FTL: Faster Than Light - Advanced Edition

[Overboard]

someone should merge this game with spacehulk

Don't you mean Alien Assault?

 

[Damned Registrations]

Oh, I was going to mention this early when someone said the Mk3 burst laser isn't as good as the Mk2: Only taking up a single slot is an advantage as well. Some ships have fewer weapon slots, and aside from that, you might want to switch weapons in battle (like use a bomb to bring down shields then switch to lasers) and you need more armed slots than you can fire at once to do that. The Mk3 is good for those reasons. Though it does have another drawback you didn't mention: firing 5 lasers in sequence takes a lot longer than firing 6 lasers in two bursts of 3. You start running up against shield regen times when you use the Mk3 to take down a shield and then use a beam weapon to follow up, and you don't get that problem by firing multiple lasers at once, which gives you a bigger time with the shields completely down.

 

[Raghar]

It's not worthy the power requirements and recharge time. Flame bomb, or drilling missile, and glaive beam can do the same.

 

[Damned Registrations]

None of those can lower level 4 shields to let your beams get to work (maybe the drilling missile, but I've never even seen that so it must be fucking rare as hell) and even if they could, it's not like everything is available to the player at all times.

If you want to complain about balance, there are much better targets. The basic laser, for example, is just objectively worse than the heavy laser. It has NOTHING going for it at all.

Also remember that weapons get used by enemies as well. Enemy ship doesn't need to give a fuck how much energy the Mk3 burst laser eats up.

 

[Black]

It's happening- http://steamcommunity.com/app/212680/discussions/0/882961406944119935/

 

[RK47]

rather buy more bank or char slots in guild wars2.

with in game gold. no less.

 

[Malakal]

Oh, I was going to mention this early when someone said the Mk3 burst laser isn't as good as the Mk2: Only taking up a single slot is an advantage as well. Some ships have fewer weapon slots, and aside from that, you might want to switch weapons in battle (like use a bomb to bring down shields then switch to lasers) and you need more armed slots than you can fire at once to do that. The Mk3 is good for those reasons. Though it does have another drawback you didn't mention: firing 5 lasers in sequence takes a lot longer than firing 6 lasers in two bursts of 3. You start running up against shield regen times when you use the Mk3 to take down a shield and then use a beam weapon to follow up, and you don't get that problem by firing multiple lasers at once, which gives you a bigger time with the shields completely down.

You forgot to mention one big drawback - powering up time coupled with the amount of power required means its extremely easy to disable this weapon with a lucky missile shot to weapons. Then you waste all that power and weapon load time... Burst laser mk3 is nearly unusable in my opinion. Two burst lasers mk2 are way better, alas very rare to find.

Considering that the reasonable max power you can invest in weapons is about 8 spending 4 on a single weapon is risky, unless its pegasus missile launcher, that one is worth it. I myself prefer 2-2-2-2 weapons or 2-2-1-3. Artemis missile is a godsend for that, cheap, fast, effective.

 

[RK47]

It's a gamble.
I kept messing up the salvos when I started to mix multi-laser types together, and the beam weapons aren't as effective as I wanted it to be near end game due to the 4 shield.
What's your upgrade strat anyway?
This is my approach on The Redtail Variant (4 basic laser ship)
I usually go for shield 2, then save up as much as I can to grab the cloak.
Then save up for a good weapon. Making sure I can grab a crew teleporter for easy finale.

 

[Malakal]

I always start with evasion (ie engines) upgrades, then go for shields 2, then again evasion, and again shields 3. I upgrade weapons only if I actually find any useful, but from my experience single burst laser mk2 is enough for first two sectors, coupled with basic attack drone is enough for even more. Of course you need a missile launcher if you happen to find an enemy with shields 2-3. Power upgrades as necessary but with keeping in mind that you do not NEED medbay and oxygen generation at all times. Buy drone bay at first opportunity, always sell sys repair drone thought if I randomly get it, useless in my opinion...

Other than that its really random and depends on what I find. I tend to forget about getting shields up to date and that often bites me in the ass.

 

[RK47]

I can't imagine the anti-ship drone being that useful since it randomly targets and just applies shield pressure that is very very random.
When I realize that Defense Drone I is probably the most useful, I end up not buying the Drone System until I get the Defensive Drones in my inventory.
I understand that Engine Upgrades can make a lot of fight easier - but IMO holding off that scrap spending, awaiting that BIG upgrade from stores is crucial in the first 5 sectors where the going isn't as tough as the latter sectors.

