Advanced Edition: Ship Systems FAQ - Guide for FTL: Faster Than Light

FTL - Faster Than Light (v1.5.10)                Ship Systems FAQ
By FatRatKnight   (Lee Eric Kirwan)
v1.00

This FAQ is Copyright 2014 Leeland Eric Kirwan

O|+--+  +--+~=+--+^^+--+\ / \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \ /+--+^^+--+=~+--+  +--+|O
 0|##|'.|&&|[]|**|CG|..| v     TABLE OF CONTENTS     v |..|CB|**|[]|&&|.'|##|\-
--+##+--+&&+--+**+--+..+-------------------------------+..+--+**+--+&&+--+##+--

This FAQ refers to v1.5.10 of FTL. Check your version.

 ?|##  (line)  Section title                           [Search]

 0|##  (   8)  TABLE OF CONTENTS (Yep, we're here)
 1|##  (  48)  INTRODUCTION                            [INT16]
 2|##  (  73)  SYSTEM OVERVIEW                         [SYS18]
  2. 1 ( 158)     Shields                              
  2. 2 ( 313)     Engines                              
  2. 3 ( 401)     Oxygen                               
  2. 4 ( 475)     Weapon Control                       
  2. 5 ( 575)     Drone Control                        
  2. 6 ( 701)     Medbay                               
  2. 7 ( 774)     Clone Bay                            
  2. 8 ( 874)     Crew Teleporter                      
  2. 9 ( 982)     Cloaking                             
  2.10 (1091)     Artillery Beam                       
  2.11 (1158)     Flak Artillery                       
  2.12 (1211)     Hacking                              
  2.13 (1316)     Mind Control                         
  2.14 (1474)     Piloting                             
  2.15 (1551)     Sensors                              
  2.16 (1642)     Door System                          
  2.17 (1729)     Backup Battery                       
  2.18 (1822)     Reactor                              
 3|##  (1893) BUGS AND GLITCHES (v1.5.10)              [BGL10]
  3. 1 (1902)     Failure Hack Teleporter              
  3. 2 (1918)     Enemy Open Door Policy               
  3. 3 (1939)     Auto-ship's Anti-hack Auto-manning   
  3. 4 (1961)     Pre-igniter Pre-charge Preservation  
 4|##  (1989) CLOSING                                  [CLO32]
  4. 1 (2000)     Credits                              
  4. 2 (2016)     Contact Info                         
  4. 3 (2035)     Legal                                
  4. 4 (2056)     Version History                      

O|+--+  +--+~=+--+^^+--+\ / \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \ /+--+^^+--+=~+--+  +--+|O
 1|##|'.|&&|[]|**|CG|..| v       INTRODUCTION        v |..|CB|**|[]|&&|.'|##|\-
--+##+--+&&+--+**+--+..+-------------------------------+..+--+**+--+&&[INT16]--

FTL - Faster Than Light is often considered some sort of
real-time roguelike, where in every combat, you have to
target your weapons, move your crew to repairs, redistribute
power to systems that need it, and watch as your ship breaks
to pieces anyway against a randomly generated galaxy.
New players lose in minutes, usually.

This FAQ deals with one aspect of this game: Systems.

There are thirteen systems, four subsystems, and the Reactor
to power the main systems. Making use of them all will help
you last throughout the game. Of course, when you encounter
enemy ships, they have their own systems that you might want
to smash so that they don't smash you back.

I, FatRatKnight, have studied these systems with great care.
Take a look through them. You probably did not know that
having Lv1 Engines charges FTL in 67.5 seconds without an
engineer. Many details are given through such studies.


O|+--+  +--+~=+--+^^+--+\ / \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \ /+--+^^+--+=~+--+  +--+|O
 2|##|'.|&&|[]|**|CG|..| v      SYSTEM OVERVIEW      v |..|CB|**|[]|&&|.'|##|\-
--+##+--+&&+--+**+--+..+-------------------------------+..+--+**+--+&&[SYS18]--

                         | Scrap costs of each level |
|(Sub)Systems   |Purchase|Lv2:Lv3:Lv4:Lv5:Lv6:Lv7:Lv8|
+---------------+--------+---:---:---:---:---:---:---+
|Shields        |125@Lv2 |100: 20: 30: 40: 60: 80:100|Block lasers & beams
|Engines        |        | 10: 15: 30: 40: 60: 80:120|Dodge and FTL charge
|Oxygen         |        | 25: 50:   :   :   :   :   |Your air supply
|Weapon Control |        | 40: 25: 35: 50: 75: 90:100|Use more weapons!
|Drone Control  |*60@Lv2 |   : 20: 30: 45: 60: 80:100|Activate bigger drones
|Medbay         | 50@Lv1 | 35: 45:   :   :   :   :   |Heal your crew
|Clone Bay      | 50@Lv1 | 35: 45:   :   :   :   :   |Clones dead crew
|Crew Teleporter| 90@Lv1 | 30: 60:   :   :   :   :   |Board your foes!
|Cloaking       |150@Lv1 | 30: 50:   :   :   :   :   |To elude enemy shots
|Artillery Beam |        | 30: 50: 80:   :   :   :   |Unique Federation weapon
|Flak Artillery |        | 30: 50: 80:   :   :   :   |Unique 7-shot Flak system
|Hacking        | 80@Lv1 | 35: 60:   :   :   :   :   |Disrupt an enemy system
|Mind Control   | 75@Lv1 | 30: 60:   :   :   :   :   |Make an enemy a friend
+---------------+--------+---:---:---:---:---:---:---+
|Piloting       |        | 20: 50:   :   :   :   :   |Someone needs to pilot it
|Sensors        | 40@Lv1 | 25: 40:   :   :   :   :   |Plenty of information
|Door System    | 60@Lv1 | 35: 50:   :   :   :   :   |Keeps boarders at bay
|Backup Battery | 35@Lv1 | 50:   :   :   :   :   :   |Temporary power
+---------------+--------+---:---:---:---:---:---:---+
|Reactor        |Can go up to Lv25, taking 20~35 per |To power your systems
+---------------+------------------------------------+

* Add selling price of "free" drone to Drone Control for actual cost

Systems, subsystems, and the Reactor are stuff about your
ship that you can upgrade at any time you wish, if you have
Scrap to pay for the upgrades. Once upgraded, you can't
change your mind later and remove the upgrade. The Scrap put
into that upgrade is now stuck there in the system.

Systems require power in order to work. Shields require
power in blocks of two for each layer. Even though you just
upgraded them, you still need to feed extra power to them to
make use of the extra levels. You can have the system act as
a lower level by not powering it fully.

Often new players just upgrade the Reactor or even wait
first before upgrading in one block in order to keep all
systems fully powered at all times, but I recommend breaking
this habit quick, as this is one "trap" that leaves you
unprepared in later fights. The Reactor is a lot more
expensive than "it's only 20-25 per" would make you think.

Subsystems, on the other hand, provide their own power, and
do not need the Reactor to work. They're also somewhat less
useful than the main systems to upgrade, but at least you
don't strain the Reactor by upgrading them.

To get systems you're missing, you must buy them at a store.
You can't have more than eight systems, but there's room for
all four subsystems. You can't remove a system to make room,
though Medbay and Clone Bay will replace the other. Stores
never offer systems you already have.

You can't purchase an Artillery system, as they're unique
weapon systems of the Federation. As well, the Federation
layouts that have one are using up a system slot to have it.

A few events will even upgrade one of your systems or the
Reactor, usually at a better deal than upgrading it yourself
would. These event-upgrades don't actually interfere with
any achievements you may be hunting for, so take them if you
need them.

Advanced Edition content includes Hacking, Mind Control,
Backup Battery, and Flak Artillery. You will not find these
things if you have it disabled, although the Flak Artillery
won't be found outside an Advanced Edition layout anyway.

It's rare to get a ship completely maxed out before you get
to The Boss and have to end your game, win or lose. Even a
maxed out ship is no guarantee of victory if you don't know
what you're doing. To put it another way, if you have to
cheat in order to max out your ship, you will surely lose.
If you can legitimately max out your ship, then you didn't
need any of that fancy crud and can easily win the game with
a half-functional ship. A difference in skill matters.


 2. 1 ----------------------------- Shields -----------------------------

The main purpose of Shields is to absorb the attacks of
enemy lasers and beams, and to ward off hazards such as
asteroids and flaring suns.

|Level| Off  | Lv 1 | Lv 2 | Lv 3 | Lv 4 | Lv 5 | Lv 6 | Lv 7 | Lv 8 |
+-----+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+
|Scrap|      | .... |  100 |   20 |   30 |   40 |   60 |   80 |  100 |
|Value|      |   25 |  125 |  145 |  175 |  215 |  275 |  355 |  455 |
|Layer| ____ | ____ | *___ | *___ | **__ | **__ | ***_ | ***_ | **** |
+-----+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+

Store cost: 125 Scrap (Begins at Lv2)

|Who is it|Rate| The system can be manned. Having someone on
+---------+----+ Shields improves its recharge rate. Divide
|No one   |100%| by 1.10, 1.20, or 1.30 to get the time to
|Untrained|110%| recharge your layers.
|Skilled  |120%|
|Mastered |130%| Its best use is against laser drones and
+---------+----+ asteroids pelting your ship frequently.

|Layers|Sec.| The time taken to recharge a layer depends on
+------+----+ how many layers currently exist. Even if you
|0 -> 1|2.00| max out your Shields, it will take just as
|1 -> 2|2.00| long to restore your first layer as it does
|2 -> 3|1.80| with weak Shields that can only have that one
|3 -> 4|1.50| layer active.
+------+----+
|0 -> 4|7.30| Just in case, here's how long it'll take to
+------+----+ get back four layers from zero.

Notable Augmentations:
* Shield Charge Booster - 15% faster recharge rate (time * 0.85)
* Zoltan Shield - 5 no-regen HP, takes hits first, but stops more things

 - Hacking -
A Hacking Pulse will reduce layers through a "reverse
charge" of sorts. Two seconds of the Pulse will remove one
active layer off the Shields. This means Hacking-1 will
remove two layers, Hacking-2 removes three, and Hacking-3
will remove all Shields, even the five layer ships. The loss
isn't instantaneous, so time your Hacking Pulse early.

For some reason, people often calls each layer as "level",
even though a proper level means that's how much power the
system can take. I will say that four levels means it takes
four power, and therefore only produce two layers, not that
the Shields are strong enough for four layers, which is a
full-strength system that takes eight power. I will use
"layers" to more closely mean the mislabeled "levels".

Shields block lasers and beams. Although some lasers can
deal 2 damage, they will still only remove one layer. Beams
can't reduce Shields (unless they harm the room), so most of
them are completely blocked by merely one intact layer. The
two stronger beams lose one damage per layer of shields.

