Shield Upgrade

[MPprince]

Hi all,

I have heard that you should upgrade to Shield Level 2 ASAP but I hit about 6 stores and don't see it...

What's it called exactly? Is it at select stores?

Thanks, just started yesterday and loving it.

[IdealPoint]

You don't have to be at a store to upgrade your shields.
Click on the ship icon when your ship is in a safe place. You can purchase upgrades to existing systems on that screen. To get level two shields (which means two shield bubbles), you have to upgrade your shield system so it has four bars. Then you need to add power to the shield system so that it will actually have four bars of power available so it will generate two bubbles.

So, you need to upgrade the shield system, most likely upgrade your reactor so you have enough power to use the improved shield system, and then actually use the extra power on the shields.

Note that a few of the unlockable ships don't come with any shield system. In that case, you do have to buy the shield system in a store.

[Ray Robertson]

Do the tutorial again it also shows you how to do upgrades. I suggest all new players do the tutorial a 2nd time anyway after a couple of runs, reading everything properly this time.
Some call it level 2 shields, but in reality it is level 4 shields they are talking about. Each bar is a level and you need 4 bars to have 2 shield barriers.

[MPprince]

Awesome thanks guys. That makes a lot of sense, also with needing more reactor power to use the extra shields. Much appreciated!

[Empiro]

Note that Shield 2 is almost always the first 50 scrap I spend. Even if you don't have the power for it, you can take it from your engines (or even O2). If an enemy can't get through your shields, it doesn't matter if your dodge is 0. You can also cycle your O2 right after they fire. I usually try to have a bit of dodge so that I can start training my crew.

[MPprince]

Originally posted by Empiro:

Note that Shield 2 is almost always the first 50 scrap I spend. Even if you don't have the power for it, you can take it from your engines (or even O2). If an enemy can't get through your shields, it doesn't matter if your dodge is 0. You can also cycle your O2 right after they fire. I usually try to have a bit of dodge so that I can start training my crew.

Solid point. Loving the challenge of this game. I made it to Sector 5, whenever you unlock the Tolus I think? I got obliterated all of a sudden lol... Going to try extra shields and forget about the defence drones/anything else to start.

[Ruinae Retroque Rursus]

As Empiro semi-pointed out, most ships in S1-2 (moreso on lower difficulties) will flat out be unable to poke through 2 shield bubbles - typically packing a Small Laser and a Mini Beam.

So with 2 shields you can just sit there with engines totally offline, power to your shields, and just pick away at them.

(N.B. A Combat Drone I has a very rare chance (1/80?) of managing to fire through a second shield bubble - so if they have a Combat I + Mini Laser, there's a chance you'll get hit.)



Oh, and by the way, welcome to FTL! I hope you have fun with the game - it's absurdly difficult even on "Easy" so don't be disheartened if it takes you 40 hours to win once. :P

[MPprince]

Originally posted by aidenpons:

As Empiro semi-pointed out, most ships in S1-2 (moreso on lower difficulties) will flat out be unable to poke through 2 shield bubbles - typically packing a Small Laser and a Mini Beam.

So with 2 shields you can just sit there with engines totally offline, power to your shields, and just pick away at them.

(N.B. A Combat Drone I has a very rare chance (1/80?) of managing to fire through a second shield bubble - so if they have a Combat I + Mini Laser, there's a chance you'll get hit.)



Oh, and by the way, welcome to FTL! :ftlzoltan: I hope you have fun with the game - it's absurdly difficult even on "Easy" so don't be disheartened if it takes you 40 hours to win once. :P

That's awesome thank you! The FTL community is so great, I never knew! I just made it to the flagship on Easy and got wrecked lol. Will not stop until I win :P)

[red255]

Originally posted by Empiro:

Note that Shield 2 is almost always the first 50 scrap I spend. Even if you don't have the power for it, you can take it from your engines (or even O2). If an enemy can't get through your shields, it doesn't matter if your dodge is 0. You can also cycle your O2 right after they fire. I usually try to have a bit of dodge so that I can start training my crew.

Divert power from life support to shields!

[Tat011]

Originally posted by marcelpinto:

I have heard that you should upgrade to Shield Level 2 ASAP

I think this depends on your playstile more than anything, i tend to go for a glasscannon build and avoid upgrading shields for as long as possible and instead get hacking and a weapon and upgrading engines once or twice.

[Terratrox]

Originally posted by Tat011:

Originally posted by marcelpinto:

I have heard that you should upgrade to Shield Level 2 ASAP

I think this depends on your playstile more than anything, i tend to go for a glasscannon build and avoid upgrading shields for as long as possible and instead get hacking and a weapon and upgrading engines once or twice.

That's not as viable on Hard because every ship has about as much firepower as you do. So not investing in defenses means you take an unreasonable amount of damage in most fights. Although putting off second shield for Hacking may be reasonable as an investment and if you've got the drones to use it.

[Tat011]

Originally posted by Terratrox:

Originally posted by Tat011:

I think this depends on your playstile more than anything, i tend to go for a glasscannon build and avoid upgrading shields for as long as possible and instead get hacking and a weapon and upgrading engines once or twice.

That's not as viable on Hard because every ship has about as much firepower as you do.