I still can't imagine using Pike & Halberd beams near the finale though.

 

[Malakal]

The thing with offensive drones is once you get the shields down they absolutely wreak any enemy, including the boss. Of course destroying shields gets harder and harder. Thus I conclude that missiles are simply the best weapons overall with lasers coming second and bombs third due to them being very situational. Ion weapons are somewhat good but they miss too much for my taste and are worse at keeping the shields down than missiles.

Cant use beams tho. They have like no shield penetration or depletion power so are completely useless later. Seem to deal nice damage, but once you get through shields almost everything dies fast.

Discussing fast shop upgrades vs shield/engine ones I would like to point out that drone system in defence wont stop enemy lasers till drone mk2 and cloacking is very expensive, while first 3 engine upgrades on, for example, Kestral are cheap, quickly available and allow you to save on repairs (due not being hit) therefore increasing your scrap for later. Also help you train your crew getting to those sweet evasion bonuses sooner. Finally upgrades from stores arent that BIG. Cloacking is kinda neat but once you dodge 45% anyway it wont matter much unless facing whole salvos of missiles.

 

[Destroid]

A halberd beam can easily deal 6-8 damage on most ships once you drop the shields, in addition to damaging multiple systems, they are extremely powerful. Beams also do have shield penetration, they just lose 1 damage per shield they go through. Bombs are superior to missiles in my opinion because they fill the same role of dropping shields, yet they cannot be stopped by any means. Ion or breach bombs are especially effective for this.

 

[JrK]

Wouldn't go below Halberd/Glaive beam but those two are worth it due to shield penetration. You just need to get shields down to 2 or 1 using other weaponry, whether it is laser salvo or missile/bomb spam. Getting the shields down is actually the problem for me in most games, just don't find enough weaponry updates to make a dent.

 

[Insane Psychic]

Had a lucky game with the fed. cruiser the other day, which led to my second completion of the game. 2 Burst lasers mk. 2, 1 Halberd beam, and 1 ion bomb, hull repair drone, and weapon pre-igniter. The rebel flagship was completely destroyed in no time at all. Felt a bit anti-climactic compared to my first completion where my stealth cruiser just barely managed to survive.

 

[Destroid]

The pre-igniter is an extremely powerful augment, it makes most fights up to the end boss a breeze if you have halfway decent weapons.

 

[Emily]

once you finish the game, every other time you play it it becomes a breeze honestly :/

 

[Malakal]

The pre-igniter is an extremely powerful augment, it makes most fights up to the end boss a breeze if you have halfway decent weapons.

Unless you fire a devastating salvo of missiles you shouldnt be able to one shot most enemies. Its very powerful but not because of reasons you stated: it helps you limit damage to your ship and cut losses in ammo. But honestly I wouldnt buy it for 120 scrap, I only have it when I find it.

 

[Damned Registrations]

It depends on your weapons. With high CD weapons like the beams or a Mk3 burst, the preigniter is sick. You can basically ruin a ship before it can even fire at you. Beams especially are easy to hit 4 rooms on almost any ship, and usually 2 of those will have some vital system like shields/piloting/weapons/drones. And beams never miss. <3 beams.

Also, re having the Mk3 damaged before it fires: put it in the first slot. If your weapons drop below 4 points you're probably fucked anyways, since you pretty much need that much to get through shields and damage stuff. Though obviously you wouldn't use it as your only weapon in the first few sectors, that'd just be stupid. It's a lategame weapon. But I'd probably rather have something like Mk3/Mk2/Ion Bomb/Halberd Beam Than Mk2/Mk2/Mk1/???, since even if the second layout can fire more dakka, it's much less versatile and can faceplant if the enemy evades a lot or happens to make your 4th weapon useless.

 

[Destroid]

The pre-igniter is an extremely powerful augment, it makes most fights up to the end boss a breeze if you have halfway decent weapons.

Unless you fire a devastating salvo of missiles you shouldnt be able to one shot most enemies. Its very powerful but not because of reasons you stated: it helps you limit damage to your ship and cut losses in ammo. But honestly I wouldnt buy it for 120 scrap, I only have it when I find it.

I actually didn't state any reasons.

Coincidentally I just hulksmashed through a game on the power of a Mk 2 Burst, Halberd Beam, Breach Bomb and preigniter. I had to wait a little while to lay on the hurt if the bomb missed, but that didn't happen often, most opponents couldn't get a shot in. Even without cloak I was able to lay out the boss with little trouble. This is on easy mind, I'm still trying to unlock all the ships.


