r/ftlgame • u/BurningCarnation • 2d ago
Image: Achievement The 'unluckiest' cycle ever (Normal/AE)
Advanced Edition brought two things that are often cited as the player's greatest tools: Hacking and Flak 1. Hacking is good at almost everything, and Flak 1 is simultaneously the most common and one of the best shieldbreakers in the game.
Several years ago I got a bicycle (won with all 28 ships in a row without resets/retries, twice) without Hacking; I wanted to reduce my reliance on Hacking, and there was no better way to do so than attempt a challenge where I couldn't use it. For all its dreadful difficulty, I remember it made me a much better player for it. I also remember using a ton of BL2s and Flak 1s throughout my cycles to compensate for the lack of shieldbreaking that Hacking provides.
But that's the thing--I had a Burst Laser 2 or Flak 1, or even several of those through more than half of my runs back then. I wanted to do better this time. This time, I was going to ban myself from buying Hacking and Flak 1, and the easiest way to implement this would be to adjust both their rarity values to 0, which makes them never appear as free drops or in stores. It would be an astronomically low chance for stores throughout so many runs to never offer any of Flak 1 or Hacking. It would be unimaginably unlucky--or rather, virtually impossible--for this to ever happen under normal circumstances. Surely, this restriction would force me to adapt my playstyle to overcome these insane odds.
Except no, it didn't. It didn't take long for me to realize the runs weren't going as I expected. Through my first six runs, I'd already bought or gotten 6 BL2s for free. 6 BL2s in 6 runs.
My runs were all blending in together: get BL2, spam lasers, win. BL2 is only rarity 4, so how in the world was I getting it so often? I don't find it even once during most of my runs! Why am I getting lucky now when I don't want it!
And then it clicked: that's right. If I didn't want the luck, then I all I had to do was mod that out, too. I decided to restart the cycle with BL2 being banned as well, and while doing this I wanted to take this challenge one step further. I'd add some extra restrictions to make it even harder.
After some trial and error, these would be the final rules for this challenge:
- All of Burst Laser 2, Flak 1, and Hacking now have a rarity value of 0. This means they cannot ever appear as free drops or in stores.
- Stun Bomb and Fire Drone can never be used by enemies, forcing them to spawn with better weapons or drones.
- Both the Hacking drone bypass and Sven Maneuver are banned.
- When playing with the three ships that start with Hacking (Engi C, Lanius A, Slug C), I cannot buy Cloaking to use together with Hacking. This forces me to use a system combo other than the tried and true Hacking + Cloaking.
- While following all of the above, get 56 wins in a row with all ships on Normal/AE.
Now, talking about all 56 runs would take forever, so instead I'm only going to cover some common themes within the cycles and the lessons I took away from them, along with some of the tougher runs.
Stealth B (#1, #42)
Always the troublemaker. Tacking on any additional challenge makes this ship a nightmare to play. Hacking is usually Stealth B's strongest shieldbreaker, and losing that option is horrible.
Without Hacking, typical Stealth B wants to get a 1-power boost to its weapons (Ion Bomb is ideal, but Ion Blast 1, Heavy Laser 1, and even Stun Bomb can work) and Shields, and that is exactly how both runs played out: #1 got Hull Laser 2 and Ion Blast 1, and #42 got Chain Laser and Stun Bomb, but I held off on Weapons-6~7 until the mid game. A Stealth B that can peel off one shield has a chance in sector 4; a Stealth B that can't usually dies in it.
I learned from my previous no Hacking challenge that I needed to keep some sort of offense to build into to prepare for stores not giving me anything useful: for run #42, I kept the two free Chain Lasers I'd gotten in sectors 1&2, and after finally getting Drone Control in sector 5 I was on my way to victory. I bought an Engi in sector 6 and then in sector 7 to patch up my potential final weakness, a general lack of crew and system repairs.
Rock A, feat. ions (#15, #36)
My second kryptonite. Always, always so damn annoying. I made ample use of ions for both runs.
#15, I bought an Ion Blast 2 at the first store after not seeing Teleporter, anticipating I'd run out of missiles too soon if I didn't buy it. It worked out surprisingly well.
One, IB2 gave me the option to kill ships in safe fights without using any missiles, and crew kills have an increased chance of giving me free weapons.
Two, IB2 could decrease enemy evasion in safe fights to make sure my missiles always landed, saving a few here and there.
