8. The Last Stand (FTL)

(Originally posted July 18, 2023)

A collection of simple thoughts on last levels, final dungeons, and endgame zones.
Spoilers for FTL: Faster than Light.
Table of Contents

Context: The rebel fleet has been nipping at your heels for your entire journey across the galaxy. Now it's time to stand and fight.

Somewhat breaking the rules I blithely mentioned, uh, two posts ago regarding this series not being about final bosses to talk about a last level that's wrapped entirely around tangling with the final boss. Oops. Case by case basis, folks.

The sector itself follows the same rules as the rest of them, in that the rebel fleet is encroaching from the left side, capturing beacons on the way. Except now, the Rebel Flagship is clearly visible on the map screen, and your objective is to proactively hunt it down. If it captures the main base, you lose. If you die, you also lose.

No matter how strong your ship is, the Rebel Flagship has you outgunned. It's a matter of how quickly you can deplete its HP before it kills you; a true blue DPS check. This can be a problem (though not an insurmountable one) if, for example, you built mostly into crew boarding or ion weaponry, which don't deal direct damage.

You also have to defeat it three times, each bout destroying some of its additional systems and unlocking new ones. The first stage has cloaking and hacking, the second spams drones at you, and the third tries to board while it puts up its extra shields. I always personally have the most trouble with the second phase, where the drones can easily overwhelm your shields.

The first priority target in my opinion is the triple missile launcher; missiles pierce shields and will fuck you up royally if not dealt with. Granted, if you've played the game this is all common knowledge and you are not gaining anything by reading it. So why am I wasting my time writing it? Makes you think.

As a safeguard against an easy victory, an onboard AI takes over the Flagship if you kill every crewmember, which is a real dick move. AIs constantly repair all damaged systems at a slow but constant rate, which includes the otherwise crew-inaccessible triple missile launcher. Thus, the usual play is to leave the little sucker manning the triple-laser alone so there's technically a living crew member. Hard mode naturally adds extra corridors connecting these two systems so they can be repaired.

I think The Last Stand occasionally just seems completely unfair or even literally unwinnable, which feels bad in the moment, but I also think this is true to the spirit of the Roguelike. What's ultimately being tested is your mastery of the mechanics via how you deal with the random hand you're dealt. Sometimes, that's just how it goes.