help avoid damage or Blast Doors to help against boarders.
There’s really not even many advantages to this ship to make up for it’s terrible diasdvantages either. The best part about this ship is probably the Heavy Laser 1 that you start with. It’s definitely a solid weapon, but it is worse here than it normally is. Normally it’s used last as hull damage with other lasers being Shield breakers, but since your Shield breaker with the Vortex is the utterly terrible Heavy Ion (a forerunner in the worst weapon stakes) means that the 2 weapons do not work well together at all. The Heavy Laser will have to wait numerous seconds just for the Heavy Ion to fire, and if the Ion misses, then it’s even longer as the Heavy Ion has the longer cooldown.
There is a large number of scrap avaliable to sell though, if you do find something good in stores. That alone probably tells you how bad this ship really is, that a benefit of playing this ship is that you get to sell a bunch of stuff for some scrap at the first store you come across.
Ratings
+1: Lots of useless junk to sell
+1: Drone Control
+0.5: 3 drone slots
-3: Starting Crew
-2: 3 weapon slots
-1: No Sensors
-0.5: Small Medbay
-0.5: Mediocre layout
Total: -4.5
Tetragon (Engi Cruiser C)
After the rude awakening that was the Vortex, The Tetragon has many more tools at it’s disposal. A bunch of the tools are quite solid, although there are a couple of drawbacks to this ship. This is another of those ships that is quite hard to use effectively, especially since Hacking is probably the most skill-intensive system to use.
The best parts of this ship would have to be the combination of Hacking plus the Defense Scrambler. The Defense Scrambler makes sure that enemy Defense Drones do not work, which is actually very useful for Hacking and Attack Drones. And since the Tetragon starts with both of these, it means that one weakness of both of these systems is nullified. The Hacking itself is very very versatile and strategies using this will change on the fly, depending on the enemy ship and their loadout. Sometimes you’ll need to hack enemy Shields or Piloting to get damage through, sometimes you’ll need to hack enemy Weapons if they have a strong loadout that can punch through lots of damage. If you get a Crew Teleporter, then maybe you’ll have to hack that Medbay or Clonebay. The number of possibilities of Hacking are high and you will have to use this judiciously to maximise its effectiveness.
You start with Dual Lasers which are definitely very solid and a Beam Drone which I find are worse than the normal Attack Drones. The biggest issue is that Beam Drones do not help at all with taking down shields although the Hacking can mitigate this somewhat. Still I’m not a huge fan of the untargetable damage that the Beam Drones creates, many times it’ll hit a systemless room or not a useful system, while the Weapons or Shields go untouched. The starting crew is also quite solid, sticking your Lanius in the Cockpit is best as it is quite a fiar way away from the rest of the ship.
There are drawbacks though, the largest one is in the weapons department. Only being able to get 3 Weapons plus starting with Level 1 Weapons means that this is a far cry from many other ships in this regard. The Tetragon also has a high reliance on Drones, whether you use the Beam Drone, Hacking or both. You may start with lots of drones, but they will be used quickly if not used smartly. A Drone Recovery Arm is something that you should probably look out for, especially if you want to use lots of Hacking and also use the Beam Drone.
The layout of the Tetragon would also be fine except for the Cockpit placement. It is a long and ardous route even from the Shields Room. If there was a door between the Shields / Sensors it would be a fair amount better. Fires generally aren’t a problem though, 2 Engi crew plus multiple airlocks at decent intervals around the ship.
This is a solid if not a hugely powerful ship. It will take some finesse and not outright brute force to go far with this ship. Smart use of the Hacking will lead to the best outcomes, but bad usage will likely lead to the ship’s downfall. There are definitely some flaws that keep this to being a slightly above average ship.
Ratings
+1.5: Hacking
+1: Defense Scrambler
+1: Dual Lasers
+1: Drone Control
+1: Starting crew
+0.5: 3 Drone slots
-2: 3 Weapon slots
-1: Level 1 Weapons
-1: High reliance on Drones
-0.5: Mediocre layout
Total: +1.5
Osprey (Federation Cruiser A)
The Federation Cruisers are avaliable once unlocked from the Rebel Stronghold and have a unique weapon in their arsenal. The Artillery Beam is a weapon that has it’s own room, has it’s own upgrade path and can penetrate any shields to do damage. It has a 50 second cooldown at level 1 (twice as long as the Glaive Beam!) so look to upgrade this at least once even in the early game. The starting Burst Laser Mark II on the Osprey is a great weapon throughout the entire game, so you can entirely focus on your defense in the early game, as the Artillery Beam and Burst Laser can do all the work even until sector 4 or 5 (depending on difficulty), even if it makes it slow.
