All Ships and Ship Achievements Guide

This guide aims to give advice on unlocking each and every ship, and all ship achievements.

Intro

Welcome to my guide! As the title and description suggest, the goal of this guide is to help you unlock any ship and layout you want! Although I can give you tips on how to unlock them, you still need to put in the effort to perform the tasks in game, and trust me, it is MUCH more rewarding to unlock all the ships legitimately instead of using a save game editor.

Each section of this guide is dedicated to one ship. The section will walk you through the unlock quest for the ship (aside from the Kestrel, obviously) and how to get each achievement for the ship.

In case you are unaware, each ship in FTL has three layouts (aside from the crystal and lanius ships, which have two) named layout A, layout B, and layout C. Layout A is unlocked through the ships quest, or by beating the game with the previous ship. Layout B is unlocked by obtaining 2 of the 3 achievements available for each ship. Finally, layout C is unlocked by getting to the 8th sector with layout B, and requires that you have Advanced Edition enabled.

But enough about the theory, you just want to unlock that awesome ship! Onward!

Kestrel Cruiser

Unlock Quest Walkthrough: The kestrel cruiser layout A is immediately unlocked upon starting up FTL for the first time.

Required Aspects: Purchase FTL: Faster Than Light

Suggested Aspects: Don't pirate it :p


Achievement Walkthrough:

1: The United Federation - Have six unique aliens on the Kestrel Cruiser simultaneously.
Including the humans already present on the ship, have 6 different races on the ship. Five of the seven other races (all but lanius and crystal) are commonly available in stores or through random events. Having a versatile crew is beneficial, so this achievement should be unlocked through normal play without much effort. If you actively want to get this achievement, save up your scrap, and visit stores often to see if they have any aliens you don't already have as crew. Slaver events also work well for this achievement, because if you kill the enemy crew of a slaver ship there is a chance you will get your choice of three different races.

2: Full Arsenal - Have every system and subsystem installed on the Kestrel Cruiser at one time.
The description is slightly misleading. With advanced edition enabled it is impossible for the cruiser to have every single system installed at once, but the achievement can still be unlocked by having the maximum amount of systems installed. To unlock this achievement, you must purchase the backup battery, and three of the following systems; drone control, cloaking, crew teleporter, hacking (AE), and mind control (AE).

3: Tough Little Ship - As the Kestrel Cruiser, repair back to full health when it only has 1 HP remaining.
This achievement mainly is unlocked by chance, as it is hard to escape a fight and find a store with only 1 hull point remaining. To easily unlock this achievement, look for a ship in an early sector that only has a single 1-damage weapon. Disable your shields and let the ship attack you until you have one HP left, then jump away or destroy the ship. Another strategy is to go to an asteroid field, and disable the shields after the fight (if there is one). Keep crew members in the shield room to repair any damage, and once you have one health bar left, quickly jump out.

Engi Cruiser

Unlock Quest Walkthrough: The engi cruiser is unlocked immediately upon reaching sector 5.

Required Aspects: None

Suggested Aspects: None


Achievement Walkthrough:

1: Robotic Warfare - With the Engi Cruiser, have 3 drones functioning at the same time.
The engi cruiser immediately comes with a drone control system and one drone, and acquiring additional drones is quite easy, as they are found commonly in stores and through random events. However, you need all three drones online at the same times, so you will need to upgrade your drone control system and possibly your reactor to give enough power to each drone.

2: I hardly lifted a finger - With the Engi Cruiser, destroy an enemy ship using only drones.
This achievement requires you to destroy a ship with only drones, meaning you can't use any weapons, even ion weapons. However, things like asteroids and fire will not invalidate the achievement. This achievement is very easily unlocked on the unshielded auto-scouts in the first few sectors, as the combat drone that comes with the default engi cruiser can easily dispatch it.

3: The guns... They've stopped - Have 4 enemy systems or subsystems ioned at the same time while using the Engi Cruiser.
This achievement can be difficult to unlock, as systems don't stay ionized long enough to have several ioned at once. This achievement can be unlocked by having an enemy ships systems be ionized in a pulsar hazard, making it easy to then ionize another system to gain the achievement.

