I'm thinking to try something I wanted to do before but never managed - get 28 consecutive victories, one which each ship, and do it T-Hawk style where you start from a blank state and do the unlock achievements on the way. Don't know if I'll have the time but FTL is an easy game to get in and out of and there is no pressure how quickly it needs to be done.
The order can be either random from all unlocked ships (in which case I'll prioritise doing the Rock and Stealth quests) or sequential, which can be either the A->B->C of each ship before moving on to the next, or all the As first, then all the Bs and all the Cs, with Lanius and Crystal at the end.
Anyone interested to follow and comment, give advice, or simply wager when and how I'll crash and burn?
I consider myself a decent player but I'd give myself almost no chance at what you're attempting . It's a fun game and I really enjoyed reading T-Hawk's reports, it would be fun to see someone else give it a go.
Don't lock yourself into sequential - do them in whatever order you feel like. My strategy for Stealth B was to get to it as soon as possible and just abort and restart the challenge if I lost. Before the runs I posted on my site, I had tried that challenge a few times over a few years, and left off after a loss or two several times, many with Stealth B of course. Also remember that I didn't really get a streak or close to it - I got the 28 wins (31 with retrying for achievements) against 3 losses. And also I was doing it on hard difficulty - another approach would be on normal and try for a perfect streak there.
But really, this is the strategy for Stealth B - for enemy drones, pause at the instant it shoots each time and look at what it's aiming for. Let it hit an empty or unimportant room (oxygen/doors/etc.) When the shot is aimed at your weapons or cloaking or piloting, that's when you hit the cloak.
The order is what I'm still not sure about. I like the sound of A->B->C of each ship but it does put Stealth B at the very end and it would be anti-climatic to die in an unfortunate first jump after all the effort to get there. On the other hand it would also make it a much more exciting run to pull off as it will really count.
For tactics, definitely what T-Hawk says and the other thing is to move the weapons guy to sensors when they are about to fire and depower the glaive momentarily as they do. Also keep oxygen under 50% and don't be shy to run from dangerous fights. But the most difficult decisions are probably what to do if you don't find shields or hacking or extra weapons in the stores and need to work with inferior options.
(February 19th, 2025, 10:13)darrelljs Wrote: I consider myself a decent player but I'd give myself almost no chance at what you're attempting . It's a fun game and I really enjoyed reading T-Hawk's reports, it would be fun to see someone else give it a go.
Darrell
Yeah, it's quite hard. I've tried a few times and failed. 28 games is a lot of RNG so you are guaranteed that some of it will go really bad.
Artemis + BL2 is very strong initially so we should be mostly ok. The priority is to get shields-4 asap before saving for a weapon, unless the first fights drop sellable items in which case visiting a store before shields becomes an option.
Straightforward layout. Will visit at least one of the nebulas as it will be a free jump.
Beacon 3
The second beacon was empty and the third had this fight, which could have gone badly but the heavy laser missed and then my weapons hit, and it was easy from there. It was a double reward adding up to 20, so upgrade to shields-3 immediately.
Beacon 4
The next fight had a fire drone so I pre-vented everything. Their laser missed again while mine did 2 damage to drone control and it was also easy from there. After the fight I tried to keep the oxygen level under 50% to decrease the change of weapons being targeted but stopped after a few beacons as it didn't seem to be worth the extra work.
Beacon 5
This time my BL2 missed but the follow-up artemis took out both weapons. Then the pilot checked sensors to reveal an engi and a rock so no good to try to crew kill, I need to finish them off asap. The next shot went into engines to pull the pilot and it hit, ensuring that the following one will hit too.
Beacon 7
The sixth beacon was an asteroid field search that damaged the ship for 5 hp, and the seventh was the fight above. An ionising drone next to shields is dangerous but they should have only 4 drone parts, so if I kill it a few times then I can train the crew safely. The drone did ionise shields but I fired at their weapons and brought them down while the shields recovered, and the next three times the drone landed in safer areas.
The training worked out fine, I rotated the crew so now they are all experts in piloting, engines, and shields. In principle it's possible to fire the BL2 and power it off after the first shot to also max weapons xp, but while I may go through the trouble on a weaker ship like the Engi B or the Stealth B, the Kestrel with upgraded shields should be quite safe and there is no need for the extra effort.
It turned out that there were 3 mantises on the ship and I managed to just oxygen-kill them though it didn't earn anything extra.
There is a store but without scrap or anything to sell there is no point to go.