The layout of the ship is very bad, I think it’s one of the worst in the game. There are only 3 airlocks and they are at awkward points in the ship so venting is not easy, especially for the shields room and the cockpit. The layout is also cluttered and it is a long journey from the back of the ship to the front. However, the starting crew is excellent, one of the best in the game. The crew compliments each other greatly, with no weaknesses. The only downside is that the Rockman and Mantis aren’t as great compared to other ships because boarding is not as viable for this ship as others if you do want to use the Artillery Beam.
AE made it so that you can get cloaking on the Federation Cruisers now so that is no longer a drawback, although the Artillery Beam does takes up the place of 1 system and you can’t sell the Artillery Beam so you are stuck with it for the entire game. Boarding is definitely more riskier with this ship than most others. You get the starting crew to board effectively, but the Artillery Beam means that you need to be extremely careful with boarding. You can hurt your own crew with the beam, and it is possible for the Artillery Beam to destroy ships with your boarding crew still on it, because of the shield piercing. You can still board but be very careful when you do, especially with higher levels of the Artillery Beam.
The Osprey can be incredible in the late game although even with the Burst Laser Mark II it does have a slow early game. The layout of the ship is bad, but there are no real drawbacks compared to quite a few strengths. This is definitely a very good ship, but a little behind the best in the game.
Ratings
+2.5: Burst Laser Mk II
+2: Starting crew
+.5: Artillery Beam
-1: Very bad layout
-1: Slow early game
Total: +3
Nisos (Federation Cruiser B)
This is the alternative version of the Federation Cruiser. Like the Osprey, it has alot of the major strengths and drawbacks that come with the artillery beam. However, the Nisos does differ compared to the Osprey in some ways. First of all, the crew of the Nisos comprises of a Human, Zoltan and a Slug which means that anti-boarding is much tougher, especially since the medbay is only 2 tiles as well. The overall layout is somewhat better than the Osprey with an airlock in the middle of the ship, but you still have to vent through system rooms to get to some of the far ones.
You get a 2nd level of the artillery beam from the get go, which chops 10 seconds off the charge time which is useful but still way too long to effectively use in the early game. The starting weapons of the Nisos compare to the Osprey at least in the early game. Dual Lasers are great efficiency wise, if a slightly less powerful but less power using version of the Burst Laser II, while the Leto missile launcher is sometimes useful for the first couple of sectors, while you look for other weapons to replace it for later in the game. These weapons are good in the early game but fall off dramatically the further into the game you go.
For the most part, the Nisos is an inferior Osprey but this is still definitely a ship that you can complete the game with. It is not bad by any means, and I find it around the middle of the pack in terms of power.
Ratings
+1: Dual Lasers
+1: Artillery Beam Level 2
-.5: Small Medbay
-.5: Mediocre layout
Total: +1
Man-O-War (Slug Cruiser A)
All the slug ships have their quirks to them, they are not just run and gun ships or straight boarding ships or anything like that. They have some high skill caps and usually have fairly tricky ways to play the ships ideally.
The Man-O-War is fairly unique in the way it tries to take out enemy crew. Instead of boarding ships, it uses the Anti-Bio beam to damage crew, Actually all the weapons have their place, even if none of them are all that powerful on their own. Additionally you only have the power to power up to 2 of the 3 weapons from the start of the game, so getting Level 4 Weapons will be a high priority in the early game. The Dual Lasers is likely the best weapon, especially in the efficiency department, the 2 lasers for 1 power on a fast cooldown is very good. However, it will be problematic to take out 2 shielded enemies on it’s own. The usual way fights will be fought will be for the Breach Bomb to take out enemy Shields (2 Bubbles or more) / Medbays / Clonebays, the Dual Lasers will drop the shields then the Anti-Bio Beam will be carefully placed to damage as many crew as possible. Pausing to line up the shot will be needed, as you must hit the crew directly, ignore the yellow boxes that come up for beam weapons. It will take alot of finesse to use all these weapons effectively.
The rest of the ship is fairly standard, nothing too outrageously bad or good in any real regard.
