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Featuring: Michael “Boston” Hannon and John “Musim” Beauchamp
Running Time: 1:14:32
Music by MusiM (Website | Bandcamp)

This month, we chat about Persona 3 Portable, Persona 4 The Golden, Morrowind, Skyrim, Borderlands 2, Mass Effect 2, and Virtue’s Last Reward.

• Casey Hudson wants to know what we’d like in a new Mass Effect game
• Super cool Etrian Odyssey IV limited edition revealed

For my third and final post on FTL: Faster Than Light, I take my entire gained knowledge and try to progress further than before.  I still haven’t gained any achievements yet, so I can’t select another ship.  So one more into the breach with the same ship as before.

Jump #01

I immediately run into a rebel scout that appears to be deactivated.  I can try to see if it has scrap on it, which would come in handy this early in my journey.  It’s risky, though.  Good thing my middle name is Risky.  Legally.

We all saw this coming.  Battle stations!

This drone was equipped with stealth, which means I couldn’t target it when it went stealth.  Destroying the stealth module (upper left) took care of that little problem.  And made it blow up into little pieces.  Everyone wins.

Easy enough.  Now, to repair and make another jump.

Jump #02

Scientists, you say?  I find myself intrigued.  I’ll give you parts, fully expecting an ambush.

Luckily (for them), they were regular, non-ambushing scientists.  We both live to see another day (and another jump).

Jump #03

I jump into a nebula, hoping that entering there will slow down the rebel force’s advance.  It’ll knock out my sensors (or worse), but it’s worth it if it buys a little more time.

What’s that about best laid plans?  Sheesh.  Battle stations!

I manage to destroy their ship, but not without heavy damages to my own.  Hopefully I can repair before the rebel fleet catches up.

Jump #04

A store!  Hopefully this is a sign of good things to come.  Or at least less horrific things to come.  I’ll take that at this point.

I don’t have enough scrap on hand to afford anything really nice, so I have the store repair my hull as much as they can with what scrap I have.

Jump #05

I made it to the end of the first sector.  Onto the next!  I select the Zoltan controlled system.

Jump #06

Apparently the Zoltans may not be friendly.  Time to explore and find out…

Jump #07

I guess that answers that question.  Space dementia sounds rather nasty, to boot.  Battle stations!

The Zoltan ship destroys my blast door control station, which renders my doors unsuable*.  It appears to trap the fire inside, but I’m not sure how to move around my ship now.  Eventually the fire dies out.

*(Editor’s note: I thought that you couldn’t open doors when the blast door control room was damaged, but I later found out that’s not the case.  I’m merely relaying what I wrote down while I was playing)

Jump #08

Another Zoltan ship!  Time to scrape together my crew and attack them head on!

The battle was tough, with two crew members dead.  They died from lack of oxygen while fighting fires.  The ship is limping along, with two control bays down and my hull in bad shape.  But we must repair and soldier on!

Jump #09

An Engi escort mistakes me for the aggressor and attacks.  Another battle to fight in what’s turning out to be a very rough journey.

I’m almost out of missiles and my hull got damaged a little more, but it’s still possible to make it from here.  Maybe my next jump will deliver me to a store?  I can only hope at this point…

Jump #10

And it does!  I repair my hull as much as I can afford and take the time to fix my ship.  And breathe a little.  I dare to dream that things are looking up.

Jump #11

I dared to dream and it again bites me.  This time, I’m boarded for the first time!

I’m boarded by not one or two mantises, but five!  My ragtag crew of two is ill-equipped to battle them, especially with much of the ship broken, but we still try.  We’ll defend this information or die trying!

Unfortunately, it’s the latter for this crew.  The mantises made short work of the tired, burnt, and broken crew.  We were probably rather tasty.

Summary

My best run yet!  I made it to another sector, had a ton of crew on my ship, and made a few very important upgrades.  I also learned that the second level of blast doors would have really,  really helped when the mantises boarded my ship.

I’ve never really enjoyed roguelikes except for ToeJam & Earl.  They’ve always been a little too hard and I felt like I never really learned anything from each death.  But there’s something different about FTL.  The rules are simple, each death was earned, and lessons are learned at every step.  It’s an incredible game and gets my highest recommendation.

To give you an idea of how much I like it, FTL managed to pull me away from both Borderlands 2 and Torchlight 2 (and work, admittedly)for over 5 hours today.  For an inexpensive game made by two people that obviously love this genre, that says a lot.

And, a few hours later, I managed to get a ship stocked with almost a full crew:

Y’know, until they were destroyed by the final boss in a few shots.

Continuing my adventure through FTL: Faster Than Light, I learned a few things from the last outing.  Most importantly, I need to repair my ship every time it gets destroyed.  And that I can open the airlocks to space to flush out fires.

Pre-Deploy (Click on each image to expand to native res)

This time, I begin by moving my crew to the appropriate battle stations before I take off from the first point.  Everyone is in place and ready to protect this vital information we’re transporting.

Jump #01

Absolutely nothing here.  A little good fortune is never a bad thing.

Jump #02 

A distress signal from a local moon shows up on our systems.  Upon landing, we find…

A madman I bring aboard the ship.  He could be the universe’s best pilot, crashed and stranded on that moon for years.  Maybe one he’s on the ship he’ll calm down a little.

Or eat one of us alive.  I honestly thought that would happen a little later, not immediately aboard the ship.

One man down, I decide to jump to another distress signal.  Clearly, our luck has to take a turn for the better…right?

Jump #03 

My optimism gets me again.  We run into a ship full of people that need saving from alien spiders.  Unable to turn away, I send the crew down to help, hoping for the best.

Alas, one crew member does not return.  It’s only me now, alone in the cockpit.  No matter, I still must deliver this information.

Jump #04 

A chance to explore and asteroid field.  I’d rather not, this journey already has a very high toll.

Jump #05 

A rebel scout deploys a virus to my shield system.  I’m starting to think that greater forces are aligning against me.

Against all odds, I manage to defeat the drone with few damages.  I lick my wounds and upgrade my engines.  If I’m going to pilot this thing by myself, I should have some help.

Jump #06 

The slavers ask for one of our crewmembers?  I’d never consider it, especially when it’s just me.  Battle stations!

They destroyed my engines, but I managed to give them a good beating first.  They try to bargain…

They bring up a good point.  I accept their bribe, as I need some companionship.  They turn over an alien of the Rock race, who is, oddly enough, made entirely of rocks.  If we ever get boarded, I hope he’s a formidable warrior.  He’s in charge of the weapons

I then realize that I’ve made some poor piloting choices, requiring me to backtrack.  Yet the enemy closes in…

Jump #07

On my first backtrack jump, I run headfirst into the forward party of the rebel forces.  My only option is to fight.

I manage to defeat the ship quickly, but fires are raging in the oxygen rooms and spreading quickly.  I jump, planning on repairing in the next area.

Jump #08

I come out of the FTL jump right into the forward party again.  Somehow they’ve already managed to catch up!

My ship is in bad shape, but I may be able to repair it and fight to live another day!

Or not.  Virtually all of my systems are destroyed and my oxygen is running low.  As much as we’ve tried to save the ship, my other crew member was killed and I can’t keep this rust bucket running by myself.

Soon, the ship can take no more and is blasted to pieces.

Summary

Not bad for a second try.  I feel like I made it farther than I should have for a run that started so spectacularly wrong.  There was no chance of me making it, but I feel like I learned even more about the game and how I should play it.  With roguelikes, that’s half the battle. The other half is seeing how brilliantly you can die.

Join me again tomorrow for the third and final installment of my first foray into FTL: Faster Than Light.