Let's Play FTL: Faster Than Light!

Well that certainly backfired spectacularly.

Mantis!

This LP got me replaying this game, and the final level is indeed still complete and utter bullshit. Good luck with that!

SECTOR 2 - MANTIS CONTROLLED SECTOR



Mantis it is! Kalir's right in that I'd normally do the Nebula just 'cause you have more time to explore them, but if we start turning this into a dictator-ship ohohoho then the Rebels win.

And let no one say we are WEAK





- Mantis (Explore) -

We've plenty of fuel, and the hull's all right. Full speed ahead!



A couple of distress beacons nearby, and one (hidden by the beacon description, nice screenshotting there) that finishes that "quest" we picked up last time. Let's just do this regular node first, though.





- Mantis (Battle) -

Naturally, there's no actual option to surrender.




Well, one intruder, at least. He's a savvy fellow, though - trying to destroy my door system! Not that it matters, I have my own mantis. Arthur Dent can take care of him, with Ford's assistance.



Hand-to-hand combat is pretty straightforward: if you have a crewmember in the same room as a hostile, they'll attack them until dead. Attacking takes priority over anything else they could be doing, I believe, so putting out fires or repairing hull breaches or whatever is impossible while an enemy is sitting there.

You'll notice I vented part of the ship before thinking better of it. It's too much of a hassle to bother with if you don't have upgraded door systems.



I'm just unloading all six shots into their weapons system. They catch me with their beam, which takes out my sensors, no big deal.



I heal up my mans, but I really should upgrade my reactor soon so I can keep the air on while fighting.



Another volley takes them out.



Now I have enough ca$h to upgrade the door system. This'll make teleporting onto my ship much more trouble than it's worth.





Nice, I get some health back. Thanks!



They also turn into a store. Nothing particularly interesting, though. I could buy another human (bleh), or a borg, or one of their beam weapons. Beams sweep across several rooms of the enemy ship, doing their damage to each one. They can pass through shields at -1 damage per layer, but they don't deactivate them. The Fire Beam is particularly cruel - it doesn't do damage, it just starts fires across the beam's path. Fun!

I don't actually need any of this stuff, and I can't afford it anyway, so all that's academic anyway.



Another store nearby, but no point in visiting it yet. Maybe later. For now, we'll hit the distress signal!



Lab fire, eh? I'm not equipped to help put it out, but I'm willing to chance docking to "rescue" someone.



Success! I manage to press one of them into my service, while helping myself to some of their lab equipment.



Marvin is an Engi, a mysterious race of cyborgs or robots or something? They're nice to have around, because they repair things twice as fast as humans. Not great in a fight, though. Well, that's what doors and Arthur Dent are for!



I immediately put Marvin to work on menial tasks in the engine room. I'm phasing the humans out of that sort of work, they're not suited to it. I should have someone take over for Arthur as well, but shield regen isn't all that important.

Let's skip that distress signal, I have places to be and I don't want the Rebels catching up while I'm screwing around.



Boo. I came here to get the bugs back for buenos aires, not stare out the window and ruminate on the nature of war. The only good bug is a dead bug!

Er, no offense, Arthur.







"Stay out of it"?



NOT TODAY



These guys don't have anything that can hit me before I take out their weapons with my laser spam. Good thing, too - you can see the ship's turning pink, 'cause I've left the air off.













Nice.



Oh! Yet another new crew member!





Hm, another Engi. Not my first choice, but I'll let him pilot the ship. Zaphod has managed to dodge a total of one attack this whole game, so I'm not exactly wasting experience here. And besides, this guy's so much more cheerful and pleasant than that other Engi. Maybe we can talk about doors sometime.

Not quite ready to visit that store yet.



Yeah, I'm terrified.



Or, wait, no, the other thing.







Hah! They're not going home to their wives and kids!



NOW let's hit that store.





Exquisite.

Er, I mean, let's take a look at their sundries, shall we? They've got a couple of new systems we could install.

There's a Drone Control system, which can help defend against missiles, attack enemy ships, repel boarders, etc etc. depending on what sorts of schematics we've got. Defense I is a very useful drone - it shoots down missiles (and asteroids) for only 2 energy and one droid part. They have the more expensive Defense II, as well as an Anti-Ship and Sys Repair drone. Plus whatever mystery drone we'd get from buying the system.

There's the Crew Teleporter, which lets you beam some of your crew over to enemy ships. Once they're there, they can kill crew members or, if left to their own devices, smash systems.

