FTL: Faster Than Light is a recently released space-simulator roguelike game from two independent developers. 'Roguelike' means that the game world and encounters within it are randomly generated, and that death means starting over fromt he beginning; there is no loading an old save. They also tend to be highly unforgiving with rapid deaths. Despite this, they're a lot of fun, with each playthrough (usually ending in disaster) presenting its own little story.

FTL is a ton of fun, so I thought I'd do a little diary of a playthrough for you guys. Sort of a mini-Let's Play. As it turns out, it wound up being my most successful attempt to date.

FTL is ten dollars, and can be purchased directly from the creators here. It works on WIndows, Mac, and Linux, and can be redeemed DRM free through Gog.com, or on Steam, at no extra cost.

Off into the wild black yonder! After pondering for a while, I decided to name my ship and its crew after my recent playthrough of Persona 4: The Junes, flown by Starr Ringo (what I named the protagonist), Hanamura Yosuke, and Satonaka Chie. They'll be flying the Kestral, which is the starter ship, because I've only unlocked one other and it's a bit...fragile. The Junes is armed with an Artemis missile launcher, and a Mark II Burst Laser, which gives it enough firepower to turn most anything you'll encounter in the first few sectors to kibble, provided nothing goes wrong. And things will go wrong.

And yes, I'm playing on Easy. I'm a gigantic baby, and I want to beat it once before well and truly giving a Normal run my all.

Sector 1

And here we have our mission: to carry vital information across eight sectors of space, to save the Federation! It's the same mission every time, mind, so this isn't much of a surprise.

We start off in a nebula, which means our sensors - even our internal sensors - are down. This system is safe, so it's no big problem, but in the future this will probably screw me over.

I assign Chie to run the engines, Yosuke to the Shields, and leave the good Captain Ringo Starr at the helms. Onwards!

Jump 1

Right off the bat there's a distress beacon. Naturally, I dive right in.

This is a non-combat encounter, but one that can still be dangerous. The dashin hero that I am, I elect to help them.

Oh...dear. Well, we tried. We scavenge the bones of the dead (what, they aren't doing anything with it!) for fourteen scrap, and prepare for the next jump.

Scrap is the currency of the game. You use it to upgrade your ship's systems, and to trade for fuel, missiles, drone parts, repairs, and other goodies when you come across merchant ships. I have enough now to upgrade something, but I'm going to hold off. The good stuff at the store is always expensive, and I want to have as much with me as possible.

Jump 2

As it turns out, there's a store in the adjacent system, but I want to save up as much as I can before hitting it. Instead I hop to a nebula.

Oh, dammit. Not only does the nebula kill my sensors, it's also home to a plasma storm, which halves my power supply. And what's more, a Rebel auto-scout comes sailing out to greet me! Normally I'd be able to swat it out of the sky with ease - it doesn't even have shields! - but right now I don't have power to run all my systems at once. Grimacing, I power down my life-support, medbay, and engines. It's not ideal, but now I have enough power for my laser and my shields, which should hopefully get me through this.

Since I don't have engines up at the moment, Ringo's not doing much in the cockpit, so I sent him over to man the guns. A missile dings our hull and damages the weapons system, but not enough to put my laser offline. My retaliation is swift and terrible and knocks their weapons offline entirely. As Ringo repairs the weapons console, we launch another volley and finish them off. Victory!

Not a bad haul. Now that the danger has passed, it's time to deal with another danger - The Junes' O2 levels are getting low, since I turned off life support. 62% and dropping. I depower the weapons and divert it back to life support and engines, and send Ringo back up to the cockpit to fly us out of this shithole.

Jump 3

Nothing. This is an empty system. What a waste of fuel.

Jump 4

Another empty system. Criminy.

Jump 5

Uh-oh. A boarding party. And better still, because it's in a nebula, I can't see where they are or even how many of them there are. This could get tricky.

Four of them. In the engine room. Oh god why.

Oh god what a mess. They outnumber me. The good news is, I have a functioning medbay to heal my guys, and they don't. The bad news is, they just destroyed the life support system, so we'll all suffocate. The good news is, the medbay will keep my guys from suffocating while they're inside it, so there's that?

