My FTL Weapons Tiers (better late than never :D )

[Gremlin Jack]

Yes, I know I’m years late, but I only really got into FTL a year ago, and I finally feel I’ve played it enough to create my own weapon tiers.

Now, this list is split into two – Starting Weapons and Store Weapons. Starting weapons can only be found aboard the ship that has them (I include Crystal weapons because getting to the Crystal Sector to buy them is an extremely rare and difficult event) and Store Weapons can be found or purchased in regular gameplay. I’m rating them separately because you don’t really have an option with the Starting Weapons, you have them, the only question is to keep them or not.

Starting Weapons tiers:

Keep – These are weapons that should see you all the way to the boss.
1. Adv. Flak I (Lanius B)
   3 flak shots for 1 power and 8 seconds, the most efficient weapon in the game bar none.
   
2. Laser Charger + (Stealth C)
   2 lasers at 11 seconds or 1 every 5.5 at 1 power. Efficient AND flexible.
   
3. Dual Lasers (Slug A, Stealth A, Federation B, Kestrel C, Engi C)
   2 lasers at 10 seconds for 1 power, another very efficient weapon.
   
   Upgrade – These are solid weapons, and should only be replaced if you need to make room for a high-ranked Store Weapon (see below list)
   
4. Heavy Pierce I (Rock B)
   One second extra for a heavy laser that penetrates 1 shield. Nice.
   
5. Artemis Missile (Kestrel A, Rock A, Slug B)
   One power for a 2-damage missile every 11 seconds. IMO, tied in 2nd place with Pegasus for missile weapons.
   
6. Artillery Beam (Federation A, Federation B)
   Costs 160 scrap to fully upgrade, at which point you get a guaranteed 3-6 unaimed damage every 20 seconds. The only question is if there might be better things to buy.
   
7. Mini-Beam (Stealth A, Stealth C)
   At only 1 power, makes a very cheap supporting weapon.
   
   Jettison – These are weapons that need to be replaced as soon as you find something from Tier 0, 1 or 2 on the store weapon list. Even a Tier 3 might be a better choice depending on circumstance.
   
8. Crystal Burst Mk I (Crystal A)
   2 shots with 1-shield pierce, but long cooldown and can be stopped by defense drones.
   
9. Leto Missile (Zoltan A, Federation B)
   2 seconds faster than Artemis, 1 less damage, not worth it.
   
10. Basic Laser (Mantis A, Kestrel B)
    1 shot every 10 seconds… there are better weapons for 1 power.
    
11. Heavy Crystal Mk 1 (Crystal A, Rock C)
    It’s a crappy missile. Ugh.
    
12. Lockdown Crystal Bomb (Mantis C)
    A bomb that does no system damage, does not breach, ionize, or set on fire. Why?
    
13. Flak Artillery (Federation C)
    After 160 scrap to fully upgrade, you get 7 unaimed flak at 20 seconds for 4 power. The Flak II gives you 7 aimed shots at 21 seconds (17 seconds with a fully trained crew) for 3 power and costs 80. Do you see the problem?! This weapon is literally not worth the reactor power, and it can’t even be sold! In fact, if it ever gets damaged, don’t repair it. A system which is destroyed by boarders or fire deals hull damage, so better remove the vulnerability by keeping it pre-damaged!

And now we come to the Store Weapons. These are weapons that (depending on luck) may be purchased or found in regular gameplay.

Tier 0 -- Prioritize these weapons, they help no matter what type of strategy you follow.
1. Burst Laser II
   3 shots, 12 seconds, 2 power. The go-to for rapid-fire precision damage.
   
2. Flak I
   3 shots, 10 seconds, 2 power. Sacrifices accuracy for rate of fire.
   
   Tier 1 -- These are solid and should be acquired by anyone looking to improve weapons
   
3. Halberd Beam
   65 scrap, 3 power and 17 seconds is cheap for this kind of damage potential.
   
4. Swarm Missile
   Charges 1 shot every 7 seconds for upto 3 1-damage shots. The go-to missile for beating defense drones and/or locking down a room with rapid fire.
   
5. Small Bomb
   Fast unstoppable little weapon for hammering enemy systems and crew.
   
6. Ion Blast Mk 1
   I put this in Tier 1 just for how cheap it is. 30 scrap, 1 power and 8 sec cooldown is dirt cheap for a great supporting weapon.
   
   Tier 2 -- Good weapons for the dedicated gunship
   
7. Chain Vulcan
   Unloading a shot a second at maximum charge, This weapon can single-handedly tear apart all but the most heavily defended ships, but the charge period, 4 power requirement, and extreme vulnerability to disruption (particularly ion or hacking) keeps it out of the top tiers.
   