And there's Cloaking. Cloaking gives you +60% evasion for a short time, while preventing enemy weapons from charging. That is, if you activate it when their first volley fires, they'll probably miss and you'll have a significant advantage.

On a whim, completely arbitrarily, I pick up the Teleporter. It's probably no more than a curiosity - our lasers are already incredibly deadly, why would we need to do things by hand?

(I AM LYING)

I station Arthur and Trillian in the teleporter room for now, just in case.





Again, nothing!





... no, I don't want to hawk my military-grade explosives for chump change. I might need those!





You've got to be kidding me. My trigger finger is itchy, I feel like I might accidentally teleport Arthur and Trillian into the icy grasp of space.

Well, I might as well make the most of things.





HRGGG





What? Humans?!

I'd like to suffocate them, but I'm on the clock.





Zaphod, Trillian, Ford, and Arthur can deal with this. They've got numbers on their side, so it's just a matter of time.







And in fact we charge FTL in time to avoid even a single flare! Lucky!

I want to show off the teleporter, but it looks like I'm going to have to keep waiting. You'll recall that AI ships have no crew, and so no O2 system, and so no air. At level one, the teleporter doesn't recharge fast enough for human or mantis boarders to survive the trip.















OH WELL





A free System Repair Drone. Its job is to sit in the cargo hold until we can pawn it. Here's the stat sheet:



Anyway.





All in all, pretty tame for the dreaded Mantis-Controlled Sector. I didn't get a chance to show off either my Super Doors or my Teleporter, but don't worry, I've got the chance to bring their dread power to the harrowing and deadly...

CIVILIAN SECTOR or ENGI HOMEWORLDS

We've already seen a Civilian Sector, back in Sector One. They're pretty milquetoast. The Engi Homeworlds is also one of the less-hostile sectors, but it's got Engi-specific quests and things. Time to vote!

Thanks! It is a bit of a sharp swerve, but with my new Teleporter I'm hopefully on the path to being ready for it.

Also, note to self: buy a sensor upgrade next time, so Tim can have more stuff to look at.

Engi!

only a COWARDLY captain would leave their ENGI ALLIES to their fate at the hands of RACIST REBELS

Also, System Repair Drone isn't completely useless. They repair twice as fast as a lone engi can (!), and having a system repair drone and a crew member repairing the same room is practically an instant repair. They're also fireproof, don't need to breath, and have no emotions.

There's almost* always a better use of a drone slot though.

*when you have a primarily (or, shrine maiden help you, entirely) mantis crew, you need all the repair speed you can get

I was doing great using the teleporter this last run, and then I realized the final boss' first form was going to cloak so I paused to TP my guys back before it did and immediately when I unpaused, it cloaked and one of my boarding party died. It was frustrating. The second phase went poorly too and then I died in the third. I just hate that whole area.

Also, Engi!

Engi sector!

The Engi sector sounds like more fun, yeah.

Sounds overwhelmingly Engi. Let's blow up some robotoids.

Yeah, Engi system. It looks like the more interesting one for future choices, too.

Ahahaha, I had no idea the planet of the space horses was supposed to be a My Little Pony thing, that's amazing.

Also not sure if I glossed over someone saying this but accepting surrenders can often lead to a higher payout than blowing up the ship as well as removing yourself from the combat scenario before using more resources in the process. Its really temping for new players to be the consummate good guy and eradicate evil and try to rescue every poor on fire space station you come across but eventually you learn how to be pragmatic and focus on the mission.

To the extent that killing everything that moves is being the consummate good guy.

One thing that bugs me, if I remember correctly, is that your in-flight projectiles automatically miss after you accept their surrender, but theirs will still hit you where applicable.

Surrender is an acceptable bargain when you're low on a particular resource and your adversary offers you a decent quantity of that resource, especially fuel.

Other than that, destruction will usually yield you more scrap, especially after the first few sectors. And without a doubt [REDACTED] will yield significantly more scrap as will [REDACTED] augmentations which can be additive.

As for "helping" people, we've yet to encounter any blue options, which are great. I can see willcoon is being fairly cautious, as we are all very attached to the Heart of Gold crew, but in the first several sectors you can take more risks considering a restart won't set you back very far. But once you get deeper into the journey you'll find situations where taking a loss can be devastating and even end your mission.

SECTOR 3 - ENGI HOMEWORLDS

Good, you guys made the right choice. Otherwise I'd have to filibuster until extra Engi votes materialized.