Fortunately, they were stupid enough to try fighting me in my own medbay. They're all taken care of and repairs are underway long before anybody starts taking suffocation damage. But just look at this:

I really need to get the blast doors upgrade. That will slow boarding parties' progress through the ship, so I can just open the airlock and suffocate them with no risk to myself. This wasn't a big deal, but when they start teleporting guys in while you're fighting another ship? It can get scary fast.

Alright, fun's over. Everyone back to their posts, we're jumping.

Jump 6

This jump's just a backtrack, to get back to the store. Nothing new to see here. Except...

See that red area marked WARNING? That's the vanguard of the Rebel fleet. We want to stay ahead of that.

Jump 7

Time for shopping!

I have 68 scrap and five damage to my hull. I repair that to the tune of ten scrap, and then fuel up for nine scrap. That leaves me with just enough scrap left to hire one of those new crewmembers at the bottom of the screen. There's a human named Markel, but I'm more interested in the Mantis, Ihlay Caris. Mantises are shit at repairs - take twice as long as humans - but they're killing machines in boarding actions. I hire him, which leaves me mostly broke, and send him to man the weapons system.

Jump 8

Taking the long way around the sector. The first sector is as easy as the game gets, so I want to hit up as many systems as I can here, to prepare for what's to come.

And here we have a Rebel transport. It immediately decides to try to run away. Can't have that, it might tell its pals where I am. Power up the Artemis Missile!

Missiles are useful because they bypass shields, striking directly at systems. They're great if you need to shut down engines to prevent escape, or their shields or weapons. Problem is, missiles are limited, and cost money. Additionally, I have to drain some power from the engine to have both my missile launcher and my laser powered up at once. Still, I think spending one to make sure they don't get away is worth it.

The bastards pulled my own trick on me! A missile instantly takes out my piloting controls, leaving Ringo to furiously repair them. A second damages my weapons controls, so I can only use one of my weapons at a time. A third starts a hull breach in one of my airlocks, which I quickly dispatch Chie to repair. But my vengeance is swift and terrible. Before long, I claim total victory.

Oh, LUCKY! That transport was carrying some new weapon, which I prompty instill on my own ship. A hull laser is a nasty thing that deals double damage when it strikes a room without a system in it. It's not much good for knocking out systems, but it does a bang-up job of wrecking the enemy's hull.

Jump 9

This time I have the choice whether or not to intervene on this station's behalf. Hero that I am, I can't just let this pass by! It knocks out my shields with an ion cannon blast and hits me with a missile, but in a single volley a missile and my new beam wreck it. From the wreck, we scavenge three fuel, two missiles, and twelve scrap. And the oupost I just rescued rewards me with even more fuel, drone parts, and scrap!

With more than fifty scrap to my name, and coming up on the end of the first sector, it's time to upgrade my ship. I spend thirty-five scrap to upgrade my power core, giving me one extra bit of power to my name, and the engines, so we'll dodge better and charge up the FTL drive faster if we need to get out in a hurry. I don't have enough scrap to upgrade my power again, though, so I won't be able to take advantage of my new engine power until I do.

Jump 10

These clowns want me to pay them to pass by? Not likely! I power up weapons and engage. My first volley knocks out their weapons and shields. My second volley finishes them off, just as they brought their missile launcher back online. I get a missile, a drone part, and nineteen scrap for my trouble. Time to upgrade my power core again so I can actually have everything fully-powered!

Jump 11

I happen across a Mantis salvage operation, which I scare away, netting...some scrap and another Mark II Burst Laser! I probably won't use it, but I can sell it for decent scrap at the next Store.

The Rebel fleet is getting uncomfortably close now. Time for one more jump before the exit.

Jump 12

I stumble onto some sort of conversation between a bunch of other ships. Apparently there's a ship that needs taking intact - by killing the crew, in other words. A boarding party, anti-personnel drones, keeping their O2 system perpetually offline with an ion gun...are all ways of doing that that I'm not equipped for.I can't help them. One more jump to the exit!

Jump 13

A slaver approaches me and tries to sell me someone! Disgusted, I attack. I couldn't afford him anyway.

The slaver has an attack drone, which is going to be annoying. It buzzes around my ship constantly shooting a little laser blast. Not very dangerous on its own, but it can keep my shields low so the big guy can do the real damage. The good news is, if I take down the Drone Control system on their ship, it'll deactivate. So I send a missile to do just that. A second volley has them begging for surrender, and trying to bribe me with a slave. I reluctantly accept; as they point out, if I blew up the ship it'd kill all the slaves anyway.

