The Mini Beam can hit four rooms on many ships. I'm wondering how to make these work. Also pike beam was better for cheeky swipes. The main downside of bombs is that they don't do hull damage. Leah (also known as The Beam Master) the is a recurring character in FTL Multiverse, and the player’s self-proclaimed “rival”. Press J to jump to the feed. Fight the ship. This event can occur only once per sector. And once you're up against triple shields, the beam weapons are taking up the weapon space needed to bring those down. Glaive Beam is super powerful but a glass cannon, and needs a lot of support and strong defense. This beam allows you to turtle really hard as the beam, although it will take a while, can take down any ship. I'm wondering how to make these work. Wowee. Upon arrival, you are immediately surrounded by chaos: a planet's Anti-Ship Battery is firing on a number of Lanius ships; one of the combat ships mistakenly believes your ship has arrived to assist the planetary defenses. not sure whether i misread or it only happens to me but : arent the beam weapons supposed to 'partially' cut thru shields? how come i never see any beam weapon cut thru even when the enemy only has level one shield? and then just today while playing w glaive beam, my ship at last does cut thru the shields (even level 3!) but suddenly in sector 3 the 'glitch'. Halberd Beam 65 scrap, 3 power and 17 seconds is cheap for this kind of damage potential. . Starts with the Zoltan Supershield Augment. halberd beam, on the other hand, is an incredibly useful little beast. Due to the higher damage, the Halberd Beam can penetrate 1 bar of shields, but no more than that. Hacking costs 80 to buy, another 35 for lvl 2, and another 60 for lvl 3. FTL: Faster Than Light is a procedurally generated roguelike game that has you captain a starship to its doom, repeatedly. Halberd beam is my favorite weapon. As a rule of thumb, you should have level 2 shields and level 4 engines by the end of the first sector. If you use Glaive on level 2 shields, it does 1 damage. I pull two of my crew members into piloting and vent out the rest of the ship. Faster Than Light (FTL) is a popular rogue-like space simulation game where players control a spacecraft and crew as they traverse a hostile galaxy. While bad for boarding, Zoltan are otherwise exceptional crew member supplying free power. Against Zoltan Shields, use precise beam placement and timing to help disable weapons. Sure, they do a lot of damage, but you have to get the shields down first. FTL: Faster Than Light. Fuck. The Halberd beam can remain a mainstay for the rest of the game. View source. FTL: Multiverse Wiki is a FANDOM Games Community. Take every fight you can. Sectors are zones in FTL: Faster Than Light, each containing between 19 and 24 beacons. FABIO. also, at this point in the game, selling pre-igniter would have prevented me from using a sven maneuver to bring my halberd beam to bear along with bl2, flak I and ion blast with my first volley. A subreddit to discuss the Kickstarter-backed "roguelike-like" game FTL: Faster…Press your finger on a room and hold. At the boss I had the burst and small attack weapon you start the game with and an ion charger. My Zoltan A was the goddamn juggernaut, bitch) I had this loadout, but with heavy 2s and a preignited. Keep the Glaive Beam charged and fire all your other weapons at once. and if two are halberd beams, there is nothing to fill in the third slot that will consistently take down three levels of shields. They can only be found as starting weapons on specific player ships or in the Power Efficient Salesman event. The Halberd Beam is fantastic, but 2 ion blasts and a pike beam is an amazing combination. Begin the fight by boarding and destroying the missile launcher, the ion blaster and the halberd beam. And regards to the shop you had, I would probably choose fire beam. I was able to fit a defense mk 2 at the very last shop in section 8. H. The. The key to using beams effectively is knowing how to aim them properly. The damage of a beam is reduced by one for every shield layer, giving the most powerful beams some ability to pierce shields. 