Each layer requires two power. Having an odd-numbered level
for the Shields does not allow you to use the extra layer,
so the only purpose for having an odd-numbered level is a
one damage buffer to the room before you lose a layer. This
buffer has its use, and losing your only layer really hurts.
Observe the odd level giving this buffer for enemy ships.

There is a charge bar underneath the actual layer count.
This lets you know how close you are to getting back the
next layer. If you have a super shield, this charge bar is
hidden, instead showing the super shield strength. (The
super shield is the green stuff, either through the Zoltan
Shield Augmentation or the Shield Overcharger drone)

If Shields block ion damage, it is treated as though the ion
shot has hit the Shields room. Technically, it doesn't
reduce layers on its own, but the maximum layers thanks to
power reduction will definitely reduce layers anyway. As
with ion effects, crew bonus stops working, and other laser
hits to Shields will not train them. If the ion is capable
of stunning, crew in the Shields room would be affected.

They also block asteroids, should you enter such an area.
However, from the constant barrage of asteroids, your ship
might have fewer layers to deal with enemy lasers. It's a
dangerous event, after all. Having Shields will also reduce
the effects of a nearby sun event, but even four layers will
occasionally let one Hull damage happen anyway.

You normally can't put an odd numbered power into Shields.
However, a Zoltan entering this room will add precisely one
power to it if the system can handle it (or redistribute the
power to idling). Useful for resisting one ion damage. Two
Zoltans in the room prevents ions from entirely negating
your Shields. You may move a Zoltan into a room to put back
some power into Shields, but if they were already in there,
there's nothing stopping the ion from reducing the Reactor
power, of which there's less of it with the Zoltan in there.

A pretty basic staple of defense. There's a good reason why
only a few starting ships don't start with any layers, and
this reason is to thwart the most basic attacks from enemies.
Without it, expect a fireball with you in it in a few jumps.

The ships that don't have Shields have other means of
defense, and those do a good enough job and makes you feel
awesome at not taking hits to your Hull despite zero shield
layers. It's still highly recommended to get Shields as
quickly as possible. So, save up that Scrap once other
pressing priorities are done.

It's attractive to shoot at Shields so that your lasers and
beams have nothing blocking them. The only problem with this
strategy is that this leaves the rather threatening enemy
weapons intact for longer, as you're not shooting those
first thing. If you can already reliably get through two
layers, there's no point in damaging that.

If yours goes down, this is scary. You are fully vulnerable
to their next lasers. Of course, if you already shot their
weapons, your lack of defense doesn't matter. It is,
however, especially painful when there are anti-ship drones
hovering around your ship. An Engi on your Shields will go a
long way into getting them back, but it's best to have a
spare level or two so that you don't lose that last layer.

Be aware that a lot of things can outright bypass Shields.
Missiles, bombs, Crew Teleporter, Boarding Drones & Ion
Intruders, Mind Control, and Hacking all skip Shields to do
their nasty stuff. While the only ship weapons they do stop
are lasers and beams, they are rather common, and the drones
are a nightmare to see without Shields to stop them.

Oh, the ASB found in certain encounters? Those bypass
Shields to do 3 damage to and breach a room. Get away! Go!

There's a good reason why I get Shields-4 (two layers) as
the first thing on many ships. Early enemies often have
enough laser and beam power to get through one layer, but
not two. Further, if it takes one or two damage, you are not
suddenly exposed to enemy drones. In fact, if you have 20
Scrap, get Shields-3 right away for that buffer, then spend
your next 30 when possible to get that second layer.

The third layer isn't as game-changing, but provide a rather
reliable defense against lasers, especially with a strong
Evade to go with it. Shields-6 is enough to challenge The
Boss and expect a reasonable survival rate, so the fourth
layer really is a bit of luxury, and really annoying to
fight when you're trying to punch through it.

Then again, Shields-8 is no guarantee of safety against The
Boss, as failing to shoot the right things or dealing with
the hectic situation can doom you just as well.


 2. 2 ----------------------------- Engines -----------------------------

Engines are useful for dodging many attacks to assist your
Shields or for avoiding what your Shields can't stop. They
are also critical for escaping a bad fight in a hurry.

|Level| Off  | Lv 1 | Lv 2 | Lv 3 | Lv 4 | Lv 5 | Lv 6 | Lv 7 | Lv 8 |
+-----+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+
|Scrap|      | .... |   10 |   15 |   30 |   40 |   60 |   80 |  120 |
|Value|      |    0 |   10 |   25 |   55 |   95 |  155 |  235 |  355 |
|Evade|    0 |    5 |   10 |   15 |   20 |   25 |   28 |   31 |   35 |
|FTL  | None | 1.00 | 1.25 | 1.50 | 1.75 | 2.00 | 2.25 | 2.50 | 2.75 |
|Time | #Inf;| 67.5 | 54.0 | 45.0 | 38.6 | 33.8 | 30.0 | 27.0 | 24.5 |
+-----+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+

All ships have it. All of them. You can't buy it.

|Who is it|Evade|FTL | The system can be manned. Someone
+---------+-----+----+ here improves both evasion and FTL
|No one   |+ 0% |100%| charge rate. The Evade stacks
|Untrained|+ 5% |110%| additively. The FTL bonus divides the
|Skilled  |+ 7% |117%| time taken by 1.10, 1.17, or 1.25
|Mastered |+10% |125%|
+---------+-----+----+

Notable Augmentations:
* FTL Recharge Booster - 25% faster FTL charge
* FTL Jammer - Doubles time needed for enemy FTL

 - Hacking -
Just having the Hacking drone attached and powered will
reveal the exact Evade. A Hacking Pulse will set Evade to
zero. There are few guarantees in FTL, and ensuring your
entire volley hits will give one such guarantee. Treasure
it. The Evade nullify is instantaneous. It will also stop
FTL charge for the duration of the Pulse.

Evasion is the main purpose for upgrading Engines. Evade is
used to avoid lasers, missiles, and bombs, as well as
asteroids should you enter such an event. It can't avoid
beams, only shields can stop those. Evasion is reduced or
lost if you don't have someone in Piloting.

An upgraded engine can also speed up the FTL charge time.
Your FTL will charge as long as Engines are powered and you
have a crew member in an intact pilot room. The crew member
can be distracted by other tasks such as fights, but as long
as a crew member is inside the pilot room, and it isn't
destroyed, there is a pilot allowing FTL to charge.

Levels 2 and 3 are very cheap, provide decent evasion, and
gives a usable FTL charge time at Lv3. Levels 4 and 5 are
moderately priced, though Lv4 is the minimum needed for 100%
Evade with Cloaking and master engineer and pilot. Lv6 and
beyond have sharply reduced gains for scrap invested.

The FTL charge rate shouldn't be overlooked. When you find
tough encounters, a hasty getaway might be your only hope,
and decent Engines keeps that possibility open. Level 5
charges it quickly enough, another reason to stop there.

For defense, it's less attractive due to relying on the RNG.
However, it is one of the few things that reduces the number
of missiles that hit you, and Evade is a wonderful support
for your Shields against any laser volley. Along with the
recharge rate, it helps to keep your Shields intact when
there are scary numbers of combat drones and asteroids.

There are still a few things that bypass Evade, but most of
them don't deal direct Hull damage. Beams, Crew Teleporter,
Boarding Drone & Ion Intruder, Mind Control, and Hacking all
gleefully skip the stuff known as Evade.

You usually have another 10% evade because you have a pilot
and engineer at their stations. Might even be 20%, if
they're masters at it. None of this bonus sticks if you
power down the Engines, so the difference between off and
Lv1 might well be 25% evade.

Engines-5 gives a rather reliable evasion for a relatively
decent cost. I recommend getting it, usually before you get
Shields-6 (three layers, in case you forgot my teminology
for Shields). If the Rebel fleet threatens you with the ASB,
and you want to escape safely, Engines-6 often gets you away
safely, Engines-7 is a practical guarantee if they don't
board your Engines or can keep the fight going in Piloting.


 2. 3 ----------------------------- Oxygen ------------------------------

All ships have it. A good thing, as your crew tends to need
air to live. Even if destroyed, you have a minute to react.
Don't be afraid to take power from here when desperate.

|Level| Off  | Lv 1 | Lv 2 | Lv 3 |
+-----+------+------+------+------+
|Scrap|      | .... |   25 |   50 |
|Value|      |    0 |   25 |   75 |
|Rate |  x-1 |   x1 |   x3 |   x6 |
|Oxy% | -1.2%| +1.2%| +3.6%| +7.2%| Per second
+-----+------+------+------+------+

Notable Augmentations:
* Emergency Respirators - Half asphyxiation damage

 - Hacking -
When a powered Hacking drone is attached, it reveals the
percent of air remaining on the ship. A Hacking Pulse drains
air at x5 rate. This means Hacking-1 drains 24%, Hacking-2
will drain 42%, and Hacking-3 takes 60% oxygen. During the
20 second cooldown, Oxygen-1 will restore 24%, and Oxygen-2
gets back 72% of your air, so aside from damage, Oxygen-2 is
effective at keeping up with any Hacking attempts.

Oxygen is vital for most races to survive. When a room is
below 5%, this does 6.4 damage per second. The room will
slowly turn red as oxygen goes down, and will suddenly get
scary stripes when it's low enough to damage crew. Medbay-1
can only keep the crew alive when its airless, you need a
stronger Medbay to heal faster than asphyxiation damage.

Fires also need oxygen to keep burning. They will also
drain a room of oxygen slowly. Remove the air, and the fire
will shortly vanish. Oxygen-2 will produce oxygen fast
enough that the room on fire won't lose oxygen, but this
means the fire will last forever without crew dousing it.

If your oxygen levels are declining, and the room looks
repaired, your system is unpowered. Look on the lower left
corner. It's probably grey. Turn it green. There are other
reasons why you could lose oxygen, but those should be more
obvious than a status icon in the corner.

Open airlocks instantly remove the immediate room of all
air, and drain out air of connected rooms with open doors.
Air is removed faster if you open multiple airlocks, even
the ones in the same room. A powered Oxygen system will keep
trying to fill these rooms anyway, slowing the rate the
rooms empty out.

It's sometimes a good idea to remove the power to this
system so that you can power other important systems. After
all, even 20% oxygen keeps your crew as healthy as 100%.
Can also be shut off so that airless rooms don't get
refilled, so that fires contained by blast doors will go out
on their own (if you have the time to wait), and to drain
out air slightly faster when you have airlocks open.

When going through some sort of Slug nebula, there is an
event that shuts this off. If Lv2 or Lv3, this allows a blue
choice that maintains Lv1, eliminating the fear. This is the
only blue choice this system gives.

