What are Considered Good Upgrades?

[Golbez]

I know it differs from ship-to-ship, but what is generally really good at the end? Cloaking? Hacking? Shields? Engine for Dodge?

What's a good investment?

[Ryuu]

Engine is always for any ship good wise people say :)
Other things are personal preference and also depends on ship.

[Golbez]

引用自 Fusion：

It's generally advised to invest in engines at least up to the diminishing returns point.
Shields are not just good, they're mandatory if you want to survive. By the end of the game you should have 4 layers.
Weapons are a flexible upgrade. Depending on what you have they could or could not be a priority.
Drones are nice to upgrade if you're using them offensively, but if you're just using them for the defense drone you can generally stop at 3 bars.
Cloaking typically goes up to max, as does hacking.
Clonebays go up to max, or at least 2nd bar.
Medbays can be kept at 1 bar, although advanced medbays have some blue options
Oxygen can be kept at one bar. People like to upgrade it to the second in case the flagship hacks it though.
Doors can be kept at 1 as long as you can get someone over there to man them in time. Otherwise upgrade to 2 and no further.
Pilotting is good to upgrade but not a neccesity.
Scanners are trivial and generally do not need to be upgraded, although there are blue events for them. If you don't have spare crew to man it and you want to use mind control and don't have a slug, then you should upgrade. Some ships don't even start with scanners. Instead of buying some I would just get a slug. Fires can be heard.
Backup battery SHOULD be upgraded. Try to use the battery bars for systems like hacking and cloaking.
Mind control can be kept at one bar but if you want to use it to kill crew I would put it at 2. 3 is absolutely overkill though.

What's your opinion on the ol' boarding and mind control route?

[Leurfe]

I tipically upgrade:

Engine: at least 4/5 by the end of sector 1, then 1 for every sector
Shields: at least 2 by the end of sector 2, I usually finish the first 4 sectors before upgrading to 3
Doors: 2 as soon as I have some spare scrap, and +manning when someone boards me
Hacking: 2 as soon as I get it, 3 for the flagship
Mind control: like hacking
Teleporter: keep it at 1, if I have spare scrap 2
Cloaking: worth upgrading if i have stealth weapons

Keep in mind that i play on easy so by sector 8 i max almost everything except auto-piloting and sensors

[mkzzz12]

引用自 Leurfe：

Engine: at least 4/5 by the end of sector 1, then 1 for every sector

If you mean this, that's crazy, even on easy. 6 is perfectly fine until you have almost nothing else to spend on and often until the end. 4 is enough for a large part of the game, too, depending on other upgrades.

Doesn't even depend on the difficulty that much, because you'll always have something else that's more useful to spend on than the highest bars.

[Ruinae Retroque Rursus]

引用自 mekloz：

引用自 Leurfe：

Engine: at least 4/5 by the end of sector 1, then 1 for every sector

If you mean this, that's crazy, even on easy. 6 is perfectly fine until you have almost nothing else to spend on and often until the end. 4 is enough for a large part of the game, too, depending on other upgrades.

Doesn't even depend on the difficulty that much, because you'll always have something else that's more useful to spend on than the highest bars.

However Lvl 5 and 6 allow you to dive much easier as with lvl 6 you won't get hit by the ASB.

Also if you get the Zoltan Shield (or start with it) you can basically pour all your scrap into engines... may or may not have left S1 with Lvl 6 engines and no shields as Zoltan B....



TP goes up to Lvl 2 as soon as I get it (allows boarding autoscouts). Hacking works best when maxed whenever.

I upgrade my weapons system whenever I find a weapon that I want to use. Aside from buffering, there's no point in having more weapon power.

[mkzzz12]

引用自 aidenpons：

引用自 mekloz：

If you mean this, that's crazy, even on easy. 6 is perfectly fine until you have almost nothing else to spend on and often until the end. 4 is enough for a large part of the game, too, depending on other upgrades.

Doesn't even depend on the difficulty that much, because you'll always have something else that's more useful to spend on than the highest bars.

