High Score.
![[Image: ftl-7980.png]](http://dos486.com/misc/ftl-7980.png)
I got incredible luck with a Small Bomb in the very first fight. That's the single best weapon for Mantis B, to take out med/clone bays on just the 1 starting weapon power, so the boarders can win everything.
And got Long-Ranged Scanners from the first store, which is the other key piece, to fight as many ships as possible. Standard tactics from there, upgraded the teleporter to be able to board automated ships. The massive income from scanners and boarding got me cloaking in sector 2 and up to shields tier 3 in sector 3, snowballing far far ahead of the curve.
Even bought a Pre-Igniter in sector 6. The endgame weapon loadout was Flak I + Hull Laser II + Hull Laser II. The latter aren't that great (3:3 power:shots, slow-ish at 15 seconds, only single damage to system rooms) but are slot-efficient which Mantis needs.
Sector 7 was the Rebel Stronghold where I found the incomplete flagship event (two big payouts and delays them two jumps), plus it had about six nebula beacons, adding up to loads of lucrative encounters. I fought as much as possible in sector 8 too before the flagship, about six more payoffs.
The flagship went down with standard stuff, whack the missile weapon then the medbay to kill the crew in phase 1 and it was easy from there.
7980 score, without rebel farming (fought a rebel fleet ship at sector exit a few times but never more than that.) 113 beacons thanks to those lengthy sectors 7 and 8. 2750 scrap on Hard which is the real legit record, that can't be farmed or milked.
I got incredible luck with a Small Bomb in the very first fight. That's the single best weapon for Mantis B, to take out med/clone bays on just the 1 starting weapon power, so the boarders can win everything.
And got Long-Ranged Scanners from the first store, which is the other key piece, to fight as many ships as possible. Standard tactics from there, upgraded the teleporter to be able to board automated ships. The massive income from scanners and boarding got me cloaking in sector 2 and up to shields tier 3 in sector 3, snowballing far far ahead of the curve.
Even bought a Pre-Igniter in sector 6. The endgame weapon loadout was Flak I + Hull Laser II + Hull Laser II. The latter aren't that great (3:3 power:shots, slow-ish at 15 seconds, only single damage to system rooms) but are slot-efficient which Mantis needs.
Sector 7 was the Rebel Stronghold where I found the incomplete flagship event (two big payouts and delays them two jumps), plus it had about six nebula beacons, adding up to loads of lucrative encounters. I fought as much as possible in sector 8 too before the flagship, about six more payoffs.
The flagship went down with standard stuff, whack the missile weapon then the medbay to kill the crew in phase 1 and it was easy from there.
7980 score, without rebel farming (fought a rebel fleet ship at sector exit a few times but never more than that.) 113 beacons thanks to those lengthy sectors 7 and 8. 2750 scrap on Hard which is the real legit record, that can't be farmed or milked.