I consider Oxygen-3 to be a wasteful choice. If you
absolutely hate breaches or Lanius, and can't manage your
air effectively enough, you might want it. Oxygen-2 is
enough for a breach or two if you open doors, and restores
air rather quickly to make empty rooms safer. Oxygen-2 is
enough to withstand Hacking indefinitely. If you stay at
Oxygen-1, I can understand, as I do that most of the time.


 2. 4 ------------------------- Weapon Control --------------------------

All ships have it. Kind of needed for using weapons. Being
able to shoot all your weapons at once is far deadlier than
only firing one weapon at a time.

|Level| Off  | Lv 1 | Lv 2 | Lv 3 | Lv 4 | Lv 5 | Lv 6 | Lv 7 | Lv 8 |
+-----+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+
|Scrap|      | .... |   40 |   25 |   35 |   50 |   75 |   90 |  100 |
|Value|      |  -40 |    0 |   25 |   60 |  110 |  185 |  275 |  375 |
+-----+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+

|Who is it|Time| The system can be manned. Doing so charges
+---------+----+ your weapons faster, so you can get the
|No one   |100%| first shot, or at least retaliate before
|Untrained| 90%| your weapons are shot. You multiply the
|Skilled  | 85%| percents shown to the charge times of your
|Mastered | 80%| weapons, which is unusual, as the other
+---------+----+ percent bonuses do a division instead.

Notable Augmentations:
* Automated Re-loader - 10% faster weapon charge (divide time by 1.1)
* Weapon Pre-igniter - Begin combat with weapons fully charged
* Zoltan Shield Bypass - Bombs skip the green shield
* Explosive Replicator - 50% chance to not use missile stock

 - Hacking -
A powered Hacking drone reveals weapon charge, exactly what
Sensors-3 would tell you. A Hacking Pulse will apply a
"reverse charge", so that the weapons lose charge over time.
Effectively, Hacking-1 delays weapons fire by 8 seconds,
Hacking-2 delays 14 seconds, and Hacking-3 at 20 seconds.
Multiple charge weapons maintain stocked charges, even if
the charge bar empties out.

Although you may have multiple weapons and enough reactor
power, you are still limited by system level. Each intact
level is one more power you can divert towards your weapons.
Left click to power, and again to then target the weapon.
Right click removes the power to the weapon, losing charge.

You can, even in mid-combat, reorder weapons by dragging
them around. The leftmost weapons are your priority weapons
that are disabled last if the system takes damage. This also
moves the physical positions, in the odd case a drone starts
blocking your Ion Blast II and you want the ions to hit the
ship rather than wait for the drone to self-destruct.

When Weapon Control is damaged, the rightmost weapons lose
power first. Ion damage will unpower entire weapons instead
of just one unit of power, though if the hit deals 2 to 4
ion damage, it will unpower multiple weapons if the
rightmost active weapon doesn't use that much power.

A Zoltan in the room will power the leftmost weapon, even if
it isn't enough to make it active. Keep in mind that, if a
Zoltan enters the room, and the Weapon Control is maxed out
powering other weapons except the leftmost one, that Zoltan
will force the rightmost weapon to lose power. Reorder your
weapons before you order the Zoltan in. If you keep a Zoltan
in the room, remember that you may need to reorder weapons
to power the ones you need at the time.

Most ships have four weapon slots to use, though some have
only three weapon slots. This amount of slots can't change;
There are no upgrades available to give the ship four slots.

While higher levels do help, in that it lets you power more
weapons to remain a threat to later enemies, keep in mind
that this depends on actually finding weapons to fill your
newly upgraded capacity. If you can already fully power all
your current weapons, upgrading this in hopes of a new
weapon is usually a bad idea.

However, DA-SR 12 has an excuse to upgrade it just for the
sake of a one-damage buffer to the room. Losing the charge
of a 25 second weapon is *really* painful when it's the only
thing you've got.

That said, if you find your Weapon Control worryingly weak
against the current enemies, but you have spare weapons that
would really help to charge at the same time, upgrade this
system immediately. Upgrade Reactor later, you need the
option to charge all necessary weapons far more. Lacking
defense just means you take more damage, but lacking offense
means you must run away, no question.

A high level Weapon Control does offer blue choices at only
a few events. If you're that threatening, it's not as though
you need better rewards, but hey. Various weapons may also
give other blue choices at other events, but they need to be
equipped when you jump in. The cargo hold does not give any
blue choices for stuff inside of it.

Do not neglect this system. You might be happy already being
able to fire five shots, but when a Heavy Laser shows up,
that one extra shot does amazing stuff for your offense.
You won't regret an upgrade here in that case.


 2. 5 -------------------------- Drone Control --------------------------

Drones are useful for a variety of tasks. It is difficult to
describe their uses in a short paragraph, but are often
helpful in one form or another.

|Level| Off  | Lv 1 | Lv 2 | Lv 3 | Lv 4 | Lv 5 | Lv 6 | Lv 7 | Lv 8 |
+-----+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+
|Scrap|      | (  ) | (60) |   20 |   30 |   45 |   60 |   80 |  100 |
|Value|      |    ? |   60 |   80 |  110 |  155 |  215 |  295 |  395 |
+-----+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+

This may be purchased at a store for 75 or 85 Scrap.
At random, you may get (and it tells you before purchase):
* System Repair Drone  - Drone Control costs 75 Scrap
* Combat Drone Mark I  - Drone Control costs 85 Scrap
* Defense Drone Mark I - Drone Control costs 85 Scrap

Notable Augmentations:
* Drone Recovery Arm - Refunds parts for intact exterior drones
* Drone Reactor Booster - 50% faster interior drones
* Defense Scrambler - Enemy's defensive drones can't target anything

 - Hacking -
A Hacking Pulse stuns all active drones, exactly as though
they were hit by ions. This may also destroy them as well,
which is also an ion-related effect. This stun lasts as long
as the Hacking Pulse.

Powered in a similar fashion to weapons. Activating a drone
will use one Drone Part if it doesn't exist yet. Removing
power to a drone does not destroy it, except Hull Repair, so
activating it again won't use more parts. If a drone is
destroyed, there is a 10 second cooldown before you can
deploy the same drone, spending another Drone Part.

A few drones reside inside ships, and many other drones work
outside the ship. Once deployed and powered, the drone will
do its job automatically with no further input from you.

The crew drones take no damage from airless rooms or fire,
and take half damage from ship weapons. They act a lot like
your crew in many ways, like occupying a square and getting
the attention of enemy crew. Those in your ship will default
to your Drone Control, if there's no task to be done, where
they will recover 1.6 Health per second if the system is
powered, regardless of which drone is powered.

The exterior drones are vulnerable to weapons fire. However,
they can't be targeted, so only a lucky shot where the two
intersect in the same space at the same time will they be
hit. Destroyed drones stop using power, but you need to wait
10 seconds before you can redeploy them. After this time,
you can make another spending one more Drone Part.

The drones that work inside your ship will stay with you as
you jump, so you don't need to repeatedly spend parts on
them. If you unequip the drone, it self-destructs, but will
not refund parts. The ones that send themselves to the enemy
ship are stuck there. The parts spent on them will only help
you in this one battle.

Of the drones that work outside a ship, most will only
refund their parts if you have a certain Augmentation. Of
course, if the drone was destroyed, the parts are ruined, no
refund. Hull Repair self-destructs after repairing some Hull
and won't refund its part to the Drone Recovery Arm.

Like with weapons, the left drone takes priority if multiple
are powered. If the system takes damage, the right drone
loses power first. Zoltans will power the first drone, just
like with weapons, but will not activate the drone if it
doesn't already exist somewhere.

When purchasing the system, it begins at level 2, and a
single drone already equipped. Hover your mouse over it,
it'll tell you what you're getting.

The Drone Control itself may not give any blue choices, but
the drones you equip do. These drones need to be equipped
before you make the jump if you want these choices.

The fact most ships can only equip two drones at a time,
with a few getting up to three, makes the system somewhat
unwieldy to use. There's also the fact it depends on what
drones you happen to have available, and it also uses up
your stock of Drone Parts. And this system is pretty
expensive, as if you do get it, you have reason to keep
drone schematics rather than selling them off right away.

Regardless, there are some interesting details...

Anti-ship drones have among the highest damage output, as
they shoot more rapidly than most weapons. Trouble is the
blue Shields get in the way. Still, if you can disable the
Shields for a faster win, the Hull damage is rarely matched.
They're also good for removing a Zoltan Shield rapidly.

Defensive drones, Defense I, Defense II, and Anti-Drone will
help protect your ship from some of the enemy's attacks.
Both Defense Drones will shoot down missiles, Defense II is
particularly good against ions, and all three drones will
target and shoot down Hacking before it lands on the ship.
The Defense I is a favorite among many players.

Crew drones act as extra crew members, minus the ability to
tell them where to go, but they do their task automatically
without having to tell them to do it. Those on your ship
will stay with you from jump to jump, requiring no further
Drone Parts unless destroyed. Those that land on the enemy
ship will breach a room to enter and cause general havoc.

If you spot enemy combat drones around you, and you do find
them threatening or otherwise scary, there is a way to shoot
them with your ship weaponry: Wait until one flies in front
of a weapon, then fire that weapon at any enemy room. You
can reorder weapons so that you change their physical
positions. Beams and bombs won't ever hit a drone.

What, exactly, the sorts of drones do for you is best left
for another guide to explore in detail. Going further
in-depth than the summaries I've given will clutter up this
subsection way too much. Make your best judgement on what
each individual drone gets you.


 2. 6 ----------------------------- Medbay ------------------------------

Very useful in keeping one's crew intact throughout the
dangers of space. Without it, you can do nothing as the
crew loses health to stray shots, fires, and combat.

|Level| Off  | Lv 1 | Lv 2 | Lv 3 |
+-----+------+------+------+------+
|Scrap|      | (50) |   35 |   45 |
|Value|      |   50 |   85 |  130 |
|Rate | x0.0 | x1.0 | x1.5 | x3.0 |
|Heal |    0 |  6.4 |  9.6 | 19.2 | Health restored per second
+-----+------+------+------+------+

Notable Augmentations:
* Engi Med-bot Dispersal - Active Medbay heals 1.5 Health/sec across your ship

 - Hacking -
A Hacking Pulse drains Health of crew inside at a scary
rate. I do not know how fast it is at this time, but
together with the locked doors, this is a frighteningly
dangerous effect. I do not know if it interferes with the
Engi Med-bot Dispersal.

Any crew inside a powered Medbay will restore health,
depending on Medbay power. Usually fits only two or three
crew members, but those passing through also gets healed.

