FTL Game Ships Complete Guide
FTL Game Ships Complete Guide by TenLetters
Figured a main post thread where everything is consolidated and explained is in order. This guide will detail how to unlock every ship, as well as have a picture of both A and B types and detail anything of note about them. I have not unlocked the Federation B Type yet, so if anyone has a picture that would be great. Likewise, I do not know the new/easier requirements to unlock ships, such as for the Mantis ship, so if anyone can provides, that would be equally great. Also, if anyone has exact text for the dialogue options, that would be appreciated.
Each Ship and Type B can be unlocked in Easy, and will still be unlocked when playing Normal. Each ship is unlocked in a special way, and each Type B is unlocked by completing 2/3 “Achievements” for Type A of each ship.
To find a larger image of each ship, click on either the “Ship: Name” or “Type B.” Note that while I list starting materials, they may change on Easy, such as starting with 30 Scrap instead of 10.
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16 Fuel, 8 Missiles, 0 Drones, 10 Scrap, 8 Power Bars
To Unlock:
>It’s the starting ship, dummy!
Notes: Standard ship, not much to say. The Burst Laser II (2 power, 12s charge time, 3 lasers, 1 damage each, low fire chance) is one of the best weapons in the game, due to its high laser/power ratio. Human crew, no special anythin’. Likewise, the Artemis is a good missile for only 1 power, but then again is not the best “Missile Use/Damage” ratio.
16 Fuel, 5 Missiles, 0 Drones, 10 Scrap, 8 Power Bars
Notes: Now this guy is pretty good. 4 Basic Lasers is very very strong, and you start with a Zoltan. Not the most flashy ship, but a solid ship nonetheless.
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Ship: The Stealth Cruiser
Unique Attribute: Starts with Stealth
>You start with Stealth at the expense of Shields, which provides different strengths/weaknesses. Can often kill normal ships without taking damage, but Asteroids, Beam weapons, and Drones can prove fatal.
>You also get some starting Augments, but they’re not really unique. Starting with Long Range Scanners is very helpful to avoid aforementioned Asteroids.
16 Fuel, 0 Missiles, 0 Drones, 10 Scrap, 8 Power Bars
To Unlock:
>Have an Engi Crewmember
>Find the Engi Homeworlds (Green Sector)
>One of the nodes has a special dialogue with a Blue option for having an Engi onboard. Choose it. There will be 2 quest markers on the map.
>Each has a ship that is powering up its FTL to get away. Don’t let them. Once they get to low HP, they’ll stop and talk. One is a decoy and will give you nothing, the other will give you another quest marker.
>At the new quest marker is a Mantis ship. Kill it. Congratulations, you now have the Stealth Cruiser.
Notes: It starts with no shields, which takes getting used to, but has Stealth right off the bat. The Mini Beam is very strong for only 1 power. It doesn’t pierce shields, but your laser fires twice (for ONE power, which makes it, imo, the best weapon in the game) so anything with 2 shields or less is toast. The beam can almost always hit 3-4 rooms if positioned correctly. That’s insane for 1 power, although won’t work in all scenarios. Remember to use stealth well and you’ll meet lots of success.
Type B:
Unique Attribute: Starts with Stealth
>Same as Type A.
16 Fuel, 0 Missiles, 0 Drones, 10 Scrap, 7 Power Bars
Notes: The Glaive Beam is amazing strong. You start off with 2 in Cloak, but your engine is much lower than Type A. Also, while the Glaive Beam may be very strong, you will probably be taking more damage in this ship, since it takes much longer to charge. With only Cloak as your defense, you won’t be able to knock out their weapons before they do damage to you with in a lot of cases with the 25s charge of the Glaive. You also lose your plating, and only have a medbay with 2 slots (and in an awkward position).
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Ship: The Mantis Cruiser
Unique Attribute: Mantis Pheromones
>Makes you move faster, which is pretty ok. Lets you get around to repair or fight fast, or move from your teleporter to your med bay.
