FTL: Dealing Death pt. 5

Today we are going to cover some offensive options available in FTL.

Conventional Weaponry - Energy Weapons

Lasers

The most common type of weapon in FTL is laser weaponry. Lasers come in two varieties: standard, and heavy lasers. Heavy lasers do two damage per laser blast, while standard lasers do one damage per laser blast. More powerful lasers typically shoot more laser blasts at once. Each laser blast, whether standard or heavy, depletes one layer of shielding, as was covered in the defensive section of my tips. The main advantage of lasers is that they charge relatively quickly and deplete no ammunition. They are capable of penetrating shielding if you have enough lasers, but they cannot ignore it. Lasers are a standard weapon which is mediocre at most tasks but does not excel at anything in particular. Lasers make good weaponry fillers for most strategies.

Beams

Beam weapons do damage to each system hit, and damage to the hull based on how many total rooms are hit.

Beams are another form of energy weapon which are more specialized than laser weaponry. In general, beams are devastatingly powerful, but come with the limitation that they work effectively only once the enemy shields are down, whether temporarily or permanently. Once shields are down, beams are guaranteed to hit, and are by far the most damaging weapon if used effectively. Some beams are capable of partially ignoring shields, but their damage is reduced by each layer of shield which is still operational. Beams work great when paired with a weapon which can take down the enemy shields, either permanently or temporarily. Like lasers, beams do not require ammunition.

Ion Guns

Ion guns are an energy weapon which does no permanent damage but can disable any system once shields are down. While shields are up, beam guns work towards disabling the shield. As with other energy weapons, ion guns do not require ammunition. Ion guns often charge quickly to very quickly, and can work particularly well with beam weapons, or if you are planning on boarding the enemy vessel. Ion weapons do ion damage to systems, which takes the system hit down for 5 seconds per ion damage dealt.

Tomorrow we will go over consumable weaponry such as missiles and bombs.

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