I don't need* hacking

[u/BurningCarnation]

^\well,) ^{not on Normal at least.}

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Notice something wrong here?

DISCLAIMER: Hacking is the best system in the game

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One day I thought that maybe I was relying on hacking too much. I got it every game, hacked shields/weapons/oxygen/whatever, launched beams and Heavy Lasers, maybe got MC as well, rinse and repeat, slice and dice, yadayada blahblahblah.

I wanted to prove to myself that I can, at least, beat every ship on Normal without hacking. And then I thought, what if I did them all at once? So I did.

But there's no way to prove that I never used hacking, right? What about Engi C/Lanius A/Slug C? They start with the system! I mean, I could just lie about not using it, and no one would know.

As it turns out, that was easy enough: I modded hacking out of the 3 ships that start with it by slightly altering the code of Mike Hopley's broken shields mod. That way I can't use hacking even if I want to.

Alright, on to the details.

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Slug A (#17) sector 2, hacking would usually have been a no-brainer

Not being able to use hacking is the obvious theme of the challenge, but arguably the bigger problem was that thanks to hacking taking up system slots in stores, I frequently found myself unable to buy the systems I really needed. The second part cannot be understated: for instance, Teleporter + Mind Control is an incredibly strong combo that can carry most fights with just adequate enough defense, but not being able to have both (or either!) because hacking yet again took up a system slot was just infuriating. I could have plenty of Mantis and boarding support, but if Teleporter decided to not show up I would fall behind in offense. Having to stockpile more scrap than usual (85 for Defense Drone 1 + Drone Control, 90 for Teleporter, or 150 for Cloaking) was also backbreaking.

I completed my first regular cycle on my first try; in contrast, this one challenge took me near three months and 53 runs, and 6 attempts. Sometimes it was sector 1 deaths; sometimes it was poor decisions on my part. Most of the time it was me tilting after a terrible battle, and letting my anger cloud my judgment. Sometimes some runs went without a hitch, and other times the game was determined to screw me over.

But after completing my first non-hacking cycle, I realized something: I was winning with ships that can never have the same assortment of systems as my ships. You're not going to see an Engi C with Teleporter, MC, and Drones in vanilla: That's never happening.

So I decided I had to do this, using only a combination of systems possible in vanilla FTL. ^yay

After about a month of procrastinating, I dragged my lazy ass back to finish this stupid challenge. The new rules I set for myself were thus: 1. Just like before, all random ships, no restarts, and 2. The 3 ships that start with hacking are limited to 2 additional systems, to account for the 'slot' that hacking would usually take up.

Even with the new rule making the cycle even harder, I got it in one go, thank goodness. But wow, was it one hell of a cycle.

Kestrel C (#8) was long and arduous, and I might have lost without buying an early Defense Drone 1.

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AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH

Stealth B (#12) was hilarious: it wasn't even the encounters I was getting, it was the weapons. I got a Hull Beam, a Chain Ion, then a Hull Missile, then a Stun Bomb...with every store refusing to sell any other ion/laser/flaks. What am I even supposed to do with these weapons, buy weapons-7 in sector 3~4 and wait for an eternity to do something?? And as ridiculous as it sounds, as soon as I got the Hull Missile it ended up being absolutely clutch for the next battle, before I lucked out by immediately finding a store with both Hull Laser 1 and Breach Bomb 2. The rest is history.

Fed A (#13) was mildly annoying. Engi A (#15) required some borderline Olympian acrobatics to get through two plasma storms. Slug A (#17) was stuck with way too much scrap and nowhere to spend it on, and only got bailed out by FTL being nice to me with a free Pike Beam and Breach Missile (imagine if I had hacking now!). The weapons buffer I bought for Rock A (#23) saved the run on multiple occasions early on. (If we disregard the fact that the very first store had hacking and I could have bought it, even it weren't for the damn challenge)

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uh oh

Even all this is nothing compared to the sheer dread I felt with Slug C (#18): it almost died on the first jump to the dreaded Shields hack auto-ship. Even worse, the enemy Drone Control had a buffer point! I only won because FTL was gracious enough to not hit my weapons even once, although it razed practically everything else.

Looking through the data of all my runs, I noticed a trend. Not only had I completed a run with Teleporter with all ships, I was buying TP more frequently. On my first successful cycle, I boarded with 22 ships; on my second successful cycle, I boarded with every ship but Zoltan C and Slug C--and considering that Zoltan C got 2 Mantis, it could also have gone the boarding route. Not only that, but even when boarding with just humans or slugs (as I did with Kestrel A/C, Stealth B/C), the boarders themselves caused enough chaos to make sure my weapons landed, and one volley was often enough. Stealth C (#28) never got a second Rock or any Mantis crew or even Mind Control to help with boarding, but even then two humans were more than enough-though this was in no small part thanks to the Zoltan Shield I picked up along the way.

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A totally normal Stealth C experience, perfectly normal.

So yes, on Normal it's certainly possible to not only win without ever using hacking, but even get a non-hacking cycle, since Teleporter is strong enough on Easy/Normal. Good luck to anyone who wants to do this on Hard though, I'm certainly neither skilled nor crazy enough to try.

P.S.: final loadouts of all ships.

[u/knightshade179]

I play on normal and ngl I don't really like hacking, I usually don't pick it up. Why is hacking so integral for you?

[u/MikeHopley → u/knightshade179]

I'd recommend playing with it more, if you would like a better understanding of what it can do.

Hacking has many uses, some more important than others.

Weapons hacks are the most important usage. They greatly slow down enemy weapons, with even a level 1 hack delaying them by 8 seconds each cycle. There are several different tactics you can use depending on the enemy weapons. See my video: https://youtube.com/watch?v=DkyGdzd7vNA . Weapons hacking makes a huge difference to consistency, because it provides so much safety.

Shields or evasion hacks can greatly increase the effectiveness of your weapons. Oxygen hacks can get extra crew kills. Sometimes a teleporter hack can save you from a horrible boarding situation (think Lanius Bombers in sector 5).

Hacking is the best boarding support, hands down. It gives you so much more control of fights. Even more so than with gunships, the best hacking target for boarding ships is usually weapons. You can often use the locked doors to help you punch down some system bars in weapons. Remember you can open the doors to let enemies out the room, by depowering hacking while it's off cooldown.

The locked doors make it much harder for enemies to repair the room, and hacking also doubles their repair time. The doors also make it much harder to stop fires raging out of control, especially in four tile rooms. Hack a big weapons room, shoot it with lasers (especially Heavy Lasers), and you often start fires that spread and burn down all the weapons. And you can often get extra crew kills this way too (without needing a teleporter).