However Lvl 5 and 6 allow you to dive much easier as with lvl 6 you won't get hit by the ASB.

Also if you get the Zoltan Shield (or start with it) you can basically pour all your scrap into engines... may or may not have left S1 with Lvl 6 engines and no shields as Zoltan B....

Which are occasional uses and not really worth upgrading for in the first sectors. If you're getting level 6, you could have just stayed at lvl 4, gotten an extra system, and some other upgrade on top of that, too. It's never worth it so early.

And for your zoltan run, that was just bad. I mean it's fun sometimes just to see how it goes (go shieldless runs), but it is 100% bad: while the green shield works with engines well, the ship has no real issue with ships that this actually matters against. Then you see one beam drone mk II, and they're useless while lvl 4 and a shield would make you close to immune.

[Ruinae Retroque Rursus]

And for your zoltan run, that was just bad. I mean it's fun sometimes

It was on Easy and I wanted a change from upgrade-to-lvl-2-shields-and-practically-nothing-in-S1-can-hit-you-or-S2-and-most-of-S3-for-that-matter

On a normal ship, what sector should you aim to get Lvl 3 shields? ASAP, or would you recommend something else first (like a Drone Control or Cloaking for missiles)?

[mkzzz12]

引用自 aidenpons：

And for your zoltan run, that was just bad. I mean it's fun sometimes

It was on Easy and I wanted a change from upgrade-to-lvl-2-shields-and-practically-nothing-in-S1-can-hit-you-or-S2-and-most-of-S3-for-that-matter

On a normal ship, what sector should you aim to get Lvl 3 shields? ASAP, or would you recommend something else first (like a Drone Control or Cloaking for missiles)?

You can really only make the decision for the particular ship, but I'd consider getting the third bubble in sector 3 to be really early, and 5 to be pushing it slightly, though reasonable. So 4-5 normally.

Drone control can be reasonable very early, and if you get it with a defense drone, a nice 3 bubbles + 3 engine bars + DD I combo can last a loong time against damn near any enemy.

[DarkTwinge]

Tier 2 Shields are the most cost-effective upgrade you can buy in the game, and picking them up with your first 50 scrap is often correct.

By the time you're fighting the Flagship, you should aim for a baseline of Tier 3 Shields, Level 5 Engines, Level 2 Piloting, Level 2 Oxygen, Level 2 Cloaking (if you have it). Doors 2 is often a good idea as well. More money for defense should usually be put towards Tier 4 Shields, especially if you don't have Cloaking. Upgrading medical facilities isn't important, but can still be helpful for some.

All systems are useful and helpful; Hacking is very storng and synergizes with everything. Defense Drones and Cloaking are both powerful but less useful when you already have the other.

[Skinny Pete]

引用自 Twinge：

Upgrading medical facilities isn't important, but can still be helpful for some.

I usually only do this with pure surplus scrap (i.e. literally nothing else to do with it at the end), when entering Mantis Homeworlds sectors (for the K'etc encounter), or when trapped in a medbay in a ship with no oxygen and a blown out O2 system.

[VIGILO CONFIDO]

引用自 Twinge：

Tier 2 Shields are the most cost-effective upgrade you can buy in the game, and picking them up with your first 50 scrap is often correct.

By the time you're fighting the Flagship, you should aim for a baseline of Tier 3 Shields, Level 5 Engines, Level 2 Piloting, Level 2 Oxygen, Level 2 Cloaking (if you have it). Doors 2 is often a good idea as well. More money for defense should usually be put towards Tier 4 Shields, especially if you don't have Cloaking. Upgrading medical facilities isn't important, but can still be helpful for some.

All systems are useful and helpful; Hacking is very storng and synergizes with everything. Defense Drones and Cloaking are both powerful but less useful when you already have the other.

Hacking is simply way too good. It prevents you from losing just because the game refuses to offer you any half decent weapon to buy and refuses to drop any. That would be the most likely way a good player loses on hard if hacking did not exist.