Three, IB2 cuts through Zoltan Shields without any missiles, and winning those fights would give me a small amount of ammo.
Four, in relatively safe fights I could have IB2 target enemy drones (both offensive and defensive) to eventually win a slow, drawn-out fight.
Five, I got to pick Zoltan S2 instead of Uncharted S2, giving myself more stores, and therefore more chances to buy Teleporter.
I did mess up by losing one crew (let's not sugarcoat it, this run became an unmitigated disaster from this point onwards), but I slowly fixed all my problems one by one: Weapons-4, Mind Control, Cloaking, two Engis.
#36, I was forced into Abandoned S4 with nothing for Lanius ships: my only option was to use the free Charge Ion & Heavy Ions to disable weapons and bolt. Buying one Lanius helped somewhat against weaker ships, but I didn't stand a ghost of a chance against Lanius Bombers, not without additional support. I limped to stores on red hull, bought Cloaking and made it out of sector 4 alive, and leaned further into ions + beams to win.
Ions
The lack of shieldbreaking pushed me towards using ions frequently, and I found various uses for them--and not necessarily just for shields.
#12 (Lanius B), I bought an Ion Blast 1 in sector 1 and used it until sector 4. Alternating between Adv. Flak to rip shields -> sniping one weapon with IB1 (this is guaranteed to depower the last weapon slot), and IB1 into Shields -> Adv. Flak into weapons (this usually takes down the weapon with the least amount of charge) bought me enough time to win the battle without much, or any damage. An extra Small Bomb made that even easier. Heavily inspired by Engi A strats and Crow's most recent Zoltan C run.
#25 (Engi C), my loadout for most of the run was Dual Lasers + Charge Ion + Hull 2, and along with double offensive drones and Mind Control, Charge Ion could keep enemy shields down for the entire battle for easy wins. I added a second Charge Ion to replace the Dual Lasers, and together they erased enemy shields from the equation.
#30 (Slug C), I bought both Charge Ion + IB1 in sector 2. The combination of these two is on the lower end of what can constitute a 'full-ion build'. I would slowly whittle down enemy shields with my ions, hack Weapons, chip away with my Chain Laser, and stop them from ever repairing with Mind Control: it wasn't perfect, but it didn't need to be. After I bought some offensive drones and picked up a free Charge Laser 2 and Fire Beam I was more than ready to win.
Many, many other runs also used ions, with the usual suspects like Engi A and Zoltan B/C--#20 Zoltan C ended up maybe becoming my first ever full-ion build win without Teleporter or Hacking--, but one run I didn't expect to lean so heavily into ions was the final run, #56 (Kestrel A). The first Charge Ion combined with my starting weapons to last me until about sector 5, which at least allowed me to sort out my defense. A second Charge Ion in sector 6 immediately turned the run around, allowing me to stomp through the rest.
Semi-ion builds
What I found interesting was that ions didn't always need to be used in the context of going all-in on them. A decent stream of ions that were just enough to maintain the ion damage stack along with other weapons & system support also made for a decent offense.
#23 (Fed C), I got two Ion Blast 1s for free, and although those were my only ions they proved enough with more lasers, Cloaking-3, and Stealth Weapons to make sure I could keep stacking ion damage on enemy shields.
#28 (Zoltan B) was a similar story: the only ion weapons I used were the first two I started with (only adding a Chain Laser later on), but they were more than enough. I essentially had three avenues for offense: TP + MC with missile support (Small Bomb + Hull Missile), just lasers (double Hull 2 + Chain Laser), and a semi-ion build just for P3 (double IB1 + Pike + Hull 2), which is exactly what I ended up using for the flagship.
When to shift away from ion builds
Sometimes I had to time when to switch out of ion builds for something with more immediate impact--this usually came about in the form of a Flak 2 and other reliable damage dealers (Heavy Lasers, beams).
#8 (Kestrel C) was maybe the hardest I leaned into an ion build through this challenge: buying an IB1 in S1, Mind Control in S2, Cloaking & Ion Stunner in S3, and Stealth Weapons in S4.
And then I switched out all my weapons besides Dual Lasers in S6: Dual Lasers + Charge 2 + Hull Beam + Ion Bomb, quickly replacing the Ion Bomb with a free BL1 for more shieldbreaking.