No sensors is somewhat a lesser problem on the Slug ships as the Slugs themselves will be able to see enemy crew and the Slug Repair Gel can fix any breaches. However fires will likely be a problem in the Cockpit, as there are only 2 airlocks at the back of the ship and many rooms will have to be vented to vent the cockpit. However the Blast Doors will make sure boarders aren’t a huge problem and fires won’t spread.
The ship itself has some interesting quirks, but it’s not really all that powerful, so is nothing more than mid tier.
Ratings
+1: Dual Lasers
+0.5: Anti-Bio Beam
+0.5 Slug Repair Gel
+0.5 Blast Doors
-1: No Sensors
-1: Starting Crew
-0.5: Mediocre Layout
Total: 0
Stormwalker (Slug Cruiser B)
The Stormwalker is a unique boarding ship in the fact that you have a Healing Burst weapon that allows you to heal your crew as they are fighting the enemy on their ship. You do have the crew to start boarding right away with a pilot, but the problem is that you do not start with a Medbay or a Clonebay.
The Healing Burst is an interesting weapon and allows you to play tricks that you would otherwise not have access to, but there are definite downsides to this. One is if you need to Healing Burst on the enemy ship, this means that the Healing Burst can miss due to the enemy dodge chance, you’ll need to lure the pilot out of the cockpit for best results. The second is that it uses missiles and your only damage dealer is a missile launcher so like the Bulwark, those missiles you do get at the start will run out very quickly. It’s not quite as bad as the Bulwark because you do have the teleporter, but you won’t be able to board every ship and when the missiles do run out, you won’t be able to board without losing crew. You will have to get that Medbay or Clonebay, and you will have to get other weapons as well.
The layout is reasonable, with plenty of places to vent from and while the layout is kinda large it’s not bad to get around. All the slug ships have no Sensors but the Blast Doors / Slug crew and Slug Repair Gel help out against boarders and breaches respectively. The ship has some ok perks, but the High reliance on missiles means a higher RNG factor than most ships, along with the fact that you will have to buy that Medbay or Clonebay means that this ship is below average, but not horrendously bad.
Ratings
+2: Crew Teleporter
+0.5 Artemis
+0.5 Slug Repair Gel
+0.5 Blast Doors
-2: High reliance on missiles
-1.5: No Medbay or Clonebay
-1: No Sensors
-1: Fairly RNG dependant
Total: -2
Ariolimax (Slug Cruiser C)
The Ariolimax is perfect for those slugs lovers who like to use tricky systems to gain advantages. This is definitely one of the harder ships to pilot however and there’s nothing super powerful that you can just rely on like many other ships. You will have to use all your strategy and cunning to successfully use this ship.
The main draws to the ship are the Mind Control and the Hacking. Like the Lanius A and the Engi C, you’ll likely be using the Hacking on enemy Shields (or perhaps the Piloting) so you can get some decent damage through especially in the early game. The Mind Control isn’t as effective as if you were to have a Teleporter, but it still does help disrupting enemy crew and systems. It’s unlikely that the Mind Control on it’s own will allow you to reap the benefits of killing all the crew as it’s very slow (and very difficult if they have a Medbay / Clonebay). Generally try to use it on crew that are trying to repair systems and generally in like the Engine room or something, as the possessed crew will likely attract the other crew their way. Always possess Mantis if you get the opportunity, as they will do significant damage even at Level 1. The Hacking and Mind Control together is a potent disruption combo and you can even play tricks like Mind Controlling someone to lure the pilot out of the cockpit, then Hacking that room so they can’t easily get back in.
These 2 systems means that a Crew Teleporter is very very tempting, but take note that you only get 1 more system period to spend your money on. You have very good offensive potential with a Teleporter, but then you won’t be able to get Drones OR Cloaking, so you will be very weak to missiles and the Flagship. It is something you will definitely need to think about.
The weapon you get is something less to like however. Starting with just a Chain Laser as your damage dealer is subpar compared to most ships in the game. It’s decent if you are impervious to damage (and can get the weapon to it’s capped volley without taking damage), but the Ariolimax starts with just standard defenses, so you will likely be taking damage here and there especially on hard difficulty. The Weapons room being hit is also very bad as it will reset the Chain Laser back to it’s initial volley. I’d much rather a Dual Lasers or even just a Burst Laser I to the Chain Laser from the start.