Even if crew are currently taking damage from other sources,
if they're in a friendly Medbay, it will heal them as they
take damage. Crew can survive in an airless Medbay, and even
heal back some Health if it's powered at Lv2 or Lv3.

Engi Med-bot Dispersal heals all crew outside the Medbay at
a slow rate, as long as the Medbay has 1 to 3 power in it.
The rate isn't affected by how much power is in the Medbay,
and it doesn't stack with the Medbay itself for any crew
inside.

The Medbay is pretty essential. Even if you never have your
crew fight, they're still sure to take damage from enemy
shots hitting the room they're in, or maybe fire, or even
handling a breach without any air. Without a Medbay,
recovering from damage is difficult or costly.

Even so, most sorts of damage can wait until after combat,
meaning a high-level Medbay doesn't help much. Lv2 isn't
much of a bonus, but it does let your crew get back to
risking their lives sooner. Lv3 goes really, really fast and
perfect for those odd times where you can't wait.

When you are getting boarded, it's the safest room to put
your crew into. Make certain it is powered up. Even at level
one, an Engi can win against a Mantis one-on-one! For a ship
starting out, and having trouble with boarders all of a
sudden, often a good strategy is to shove your crew into the
Medbay and drain air out of most of your ship. If the Medbay
is the only room with air, boarders will fight you there.

It's more nightmarish for your boarding strategies when the
enemy has a Medbay. The instant an enemy crew goes below 25%
health, they run and hide in the Medbay. Medbay-1 works fast
enough to thwart a single Mantis, and Medbay-3 is stuff of
madness as they return to fight really fast. Shoot the
Medbay, or thoroughly overwhelm them with numbers to rip
apart other systems to give time to then rip the Medbay.

There are a number of blue choices that show up with a Lv2
Medbay, and even a few more for a Lv3 Medbay. If you stick
to green sectors, adding Medbay power will likely get you a
few extra crew to work with from these blue choices.


 2. 7 ---------------------------- Clone Bay ----------------------------

Sometimes, the loss of a life is inevitable. While this
system has trouble healing, and therefore makes this loss
more likely, death is just a momentary sleep in this case.

|Level| Off  | Lv 1 | Lv 2 | Lv 3 |
+-----+------+------+------+------+
|Scrap|      | (50) |   35 |   45 |
|Value|      |   50 |   85 |  130 |
|Time | Die! |  12s |   9s |   7s | Time until clone produced
|Heal |    0 |    8 |   16 |   25 | Health restored per jump
+-----+------+------+------+------+

Notable Augmentations:
* Backup DNA Bank - Won't lose crew without power in your Clone Bay

 - Hacking -
A Hacking Pulse will shut off this system. Any crew waiting
to be cloned will likely be killed off forever. Destroying
or ionizing the system to zero power has the same effect.

When any of your crew dies, having this system will put them
in a cloning state rather than permanently removed from your
roster. With some power, the recently deceased, wherever or
however they were killed, will reappear in the Clone Bay at
full Health and some of their experience gone.

 - 3 Piloting   This is how much experience is lost every
 - 3 Engines    time a crew member is cloned. Of course, if
 -11 Shields    they don't have that experience to lose,
 -13 Weapons    it's merely set to zero. This experience
 - 3 Repair     loss can undo some masteries, but it's
 - 1 Combat     usually not long until it's remastered.

Clone Bay will not duplicate a crew member who was aboard an
enemy ship when either it or you FTL away. Even if,
logically, they will die to your enemies, they are out of
range (a full jump away) and your Clone Bay will simply not
pick them up. Take extra caution if they're charging FTL.

If multiple crew are waiting to be cloned, the Clone Bay
will only restore one of them at a time. There is no form of
"parallel cloning" taking place. If the Clone Bay has zero
power, the dieing crew has a short grace period with which
they remain intact before they are gone forever. It's real
short, so make sure you pause to get the time to find power.

Whenever you jump, the number of intact levels determines
how much Health is restored. How much power you have in the
system doesn't matter, all that's checked is how many
undamaged levels is in the system.

This system can't coexist with the Medbay. If you purchase a
Clone Bay while you have the Medbay, the room containing
Medbay will be replaced, holding the newly gained Clone Bay.

Ah, a funny system. Crew used to be these things you try to
keep alive, as they're the... Uh, life of your ship. If you
have the Clone Bay, it's much tougher to keep them alive, as
you can't heal them, but on the other hand, why do you need
to keep them alive? They'll just come back, you know.

Some events where you lose crew will no longer be scary. If
the event suggests the crew dies somehow, they will come
back intact, minus 10% experience. If it's due to some
disease or they merely left the ship alive, then having the
Clone Bay will not recover your lost crew. Regardless, if
you know which event will result in what, or can reasonably
guess what can happen, the "risky" choices are more viable.

When boarding enemy ships, you don't have to pay as much
attention to your ship weapons. If you "accidentally" blast
the ship, well your crew did a good job distracting your
enemies, and you are free to congratulate them the next time
they step out of the cloning chamber. Low Health? You can't
heal them anyway, let 'em die off.

If you are regularly boarding, your crew will take damage.
You don't have any great way to heal them back to full from
30 Health. If you have enough crew, you can cycle between
boarders to give them a chance to heal over several jumps,
but more likely you'll point them to an airlock and get a
full health clone, minus one combat EXP, in return.

Still, take caution when there's potential for the system to
take damage. A single Hermes Missile later, and whoever you
were hoping to get back is now gone. If you can ensure the
enemy weapons can't hit you, or have the DNA Backup, this
risk is greatly mitigated.

Against an enemy ship with it, if you have a killer boarding
crew, they should hopefully deal damage fast enough that the
reviving process can't keep up with your fast slaying. If
not, shooting the Clone Bay is probably your best bet.
Failing that, destroy the ship itself. Let's see them clone
back to life when there's no ship to hold them! Regardless,
they can't heal, so any partial damage will stick around.


 2. 8 ------------------------- Crew Teleporter -------------------------

Impossible to board without this handy device. A key system
for anyone who plans to kill the enemy crew. Many times a
fight gives better rewards if you can get the ship intact.

|Level| Off  | Lv 1 | Lv 2 | Lv 3 |
+-----+------+------+------+------+
|Scrap|      | (90) |   30 |   60 |
|Value|      |   90 |  120 |  180 |
|Wait |  No  |  20s |  15s |  10s |
+-----+------+------+------+------+

Notable Augmentations:
* Zoltan Shield Bypass - Crew Teleporter ignores super shields
* Reconstructive Teleport - Teleporting crew fully heals them

 - Hacking -
A Hacking Pulse forces the system to recall its boarders,
regardless of whether the system is on cooldown.

There is no passive effect for simply powering the system,
all use comes from its buttons. Click one, and select a room
you'd like to use the Teleporter on.

You may send your crew to the enemy ship, and any that are
standing still in the room and without a destination will
teleport to the enemy ship. They can teleport even if they
are busy, such as repairs or fights, but they must not be
moving or have a destination to another square. The number
you can teleport at once is limited by the room's size, but
you are free to send more after the cooldown finishes.

You may also recall your crew from the enemy ship. Up to
four crew can return to your ship at once. It doesn't matter
what they're doing, even moving (unlike sending crew), so
whether fighting in the ship or moving elsewhere, the recall
will get up to four crew. It is possible to recall four crew
from a 1x2 room this way.

If the opposing ship is cloaked or has green super shields,
teleporting is blocked. If your crew can't survive during
the cloak, it might be a good idea to recall them before the
enemy cloaks, or just destroy the Cloaking.

It gets its cooldown timer by self-ionizing the system on
use. Unlike an actual ion, power stays with this system, so
however much Reactor power you used in this system, it's
stuck there until the ion-effect is gone. Moving Zoltans in
can still "push" the Reactor power out, as long as there
isn't room for more power bars, as normal for a power lock.

Crew can still take damage from fights during the teleport
animation, but fire and asphyxiation hazards won't harm them
during those short moments. They will also continue to
repair or sabotage, but unless that tiny moment was enough,
expect the system to be unaffected.

Mind Controlled crew may be recalled as though they are on
the side of whoever is using the Mind control.

A key system in removing crew from ships for the related
rewards of terminating the crew rather than the ship. While
not strictly necessary for that type of victory, it's rather
difficult without this or a select few weapons.

Of course, this requires some resource to work: Your crew.
If you only have three crew, boarding will be painful, much
more so as you reach later sectors. A ship of eight crew
will have plenty of people to fight with, whoever the eight
may be, and can usually control the battle quickly.

Mantises are fast and deadly, Rockmen can take hits, Lanius
drains the air right out, and Crystals have a secret power
to temporarily seal off doors. Humans and Slugs are still
workable boarders in their own right, and even the fragile
Zoltans have a surprise on death, and Engies can still serve
to interfere with their enemies on important tasks.

Of course, boarding carries obvious risks to your crew. Lose
one, and good replacements are usually hard to come by.
Unless you have a Clone Bay, then replacements will be right
with you in a few moments. There is a pretty harsh learning
curve to boarding, so beginners will have a lot of trouble
starting, as losing crew while learning is rather punishing.

While the Crew Teleporter is a requirement for any sorts of
boarding strategies, there is enough to explain that putting
it all here would clutter up this text far too much. You
will have to look elsewhere for a full boarding guide.

Still, sending your crew means the enemy must deal with your
crew. This takes them away from manning systems, or even
away from important repairs. Even if your crew are not even
close to slaying the enemy's crew, they can still make a
valuable diversion while you destroy the ship (and watch
your crew step out of your Teleporter or Clone Bay, I hope).

In any case, those who are able to keep track of all the
chaos, know how to pause like a paranoid freak, keep things
running smoothly on your ship, remembering you have ship
weapons to point at the enemy ship, notice the enemy has
only 2 Hull remaining, and what damages it all... This thing
is a powerful, powerful investment to make. You have a lot
to track already, and this one system doubles it, but once
you are comfortable, your battles should go rather smoothly.


 2. 9 ---------------------------- Cloaking -----------------------------

Greatly improves Evade and freezes enemy weapon charge while
active. A powerful defense against missiles and huge laser
volleys, as well as more time to survive further attacks.

|Level| Off  | Lv 1 | Lv 2 | Lv 3 |
+-----+------+------+------+------+
|Scrap|      |(150) |   30 |   50 |
|Value|      |  150 |  180 |  230 |
|Time |  No  |   5s |  10s |  15s |
+-----+------+------+------+------+

Notable Augmentations:
* Stealth Weapons - Firing weapons do not reduce cloak time.

When you initiate a cloak, you get a flat 60% Evade that
can't be reduced by any means, short of interrupting the
cloak. This 60% Evade is separate from your Engines Evade,
which can be reduced by not having a pilot available.