74K subscribers in the ftlgame community. A subreddit to discuss the Kickstarter-backed "roguelike-like" game FTL: Faster…This random event occurs in: Rock Homeworlds The Long-Ranged Scanners will detect ship presence. However it cost 15 more scrap in store. Damage: 2 damage per room hit 6. Not only are you doing 4 damage to one system, but you have a 76% chance of causing either a fire or a breach (or both). But dont discount beams, they are awesome if you have a means of getting shields down and keep them down. From my experience, the Halberd is the best heavy weapon. In later sectors, it is possible for some. Discussions Rules and GuidelinesFlak 1 x2 + heavy laser 1 x2 is probably my favorite low power (only 6 power) alternative which can be used on all ships. Leah will always spawn in S1 Droppoint. i suppose you could argue that selling. Drones are certainly an option; I like having another energy weapon as a mainstay because they don't cost ammo or parts. Flak 1 x2 + halberd beam is probably the universal " I don't have hacking" carry. This was ship 10 of my second win streak attempt (first attempt lost on ship 26). A subreddit to discuss the Kickstarter-backed "roguelike-like" game FTL: Faster Than Light by Subset Games. While it didn't matter so much with Zoltan B, the faster hull beam cooldown is still a nice bonus. Favorite Drone: Combat II Favorite Weapon: Flak II (I’m still not very sure yet) Halberd Beam, {Flak Gun Mk I | Breach Bomb Mk II}, Burst Laser Mk II, Heavy Laser Mk I; Hacking. The player controls a spacecraft with crew that intercepts an important data packet from the Rebel Fleet. Mini Beam. FTL: Faster Than Light is a space role-playing game with roguelike elements developed by Subset Games. Either a 2+ damage beam weapon or laser that fires more than one laser will be needed to compensate for the difficulty of wearing down all four layers of shielding. hull and pike beam suck but can be used to decent effect. 9. (the ship can also be unlocked by winning the game with the Slug Cruiser) You are immediately messaged by an imposing looking Rock war vessel, "You're the ship off to. The Long-Ranged Scanners will detect no ship presence. I debated about it for a long time, but spreading out 5 damage across multiple rooms never seemed as good to me as doing 4 damage to the room of my choosing. If you're looking for a weapon to fill a specific role, then these might be the ones you want. Halberd Beam is powerful enough to handle ships alone, but you would need reliable shield stripping for that - better stack ions. Beam weapon (Halberd beam is reccomended by me) + Hull breach I to II/Burst laser II to III. The Burst Laser mk2 is great. The civilian messages you, "Help! The metal monsters are coming to melt down our ship!" Strangely, no active weapon signatures are detected. the A-12 supersonic stealth aircraft and its sister craft, the SR-71 blackbird. Just beat the flagship, with no hull repair. (10) 1x Halberd 1x Glaive (CHEEKY SWIPE) (12) 2x Glaive I also marked how much Zoltan shield damage they do in parenthesis. This is a list of useful guides regarding FTL. Image credit: FTL Wiki. Around sector 3-4 you start seeing ships with 3 shields, and the beam can't penetrate. On the sector map, there are three groups of sectors: Civilian , Hostile , Nebula . Beams have 0 dps without shield droppers. Shield recharge speed varies from ship to ship. And later on, a boarding-only strategy can be fun with the Mantis B or Crystal B. Halberd + Duals + Heavy 1 with shields hack is probably better. Pike Beam; Halberd Beam; Hull Beam; Heavy Crystal I; Breach Bomb II; Small Bomb; Charge Laser II; FTL B Tier List (2023) The B Tier is for weapons that are not as powerful as the others but can still be useful in certain situations. Ion while not the best opens up fun options. Artemis, Breach II, Ion Honorable mention: Hermes. I once one-shotted the first stage of the flagship with a pegasus missile, an ion bomb, and two hull beams. Get shields down, and it can do 8 - occasionally 10 - can't miss damage. Halberd beam: This one really shreds stuff up. "Slow but reliably powerful standard beam weapon. And once you're up against triple shields, the beam weapons are taking up the weapon space needed to bring those down. The only time that the BL3 is useful is when you need something, anything to give you better shield penetrating power and it's the only thing available. Ruinae Retroque Rursus. Mini Beam; Pike Beam; Hull Beam; Halberd Beam; Glaive Beam; Fire Beam; Anti-Bio BeamThe Adjucator's armament is a Halberd Beam and a Leto missile launcher with some ammunition. Like any projectile weapon, lasers can miss. And regards to the shop you had, I would probably choose fire beam. And once you're up against triple shields, the beam weapons are taking up the weapon space needed to bring those down. And once you're up against triple shields, the beam weapons are taking up the weapon space needed to bring those down. Press J to jump to the feed. I'm wondering how to make these work. Lasers are general-purpose energy weapons. 