EDIT:
I think the levelup system is one of the flaws of FTL. I could max out my crew on one of the early counters if I was prepared to let the game run while the bad guys pew pew at me for ages, games should not be designed such that you can gain advantage through tedium. Although maxing weapons would require an appropriate low power weapon.

 

[Computer Gamer Refugee]

I have been playing WAAAY too much FLT these days, and since I have not seen any real “tips for beginners" posts, I figured I’d write up some of my thoughts. I also hope that this might interest people in how the game plays. Don't be off-put, thought it can be boring to watch, it is awfully fun to play.


On ship’s power:
You do not have enough power to support every upgraded system. This makes power, not location upgrades, the ultimate limiting factor. You have a base maximum of 25 power. That means that using fully upgraded engines, shields, and weapons leaves only one power for everything else. At that point you won’t be able to use a drone, no matter how pimped out the drone bay is. Keep this total limit in mind when deciding how far to take systems. I will cover this implication more when I talk about specific systems.
This is obvious, but it did take a few games to realize how to deal with the total power shortage. For starters, there is no reason to power your med bay if you are not healing anyone; ditto for teleporters and cloaking. Routing power between the med bay and life support works pretty well, since you generally can handle the dropping oxygen levels for the amount of time it takes to heal up your crew.


Boarding versus blowing up:
It has been my experience that boarding nets you significantly more rewards than just blowing up the ship, especially when chasing smugglers. Killing everyone on board in particular is good for getting weapons and crew, which I have almost never gotten from salvage. Being a min-maxer this means that I almost always go for developing a boarding crew as soon as I can (transporters are generally the first upgrade I purchase). I will go more into boarding in the tactics section.


Slaughter versus surrender:
This is a much harder choice and requires that you actually *gasp* read and think a bit. Often the random money is equal to or even greater than the scrap you salvage from the corpse, but the deciding factor is what is offered rather than how much. Of course if they try to jew you with some lowball bribe, then kill them for the insult. On the other hand, if you have less than ten fuel and they are offering you five more, that may be worth more than the scrap and time to jump to a store. In particular slavers give you the choice between crew or cash, and that merits consideration.


Crew:
Each crew gets experience when they “do” the “thing they do”. That means that every time a weapon fires, a shield pip recharges, or the ship dodges the respective gunner, shield operator, and engineer and pilot get a bit of experience. This has an interesting implication because the red-tail’s gunner (4x weapons that fire with 10 sec cool-down) gains experience more than twice as quickly as the Kestral’s gunner (2x weapons with >10 sec cool-down). This also means that later in the game shield and piloting experience increases much faster than in the early game, when the absolute values of each are lower. As a result, swapping out a pilot and engineer after a couple of sectors generally does not hurt as much as you might think.
You have a total number of 8 crew, and 4 positions that need to be manned. This gives you a total of four crew who can float. I like to dedicate two for boarding and two for repairs/fire-fighting.
I am going to cover my personal opinion about each race.

Human (1/5): Anything they can do, someone else can do better. While they are better than nothing, I won’t pay to hire them unless really desperate and they are generally the first out the airlock when I need to make room.

Klackon Mantis (4/5): Because I heavily favor boarding, I heavily favor these guys. While they suck at repairing, everyone else can do that, and they are better at fighting than anyone else. My ideal number of these guys is the same as your total number of teleporter pads. In a pinch they can man a system just like anyone else, but their main job is to punish anyone foolish enough to visit your ship and to quickly disable the crew of your foes.

Engi (3/5): A nice solid crew member. Although they suck at fighting, this is not really a problem since other people can fill that role unless you have a surplus of Engi. My ideal number of these guys is one. It then acts as a system repair droid that does not take two power to run. With that said, they are not bad at manning stations since the manned stations are also the ones you usually want repaired quickly. If you are doing things right, your repairs should be light enough so that one is plenty.

Rockmen(2/5): I get the feeling that these guys are pretty popular, but I don’t like them that much. I feel that their slow speed really is too much of a penalty for the bonuses they bring to the table. If you are manning a station, there are other races that bring more to the table, and if they are mobile the slow speed really irritates. Yes, they are immune to fire, but given a choice I’d rather vent the room to space, and vacuum hurts these guys as much as the next fellow. Yes they have an extra 50% hps, but they still lose to a Mantis and take longer to heal up. I could put them in a boarding team, but the slower speed means the team ends up splitting up. I like to keep one around for ship self-defense/fires, but after I have one to trigger blue events, these guys are the second ones out the airlock.

