It doesn’t take playing FTL for too long to realise that there’s a lot to buy and very little to buy it with. When faced with a ship of several systems, all begging for you to upgrade them… it can be a little daunting at first

Golden Rule: Learn to Save Scrap

One of the big mistakes I made with the game when starting out was to spend scrap as soon as I got it. 50 scrap? Flick open the ship window and see what I can upgrade!

Of course, what happened is that I’d arrive at a store not too long after, and end up staring longingly at all the cool weapons, systems and crew I couldn’t afford



Here’s the key bit: You can upgrade your ship at any time (on the whole) – But stores appear a handful of times each sector (if that) and the selection is limited and largely down to chance. Needless to say, saving up scrap to get cool stuff at stores can make a big difference - So always try to stockpile. Sure, you’ll run around with a slightly weaker ship in the early sectors, but this will quickly subside once you get some cooler kit installed. Plus, it’s better to gamble early on and die, than to play it safe and find your ship outclassed and unable to get past epic shields in later sectors

The only main exception is if you’re about to hit a beacon overtaken by the pursuing rebel fleet. The Elite ships are nasty, and you’ll want every advantage you can get

General Upgrade Structure



In terms of what to upgrade and when, generally use the following 2 questions as a guide: Am I killing things? (your boarding capabilities and your weapons) and Am I being killed? (your shields and engines)

In terms of offense, you have 2 avenues here: Your boarding and your firepower. Boarding involves getting hold of a crew teleporter and suitable boarding crew (rock/mantis). Weapons involve getting hold of weapons and upgrading the weapons room to be able to field them. Ideally you should aim for both, but if one is single-handedly winning you several fights, you can take your time with the other. On the whole, offense comes first – as your defence will largely be negated if you’re spending ages trying to knock out the enemy shields

The important question to ask is “could I cope if they get more difficult?” – Always look to the worst-case scenarios. Here’s a few to get you rolling:

Take the ships you’ve been fighting, can you still win if they have another shield?

Can you beat a ship without oxygen?

Can you beat a ship if it has a Defence Drone? Or Cloaking?

If you’d struggle, then you’ll want to keep an eye out for a counter

Defensively speaking, it’s generally about your shields and engines. Your shields are the biggest investment, but one of the most important. Engines are cheaper to upgrade and should ideally have an additional bar or 2 each time you get a new layer of shields. On the whole, once you have a comfortable offensive capability – look to your defence. Once your defence is good, focus on attack again. The other systems will basically fit around these (and roughly fall under your offensive/defensive capabilities)

A bugger of a ship to use. Its starting weapons are awkward and require an element of finesse to use properly… or just pausing loads

Imma firin’ ma – wait… what?

Don’t let the 3 starting weapons (with some obvious synergy) lull you into thinking you don’t need to worry about weapons for a while. In fact, it’s a set up. Breach bombs are great, but when you’re left with a dual laser and anti-bio beam… your options are narrow – Basically kill the shields for either the dual laser or anti-bio beam to do something. But doing this successfully rests on 1 main facet: Your enemy sits there and lets you blow them up. Sadly, they have a nasty habit of being unhelpful. So whilst you’re focussing on their shields, everything else will be online and likely pointing at you… worse they’ll be in the shield room patching whatever you’re doing to it anyway. Don’t even get me started on when they have a Med-Bay/Clone Room too! So don’t skimp – replace the anti-bio beam early. Don’t be afraid to gamble for better weapons early on over shields/engines – The latter will be for nought if you have to sit there and get shot at for dozens of volleys

First Investment: Weapons System

Before you even think about upgrading your shields/engines… throw 1 more bar into your weapons. This will let you have all 3 starting weapons live at the same time – This will buy you a lot more breathing space instead of constantly switching out the Bomb/Lasers to supplement the bio-beam

Once you have all 3, the roles are simple: The bomb softens the enemy and draws them into position, then the dual lasers crack enough of a gap in the shields to let the Anti-Bio Beam do its job


