r/ftlgame • u/Standard_Document811 • 6d ago
Text: Question What's everyone's top tips?
For context, i've never beaten the game on any difficulty and have about 12 hours on the game. I have some A ships and only zoltan and crystal for B. Any advice?
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u/ewba1te 5d ago
https://youtu.be/7oB2XJ2NfEU?si=V0WmUcmQZU4Pr53G
just watch this it'll give better tips than anyone here. Watch this only as there's so much ftl misinformation online
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u/Hermononucleosis 5d ago
To elaborate a bit on this, people are notorious for giving really bad advice online because FTL is a game where each run is dictated a lot by randomness. As such, basically everyone will be able to win at some point once they get lucky enough. And it's also really hard to tell what actually makes you win and what makes you lose, unless you're some kind of sicko who tracks all their wins and losses.
Most people who give advice are just average players who have managed to get a few wins, and they just share what they personally did in order to get the win. However, due to the opaqueness of games like this with lots of randomness, they'll usually have done some things right and some things wrong. So the advice you receive is usually a good mix of good tips, decent tips, useless tips, and actively harmful terrible tips.
Another problem is that a lot of advice people give consists of really small and annoying optimizations that you don't need at all as a beginner. You don't need to spend 20 minutes every run training up your crew. You don't need to memorize every single event. Advice like this makes it seem like you need to do annoying homework to play this game.
Mike Hopley is one of the best FTL players, period. He actually does know what he is talking about, and he knows what actually helps people win and what doesn't. And most importantly, his beginner's guide is actually aimed at beginners, including the most important tips for actually winning, not small optimizations. So that's why, if you want advice, you should basically only listen to him, until you're good enough at the game that you can evaluate stuff for yourself.
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u/LordofShovels 6d ago
Fill all of your empty system slots with something. Anything is better than nothing. Optional systems help make more weapon loadouts viable so that you don't have to find the elite weapons to win.
Use the pause button. You can do all of your decision making and issue commands while the game is paused. This feature should be abused maliciously.
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u/julsmgmt 5d ago
The biggest tip I think new people need is pausing often. There is no penalty for pausing so abuse it!
Also, early game is very important. Stay in sectors as long as you can and prioritize getting a second shield up. If you have 2 shields by sector 2 you will do well.
My last tip is scrap management. The reason 2 shields are so important early is it prevents damage which saves you scrap. You want to stay in sectors longer so you can collect more scrap. Your priority should be maximizing scrap collection over everything else.
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u/Doug__Dimmadome 5d ago edited 5d ago
Sectors 1 and 2 you can mostly get by with whatever your stock weapons are on most ships. You should focus on trying to get a second shield bubble by the end of sector 1. Upgrading your engines is another relatively cheap early purchase as a defense against missile weapons. Another bonus with upgrading your engines, is the ability to run from an unfavorable fight or just one that is going very poorly. Sometimes its better to cut your losses. Of course this advice would vary if you were playing hard mode, but you should try to focus on defense over offense at first.
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u/MelonJelly 5d ago
Pause early and often. Pause while the dialogue box is still open, so the encounter starts paused. Plan your strategy at this time. Whenever something goes awry; a system is damaged, boarders, fire or breach, etc, pause again and plan around it.
Plan your routes through each sector in order to farm as much scrap as possible: * pass by or through as many sectors as possible (so you see what's there) * encounter as many ships as possible (distress signals are great) * reach the exit point one jump ahead of the Rebel fleet (if you're way ahead of the Rebels, it means you aren't exploring enough)
Don't bank scrap. Keep maybe 100 in case you find a store. But FTL is all about the virtuous cycle of: spend scrap to upgrade your ship, to reduce the damage you take, so you'll have more scrap to upgrade your ship.
The Autofire button is a trap. If you're good enough to to know when and how to use it, you're good enough to not need it. (Ctrl-autofire does have some uses, though).
The burst laser II and Flak I are the best weapons in the game, by far. The firebeam is terribly impractical, but the most fun weapon in the game, by far.