Satonakaja is the official propaganda minister of this voyage.

Yeah, I imagine they are occasionally useful, and the no emotions thing is a big plus. I really don't use drones much in general, except for Defense I and II.

It's no magic bullet, to be sure. The most important thing it does, however, is help you prepare in the preceding 7 sectors.

I know I'm not exactly a wizard at this game, and sometimes I suck at using doors (see below), but if I can show off a few neat tricks or share fun facts like this one, the LP's worth it!

I appreciate that the reference is both subtle and makes sense in the FTL milieu. It's a fun thing for fans or reference-hunters, without being too jarring.

Yeah, some choices are cut-and-dried (DON'T try to steal the ponies), but accepting surrender can be wise. It seems to provide more fuel / missiles / drone parts, and occasionally an alternate reward - like a random crewmember.

As RampagingFrodo notes, however, there is a third option that can be even more lucrative.

Yeah, I think that's how it works. It's an odd "magic" effect, the game is otherwise fairly "literal", in that:

FUN FACT
Things that happen to run into each other during combat actually collide. So a stray missile might hit a drone, destroying each of them. I don't think you can use this to your advantage really, but it's neat.

If you really want to destroy a non-hostile ship, I believe you can do so by setting them on fire before they surrender.

More on this as it comes up, but mostly I just hate options with a high risk of losing crew members. And while you can just restart if you screw up early on, you can also end up limping along for another few sectors before you wipe out. Plus, every restart is another FAILED MISSION.

Oh, drat. Knew I forgot something. Ah well, it'll be fine.

Here's our current situation:



We've got some nice weaponry and an okay away team for our brand-new teleporter, but we're relying on only the basic defensive systems, at very low levels. We should do something about that.

Anyway, let's go liberate some robots!





- Engi (Explore) -

So, yeah, these guys are our allies. It'll be a less hostile area than mantis-controlled space, but there'll still be danger.



We don't have enough cash on hand to head to a store right now.



Nice! Just to be clear, they're giving us fuel in exchange for the promise to help them out.



All we have to do is hit the Quest beacon at some point. Easy!







- Engi (Battle) -

There is only one god, and his name is Space Bug. And there is only one thing we say to Space Bug.

Not today.





First, let's take a look at their weapons. They have a laser that, while more powerful than any single shot from ours, won't give us any trouble, 'cause it'll still be blocked by a single level of shields. They also have a Bomb, which is more worrisome. Bombs teleport directly onto ships, bypassing shields and defense drones but not evasion. They can damage or disable a system, breach the hull, or start fires, but don't hurt the ship itself directly. Still, it could be trouble if that hits our shields.

So let's get to work on ending this. We send over Arthur and Trillian to kill the pilot. It doesn't seem to have any backup, so they'll win. Ideally, we'd be using two mantis or golems, but for now a human will do fine as backup.



They have a similar idea, but enemy ships aim their teleporters, like their weapons, at random, so they don't get to any critical personnel. This is, in general, a very useful weakness of the AI, as often they'll waste shots on rooms that don't even have a system to disable.

Unfortunately, these guys are at the door system, so they won't suffocate before they take the doors down to a level that won't prevent them from going wherever they like.



See?

Meanwhile, though, our assassination is going very well.





Arthur and Trillian finish off the pilot and get to work smashing the ship's controls. It's usually a bit useful to do that, though there are often higher-priority targets. Really, they're only doing it to keep out of the way while I blast the weapons system with my burst lasers. No one else seems to be on the ship, so that effectively eliminates it as a threat for good.

The assassins on our ship are cribbing off our papers, though, and Eddie isn't a match for a human, let alone a pair of slavering, bloodthirsty mantis pirates.

Spoiler: I don't handle them particularly well.



First I'll try to get them out of there by venting it, while Eddie retreats somewhere safer. I've turned off life support so that this process goes faster.

Back on the pirate ship, a twist occurs - if you've been paying close attention, you can see a door open a few screenshots earlier. That's a hint that there's someone else hanging out there. They finally show up now - an Engi. They didn't help out earlier due to cowardice and/or a lack of combat ability. They're even less capable on their own, so Arthur and Trillian can put this Stockholm-syndrome pirate convert out of its misery.

Of course, that means that the crew on our ship will have to fend for themselves a while longer.



Here's where I decide to do something different (and also where I probably should have warped back at least Arthur, or at least had the boarders do something useful).