2 BL2 and Halb seemed the way to go. I'd probably be hesitant to sell off my weapons to equip a lone Halberd Beam. They are exceptionally powerful damage dealers, able to do hull damage more rapidly than any other weapon once shields are down. Oddly, scans pick up no signs of debris from. My reasoning being that with my current loadout (heavy ions supporting Beam), that I was only targeting shields and weapons anyways and wasn't getting ship layouts where the full length of the Pike Beam. Beam Length: Very Long (6 tiles) Halberd Beam - Your above average beam weapon, it's a more powerful beam weapon than standard but does have a longer cooldown with high power consumption. To see the stats of the unique crew Sylvan, click here. In general the Halberd is better. He is a friendly but mysterious merchant that can give you scrap for resources and sell you equipment, which can sometimes be extremely rare equipment. Beam weapons can cause crew damage, but the beam must hit the specific square the crew member is standing on, not just the room that crew member is in. That is the Halberd Beam, not the often-cited Flak or Burst Laser 2. There are also distress signals that may come from different systems. e. What are your thought on my chance? For phase 1: What I would do is switch between breach missile (halberd beam can still damage with one shield up) and pike beam back and forward until crew in the main crew area is dead. It's also a very important 4 seconds because those seconds are the charge time for big big missiles getting launched, BL3 firing, and in some cases a second volley of other weapons. Commented-out description Power Req: 3 A powerful but slow beam that deals 2 damage in a short line with a low chance of breaches. I'm wondering how to make these work. Hello, I'm an experienced FTL no-pause player and I recently made multiple guides to help both new and veteran players. This event can occur only once per sector. )Business, Economics, and Finance. Ended up finishing the run, I had hacking and had just bought cloaking so the hacking pretty much did everything I needed the flak to do. Easy win, just shreded all ships. FTL: Faster Than Light. The damage is very unfocused, but the Pike inflicts so much that it's awesome regardless. Hull Beam. Lasers can only be shot down by Mark II Defense Drones. next Beams Anti-Bio-Beam , because it lose its effectivenessin the higher sectors Fire Beam , as with the Anti-Bio-Beam ,but fire Mini Beam , 1 energy and fast Hull Beam , the best Hull weapon in FTL Pike Beam , it is so long Halberd Beam , it can past one shield Glave Beam , strong past 2 shields Vindicator , because it is the total annihilation The game itself tells you this: Note: Beam damage is reduced by one for every shield it passes through, which allows for partial shield piercing. I've slowly fallen out of favor with. FTL on Steam: came from my stream on July 20th, 2021. ago. The Beam Drone is win-more; if you can keep the enemy shields down, you can win by any method. No boarding or mind control, so point is there are multiple ways to beat it. 업그레이드가 덜된 초반이든, 무장이 그럭저럭 갖춰진 후반에서든 얻게 된다면 일단 장착하고 보는 FTL의 최고의 무기. Their benefits range from improving stats (FTL Recharge Booster, Automated Re-loader) to granting entirely new. I will also slightly up the Halberd beam damage, as I was not feeling very happy with it in recent playtesting. Hacking pairs very well with beams too. I'm wondering how to make these work. Beam drone II really needs a two damage beam and maybe a doubled duration of fire then it might actually be worth something. A Halberd Beam can do 10 damage for 3 power on certain ships, with much faster recharge. In my experience it's probably the worst laser of the 8, because it's too slow and too power hungry to really be effective. (at least)Level 5 engines. . Then I got chain ion, pike beam as rewards. GOALS All weapons in the game have to be viable;. You can do at least 4 damage with the pike beam to practically any ship, but usually you can get 5 or 6 damage. 0 coins. With 2 shields active, it will do 1 damage per room, because 3-2=1. Sit down Burst II and Flak, you're good but not the king. Commented-outnext Beams Anti-Bio-Beam , because it lose its effectivenessin the higher sectors Fire Beam , as with the Anti-Bio-Beam ,but fire Mini Beam , 1 energy and fast Hull Beam , the best Hull weapon in FTL Pike Beam , it is so long Halberd Beam , it can past one shield Glave Beam , strong past 2 shields Vindicator , because it is the total. In a hot fight, you need to take out the enemy's dangerous weapons or drones fast, which the artillery beam just doesn't do. not sure whether i misread or it only happens to me but : arent the beam weapons supposed to 'partially' cut thru shields? how come i never see any beam weapon cut thru even when the enemy only has level one shield? and then just today while playing w glaive beam, my ship at last does cut thru the shields (even level 3!) but suddenly in sector 3 the 'glitch'. And once you're up against triple