Welcome aboard, Davion! YOu can go stand in the medbay until you're needed. It'll be good to have an extra hand to run around repairing things in a firefight. And now, I engage the FTL drives and jump out of this sector. I have a choice between a Zoltan-controlled sector and a Rock-controlled sector. The Zoltan are friendly, so I think I'll go with them.

Sector Two

Nothing much to see here.

Jump 1

A mercenary ship offers its services to me. If I pay it ten scrap, it will either give me information about the sector or delay the Rebel advance for me. I could also fight it, if I wanted. I pay it ten scrap to go have it out with the Rebels for me, and go on my way.

Jump 2

A Zoltan here has been shipjacked by pirates, and wants us to get his ship back for him. Unfortunately, we're not really good at that. We wind up destroying it and taking the salvage. I could hire him for forty scrap, but that's about all I have in the world, so I just drop him off instead.

Jump 3

Another slaver, offering the same deal. I respond in the same way. This time, the new crewmember I get out of it is Swamps, a Rockman. Rockmen move slowly, but they have a lot of health and are immune to fire. Welcome aboard, Swamps!

More alarmingly, I can't help but notice that my missile stock is running low. Oh well, off to answer a distress beacon!

Jump 4

A space station was under attack by its own defence system. I destroy the defence system from a distance, but the locals don't seem appreciative. Maybe I shouldn't stick around. More scrap, more drone parts, and two missiles!

Jump 5

A Zoltan science ship requests permission to dock. Unfortunately, it seems it was a trap! Zoltan ships have a weird special shield that doesn't regenerate but does block missiles, in addition to the standard shield. Sadly for them, they don't manage to deal even a single point of damage to me, my shield repelling all of their attacks. The Zoltan captain surrenders, insisting that IT WAS JUST A SOCIAL EXPERIMENT, and rewards me with scrap, fuel, missiles, and...he joins my crew! Not sure why I don't get a say in this. But hey, free Zoltan!

Welcome to the crew, Justin! Zoltans have less health than other species, but they provide extra power to whatever system is in the room with them. They're handy to have around, although micromanaging them can be a pain.

Jump 6

Oh dear. Poor communication kills. They have a Defense Drone, which shoots down incoming missiles, so my missile launcher will be all but useless. It seems lightly armed, though so this shouldn't be too hard.

They do take out my life-support briefly with a lucky shot, but Davion and Justin pull their weight to replace it, and before you know it I'm hauling out with some fresh new salvage.

I'm dying to spend my scrap, and...fortunately, there's a shop just a jump away!

Jump 7

Shopping time! I pick up a Scrap Recovery Arm. This precious thing will give me an extra 10% scrap on every ship I destroy. I also hock my extra Burst Laser and fill up on fuel and hull. I'm tempted by a powerful Halberd Beam, which would seriously up my firepower, but I decide to spend that money upgrading my systems instead.

I upgrade my weapons systems, so now I can have both of my beams powered at the same time, and grab Blast Doors. Blast Doors impede the progress of boarders and fires between rooms, and are critical if you want to flush either out the airlock.

I'm starting to get nervous about my shields, though. They're next on my list of upgrades.

Jump 8

This bizarrely apologetic Rebel ambushes me. They've got a bastard attack Drone, too, and two guns to bear on me. They're no match for my burst laser + hull laser combo, though. They explode into two fuel, a drone part, and twenty-one scrap. I grab a shield upgrade with it, but it won't do me any good until I can get the ship more power and upgrade it again.

Jump 9

Oh boy, cultists. How could this possibly end poorly?

Lucky me, it doesn't. With that scrap I upgrade my shields again, and my power core. Now I have double-layered shields so long as the Zoltan is standing in the engine room and I take one pip of power from the engines.

Sadly, my time in this sector is nearly at its end, as the Rebels have nearly caught up with me. Two more jumps to the exit.

Jump 10

Nada. Zip. Nothing. Next.

Jump 11

Actually, I do have time to visit one more system before the Rebels catch us, so I do. Unfortunately, it contains absolutely nothing, except some flavortext about a Zoltan monastary.