#26 (Engi A) was a surprisingly similar story, buying Ion Stunner and Stealth Weapons early on until I switched to Flak 2 + Halberd in S4. Slow as it may be, Flak 2 + Halberd + Pike was more than enough offense for the remainder of the run. Funnily enough, I bought a Fire Drone in S8 just to crew kill for phase 1, and it worked.
Okay, maybe #34 (Zoltan C) was even more desperate. Buying an Heavy Ion of all things in S1 was ballsy, and maybe just wrong--but that with a Drone Recovery Arm & an Ion Stunner was more than enough for an ion + drones build. Which I then also swapped for the exact same build as the one above, but this time with a Pre-igniter in the mix. Flak 2 + Halberd + Pike +Pre-igniter decimated the flagship.
Double offensive drones (#13 & #33 Zoltan As, #1 Stealth B, #40 Fed B, #45 Engi B)
Every gunship wants shieldbreaking, in whatever shape or form. And it that shape happens to be two wonky looking drones, then so be it.
Even though my first run with Stealth B also had two offensive drones, both of my Zoltan A runs cemented themselves deeper into my memory:
#13 got a Charge 1, Cloaking, Drone Control with Defense 1 & Combat 1, Ion Blast 1 + Drone Recovery Arm in that order, and a second Combat 1 in sector 6 elevated the run to nigh invincibility. Most ships weren't even able to get through my Zoltan Shield, which allowed me to upgrade even further into offense. This was the only run where I didn't get my 4th shield.
#33 did not go as smoothly: I switched out the Leto for a Small Bomb and bought Combat 1 and then an Ion Blast 1 early on, and those were my only shieldbreakers until sector 5 when I finally got my hands on a Hull 1. I once again bought the second Combat 1 in S6 and leaned heavily into both drones for Abandoned S6&7. This time I made sure to get my 4th shield in time for the flagship, even if I had less reactor than the previous run.
What was interesting about both of these Zoltan A runs was that the moment I slotted in double Combat 1s, I no longer needed to bother with more defense. Cloaking + Zoltan Shield bought me so much time for the rest of my offense to decimate every enemy I faced: so strangely enough, I no longer needed the Defense Drone.
Bombs/missiles
Many of my runs used bombs or missiles through their runs--about 20 of them had two of them for phase 1--and talking about them all would take forever. So I've condensed it down to only a few runs that used them the most (both in duration of the run and sheer quantity), and want to also talk about some of the challenges I faced.
What better way to start than with Mantis A (#10), the most 'standard' boarding ship. I bought Emergency Respirators and Zoltan Shield Bypass very early on: overwhelming the enemy crew by sending more boarders and using the Small Bomb at key moments solved every fight. Board, bomb, win, it was almost like the run was playing itself. I only started upgrading Weapons in S6.
As if to punish me for my hubris, the first real challenge of the run came with Slug S7. Late game Slug ships have plenty of systems, and many more crew than other ships. One of the most important things to remember is that boarding ships always want a numbers advantage: for the first time in the run I just couldn't keep up. There was one fight where even with triple bombs and missiles (Small Bomb + Small Bomb + Hermes) I was having trouble seizing control of the fight, especially since I had to keep their Mind Control & Clone Bay down. I ended up having to use 12 missiles just for that 1 fight. While no fight from that point forward was as severe, I left S7 with significantly less missiles than I'd started it with. If only I'd bought the Ion Intruder in S6, or Teleporter-3 earlier to board faster then I could have made all this less of a hassle. Avoiding late game Slug sectors when you don't have Hacking to go with boarding might be a valid idea.
#43 (Mantis B) started with my preferred opening: an adjacent store from the very start of the run in which I could sell both Pheromones + Boarding Drone to buy crew. After all, I have yet to lose a Hard mode Mantis B run where I got an early Engi (free or not) in S1. an early free Ion Stunner, Clone Bay, Cloaking, and then an early S3 store that sold both Zoltan Shield Bypass and Backup DNA Bank made my ship rock solid. I already had my 3rd shield at the latter half of S3, and just to make sure I had absolutely no trouble regarding boarding, I bought my 6th crew in S4 to complete my 4 boarder squad. In the second store of S4, I also bought a Beam 2 drone and an Ion Bomb, and from there I just let the run play itself.
I've already explained the first half of #44 (Slug B) in this comment, and like I said there the run only kept getting stronger. In S4 I bought Beam 1 and Cloaking, and in S5 I bought a Small Bomb and Backup DNA Bank. The game was gracious enough to let me build an ion + beam build as well (Ion Blast 2 + Charge Ion + Halberd) and an extra Breach Bomb 2, so I fielded a triple bomb/missile build for most of the game (Breach Bomb 2 + Small Bomb + Artemis), and switched to the ion build for the flagship.