Everybody piles into the medbay, and I vent the entire rest of the ship.

This forces the invaders to head to the only place with air. Even though it's two humans and an engi versus two mantis, we've got the definite upper hand because we're regenerating constantly.







Whoops. They realized they weren't making any headway, so they bailed back to their ship. They don't have a medbay, though, so...





Zaphod replaces Trillian while she heals up and the Engis fix a few things. He and Arthur finish the job.

So here's the thing.

Killing the enemy crew without destroying their ship gives you much better rewards than destroying the ship or letting them surrender. You occasionally get bonuses like weapons or new crewmembers, too. But the important takeaway is:

If you make a habit of killing enemy crews early on, you'll end up with lots of scrap.

This means that pretty soon you'll be untouchable and equipped with whatever you like.

Killing crews is the best way to deal with almost any situation. The teleporter, along with some mantis or golems is one of the most reliable ways to do that. You can also sometimes destroy their oxygen system, or use special proprietary tech to do it, but overall the greatest power in the universe is brute force, hand-to-hand murder.

Let's continue.





I buy another PowerBar for the reactor so I can keep battle-mode up and running without cutting the air supply.





I missed the screenshot for this one, sorry. Some guy gave me some free scrap and an Ion Bomb. Ion Bombs are for when you want to surgically disable a system without damaging anything. Probably not going to get much use out of it, especially with that charge time.







What is the only thing we say to Space Bug?



Just like last time, the plan is: lasers to take out their weapons before they can do any damage, Trillian and Arthur to murder the crew, and blast their boarders out the airlock. This time, they teleport in to a particularly disadvantageous position, so they'll be sucking void for a while.



Things are going swimmingly.

Here's something fun. Everyone we meet has a name, every last one. Here, we're suffocating Johnson and... Magmar?



Shoot.



Man, I'm sucking at this lately. Magmar and his trainer are running rampant despite their lack of air.





They do some damage, but eventually they succumb.

I swear I'll get better at this soon. Or buy stronger doors.







The more the merrier!



Oh, another human. Great. Well, I like his hustle at least - he beams aboard to a room without air, and first thing he does is start repairing stuff. All right, you can stay, Matt.

(I forgot to rename him, so he's just Matt. DWI)



I've got a ton of scrap lying around. Time to upgrade our shields so we're not utterly defenseless against anything more than a pea shooter.



NOPE I LIED.

With this upgrade, the teleporter recharges more quickly. Much more important (for now).



Let's finish that quest! We were, like, delivering medicine or something.



We were totally escorting a ship.



Ooh! New systems!

Unfortunately I just spent the cash I'd need to get the Cloaking Device, but a Drone Control system is pretty cool too, and I'll want both before too long.



The Heart of Gold can equip two drones at a time, and each one uses up one Drone Part every time it's deployed. We get a random drone for free when we buy the system. This time, we got Defense I. I'm sure Mogri could provide six or more sagas worth of praise for this particular drone.

It's pretty much the best general-purpose drone. It shoots at missiles or asteroids aimed at your ship, destroying them with very high accuracy. Unless you're facing several missiles at once, you pay one drone part for missile immunity for an entire battle.

(Unless a stray laser hits your drone, of course)

Defense II does the same, but faster - however, it deflects lasers and missiles and costs twice as much. The problem is, it's easier to render lasers harmless, so often you'll prefer to have the level I drone - or better yet, a pair of them.



I also sell that Sys Repair drone we've got hanging around. Sorry.

That was the only place of note we've come across this sector, so time to wander for a bit while the Rebels catch up. Let's hit this distress beacon.



Ooh, mysterious! They say it's dangerous, but I happen to know it's not going to kill anyone outright, so let's go for it.



Oh well. You win some, you lose some. We took some damage here, but it's not a big deal.

The "derelict ship coated with ice or crystal" is part of a long, mysterious sidequest chain that we're probably not going to see much of, particularly now that we've blown this chance to investigate it. Suffice to say the rewards are neat, but the quest involves way too much random chance.





More asteroid surfing? Why not!



It pays off, LIKE SUCH RISKS ALWAYS DO.

Note that we're risking much more damage than we expect to take in a fight, and getting worse rewards. But hey, the alternative is wasting a beacon.







You've gotta be kiddi- NOT TODAY



These guys don't have a teleporter, so you don't get to watch me fumble with the doors and embarrass myself in front of the WHOLE INTERNET.



