All right. Ready to participate according to the rules.
Kestrel B
Final score: 4645.
First real run according to this.
Nowhere near as awesome a writeup as Kobayashi’s, sadly. I was doing pretty well–had a full crew with two ninja boarders, a flak 2 and an Ion blast II and a Burst laser II all going at once, plus a hacker and a drone system, everything maxed out. Stupid planning lost me my two boarders, and then lost me my backup anaerobic boarder; and the final ship took me out, although it had no shields left to speak of and was going down under a steady hail of all kinds of fun weapons. So close!
Posting on behalf of Mutton Time who doesn’t post here anymore but wants in on the competition:
- Kestral B. 3798. Died in first phase of boss fight.
Try to get in 5 runs. If we get a few people reaching that point we’ll probably open it to 5 more, with 5 unused ships.
I’ve gotten distracted by trying to get Rock B or Crystal A, with a stupid number of Rock A runs on easy. Will post again once I can get one of those ships.
Run 1: Rock B
Sector 1: My favorite strategy is to get a Rock boarding party with a firebomb, but that can leave you vulnerable to any ship with a Zoltan shield. That’s why I’m happy to pick up a Zoltan Shield Bypass early on.
Sector 2: I get my crew teleporter, so the basic framework of my plan is complete. Mind control gives my boarders a little more support until they can level up their combat stats. Long range scanners mean that I will not waste any time on empty systems.
Sector 3: My acquisition of a fire beam further enhances my boarding ability.
Sector 4: Nothing of note, just upgrading all systems.
Sector 5: The only thing I am missing from my plan is a Cloaking system. There was one back in Sector 1, but who has 150 scrap that early?
Sector 6: Still no Cloaking system.
Sector 7: Well, this boss fight could be rough…
Sector 8: I show up with everything maxed, but one empty system slot because I never found the Cloaking system I wanted. Phase 1 of the boss fight drops me to about 60% hull. I get through Phase 2 pretty well, and only drop to about 40% hull integrity.
My Zoltan Shield Bypass lets me get crew and fire bombs onto the enemy ship early to drop their regular shield, while my laser gun and fire beam chew through their Zoltan shield. Max shields, high dodge and the Rock immunity help me survive long enough to win.
Final score: 3966.
Run 1: Kestrel B, Victory
Score: 5526
Run 2: Mantis B, Defeat
Score: 25
Destroyed on the first jump by an auto assault that pre-hacked my shields down and tore me up with a drone. Now that’s the genuine FTL experience.
Second real run: Rock B
Final score: 3323
I started off in pretty decent shape, picking up a gunner soon after I started, and in the second sector buying a crew teleporter. Between the teleporter and a sixth crew-member, I blew all my savings at the store, just one credit left, but it was worth it.
By the third sector, however, I realized my damage was nowhere near what I needed: pirates with two shields were almost impervious to me, even with a flak cannon, and if they had a med bay, I couldn’t take them. A pirate iwth this setup and some missiles chewed me up. I finally got to the end of the sector, rounding out my crew with a couple new members.
In the fourth sector, I hit a jackpot: the damaged stasis pod! I’ve been running the game on easy over and over trying to get the Crystal ship, finally deciding to do a medium run for this thread, and here was the pod! I also got a heavy laser and was able to take on some tougher shields than before. However, a 3-shield monstrosity at the end of the sector still scared me off.
The zoltan sector brought good news and bad news. Good news: some friendly scientists opened the stasis pod, revealing the crystal crew. Woot! Bad news: you know that “intruders” event? Well, how about getting 4 mantis intruders along with a nasty ship all at the same time? Oof. That killed off my main teleporters.
The final sector before the, well, final sectore would either be the Rock homeworld, in which case I’d get the fabled Crystal Ship quest, or not.
Not. It was a rock-controlled world. Gah! And worse yet, in the final stop, I decided on a lark to bribe the rebels to let some civilians go; the rebels responded with a massive ship loaded down with missiles. Soon my ship was loaded down with missiles, too, and shortly thereafter it was in pieces.
Run 1: Kestrel B, Victory
Score: 5526
Run 2: Mantis B, Defeat
Score: 25
Run 3: Lanius B, Victory
Score: 5215 + 900 for the flagship = 6115
This run went considerably better than the last. Things were off to a shaky start, as I had lost both Lanius boarders due to bad luck with an Ion Intruder plus my own carelessness with Autofire. But I quickly began to bounce back as I got several free Engis, a Glaive Beam, a Weapon Preigniter, and a Burst Laser Mk II. I got three Rockmen as well, and hired a Mantis, so I was solid in both boarding and weapons. Once I got the BL2 and Glaive up, I could take on pretty much anything, occasionally even instantaneously one-shotting ships as late as Sector 5 and 6. Unshielded drones became free scrap dumps (I had a Scrap Recovery Arm as well). I ended up with two Defense I drones, and maxed out shields, engines, reactor, and every other system that mattered for my loadout. I tore through most of the game, and then the flagship.
The final blow to the flagship was dealt by the last surviving crewman, whom I had mind controlled. I was about to fire the final volley when he destroyed his own Mind Control system and with it, the flagship.
That felt good.
Run 1: Kestrel B, Victory
Score: 5526
Run 2: Mantis B, Defeat
Score: 25
Run 3: Lanius B, Victory
Score: 6115
Run 4: Engi A, Defeat on Phase 3
Score: 4093 + 600 for the flagship = 4693
This was a very fun run. I was frequently oscillating between doing well and being about to die. Lost a crewman due to carelessness, so I only had two for a while, which is pretty tough. On the other hand, I got a free Pike Beam and got to purchase two BL2s, which made me into a wrecking ball. I had several fights where I got banged up pretty badly, but fortunately managed to run into hull repair rewards or stores at just the right times. The first time I ran into the flagship, the bastard hacked my weapons but I destroyed most of its weapons with boarders, so we ended up in an annoying cloak/hack stalemate. I jumped away and took out my frustrations on a rebel ship, then caught up to the flagship at the base. Beat the crap out of Phase 1 that time, then quickly dispatched it on Phase 2 but still took a lot of hits. Started Phase 3 with 10 hull left, and it destroyed me shortly after I knocked down the super shield. Ah well.
Run 1: Kestrel B, Victory
Score: 5526
Run 2: Mantis B, Defeat
Score: 25
Run 3: Lanius B, Victory
Score: 6115
Run 4: Engi A, Defeat on Phase 3
Score: 4693
**Run 5: Mantis A, Defeat
Score: 1108
Final Score: 17467**
I think I died in Sector 3 or 4. I got a ton of weapons, some of which I sold to get a BL2. Unfortunately, I was again careless and ended up losing two crew when my ship depressurized. The final blow was dealt when I boarded a ship with my remaining two mantises, took a hit to my teleporter, and got barely overpowered by the final living crewmember. At that point, I figured I had to be ballsy or I was screwed. Turns out I was screwed anyway.
That was fun!