Scrap drive

Though you want to replace the beam, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t abuse the hell out of it first. The advantage to killing the crew is more scrap at the end of fights – Something vital where you’ll need to buy so much for this ship. So where possible, kill the crew (except slaver ships, which I’ll come onto shortly…) – It’s a fiddly process, so don’t be afraid to pause often to get the timing right

Though beam weapons damage per room – The Anti-Bio beam damages per tile. In other words, the beam must hit the actual tile which the enemy is on, in order to do anything. It deals 60 damage, which grudgingly means you have to dish out several volleys to actually win, not helped by its painful charge up time… Yeah, I told you it’s awful

Needless to say, the more enemies you hit, the better. Sadly though, they don’t tend to line up in a neat row for you (inconsiderate jerks). You can help cluster them though, by detonating the breach bomb in important places - causing several to sprint to repair it. Anywhere near the pilot’s seat is particularly good: They rarely leave the room; so other crew will tend to scramble to the breach instead, bringing everyone closer like one big happy family. Have the Dual Laser and Anti-Bio Beam on hand to capitalise upon on this (hey, I didn’t say they were a popular family)

Also note that any shields will also block the laser completely, so don’t get complacent. Always wait for it to fully charge before aiming. Leave the shields to your Dual Laser though (unless you’re facing 2, in which case weaken it with bombs first)… the small window gained when it hits them will be sufficient to unleash glowing orange death (or glowing orange moderate wounding… which is truer, but doesn’t sound as cool)

Counting Crew

If weapons weren’t bad enough, you only have 2 crew (though both are slugs)… So it helps to amass some quickly. Bear in mind, when you come across slaver ships – try to and blow up the ship first. If they don’t panic and offer you a crew member, then kill the crew. This gives you the best chance of getting more for your team

I ssssssssssssee you

Whilst the lack of sensors might seem like a kick in the teeth, the slug’s innate ability to see all enemy crew largely negates this. Additionally, the Slug Repair Gel automatically fixes hull breaches, so it’s only really fire you need to be vigilant for between fights. So with the amount you have to buy, you might want to skip sensors altogether

What to aim for

Once you have a decent set of weapons, you can look to other funky kit. The Breach Bombs and Dual Lasers are only 1 bar a piece, so can certainly be kept if you like. The boarding setup is, as always, a winner – Particularly as you can continue to rake in the better rewards from killing the crew after you ditch the anti-bio beam (you did get rid of that, didn’t you?)

- +4 Crew (x2 Boarders: Rock / Mantis – x1 Engi)
- +2 Decent hull-damaging Weapons
- Crew Teleporter
- Hacking Module
- [Optional] Mind Control

Another difficult ship to use. You’re reliant on boarding and strategic Healing Bursts to survive until you can bring some decent kit online

Never judge a ship…

Much like the Man of War – The Stormwalker looks fancy… but in reality you have a laughable amount to play with. The Crew Teleporter is cool, but the Artemis is your only offensive weapon, meaning that boarding will be your primary source of victories (unless you have about 50 missiles hidden in your back pocket). Whilst not on par with Mantis/Rock, Slugs are still ok fighters, so ordinarily this wouldn’t be a real problem… That is until you notice the distinct lack of Med/Clonebay…

First Aid

The lack of a recovery system is, by far, your ship's biggest challenge early on. All you have are Healing Bursts to keep your guys alive – And the fact that you’ll primarily be boarding only compounds this problem. Missiles are limited (and the Artemis needs them too) so you need to be sparing

If you’ve never used Healing Bursts – They’re basically bombs that heal all friendly units in a single room (don’t worry, they won’t affect enemies, so you can use them mid-fight). Now be careful, if you haven’t read the tool-tip that comes with them: They can miss enemy ships. Also note that there’s a second or 2 delay to its effect, so don’t cut it too fine