Jump 12

Another Mercenary approaches me. I can't afford its services and I don't feel like fighting it, so I send it on its way. WOuldn't do me much good anyway. Hit the hyperdrive, Ringo! Junes is going to sector three! I have a choice between another Zoltan controlled sector, and an uncharted nebula. Nebula sectors are gigantics pains in the ass, so I go for Zoltan II: Electric Boogaloo.

Sector Three

Jump 1

Accosted by a paranoid border guard. The son of a bitch keeps teleporting bombs onto my ship, but apart from one which went off in the shield room and hurt Justin and Yosuke, no damage done. They pop into the medbay for a spell and they're right as rain. My freshly upgraded shields did their job admirably. It leavs behind scrap, which I use to upgrade the power a bit more.

Jump 2

Pirates! And this time with level two shields. I turn off the hull beam to activate my faithful missile launcher. This one looks rough. Fortunately, although its shields were impressive, its armament was less so. It promptly offers scrap, fuel and missiles in exchange for surrender, which I gladly accept.

Jump 3

There's a distress beacon in this system. Which turns out to be a pirate trap. They beam aboard some boarders! They beam aboard...two Engis. Engis are a species that do exceptional repairwork but absolutely suck at combat. And what's more, they beam them into an empty room, so they won't even have a chance to damage any systems. How anticlimactic. Caris and Swamps move to take care of it while Yosuke takes over for Caris at the weapons controls. The boarders get biffed on for a while, and then beam back out, having accomplished precisely dick all. Meanwhile, I'm absolutely tearing them apart with my weapons. They offer surrender, but...I'm not feeling like it. Forty scrap, some fuel and some drone parts are mine. I use it to upgrade sensors, so I can see what my enemy is doing.

Jump 4

There's a store right next door, so I stop in to patch up a few holes in my hull and grab some extra fuel. I instantly regret upgrading my sensors, as the store is selling a Crew Teleporter for just a little more than I have. Dammit. They're also selling drones, but I don't have a Drone Control system so they would be useless. I just take my fuel and repairs and grumpily leave.

Jump 5

There was a Zoltan ship here, but apparently I spooked it. Oh well.

Jump 6

A Federation ship is hiding in the nebula here. I try to follow them to help, but no luck. They slip away.

Jump 7

Another Engi ship mistakes me for the destroyer of a Zoltan ship. Whoops! I'm good at this interspecies diplomacy thing, I swear. They get a few licks in, knocking piloting and sensors briefly offline, but not enough. Not nearly enough. Salvage nets me twenty-six scrap, which is enough to do...nothing, I'm sitting on it for now.

Jump 8 The rebels are coming on fast, but there should be time to answer one more distress call before I go, I think.

I consider what to do...and decide to pursue the Mantis, because fuck those guys. No offense, Caris.

Oh, and this is why I hate the Mantis. They're always beaming fuckers aboard. In this case, though, the joke is on them. They just beamed into an airlock, with a blast door between them and the rest of the ship. I open the airlock, and position Caris and Swamps, my security team, in the next room to greet them in case they make it through the blast door. They go get through, but they're sufficiently weakened from suffocation that Caris and Swamps make short work of them. Meanwhile, my beams and a few stray asteroids take care of the ship itself.

Unfortunately, the Zoltans who were chasing it don't seem happy with me. I better take what scrap I can and book it.

...and only then do I notice that the Mantis took out my life support at some point. Oh well, a quick repair job's all it needs.

Jump 9

Backtracking a bit to get to the sector exit. No time for any other systems, I'm afraid, the Rebels are right on us.

Jump 10

This sector exit beacon is located in a nebula, but it otherwise totally boring. Onwards, and upwards! Unfortunately it seems to good times are over.

I have a choice between two hostile sectors: one Mantis, one Rock. Neither sounds like much fun to me. But I really hate Mantises, so...Rock it is!

Sector Four

Jump 1

A boring start to my adventures in rockland, there's absolutely nothing here.

Jump 2

Nothing to fight here, just an abandoned mining platform worth almost fifty scrap! Yowza! And a store just one jump away!

Jump 3

I repair and refuel, and then I'm faced with a choice. I can buy a crew teleporter, or a drone control, but not both. After contemplation, I elect to take the teleporter. I'll also need to upgrade my power systems to use it, which I quickly use the last of my scrap to do.

Jump 4

We teleport in way, WAY too close to a supernova. This is a pain. There'll be periodic solar flares that will damage ship systems and set fires on board.

