FTL: Faster Than Light

FTL: Faster Than Light

View Stats:
WRuddick Apr 11, 2014 @ 7:54pm
Tips for winning with slug ships?
I am at the point where I have everything unlocked but the rock cruiser, stealth C, and the crystal ship.

I wish I would find the rock homeworlds sometime in this life to do the rock cruiser quest, but I've given up on that basically because even after deleting my save before I tried advanced edition and then unlocking EVERYTHING again I have yet to see that area pop up even once.

I have A, B, and C layouts of slug ships unlocked, but I always seem to fail with the ships far worse than any other ship... any tips? I hate each of the layouts, but oh well :x

I'm off to play with stealth B till I unlock stealth C in the meantime, and who knows maybe I'll see rock homeworld eventually
< >
Showing 1-13 of 13 comments
Pixel Peeper Apr 11, 2014 @ 9:17pm 
Ship layouts typically have huge hints as to how they're meant to be used. Unless I'm mistaken, the general theme of the Slugs is that they kill enemy crew and capture ships for increased rewards.

If I remember correctly, the first layout is about killing enemy crew from your ship while the second is about boarding. I only played once since the update (unlocked Kestrel C) so I have no idea what the third Slug layout is about.
Uielicious Apr 11, 2014 @ 9:41pm 
Originally posted by Tripoteur Ventripotent:
Ship layouts typically have huge hints as to how they're meant to be used. Unless I'm mistaken, the general theme of the Slugs is that they kill enemy crew and capture ships for increased rewards.

If I remember correctly, the first layout is about killing enemy crew from your ship while the second is about boarding. I only played once since the update (unlocked Kestrel C) so I have no idea what the third Slug layout is about.
I really don't understand Slug B because the Slugs have no extra fighting power or anything to make them stick out as a boarding party.
Pixel Peeper Apr 11, 2014 @ 9:54pm 
Originally posted by QQQQQQQ7777777:
Originally posted by Tripoteur Ventripotent:
Ship layouts typically have huge hints as to how they're meant to be used. Unless I'm mistaken, the general theme of the Slugs is that they kill enemy crew and capture ships for increased rewards.

If I remember correctly, the first layout is about killing enemy crew from your ship while the second is about boarding. I only played once since the update (unlocked Kestrel C) so I have no idea what the third Slug layout is about.
I really don't understand Slug B because the Slugs have no extra fighting power or anything to make them stick out as a boarding party.

Isn't it the one with the healing bomb?

But yes, while the boarding thing is a match for the Slugs thematically (they want to maximize profits by capturing ships), their racials do next to nothing for it strategically speaking.

I'm betting Slugs would be more than happy to send members of other races to fight for them though, so I guess you could get some Mantis dudes, then you'd be pretty damn efficient.
Kaigen Apr 11, 2014 @ 10:24pm 
For Slug A, you need to focus on two things: 1) being able to take down their shields/med facilities so you can employ the anti-bio beam, and 2) being able to survive long enough to beam the enemy crew to death (likely through strong shields, engines, and defensive drones). New additions in the advanced edition add some nice options to this strategy, as a pair of Charge Ions can support your beam while still leaving space in your power allocation for a fourth weapon, and Hacking can be used to either disable medical facilities or disrupt shield systems. Remember that you'll need to be able to do real damage to take down autoships and the flagship, though. You could do worse than those starting Dual Lasers, provided they have help in taking down shields.

Slug B starts with a worrisome overreliance on missiles and a lack of good boarding crew. Those are the main things you need to address. A medbay, clone bay, and/or reconstitutive teleport will reduce your reliance on the Heal Bombs. Build towards any kind of good weapon setup you can for dealing with autoships and Zoltan shields. Alternately, an Explosive Replicator can help you stretch those missiles further and get by on what you can pick up from rewards and stores. That's what I ended up doing on my most recent run, as I had terrible luck finding weapons until sector 7, and even then I ended up having to take down the flagship's third stage with an Ion Blast, 2 Small Bombs, and a Halberd Beam.