The trick is to squeeze as much health out of your guys as possible. If they’re a bit beaten up from the last fight, send them in (when the burst has mostly charged) and only heal when they’re lower on health (like 30%). If you’re clearly going to win a fight, wait until the end to heal - Also remember to group your guys together where possible to heal as many in one go, even if that means beaming your guys back and grouping them with one who is injured from shots against your ship

Now when you need to heal-mid boarding, you have 2 choices: Beam your guys out, or lure the pilot away from the controls. Quite frankly, a missed healing burst can be fatal. If the enemy has no way to recover and the weapons are no big threat… don’t risk it. Pull out and heal on your ship. If you need to keep up the attack (or the recharge is too far off), then start your guys running when they’re about 30% HP (leave room for taking a few extra hits) – Aim to run past the pilot’s room to hopefully draw them out. When the pilot leaves their station (as in, the room entirely) - pause the game and aim your healing burst into whatever room your guys are just entering: With any luck, the brief 0% evasion will guarantee the bomb lands as your guys stop there

Take note, by the way, if the enemy have blast doors… you could get trapped. In these cases, pelt an Artemis at the pilot’s seat before you try to heal. You could also nuke the doors before boarding and have the fight in there (to block repairs) if you want to play on the safe side

What to buy, what to buy…

It goes without saying that a Med/Clone Bay is top of your priorities here. Luckily they’re only 50 scrap and you can keep it at 1 bar for the most part… so a very cheap investment. Whilst you should grab one as soon as possible – they’ll be available at most stores so don’t be afraid to skip it if you find something really cool/rare (such as a Burst Laser Mk II) and have plenty of missiles to get you to the next store (10+)

The next step is to hunt for a boarding crew. They’re the fastest, cheapest way to give your ship an edge. You already have a teleporter and the Artemis is a cool support weapon to knock out key systems – So all you need is the cost of 2 good crew (110 scrap if you buy from stores)

Only other thing to bear in mind – If you pick up a crummy laser/ion/beam weapon… don’t sell it until you get a better replacement. If you hit a Zoltan ship, you’ll want something you can bring their shield down with, as opposed to spending several missiles on it (by which time the victory probably won’t be worth it)

Once you have a source of recovery and a decent boarding crew… you’re finally in a position to take a breather

What to aim for

- +3 Crew (x2 Boarders: Rock / Mantis – x1 Engi)
- +2 Decent hull-damaging Weapons
- Hacking Module
- Mind Control

Once you’re over the first few hurdles… it’s pretty much business-as-usual. Upgrade your shields and engines as you go on the hunt for cool weapons. You’ll be raking in the scrap from boarding, so the starting handicap shouldn’t hold you back greatly. The Artemis is a cheap, but cool, addition worth keeping if you don’t find a decent replacement

If you can afford other systems, the Hacking and Mind Control are always a winning combo to support your boarding efforts

Slug ships just don’t give you an even break do they? With only a pathetic Chain Laser, you have to make use of Hacking and Mind Control to survive long enough to actually get a means of offence. Worse still, they pick a name oh so close to areola… I don’t know what is in the water they drink, but it scares me

Pew pew

As far as weapons go, the Ariolimax makes the Man of War look like Arnold Schwarzenegger – Seriously, you only have a 2-shot Chain Laser to play with. Whilst the 7-second cooldown after 3 shots is nice, it still doesn’t take away the fact that you’re buggered as soon as you face 2 shields. Your support systems are good, but getting a decent form of attack is critical here

Save what scrap you can and try to scout for stores. Aim for beacons with many links, as there’s more chance you’ll find a connected store. Once you find one, try to visit surrounding beacons if possible, just so you go in with as much scrap as possible. Look for weapons or a crew teleporter… grab anything. Honestly, if you find something really good – don’t be afraid to sell off your slug repair gel for it

Mind Games

For its crummy weapons, the Ariolimax does at least give you both Hacking and Mind Control. Once you’re rolling these will give you some excellent combat potential and versatility (they scream for boarding parties)… it’s just getting that far. Though they’re not very powerful on their own, you’ll need to make heavy use of both. That said, it’s generally safer not to focus on upgrading these systems until you have decent weapons and defences first – You’re unlikely to gain enough to make it worth the trade-off

Mind Control is there for disruption. At Level 1 you’re unlikely to see enemy crew killing each other or offlining things (unless they’re Mantis: Always Control them if you get the chance). As such, you have 2 main uses for it:

Firstly, use it to stop enemy repairs. If you offline a system, Mind Control anyone trying to repair it – thus stopping it in its tracks and, as a bonus, they’ll hopefully engage anyone else who tries to repair it, stopping them too!

