I finally beat the flagship in FTL! How long did it take you?

That's fine. I estimated mine too. My stats say 8 but I had to delete my saves at one point and lost 1 or 2 playthroughs.

Haha. I got distracted by other games too, which isn't that hard since FTL can be so despairing. I was in the midst of an awesome playthrough with a full crew and great gear but when I got to the final sector, I didn't have the heart to face the flagship and lose it all. I let that save sit for a year and when I came back to play, I had forgotten a lot about the game and botched up the playthrough.

Luck plays a large part in FTL. I've played a game where I find awesome weapons and a full crew at no cost. I've also played a game where I find just about nothing and have to spend all my scrap for those things.

And I have my eye on Convoy. Do you have it? If so, how is it?

I think Convoy is by made by another developer, not Subset Games.

You just went straight for normal difficulty? After 40 hours, I definitely would have stepped down to easy. I hope I can start raking in the wins now but I fear luck would have otherwise.

Aw, too bad. Yes,it's a fantastic game. I have a low tolerance for obscenely difficult indie games but something about this one had me coming back to get pwned again and again. It's a love-hate relationship.

The flagship seemed much more manageable when I beat it with the Zoltan compared to other attempts. I don't believe that's all because of the shields - they only last for a short while and don't recharge (they're more helpful in shorter encounters). It was probably just luck.

I tried the Mantis before that but I think I put too much emphasis on boarding and hand-to-hand combat resulting in an underpowered weapons system. I ended up losing the 3 Mantis crew members that I start with (2 because blast doors blocked my escape when low on health and 1 because I accidentally teleported him onto an automated ship) and then I starting getting into stalemates in sector 6.

Someone should make a mod that adds lens flares to FTL :D

(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
But seriously, it's a great game. Just be forewarned that it's quite difficult.

I'm in the same boat.

Recently, I've been really bad about keeping tabs on my fuel and I too end up stranded. But someone usually comes by in the nick of time to lend a helping hand.

Best of luck! And if you don't find it to much of a cheat, check of that wiki article. It helped me a lot.

I applaud your persistence. The game does have a charming and addictive quality that overshadows its unrelenting difficulty.

Have you won a game yet without cheats?

Tsk, tsk. Interesting that it didn't help as much as expected.

I've seen many people on forums saying similar things like "This game is so easy. I beat it on the first try. You guys are noobs." I wonder how many of them tried to beat it again.

I was going to say "don't give up," but it sounds more like you didn't like the game's style.

I think I had a playthrough like that... it's very discouraging. But don't give up! You'll eventually beat it and it'll be quite rewarding when you do.

What stage of the flagship did you reach?

Have you beaten it again since then?

I don't think I even knew there were multiple stages when I first encountered the flagship. I was thrilled when I destroyed the first stage and not to happy when I learned I had to face it again with very little of my own ship left.

I'm skeptical that one can be lucky enough to beat the flagship almost every playthrough.

Keep at it! One of these times you'll get a lucky playthrough.

On my last playthrough (the one I finally got a victory on) I unlocked the Stealth Cruiser and almost got the Slug and Crystal Cruiser. I got the quest for the latter but I was already in sector 7 so I couldn't complete it.

Nice job on winning normal soon thereafter. I would say I'm also still learning things about the game, not to mention I haven't even delved into the Advanced Edition.

You beat the game on hard with every ship or you beat the game once on hard and have unlocked all ships?