Federation Cruiser

Unlock Quest Walkthrough: The Federation Cruiser can be unlocked through a random even in a rebel stronghold sector. When you get to the beacon, it will give you the following event text:
You arrive at the beacon to find yourself in a huge Rebel shipyard, scaffolding and construction drones filling the sector! The entire system looks devoted to ship construction, the nearby planets and moons ruthlessly mined to harvest resources for a ship of immense size...
You will then be given two options, investigate or leave. Obviously if you want to unlock the ship you should choose the former option. After looking around you will be forced to fight a re-vamped third stage rebel flagship. However, unlike the rebel flagship, killing all the crew will count as defeating it, opening up more options for victory.

Required Aspects: None

Suggested Aspects: Good defensive aspects to survive the triple-shot lasers and missiles. Boarding also works well here as the weapons rooms are attached to the main ship, meaning a single teleport can give you access to the entire ship.


Achievement Walkthrough:

1: Master of Patience - Use only the Artillery Beam to destroy an enemy ship while taking no hull damage.
The artillery beam is very powerful, but only does one damage per room, meaning it will take multiple shots for most ships. This is easily unlocked against the low health auto-scouts that appear in the first few sectors. Having a second layer of shields and a defense drone will help against lasers and missiles, respectively.

2: Diplomatic Immunity - While using the Federation Cruiser, use your crew in four special blue events by sector 5.
This achievement is rather vague and misleading. This achievement requires you to use four blue events that are caused by your crew, meaning augments, systems, etc.. won't count towards this achievement. Also, the end point is not at sector 5, but rather at the start of sector 6. This achievement requires a high amount of chance, but you can help by diversifying your crew.

3: Artillery Mastery - Get to sector 5 with the Federation Cruiser without upgrading your weapons system.
By themselves the burst laser and artillery beam are far from WMDs, but it isn't very difficult to make your way to sector five without gaining new weapons. Note that you CAN upgrade the artillery beam, but not the weapon systems to unlock this achievement. The first few sectors are relatively easy, and it is quite possible to get to sector 5 with less than 10 battles. Having additional systems, like hacking, cloaking, and drones, can help make up for your lack of firepower.

Zoltan Cruiser

Unlock Quest Walkthrough: The zoltan cruiser is unlocked through a random event in the zoltan homeworlds sector. Note that the zoltan homeworlds sector can only occur at sector three or later. The event will have the following flavour text:
An unarmed Zoltan transport vessel is slowly making its way toward the beacon here. They hail: "This is a Zoltan peace envoy. We carry no weapons or shielding and rely on the mercy of others to communicate our message."
To unlock the ship, choose the second option, which lets you hear them out. They will give you coordinates to a quest beacon in the sector, or if you are already close to the end of the sector, in the next sector. At the quest beacon, you are given several dialouge options. To unlock the ship, choose the second, first, and then the second option, hailing the enemy, telling them that you might be able to come to an agreement, and then stating true progress can only be achieved without bloodshed.

Required Aspects: None

Suggested Aspects: None


Achievement Walkthrough:

1: Shields Holding - Destroy a ship before it gets through the Zoltan Shield.
Quickly taking out the weapon system on an early game ship can make it relatively easy to unlock this achievement. Note that the shield only has 5 points and that it is damaged by all types of attacks, laser, beam, ion, and missile.

2: Givin' her all she's got, Captain! - With the Zoltan Cruiser, have 29 power in systems at the same time.
The ship can have at most 25 reactor points at the same time, meaning you will need at least four zoltan for this achievement. Note that the power points have to be in actual systems (subsystems dont count, so if you only have 4 zoltan you will need another race for the pilot), so you will need to upgrade your systems to have a place to put the power in. The backup battery also helps with this achievement.

3: Manpower - Get to sector 5 without upgrading your reactor in the Zoltan Cruiser.
Getting new systems means requiring more power, so it can be rather unusual to get to sector five without upgrading the reactor. However, avoiding confrontations when possible, and managing power effectively (powering off medbay when not in use, etc...) can make the achievement rather easy to get.

