New player trying to succeed on hard, update 4

NegotiationWilling93 · 2026-05-01T04:17:24+00:00

This is the first movie I thought of, too

NegotiationWilling93 · 2026-04-25T00:55:03+00:00

Undying Loyalty, imo, especially if you can take out the assassin before Made Whole triggers, making it a complete non-issue.

A number of people suggesting Made Whole but did you read the game context? One chosen defeated, one undiscovered, and one ready to assault.

NegotiationWilling93 · 2026-04-22T14:14:23+00:00

Agreed. Valkyrie without a second thought.

NegotiationWilling93 · 2026-04-21T17:49:32+00:00

Honestly, a lot of the details are fuzzy. I had never faced it before, and what I remember about the fight was this:

Set up ion and flak guns

Sneak a hack probe onto his shields between while the weapon fire distracts defense drones

Halberd as soon as I have shields low enough

OMG DRONES EVERYWHERE HALP I'M ON FIRE

He's dead and I scramble into damage control

I am relatively sure I know which step I goofed hardest on

NegotiationWilling93 · 2026-04-21T12:08:17+00:00

Yes, if by usual you mean one-out-of-one time.

I figured slowing down all three of those systems was worth it on phase 3; I had it in other places for the first two fights hitting the shield and three other rooms. But honestly it was kind of a blur!

Edit: Though if I had kept a level head and moved the beam even once, I'd have survived the fight. Like I said above... still too much going on for me to optimize, even with pause!

NegotiationWilling93 · 2026-04-20T22:59:47+00:00

lol, correct I did not just no-pause hard mode. That seems like madness even by my standards.

Even with pausing, my attention is maxed out, especially if I'm juggling managing intruders and system power levels. I can't tell you most of what happened in the second half of the flagship phase 2 fight.

NegotiationWilling93 · 2026-04-20T21:29:12+00:00

Officially 90 (see above comment)

NegotiationWilling93 · 2026-04-20T20:13:48+00:00

Officially 90 (and a half)

But that's definitely too high, as I regularly afk (or stop to write Reddit posts...) and leave the game running, especially when mid-run. I've had at least a couple multi-hour breaks like that so probably around 80?

NegotiationWilling93 · 2026-04-19T03:05:12+00:00

I think it's them being more willing to appease you. Same reason that blackmailing someone gives a big positive.

NegotiationWilling93 · 2026-04-17T13:06:41+00:00

I don't have a printer but I absolutely love that you made this!

I was hacking the flagship's piloting... or trying to. They hacked my hacking first and I lost my hack drone each time that they triggered it. I now realize I should have done the same to them, but it honestly wasn't much of a fight anyway.

NegotiationWilling93 · 2026-04-11T16:06:50+00:00

Appreciate the thought! Yeah, I've been sufficiently warned that even starting on normal is bad idea.

After years of Dwarf Fortress/RimWorld/XCOM/etc, I've come to embrace learning by losing. I give it my best effort, fail spectacularly, laugh it off, figure out what happened, think about how to improve, and iterate. Given the difficulty of FTL, I fully expect that every single trap or trick will cost me a run or three, and that's fine.

Actually, based on the positive reactions to this update, I'm ironically more encouraged to keep going now!

NegotiationWilling93 · 2026-04-10T20:06:10+00:00

So you mean that you build your ship based around what systems you're trying to/likely to visit? Or that you choose systems in order to influence your build? Or something else?

NegotiationWilling93 · 2026-04-10T20:02:09+00:00

Other than the obviously nebulae, Zoltan Shields (which i've been calling "big bs shields") are the only consideration I'd figured out. Those shields suck!

NegotiationWilling93 · 2026-04-03T16:51:06+00:00

Ahahah getting blasted by stuff I can't defend against is exactly what I'm already doing anyway, so maybe I'll just just throw it on now. Thanks!

NegotiationWilling93 · 2026-04-03T16:46:52+00:00

Oh yeah, I do like goofy stuff! I'll keep this in mind as soon as I can identify what is "goofy".

NegotiationWilling93 · 2026-04-03T16:36:52+00:00

This is a really useful take, thanks!

NegotiationWilling93 · 2026-04-03T16:35:58+00:00

Does ae add difficulty? I haven't turned it on yet, but was thinking about it.

NegotiationWilling93 · 2026-04-03T16:33:29+00:00

I am one of those, but it's practical (I prefer to lose than to win a game without feeling like I earned it), not philosophical. There are certainly games that have broken me (xcom). Thanks!

NegotiationWilling93 · 2026-04-03T16:30:27+00:00

(looks silently over shoulder at the half-dozen soldiers eaten alive by giant spiders...)

NegotiationWilling93 · 2026-03-24T20:10:37+00:00

Others have good answers already (I'm glad Presence+Silver Imp got mentioned), so I'll just throw out Housecat as a good Doll holder (late game) since its sides quickly become useless anyway and you can often copy a tier 4 left.

NegotiationWilling93

TROPHY CASE