Slugs (2/5): One of these guys is pretty cool for the life force detection in nebula. After the first the remainder is exactly as useful as humans.

Energy Men (5/5): Remember back in the beginning when I said that 25 is your maximum base power? Well these
guys are the cheat to get around that. However, much like the Holy Hand Grenade, three is the number of them that you shall have, two you shall not have except as a path to continue right on to three, and four is right out. These are my highest priority for crew (until I get three) and, along with Mantis, the only race I’ll consider spending scrap on once I have more than a minimum crew. Although they are $65 to hire, they are worth a $20-35 power upgrade, so are actually the cheapest of all crew in net cost. With that said, the power is actually pretty annoying unless you have the ability to just park them someplace and leave them alone. There are three man-able stations also require power, so that is where I put them. If I get an extra, I won’t space him, but you do have to be aware that it is surprisingly easy to depower your weapons if you have to move them around. Their low health makes them poor at fighting, and can die if you start taking a bunch of damage, but overall I really like them.


Systems:

Engines: If you pay attention to the numbers then you know that going from a 50-51% percent dodge is twice as effective as going from 0-1%. That puts the diminishing returns at higher than four bars in engines in perspective. Coincidentally, a gold rated pilot and engineer with four bars in engines has a 51% dodge rate. Dodge is also works against almost all attack types, and is the only one that works against bombs. I always try to put four bars into it pretty soon, but I often don’t do more than that. This is something to try playing with.

Shields: On one hand shields only work against two weapon types (beams and lasers), but those represent the bulk of the potential damage you will take. They are somewhat additive in nature because of how fast they regenerate. Given enough shields, by the time weaker foes have removed your last shield point, the first shield point has regenerated. I try to have two points of shields by the 3rd sector. However, I don’t generally like to pick up the 4th point (unless I am swimming in scrap) because three points and a decent dodge generally works against every foe they would work against. Three shields and a 50% dodge will generally neutralize to two burst II lasers, and I don’t see many ships with more laser firepower than that. Of course, see tips on the final boss later.

Weapons: This is much harder to tell how far to upgrade since it depends on what you find (or buy), but remember that you cannot get more than eight (more generally six) power total. When you are combining weapons, consider the different recharge time. Because of the way that shields recharge, a volley of weapons is often more effective than auto-fire, despite the fact that auto-fire theoretically does more damage. This actually includes bombs and missiles, because a too-long delay between the missile hit and the laser hit may allow the enemy crew repair the damaged system. Fun fact: Just as you hate it when it happens to you, if you can damage the weapons for even a second to make a given weapon go offline makes it have to re-start the charging process. Here is brief talk about the classes.

Lasers: (including ion weapons): Like it or not, you pretty much have to have these. As my first try with the rock ship painfully told me, you will not get enough missiles to take you through the game. I use lasers to disable key parts of the enemy ship. Once the foe is disabled you can destroy in the manner of your choosing at your leisure. As far as disabling goes, ion weapons are stronger, but they only disable for the duration of the effect (one of those ring counters for every “point” of damage they do). Direct damage lingers until it can be repaired.

Beams: You can’t dodge a beam, and this really is nice when you have just enough laser power to drop the shields to zero and no more. Cutting across a ship, these can do a bunch of damage in a hurry. Note you only do the listed damage per room it hits, not per square it hits. Although any weapon is better than no weapon, I generally avoid them for a couple of reasons. The first is that they do not damage shields at all. This is really annoying when one shield point comes back just as the beam fires. While the heavier beams can still damage through small shields, they also take more power, which cuts into the power you can devote to weapons that weaken the target to the point where the beam can be effective. Lastly, because I favor boarding, I like to focus my damage on the points I need it to be instead of going for maximum damage overall. Incidentally, the mini-beam (starting weapon on the stealth craft) can hit three rooms if you aim it carefully, which gives it the highest damage per power rating in the game.

Missiles: A nice solid weapon that ignores shields. The missile is a great way to damage the shield generator without first having to go through said shields. Once the generator is down, then you can put the launcher on standby and let you laser/beam weapon take over. The downside is that it takes limited ammo; this limits it to a secondary weapon only at risk of going dry. Also, one defense drone can seriously hamper the ability of your missiles to do damage, which is always a risk.