Starting with no Sensors is normal for the Slug ships, even if you’ll likely want to pick them up at some point. The layout is also not great, with a very long path from the Weapons room to the Cockpit, even if they are close together on the ship itself. A simple room (or better yet airlock) between these 2 rooms would vastly improve the layout. The Shields room and the Cockpit are also annoying to vent out, as you have to vent through the Engine room to do it (the Cockpit also needs the Shield room vented).
The Ariolimax is a tricky ship, in that you’ll likely be relying on your offensive support systems while your Chain Laser gets in for whatever damage it can. It doesn’t have anything super powerful in it’s arsenal and does come with some drawbacks, so it’s an average ship with a high skillcap.
Ratings
+1.5: Hacking
+1: Mind Control
+0.5: Slug Repair Gel
-1: No Sensors
-0.5: Starting Weapons
-0.5: Mediocre layout
Total: +1
Bulwark (Rock Cruiser A)
The Bulwark is a tough as nails ship with a tough as nails crew. It’s Rock Plating means that there is a 15% chance that any hull damage will be negated, although systems will still be damaged. It is definitely useful, as you will take damage throughout the game, but the 40 scrap it sells for is sometimes tempting.
The Bulwark starts with a couple of good missile weapons but even the high number of missiles you start with will run out in a short time due to only having missile weapons. Therefore you will need to sparingly use your missiles in the early sectors until you can find some other weapons (lasers preferably). Use the Artemis to take out enemy systems and use the Hull missile against systemless rooms for maximum hull damage. You’ll want to replace the Hull missile, but the Artemis can be worth keeping around, even after you get other weapons. Although if you do find really good weapons in stores, then sell either (or both) of the missile launchers and the Rock Plating, as you can generate about 100 scrap that way.
This ship has the worst layout in the game, because of the lots of little rooms in the middle of the ship and a torturous route to system rooms, worsened by the Rock crew members that you start with. The two slight bonuses for the layout are the crew teleporter will be next to the medbay when you buy one and fires are actually not a problem for the ship, with Rock Crew and the ship itself being easily ventable. There’s lots of systemless rooms that will be the only other rooms that will need venting. However, I’d recommend using Mantis as anti-boarders and using the Rockmen as boarders if you want to use a teleporter just because of the terrible layout. The 3 Rockmen are a good starting crew however, you have your pilot and a boarding crew if you want one.
This ship is interesting in some regards, but the terrible layout and exclusive reliance on missiles mean that this ship has a lower chance of having long term success compared to most other ships.
Ratings
+1: Starting crew
+1: Rock Plating
+0.5 Artemis
+0.5: Fires are rarely a problem
-3: Exclusive reliance on missiles
-1.5: Terrible layout
-1.5: RNG dependant
Total: -3
Shivan (Rock Cruiser B)
The Shivan is the alternate take on the rock style of cruiser. Again it is a tough as nails ship with the 4(!) Rock Crew and Rock Plating. There are a couple of interesting facts about this ship. The ship doesn’t start with a door system or airlocks, and the ship starts with a 2nd capacity in the oxygen supply. You can buy the door system for 60 scrap at stores and will only allow you to open / close doors manually (and can upgrade them like normal), but you will still not get airlocks put into your ship. This means that you cannot vent at any point with this ship. Luckily the rockman crew themselves don’t care about fires too much and their durability means that boarders are less of a problem than with most other ships.
The weapons are ok. The Shivan starts with a modified Heavy Laser Mark I called the Heavy Pierce Laser. The power consumption and cooldown are both 1 higher than the standard laser, but the laser itself can pierce 1 level of shields so is great for early game skirmishers. The higher power consumption is bad, but this can still be used for most of the game, as unlike the crystal variant, the laser cannot be shot down as easily.
The fire bomb would normally be the exciting weapon though with the masses of rock crew at your disposal. The fire bomb screams crew teleporter, and the lack of one on the Shivan is actually a huge drawback. Normally not starting with a crew teleporter is fine but the ship NEEDS a crew teleporter to go with it’s fire bomb and with AE making it that much more harder to find any in stores means that this is actually a major problem. If you can get one then firebombing any room then teleporting rockmen into that room means that anything will be disabled for a huge amount of time (including the medbay). Infact, this is one of the best ways to take out a medbay.