shields, the beam weapons are taking up the weapon space needed to bring those down. These weapons are ranked based on Damage, Swiftness, and Versatility. When you bring down the shield to 2 or less, use Beam to damage helm. If you get it for free, it's a decent. Sure, they do a lot of damage, but you have to get the shields down first. Like everything in FTL, it depends. Sure, they do a lot of damage, but you have to get the shields down first. It may have the same length as the halberd beam and deal three damage instead of two, but it requires half your maximum. Meanwhile, the 4 enemy crew (from a second port) are tearing my engines a new one, but I can still make this work. Hermes is a bit unwieldy to incorporate into most loadouts, but it has basically the same cooldown as the Artemis, and trades one additional damage for costing one two additional power - still enough to take out any subsystem, 2 shields, or 1-2 weapons with a single shot. Halberd Beam Cooldown 17s->18s Halberd Beam Rarity 2->4 Glaive Beam Cost 95->80 Glaive Beam Color Bright Red->Darker Red (Visual tweak only. Chain Ion is too slow to be good. On the sector map, there are three groups of sectors: Civilian, Hostile, Nebula. g. As long as the halberd doesn't go down, I have a BLII and a Halberd to finish off the Flagship. Once 2-shield enemies are showing up the halberd beam needs help. FTL Recharge Booster Effect 25%->55% (Allows Level 4 Engines to fairly reliably avoid ASBs, and Level 3 to avoid them sometimes. A guaranteed breach and 3 system damage along with sheild ignorance for only 2 power seems pretty. This random event occurs in: Abandoned Sector The Long-Ranged Scanners will detect ship presence. I'm wondering how to make these work. OK, time for another FTL report! This time I would be using the Zoltan B, a ship that I've often seen ranked among the strongest in the game. Power required to run the Cloaking System could be acquired by either powering down non-critical Systems like Medbay or Shield, or by hiring/rescuing Zoltan crews. Most people know about certain weapons that specialize in different areas that make them memorable. Halberd Beam: rarity 2 -> 4. The Adjucator's armament is a Halberd Beam and a Leto missile launcher with some ammunition. Hull. Invest in drones later in the game. My Zoltan A was the goddamn juggernaut, bitch) I had this loadout, but with heavy 2s and a preignited. Beams and ASB shots do not collide with anything. Also pike beam was better for cheeky swipes. Beam length: 80 (1. Showing 1 - 10 of 10 comments. Lanius empty beacon. I'm wondering how to make these work. . Anti-Bio beam isn't recommended for general purposes, but has some niche uses. Prioritize defense. BTW, the best three weapons in the game are the Burst Laser II, Flak Cannon I, and Halberd Beam (in terms of bang-for-your-buck) And for whatever reason, the Flak I is common as dirt and cheap while the Burst Laser II is very rare. These ships come in a variety of layouts, and can be equipped with various systems and subsystems, weapons, drones, and augmentations. Honestly, I think that game developers should learn to try to avoid designing games like this. Double Combat I drones and double halberd beam with flak 1. The Pike clearly has advantages though. Keep your eye out for blue options which. Givin' her all she's got, Captain! - Have 29 power in systems at the same time on the. Hull is not as powerful, but can fit right in with your current setup. The Four Mantis Killed SIX Flagship Crew in their own medbay in the time it took the Ion bomb to cycle. I'm wondering how to make these work. Discussions Rules and Guidelines. 96a-RC10] The Star Federation v0. It doesn't. In sector 1 on Easy. You come across a Lanius ship in the process of absorbing a Rebel automated scout. Sit down Burst II and Flak, you're good but not the king. Learning how to use beam weapons effectively can be a great way to tackle the higher difficulties of FTL and the Halberd Beam will want to be a regular of your arsenal when you come across it in your adventures. I'm wondering how to make these work. . The only non-situational weapon really is Advanced Flak. There’s a rare ship or two where it does 6. Then again, with the way that beams work you'll only be able to hit each important room once, so the bonus damage on systemless rooms would probably make up for most of the difference, even 2 tiers does seem like a big difference. Oh heck yeah. venn2001ad 11 years ago #1. The Zoltan Cruiser A design is one of the more terrible ships in the game. You get stronger and stronger as you go on by buying and upgrading a mix of offensive and defensive systems. Open menu Open navigation Go to Reddit Home. 25. Charge Ion. Flak I is unavailable in vanilla, which