Mantis Cruiser

Unlock Quest Walkthrough: This ship can be unlocked in a random event in a mantis homeworlds sector, which only occurs once per game. If you have long-rang scanners, it will be a beacon with a ship detected. The event text will read:
You cross paths with a Mantis ship that looks to have had dozens of layers of armor-plating added over what must have been a hundred year career. Its captain is legendary thief KazaaakplethKilik. Your crew looks frightened.
To get the ship, you must have a crew teleporter and an at least level 2 medbay or cloning bay. Kill the crew of the ship (destroying it prevents you from getting it), and then choose the blue options to unlock the mantis ship.

Required Aspects: Level 2 medbay or cloning bay, crew teleporter

Suggested Aspects: Good boarding crew or anti-bio beam


Achievement Walkthrough:

1: Take no prisoners! - Kill the crew of 20 ships by sector 6 in the Mantis Cruiser.
The mantis ship is built around boarding, so this achievement should be unlocked naturally. To increase your chances of getting it, explore the sectors more, to find additional ships to fight.

2: Avast, ye scurvy dogs! - Kill 5 enemy crew in a fight without taking hull damage or losing a crew member while using the Mantis Cruiser.
To gain this achievement you almost require good defensive aspects, as taking no hull damage with basic shields is nearly impossible with a boarding oriented ship. Any defensive systems like cloaking, drones, and additional shield layers will help greatly with gaining this achievement. Since it requires you to kill five crew, this achievement can't be unlocked in early sectors which mainly have crews of 2-4.

3: Battle Royale - While using the Mantis Cruiser, kill the last enemy with your last crew member on their ship.
This is one achievement a player would hope never to get while playing normally. To actively get this achievement, send in your entire crew, and when the enemies are down to their last crew member, kill all but one of your crew. To accomplish this you could teleport your crew back and suffocate them, or kill them with a bomb. Once you have one crew member left, send them in to attack their final crew member.

Slug Cruiser

Unlock Quest Walkthrough: This ship can be unlocked after causing a random enemy slug cruiser in the slug homeworlds to surrender. If it is a correct encounter, the enemy will say:
"You have besssted us! Will you accept what is in our storeesss in exchange for our livess?"
Most of the time they will give you resources, but if you're lucky, they will offer you a weapon. Instead of taking the weapon (which is an anti-bio beam), ask for information. They will give you coordinates to a quest marker. If you are too close to the beacon when this happens, your quest marker will instead appear in the next sector you go to. At the quest marker, you will find a ship platform with escorts. Choose to tail them without being noticed, and then choose one of two blue options, that require either a slug crew member or level 2 sensors. You will then fight a slug interceptor, and if you win the fight, you will unlock the slug ship.

Required Aspects: Level 2 sensors or slug crew member

Suggested Aspects: Long-range scanners to find ships


Achievement Walkthrough:

1: We're in position! - While using the Slug Cruiser, have vision of every room on the enemy ship without functioning sensors.
Slugs reveal all rooms adjacent to the one they are in, so to easily unlock this achievement, teleport your slug crew onto an enemy ship and position them so every room if visible. A hacking system will help if there is one room you can't see.

2: Home Sweet Home - Jump to 30 nebula locations before sector 8.
Choose nebula sectors and spend a lot of time exploring them, and this achievement should be a cakewalk.

3: Disintegration Ray - While using the Slug Cruiser, kill 3 enemy crew members with one shot from the Anti-Bio Beam.
The anti-bio beam will kill most races in 2 shots, so if the enemy crew is positioned well two well-placed beam shots should do the trick. Causing crew to go to one location (by creating fires, breaches, and system breaks) will make the achievement easier to get. You can also use normal weapons to damage the crew, but make sure to kill them all with the anti-bio beam.

Rock Cruiser

Unlock Quest Walkthrough: This ship can be unlocked in a random event in the rock homeworlds sector, which only occurs once per game after sector 3. Long-range scanners will detect a ship present. The event text will be as follows:
You are immediately messaged by an imposing looking Rock war vessel, "You're the ship off to 'save the Federation,' aren't you? And you expect to survive with that hunk of junk?"
Choose either the first or second option and the rock ship will jump away, leaving a quest marker for you. At the quest marker you will face the rock ship at a red giant star. To get the ship the enemy has to jump away. Don't think that you can't attack it, though. Shooting down its weapon system will make the fight easier, but be sure not to destroy the ship. After they jump away, they will leave you another quest marker, where you will unlock the rock cruiser.