The layout of the ship is fairly decent and so much better than the Bulwark, although still slow to move around for the rock crew. The major systems are mostly at the extremes of the ship and the compact middle of the ship is susceptible to beams. Where the crew teleporter would be is on the other side of the ship compared to the medbay although it’s still not that far between them. This ship can survive without upgraded doors somewhat for a few sectors unlike most other ships, but it is still definitely a drawback.
The ship has some perks, but a couple of fairly strange weaknesses and the lack of a starting crew teleporter means that this is not a great ship. Still it is a capable ship and can be very fun to pilot if you can ever get that crew teleporter.
Ratings
+2: Starting crew
+1: Rock Plating
-2: Doesn’t start with a crew teleporter and needs one
-1: No starting doors
-0.5: Venting is not possible
Total: -0.5
Tektite (Rock Cruiser C)
This is the 3rd Rock Cruiser and they have paired up with their convergent evolution buddies in the Crystal. This means the ship really is a joint Crystal / Rock Cruiser, with equipment featured from both lineages of cruisers.
The starting crew of the Tektite consists of 2 Rockmen and a Crystal, which is a very good crew right off the bat and the ships biggest advantage. There is no teleporter here to make use of them, but they are very good at everything except for moving around the ship, all of them being slower than normal. Boarders, fires and breaches should rarely be a problem for this crew. The layout of the ship is not bad in the venting department but fairly poor in the ability to move around the ship, amplified by the slow movement speed of the starting crew. The Rock Plating is a nice augment to have, as it means that you will take less damage than normal so you will save money on repairs, although it is only a 15% chance. Still it is useful to have and even if you don’t want it, it sells for a nice 40 scrap to boot.
The weapons, while decent to good on paper are actually the biggest weakness of the ship. The Swarm Missile launcher is one of the best missile systems, with some of the usual weaknesses of a missile system mitigated. However, even though it is not completely nullified by a Defense Drone, it still does lose 1/3rd of its damage at a full charge. This wouldn’t be a big problem if the other weapon that the Tektite has is a decent multi-shot laser, but the Tektite has a Heavy Crystal instead. This weapon also has its projectile shot down by a Defense Drone and it is also a shield piercing weapon which is basically the same as the Swarm anyway. They do the same job, and while the Heavy Crystal does decent damage to the hull, it can only pierce 1 Shield bubble. Defense Drones are quite common in the FTL universe, especially in Pirate and Engi sectors, which will be a huge hassle for this ship.
The Tektite looks good on paper, but looking a little deeper reveals some flaws that the Tektite will be hard pressed to overcome, especially if it gets unlucky. A single Defense Drone will limit the damage output immensely and it has no other ways to get around it. Therefore it is simply an average ship.
Ratings
+1.5: Starting crew
+1: Rock Plating
+0.5: Swarm Missile
-1: Very weak against defense drones
-1: Some reliance on missiles
-0.5: Mediocre layout
Total: +0.5
Adjudicator (Zoltan Cruiser A)
The first thing of note on the Zoltan Cruiser is the Zoltan Shield. This augmentation is very helpful in that it blocks the first 5 damage that would hit your ship (and misses still miss as well). This is a godsend in the early game, you shouldn’t take much damage if any early on in the game. Because your main weapon in the early game has a long cooldown, the Zoltan Shield helps prevent damage that you could otherwise take with some other ships while your weapon is still charging. This part of the Zoltan Shield gets weaker and weaker the further into the game you go, but the Zoltan Shield is still incredible for the entire game. Just beware for Ion weapons, as they do double damage to the Zoltan Shield. The Zoltan Shield also blocks Mind Control, Hacking, Boarding Drones and Boarders while it is still up, with only scripted boarding events bypassing the Zoltan Shield.
It’s weapons are nice, with the Halberd Beam being very strong overall, although at the cost of high power and a high cooldown. It can even destroy some ships in the first couple of sectors on it’s own with 1 beam. This is definitely one of the best weapons in the game and works well for the entire game. The Leto Launcher is much less to like however. It has a short cooldown and a low power consumption, but 1 damage is very low. It’s definitely good for the first couple of sectors, but really falls off starting from around sector 3 or 4, so will need replacing. However, you can’t use both weapons at the same time initially, so getting the 4th power capacity in the weapons early on is recommended even if you don’t plan on keeping the Leto for long, due to the Halberd Beam being unable to take on 2 shield ships on it’s own.