I haven't tried a run with the Slug C yet, as I just unlocked it tonight, but it's got a decent setup to build on. Hacking + Mind Control gives you a lot of tactical flexibility, and the Chain Laser will get you through your early fights. The main decision to make is what you want to do with that last system slot; you could add a transporter to keep the classic crew-killing slug tactic alive, but between the Hacking and MC, you might be able to pull that off anyway (see the "Mindcontrol = win" thread for some tactics). Drones or Cloaking might be the safer option.
Last edited by Kaigen; Apr 11, 2014 @ 10:25pm
wewak Apr 12, 2014 @ 12:32am 
The Slug C is a pretty damn good ship. It's basically boarder/fire proof due to its amazing layout and starting lv 2 doors. I just beat the game with it (on hard, for the sake of boasting) and I don't recall ever having any concern about boarders during the whole run even though I had no medbay throughout. You can kill them all easily, I mean EASILY, by asphyxiation.
Even if you get in a situation where you're desperate for additional firepower because the enemies are past 1 shield bubble (starting weapon fires 2 shots), you can still count on the Hack (Shield) + MC (pilot) combo for added survivability until you get some weapons.
By the time you are good to go in the weapons department, alternate hacking and MC on the enemy's piloting system and watch their ship evaporate.
Get a cloaking system for additional lols.
Kukru Apr 12, 2014 @ 12:44am 
Slug C Has mind control and hacking on it. I typically just hack their O2 and drain it, then I destroy it to keep it going down. I then let them repair it and drain it further using the hacking drone since it's faster then destroying again while mind controlling so they suffocate but I only do this on ships which I know cant penetrate my shields or unless I have a defense drone.

That is how I use it anyway from upgrading to MC 3 and hacking drone to 3 but it seems to work but later on it becomes a bit tougher unless you find better weapons for shield penetration let alone getting shields up enough to keep them from penetrating let alone engine upgrades. Usually first sector I try to get a shield upgrade before I enter sector 2, but sometimes it doesnt happen till early sector 2.

This is all done on normal though but I have not tried hard yet since I just been unlocking the ships on default and only have the rock ship to unlock + the crystal then I have to work on getting those layouts.

This is of course only if you want to get extra scrap though of course but is how I been playing it lol.
FDru Apr 12, 2014 @ 12:52am 
Originally posted by Tripoteur Ventripotent:
But yes, while the boarding thing is a match for the Slugs thematically (they want to maximize profits by capturing ships), their racials do next to nothing for it strategically speaking.
Not entirely true. At least since AE, you can see the enemy races (not just red dots like before) without sensors and in nebulas. That's really useful for choosing your targets or hitting them with lasers when they're grouped up, etc. Slugs are also immune to mind control, which allows you to use mind control units against ships with mind control units.
Rude$t Apr 12, 2014 @ 1:17am 
The Slug ships are great fun!

The best is definantly the new Slug C. The way I play Slug C with great success on hard mode is by hacking the weapon room. If there is a guy inside the weapons room I mind control him -after- I hack. This locks him in, so no one can interphere with him while he breaks his own ship's weapons. You can save yourself countless hull points this way.

Your upgraded doors, ship lay out/air venting, and mind control give you a decent response to boarding parties. Mind control also counters mind control when used on your own crew, though your initial slugs are immune by default so this is a bonus.

On most ships I grab tier 2 shields and pump my engines a couple levels with my first bits of scrap (if I don't find augments/weapons I want in shops along the way) but for the Sllug C Ignore this practice in favor of upgrading hacking and mind control. The sheer control this lends you leaves shields redundant for the first couple of sectors.

I love it because it's like playing a control deck in Magic the Gathering in a distant manner of speaking lol.

Slug A, as mentioned, is all about the Bio-Beam. A nice pair is some flak weaponry, as you can knock out troublesome systems as well deal some damage to the crew before you biobeam strikes. Ion bombs, bombs in general, missles, ion weapons---weapons that have ease bypassing shields are a good match. Remember towards the end of the game to transiition away from the bio-beam, ideally you've picked up something earlier that you can swap out for in the final fight. Sell it in the last sector for some additional last minute scrap.

Slug B is not as bad of a boarding ship as some would proclaim, though it is not the best. Still, it's a fun ship to play as it offers a unique style! Grab some Mantis crew if at all possible. Killing slavers usually gives you a choice. Keep an eye out for weapons and grab a cloning bay at some point!
Last edited by Rude$t; Apr 12, 2014 @ 1:17am
Pixel Peeper Apr 12, 2014 @ 9:56am 
Originally posted by FDru:
Originally posted by Tripoteur Ventripotent:
But yes, while the boarding thing is a match for the Slugs thematically (they want to maximize profits by capturing ships), their racials do next to nothing for it strategically speaking.
Not entirely true. At least since AE, you can see the enemy races (not just red dots like before) without sensors and in nebulas. That's really useful for choosing your targets or hitting them with lasers when they're grouped up, etc. Slugs are also immune to mind control, which allows you to use mind control units against ships with mind control units.

Cool, I didn't know about the improved telepathy and mind control resistance. Indeed, I was thinking the only advantage they had was that they could see enemy personel positions without working sensors.