Required Aspects: None

Suggested Aspects: Fire suppression


Achievement Walkthrough:

1: Is it warm in here? - Have your crew kill a burning enemy on their ship while using the Rock Cruiser.
This requires you to have a crew teleporter. The missiles the ship comes with have a chance at causing fires, but getting a fire weaponis much more reliable. This achievement is annoying to get, as enemy crew tend to leave rooms that are on fire when they are low on health, requiring you to either lock them in or light up the whole ship. However, enemy rock crew will NOT leave rooms on fire because they are immune to it, and this still allows you to get the achievement.

2: Defense Drones Don't Do D'anything! - While using the Rock Cruiser, destroy an enemy ship which has a defense drone deployed using only missiles.
Despite the defense drones ability to shoot down missiles, firing missiles in quick succession will allow one or two missilesto get through. Since this is the case, aim immediately for the drone control room.

3: Ancestry - Find the secret sector with the Rock Cruiser.
This requires you to get to the crystal sector with the rock cruiser. For more information, look at the crystal cruiser section of this guide.

Stealth Cruiser

Unlock Quest Walkthrough: This shipis unlocked at a random encounter in the engi homeworlds. The event text will be as follows:
You arrive near a small fleet of civilian Engi ships. A simple decryption and translation of their comm frequency tells you that they are having a frantic discussion about something obviously troubling them.
You must have an engi crew member, and choose the blue text for them. You will then gain two quest markers. One of them holds the real ship, while the other is fake. There is no way to tell which is real until you get to the beacon. If it's the real ship, the flavour text will have a " at the end of it. If you find the fake ship first, you will still be able to get to the real ship. After destroying the ship you will gain a final quest marker which will require you to fight a mantis ship manned by rebels. After some dialogue you will unlock the stealth cruiser.

Required Aspects: Engi crewmember

Suggested Aspects: None


Achievement Walkthrough:

1: Bird of Prey - Destroy a ship at full health during a single cloak in the Stealth Cruiser.
This achievement almost certainly requires the stealth weapons augmentation, as the cloak will run out before the volley finishes. To get the this achievement, the ship must be cloaked from the times the first weapon fires until the end-battle text pops up. A level 2 cloaking system will help, and additional weapons are almost necessary, as the starting weapons are only able to kill the no shield auto-scouts in the first few sectors.

2: Phase Shift - In the Stealth Cruiser, avoid 9 points of damage during a single cloak.
This achievement almost certainly needs to be unlocked in an asteroid field, where projectiles will attack you even when cloaked. For best results cloak right after the enemy fires all it's weapons, and hope for the best.

3: Tactical Approach - In the Stealth Cruiser, get to sector 8 without jumping to a beacon with an environmental danger.
This achievement doesn't require much strategy, and avoiding environmental danger is already a good idea, so this achievement should be unlocked naturally.

Lanius Cruiser

Unlock Quest Walkthrough: Unlocking four ships in addition to the kestrel will unlock the lanius ship.

Required Aspects: None

Suggested Aspects: None


Achievement Walkthrough:

1: Advanced Mastery - Have Hacking, Mind Control and the Battery active at once.
This achievement is simply unlocked by purchasing the required systems (the ship already comes with hacking) and activating them all simultaneously.

2: Scrap Hoarder - Have at least 600 scrap in your ship storage.
Gaining this much scrap without ever buying anything or upgrading is difficult, but by exploring each sector to a good extent should net you with plenty of scrap.

3: Loss of Cabin Pressure - Get to sector 8 without your ship's net oxygen levels exceeding 20 percent (starts after the first jump).
Open up the airlocks and doors to all but a few rooms to allow the ship to drain of oxygen. Doing so means that you will probably have to cram all non-lanius crew into a few rooms, but it shouldn't be too much of a crutch. Also be wary of enemy hacking devices, as when they lockdown rooms it allows them to fill with oxygen. In this scenario you should turn off the oxygen until the fight is over.