The layout of the ship is actually terrible (I consider it the 2nd worst in the game), with only 2 airlocks, a long route between the major parts of the ship, and 3 major rooms being only able to be vented through the Shield room. Actually the Engines require the Weapons room to be vented as well and since the Zoltans are very poor fireman due to the lowest health in the game, this can cause real problems. The Medbay is also close to the cockpit at the front of the ship, while the major system rooms are all right at the back which only compunds the fire problem. The Blast Doors are the sole reason that fires aren’t a major disaster on this ship. The reactor also starts off as the lowest in the game (Due to Zoltans giving power to certain rooms). Even with the 3 Zoltans, you start with one of the lowest initial power in the game due to 1 Zoltan having to man the cockpit at least until you find another crew. This is countered by usually being the ship with the highest power avaliable at the end of the game. Upgrading the reactor is something you should consider early on, so when you move a Zoltan it doesn’t cause the whole ship come to a stop.
Zoltans are notorious for being terrible for combat, so it is nice to see some anti-boarding measures are in place on the ship. As said before, the Zoltan Shield blocks boarders for the most part apart from scripted events. Secondly, the Adjudicator starts with Blast Doors, which helps immensely against boarders and fires, even if every other ship would pay 35 scrap to upgrade them anyway. Thirdly, the layout of the ship is so terrible that it’s actually good against boarders, due to lots of doors between all the major points of the ship.
Overall, this is a very good ship because of the strengths of the Halberd Beam and the Zoltan Shield. There are some smallish drawbacks but the strengths overshadow these by far. I could be talked into putting this ship in the excellent tier, but it’s super close and I’ll leave it at the top of the high tier for now.
Ratings
+3: Zoltan Shield
+2: Halberd Beam
+1: Starting crew
+0.5: Blast Doors
-1.5: Terrible layout
-1: 5 Reactor power
Total: +4
Noether (Zoltan Cruiser B)
The Noether is the alternative take on the Zoltan Cruiser and shares many of the similarities to the Adjudicator. All of the benefits of the Zoltan Shield are still here, however there is only 1 capacity in the Shields initially and it costs 100 scrap to upgrade it to get 1 level in the shields. This is a very high expense in the early game, so upgrading the engines to about level 4 gives a nice dodge chance and is cheaper than getting 1 level of shields online. Because you have the Zoltan Shield you can generally avoid damage but if there is a high-powered ship in the early game (especially if they have Ion weapons) that can rip through your Zoltan Shield you could take alot of damage.
To counteract this you get 2 Ion Blasts and a Pike Beam with the capacity to use all of them at once even from the start of the game. Against some early game ships you’ll likely only need the 1 Ion Blast powered up, but the 2nd means that you can lock down most shields for quite a few sectors. The Ion Blasts are also a very nice combination with the Pike Beam to do a bunch of damage at least in the early game but higher dodge chances in the later game does dampen Ion weapons a fair amount. You will definitely want Lasers the further into the game you go.
Starting with the 3 Zoltans and 5 reactor power, just like the Adjudicator, so the same advantages and disadvantages in these areas apply here. The layout of the ship is better in terms of moving about the ship, and the ship is surprisingly ventable, due to not really caring so much about the Doors room being vented out. Boarders are stronger against your ship however, so upgrading the doors is a must very early on. The front half of the ship is also susceptible to beams.
This is somewhat weaker than the Adjudicator mainly because of the weak shields. Requiring an expensive upgrade is a real bummer in the early game. The Zoltan shield alleviates this somewhat, but any ship that can quickly get through the Zoltan shield will cause huge problems. If the Noether had the extra point in the shields it would be at a similiar strength to the Adjudicator but I feel that it’s a little above an average ship in it’s starting form.
Ratings
+3: Zoltan Shield
+1: Pike Beam
+1: Starting crew
-2.5: Level 1 Shields
-1: 5 Reactor Power
Total: +1.5
Kruos (Lanius Cruiser A)
The Kruos is unlocked once you have 5 ships including the Kestrel in your hangar and it’s a pretty decent one at that. However it resides in the Ariolimax and Tetragon style of gameplay and is a fairly difficult ship to pilot. The main draw to the ship is the Hacking and like the 2 other aforementioned ships, you need to smartly use this system in order to be able to have a good run with the ship.