8. Flak II
   Shields? What shields? Would be higher if not for the cooldown.
   
9. Ion Stunner
   Cheap and stuns, but has 2 second longer cooldown than Ion Blast I, and with ion weapons rate of fire is everything.
   
10. Chain Burst
    Not as extreme as the Vulcan, but less vulnerable to disruption and cheaper to support.
    
11. Breach Bomb I
    Like the Small Bomb, a cheap and efficient way of disrupting systems and crew
    
12. Pegasus Missile
    Absolutely lethal 2x 2-damage missiles per shot, but has an extremely long cooldown.
    
13. Laser Charger (L)
    1 shot every 5 seconds, charges upto 4, poor man’s Vulcan.
    
14. Ion Blast Mk II
    1 ion every 4 seconds means it can rapidly lock down enemy shields, but 3 power and 70 scrap make it an expensive choice.
    
15. Heavy laser II
    2x2 shots for 3 power and 13 seconds. Deadly if you have support that can take out shields.
    
16. Hull Beam
    Long beam, good damage, can’t touch shields.
    
17. Laser Charger (S)
    1 shot every 6 seconds or 2 shots every twelve, the flexibility makes it a decent weapon.
    
18. Burst Laser I
    2 shots at 11 seconds for 2 power. What you use when you can't find the good stuff.
    
19. Ion Charger
    1 ion every 6 seconds, charges upto 3. Not bad for 2 power.
    
20. Breach Bomb II
    Decent weapon, but has long cooldown
    
21. Heavy Laser I
    2 damage every 9 seconds. Great if you have 1 slot going spare.
    
    Tier 3 -- These weapons are either average, or very situational.
    
22. Glaive Beam
    Slow and powerful, you need to build a ship around this weapon instead of the other way around.
    
23. Pike Beam
    Whatever it can do, other beams do better. Still a useful weapon.
    
24. Burst Laser III
    High power requirements and long cooldown keep it out of the higher tiers.
    
25. Ion Bomb
    Only takes 1 power for 4 ion damage, but extremely long cooldown.
    
26. Hermes Missile
    When you can't get a better missile/bomb and have 3 weapons slots to spare. Completely stalled by Defense Drones.
    
27. Fire Beam
    Useless against robots, long cooldown, excellent for Rock boarders.
    
28. Fire bomb
    Sea above
    
29. Healing Burst
    Good for boarding parties and not much else.
    
30. Crystal Burst II
    Only use if you have 3 weapon slots and your current weapons are crap. All I can say is, it’s cheap at 20 scrap.
    
    Tier 4 – Also known as free scrap if you find/start with them, ‘cos you ain’t buying.
    
31. Anti-bio Beam
    You need to actually hit enemy crew to damage them, where every other weapon damages crew automatically when they hit the room.
    
32. Heavy Ion
    Shares the same power slot as tons of better weapons.
    
33. Repair Burst
    Because you don’t need that weapon slot for actual weapons.
    
34. Breach Missile
    Bigger and slower than Hermes, same weaknesses. Bleh.
    
35. Chain Ion
    By the time this finishes charging, the fight should be over.
    
36. Stun Bomb
    In the situations where this is useful, you’re already winning.
    
37. Hull Laser I
    This weapon assumes I want to waste time shooting at empty rooms.
    
38. Hull Laser II
    Second verse same as the first.
    
39. Hull Missile
    This is becoming a very bad habit.
    
40. Heavy Crystal II
    All the weaknesses of a missile, almost none of the benefits.

So, there you have it. My weapon tiers. Comment?

[Wasted]

i think most agree BL1 is better than IB1 by a long shot. I usually wouldn't buy IB1 even at 30 scrap

[Antimemer]

Why not just turn this into a guide so it's easier to find?

[Skinny Pete]

Originalmente postado por Wasted:

i think most agree BL1 is better than IB1 by a long shot. I usually wouldn't buy IB1 even at 30 scrap

I disagree. I think IB1 is placed just about right. If you have 4 slots, two IB1s gives you stacking ion damage about as good as IB2 but for one less power. It's not a great final weapon unless you get two of the better 3 power weapons to go with it, but it's one of the few things for 30 scrap that gets you able to take on ships with one too many shield layers, something that happens a LOT in early game.

Even if you do have to sell it back, it only cost you 15 scrap to get over a very dangerous hump.

[Zero Angel (Ocelot)]

Hull II Laser is a lot better than you give it credit for. Compared to Burst II (which everyone agrees is a great weapon)
15s cooldown for 3 shots vs 12s cooldown for 3 shots
3 power vs 2 power
Same Damage to System Rooms
Hull II has a chance to breach and start fires, compared to just starting fires

Yes it is inferior, but breach chance counts for something as it delays system repairs and can really work with a boarding based strategy or any other strategy that puts a lot of stress on the enemy crew.