Crystal Cruiser

Unlock Quest Walkthrough: Oh boy, here we go. The infamous crystal cruiser quest line. I would say you would have better chances of winning the lottery, but that is an understatement. This quest line will make you rip your hair out more than ever. If you aren't convinced enough, try throwing a dime into a cup 5 feet away. While blindfolded. On a moving truck. With your hands bound. And the cup is upside down. That would probably be easier than unlocking this luck-based ship! [/rant]
All kidding aside, this ship is actually pretty luck-dependant to unlock, but I will do my best to guide you through it. First, you need to find the dense asteroid field event, which happens in engi, rock, or pirate sectors at a distress beacon. The flavour text will read:
A ship without life forms within a nearby dense asteroid field is giving off the distress call. Shall we investigate? It could be dangerous.
Choose to search for the ship, or, if you have the armour plating, choose the blue text to guarantee finding the ship. Otherwise, test your luck and hope you find the remains of the crystal ship. If you find it, you will have the choice between grabbing the weapon or stasis pod. Grab the stasis pod. You will then need to travel to either a zoltan or engi sector and find the zoltan research station. Luckily this event is quite common, so you should have no trouble finding it. Once you find it, you will be given a blue option to revive the alien in the stasis pod. Once chosen, you will gain a crystal crew member. Now, you must travel to the rock homeworlds, so if you already passed it, or you are in sector seven, you will have to restart. If the planets align and you can make it to the rock homeworlds, you will be given a quest beacon in which choosing the blue text will take you to the crystal sector and there unlock the crystal cruiser! NOTE: With the rock cruiser type C it will allow you to bypass the first two parts of the quest.

Required Aspects: LOTS OF LUCK

Suggested Aspects: Rock armour plating


Achievement Walkthrough:

1: Sweet Revenge - Destroy an enemy ship with a shard from the Crystal Vengance augment.
To easily earn this achievement, find a weak ship with a low-damage weapon. Attack it until it only has one HP remaining, and turn off your shields to allow it to get more damage in. Hopefully, a piece will eventually break off and destroy the enemy ship.

2: No Escape - While using the Crystal Cruiser trap 4 enemy crew inside a single room using the crystal being power or Lockdown Bomb.
It is hard to gain this achievement through boarding, as enemies are rarely ever in the same 4-space room. However, it is extremely easy to unlock in random boarding events, where there is usually 4 boarders. Lead them into the same room by draining oxygen in the rooms they enter, and have your crystal crew member use their power.

3: Clash of the Titans - Destroy 15 Rock ships using the Crystal Cruiser.
Go into rock sectors whenever possible, and explore them to the maximum extent, and this achievement should be unlocked naturally.

Last Words

I thank you for taking the time to read my guide, and I hope you found it useful! If you have any suggestions, praise, or if I made a mistake, feel free to tell me in the comments!

[powertrooper]

God damm I almost got the crystal ship also this is amazing and awesome guide my dude

[Isebrand]

@squaremen I also had no quest marker and i had renamed my guy to Ruwen before. So I explored a few systems in the homeworl sector until I got a quest and this quest marker was the entrance to the secret sector.

[squaremen]

I don't know why, but if in the crystal ship quest I take a rock cruiser type C, I simply don't have a quest marker in the rock homeworlds. It seems that you need to go through the entire root. Or I don't understand something.

[dragonadamant]

Question on Clash of the Titans, does killing a ship's crew but leaving the enemy hull intact count as "destroying?"

[Sentry Gun]

i cant believe i have fucked up getting both the slug cruiser and the rock cruiser... that's news to me.

[Sweatycommie83]

Five minutes after looking this up i got the asteroid field and the zoltan research station back to back for the crystal cruiser. thank you for this blessing

[Sushi_Rocks]

Just found out that a repair drone counts as a crewmember towards the Slug ship beam achievement. You might want to add that info to the guide if you like to.

[Ciaran Zagami]

For home sweet home can you jump to the same nebula locations over and over or does it have to be a new one? I can never find enough nebula sectors to pull it off.

[Confederate]

Clash of Titans is freaking difficult to get. Prayer to the RNG God is all that you've got to get that 10 off the rock ships and pirate rock ships.

[Stormmaster]

Corlex, I think it's requirement was reduced at some point, because older number was too hard to achieve.