Flagship is ridiculous

[Olyvya]

I thought the advanced edition would bring life back into this game that kicked my ass over and over but it just brought back the same mouse smashing emotions that I got when I first played the game around the time it first came out.

I love this game. It is incredibly polished, rewards learning from your mistakes, and is just a blast to play. Except for the last boss. With skill you can get through the first three to five sectors with almost no upgrades (depending on which ship you pick) because its a skill based game. It rewards those who take the time to figure out why their last run didnt work. And I knew this while playing through. Every loss was just a closer victory. Except when I hit the wall. The wall that is the boss.

He is unfun to play against and just broken in terms of being an enemy. I know that if you havent had a fantastic run you are not supposed to beat him but I have had perfect runs (maximum weapons, shield, reactor, with maxed out bonus rooms, augments, and crews) where I still cannot beat him. I just spent a good forty five minutes against him because I kept pausing so much. The first two phases were okay and I won with the old teleport and destroy all his weapons and keep one crew alive trick. I kept his shields down with my +4 ion the entire time and used cloak to dodge the power attacks. Pretty simple. Until I got to the final phase. Up until this point I had been fine on hull. Like 80% because of my 50% chance for ion and missles to miss and my instant weapon recharge. Well this last phase didn't matter. Out of the 24 missles he fired, 22 of them hit. I missed around 80% of my shots and his zoltan shield kept me from mind controlling while he took my guys apart with his mind control that never seemed to go away. So it ended up with him just burning my ship to death because of his missle lock, his drones blowing holes into my ship, all while I kept picking him off while trying to let my ion charge get stronger.

Why add new weapons to the game if the flagship does so much freaking damage there is no way to let them get fully charged? I apologize if this sounds like a rant but I have always been a fan of difficult games. Dark Souls, Isaac, you name it. Frustations aside, I always felt up until the last moment of breath (most of the time) that I was learning from my mistakes. Even the first two dozen times I lost FTL I had that same feeling. It wasn't until I was able to powerhouse my way to the boss 99% of the time (not joking I have no trouble demolishing every single run in normal up to the boss) only for him to destroy me regardless of what "build" I am using to fight him with.

I would recommend FTL to anyone who wants to play a good game. Its a fantastic one. But the boss just doesn't feel anywhere remotely close to fair.

(I have beaten him on normal before anyone says anything)

[Mumblez]

I do think it is a little sad you cannot stop hacking unless you shoot it down, or take out the hacking system... as cool as it is, it can get you a bit stuck sometimes

[Cragspyder]

If you get to the boss and don't have a way to shut down (Teleporter), destroy (any Bomb) partially defend against (Defense Drone) or evade (Cloaking) the Triple Missile Launcher, you're going to have a bad time.

That missile launcher is basically the key to the whole fight. I don't think even the SuperDrones are as dangerous.

[Bob of Mage]

Vork a écrit :

Also, does the new race have a system? Or do they show up for purchase at merchants? I have not seen them yet. Without the ability to gain more of their race, the new expansion race is just a dismiss button waiting to happen. Now if I could get a full crew of them (or nearly a full crew) that could be awesome!

Abandoned Sectoris where they are. It's a new red area that appears from time to time. I found many of the fight seemed to be a bit more complex then some older stuff. For example many more foes try to run at the start for no reason. Also there's a fight where you get an allied ASB that shoot at the other ship for you.

You'll find thenew race in the shops if your lucky (I found one in each of the two shops I visted the first and only time I found this area in the brief bit I've played so far). The new ships can be abit annoying snice they have no air so you can't board them.

[L1zz4rd]

Mind control hard counters mind control.

Mind controlling an already controlled unit of yours cancels the effect and your cooldown matches the boss. So if you have mind control at all, you can level that part of the playing field instantly.

[RamRod]

Everyone has a differentt opion obviously but i dont think its too difficult and making it any easyer would really take from my enjoyment.I wouldnt be against a new flag ship designe but not if they just made the current one with less hp/dam/whatever...

Iv finished the game on easy and normal, and come close a few times on hard. In hard i get a real sense of desperate survival and the "prepering for the winter"(flagship) feeling. I find in normal, more so easy you have upgraded everything and have left over scrap if you have done half decent by sector 8(not to menton most of the battles in sector 1-7 are easy)

[Grizzledorf]

Sublime a écrit :

Vork a écrit :

Also ... and this is a massive issue for me ... I am often starting the final board on one side, with the rebel flagship on the other side ... and the last two times my base has been on the side WITH the flagship! I have had to make 3-4 jumps as it approaches only to catch it when it is one away from my base.