16 Fuel, 16 Missiles, 0 Drones, 10 Scrap, 7 Power Bars
To Unlock:
>Have a Mantis, Teleporter Rank 2, and Med Bay Rank 2 (Apparently this is easier to get than before thanks to a new patch, so if someone has the new requirements, please tell me)
>Get to the Mantis Homeworlds (Red Sector)
>One node has an even with a really-long-named Captain who’s a thief. You’ll get a Blue option for having a Mantis that will make them do a dance. Choose that, and you’ll fight the ship.
>Do not blow up the ship. You must kill the crew. Use your teleporter.
>After that, choose the Blue option for having a Teleporter to beam them on board.
>Then once again choose the Blue option for having a rank 2 med bay to save the Captain. Congratulations, you have the Mantis Cruiser.
Notes: Weak weapons, but who cares. You got a teleporter and 3 Mantis. So that’s your main attack. Be wary of unmanned ships, as invading into no oxygen is pretty bad, and your weapons may not be able to take out their shields and do damage. Note that going from 1 to 2 power in Weapons takes 60 Scrap, then drops back down to 25 for the 3rd upgrade. The S.Bomb damages crew but not the hull, so use it to help take out pesky people in Med Bays.
Type B:
Unique Attribute: 4-pad Teleporter
>Not much to be said, it’s a 4-pad Teleporter.
Unique Attribute: Mantis Pheromones
>Same as Type A.
16 Fuel, 0 Missiles, 15 Drones, 10 Scrap, 11 Power Bars
Notes: A 4 pad teleporter? Damn straight. This ship starts with the works — everything but Cloak, but even a boarding drone and rank 2 Shields, AND the teleporter is right next to the Med Bay. However, you have no weapons, and you need to be careful sending both Mantis over. For instance, a missile could knock out your oxygen while you’re on the other ship (OR your Teleporter), and with Mantis’s poor repair rate you might be boned. Once you get going with some more crew, high ranked teleporter, and a missile or something you’ll be going good. Against AI ships, you’ll need to be using the Boarding Drone. It’ll take a loooooooooong time. This ship, more than other ships I feel, runs into a lot of problems early on.
Zoltan Ship with Super Shield? Can’t teleport in or use a Boarding Drone. AI Ship with compartments? Gonna be a long time — hope you land on the weapons bay. Ship with a Medbay? This’ll suck unless my Boarding Drone crashes into it. A Sun? Well, guess my main ship is either going to be on fire or without oxygen while I board these guys. That said, I still love this ship, and if you can through its rocky beginning you’re in for a good time. You’ll probably need to be flying away from a few battles.
Also, something I found out using this ship is that Boarding Drones can get level ups. If they stay alive long enough in the fight, they’ll actually level up. Super cool.
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Ship: The Engi Cruiser
Unique Attribute: Engi Med-Bot Dispersal
>This is pretty good. It lets your weak Engis still hold up in fights, and can help a lot in scenarios of low oxygen or fire. Plus it helps for the lazies who don’t want to micromanage their guys to go to the medbay. You can also get this on other ships by doing quests in Engi controlled sectors (usually giving a lot of supplies).
16 Fuel, 0 Missiles, 15 Drones, 10 Scrap, 10 Power Bars
To Unlock:
>Get to Sector 5.
Notes: Honestly, I like this ship a lot. It has nice flavor. The only damage you can do is with your drone, but the Ion Weapon is amazing (1 Ion Damage, 4 second charge). Otherwise pretty standard.
Type B:
Unique Attribute: Drone Reactor Booster
>Makes board/defense drones move faster. I get that this ship is supposed to rely on these drones, but moving faster isn’t that big of a help, since most of the drone’s time is spent sitting (either shooting or repairing). Not bad, but I really don’t like this ship anyway.