Furthermore, during the cloak, enemy weapons and artillery
systems will not charge. Your Cloaking will delay their
weaponry for as long as it lasts. This means if they're not
already firing, they won't shoot at you in mid-cloak, but
asteroids have no trouble flying at your ship regardless.
Don't worry, asteroids have to deal with your boosted Evade.

Crew Teleporter does not function versus a cloak. Your own
cloak does not interfere with your own Teleporter.

Mind Control will work versus a cloaked ship, but you must
be able to see the rooms within (such as having boarders
inside the ship). The enemy has no such restriction.

Hacking can't land on a cloaked ship (it will halt in place
until the cloak wears off), but if attached already, there's
nothing stopping a Hacking Pulse.

If you fire any weapon other than beam weapons, this will
reduce the cloak timer. I still need to check the changes
to the mechanics of weapons and Cloaking, as I spot my Ion
Charger reducing cloak time on a per shot basis rather than
per volley.

The cooldown timer is 20 seconds, due to it ionizing itself
with four ticks of ion. The power left in Cloaking is stuck
there until the ion effect is over, although clever use of
an Ion Bomb or Zoltans will allow you to pull power out.

This... Wow, it's a powerful defensive system. It gives a
very handy protection against missiles and scary-big volleys
of lasers and especially flak. It also gives your Shields
time to recover from that enemy's Ion Blast II, if you find
yourself overwhelmed by it.

There are two basic ways to use this system:

Cloak-Dodge - Activate cloak after the enemy fires some
threatening weapons you'd rather avoid. Since the enemy just
fired its weapons, they're back to zero charge, and you most
likely avoided the projectiles it launched at you. This is
the main way to use it once you get it.

Cloak-First - Activate cloak immediately after combat
starts, or the rare occasion you'd rather delay something
instead of dodging it. Stealth B will want to do exactly
this once it gets Cloaking-3, in order to stop relying on
its spotty Evade. Also useful against that enemy's Glaive
Beam when you don't have your third layer of Shields.

However its used, it gives a lot more time to deal with the
enemy. Even without Stealth Weapons, you still have drones,
Hacking, Mind Control, your boarding teams, FTL charge time,
a chance to repair your systems, the power to stop the enemy
from recalling their boarders, and your weapon charge time.

It's possible to get 100% Evade thanks to Cloaking. You need
strong enough Engines to get a perfect Cloak-Dodge for this.
Here's what sort of crew you'd need for it based on Engines:
Engines-4 - Master Engineer and Master Pilot
Engines-5 - Pilot and Engineer, one of whom is Mastered (yellow)
Engines-6 - Pilot and Engineer, one of whom is Skilled (green)
Engines-7 - Master pilot, or untrained Pilot and Engineer
Engines-8 - Untrained pilot.

If you do have perfect dodge, then you should have no fear
keeping your Cloaking on standby when you see a threatening
laser volley coming at you. Pause the game like a paranoid
freak, and if you see that the lasers completely removed
your Shields, go ahead and cloak to stop the rest. If the
volley missed enough times anyway, you saved your cloak for
a better time. Good for you.

This system gives you a lot more time to deal with the enemy
weapons before they have a chance to make a threatening shot
at you. Once you learn enough about FTL, and know how to
really fight, the system is less of an alternative shield
and more a way to completely crush attrition. Even the ASB
is thwarted if you cloak before that deadly shot fires.

Oh, and the enemy Mind Control can hit one of your crew
while you're cloaked, but you have no such capability when
the enemy cloaks and you have no crew there. The ASB is
determined to hit or miss as it fires, not as it approaches
the room, so make sure you cloak sometime after the warning
comes up.


 2.10 ------------------------- Artillery Beam --------------------------

A potent weapon-system found only on Federation ships, this
pierces all normal Shields and never misses. Many accidents
have been known to happen to boarder teams, however.

|Level| Off  | Lv 1 | Lv 2 | Lv 3 | Lv 4 |
+-----+------+------+------+------+------+
|Scrap|      |    ? |   30 |   50 |   80 |
|Value|      |    ? |   30 |   80 |  160 |
|Wait |  No  | 50 s | 40 s | 30 s | 20 s |
|Speed|  No  | 1.2x | 1.5x | 2.0x | 3.0x | (Shots per minute)
+-----+------+------+------+------+------+

Notable Augmentations:
* Automated Re-loader - Affects charge time of Artillery weapon

Weapon Pre-igniter has no effect on this system.
Crew has no effect on charge time (no station).
Will train your crew manning the Weapon Control anyway.

When active, the beam charges up on its own, and when fully
charged, will strike the enemy ship (whether you want it to
or not!), in a line, starting from one random room and ends
at the furthest room from that one. Damage dealt is one per
room, and pierces shields like a missile. As a beam, evade
does not work against it.

The only things that can stop this weapon from damaging the
enemy ship are the green super shields or losing this system
before it fires. Actually, the super shields will also take
two damage from this weapon, so even there it's temporary.
Only a Shield drone gives a "perfect" defense, but in that
case, just fire your conventional weaponry to knock it down.

Changes in power will retain percentage charge. In other
words, if you spent 10 seconds charging it at level 4, it's
now 50% charged, and reducing power to 1 means you only need
25 more seconds for it to fire, not 40. If unpowered, it
will quickly lose charge, much like normal weapons. Fast
enough to go from full charge to zero in 10 seconds.

Although a weapon-system, it takes a system slot like any
other system. Keep this in mind as you find your next store,
and pick your systems wisely.

50 seconds of charge time takes a very long time. Even early
on, your Burst Laser might do the job well enough. However,
having this means you can invest heavily into defense, as no
matter what the enemy has, even a Lv1 Artillery Beam will
deal damage to them.

At level 4, 20 seconds charge is respectable. Unlike other
weapons, this can be partially powered, and taking some
damage to this system won't remove the charge like the
Glaive Beam of DA-SR 12. Charge is only lost if the system
goes all the way down to zero power.

A common mistake players make is sending a boarding team to
the enemy ship and keeping this system powered. Again, once
it charges, it fires, whether you want it to or not! Unlike
other weapons, you don't go through the process of targeting
this system, so it's a jarring experience to see something
fire without you having told a weapon to do so. Destroying
the enemy ship with your crew on it happens to many players.


 2.11 ------------------------- Flak Artillery --------------------------

An odd weapon-system for Federation C. With a dedicated
system for a flak shot weapon, this opens up more room for
other weapons to take advantage of the Shields stress.

|Level| Off  | Lv 1 | Lv 2 | Lv 3 | Lv 4 |
+-----+------+------+------+------+------+
|Scrap|      |    ? |   30 |   50 |   80 |
|Value|      |    ? |   30 |   80 |  160 |
|Wait |  No  | 50 s | 40 s | 30 s | 20 s |
|Speed|  No  | 1.2x | 1.5x | 2.0x | 3.0x | (Shots per minute)
+-----+------+------+------+------+------+

This acts like the Artillery Beam in every way except one:
What it fires. This artillery system fires a 7-projectile
flak to the enemy ship, targetting random rooms. There's no
guarantee that each projectile will hit a room tile, but it
appears to pick seven destinations, with deviance rules
similar to Flak I around room centers.

There are problems with this being the only ship-to-ship
weapon of Federation C. Namely, the fact you're taking a
beating before your ship can provide some unaimed cover fire
for your boarders. You're probably better off attempting to
retreat from anything with a green shield.

Still, this is a Flak shooter without taking up a weapon
slot. If you get Federation C going, this means you can use
beams more readily, as you have seven projectiles flying
every so often. Or if you find a pair of Flaks II around,
equip both and power up your weapons. You know you want to
shoot 21 projectiles at once. Shields? What Shields?

Unfortunately, it's a Flak shooter that uses a system slot.
With the Crew Teleporter already installed, that leaves you
only one slot free for a system. Pick one: Drone Control,
Cloaking, Mind Control, or Hacking. You're not getting two.

Unlike the Artillery Beam, the Flak Artillery can miss. It
isn't shooting beams, after all. It's more meant as a potent
support to make Shields more easily ignored rather than a
damaging weapon on its own. And since it's Federation C,
don't worry about destroying the ship with your crew on it,
as this ship has a Clone Bay.

The Federation C is difficult to get going, though, so it's
difficult to see the true power of a weapon-system that
doesn't use the same levels as the Weapon Control. And like
the Artillery Beam, it just doesn't feel that wonderful at
any level other than four. 30 seconds is still a long time.


 2.12 ----------------------------- Hacking -----------------------------

A small device used to get into the systems of enemy ships,
where it can remotely interfere at a critical moment. It
does have other passive effects, such as locking doors.

|Level| Off  | Lv 1 | Lv 2 | Lv 3 |
+-----+------+------+------+------+
|Scrap|      | (80) |   35 |   60 |
|Value|      |   80 |  115 |  175 |
|Time |    0 |   4s |   7s |  10s | Hacking Pulse
+-----+------+------+------+------+

Notable Augmentations:
* Defense Scrambler - Stops defense drones. Now you can hack freely!
* Hacking Stun - Stuns crew in room for pulse duration (also hits allies)

 -Hacking-
A Hacking Pulse shuts down the enemy's ongoing Hacking
(triggering cooldown if it was doing a pulse), and also
has a chance to destroy the enemy's Hacking drone.

When powered, a button is available. Click it, and select an
enemy ship's room. After doing so, a special sort of drone
will fly to the enemy ship. One Drone Part is consumed. You
may hover the mouse over the room to see a quick tip of what
a Hacking Pulse would do.

Until it lands on the ship, it is vulnerable to stray shots
and defense drones (Defense I, Defense II, Anti-Drone). This
drone can't penetrate the green super shields, though if
some show up after it lands, this does not prevent Hacking
from applying its effects. Evade will not affect Hacking.

It is important to note that, unless the drone is destroyed
in flight, you can't change target room after the drone is
deployed, so pick carefully, as once it goes, it's stuck for
the entire battle.

After it lands, a number of harmful things affect the room
itself, as well as giving a different purpose for that same
button, which now triggers a Hacking Pulse. What the Hacking
Pulse does depends on what room it's attached to.