Beacon 9
A forward scout. It only has beam weapons so I dropped shields to 1 bubble and am charging engines in case I don't manage to take it out. With level 2 engines and a trained guy I can easily complete my charge before theirs so at least I don't lose a second beacon.
Started with an artemis in piloting which hit. The weapons guy left his room to help so they don't have a repair drone - good. Then BL2 into engines but after a few seconds so the repairs don't start immediately and the artemis can fire before they complete.
Beacon 10
I believe that this is generally worth taking. I remember winning with the lone engi of Engi B after even selling the AP drone, so Kestrel A is certainly fine running on two crew for a while and taking the option has good expected value.
And fortune favours the bold! The run is effectively won from here.
Beacon 11
First use of the halbert.
Beacon 14
I don't have hacking yet and would like to upgrade the weapons asap, so going to take the 24 scrap.
Everybody loves zoltan sectors, so going with the rebels. The halbert is also great for keeping them from escaping.
The nebula is a free jump so will visit it and otherwise will bounce around looking for the store/s. The pointed beacon is the only one I won't be able to check. The quest is the drone part delivery and it's doesn't have great expected value so I'll skip it.
I'll sit on the scrap for now since the ship is strong enough to handle anything in sector 2.
Beacon 3 (17)
I was starting to get concerned about fuel and this was perfect.
Beacon 4 (18)
Next there was a store and it had hacking.
I also bought the fire bomb. This isn't about getting cute with crew kills, but to unlock the Kestrel B. I don't want to do the "United federation" achievement (have 6 different aliens) since it's unreliable and I don't to invest in crew, which means I have to do the "Tought little ship" (go down to 1 hp and then repair to full). The fire bomb will allow me to do it at a safe time of my choosing while also contributing to a few crew kills especially in sector 2, and at the end I can always sell it for half price.
This left me with 9 scrap and I used it to buy 3 fuel. It's still early in the sector and there may not be a second store, and the stores in sector 3 can be towards the end. So while crew killing with the fire bomb makes it less likely to run out of fuel, it's probably still the most likely way to die from here.
Beacon 6 (20)
This fight can't go too bad but the artemis and BL2 can miss while the halbert can be taken offline, so hacked to make sure everything goes smoothly. The halbert is guaranteed to take the missile offline.
There is a second store, so I'll visit the preceeding 2 beaconds to see if I can get enough scrap to warrant a visit, if not I'll skip it.
Beacon 8 (22)
I didn't think it was worth spending a drone part to prevent the 1-second window where an asteroid can hit together with both lasers. The asteroid did show up but the 66% chance to dodge at least 1 of them (with the halbert momentarily offline to power both engine levels) saved me from damage.
Ended up with 50 scrap and decided to skip the store. I'd rather not sell the fire bomb since without it going down to 1 hp will be the riskiest thing in the run, mind control can wait, and I should be able to get a decent fourth weapon at some later store. Also, it will be good to invest some scrap in weapons for sector 3.
Beacon 9 (23)
Boarders at a nearby sun. I wanted to avoid damage so attracted the boarders to medbay where I fought them for a bit with the weapons and engine guys while the pilot kept charging the FTL, and then pushed them to shields while sending the weapons guy back to man his station for the next beacon and the engines guy went to doors to keep the boarders suffocating. About to jump prior to the first flare and hopefully the next beacon isn't too dangerous. (It was empty)
Beacon 11 (25)
The halbert would have been little help here, so I went with the artemis+BL2. I was going to hack piloting to ensure hitting their weapons but waited to see where their hack lands and it did block mine for 7 seconds making it no good for the first volley. I rapidly vented to drop oxygen below 50%, but it didn't help as their artemis still targeted my weapons. So now I'm going to fire the BL2 into their weapons before waiting to see if my artemis will hit and hope it gets all 3 shots out.
Beacon 13 (27)
The exit beacon offers a little trade. Nothing overwhelming but I'll take it.
Actually the big recommendation for Stealth B is to plan ahead well enough for when you can get shields. While navigating the map, try to make educated guesses about where the next store will be, and aim to time it so that you come up to the 125 for shields just as you make it to that store. If you see a store, and you can circle around for two more jumps before it, and you have 100 scrap... do not spend that scrap on upgrades, keep it in the expectation of getting enough in those jumps.
This works similarly for other ships and other needs too - Engi B needs to schedule its money to get a second crew member, Rock needs to schedule to buy some weapon that isn't a missile, or most any ship wants to schedule to get a defense drone (85) or cloaking (150) since those are the biggest win probability gains through the first half of the game.
. It's a fun game and I really enjoyed reading T-Hawk's reports, it would be fun to see someone else give it a go.