16 Fuel, 0 Missiles, 6 Drones, 10 Scrap, 9 Power Bars
Notes: Somewhat awkward layout and drones. The starting weapons aren’t that hot either, and you start with only 1 crewmember. Has a very clear theme of using drones on your own ship for defense/repair. Your medbay is only 2 spaces, and you no longer have the healing augment. May hurt later, but early on doesn’t really matter since you only have one guy.
Total Opinion: I really don’t like this ship. Honestly I hate it, and think it’s the worst ship, both in terms of style and use. It has mediocre starting weapons, both of which should probably be replaced, and starting with one crew member really bloody hurts. Not only are you gimped in terms of experience gain, but your efficiency goes way down until things can be manned. The drones are nice flavor, but ultimately not that great. The defense drone can’t really defend that well and will eat up your supply of drones. System repair drones are needed early on with only one crew member, but need to be replaced quickly once you get some more crew to provide your ship with some form of offense (if even just freeing up power for some decent weapons you find). While the ship layout is ok, the lack of air locks is really a hindrance, as a lot of the ship is going to need to be oxygen-less to get rid of fires in certain areas. Repair Drones die pretty quick in fires. While the flavor is interesting, I don’t think it can be executed in this game very effectively.
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Ship: The Federation Cruiser
Unique Attribute: Artillery Beam
>The Artillery Beam is a Main System (i.e. takes power, unlike a subsystem) but doesn’t benefit from being manned. Fires an uncontrollable beam that is the length of the ship. Does 1 damage but bypasses all shields. Sometimes it dominates and hits tons of rooms, sometimes only 2. Is very good once upgraded fully, but also is going to take your precious power supply.
16 Fuel, 5 Missiles, 2 Drones, 10 Scrap, 8 Power Bars
To Unlock:
>Beat the game.
Notes: Very diverse crew and pretty decent ship layout. Otherwise very standard, besides its main cannon. Is cool because of this, since you can basically forego all other weapons and focus on defense if you want to use this as your primary.
Type B: (Thanks Demi_Person for the info!)
Unique Attribute: Artillery Beam
>Same as Type A.
16 Fuel, 9 Missiles, 0 Drones, 10 Scrap, 9 Power Bars
Notes: Ship has a funny layout with the skinny hallway, but otherwise seems pretty standard. The med bay is far from the left side, and the Weapons/Shield doesn’t have a hatch to the outside nearby. Gets a slug and a Zoltan, which is very good, and the special weapon (Artillery Beam) starts off Rank 2, which is cool. Great Dual Lasers, as well. Starting with a Zoltan helps offset the power cost of the Artillery Beam. You also only get 2 slots in your medbay.
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Ship: The Slug Cruiser
Unique Attribute: Slug Repair Gel
>It’s nice and helpful, but not really noticeable or changes your play really.
16 Fuel, 15 Missiles, 0 Drones, 10 Scrap, 8 Power Bars
To Unlock:
>Sensors Rank 2 (Maybe 3 is required) or a Slug (Long Range Sensors may also work)
>Go to Slug Homeworlds (Purple Sector)
>A lot of the Slug ships will surrender once hurt in exchange for what’s in their stores. Do this. Once of them will have an experimental weapon, Instead, ask for some data. You get a quest marker.
>At the new quest node, choose whichever Blue option you have. You’ll get in a fight where the enemy is powering up FTL to get away. Destroy the ship and congratulations, you get the Slug Cruiser.
Notes: Slugs are cool, but it is still kinda annoying to not have sensors. Be sure to have sound on to listen for fires. The Anti-Bio beam usually takes 2 hits to kill an enemy crew member (you know where they are even without sensors due to your Slugs), but sometimes if they walk poorly and get clipped twice by it. Also kills lower healthed crew, like Zoltans, in one hit I believe.
Type B:
Unique Attribute: Slug Repair Gel
>Same as Type A.