A list of passive effects while the drone is powered:
 * Vision of the room is granted, as though you have crew in there
 * Power information of the room, stuff that Sensors-4 would reveal
 * Room's doors turn purple.
   o Allows boarders through, and blocks ship's crew like Doors-2
   o Hacked doors do not reduce spread of fire
   o If broken, they will return to a closed state after auto-fix
 * Prevents the system from being manned, negating crew bonus
   o Note that auto-ships still count the system as manned, however
 * Repair speed of the affected system is halved
 * Extra info if Weapon Control, Oxygen, Engines, or Piloting
   o Weapon Control - Weapon charge bars (Sensor-3 tells you this)
   o Oxygen - Air remaining across the ship
   o Piloting, Engines - Exact Evade percent

Here's a list of systems and basic info of a Hacking Pulse:
 * Shields        - Remove charge off the current layers over time
 * Engines        - Shuts it off. (Zero Evade, FTL charge halts)
 * Oxygen         - Quickly remove oxygen (at x5 rate)
 * Weapon Control - Remove charge off of weapons over time
 * Drone Control  - Stuns existing drones, possibly destroying them
 * Medbay         - Damages ship's crew inside the room (boarders are safe)
 * Clone Bay      - Shuts it off. (Bye, potential clones)
 * Crew Teleporter- Forces boarders to be recalled, ignoring ion timer
 * Cloaking       - Cancels an ongoing cloak
 * Artillery      - Remove charge off of weapon-system over time
 * Hacking        - Cancels an ongoing Pulse, possibly destroying the drone
 * Mind Control   - Cancels ongoing Mind Control, and controls an enemy
 * Piloting       - Shuts it off. (Zero Evade, FTL charge halts)
 * Sensors        - Shuts it off. (Minimal vision. Rather underwhelming)
 * Door System    - All doors in the ship turn purple
 * Backup Battery - Cancels ongoing power, and removes 2 Reactor power

During a Hacking Pulse, any Reactor power in the system is
also locked, as if under an ion effect, preventing
redistribution of power.

If you need further details, go to the subsection where I
explain the system. Putting all the in-depth explanations
here would clutter up the text here greatly. The one-line
descriptions will have to suffice here, sorry.

This handy thing has many uses, and since Evade can't stop
it, that makes this system a pretty reliable way to ruin an
enemy's system. Be careful which one you select, though, as
you won't be able to change your mind later.

Good systems to target usually include Shields, Engines, or
weapons. If you lack weaponry to even have a chance at all
against Shields, or need to give your beams some help,
hacking Shields is helpful. If you have missiles, bombs, or
a large laser volley, Piloting or Engines are a better
choice. Hacking weapons is a very defensive choice.

If it's one Augmentation you want, it's Defense Scrambler.
That handy thing means only green shields and Cloaking can
prevent you from Hacking immediately, and those are usually
only temporary, unlike Defense Drones. Engi C starts with it
and Hacking. Go nuts!


 2.13 -------------------------- Mind Control ---------------------------

A frightful system that robs the victim of their own free
will, with a potential to even summon an unknown reserve of
strength as they fight their own friends to the death.

|Level| Off  | Lv 1 | Lv 2 | Lv 3 |
+-----+------+------+------+------+
|Scrap|      | (75) |   30 |   60 |
|Value|      |   75 |  105 |  165 |
|Time |    0 |  14s |  22s |  30s | How long they are controlled
|HP+  |    0 |   +0 |  +15 |  +30 | Added to maximum and current Health
|Power|   1x | 1.0x |?2.0x |?3.0x | Damage boost of controlled crew
+-----+------+------+------+------+

Notable Augmentations:
* Zoltan Shield Bypass - Mind Control works through Zoltan Shield

 - Hacking -
Shuts off ongoing Mind Control (triggering cooldown if it
was running) and additionally controls an enemy crew for the
duration of the pulse. (By enemy, I mean whoever's the enemy
of the one doing the hacking)

Has no passive effect when powered, only has use while
active. Click the button, then select a room whose crew you
wish to turn to your side. It will only bring one crew to
your side, but it will reset any partial repair progress if
that was the only crew in the room.

Zoltan Shield blocks Mind Control. A Zoltan Shield Bypass
will work for Mind Control, ignoring the green super shield.
If the super shield is restored (Shield drone?), it does not
interrupt an ongoing Mind Control. Interestingly, Cloaking
will not block Mind Control, provided you have crew or crew
drones on the ship in order to reveal rooms within.

You can only select a room where you can see crew. Possible
ways to see the room include the following:
 * Sensors-1 (for your own ship)
 * Sensors-2 or man Sensors-1 (for the enemy ship)
 * Have a Slug crew member (red shadows are valid targets, good for nebula)
 * Have Lifeform Scanner Augmentation (good for nebula)
 * Have your crew in the room
 * Have one of your crew drones in the room
 * Use Hacking on the room
 * Send a bomb (before it blows, you see the room it hits)

You can't use Mind Control on a room where you have no
vision in. Nebulae makes it difficult to use Mind Control,
unless you have a Slug or a certain Augmentation. If you
even have a bomb weapon, that can be used for a rather brief
vision, which is still enough to use Mind Control.

The enemy has no such vision restriction -- They can always
hit your crew with Mind Control, regardless of which room or
the fact you're in a nebula. Even Cloaking is no barrier.

Crew under Mind Control are controlled by the AI -- Although
it acts much like friendly crew in many ways, you can't
order a mind controlled crew. They will select a destination
in exactly the same fashion as what your enemies typically
do, except that it's attempting to do things to help you.
Your crew can still gain experience under a Mind Control.

It's not just fighting. They will also sabotage, repair, or
man an available system. If low on Health, they can and will
use the Medbay of the ship doing the Mind Control. All
doors, blast doors and hacked purple doors alike, will open
to them. (I still have to check if a special lockdown effect
can stop them, but I suspect that it will)

Somehow, Crew Teleporter can retrieve an enemy affected by
Mind Control. It's a slow process, but you can use this to
drag enemies into your ship where you have almost complete
control to slay them away from their Medbay.

You can use Mind Control to cancel out an enemy's Mind
Control, by selecting a room where one of your crew is
affected. They'll return to your control, and both yours and
the enemy's Mind Controls will be on cooldown. Level
difference does not matter -- Mind-1 will cancel Mind-3.

Crew affected by Mind-2 or 3 will also deal greatly enhanced
damage and recieve a little extra Health as well. It adds
both to current and maximum Health, and when it wears off,
the maximum Health returns to normal, maintaining current
Health, whatever it happens to be, with it only going down
to conform to the original maximum if it's that high.

The duration of an ongoing Mind Control is absolute. If
power is somehow adjusted (such as an ion or Zoltan), it
will add or remove time in full chunks, rather than
adjusting the duration as a percentage.

If power is added to an ongoing Mind Control (Zoltan walks
in is probably the only way), 15 Health is added to the
controlled crew. Removing power does not reduce Health,
unless they had more Health than the normal maximum. By
walking a Zoltan in and out of Mind-2 or 3, you can heal the
enemy crew as much as you like. The use of which is rare,
but it will allow a way to prevent enemies from overwhelming
the controlled, so as to delay or even prevent any repairs.

Funny series of things this does. It's a powerful boarding
aid, as rather than just two crew you have on their ship,
it's two of your crew plus one of their own versus whoever
is left on their ship. Even better, it is an "ally" who you
don't care about losing, as he's not yours anyway.

Even without a Crew Teleporter, Mind Control can really ruin
their attempts at repairing systems. Spot those Engies on
their weapons, getting that unwanted Flak II back up?
Mind Control one of them. You can be sure that weapon
will stay down for a lot longer. Even better with fire.

The damage output is apparently rather frightening when it
is level 3. It's still only one crew, and they still do
sabotage damage at exactly the same rate as one boarder, but
if you can get them into a fight, wow is it a scary thing.

If the ship lacks Medbay or Clone Bay, Mind Control can
usually bring them down to one crew over time. Even with
these medical systems, a lot can be accomplished as the crew
are busy dealing with one you just controlled, and sometimes
you can even bust up the medical unit with your weaponry.
Plenty of shooting or possibly bombing can get that last guy
for you.

It's really difficult getting it to work in a nebula. No
Sensors means you can't control anyone without something in
the room to reveal an enemy. This is not an issue if you
have a Slug or Lifeform Scanner, but keep in mind your
options. Crew Teleporter, Hacking, Boarding Drone, or even
a bomb (a rare offensive use of Repair Burst) can be used.

Mind-1 is enough to have an unattended crew do one system
damage to whatever room they're in, barely. If you are hit
by Mind-1 (you can tell because they don't have boosted HP),
bring someone momentarily into the room, wait about two
seconds, then leave. No system damage. Hah.

Being hit by higher levels is less friendly. Ways of
countering this system includes using it as your Hacking
target (and lose its benefit elsewhere), using your own
Mind Control to cancel it out, or just shoot the thing.
Trying to prevent system damage without losing any crew
versus Mind-3 can lead to tears after a lapse in attention.

It's seen as a "weak" system, as it doesn't strictly boost
your ship-to-ship offense, protect you from their weapons,
or ruin one of their systems, but it has earned a spot as a
system worth getting. It is a powerful Teleporter aid, a
great repair interference, and gives a decent chance to
terminate crew if you've got the time to spare.



 2.14 ---------------------------- Piloting -----------------------------

The place where the ship is steered. Without someone here,
you can't escape, and you really shouldn't expect to dodge
many attacks. But a distracted pilot is still a pilot.

|Level| Off  | Lv 1 | Lv 2 | Lv 3 |
+-----+------+------+------+------+
|Scrap|      | .... |   20 |   50 |
|Value|      |    0 |   20 |   70 |
|Eva/?| No   | None |  50% |  80% |
+-----+------+------+------+------+

|Who is it|Evade| This subsystem can be manned. The bonus
+---------+-----+ applies when the crew isn't busy.
|Real busy|+ 0% |
|Untrained|+ 5% | The ship is piloted if someone is in the
|Skilled  |+ 7% | room, even if there's a breach, fire, some
|Mastered |+10% | boarders, or currently moving somewhere.
+---------+-----+ There's just no pilot *bonus* then.

 -Hacking-
Identical to the effects of Engines, other than which room
on the ship is affected. However, a manned Piloting doesn't
speed up FTL charge, while a manned Engines does, so the
Hacking's passive effect does a slightly better job on the
Engines, by getting rid of the manning bonus to FTL charge.

     Piloted   :     Unpiloted
---------------:------------------
  Full evade   : Evade depends on Piloting level
  FTL charging : FTL charge frozen
  May jump     : Can't jump, even if fully charged

The ship is piloted if:
 * The piloting subsystem isn't disabled (at least one powered level)
 * You have at least one crew member in the room
 * Engines has at least one power
 * Piloting or Engines aren't currently affected by a Hacking Pulse

When this room doesn't have a pilot, only a portion of the
Evade from Engines (and engineer bonus) applies. The 60%
bonus Evade from an ongoing cloak is unaffected by lacking a
pilot, so even if Piloting is destroyed, you can at least
ensure 60% Evade that way.