Not only does this make it impossible to win based on proximity, but the rebels capture all the nearby systems by the time I get there so I dont even have repairs (repair stations).

Flagship has to stay on base beacon for 3 turns for you to lose the game. You don't lose the game automatically as soon as he gets there only once. If anything, this change is for the better. Also, if you beat him there, he will run away from it.

oh i did not know of the change. good to know. this will help a lot instead of being forced to keep fighting even on brink of death if ship is one jump away from base

[slappy_d0]

Meh, only more difficult on hard level where they can just walk in and repair their missiles and lasers.

[TehJumpingJawa]

Boss, hard?!
Unless you're actually playing on hard, the boss is easy =/

1st encounter:
- Disable missile launcher asap
- (optional) Disable ion & beam.
- Kill all crew except the one manning the laser cannon.
2nd encounter:
- activate defence drone immediately to prevent boarding drone
- Disable missile launcher asap
- board and rip the undefended ship apart
3rd encounter
- Disable missile launcher asap
- board and rip the undefended ship apart
- win.

[Rude$t]

When you play and lose so many games you kind of get a "feel" for what to priotize and when. For instance, don't spend scrap on new system if you can't afford the reactor/power upgrades to run them; wait for a store, and see if a good buy presents itself first.

Finishing the game is all about weapon composition! A good combo of reliable rapid fire ion weaponry and burst lasers will do the trick. Missles are reliable at bypassing shields if your savvy about using them. If you find more than one flak cannon it's pretty much auto-win.

The easiest ships (for me) to win with are the Shivan (Fire Bomb + rock boarding party) the new Mantis C (endless clone boarding party), and the Zoltan B. Boarding parties are easy because of sheer amount of scrap you'll make. The Noether is easy because you don't have to worry so much about rng for endgame weapon loadout.

[The Law]

I find the Engi layout A ship just RAPES the flagship if you upgrade the engines. Hit em with four beam weapons at any weapons you can target and that should keep their shields down enough to let battle drones pick the flagship apart, With that method the flagship struggles more and more as the battle progresses

[Moon]

I agree that the boss is unfair, but there are tricks to gain a ton of leverage. In fact, the game encourages you to take advantage of what you learn each loss to eventually know the boss in-and-out. You'll win consecutive times and build a winning streak if you know what you're doing and prepare.

FOR NORMAL: Try taking out weapons individually. I usually have someone man sensors, have Lv2 sensors, or have a slug to see the interior of the enemy ship enough to where I can take out the weapon and make sure I kill the crew manning it so that they can't repair it and those crew won't be back in further stages for when I disable the weapons then. In a perfect first stage, the missile launcher, triple ion, and beam are disabled with dead crew for the next stages since crew of the flagship carries over. If you like to board, you can quickly send two-person parties to each weapon except the triple laser (keep the guy in there alive) and kill the crew & disable the weapons. Kill all of the crew in the main ship, leave the laser guy alive. This makes second stage a joke, and makes third stage easier. The enemy crew loves to suicide themselves at third stage with the teleporter, and no crew connected to the ship means no crew overwhelming your interior.

FOR HARD: Just focus on killing the boss as soon as possible. Either stop their drones from working with volleys, or have a Defense Scrambler and send a hacking module into the helm once it's a safe shot to stop evasion from your volleys, or keep the helm and shields pinned down if you don't have hacking to increase damage output for you as much as possible. You must try to deal as much damage as possible while trying to keep your hull together if you want any chance of winning on hard.

ON ANY DIFFICULTY, IF YOU KILL ALL ENEMY CREW, A FEARSOME A.I KICKS IN FOR THE FLAGSHIP. YOU DO NOT WANT THIS UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES EVER. You can kill all but one, as long as you keep that one alive. The A.I mans and repairs everything all at the same time and is scarier than all of the crew combined, even in the third stage where the crew will teleport rush everyone in like crazy.

Either difficulty, don't worry about the boss's mind control, and only worry about their hacking if it hits your helm/engines/shields/weapons. Just try to either minimize their hull damage to you or maximize your hull damage to them.

A defense drone can take care of at least 1 missile per missile volley and stops the boarding drones and hacking module of the boss in their tracks. It is easy to make the boss run out of drone parts quickly by doing this. I recommend a Defense I, since the II likes to stop lasers while opening a nice, big path for missiles and drones to rip your ship a new one, while the Defense I only worries about missiles and drones while your shields handle the rest. Two Defense I drones are a safer bet, since they stop more missiles and have higher accuracy against enemy boarding drones and hacking modules. If you have a ship with slots for three drones, you may either want to stick with two defense drones, or nab a third for full missile protection most of the time unless the drones are being stupid, where 1 damage once in a blue moon isn't *too* big a deal, and even then you may still dodge it.

