Overview
Drones? Cloaks? Who needs them? MEN and GUNPOWER are the only ingredients you need in victory. Here is compilation of answers to community discussion threads on how to win FTL.
Ship Setup
My setup for easy run is door system, sensors, medbay, hacking, crew teleport, mind control. For weapons, flaks never go wrong, take it if you got the choice. Other weapon may depend on your ship, but missile weapon tend to be bad due running out of missile for it. Beam can be a good option as well if you have it pass through the shield. For ion, this is a support weapon, nothing too vital after your initial shield penetrating attack. So take flaks, beams, lasers as these actually do direct, brute damage to systems and manipulate enemy crews to where they will be situated. You’ll end up with 3-4 weapons, full shield, 1 power to every other system, and dump rest to the engine. Lock system manually with a crew member when boarded by enemy. View enemy ship insight with sensors manually just so when needed with crew member. We don’t waste power, it is vital 😉
Drone?
Why don’t I take drones? Because it can go bad when lacking drone part, so you have to continually purchase for it unless you have drone recovery arm. Drone can go bad on last stand battle, as it is pretty much anti-drone unless you have defense scrambler. This system is just too needy. Considering the weight of what you can attach to your ship, drones appear pretty inefficient and no direct control of attack either. Personally I rather spend that power into shield and more engine.
Gun Power
With this build, you hack enemy system to lower few line of its shield and mind control the pilot, enabling you to easily penetrate your weapons to their system rooms. Balance on where you need to attack at the time, shield or weapon. Permanently lower their shield if you can take their attacks without issue, or partly damage to weapon system continue to penetrate the attack safely. If you are at safe stance of attack pattern, take a shot to the pilot so you do more than part time mind interference. When their shield goes red, then it is your definite victory. It is time to reap.
Man Power
In the time when enemy crew scramble tor fix their system, another launch of attack will reduce their health. When enemy crew can no longer take damage as they will die, they’ll run to heal up. Take a couple shot to the medbay when you looked at their position using your sensors. Now, this is when your crew teleport comes in. You bring your crew into their desperate spot where their top priority is at for fixing. Wipe off weakened enemy crew, and the ship is yours for the taking.
Cloak? Meh We Already Won
Not only this build prepare for last stand, it doesn’t make waste of weapon and systems. Cloaking could be useful, however only lasts enough to dodge a round of shot before cooldown, it is just temporary solution. Hacking lowers system, mind control can take control of enemy crew, crew teleport can put down enemy weapon on last stand and also take control of ship to reap more rewards. This build is for attack and defense at the same time effectively. This build make enemy crew busy for fixing priority and manipulate them into your killing position. In my build, there is just no spot for meer drone or cloaking. Takeover your worthy victory reward against the enemy, or have it all destroyed for few scraps.
FTL Basics, If You Need It
– Use ‘space’ for pause to give yourself time to strategize and make your decisions timely.
– When your ship is boarded by intruders:
Vent air while your crew member manually lock it at Door System. If your crew race is no match for enemy combat race, expose enemy to airless long as possible, locking most door having them break door one by one. When intruders are low health, put air back in and have your combat dedicated crew member kill for experience. If your crew member are competible, then just vent all air except medbay and fight there. Easy.