16 Fuel, 25 Missiles, 0 Drones, 10 Scrap, 7 Power Bars
Notes: Now this is a sick ship. I love this ship. You get 3 slugs, and it’s an invading ship. You ain’t mantis or rocks, you’re slugs, and you’re invading. Super pimp. Even without sensors, you still know where the enemy crew is, and once you invade can see into adjacent rooms, thanks to being slugs. You also get the Healing Burst as a starting weapon, letting basically all of your invades automatically succeed.
Note that there’s no Med Bay on this ship, so Heal Burst is your only method of healing, and that Healing Burst takes 1 Missile per heal.
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16 Fuel, 28 Missiles, 0 Drones, 10 Scrap, 8 Power Bars
To Unlock:
>Get to the Rock Homeworlds (Red Sector)
>One node will be some Rocks insulting your ship/goal. Take the option along the lines of “I’ll get there or die trying,” which was Option 1 (for me, at least). A quest marker is added.
>At the quest marker is the Rock ship near a star. Your only goal is to wait for them to FTL out, then FTL out as well. Do not blow up their ship. Once they leave, leave, and a new quest marker is added (It was in the next sector for me).
>Go to the new quest marker and congratulations, you get the Rock Cruiser.
Notes: Interesting ship layout. Kinda hurts a bit with your slow moving rocks. You only have missiles, so be careful of running out of ammo. The Artemis is 2 power for 1 energy, and the Hull Missile potentially does 4 damage if you hit a systemless room. Very strong, given you have a supply of missiles.
Type B:
Unique Attribute: Door Layout
>Be aware that there are NO AIR LOCKS on this ship, meaning you’re going to have to manually put out fires before they damage your systems. There’s also no door controls, but that doesn’t matter too much when you can’t really deal with oxygen anyway. Door Systems cost 60 Scrap, but do not add any new doors, so it is just to upgrade to prevent intruders from going where they please. Honestly, it’s pretty much a waste to buy them, since you got 4 Rocks to deal with fires, who just so happen to be very strong for fighting as well.
16 Fuel, 18 Missiles, 0 Drones, 10 Scrap, 8 Power Bars
Notes: This ship is interesting. By starting with the Fire Bomb, you’d think you’d get a teleporter. Cause fire in their ship, send in super strong rocks immune to fire, victory. Instead you don’t, and should probably pick that up quickly. You can use the Fire Bomb on your own ship to start fires to fight in, if they invade. The starting Piercing Laser lets you tear apart the first few sectors, but once they get Shields 2 begins to falter very hard without major assistance.
Total Opinion: I think this is probably the best ship (easiest to beat the game with). It is a rock solid ship without any real gimmicks and a very safe early game that lets you build how you want. The main reason it’s so great is you get 4 rocks, which is amazing. You get to man everything very early, which lets you start collecting experience very early. They also let you brush aside fires and most invasions with ease, which thanks to the ship layout is even easier, since everything is basically one room away from one of the mannable stations. It also has a lot of empty rooms, so teleporting bombs and stuff often hit nothing of importance, and a decent amount of fires/breaches can be ignored until the fight is over, when your rocks can just go and clean up leisurely. I prefer to upgrade engines first to begin leveling my Captain/Engine guy’s evade. The Pierce Laser will honestly get you through the first 2-3 sectors with ease. The only upgrade I’d think about getting is Stealth, which appears in the 2×2 bottom left room. Other than that, I’d just upgrade the main systems (Shield/Weapons/Engine), sell the Fire Bomb, and eventually sell of the Pierce Laser as well to free up slots/power. The Augment is just icing on the cake and maintains its use the entire game. While not the most interesting in terms of play, it’s a great ship and very straight forward.