is one factor that makes vanilla runs less consistent than AE runs. While it didn't matter so much with Zoltan B, the faster hull beam cooldown is still a nice bonus. Lanius A, almost entire ship depresurizes. Among the best weapons are Flak I, Burst Laser III, Halberd Beam, and Swarm Missile. The Hull Beam is a weak weapon typically. Beam weapons are the true kings of efficiency and even blow the Dual Laser / Heavy Laser Mk1 away easily. Barring very sloppy play the run is already won, but would you run 2 Flak…FTL: Faster Than Light. For example, an Engi ship will never have offensive drones. And once you're up against triple shields, the beam weapons are taking up the weapon space needed to bring those down. Last edited by Cryten; Oct 22, 2012 @ 5:53am #5. So, here are the tips I can think of. 74K subscribers in the ftlgame community. There were still 1 or or 2 rare times that pike did more due to weird ship layouts. Makes beams in general a lot stronger on hard mode - Zoltan A is a great ship for your first hard mode run, and the halberd beam is as least as useful as the Zoltan shield. Nice, I was trying to think what the best complement to double halberds is. I don't think it is worth subbing the ion 1 for it, many times I end up carrying 3 ion 1's till last boss, on hard. Kestral is best with 3 burst lasers 2 and 1 halberd beam. A reasonable amount of crew. Crew damage. Sylvan the Traveling Merchant is a slug NPC that you meet throughout a run. Tooltip Beam weapon, 2 damage per room. " "The Zoltan's advanced shields technology give this ship an edge during each battle. The universe of FTL is inhabited by friendly and enemy ships. Mini Beam; Pike Beam; Hull Beam; Halberd Beam; Glaive Beam; Fire Beam; Anti-Bio BeamThough it's more power, I much prefer the Halberd Beam. Sectors are determined randomly, but. 141 votes, 12 comments. FTL: Faster Than Light > General Discussions > Topic Details. I never lose a run with a halberd beam, and pike/hull/mini beams are also good enough the vast majority of the time. Room total: 18. Halberd Beam charge time returned to 17 seconds (from 18). although I believe it to be less effective than hacking with beam weapons such as halberd or a bunch of pew pew lasers, it is still a valid strategy and forgive me for bunching all the ion weapons together but imo. This event can occur only once per sector. They can be modified to take on properties of different weapons, such as lockdown or fire. Lasers are general-purpose energy weapons. I made it to phase 3 with hacking until everything went to hell. The disadvantage is the weakness against shields, of course. Purchasing Cloaking would help your survival during early-game, as Leto Missiles combining with Halberd Beam would be sufficient for defeating most easier opponents. It does 1 damage to a ship with 2 shields. To be clear, it's fine to enjoy or prefer others, but in terms of general use value Glaice and especially artillery shouldn't be in the conversations. Every layer of active shields takes one damage off the beam. Halberd > Mini > Hull in my personal opinion. Sold one of the Charge Ions, and swapped out the Beam Drone for a Combat Drone. Glaive Beam: Not as safe and easy to set up as the Halberd, but accomplishes the same effect and then some, especially with hacking. Date Posted: Mar 29, 2014 @ 8:52am. almost 8 boarded in total. "I didn't think the Zoltans would ever show up. There. Zoltan A Overall Ranking: 3/28 Strengths: Zoltan Shield, Halberd Beam Weaknesses: Low Reactor Power. Glaive beam will cut through two shields. The Halberd deals typically eight unmissable damage at reasonable speed and power usage. All laser shots deplete a single shield layer, but some (Heavy. The Halberd beam can remain a mainstay for the rest of the game. Of all the laser weapons that can be purchased at a store, the BL3 is nearly always at the bottom of the list. Though it's more power, I much prefer the Halberd Beam. Date Posted: Oct 21, 2012 @ 12:17pm. Once 2-shield enemies are showing up the halberd beam needs help. Date Posted: Jun 6, 2017 @ 1:02am. Zoltan A Overall Ranking: 3/28 Strengths: Zoltan Shield, Halberd Beam Weaknesses: Low Reactor Power. Then there's the fun combo of two fast ion blast mk2s coupled with a Halberd beam. Burst Laser I. . CryptoI played with Stealth A. Random events are initiated by jumping to another system. < 1 2 >. Stun is underused, and giving a strong stun to an otherwise weak weapon is interesting. This event can occur only once per sector. Power requirement: 3 power 3. And once you're up against triple shields, the beam weapons are taking up the weapon space needed to bring those down. The damage of a beam is reduced by one for every shield layer, giving the most powerful beams some