And for even more fun, there's a Rock ship who seem to have mistaken us for someone else. Time to engage! Swamps and Caris, to the teleporter pads. I teleport them into the shield room, to gang up on solitary rockman working the systems in there. Caris gets uncomfortably close to death and has to pull out to an adjacent room, but not before killing the one rock. Swamps is left behind to duke it out with the remaining rockman. Meanwhile, solar flares set both ships aflame. I vent an airlock to deal with one, while up in the cockpit Ringo gets busy with a fire extinguisher. Caris and Swamps VERY narrowly pull it off, and I beam them back and send them to sick bay....and very narrowly avoid disaster in the process. Another solar flare kicks in as they go, setting a fire on the very spot they were standing on moments before. With their health as low as it was, it could very well have killed them.

I vent the room to put out the fire, then jump to the next system.

Jump 5

Oh, great, a whole bunch of Rockmen teleport into my ship. Meanwhile, a Rock Scout is waiting to fire at me. This turns into a real mess, but by cycling combatants in and out of the medbay as they get hurt, I manage to keep the rockmen under control. The ship surrenders, giving me twenty-four scrap and some missiles, but I don't think the boarding party got the memo, since they keep fighting. Eventually, I manage to whittle those fuckers down and get rid of them.

Jump 6

The Rebels are right on my tail, but I have just enough leeway to make a detour and answer a distress call. A space colony has some kind of disease, which they're trying to quarantine, but a riot seems likely. Swamps, being made of rock, is immune to disease, so I send him in to help. The colonial government offers me scrap and missiles as a reward.

Jump 7

There's a store here, but not a lot that interests me in stock. I fuel up, repair my hull, and then spend the rest of my scrap upgrading my shields and medbay. Now I just need more power. It never does end.

Jump 8

The Rebels are being slower than I thought, so I hit up another distress call. Unfortunately, it's a pirate trap. Fortunately, their crew is just one human and one rockman. Easy prey for Caris and Swamps, who I immediately beam over. THe captured ship nets me fifty-two scrap, which I instantly put towards power.

Jump 9

This is the jump point to the next sector. There was a derelict space station with faint life signs, so I sent in a party to check it out. Unfortunately, one of them caught some nasty disease. They would probably have died if I didn't have my medbay upgraded. Lucky me!

I have a choice between the Zoltan Homeworlds and a Rebel-controlled sector. I'm going Zoltan again, thank you very much.

Sector Five

Jump 1

Answer a distress call right off the bat, and find a derelict Zoltan freighter. It gives me a ton of scrap from salvage, so I upgrade shields and power again. We now have triple-layered shields, which will hopefully be enough.

Jump 2

A Zoltan patrol ship attacks us. I beam Swamps and Caris aboard to fuck with them, which works great, kills two of the three Zoltans on board. I've got the last one on the run when suddenly I look over at my ship and WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING?

Half my ship is on fire. My hull is fading fast. My oxygen systems are offline. This Zoltan ship has got some kind of crazy beam that's just tearing us apart, and shields too strong for me to easily penetrate without using missiles. I have to expose half my ship to vacuum in order to save it. I win in the end but I'm down below 50% hull. Holy SHIT that was nasty!

Jump 3

Another Zoltan ship in an asteroid belt. The asteroid belt makes their temporary shield all but useless, and they aren't packing nearly enough firepower to get through my shields. Only annoying thing they have is a bomb-teleporting device, but they never actually do anything useful with it so victory is mine pretty easily.

Now, I have a choice to make. There's a distress beacon as one of my choices for my next jump. If I choose it, I could wind up in a nasty fight, and I'm already limping from my first encounter in this sector. Should I go for it? Upon further consideration, I decide to circle around it, and hope to find a store.

Jump 4

More pirates, ho-hum. It's a Mantis ship, with a Mantis and an Engi on board. The mantis beams over, but Caris and Swamps take care of it easily. They then beam over to the other ship and ruin the Engi, who are useless in a fight.

Easy-peasy, and with plenty of scrap. Only problem is...the ship got off a few missiles in the action. I now have even less hull then I had. I really need to find a store.

Jump 5

This is the sector exit. There's some mercenaries lurking by it, and I hire them to scout the sector for me. There! A store! And it's right nearby, too. Gratefully, I jump to it.

Jump 6

Repairs, sweet repairs! It costs a pretty penny but I was rolling in scrap anyway. I also upgrade my power and weapons systems.