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Ship: The Zoltan Cruiser
Unique Attribute: Zoltan Shield
>The Zoltan Shield is a 5 HP shield that you get at the start of every node. It absorbs everything — ion, missiles, lasers, whatever. It also blocks teleporting and boarding drones (or at least does when you are up against it). As far as I can tell, Beam and Ion weapons do double damage. A Beam Attack Drone will be doing 2 damage to it every second, making the shield very worthless very fast. It is depleted before your normal shield. Once it’s depleted it’ll come back at the next node. You can still evade while the shield is up (Including Stealth’s increased invasion). As far as I know, there is no way to increase it. Your Zoltan Shield will absorb the last hit. i.e., if a shot that would do 2 damage hits the last HP of the Zoltan Shield, the shield will absorb the full hit and disappear. The Zoltan Shield can sell for 40 Scrap at a Store.
16 Fuel, 12 Missiles, 2 Drones, 10 Scrap, 5 Power Bars
To Unlock:
>Get to Zoltan Homeworlds (Green Sector)
>One node will have a peaceful ship hail you. Choose “Hear them Out.” A quest marker is added.
>Choose all the peaceful, non-violent, let’s-work-together options(Reconcile differences, end this without bloodshed, true progress, etc) and congratulations, you’ve unlocked the Zoltan Cruiser.
Notes: Zoltans are great, since they provide power. However, having all Zoltans is kinda annoying till you get more crew. Say you need to fight off invaders (which Zoltans already suck at) or repair something. Well, there goes your power. Also something to think about when your crew is all Zoltan is that you won’t be able to capitalize on them, since you’re going to have someone piloting your ship (which doesn’t take power). Once you get two more crew (one as pilot to free up the Zoltan, and the other to repair so you don’t depower your shit on accident) or so it runs much smoother. However, you get a lot of “free” power, and upgrading your starting amount is still very cheap (20 Scrap, so 100 scrap gives you 5 more bars). The Med Bay is also very far away from everything else — pretty poor ship layout.
Type B:
Unique Attribute: Zoltan Shield
>Same as Type A.
16 Fuel, 0 Missiles, 2 Drones, 10 Scrap, 5 Power Bars
Notes: Similar to the first ship, since you get all the Zoltans. Layout is better, and I like the weapons more. You can usually get through with the Ion weapons before your Zoltan Shield is depleted, giving you enough time to lock them down. Ion Blasts have a charge time of 8 seconds, and the Pike Beam has a charge time of 16, leading to a pretty efficient use of time (Pike being delayed about a second for the first volley, but then consistent).
Note you also only start with 1 Shield (it takes 2 to actually get a shield). The second Shield upgrade costs 100 scrap, then returns to the normal 20/30 for 3rd/4th.
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Ship: The Unidentified Cruiser
Without even paying any particular attention to it, I stumbled upon the secret Crystal Ship in my first ever playthrough. I heard that getting the ship is somewhat difficult, so here are some guidelines on how to obtain the ship.
First, make sure that your sectors are lining up in a order that at least makes obtaining the ship possible. You will want a chain of green (sector 5) > green (6) > red (7). Why is this? In order to obtain the ship you must travel from an Engi controlled space (green) to a Zoltan controlled space (green) and finally to the Rock Homeworld (red). If you don’t have a combination like this, then you may end up obtaining/waking the pod in Sector 7 instead, making the quest impossible.
To make your life easier, get a long-range scanner as soon as possible. I don’t think any particular upgrade in subsystems/systems is necessary, but I personally had level 2 sensors and teleporter.
In the Engi controlled space, search for beacons without hostile ships or stores (long-range scanner can tell you that). Eventually you will find a crystal ship, and you will get the option to grab the weapon/ammo or a damaged stasis pod. Choose the latter, you will need a free augmentation slot to take it.
Next in Zoltan controlled space, again search for beacons without hostile ships or stores. You may eventually come across some friendly Zoltans, who will offer you a third option to repair the damaged stasis pod, if you have it. Repair the pod and you will get a new crew, make sure you take him.
Finally in Rock Homeworld, once again search for beacons without hostile ships or stores. If you are lucky, you will find a transmitter reasonably soon, which will add a quest marker onto your star chart. Follow the quest marker and you will get your ship.
Good luck!
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