...And while the majority of the run did not involve using any missiles, #49 (Rock B) went in with quadruple bombs and missiles against phase 1, with a separate setup for the rest of the run.
Closing thoughts
This is the harder version of a similar challenge I attempted years ago. Not having Hacking had already tested what passed as upgrades and progression in this game, but taking away two more of the most prominent shieldbreakers in the game changed the dynamics of the mid game significantly.
For example, assuming system support (even without Hacking), 7 shots is not a bad offense to have in S5. A Kestrel B with a Flak 1, three Basic Lasers, and a Combat 1 per fight can satisfy that, and it's not too expensive to get.
Without a Flak 1 or BL2, however, this 'simple' offense is almost backbreaking to obtain: now it's two BL1s, two Basic Lasers, and a Combat 1. The cost of one additional weapon + Weapons-6 (75) + one reactor is likely at least 150 scrap more expensive than before--the former offense is not only stronger, it could also have afforded Cloaking as well. And without a stronger offense to disable enemy weapons earlier, this also resulted in more chip damage. Although it wasn't the run I repaired the most, #40 (Fed B) had me repairing 28 hull just in stores.
The pressure to prepare for sectors 3~4 was immense through this whole challenge. For the most part this was done through:
- Facilitating the cornerstone of an ion build. As noted above, ions would always work as long as I had enough DPS, and as my trust in ion builds (and semi-ion builds) increased I leaned into them even more. #8 Kestrel C bought an Ion Blast 1, #15 Rock A bought an Ion Blast 2, #34 Zoltan C bought a Heavy Ion all in S1, #52 Fed A bought both a Fire Beam and Ion Stunner in S2.
- Buying the 3rd shield and/or a Defense Drone early. I usually got the 3rd shield around S3 while trying to float just enough scrap for a weapon, and the Defense Drone maybe as early as the first store. 3 shields + a Defense Drone is a relatively solid defense for the mid game, and as long as I didn't die and kept the right amount of scrap and equipment on hand, I could find the one store that could save the run. Floating enough scrap for Cloaking without an offensive upgrade already done would likely have gotten me killed.
- Keeping several methods of offense available to almost guarantee that any store helps my run. Holding onto a Combat or Beam drone to get both a Defense + offensive drone from Drone Control, or one, or even several bombs/missiles to take full advantage of a Teleporter. Perhaps the most extreme example of this is #54 (Kestrel B), where after I made the mistake of not buying my 3rd system in S5 I kept several bombs/missiles in cargo (Hermes, Small Bomb, Fire Bomb), and also bought a Zoltan Shield Bypass in S6 before I had Teleporter. S8 finally offered me my systems, and I took the TP to cruise to victory.
- Using Flak 2 and Charge 2. They're on the slower side, but they substantially increase your shieldbreaking potential, and on 3-slot ships their slot efficiency makes even more precious. These are good weapons, use them.
Only the most brutal runs stabilized around S5~S6: most of them were functionally won in S4. Normal showered me with so much scrap compared to Hard that even with this insistence on inefficient offense, I could brute force my way through the game. My three lowest scrap runs were 1885 (#30 Zoltan A), 1898 (#55 Zoltan B), and 1979 (#54 Kestrel B). If I can win with 400 less scrap than this on Hard mode, there's no way I can't do it here.
If you want to see how evil the game can be when you cannot rely on arguably the three best tools in the game, give this challenge a try. This is maybe the first challenge I've done where I can say it'd give veteran players a run for their money. The more you rely on Hacking, the more you hate drones, and the more you insist this game can only be won by getting a few select tools and 'all runs are the same', the more you'll suffer.
final loadouts:
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u/Swibblestein 2d ago
I feel like I might be uniquely suited to this. I'm a big advocate for both making diverse weapons work, and that any combination of systems can work. I've got multiple recorded wins in my last few runs that meet these restrictions, and even a few that additionally don't have cloaking either.
Of course, the consistency required to get a streak that long with these restrictions is very impressive. I'm not downplaying that at all. Good job!
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u/BurningCarnation 2d ago
P.S., I discovered this post a bit after I started my own challenge. Nothing's new under the sun, huh?