The biggest problem of course is the extra power usage which becomes a factor as you start to hit the power limit for weapons.

[Ruinae Retroque Rursus]

Originalmente postado por Zero Angel:

The biggest problem of course is the extra power usage which becomes a factor as you start to hit the power limit for weapons.

Indeed, and that's why the HL2 really isn't great....

... not bad, just not great.

[HeiSt69420]

Hermes is shut down by any kind of defense drone, takes forever to charge and you can just miss. All this worthless piece of junk has to show for this is piercing shields and doing 3 damage. Oh did I mention it takes 3 power in my opinion it is a tier 4 weapon.

[HeiSt69420]

The Glaive beam deserves tier 2 in my opinion because if you find a way to shut down the enemies shields this weapon destroys most ships in one blast.

[HeiSt69420]

The halberd beam in my opinion deserves tier 2 because it requires a lot of support to do any real damage. Also the other weapons in tier 1 are just better than the halberd beam. Also I think it charges a little too long.

[Flash_Baggins]

My favourite loadout ever: Weapon Preigniter, Glaive beam, Flak II (or 2 Flak 1)
Went through the first 2 rounds of flagship on normal without taking a single point of damage, finished after losing 4 bars of health

[4and4squared]

Don't underestimate ion bombs. 1 power weapon that can completely shut a system offline with 1-2 hits. Immune to defense drones, doesn't reduce cloak, and with a maxed out gunner. Shoots faster than the cooldown for the ion effect.

[patrick]

Ion bombs are really nice. Anyways, i think when comparing weapons you have to mention synergies. No need to get into the details of it, but at least mention situations where they move in tiers. chain weapons often work good together, since their advantage of higher DPs at the cost of less burst can be bridged by forcing systems down completly or at least getting a follow up salvo before a system is entirely repaired from the damag eof the last salvo. And ions can stack to refresh each others effect(2 Ion blast 1 was a pretty good example).

[highfivingbears]

I don't agree with the Anti-Bio Beam being so low. While you do have to hit the crew member instead of just the room, is it really so much trouble to press Space and aim it correctly?

I can't tell you how many ships I completely disabled using just the Anti-Bio and Dual Lasers in the early sectors, giving me absolutely tons of scrap, and letting me get a very large advantage very early on. I'd say it should be in Tier 3, as it's a very good starter weapon for getting large amounts of scrap, but the fact that it costs two power and can't pierce any shields hinder it in the later sectors.

I didn't use it much past Sector 5, but that's more than half a run where I was consistently using it and disabling more than 80% of the ships I fought. It deserves a higher tier.

[patrick]

It‘s a good stsrting weapons, especially since you get better rewards with it early on. And the starting crew is both good for the beam and understaffed, which can be fixed via beam. But i would rank it pretty low for the quest reward, in fact, i wouldn‘t try the slug quest for anything other than completing it once. By the time you get it fron there the power it takes is too valueable and better used on damaging or shield draining weapons.

But yes, it‘s a good starter and „you have to aim“ is a pretty low tier game explanation to disregard it.

[Ray Robertson]

Anti-bio beam is one of my favorite weapons. I use it all the way to the flagship. It works very well with ionized shields or hacking to lower shields. Also mind control is a good tool to get the crew in position.

[Playerjjjj]

Hull lasers have one massive advantage: they can breach rooms. The only other laser weapons that can do that are the heavy lasers. I've built plenty of ships around hull lasers and the effects can be devastating. 2 hull mk2s and a hull mk1 practically garuntees a breach on the room you target, and once you break through the shields you can end fights instantly. Seriously, 8 hull lasers on one empty room is 16 damage. Almost nothing can survive that.

The breach bomb mk1 has a special purpose: killing the Flagship's crew. It fires fast enough to continuously breach the medbay. Once the crew has too little health to risk repairing in the deoxygenated room, you can pick them off with more bombs. A weird strategy to be sure, but I've done it 3+ times to great effect.

Fire weapons are one of the most fun ways to play the game. Ion Blast mk2 + fire beam = game won up to sector 8. The only drawbacks are that you need something better for the Flagship, and you're screwed if you run into a junction with 2 rock sectors as your only options. But you can still take down rock ships with this build, it's just very time consuming, since you need to either destroy the hull by burning out systems (possible if you divide the rocks' attention between multiple burning rooms), or deoxygenate the ship and keep relighting the oxygen system so the crew can't repair it and suffocates (possible if you can shoot fast enough and the fire happens to last a long time even in zero-oxygen conditions).

I've beaten the Flagship armed with nothing but 2 firebombs and a pike beam. There are some unexpected gems to be found in odd loadouts.