Secondly, use it to move crew around the ship. If you possess a crewmember, the enemy tends to scramble other guys to them – away from their posts (but not always). This is particularly handy once you capitalise upon this with Hacking (I’ll explain shortly). Note that a possessed crew will rarely leave their room unless they completely offline the system there – so control the person you don’t want to move

Now, as mentioned: If they have Mantis – Possess without any hesitation. Even at Level 1 they can make a nice mess. Also, if the ship has a teleporter: Target any crew running for it. It’ll stop them hopping aboard. You can sometimes let 2 board, then possess 1 – but they don’t always fight. Sometimes your possessed person will run elsewhere to fix or man a system: Placing a soon-to-be-enemy somewhere important! Not cool – Better having them fighting on their own ship (less to clean up)

Technically you could use Mind Control to slowly cause the crew of a ship to kill each other entirely (finishing off the last one with your laser) – But they don’t always make enemy crew fight and it’s a painfully slow process. Seriously, it’s not worth the time or effort. That said, if you get a Crew Teleporter: Feel free to beam a possessed enemy aboard your ship and take them out one-by-one when it wears off (but only if weapons aren't a threat)

Bit of a Hack-job

Hacking’s a considerably more strategic toy than meets the eye. Oh sure, it temporarily blasts whatever system it’s attached to… but there’s more: Its doors

If you’ve used hacking before, you’ll know that when powered, it sets up blast doors around the room you choose – Meaning enemies can neither enter nor leave without kicking them in first. But… if you power down your Hacking Module, you return the doors to the enemy ownership, letting them pass. This is considerably useful and a very important quirk to note, to get the most out of this ship

For the most part, in the early fights you’ll want hacking on the Pilot’s Seat: It guarantees your Chain Laser a hit. It’s a short burst at Level 1, so activate it just before the Laser is about to fire. Shoot the shields and you’ll have the enemy ship ready to crumble quickly. Will they try to repair it? Of course. Here’s where you get sneaky…

Latch the Hacking onto the Pilot’s Seat, but power it down – You want enemies to pass through the doors (for now…)

If you want the Pilot’s Seat down (this is particularly useful when they’re charging their FTL) – Use Mind Control on someone in another room, in a bid to draw the pilot out. Once they’ve left the room: then power up your Hacking – Suddenly they’re locked out. Hack away and target a few shots to bring it offline

You could also do the flip-side: Control the pilot to draw someone else into the room, then lock the doors. Suddenly they’re locked out from the rest of the ship: Giving you a chance to sink in some damage without immediate repair. This is particularly amazing if you trap an Engi, as they’d struggle to pop a sheet of bubble-wrap – so they’ll be locked in for ages!

If you’re clever with your hacking, doors and Mind Control – It’ll help you make the most of your Chain Laser’s puny damage. Be ruthless with your Support Systems and always use them: You need to snatch that upper hand quickly in fights

If I meet 2 shields?