The weapons are fine, although fairly slow at actually dealing damage. The Chain Laser is not great on it’s own but the Ion Stunner does help somewhat. The cooldowns of the weapons don’t really match up all that well, but once the Chain Laser gets into the faster volleys, the Ion Stunner means that more damage will be punched through. You will still be relying on the Chain Laser to be doing all of the damage though.
Elsewhere on the ship is basically standard fare. You get a Clonebay instead of a Medbay and you also get Emergency Respirators which is generally best used by selling it at a store for 25 scrap. The defenses are slightly subpar at 1 Shield bubble and Level 1 Engines but are still standard. The layout of the ship isn’t all that great and the cockpit is somewhat difficult to vent. A possibility though is that you vent out everything except a couple of rooms near the cockpit because of your Lanius crew and then vent the cockpit out when necessary. This makes the Cockpit very weak against boarders until you get Blast Doors however.
The best part of the Kruos by far is the Hacking and there’s not all that much else going for it. However, it really has no real drawbacks, but it lacks really good equipment and systems to be in the higher tiers.
Ratings
+1.5: Hacking
+0.5: Starting Crew
+0.5: Emergency Respirators
-0.5: Fairly slow early game
-0.5: Mediocre layout
Total: +1.5
Shrike (Lanius Cruiser B)
The Shrike can be unlocked somewhat fairly on and it is well worth your time to do so. The Shrike is an amazing combination of both a boarding ship and a gunship, with numerous benefits to either style of gameplay.
The biggest strength of this ship is definitely the starting weapon it gets. The Flak I is already one of the best weapons in the game, and this version dubbed the Advanced Flak blows it out of the water. This is hands down the best weapon in the entire game and there is simply no discussion. For 1 power on an 8 second cooldown, you get a Flak I with a slightly smaller area of effect. This weapon is completely absurd and it is definitely overpowered.
Even if the Adv. Flak wasn’t here, there are a number of other tools at your disposal, mostly in the boarding department. Starting with a Crew Teleporter, Mind Control, 2 Lanius Boarders to use the teleporter right away plus a clone bay to resurrect your crew if something does go wrong, means that boarding is basically idiot-proof. You will likely destroy everything in your path offensively with all the tools at your disposal, you can take everything on unlike the other excellent ships in the game. Auto-Scouts? You have Lanius boarders that don’t care about oxygen or dying. Zoltans and their pesky Zoltan Shields? Advanced Flak takes care of the shield then your boarders do the rest.
There are some weak areas of the ship, although they truly are only minor setbacks. The largest drawbacks are that the Shrike has no Sensors and the Weapons only start at Level 1. Big whoop-de-doo, most other ships would kill for a setup this good. The defenses of the Shrike are slightly subpar with just Level 1 Engines and Level 2 Shields, but still standard enough. The layout of the ship itself is actually fine, as you’ll usually not have to do much past the Shields room and all the major rooms are fairly close together in the middle of the ship. It’s a bit tougher on your Engi crew but venting is very easy, as there’s 5 airlocks all around the ship and they are all placed at good intervals around the ship.
All ships fall prey to the Shrike, where the same cannot be said for the other fantastic ships in the game. The only reason why this ship is in 2nd place is simply because the 4-Man teleporter + 3 Crystal crew of the Carnelian is simply more broken than the Shrike.
Ratings
+4: Advanced Flak
+2: Crew Teleporter
+1.5: Starting Crew
+1: Mind Control
+0.5: Emergency Respirators
-1: No Sensors
-1: Level 1 Weapons
Total: +7
Bravais (Crystal Cruiser A)
The crystal cruisers are definitely the hardest cruisers to unlock during normal gameplay, since you have to complete 3 random events in order in the same run. You start with 2 Crystal crew members, which are the best and rarest race in FTL. The lockdown ability of the Crystal crew is just amazing. Additionally, the 2 Crystal crew make for an excellent boarding party, with the Bravais being one of the better boarding ships in the game once you get a crew teleporter. The Crystal Vengeance augmentation is not very useful I find, but the 40 scrap is sells for is!
The Bravais also start with 2 crystal weapons that can’t really be obtained anywhere and they do partial shield piercing, which makes them excellent in the early sectors of the game. However the crystals they shoot out can be shot down by defense drones with make them worse the later into the game you go. You will want some other weapons to at least compliment the crystal weapons and probably replace them later in the game. However, there are additional problems with this ship. The layout of the ship is terrible in terms of moving about the ship, with nothing except for the crew teleporter and medbay being even remotely close to each other. Venting is very easy though, as a fire in a systems room can easily be put out and no other systems rooms will have to be vented as well.