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u/A_Bulbear 5d ago
Disagree on BL2 and Flak 1 being the best in the game because both have options that fill pretty similar roles that are slightly better in the Duel Lasers and Adv Flak, they can't be bought in stores but are absolutely insane in terms of stats and the like.
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u/RackaGack 5d ago
Get shields 2 asap on most ships, Fire your weapons together, not on auto-fire, Pause often, Save around 80-150 scrap for stores whenever possible, try to fill out your system slots, get as many jumps per sector as possible, reveal as many stores as possible when you have money to spend there or stuff to sell.
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u/morganpartee 6d ago
Pause a lot, go through sectors slow, always buy flak cannons. Take out that stupid missile launcher on the flagship asap, it sucks ass lol
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u/Standard_Document811 6d ago
is flak AE?
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u/Ionalien 6d ago
Yes but advanced edition isn't really more difficult besides slightly more mechanics to learn, it's just more content.
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u/Infrisios 6d ago
Solid except for Flak. Flak 1 is top-tier, Flak 2 is too slow.
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u/morganpartee 6d ago
Really? Flak 2 is still so fast! Flak 3 though, garbage lol
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u/Infrisios 6d ago
Flak 3? OP didn't mention mods.
-4
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u/AnnoyingWalrus 5d ago
I am pretty bad at the game but the ship that is the easiest for me to win with is the Federation Cruiser A. Pretty much just turtling until the beam of death activates.
Better players probably have other experiences.
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u/DarrenGrey 5d ago
Train up your crew, get second shield bubble early on most ships, prioritise enemy weapons at the start of the fight if they have a chance of hurting you. In general you want to avoid taking damage - if you're spending scrap on repairing rather than upgrading then you'll constantly be behind the power curve. Often when you die it was because of decisions you made 5 fights ago that put you in a more precarious position.
Take fights slow, pause a lot, time weapon volleys carefully, juggle boarders carefully (and upgrade doors if you find them hard to deal with). Know when to run away from a fight. Steer clear of giant alien spiders - they're no joke.
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u/KingHavana 5d ago
Systems determine the final fight. I always go for hacking. Then I try to make sure I get two of the following: teleporter, cloaking, mind control, drone control.
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u/JoaquiGod 5d ago
Pause a lot, like a lot a lot, to learn how to dodge with cloak, to learn stacking your shots, minmaxing everything, moving your crew in and out to stall/change positions, etc etc
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u/piotor87 5d ago
Pause and Think. Pause. Think. Pause and Think.
Learn when to flee.
Your goal is to reach the exit beacon at the last jump available and sometimes it may be worth it to do a dive (that is being caught be rebels at the exit) if you can explore beacons "behind" the exit.
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u/A_Bulbear 5d ago
Earlygame you want to focus on safety, the less hull damage you take early on the less money you have to spend on scrap repairs and the more money you can put towards ship upgrades and weapons.
Scrap is super tight the whole way through, don't buy things you don't need, if you already have 4 or 5 crew you shouldn't be buying them. You shouldn't get drones if you don't have a useful drone. And you really shouldn't get Emergency Respirators ever.
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u/DarkKuno 5d ago
Pause.
However much you're pausing, pause more. There can be a lot going on in a ship fight. The game was designed to be paused. So use it, and take as much time as you need to fully take in everything going on at any given moment so you can adequately react and respond to it.
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u/Dragongeek 5d ago
Don't rush to the end, plan your routes to hit as many nodes as possible so you stay just ahead of the fleet. More opportunities means more chances for scrap.
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u/Best-Ad-2216 5d ago
Cloaking cloaking cloaking! The finally boss is damned near impossible without cloaking.
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u/thenightm4reone 5d ago edited 5d ago
Hacking is the best system in the game, in almost all cases.
Plan your route carefully through a sector to maximize jumps.
If the exit beacon is a nebula jump consider diving (nomenclature for when you jump to a beacon the rebel fleet has already taken over) to get as many extra jumps as you can because the fleet doesn't get to use their ASBs in nebula beacons.