If you face a ship with 2 shields before you have any real counter to it… then you’re in for a tricky fight here

First of all, latch your Hacking onto the shields. It’s the only way you’re going to get any real hit on the ship. When your Chain Laser is ready to roll – Hit Hack and fire away when both shields drop (be quick, you barely have a window). If you land a hit on the shields, use Mind Control on anyone who tries to repair them. At that point, just keep that Chain Laser going, hack when possible to support any shots and Mind Control anyone trying to be useful. The pilot’s seat might be a good target too, to guarantee further shots

It’s not pretty, and you largely have to ignore their weapons to try and crack a hole in their defences first. Don’t be afraid to jump if you start taking on damage – The reward will unlikely be worth the repairs

What to aim for

- +3 Crew (x2 Boarders: Rock / Mantis – x1 Engi)
- WEAPONS - x2 decent hull-damaging ones and a support bomb will do nicely
- Crew Teleporter

Needless to say, weapons are your top priority here. Once you can comfortably (and reliably) take on 2 shielded foes though, you can kick back a bit. You have a lot of the final systems in place – It’s just methodically upgrading them as you go along. Put everything into weapons/boarding at the start, focus on shields/engines after (to play catch-up) and then think about the Mind Control or Hacking if you get a chance

With only one spare system, it’s generally the Crew Teleporter here. The Hacking and Mind Control are brilliant support systems for your boarding efforts. In fact, if you get Hacking high enough – you can see off pesky Med/Clone Bays without any weaponry at all

Shields

You’ll want these fully upgraded by the flagship. There’s no hard-and-fast rule, but you’ll roughly want two layers around Sector 2. Three layers around 4-5 and four layers by the final sector. They’re incredibly expensive (around 50, 100, 200 scrap per layer), so it’s generally a good idea to try and get this purchase out of the way sooner – and picking up the cheaper upgrades after

Engines

It’s easy to underestimate these. After all, the shield guarantees a blocked shot, this is just a chance. However, in the 3rd phase of the flagship, you’ll have at least 8 shots coming at you simultaneously… 4 shields won’t be enough. You’ll want your engines strong and pushing at least 35% evasion if not 40-50%. They’re cheaper to upgrade though, so look to boost them early when you can spare some scrap or after boosting the shields. The 5% evasion boost won’t seem like much at first, but you’ll be grateful when it stacks up… trust me

Oxygen

By and large you can get away with 1 bar for most of the game, but for 25 scrap the 2nd is a good investment – You don’t have to power the extra one though: It’s more about covering your back. Keeping it at 1 bar means it will go offline if anything touches it, but worse: If you’re unlucky to get a ship which text-event hacks your oxygen bay (as in, doesn’t use a hacking module but just negates some of the power): You’ll be completely without oxygen and racing against time. 2 bars lets you “Squeeze some life into the oxygen room” – Keeping it online at 1 bar (which will suffice)

You definitely want to upgrade this if you enter a slug nebula (the above event is common)

Weapons

On the whole, upgrade this room as and when you get weapons. There’s little point putting in extra power if you have nothing to make use of it. Be economical: You might have a load of weapons, but do you realistically have to power them all at the same time right now? In general you’re unlikely to fully upgrade this room (not without compromising something else). 2-3 decent weapons should see you through most of the game (so 6-8 bars overall)

Drone Room

Honestly speaking, put in enough to power your favourite drone or 2, and leave it at that. You shouldn’t have more than 4 bars in this room


Medbay

You can generally get away with 1 bar for the entire game. However, if you make heavy use of boarding and haven’t got hold of a Reconstructive Teleport: It’s worth boosting this to Level 2 if you find you’re still healing after your Teleporter has recharged

It’s also wise to boost this to Level 2 if you hit the Mantis Homeworlds and have a crew teleporter (you’ll need it to fully complete the Mantis Ship unlock challenge if you fight KazaaakplethKilik) – You’ll also want Level 2 if you enter Slug Nebulae, to cover against text-event hacking wiping it out

Clone Bay

If you go down the Clone Bay route, you’ll want it Level 2 early on. Firstly you’ll want to minimise downtime between deaths. But more importantly, you’ll want the additional HP in the room so it doesn’t go offline suddenly as it’s cloning away. Unless you have a back-up DNA bank, your dead crew will permanently die if it’s offline – and you won’t get time to repair it