Focusing on your engine levels is one of the most essential parts of finishing the boss. If it fires both its laser and the third-stage power surge at once, which is a worst case scenario, and you dodge 3/4 of the shots by chance, you're still safe at 3 or 4 layers of shield, likely taking 1-2 damage if you do get hit. That's only the worst, a normal power surge at third stage without the laser joining it can have 2 out of 6 shots dodged to be safe, which is favorable odds for your evasion. The second stage power surge is scary, but can be countered by taking out the boss's energy weapons and drone section to simply make it safer and have only the power surge drones as a shield threat.

If your engines fail you when you have a member manning the helm and another manning engines with at least green skill, the RNG really has a vendetta against you! Even with my worst luck, they don't fully fail me.

Cloaking is the most valuable system besides shields+engines or any damage for the boss. A five-second cloak at Lv1 Cloaking takes care of power surges, and a Lv3 cloak helps you plan, charge weapons, heal crew, repair, etc. Switch between Lv1 and Lv3 with power distribution.

If you know what you're doing, you'll do fine. I did an Engi B/Hard run recently where I took out the boss with nothing but a Heavy Laser, Heavy Ion, Ion Blast II, three shields, two drones, and decent engines with little hull damage. Just keep trying and know how to deal with all its threats! I hope this helps.

[turtles and frogs]

Masonry the Brick Lord a écrit :

I agree that the boss is unfair, but there are tricks to gain a ton of leverage. In fact, the game encourages you to take advantage of what you learn each loss to eventually know the boss in-and-out. You'll win consecutive times and build a winning streak if you know what you're doing and prepare.

FOR NORMAL: Try taking out weapons individually. I usually have someone man sensors, have Lv2 sensors, or have a slug to see the interior of the enemy ship enough to where I can take out the weapon and make sure I kill the crew manning it so that they can't repair it and those crew won't be back in further stages for when I disable the weapons then. In a perfect first stage, the missile launcher, triple ion, and beam are disabled with dead crew for the next stages since crew of the flagship carries over. If you like to board, you can quickly send two-person parties to each weapon except the triple laser (keep the guy in there alive) and kill the crew & disable the weapons. Kill all of the crew in the main ship, leave the laser guy alive. This makes second stage a joke, and makes third stage easier. The enemy crew loves to suicide themselves at third stage with the teleporter, and no crew connected to the ship means no crew overwhelming your interior.

FOR HARD: Just focus on killing the boss as soon as possible. Either stop their drones from working with volleys, or have a Defense Scrambler and send a hacking module into the helm once it's a safe shot to stop evasion from your volleys, or keep the helm and shields pinned down if you don't have hacking to increase damage output for you as much as possible. You must try to deal as much damage as possible while trying to keep your hull together if you want any chance of winning on hard.

ON ANY DIFFICULTY, IF YOU KILL ALL ENEMY CREW, A FEARSOME A.I KICKS IN FOR THE FLAGSHIP. YOU DO NOT WANT THIS UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES EVER. You can kill all but one, as long as you keep that one alive. The A.I mans and repairs everything all at the same time and is scarier than all of the crew combined, even in the third stage where the crew will teleport rush everyone in like crazy.

Either difficulty, don't worry about the boss's mind control, and only worry about their hacking if it hits your helm/engines/shields/weapons. Just try to either minimize their hull damage to you or maximize your hull damage to them.

A defense drone can take care of at least 1 missile per missile volley and stops the boarding drones and hacking module of the boss in their tracks. It is easy to make the boss run out of drone parts quickly by doing this. I recommend a Defense I, since the II likes to stop lasers while opening a nice, big path for missiles and drones to rip your ship a new one, while the Defense I only worries about missiles and drones while your shields handle the rest. Two Defense I drones are a safer bet, since they stop more missiles and have higher accuracy against enemy boarding drones and hacking modules. If you have a ship with slots for three drones, you may either want to stick with two defense drones, or nab a third for full missile protection most of the time unless the drones are being stupid, where 1 damage once in a blue moon isn't *too* big a deal, and even then you may still dodge it.