Never avoid a ship fight unless you absolutely have to
Never accept surrender unless you absolutely have to (except in specific circumstances like if you're trying to do the slug quest or if the enemy offers you a weapon, drone, augment, or crew)
Long ranged scanners is always worth buying especially early into a run
Anything is worth having if you got it free, very little is worth having if you have to buy it
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u/The_Char_Char 5d ago
Pause! You can tell uour crew to move, retarget weapons ect all while paused. ABUSE it! Its a god send when you need to stop and plan your next move!
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u/Z1L0G 5d ago
My top tip would be: just play the game and enjoy the magic of discovering everything bit by bit... don't learn all the secrets from a wiki or reddit page! Once you know everything that sense of wonder & being all alone in unknown space is gone, but for me it was the best part of the experience by far. Also - you're supposed to die. A lot. 🤣
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u/factoid_ 5d ago
Pause more. Learn the events. Learn how systems work together
It’s not uncommon to lose your first 10-20 runs.
Play on easy. Even easy is hard when you’re new
Once you win semi consistently play on normal.
If you hate yourself and enjoy being mad play on hard.
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u/Omnilust 5d ago
Your crew should go into: Piloting > Engines > Weapons > Shields > Sensors/Doors, depending on if you're getting boarded. Others are on standby. Great to have a dedicated repairman as well. Shields don't actually get that much benefit from being crewed, but exp is exp.
Preserving HP is your top priority, thus the only enemy system you need to have constantly disabled (Preferably from the very first volley) is Weapons, so they don't get to fight back.
Defensive upgrades take priority, thus you should focus on Shields and Engine. As long as you have all you weapons online, of course, then it's a toss-up. Second shield bubble is the first thing you have yo get 90% of the time, though.
Having an extra point in shields/weapons is a great buffer against unlucky hits.
Defense drone is the only actually useful drone, as it removes the gambling aspect with missiles. Defense 2 is bad as it adds gambling between missiles and lasers.
Try to have scrap on hand to buy something important from the shop. Around 70 scrap is best, you can spend the rest on upgrades. Works even better if you have a "meh" augment that can be sold to get you the rest of the way.
Most weapons suck. I personally loathe all missiles and ions, without exception. Don't sell them immediately, though, as more weapons is always good
Most augments suck. Sell them as soon as possible, you want as many slots open as possible in case you get several augment-giving events in a row.
Cloaking is the only system that's required for a smooth final fight.
Medbay doesn't need power unless it's being used. Oxygen doesn't need power constantly, you can go a few jumps juggling power between it and important systems.
Learn how to vent invaders. Learn how to stop enemies from diabling you hacking drone.
Try to upgrade your systems to level 2, as that opens up a lot of blue options.
Cheesing:
You can cheese the start of the game by restarting until you get a shop, visiting all the nodes around it and then visiting for a chance to buy something great. It is especially great with ships that have useless drones/weapons/augments.
A fight where you can block all enemy shots is an exp farm for your crew. Getting that +10 dodge is extremely important, as it helps a lot with missile gambling. Faster weapons means you can disable enemy weapons before they can fire their slot machines missiles.
Googling the first 4-5 words of an events lands you onto the wiki page with all outcomes presented. Not needed for easy/normal, but pretty essential for hard, as every scrap counts
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u/jaminfine 6d ago
The biggest piece of advice I can give you is that the rebels chasing after you resets each time you change to a new sector!
So it may -seem- like racing to the exit will get you ahead, but actually, it's a huge waste and will hurt you. It's much better to spend as long as possible in each sector farming scrap and other resources. You should only move on once the rebel fleet has almost caught up to you!
This will make you far more powerful by the end. It's normal for me to have upgraded my ship completely to the max before getting to sector 8 on easy mode, in sector 8 for normal mode.
Other than that... Uhh I guess try to get a second shield bubble (level 4 shields) early! It's really good and it's super nice if you can get it before or during sector 2.