ability to pierce shields. It needs to hit the tile that the crew member is on. Since the Crystal B and Lanius B are essentially designed to be secret ships, you can think of these as the best of the "normal" ships in FTL. Two of either Flak Is and BL2s, coupled with a single Halberd Beam is probably the best 6 energy combo you can get. 2) Halberd > hull > pike = heavy laser 2. Sure, they do a lot of damage, but you have to get the shields down first. These weapons can have modules assigned and removed at no extra cost (beyond the initial purchase cost of both) during Storage Checks. Love this game. Artemis, Breach II, Ion Honorable mention: Hermes. Doesn't take as much power or as long to charge as the Glaive. It's certainly not unusable and can do decent work at times, but in general it's not a weapon you want to be using. 19 votes, 14 comments. So, here are the tips I can think of. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. 71K subscribers in the ftlgame community. It has a fast charge time, requires only 2 energy and does 1 damage. Excellent weapon, as long as you can tear down shields. You only have to get a single pixel in a room to do the damage, so if you're clever you can usually hit 4. Hard Stealth A, right before last jump of sector 6. Human boarders in abandoned sector. was wondering, can flak…Hey kids, remember that silly little game called FTL: Faster than Light? Now you can play a Starsector tm mod that is vaguely modeled after said popular franchise!. Sure, they do a lot of damage, but you have to get the shields down first. Charge Laser, Chain Laser, Hull Laser: they all work just fine. Discussions Rules and GuidelinesDidn't sell the bio beam, because now weapons to 5 and can use the Halberd + Anti-Bio together with shields hacking, and did start to get quite a few crew kills that way. 5/6 Weapon power. DPS is never an absolute figure per weapon in FTL. It does 1 damage to a ship with 2 shields. If you let go, you'll have to click on the beam again in order to re-locate it. FTL: Faster Than Light > General Discussions > Topic Details. Members Online •. Bird of Prey is a Ship Achievement for the Stealth Cruiser. The Leto is a weaker, but quicker firing version of the Artemis. (Zoltan A) I love beam weapons and the Halberd Beam is the best beam weapon in the game. halberd beam is good, aim it right and you can do some great damage. Attack the Lanius ship. Maximum of 4 different weapons, 2 different Drones. Now i dont really know what to do. IIRC, the Halberd and Glaive beams can still do partial damage through weak enough shields. And once you're up against triple shields, the beam weapons are taking up the weapon space needed to bring those down. just don't buy those things unless you really need a 2nd weapon and there' snothing better. I've been playing this game since 2014. Halberd Beam Short title Halberd Beam Description Slow but reliably powerful standard beam weapon. It is crewed by three Zoltans and. Without using mods this only applies to 3 beam weapons (if I recall correctly); The Halberd (2 damage, thus goes through one shield bubble to deal 1 damage to each room hit), the Glaive (3 damage, thus goes through one bubble to deal 2 damage OR 2 bubbles to deal 1 damage) and the flagship beam (2 damage, thus goes through 1 bubble to deal 1 dam. 2 damage beam uses efficient 3 power; Can hit multiple rooms when shields down; Needs pairing with shield breaking weapon; A-Tier – Excellent FTL Weapons. Good guide for this strat though. ) This is the great advantage of hacking Piloting. For the cost of 1 extra power, you get 1 more damage per room, or you can penetrate 1 layer of shields, both of which are awesome. Probably the best beam for any given situation in the game given the damage to power and cooldown ratio. The Halberd Beam is the single best weapon in the game. The Glaive beam will in do 2 damage per room if 1 shield bar is up. Halberd is definitely the better choice in the long term, but it also requires an extra power bar to get it going. I would replace the Pike Beam with the far superior Halberd Beam a little later, plus add Long Range Scanners, and that was more or less all I needed. I suppose with hacking, you don't need anything else. 73K subscribers in the ftlgame community. 2 BL2 and Halb seemed the way to go. Upgraded cloaking makes this easier. Halberd beams CAN pierce 1 shield layer, but still you are depending on the enemy not dodging a single flak blast. Good if you start with it (Zoltan B) but you'll need to replace it, as it just can't deal enough system damage to warrant 2 power. Use hacking 3 to drop shields and mind control to distract pilot. Double Combat I drones and double halberd beam with flak 1. I'm wondering how to make these work.