Jump 7

Another Zoltan patrol ship. They beam a bunch of Zoltans on board, which is...almost as hilarious as beaming Engis. Still, there's four of them, so it has to be taken seriously. Once Swamps and Caris get through with those clowns, they teleport over and messily murder their mates. More scrap, which I put towards a pwoer upgrade. FInally, I'll be able to man all three guns at once!

Jump 8

I answer that distress call from earlier, and find it's actually the lone survivor of a crashed ship. I offer to have him join my crew, which he does. Everybody meet Charlie!

Jump 9

The Rebels are hot on my ass now, so it's time to head back to the sector exit and go to the next sector. Unfortunately, this time there's not choice; I have to proceed into Rebel-occupied territory. This could get rough.

Sector Six

Jump 1

I find a merchant who wants to send me after his freighter, who he thinks was flown into pirate territory. Quest marker added to my map!

Jump 2

A Rebel auto-scout in an asteroid field. There's no crew, but also no oxygen, so teleporter-related shenanigans are right out. It launches two attack drones and a whole slew of beam weapons, but fortunately my shields hold out until I can take it down.

Jump 3

A rebel ship assaults me, but they can't get through my shields. I set fire to their drone control, and that's about it. They surrender and give me a ton of scrap, missiles, fuel, and a new weapon: the healing beam! It expends a missile to instantly heal all your guys in a given room. I'm not sure I'll actually use this, I might sell it.

Jump 4

We come across some Rebel scum, pursuing a ship of Federation loyalists! I have the choice to back off, but...hell no, we won't go. Time to show these bastards what we're made of.

The ship deploys an auto-drone, which can't penetrate our shields. I was feeling pretty cocky until the damn thing started teleporting bombs onto my ship. That's just not fair! I had to vent the weapons room to put out a fire, and then put Charlie to work patching the ship up. After a long, painful war of attrition, I finally took it down. But the rewards of patience are sweet: Between the salvage and reward from the loyalists, I got over a hundred scrap out of this encounter! Also an anti-personnel drone...which is less than totally useful given that I don't have a drone control, but hey. Thought that counts. I take a bunch of my scrap stockpile and put it towards engine and power upgrades.

Jump 5

This is the sector exit, but I'm not done here yet; I'm just passing through on my way to the quest marker, which is one jump away. Sensors detect intelligent life on the surface below, so I sent a party down to communicate with them. They show me a crashed engi ship, which nets me some scrap and a new crew member! Hi there, Markel!

Unfortunately, I can only have eight crew at a time, and I already have an Engi. Sorry, Markel. Enjoy your life with the purple horse things!

Jump 6

To the quest marker! A mantis pirate ship with a mantis, a rockman, and an engi on board. The owner of the ship presumably wants it back in one piece, so I sent Swamps and Caris over to manhandle them. Alas, they were overwhelmed, and both perished, although they killed the mantis and brought the rockman to an inch of his life before they did. Chie and Yosuke teleported over to finish the job.

Farewell, old friends. You shall be remembered.

As a side note, the Junes took a bit of a beating in the process. A store wouldn't go amiss about now. And oh look there's one just a hop and a skip away!

Jump 7

At the store I see an Engi offering his services:

I'm sure it's just a coincidence that he shares the name of our fallen friend. But it stings the heart nonetheless. I raise a glass in our fallen friends' memory.

I buy a cloaking system with the remainder of our scrap. We're well-equipped as hell, but broke.

Jump 8

I'm not sure I could make it back to the exit before the Rebels do if I take any detours, so off we go. Into the wild blue yonder once more. I have a choice again between more Zoltans, and an uncharted nebula. This time, I decide to take a gamble. The Nebula it is.

Sector Seven

Jump 1

DISASTER.

See this screenshot of the aftermath of the fight I had here? Notice anything interesting about it? Like, say, the fact that I have virtually no health left and absolutely no missiles even though I went into this fight fully stocked?

It was a Rebel Auto-Assault ship, and it was loaded for friggin' bear. Two attack drones picking at my shield, and ion gun, a hull laser, and a burst laser. Ringo's skillful piloting kept us safe for a while, but he just couldn't keep up forever, and without Caris' expert hands at the weapons controls...well, I was missing a lot. Wasted nearly all my missiles in the process. God damn.