Crew Teleporter

It’s pricey, but always a good investment. Even if you don’t have the crew for it, it tends to be a safe buy (unless fights are already difficult, in which case look to your weapons/defences)

Once your boarding is underway and you’re happily pounding enemies into confetti, you’ll want to think about Level 2 boarding. This reduces the cooldown, and is vital for fetching your guys back if they hit trouble. This is especially true if you have a MedBay, as any death of your crew is final – so you can’t afford to lose your boarders to a silly mistake

You can tend to hold off from Level 3 until the Flagship. But in that fight you’ll want it maxed out so you can quickly dart between the weapons rooms

Mind Control

Great fun, but in general: Secondary to your weapons and boarding. Once your ship is in order, feel free to purchase / upgrade this to really rub it in your enemy’s face – But I wouldn’t bother early on, as it’s hard to get much use out of it without other stuff to back it up

Hacking

Like Mind Control – It’s a great toy, but ideally needs other systems to play upon the advantage it creates. As such, this is generally best to upgrade later. If you find yourself using it a lot, take it to Level 2 (it’s cheap) but you’re unlikely to look at 3 until the rest of your ship is set. That said, it’s a useful buy as it can block most text-event hacking… so if you’re going to use it down the line and can spare the scrap now… go for it

Cloaking

A hefty investment just buying the damn thing. It’s great but you don’t want to get too reliant on it – Shields / Engines tend to be the higher priority here. It buys you breathing space, but remember you still need something to fall back on between charges! The upgrade to Level 2 is cheap though, so if you’re using it often – give it a boost. Level 3 tends to be best left until late in the game before the Flagship

Pilot’s Seat - No Power Required

In case the text is confusing: The 50-80% Auto-Pilot evasion means you retain 50-80% of your current evasion level if you stop manning the room. You’re unlikely to get any use out of this early on (where evasion is low anyway) so don’t bother. But around sector 4-5, this is a very good investment if your pilot’s seat is out of the way or you’re still low on crew (in other words: are forced to leave it mid-battle more than you’d like to)

Sensors - No Power Required

The higher levels of this are a bit superfluous, but Level 2 (see the interior of the enemy ship) is a brilliant investment – Especially if you go for boarding. Don’t feel you have to rush though, as a lot of early fights will be quite straightforward. You can always man the room itself to get the same effect anyway

Doors - No Power Required

What’s worse than a boarder? A boarder who goes where they bloody feel like. Level 2 doors early on is a very good call: Just to give you a chance to slow down any attacks and mount some sort of counter. Blast doors also help slow down the spread of fire – But the main reason you’ll want them is boarders. Remember that this too can be manned; but don’t rely on it – You’ll need at least Level 2 to buy yourself the time to rush someone into the room

Doors are a must if you’re about to enter a Mantis Sector – They’re heavy on boarding (and good at it too) - Nebulae and Lanius Sectors also seem to have a higher number of boarding parties

Backup Battery - No Power Required

Honestly? Late-late game if you’re rolling in scrap. This tends to be a flashy extra that you use when your ship has every possible upgrade, you want everything running and just want to show off like a smug jerk

Artillery Weapon [Federation ships only]

They count as weapons, but the huge charge-up tends to make this secondary. On the whole, look to your conventional weapons first, then boost this one after

Reactor

Upgrade the room first: Then the reactor. Always. Only buy what you actually use. Seriously, the only thing that storing large amounts of extra energy will do is have your crew rubbing their hands on it and giving each other static shocks to relieve boredom

Anything I've missed?

Anything you'd like more detail or explanations on?

Disagree with any of the above and want to challenge me to a game of chance?

Give me a shout! There's plenty more to come, so any changes and suggestions are welcome. The awesome ones shall be implemented and full credit will be given to the delightful owner

Happy Gaming

Hungry for more? Fear not - The other ship classes are catered for! Just follow the links below:

- Kestrel Class
- Engi Class
- Federation Class
- Zoltan Class
- Mantis Class
- Rock Class
- Stealth Class
- Lanius Class
- Crystal Class