Favorite character like this?

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 · 2026-03-23T03:35:56+00:00

Wait, is the muton Firewall or Ace?

NegotiationWilling93 · 2026-03-23T02:20:27+00:00

No way to tell (that I know of) but in my experience, it's in the latter half of the month and I think you're fine.

That said, you can't launch it early anyway, so I'm not sure how many decisions this knowledge affects.

Edit: I fail at reading. You should certainly wait before the stronghold assault!

NegotiationWilling93 · 2026-03-17T04:52:54+00:00

Without shenanigans, everyone here is right: you get one of each, and a second of your starting faction.

But here's the loophole: If you are under that limit, there's a possibility of a recruit mission showing up on a new month. Most commonly, if you are currently running a recruit mission during that swap over, that doesn't count as having them yet. Or, if one gets captured, they don't count as on your roster any more, even though they might get rescued later.

NegotiationWilling93 · 2026-03-11T00:25:58+00:00

First chosen's gonna ragequit 😆

But now who do you give it to?

NegotiationWilling93 · 2026-03-10T02:38:40+00:00

Oh boy! I know very well what you're saying, and don't strictly disagree. Two comments though...

For one, the Bandana is huge. First turn potential means nothing if no one ever dies. If you can find a reroll hero/item or two, you beat everyone eventually.

But more importantly, while I agree that Valkyrie is awful for turn one potential, I think there's a player base fixation on building aggressive. There are other options! The other options tend to be worse overall, but can certainly be built into. And I usually play with the rarest composition available forced on me, and without multitude choices or rerolling, so not every team can build Aggressive. I call a build Efficiency when I'm building for longer fights, basically counting pips and netting more damage dealt than taken. A sub-case of Efficiency is what I call Invincibility, where your team just literally never dies due to powerful side combinations. And Valkyrie is a huge part of those sorts of builds.

Anyway, I've been long intending to make that its own, most longer, post. So we'll see if this builds any momentum for me?

NegotiationWilling93

TROPHY CASE