Overview
Guide by Nemesis 041In FTL, your ship is your only tool for survival of the Federation. But if you’ve never seen the game, you probably have no idea of what those icons at the bottom of the screen mean, and how you upgrade them. You may also be confused as to why you can open doors to the vacuum of space when you want to. This guide covers that and then some.
Your Main Reactor
Your power all generates from your Reactor, which is the stack of bars on the bottom-left side of the screen. Each bar can go into one bar of a system of your choice. You can upgrade the Reactor in your ship menu at the top of the screen up to a maximum of 25 total bars. From then, you have additional power you can use.
Every time you upgrade a system, you also need to upgrade the reactor to supply the power for that system upgrade.
Systems
Below are all the systems that are available for use in FTL. Each variety of ship has a different array of systems at the start of the game which forces you to use different tactics in-game. Not all systems are available at the start, but stores can occasionally sell systems for a price. You can have a maximum of twelve systems on your ship at a time. If your systems are damaged, they become less effective until repaired, based on the weapon damage that hit them. Each bar of power represents one ‘health’ of a system. Weapons can do any number of damage to a system, stripping it of that many bars until repaired by crewmembers.
Shields
Shields are your best friend early in the game. Most ships start out with two bars of shield power, which can block one laser shot from any source. Each two bars you put into the system will allow you to have another layer of shields. Shields regenerate quickly after being struck, but having a crewmember on the system improves this time to regenerate.
Engines
Engines allow you to FTL jump between beacons, as well as dodge enemy attacks. If the system is destroyed or unpowered, the FTL drive will not charge, and you will not have the ability to dodge enemy attacks. Every bar in the engines adds an extra 5% chance to dodge an attack. Having a crewmember manning the system also increases this number.
Oxygen
Generates oxygen so crewmembers don’t suffocate. You MUST keep this on, as turning it off will allow the oxygen to slowly drain away. Upgrading the oxygen greatly improves the rate at which it returns.
You can tell if oxygen is draining in a room when it starts to turn pink. If it’s striped pink and white, that means there is no oxygen in that room, and any crew inside it will take damage over time. They will not take damage if a room isn’t striped.
[bMedbay][/b]
Any allied crew inside the medbay will be healed over time, until they are at full health. Upgrading the medbay improves the rate of healing.
Sometimes, you may have a clone bay instead. See below for more info on that system. You cannot have both a clone bay and a medbay at the same time. (Buying one will replace the other)
Clone Bay
Clone bays revive any crew that are killed so long as it has power. It also heals damaged crew every time you make an FTL jump by a certain amount per jump. Upgrading the clone bay decreases the time it takes to clone somebody, and increases the heal per jump.
You usually start with a medbay instead. See above for more info on that system. You cannot have both a clone bay and a medbay at the same time. (Buying one will replace the other)
Weapons
Powers your ships weapons. Weapons can take anywhere from one power bar to four power bars, so upgrading this system allows for more weapons to be used.
Some weapons take missiles. The number you have remaining is shown at the top of the screen. If you have missile-based weapons but run out of missiles, those weapons will power down until you find more.
Drones
Drones have defensive and offensive capabilities. See the drones guide for more info on what drone does what. Like weapons, drones can use anywhere from one to four power bars, so upgrading this system allows for more drones to be used.
Drones, when deployed, require one drone part, shown at the top of the screen. If you are out of drone parts, you cannot create new drones. If you power down a drone, it will remain until destroyed, or in some cases, when you jump to the next location.
Teleportation
Allows you to teleport your crew onto the enemy ship. See the crewmembers and races guide for more info on boarding. Depending on the ship, you may be able to teleport two or four crewmembers at a time. Each time the teleporter is used, it goes on cooldown, preventing you from teleporting them back for a period of time. Upgrading the system reduces this cooldown.
Cloaking
Allows the ship to cloak. When cloaked, you automatically gain 60% dodge chance, which includes projectiles in flight towards you. Additionally, the enemy’s weapons will be unable to charge and fire. Like the teleporter, it goes on cooldown when used. Upgrading the system will increase the length of the cloak instead of reducing the cooldown.
If you shoot a weapon while cloaked, it removes one second from its remaining duration. Based on how many weapons are fired, not how many shots each weapon has fired.
Mind Control
Allows you to control an enemy crewmember as if they were on your side. Upgrading the system improves the damage the controlled crewmember deals and increases their health while mind-controlled.
Mind control cannot punch through Zoltan (green) shields, and does not affect Slugs. See the crewmembers and races guide for more info on Slugs.
Hacking
Sends out a hacking device that targets one system. At all times, it will shut the doors down (crewmembers have to fight to get in), and prevents them from gaining the bonuses from the system being manned. You have the ability to disrupt the system, forcing the ship a disadvantage based on what system you chose to hack. Once doing so, that function goes on cooldown for a few seconds. Upgrading the system increases the disruption duration.
The hacking drone cannot be destroyed once it makes contact with the ship, though it can be destroyed on the way. It also cannot be redeployed to target a different system once it latches on.
Artillery
The artillery is ONLY available on the Federation cruisers. (Not the Kestrel cruisers, by the way). It slowly charges a weapon (laser or flak depending on what type of the ship you used) that fires at enemy ships automatically. Upgrading the system greatly reduces the time it takes to charge up.
This counts as a regular weapon in terms of cloak, so it will still remove one second from the cloak duration if it goes off during it. However, weapon-based augmentations do not improve the artillery
Sub-Systems
Sub-systems do not require reactor power, but can be damaged and disabled just like normal systems.
Piloting
Provides the same benefits as the engine system. Allows you to FTL jump and dodge attacks. It will not function unless there is a crewmember inside. Upgrading the system allows auto-pilot, which will allow you evade attacks without a pilot, based on a percentage of your normal evasion with a pilot. However, you will still need a pilot to be able to FTL jump. If destroyed, you cannot dodge attacks, and your FTL drive will not charge.
Sensors
Allows you to see the interior of your entire ship. Upgrading this system will allow you to see the interior of your enemy’s ship, as well as their weapons’ current charges, and their power usage. Having a crewmember will add one upgrade level to the current sensors, and at max will allow you to see the enemy power usage. (Else, you cannot upgrade it that far). If destroyed or disabled, you are unable to see the inside of your ship unless a crewmember is in that room.
Doors
Allows you to control the doors on your ship. Upgrading the system will prevent enemy crewmember from being able to walk in doors, having to break them open instead. Upgraded doors also reduce the chance of fires spreading between rooms. If the system is destroyed or disabled, you cannot manipulate the doors yourself, however crewmembers (allied and enemy alike) are still able to move through them freely.
Backup Battery
This subsystem can be bought from a store that has it. It allows you to add two extra power to your reactor for thirty seconds, regardless of its default power. The backup battery supplied bars have a red outline around them. Upgrading the battery allows you to gain four additional bars instead of two.