After losing nearly 75% of my health I finally stabilized and slowly took him down. But it was a very near thing. Thank god there's a store two jumps away.

Jump 2 & 3

Four scrap for a unit of health? This is highway robbery! I swallow my pride and pay it, though. No money for missiles, though.

Jump 4

A Rebel auto-scout! It's lightly armed, but there's another problem; it's charing up its FTL core to get away. If it does, the Rebels will come after me incredibly fast.

Oh, dammit. I couldn't get through its shield fast enough to nuke its drive core. Now I've got to dash for the sector's exit. No detours along the way.

Jump 5

Mantis pirate ship. They beam a few boarders in, which I handle via suffocation...but annoyingly, it keeps knocking my weapons offline with an ion cannon. It takes forever to kill, and by the time I do I'm down to barely any health. Cripes.

Jump 6

An auto-scout is protecting a supply depot here. Thanks to my kicking sweet cloaking device, I can get at the good without having to deal with the scout at all. Fuel, missiles (thank god) and scrap, aw yeah.

Jump 7

Teleporter signals go off. We've been boarded! Oh dammit, where are they...

...oh. They've invaded the medbay. The one room in the ship where we can't possibly lose a fight, thanks to constant healing effects. Well played, rebels. Chie, Yosuke and Davior clean it up with minimal fuss. A fourth apparently teleported into a different part of the ship, as he runs in too late and tries to pop my Zoltan in the face, but my impromptu security team are having none of it.

Jump 8

Nothing here but the exit to the sector. With this jump, I will send myself spinning into the eighth and final sector, and into the waiting arms of the final boss ship. It's been a long, hard road, mean (and Chie), but we're ready as we'll ever be. Time to show these rebels what we're made of!

Sector Eight

I make my way across the sector. I upgrade power and engines one final time. I engage and destroy a Rebel Fighter, just because I can. I stock up on missiles. Now it's time. Time to see if I've got what it takes.

Oh holy god just look at the size of that thing.

Both of our opening gambits are the same: we cloak. Its cloak lasts almost twice as long as mine. I drop power from the teleporter so I can use it to power the missile launcher, so all three weapons are going at once. Then I wait agonizing seconds until each of us finish charging our weapons. Then, a hail of fire in both directions. We scratch their shield, but don't penetrate. We take a missile hit to the sensors, leaving me blind.

Then cloaking. Seconds of agonizing silence.

Finally, after several furtive attempts, we break their shields. It fires a volley of missiles in retaliation, but I cloak and they pass harmlessly by. Slowly we pick off the missile launchers, and soon fire is spreading through the ship, until at last, it's broken apart. I've beaten it. But all I've beaten is the first stage. I've bought time, but nothing more. After checking out a few neighbouring systems, I pursue.

Drones, huh? Can't be too bad OH MY GOD

Oh god, boarding drones. My least favorite kinds of drones. Why do you exist.

When they land, they create a hull breach in the room that they land in. ANd they have 150 health, equivalent to a rockman. They are NASTY. There's good news, though; if I can shut down drone control, it'll shut them down on my ship, too. And the flagship no longer has cloaking.

Oh god this is so many drones. I run out of missiles before I can hit the drone control room, and soon I'm swarmed. These fucking things keep landing every two seconds. Chie and Yosuke both die. I have to retreat. I have to get to a repair station. Which I do, and they patch me up and resupply me, but now I have only three crew left: Ringo, Justin the Zoltan, and Charlie the Engi. And I have no more time left. In one jump's time, the flagship will be in firing range. I have to take it down with this paltry crew. I spend the last of my scrap to upgrade my cloak, and go.

I quickly realize: oh, son of a bitch. A defence drone. I hadn't noticed it before. No wonder none of my missiles were getting through. But what now? What can I do? There's nothing to do. In a desperate gamble I send my alien crew members through the teleporter, into their drone control room. But Rebel crew are on them almost instantly, tearing them to pieces. If I hadn't wasted Swamps and Caris...but no, there's no point lamenting it. What is past is truly past, in this game.

The drones are everywhere, tearing me apart the moment I leave cloak. I try to hit the drone control, try to penetrate the shield, but it's too thick, it's too-

And that's it. Game over. I got all the way to the end, and then died. Still, that's the furthest I've ever gotten, and I think I did pretty well for myself.

FTL: Diary of a Doomed Crew