Things go well. My other two humans want a piece of the action, so I send them to the teleporter...





But it's all over by the time they get there.



Once again, rolling in the dough. Before I upgrade anything, let's take a look at the beacon map...



Hmmm.





YES.



Finally, we've got all the major components necessary to keep us safe FOREVER. Cloaking, again, is a system that gives us +60% evasion for a few seconds, while preventing enemy weapons from charging. Using it as they fire gives us a huge advantage.

Cloaking, our defense drone, and good ol' shields and evasion mean we're going to be untouchable pretty soon, with all the scrap we're getting from Space Murder.

For the moment, though, I can't afford to upgrade the reactor, so the air's going off again.





Well, glad I could help, I guess.





Business as usual! We use the cloaking device, but they get a lucky hit anyway. They won't get another.



Level up! Arthur is now hardened to the horrors of war, and gets a 10% damage bonus since he's killed so many people. This is great - he can now take anyone in a one-on-one fight. Still hoping for another mantis or something to back him up, though.

I beam Zaphod and Matt aboard, and they help kill the last guy.

There are some important tactical things you can do to squeeze out an advantage when boarding an enemy ship - stick to 2-person rooms if you've only got two guys, but gang up if you can get four over there - but it's completely unnecessary overkill here.





What's this?! Asking for a HANDOUT instead of showering me with RICHLY DESERVED REWARDS??!!

Well, as you might guess, it's not just a handout. There are good reasons I might want to give them only 25 scrap, but I'm feeling generous.





Oh, those wacky computer-people.

The Engi Medi-Bot Dispersal Augment is pretty neat. It gives half the effect of the medi-bay to every room on the ship. So, everyone's regenerating health as long as the medbay's on! Occasionally nice, but really it's a cool conversation piece.



Looks like we have time for another few beacons.



Why are you trying to bribe me? All that does is tell me you have at least that much stuff worth taking.





Things are going well, when...



Okay, now that's a bribe! I'm willing to let you have your fun in exchange for all those fuel and missile units. As you were! Go kill whoever that was.





This is the kind of thing I like to see. They're surrendering to us without a fight, or even a threat. Probably not going to last long. Really, I'd be doing them a favor, teaching them about the realities of space travel.



So I do.

You can also tell them you're not trying to murder them, in which case there's a chance you get nothing and a chance you get a larger reward.



But we've got places to be. We're hitting the exit beacon just in the nick of time.





Here's one of those blue options we've heard about. I don't think we've seen these yet, have we? Sometimes, if you have the right augment, system, or crew member, you can get special options that are usually much better than any of the others.

In this case, our cloaking system lets us sneak past the AI ship. "Why wouldn't you just fight it, and get rewards for the fight AND the cache?"

Well, I suspect that you get a better cache by sneaking past. I might be wrong, and if I am, do let me know!

In any case, let's sneak past.





Well, so much for that.



I'm out of here.



Interesting. We could pass through an Uncharted Nebula and attempt to gain more ground on the Rebels, or visit the Zoltan Homeworlds. The Zoltan are allies of the Federation, bizarre aliens with strange, powerful technology.

Which sounds better?

ALSO BONUS: If you want, you can also suggest a new name for Matt!

ALSO ALSO:

I hope everyone's checking out the music. This game has a really nice soundtrack!

Each type of sector has two themes, an exploration track and a battle track. They sound similar, but one is more bellicose and one more laid back.

ALSO ALSO ALSO:

I hope this is going okay so far. Am I going into too much detail or anything? Let me know!

It's excellent. And I proudly accept my position as the propaganda officer for the federation.

Speaking of which. . .

Could you call yourself the savior of the Federation running like a coward into a nebula when the very homeworlds of our Zoltan allies are under threat?

Oh, and I also tend to pack primarily defense drones for most ships, since they're just so good at what they do. The only other counter against missiles is upgrading engines to ridiculous levels and praying. Though the most enjoyable thing I've ever done with drones was absolutely obliterate the Flagship with three attack drones. Sweet, sweet, revenge for that second form.

Zoltan have an interesting definition of "ally". Go see them.

Seriously though, for being a roguelike about space this game has some interesting backstory.

FTL update coming soon that makes getting the Crystal Ship slightly less subject to bullshit RNG.

Many spoilers behind that link, btw.

Visit Zoltan's homeworld!



[Former University of Michigan punter Zoltan Mesko]