Focusing on your engine levels is one of the most essential parts of finishing the boss. If it fires both its laser and the third-stage power surge at once, which is a worst case scenario, and you dodge 3/4 of the shots by chance, you're still safe at 3 or 4 layers of shield, likely taking 1-2 damage if you do get hit. That's only the worst, a normal power surge at third stage without the laser joining it can have 2 out of 6 shots dodged to be safe, which is favorable odds for your evasion. The second stage power surge is scary, but can be countered by taking out the boss's energy weapons and drone section to simply make it safer and have only the power surge drones as a shield threat.

If your engines fail you when you have a member manning the helm and another manning engines with at least green skill, the RNG really has a vendetta against you! Even with my worst luck, they don't fully fail me.

Cloaking is the most valuable system besides shields+engines or any damage for the boss. A five-second cloak at Lv1 Cloaking takes care of power surges, and a Lv3 cloak helps you plan, charge weapons, heal crew, repair, etc. Switch between Lv1 and Lv3 with power distribution.

If you know what you're doing, you'll do fine. I did an Engi B/Hard run recently where I took out the boss with nothing but a Heavy Laser, Heavy Ion, Ion Blast II, three shields, two drones, and decent engines with little hull damage. Just keep trying and know how to deal with all its threats! I hope this helps.

This is all great advice. And I agree that his triple missile is the scariest weapon in his arsenal, even with the new additions.

I just beat the boss on normal and only took two damage (total) across all three phases (from two missiles, of course). Of course, I did this using the Federation Cruiser B, which has the sorta unfair artillery beam. With that weapon (and lots of patience), you can essentially ignore upgrading all other offensive parts of your ship (guns, teleporter, etc) and focus only on defense. The best part about the beam (aside from the fact that it pierces all shields) is that it can damage the boss even when he's cloaked! It just doesn't charge while he's cloaked.

In Phases 1 and 3, I sent out two Defense II drones. I launched them 10-15 seconds apart so that they'd cover two different areas of my ship. They stopped most of what he threw at me -- I didn't even know they could shoot hacking drones, so that was a pleasant surprise. My maxed engine and cloaking stopped the few missiles that would occasionally get past, but I still focused all my weapons on his missile launcher and took it out ASAP. His lasers/beams couldn't do anything because of my level 4 shields and high evade, and his slow-moving ion shots were like fish in a barrel for my defense drones.

For Phase 2, I sent out two of the new anti-drone drones... the crazy dogfight of drones shooting other drones was amazing and hilarious. Shields/evade/cloak protected me from all the shooty stuff. This meant that their boarding drones got through, but I had enough crew that I was able to gang-tackle them as soon as they would show up and quickly plug up the hole they made. It helps that they kept trying to fight in my large, 4-person drone control room. Again, I took out the missile launcher as a #1 priority.

In Phase 3, my two defense drones/level 4 shields/maxed evade/cloak protected me from literally everything. When he mind-controlled my guys, I just had another guy run in and out of the room that the zombie was in until the effects wore off. It makes the zombie divide his attacks between the system and the other crew member, and typically results in an undamaged system and one crew member with 50~60 health.

The only weapons I had other than the artillery beam were the quick-shooting ion gun and the level 1 burst laser that you start with (the combination of which is sufficient to eventually bring down shields and cause some small damage to the most dangerous systems, like the boss missile launcher).

As an aside, I love this game -- I love that every ship requires such a different play strategy. I kept dying with the Fed Cruiser variants until I realized that I was stupidly trying to kill enemy ships using the starting weapons instead of the artillery beam. Then I changed my strategy to focus solely on minimizing the damage I was taking and just let the artillery beam do all the work and voila, one of the best run-throughs I've ever had.

[Le Lowis]

Bob of Mage a écrit :

You think you've had bad luck?!?! I got stuck fighting phase 1 because he WOULDN'T STOP HACKING MY WEAPONS THEN CLOAKING! I have two Ion Blast Mk Is, a Pike Beam, and a Pegasus. Due to the combo he hits me with I can't get his shields below three, nor can Ieven charge the other weapons. I do have a teleport (his weapons went down fast), but I can't get past all the crew. All I'm wondering is if he'll ever run out of drones.

You can jump away if he hacks your weapons then come back and hope he hacks something else, your combo is more than enough to take down his shields, but if something misses you're going to have a bad time, on phase 3 there is only like 2 or 3 people on the ship so you could use might control in conjuction with teleport to kill at least one of them and then destroy their medbay and shields. Also remember to get cloak and don't worry about the drones they can't do anything if you have 3-4 layers of shields and at least 40% dodge chance.