It doesn't matter if the piloting station is manned. As long
as you have someone in there (perhaps busy with boarders or
repairs?), and Piloting isn't destroyed, you have full Evade
from Engines, FTL is charging, and once charged, you can
jump. Being busy just stops the pilot's bonus (+5 +7 +10).

You usually do not want to upgrade this subsystem. You are
nearly certain to always have a pilot in the room, so the
benefit of higher levels is rarely seen. Even in the odd
case where you don't have a pilot, having only 80% of your
usual evade (70 Scrap, too) is still worrisome.

Still, Lv2 might be desirable. Not because of the 50% Evade,
but because of one extra damage before you lose all evade.
And for those who explore nebulas, there is an event that
uses this for a blue choice. It's 20 Scrap, you might feel
the loss, but if you dodge that missile while your pilot is
busy repairing, it payed off well.

Boarding the enemy Piloting in an attempt to stop their FTL
won't work. Boarding the enemy Shields in said attempt will
have more success. This is because boarders in Piloting will
convince enemies to go there to stop your boarders, which by
having crew in Piloting, means the ship is charging FTL. You
want them out of Piloting, not in there.

However, shooting the enemy Piloting is usually more
effective than shooting the Engines, as it can't have more
than 3 levels to destroy, unlike Engines.


 2.15 ----------------------------- Sensors -----------------------------

Useful to see just what's going on. Knowing what's going on
in your ship is nice. Knowing what's in your enemy's ship is
comforting. Knowing your enemy's systems is grand.

|Level| Off  | Lv 1 | Lv 2 | Lv 3 | Lv 4 |
+-----+------+------+------+------+------+
|Scrap|      | (40) |   25 |   40 | - -  |
|Value|      |   40 |   65 |  105 | - -  |
|Info | Crew |Yours |Theirs|Weapon|Power |
+-----+------+------+------+------+------+

The Sensors can be manned. This will increase the effective
level of the system by one. This is useful whenever you need
more information at the time. There is no associated skill,
manning is at its full effectiveness from the start.

Notable Augmentations:
* Lifeform Scanner - See red "shadows" of enemy crew without Sensors

 - Hacking -
Hacking Pulse shuts off Sensors. Rather underwhelming.
Enjoy every moment your enemy choses to hack this subsystem.

When disabled, you only see what your crew sees, including
friendly drones (they have cameras transmitting the info).
Slugs can see more, with enemy crew showing as red shadows
in unsighted rooms, as well as vision of adjacent rooms. For
some reason, you can see the status of enemy doors, such as
level and moments the enemy crew are walking through one.

At level 1, you have full vision of your ship's rooms.
Useful for spotting fires or figuring out where boarders
are. Even without this level, you can spot rooms in trouble
from small red icons over your system power indicators. Not
as obvious as seeing it on the ship layout, but this fact
makes Sensors-1 less useful.

At level 2, you have full vision of rooms in the enemy ship
as well. This helps to identify what the enemy crew is and
how many, and also what they happen to be doing. Makes
boarding less scary, because you know more about what you're
getting into, though not necessarily much easier. It's also
needed for Mind Control to work, if you have no alternative
means of seeing where enemies are.

At level 3, the charge of enemy weapons is revealed.
Usually, the graphics of the weapon gives you an idea, but
some (such as bombs) do not clue you in, and the graphics
are not as precise as these charge bars. Hacking the weapons
will give identical information.

At level 4, you also identify what the enemy is doing with
their power. This even includes partial progress from fires,
boarder attacks, and repairs, as well as the ion timers.
It may not make you hit harder, but the info given by this
sure is convenient. Hacking any system gives exactly this
information for that one system.

You don't quite know everything at Lv4 -- You do not see the
enemy cloaking timer like you would with your own ship. But
the self-ionizing effect after the cloak is seen.

Sensors are always disabled in a nebula. You didn't need to
see your own ship anyway. Spotting fires and breaches is
more difficult this way, but if you listen closely, you can
hear the twist of a hull breach, and you can hear the roar
of an ongoing fire. Adds plenty of paranoia if you can hear
your ship on fire, but only in systemless rooms, heh. Keep
those headphones on, man. Keep the sounds playing.

For whatever reason, a successful bomb you fire gives
momentary vision like you have crew in there. Kind of a
gutsy thing to do if you need to see what's going on in your
own ship by bomb, but occasionally useful if you need to see
if you've set fires on the enemy ship.

Lv4 may not be necessary for anyone, but it's really nice to
know some of the exact details. Mostly to do with ions. If
you use decent ions, this lets you know just how ion'd the
enemy is, and lets you get better information where ions are
needed. Also helpful to know when boarding an Auto-Scout,
since they may cloak and ruin your boarders as they die from
lack of air.

There are a few blue choices for Lv2, and several more blue
choices in nebula beacons for Lv3. There is some overlap
with the Long-Ranged Scanners if you happen to have those.


 2.16 --------------------------- Door System ---------------------------

Open. Close. Critical for directing air in (or out of) your
ship. Tougher doors will greatly slow fires and boarders,
allowing an airless environment time to negate the threat.

|Level| Off  | Lv 1 | Lv 2 | Lv 3 | Lv 4 |
+-----+------+------+------+------+------+
|Scrap|      | (60) |   35 |   50 | - -  |
|Value|      |   60 |   95 |  145 | - -  |
|Doors|Stuck |Simple|Blast |Strong|Absurd|
|Time |   No |   No |  ??s |  ??s | ?18s | Time to block one boarder
+-----+------+------+------+------+------+

The Door System can be manned. This will increase the
effective level of the system by one. This makes it (more)
difficult for enemy boarders to traverse your ship. There is
no associated skill, no "level ups" to worry about.

 - Hacking -
Any room the Hacking drone attaches to will always lock its
doors with a lovely purple hue. It does not have to attach
to the Door System to do this. However, a Hacking Pulse on
the Door System will turn all doors on the ship purple.
These hacked doors will freely allow boarders to go through,
and the ship's crew must break through them.

When disabled, you can't open or close doors. Nasty if you
have opened some doors and airlocks to important systems,
such as... Say, access to the Door System to repair it. All
crew can still travel freely through closed doors.

At level 1, you can open and close doors. This is only
helpful to direct air around, such as getting rid of it to
help remove fires and enemy boarders elsewhere, or to spread
air into needed rooms while your Oxygen is off. Keep closed
if not using 'em in case the subsystem is damaged.

Higher levels turn them into Blast Doors. These grey doors
greatly slow the spread of fires and boarders. If closed,
boarders must first break through it, with higher levels
making them take longer. More boarders will break through
faster. When broken, the door is treated as open, and is
unresponsive to your control, fixing itself after around
eight seconds, where it defaults to being open.

Since v1.5.4, even enemy doors stay open after first break,
so if you do find reason to break a few, you'll have passage
for the rest of the battle. I suspect this is unintended and
will be fixed sometime in the future. Maybe.

Hacked doors act as Doors-2 versus the ship's crew, freely
allows boarders to pass, does not block spread of fires, and
when broken, will automatically close when "fixed". Such
doors are never under control to open or close by the
player, regardless of which ship it is.

When this is ionized, you can't open or close doors at will.
Almost as if even one level of ion is enough to make the
effective level zero, even if the subsystem is higher.

When jumping from a safe condition (music is calmer), blast
doors regain their "hit points," so any previous damage done
will not stick around for the next boarder to abuse.

Upgrading this subsystem is great for beginners. When
dealing with boarders, you usually want to drain air from
rooms they're in so as to direct them into other rooms. By
having blast doors they need to break down first, their
attempts to escape airless rooms will leave them pounding at
the door taking damage all the while.

It's handy, but not essential for experts. They'll know
exactly when to direct their own crew into a fight with
enemies or how to lead enemies to the Medbay in a hurry.
Besides, if you happen to have spare crew handy, man the
thing and you've got some tough doors. 35 Scrap is not
to be spent lightly.

Enemies rarely have this subsystem at levels 2 or 3. It's a
potential nightmare for boarding strategies, and very easy
to forget to check if they have blast doors due to rarity.
Blast doors make it nearly impossible to dance your boarders
across rooms to keep them alive in some emergencies. Though,
first break through a few, and dance all you like now.


 2.17 ------------------------- Backup Battery --------------------------

You've neglected your Reactor. You enter a plasma storm. The
need for better systems leaves a rather slim Reactor. This
fine battery will add a little extra kick for your ship.

|Level| Off  | Lv 1 | Lv 2 |
+-----+------+------+------+
|Scrap|      | (35) |   50 |
|Value|      |   35 |   85 |
|Power|    0 |   +2 |   +4 |
+-----+------+------+------+

Notable Augmentations:
* Battery Charger - Cooldown reduced to 10 seconds (down from 20)

 - Hacking -
A Hacking Pulse instantly shuts down the battery (and
triggers cooldown if it was running), and also reduces
Reactor power by 2 on top of that for the duration of the
pulse. You are advised to figure out what systems you do not
need until the Pulse is over.

A clicky button is available. Click it, you want to. This
adds two or four power to your Reactor. It lasts 30 seconds
before going into cooldown, usually 20 seconds long.

When distributing power, the battery-based power is given a
colorful border, representing which systems will lose power
once the battery's effect ends. These bordered power bars
are the last to be distributed into a system and the first
to be removed when you are allocating power. If a Zoltan
walks into a maxed out room, Battery power is "pushed" out
before Reactor power starts getting affected.

Unlike the Reactor, a plasma storm does not reduce the
effectiveness of a Backup Battery. The two or four power
granted by this subsystem is a great boon in such an event,
as two levels of Reactor costs a lot and only gives one
power in this case, but a level of Battery always gives two.

I appreciate the existence of this subsystem. Not merely
because it gives added power for pretty cheap, but because
new players will actually be more likely to avoid that "max
out Reactor to power all systems at all times" mentality. If
they do that, they waste this subsystem, not to mention lose
a lot of Scrap into the black hole of the Reactor.

30 seconds of power is a lovely amount of time. Much of the
battle will pass by the time the Battery ends. There's a
good chance you're either at a handy advantage or looking to
simply retreat by then. If it's still a struggle for some
advantage, how wonderful! You get to learn power management!

Just in case the battle does last that long, or your Battery
gets shot, and you still need some key systems powered, some
systems are better choices for your battery power.

   Good ideas  | Bad choices
---------------+--------------
Engines        |Shields
Crew Teleporter|Weapon Control
Oxygen         |Artillery (unique Federation weapon-system)
Medbay         |Clone Bay
Drone Control  |Drone Control's Hull Repair Drone
Mind Control   |
Hacking        |using the Battery on "temporary" systems means it
Cloaking       |won't last beyond the Battery's remaining life.