Of course you can always be a glutton for punishment and play the Engi B or stealth C.
No words can describe the stealth C but play that ship if you want to play the game's hidden impossible mode.

[VIGILO CONFIDO]

引用自 Fusion：

Why is hacking good again

Say you are playing the stealth A. Your weapons become useless really quickly unless you get another weapon early on. This is not that likely though and most likely have to buy a bad weapon from a shop and sacrafice investment in defenses like shields. Hacking has a high chance to show up in stores though and is fairly cheap and can make the stealth A weapons work on their own for a long time.

[Ruinae Retroque Rursus]

引用自 Fusion：

Why is hacking good again

Because it goes well with either a boarding ship or a gunship, and often both.

Boarding:
1) Teleport into medbay
2) Hack Medbay
3) Kill leftover crew
4) Win the fight before their Hermes gets a shot off

Gunship:
1) Hack piloting and fire EVERYTHING on that barrage

or

1) Hack Shields and fire your Glaive (especially noteworthy on the Stealth B, but other systems (& better weapons) are usually more important

or

1) Hack random system in the middle of the ship (good example would be the small Mantis craft 2x2 weapons rooms in the middle of the ship, or the 2x2 shields room in the non-Elite rebel layout, or the Engines room in the Elite rebel layout) and watch as their crew cannot repair systems because the doors are now in the way. This also works very well with boarding, as you can use this to pick off their crew.

The other reason Hacking is very useful is because it is the best counter to their hacking. They're hacking your shields? No problemo, just hack 'em back. As an added bonus they'll eventually run out of drone parts & you won't have to worry about them hacking you. (Locking down the Hacking room works REALLY well on the flagship, too. With a little power micromanagement you can use this to slaughter all the crew, if with more effort than your usual hack medbay.

Cloaking is not a direct counter to cloaking, drones are not a direct counter to drones (Anti-Combat aside), but MC is a direct counter to MC and Hacking is a direct counter to Hacking. Except that MC is rather shoddy - fun to play around with, but not that powerful - whereas Hacking works in any situation..

As a final note, Hacking gives you a lot of Blue options[ftl.wikia.com], including stopping Slug hacking and giving a free 30 hull repair in the Engi Virus event. And you can use it to turn an ASB from you onto them.[ftl.wikia.com]

引用自 VIGILO CONFIDO：

Say you are playing the stealth A. Your weapons become useless really quickly unless you get another weapon early on. This is not that likely though and most likely have to buy a bad weapon from a shop and sacrafice investment in defenses like shields. Hacking has a high chance to show up in stores though and is fairly cheap and can make the stealth A weapons work on their own for a long time.

You dissing my Dual Lasers and Mini Beam mate? Stealth A's weapons are enough to (barely) carry you to Sector 4. And the stores usually sell something, even if it's only a Burst Laser I or Ion Blast.

[Leurfe]

引用自 mekloz：

If you mean this, that's crazy, even on easy. 6 is perfectly fine until you have almost nothing else to spend on and often until the end. 4 is enough for a large part of the game, too, depending on other upgrades.

Doesn't even depend on the difficulty that much, because you'll always have something else that's more useful to spend on than the highest bars.

Maybe I exaggerated a bit haha, but I do prioritize engines :D

[Ruinae Retroque Rursus]

引用自 Fusion：

but muh limited drone pahts

Give this guy an award for the single best example of Bumber's Law of Forum Quotes!

Managing drone parts isn't too difficult. Just buy some when ya need 'em and if you don't use hacking on every enemy you'll be fine.

If you have a Drone Control system along with that that's your problem - the logical step is to use Cloaking and Hacking, so Hacking can use Drones and cloaking doesn't use Drones. However, I've run a Def I + Hacking combo many, many times (more than I have Cloaking + Hacking, probably). Just gauge up whether 1 drone part = 8 scrap at a store is worth the hull damage of repairing (in some cases, if it's a Leto, it probably isn't).

Also hacking is nearly half price (80 vs 150) of Cloaking.