It is a reasonable ship in which to complete a run with the Crystal crew and the unique Crystal weapons although there are definitely better ships out there due a few minor problems and no huge strengths apart from it’s starting crew.
Ratings
+3: Starting crew
+0.5: Crystal Vengeance
-1: No other starting systems or augments
-1: Bad layout
Total: +1.5
Carnelian (Crystal Cruiser B)
This is the alternative take on the Crystal Cruiser. You start with 3 Crystal crew which is basically impossible to obtain in a regular playthrough with other cruisers, cloaking and the extremely rare 4 man crew teleporter. This means that the Carnelian right of the bat has 2 things that basically no other ship can obtain. On the flipside, you start with no weapons and no drones so the only way you can defeat ships is to kill enemy crew. Of course Crystal are one of the best races to make a boarding party but you cannot do a single thing against unmanned scouts (unlike the mantis B) and Zoltan ships. Since unmanned scouts are fairly common this can be a bit of an annoyance as you’ll be missing out on scrap and resources, but the killing of enemy crew should still mean you come out ahead. Just avoid those Zoltan sectors entirely until you get some weapons.
The basic defense plan for the first few sectors still works here, even with the cloaking. The extra layer of shields and dodge will really help against lasers, while the cloaking should work fine against missiles and bombs. The Carnelian is obviously a boarding ship so you’ll want these defenses so your crew will have enough time to be able to take out the enemy crew. You do need crew though to man systems, as you’ll want to use all the Crystal as boarders. The lockdown ability is just so good for boarding and multiples are even better. The layout of the ship itself is a little better than the Bravais although still not great, but with not as large a trip from one end of the ship to the other apart from the cockpit to the cloaking room. The medbay being next to the teleporter is a huge boon however, for this type of boarding ship. The ship is also as just as easy to vent as the Bravais with the Cockpit and Engine room being the hardest to vent. Again, the Crystal Vengeance augmentation is not very useful but the 40 scrap it sells for is!
This is the best ship in the game even with its flaws, simply because of the 4 man Crew Teleporter and the 3 Crystal crew members. It is extremely tough to unlock, but this ship is so good that it is worth it. You get more scrap from killing enemy crew so you will have more tools at your disposal come the later sectors. You even have enough defenses initially to not take needless damage. Sure you don’t have starting weapons, but against anything that isn’t unmanned or Zoltan, do you need them?
Ratings
+4: 4-man Crew Teleporter
+4: Starting crew
+2: Cloaking
+0.5: Crystal Vengeance
-1.5: No Weapons
-1: Level 1 Weapons
Total: +9
Ship Tier List
This is my personal tier list for the ships. It might not be precisely accurate but it is my personal opinion after all. It will be updated as I add more ships to this guide. The tiers are based upon my thinking around the likelyhood of completing the game with a certain ship and the ships are listed in order of how good I feel the ships are within each tier.
Excellent Tier (+4.5 and above)
1. Carnelian (Crystal B) +9
2. Shrike (Lanius B) +7
3. Basilisk (Mantis B) +4.5
High Tier (+4 to +2.5)
4. Adjudicator (Zoltan A) +4
5. Red Tail (Kestrel B) +4
6. Osprey (Federation A) +3
Medium-High Tier (+2 and +1.5)
7. Theseus (Mantis C) +2
8. Bravais (Crystal A) +1.5
9. Kestrel (Kestrel A) +1.5
10. Noether (Zoltan B) +1.5
11. Kruos (Lanius A) +1.5
12. Tetragon (Engi C) +1.5
Medium Tier (+1 to -1)
13. Nesasio (Stealth A) +1
14. Ariolimax (Slug Cruiser C) +1
15. Torus (Engi A) +1
16. Nisos (Federation B) +1
17. Gila Monster (Mantis A) +0.5
18. Tektite (Rock C) +0.5
19. Man-O-War (Slug A) 0
20. Shivan (Rock B) -0.5
Low Tier (-1.5 to -3.5)
21. Swallow (Kestrel C) -1.5
22. Simo-H (Stealth C) -2
23. Stormwalker (Slug B) -2
24. DA-SR 12 (Stealth B) -2
25. Bulwark (Rock A) -3
Trash Tier (-4 and below)
26. Vortex (Engi B) -4.5