In some cases, if a system shuts off unexpectedly because
your battery shut off, nothing bad happens and you can just
redistribute power. In others, your Shields just went down,
your weapons lost their charge, the clones you hoped to get
suddenly die off, or your other systems disabled themselves
around half a second after you clicked them on, and now you
have a 20 second cooldown to wait.

Still, if you know your Battery will last long enough for
your Hacking, Mind Control, or Cloaking, the ion lock
cooldown won't interfere once your Battery runs out. Though,
in the case of Hacking, an unpowered Hacking doesn't do its
nifty passive effects, ion lock or not. But replacing just
one Battery power with Reactor power keeps passive effects
after your Battery runs out of time.

It's a cheap power boost. Purchasing the system is worth two
Reactor, yet the price is cheaper than any two of Reactor-6
to 10. The upgrade to level 2 costs similarly to two bars
out of Reactor-11 to 15. Main advantage here is the Battery
is at its full effect in a plasma storm, with drawbacks
being the 30 second timer and vulnerability to weapons fire.


 2.18 ----------------------------- Reactor -----------------------------

Needed to power systems. It is tempting to keep all systems
powered all the time, but before you know it, you just spent
lots of Scrap on it and find out your systems are too weak.

+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+
|  5:30 (  0) | 10:20 (100) | 15:25 (225) | 20:30 (375) | 25:35 (550) |
|  4:30 (-30) |  9:20 ( 80) | 14:25 (200) | 19:30 (345) | 24:35 (515) |
|  3:30 (-60) |  8:20 ( 60) | 13:25 (175) | 18:30 (315) | 23:35 (480) |
|  2:-- (-90) |  7:20 ( 40) | 12:25 (150) | 17:30 (285) | 22:35 (445) |
|  1:-- (---) |  6:20 ( 20) | 11:25 (125) | 16:30 (255) | 21:35 (410) |
+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+

You need power to make use of the ship's systems. A Zoltan
will add one power to a system of whatever room they reside
in. Subsystems run by their own power, and in the odd case
where they aren't at full power (ion effect), a Zoltan can't
add power to a subsystem.

Plasma storms will reduce Reactor power to half, rounded up.
Keeping an odd-numbered Reactor power is slightly more
valuable due to this if you like flying to nebula beacons.
Power is removed at random from various systems in order to
meet your halved power, including Shields, a bad time to
come across an Auto-Assault with some anti-ship drones, so
power down other systems when going in.

Backup Battery is not affected by these plasma storms. This
means that in this particular case, one level in the Battery
is as valuable as four levels in the Reactor. Most other
cases don't invovle plasma storms, but at least the pain of
plasma storms is rather dulled with a Battery.

Unlike actual systems and subsystems, the Reactor does not
have a room associated with it. This means that the Reactor
itself can't take damage from attacks, Hacking can't target
it, and it will always run at full capacity, aside from
unusual situations (plasma storm, hacked Backup Battery).

It is not possible to have all systems fully powered in a
maxed-out ship. Maximum is Reactor-25, the total levels of
all systems range from 39 to 45, and even with Battery-2 and
eight Zoltans, you're only getting 37 power. On the other
hand, if you do have enough system levels that Reactor-25
can't fill 'em all, the game is going really well.

However crucial the Reactor may be in keeping your systems
working, it's usually a very bad idea to save Scrap just
because you can't also afford a Reactor upgrade. Buff up
that system already if you think you need it, get the extra
power later when you can finally afford it. Take it from
other systems as the situation demands it.

Reactor upgrades are actually pretty expensive. The total
value of Reactor-25 is greater than Shields-8. If you don't
need it, don't upgrade the Reactor. It takes some time
before you get a feel on how much power you really need, but
good practice comes from flying straight into plasma storms
or aiming for a certain Zoltan ship achievement.

Oh, don't fear plasma storms. Picking beacons outside of a
nebula has a risk of asteroids, flaring suns, or especially
those blasted ion pulsars, each of which should scare you
you anyway. The fact a plasma storm is a hazard you can't
find elsewhere shouldn't be the sole reason why you evade
nebula beacons. After all, there's no other hazard in there.



O|+--+  +--+~=+--+^^+--+\ / \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \ /+--+^^+--+=~+--+  +--+|O
 3|##|'.|&&|[]|**|CG|..| v     BUGS AND GLITCHES     v |..|CB|**|[]|&&|.'|##|\-
--+##+--+&&+--+**+--+..+-------------------------------+..+--+**+--+&&[BGL10]--

These glitches are confirmed to exist in v1.5.10, and I'm
calling them glitches because, quite simply, there's nothing
intuitive about it. If new versions come out, I expect them
to be fixed. Don't expect these tricks to remain.


 3. 1 --------------------- Failure Hack Teleporter ---------------------

When a Hacking Pulse affects a Crew Teleporter, it is
supposed to recall boarders sent by that ship. However, if
the system has zero power in it, this recall will not
happen. Furthermore, if the system had an ion lock, it does
not anymore, allowing the affected ship to send boarders
much earlier than expected... After breaking through those
purple doors, anyway.

This is often to the player's advantage, if Zoltans or an
Ion Bomb are involved, but if you have Teleport-2, you might
want to see if you can remember to remove power to it so
that the Hacking Pulse doesn't recall your boarders.


 3. 2 --------------------- Enemy Open Door Policy ----------------------

Since v1.5.4, doors default to an open state when they are
broken. While it is convenient for the player ship when it
come to asphyxiation tactics, and avoids those times where
the enemy boarders manage to break a system or two, this
also affects the enemy ship.

Think about it. Enemies never open or close doors on their
ship. When you break a door on their ship, it defaults to
the open state when auto-fixed, and since the enemy never
manages doors, it ain't ever closing again. This effectively
gives free access after breaking their door the first time.
Obviously, this doesn't ruin you (your doors are under your
control), so it's clearly in player's favor.

Hacked doors default to being closed, if you were worried
about that. Those purple doors in the enemy ship will block
them again sometime in the future.


 3. 3 --------------- Auto-ship's Anti-hack Auto-manning ----------------

A Hacking drone is supposed to prevent the system from being
manned. It does work quite well against a ship with actual
crew, as the terminal is unresponsive and the crew bonus is
negated. However, an auto-ship ignores this effect of
Hacking and keeps the basic crew bonus regardless. This is
most visible when you send Hacking to Engines, as you will
see you hacked that Engines-5, but why does the ship have
35% Evade, not 30%?

You might think that nothing can turn off this auto-manning.
This is not true -- Do one damage to that Engines-5, and you
will see Evade drop to 25%, which suggests the ship is no
longer manning the Engines (and still has +5 pilot bonus).

You can't really stop this base level auto-manning with
Hacking, but it is stopped by other sources. This does feel
inconsistent, and is slightly detrimental to the player.
Of course, a Hacking Pulse still puts a stop to the system.


 3. 4 --------------- Pre-igniter Pre-charge Preservation ---------------

The Weapon Pre-igniter does more than give your active
weapons one full charge after a jump. It also makes the game
forget to remove charge off your inactive weapons.

Steps to see it in action:
 * Get yourself a Weapon Pre-igniter (alas, a rare Augmentation. Sorry)
 * Charge up some weapons fully
 * Pause the game
 * Remove power to charged weapons, and power up some others
 * Now jump to another beacon.

The inactive weapons retain their charge! And if you had
multiple charge weapons, they will begin the battle with all
their charges from the inactive state, minus several moments
of charge time. This is unlike the usual case, where an
active multiple charge weapon only gets one of their charges
from the Weapon Pre-igniter.

Now, to make use of these charged inactive weapons, fire the
ones you've got, turn those off, and quickly activate the
mostly charged inactive weapons. In effect, this allows you
to use up to twice your Weapon Control's level at the start
of any combat. Not bad for a top-value Augmentation!


O|+--+  +--+~=+--+^^+--+\ / \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \ /+--+^^+--+=~+--+  +--+|O
 4|##|'.|&&|[]|**|CG|..| v          CLOSING          v |..|CB|**|[]|&&|.'|##|\-
--+##+--+&&+--+**+--+..+-------------------------------+..+--+**+--+&&[CLO32]--


From this point on, I give details that have little to do
with the game. If you wanted my strategies and tactics, look
a little ways back up. It's pretty necessary to have this
junk here. Regardless, some of these might be important to
you at this time, so let's have it here.


 4. 1 ----------------------------- Credits -----------------------------

beege_man - For looking through my unfinished FAQs and
   giving a few suggestions. Awesome.

The GameFAQs message board is a great help to throw some
ideas around. Clone Bay's rather short grace period is one
of those that people went and chimed in about when I asked,
so thanks to joefitts63 and MasterTurtle for chiming in.

I generally thank more direct help in the progress of my
FAQs. If I did refer frequently to other sources, I'd be
thanking those too, but most of everything here was by my
own experience.


 4. 2 -------------------------- Contact Info ---------------------------

It is difficult to contact me. I apologize. However, if you
have a GameFAQs message board account, I can be contacted
through that private message system.

GameFAQs message board name: FatRatKnight

As for E-mail, I seem to use it so rarely I ended up losing
it again. Even if I did have one, whether it's a good enough
way to contact me would be highly questionable anyway. I am
pretty active on the message boards, and I don't mind a PM
no matter how long it's been since I last visited the game.

But I will guarantee a response within a few days if you
send a private message to FatRatKnight through the GameFAQs
message board. I am always ready to look back here.


 4. 3 ------------------------------ Legal ------------------------------

Copyright 2014 Leeland Eric Kirwan

This guide may *not* be reproduced under any circumstances
except for personal, private use. Only www.gamefaqs.com may
publicly distribute this file, until such a time that I give
written permission to other sites as desired. Do not alter
this guide, do not present it as the work of anyone else.

CheatCC, or Cheat Code Central, will take special notice as
a site *not* allowed to host this file. David Allison, owner
of CheatCC, has infringed the copyright of many guides, with
modifications in many cases to make it appear the author's
intent was to have it hosted on CheatCC (or any sites owned
by or affiliated with David Allison). I will raise awareness
of this person's history here, in an effort to minimize any
support for one who has taken so many guides. This has been
apparently going on for more than a decade.


 4. 4 ------------------------- Version History -------------------------

v1.00 - Initial release of this FAQ, for FTL v1.5.10


Short Version History. And thanks for reading...


O|+--+  +--+~=+--+^^+--+\ / \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \ /+--+^^+--+=~+--+  +--+|O
-/|##|'.|&&|[]|**|CG|..| v        END Of FILE        v |..|CB|**|[]|&&|.'|##|\-
--+##+--+&&+--+**+--+..+-------------------------------+..+--+**+--+&&+--+##+--