Bomb: A bomb is a missile that trades the ability to do hull damage (i.e. what you need to do in order to actually blow a ship up) for immunity to defense drones. Since I prefer to use my boarders to actually kill ships, I actually prefer this. It does not hurt that bombs also generally require less power than missiles or beams. However they are less common than missiles, so take that as you will. While given the choice I prefer bombs to missiles, they both fill the same boat.

Drones: There are various drone systems you can use, each with various utility. Although a drone system is good to have since it provides another too for the tool box. You can use them to either add abilities, or substitute for short crew.

Hull repair drones: The only drone I purchase whenever possible is the hull repair drone. The reason is that it is like a portable store. Each drone costs eight scrap and repairs, on average, four damage. Since damage costs two points per damage to repair this gives you a cost neutral way to repair without having to go to a store location do to it. This is especially useful when you might take damages for several fights in a row without having easy access to a store to repair in. The best part is that you can keep it in your hold during the fight while you use combat drones and then pop it in after the battle for just long enough to repair (replacing the combat drone before you jump).

Anti-ship Drones: I am not too fond of these. Although they have quite a high damage per second, pretty much any shields at all completely neutralizes them. With that said, if your primary offense does not do much damage (e.g. ion weapons and bombs) then drones are a good way to actually kill your target. Generally one anti-ship drone can suppress about one level of shields and a level two drone seems to be good for one and a half levels of shields. Everything about anti-ship drones goes double for beam drones, except beam drones do not affect shields at all.

Ship Defense Drones: Level one drones can target missiles and level two can hit missiles and beams. Generally level one drones can hit the first target in a volley and level two get the first two shots in a volley. Fun fact, boarding drones count as missiles when they are coming in, and I have often seen my level two defense drone blow up a boarding drone while it was already on-board.

Boarding drones: Just like description says, these are great fun. A guaranteed hull breach (which makes fighting them fun) and they are worth more than half again as much as a normal fighter. With that said I don't use them much. As mentioned before, I like to maintain my own boarding team, so this is a duplicated ability. Also they target a random room, and don't seem to like leaving a room that contains a system (i.e. it will leave an empty room, but not the dang transporter room). The last problem is that they will almost always be outnumbered 2 to 1, and sometimes worse. However, they only cost a drone and they are fun.

Defender drones: I don't remember the exact name, but this is the converse to the boarding drone. They are nice to have since they don't go away after activation (smaller drone cost) also they provide a lot of nice blue options for things like station exploration and giant spiders.
System Repair Drones: Like an Engi, but you have to pay 2 power to keep it running. Fun fact, if you have boarders you can keep sending these guys into the damaged room to slow down the attackers.


Subsystems: I always try to raise my system level to level 2 as is feasible. Not only does it make it harder to destroy the system, but it gives you nice benefits for reasonable price. It costs less to upgrade your doors, sensors, piloting, teleporter, medic, cloaking, and O2 to level two than it does to go from three to four shield points. Unlike the main systems, I often depower sub-systems when I don't need them, and the extra level allows me to supercharge the item when I do need it....such as when I screw up and am running three fires, a hull breach, and realize that O2 fell to 20%.

Cloaking: There are two ways to use a cloaking system. The first is to cloak right away. This gives your weapons a chance to charge up while the target just sits there. This means that you can hopefully get a crippling strike before they get a chance to respond. The second way is to wait until your opponent launches a volley and then cloak and laugh as the attacks all miss you.

 

[Malakal]

I have to agree with most your points, but to my diverging playstyle have some opinions that are different:
-beam and anti ship drones are excellent and cost effective when taking out enemy ships - in the first few sectors they can kill a ship with just one (8 scrap) drone invested as long as you eliminate the shields. Since drones are a different resource to missiles it helps you stockpile missiles to use in launchers later. Two offensive drones are even better since EFFECTIVELY they bring enemy to -2 shields at the paltry cost of 4 power. Totally not worth getting mk2 drones.
-defensive drones are great when fighting anything with missile launchers since just a single missile hit costs you at least 4 scrap (repair cost, note it goes up to 4 per point later). Two defensive drones make short work even of boss missile salvos. Mk2 drones are also excellent and two of those make you almost invulnerable. Its a third layer of defence after shields and engines. Generally its worth having drone bay just to runa single def drone, two for bosses and massed missiles.
-subsystems in my opinion arent worth upgrading at all other than getting blast doors. You dont need more oxygen, anything better than 20% is enough, you only need heal 2 when your crew is stranded in medbay in a ship without oxygen and destroyed o2 generator, sensors are good but slug crewman is even better (good event choices), autopilot can be useful if you have crew troubles
-cloaking is the ultimate defence as long as you have someone piloting the damn ship, investing more in cloaking is even better. Excellent system.
-on weapons: agree on all points but since I dont board I find missiles the overall best weapons
-on other defences: engines>shields, shields 3 are a must unless you cloak or you get raped by burst lasers and beams or you run mk2 defence drones.