Well that's what evasion/hacking is for, lvl 4 evasion along with lvl 1 shields most ships start with gives you better protection than lvl 4 shields as shields can't stop missiles which evasion can, now evasion is vulnerable to lasers but with the lvl 1 shields already available your only concern is lasers firing when your shields are down but shots that can take your shields down are affected by evasion so you're not completely helpless against them. There is also the advantage that you can take 1 power away from evasion if you need to without shutting down the other lvl (so you can have lvl 3 evasion if you need power elsewhere but can't with shields). On top of that evasion doesn't need to charge to work, powering it up at the last second is the same as having it on the whole time, while with shields you have to wait a full second before they do anything.

There is also hacking which you can use on weapons to shut them down (so it doesn't matter how good their weapons are) or on shields to more easily hit weapons. All of this with just 1 lvl of power which more than justifies the cost of buying it.

[Terratrox]

Originally posted by Tat011:

Originally posted by Terratrox:

That's not as viable on Hard because every ship has about as much firepower as you do.

Well that's what evasion/hacking is for, lvl 4 evasion along with lvl 1 shields most ships start with gives you better protection than lvl 4 shields as shields can't stop missiles which evasion can, now evasion is vulnerable to lasers but with the lvl 1 shields already available your only concern is lasers firing when your shields are down but shots that can take your shields down are affected by evasion so you're not completely helpless against them. There is also the advantage that you can take 1 power away from evasion if you need to without shutting down the other lvl (so you can have lvl 3 evasion if you need power elsewhere but can't with shields). On top of that evasion doesn't need to charge to work, powering it up at the last second is the same as having it on the whole time, while with shields you have to wait a full second before they do anything.

There is also hacking which you can use on weapons to shut them down (so it doesn't matter how good their weapons are) or on shields to more easily hit weapons. All of this with just 1 lvl of power which more than justifies the cost of buying it.

4 bars in engines will give a paltry 30% dodge chance, up to 40 with skilled crew. It's good, but not good enough against... say... a ship with a Leto and Burst 2 in sector 1. On average you're gonna get doffed for 2 per volley. If you have 2 shields instead, you are guaranteed you're taking maximum 2 damage per volley (unless shields get hit, but same can be said of engines). And they cost about the same as 2 shields. I'm not saying you SHOULDN'T put bars in Engines. Passive defense is incredibly useful. But taking a 20% chance to maybe not take damage against any damage type vs a guaranteed reduction in damage against the most common damage type isn't a good deal.

In terms of powercycling, shields are just as easy to cycle as Engines. You just need to understand weapon charge times. The individual bars of power aren't as important because that's what things like Oxygen are for.

And using Hacking? EVERY loadout should use hacking. Its existence doesn't justify any build because every build can use it to more or less equal effect.

In fact, what if the opposite happens? What happens when the enemy hacks your Piloting and reduces your evasion to 0 during their volleys?

[Tat011]

Originally posted by Terratrox:

In terms of powercycling, shields are just as easy to cycle as Engines. You just need to understand weapon charge times.

Engines power up instantly while shields do after a delay (that's bigger the more shields you want to power up), you really can't say they are just as easy.

Originally posted by Terratrox:

The individual bars of power aren't as important because that's what things like Oxygen are for.

They are important when you don't have enough power which is 90% of the game, also ion storms exist.

Originally posted by Terratrox:

And using Hacking? EVERY loadout should use hacking. Its existence doesn't justify any build because every build can use it to more or less equal effect.

I was refering to using hacking as an alternative to both evasion and shields.

Originally posted by Terratrox:

In fact, what if the opposite happens? What happens when the enemy hacks your Piloting and reduces your evasion to 0 during their volleys?

What happens when your shields are hacked? you know they can be just as easily hacked right?

[Terratrox]

Originally posted by Tat011:

Originally posted by Terratrox:

In terms of powercycling, shields are just as easy to cycle as Engines. You just need to understand weapon charge times.

Engines power up instantly while shields do after a delay (that's bigger the more shields you want to power up), you really can't say they are just as easy.

Originally posted by Terratrox:

The individual bars of power aren't as important because that's what things like Oxygen are for.

They are important when you don't have enough power which is 90% of the game, also ion storms exist.

Originally posted by Terratrox:

And using Hacking? EVERY loadout should use hacking. Its existence doesn't justify any build because every build can use it to more or less equal effect.

I was refering to using hacking as an alternative to both evasion and shields.

Originally posted by Terratrox:

In fact, what if the opposite happens? What happens when the enemy hacks your Piloting and reduces your evasion to 0 during their volleys?

What happens when your shields are hacked? you know they can be just as easily hacked right?

Hacked shields doesn't guarantee you're getting hit. Hacked Engines and Hacked Piloting does. Also Hacking only slowly drains shields. It instantly downs piloting or engines. And in Ion storms, you're at half power anyway. You're operating with maybe 1 in engines and your shields up... and your guns and that's it. You either lose a shield and get 2 power, or just drop oxygen and get 1. Your engines should be at 1 bar anyway just to power the FTL. Or even 0 if they don't have missiles.

Another thing is, many enemy ships don't run their weapons or shields at max in ion storms. So if you focus their Piloting and buff shields so the only thing that hits is missiles (may not even be powered, if they are you're taking one or 2 volleys at most). And then you destroy them without them redistributing power and making things more complicated.