Aren't Slugs still super rare, though? I would imagine, if you encounter a ship with an MC unit, you're likely to have a non-Slug crew member they can control and will still have to keep your own unit ready to counter it... unless you purposefully only keep your original all-Slugs crew and only hire Slugs, but that sounds a bit impractical.
The slug ships are really all about being adept at killing enemy crew, which is probably why I like them so much.

With the A, just carefully decide whether or not you can kill the enemy crew without taking too much damage, if not the dual laser by itself is fine against many early ships, and the breach 1 is insurance firepower. Upgrading shields is probably your first priority, since your ship is slow to win fights.

With the B, budget your missiles obsessively until you have a medbay. Boarding should get you something in the way of additional weapons/crew early on. Getting a very early medbay/clonebay is good but not 100% necessary. Though, to maximize the chances of actually finding one you probably want to visit as many stores as possible.

I have not yet played the C, but it looks like it's all about creative use of the MC and hack depending on each fight. The ideas above to hack shields then mc pilot and to use the hack to deplete oxygen are probably top options. A combination of a couple rounds of mc and a well placed laser can probably kill the crew of many early ships too, and wouldn't require a drone part if they had no medbay/clonebay. It might be tempting to get a teleporter on this ship, but I personally would be scared of the boss fight and missiles in general without cloaking or a defense drone. If you can manage it, adding fire weapons to the mix instead of the teleporter would not only be incredibly fun, but also ensure that you can keep killing crew later in the game.

And on all three ships, sell that slug repair gel, 30 scrap for nothing.
WRuddick Apr 12, 2014 @ 11:23pm 
Well I finally won with slug C :x, but now I've got the rock cruiser and it's pain in the butt achievements up next, ha.
b_rom_s Oct 13, 2016 @ 9:32pm 
Guys, any tips for Slug C final battle?

I've lost 3 final battles already on Normal mode.
I usually take Defence Drone as the last systems.
The problem I have is the 3-way missles launcher. MC on the guy there does not help a lot. I usually hack Shields, but by the time all bubbles are gone, their Cloak kicks in, so I cannot shoot. Then I catch several missles on board, then fire, then everything goes to hell.
I've managed to survive the first phase couple of times, but with so little Hull left, that I get killed later.
I just cannot disable that freaking missle launcher quick enough.
Should I prefer Teleporter to Defence Drone?
Does Hacking work on Cloaked ship?
Should I bet on Breach/Ion Bomb for missle disablement?
Leylite Oct 14, 2016 @ 9:45am 
I'll try to address this point-by-point.

Hacking Shields is a good option, but generally you want to be conscious of the fact that it takes time to drain them away (10 seconds to drain all 4 shields). That means you want to start the hack about 8 to 9 seconds *before* your longest-charging weapon is ready, so that your weapons are ready just as the hack finishes, and you can shoot your targets before the Flagship cloaks again.

The Flagship (and all ships with cloak) are extremely predictable: they will cloak at the start of the battle, wait 20 seconds for the cloak cooldown to finish, and immediately cloak again. (Or, if you broke their cloak, they'll cloak as soon as they fix 1 bar.) You can predict this ahead of time, and hold your fire if you think they might cloak again soon.

Even if you get hit by the missiles a few times, it shouldn't be the end of the world as long as you have enough crew available to help put out the fires and repair quickly. I definitely recommend putting 2 or 3 crew to repair a critical system or put out a fire, because that means they'll finish quicker AND be available to help fight the next fire, whereas if you split them up they'll all take longer to do their jobs and might not be ready to fight the next fire.

Disabling the missile launcher quickly should be fairly easy by using the same tactics you used to quickly disable weapons on other dangerous enemy ships in sectors 5 through 8. You're probably better off mind-controlling the Flagship's pilot so that more of your shots can land, and do more lasting damage, than mind-controlling the missile guy.

Teleporter is probably overkill on this ship; you want a defensive system (Defense I / II drone, cloaking) so that your offensive systems, hacking and mind control, have time to do their work.

Hacking does indeed work on a cloaked ship, so you can use this to your advantage: the Flagship's cloak lasts 10 seconds, and the hack takes 10 seconds, so if you have fully-charged weapons and the Flagship cloaks, you can start the hack a little bit after they cloak, and their shields will be down by the time they come out of cloak.

Never bet on any one particular weapon; you have no guarantees of finding it. Work with what you've got. If you get a bunch of lasers, use those; if you get missiles, maybe consider a remote crew-killing build or a teleport build. The beauty of hacking is that nearly any weapon works fine, since you can just hack the shields down.
Last edited by Leylite; Oct 14, 2016 @ 9:48am
< >
Showing 1-13 of 13 comments
Per page: 1530 50

Date Posted: Apr 11, 2014 @ 7:54pm
Posts: 13