Also you completely ignored upgrades, so some points from me:
-FTL booster - useless, upgrade engines and sell this,
-FTL preventer (however its called) - useless, get a missile launcher or a bomb launcher/invade their engines
-scrap recovery arm - for me its useless since it costs 50 and pays back after 500 scrap. To make a decent profit you need at least 1000 scrap collected from the time of the purchase so it means you have to acquire it early, when resources are limited. Of course I never sell it.
-weapon preigniter - too expensive for me to buy, good to have tho. Can be replaced by cloaking right at the start of the battle. Some people love it for the devastating first salvo of weapons but I think you almost never can disable a ship with this advantage.
-weapon reloader - good to have, not needed to buy, 15% isnt enough,
-drone recovery arm - very situational and generally not worth it, drones get destroyed more often than left behind,
-long range sensors - decent thing to have since its not expensive, helps locate shops and combat encounters,
-cloaking/drone bay - get ASAP,
-crew teleporter - I dont use it since it requires a specific strategy but seems quite nice
-shield recoverer (whatever) - good to have, if you have 4 shields you may as well buy it, quite cheap

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

I don't really get your point on preigniter, I find it the most op thing in the game. If you have a decent weaponry it practically guarantees a flawless victory, excluding boss and fortified shield ships.

Agree that subsystems aren't worth upgrading at all, I don't even get blast doors and deal with fires just fine. Also switching power between o2 and medbay seems like a pretty bad idea. If your oxygen drops you have to spend time after a fight just watching it grow (slow and boring) or risk getting in trouble in the next encounter.

Also on races:

Engi (3/5):

3/5? They are second best species and definitely the best if you don't do boarding. Their special ability is awesome and makes them best candidates for manning all systems period. Especially weaponry. If you don't have an engi in weapons room you're gay. Their sucky combat skills don't matter if you have 2 mantis like you should.

Slugs (2/5)

Very strange rating considering you like boarding. Having slug on a ship is awesome for boarding strategies, you always know where to strike and when to run and you don't need upgrading sensors at all.

Energy Men (5/5)

These guys seem cool at first, but you usually get them late so to man the systems with them and make use of their energy you often have to drop a skilled crewman. And lets face it, you don't really need that extra energy to make a proper working build, though having it for free helps, yes. Low health doesn't help either. They definitely don't deserve higher ranking than engi and mantis.

 

[SuicideBunny]

if a mantis beats your rockman in 1on1, you forgot to set the room on fire.

 

[Computer Gamer Refugee]

Stuff

I agree, I kinda petered out since I was already running five pages when I was typing the original guide in word. I rate Engi/Slugs just after Mantis (up to 2) and Energy men (up to 3). My ideal (two pad teleporter) crew is 2 Mantis, 3 Energy men, an Engi, a Slug, and a Rockman. That gives you all blue options. An effective boarding team, a mobile repair unit, and a fire-fighting/defense force.

I don't find slugs useful because I almost always upgrade my sensors to level 2. It is only 20-25 scrap and a better view, a more durable system (kinda irrelevant since I usually only bother to repair them when I have nothing else for the crew to do), and a couple of blue options. All that without requiring power.

The first time I trapped a set of boarders in an open airlock was when I became a fan of level 2 doors (also only 20-25 scrap). This is a case when increased doorability (get it ) matters, since it takes twice as much damage to disable them.

I'm not saying my way is the only way, and I intend to watch this thread to get more ideas, but I figured I'd start the ball rolling.

 

[Occasionally Fatal]

I'd like some tips for the flagship at the end. Just can't get past the drone phase, even on easy. I can get there basically 100% of the time and have a close to or basically maxed out ship. But it seems like I never have the weaponry to get through the shields and into the drone controller fast enough, and even when I did manage to disable the controller, I still got hit by the power surge of drones. Last time I had a sick boarding party (2 max mantis guys), but what I didn't know was destroying a subsystem when the ship has 1 hp, destroys the ship... and my crew on board, so no awesome fighters to repel the boarding drones or disable subsystems.