Chapter 1: Day 1

INTRO:So you just bought FTL and are looking for some help learning how to play. Fantastic, if you're reading this you've come to the right place.First of all let me congratulate you on picking up one of the best game out there for a laughable price. Once you understand the game play of FTL a bit more you'll quickly become addicted and motivated to learn about the game on your own. The pourpose of that guide is to get you there and keep frustration at bay until then. Here we go!WHAT IS FTL:I'm going to assume you know what FTL is considering you are reading this. If there are requests for me to update this part of the guide maybe I will. Until then...STOP RIGHT THERE:There are a few things you should know before you start even your first game of FTL. Here are a few of them...Beacon pathing: Before you even start go to Options at the main menu and enable "Show beacon paths on hover". What this does and why it's really helpful will become apparent soon. Be patient.Sound: FTL has one of the most beautiful soundtracks out there and I highly recommend you give it a listen. That said, as FTLs gameplay is fairly simple it's become my absolute favorite game to play with the sound muted and podcasts on in the background. Maybe this will help your enjoyment of it as much as it has mine. To each his own.Dying: You are going to die a lot and you're going to need to deal with that. Dying in this game is almost inevitable and you should view each death as a learning experience. As with most rogue-likes FTL is a game where the greatest thing you can unlock to succeed isn't new weapons or gear but information and tactics.Difficulty: FTL has the reputation of being one of the harder games out there. Don't believe the hype. FTL isn't so much "hard" as it's unforgiving. Very similar to the caring void of space this game will kill you and your crew immediately and without remorse as soon as you ♥♥♥♥ up. The lesson here is don't ♥♥♥♥ up. Set the game to EASY and move on. I don't care if you never play games on EASY, that's what you should do here. This is because it will be much harder to unlock more ships and layouts on more advanced difficulties and newer players should at least have a ship they enjoy and feel competent with before advancing difficulties.YOUR FIRST SHIP:Learn to love the The Kestrel, you're going to be using it for a while.That said, it's a really great ship for starting to learn the ropes of FTL. I'm not going to explain the various rooms and systems for now as that seems better suited for a WIKI or something. All of this info is just a google search away and isn't that important for the moment.The Kestrel is a great starting ship because it gives you everything you need to do well early while not limiting your potential. You start with the majority of the basic rooms, a solid burst laser (MKII), a missile launcher, and crew of 3 humans. On top of that the physical layout of the ship makes it extremely defensible if you are boarded or have fire break out on board. More on this later.Crew members who are manning the four major ship sub-systems will gain experience and become better at their jobs. For now I highly recommend you send a crew member to piloting, the engine room, and weapon control. The shield system can also "train" a crew member.YOUR FIRST FIGHT:PAUSE IMMEDIATELY. You can pause combat at any time with the SPACE BAR and this will help a lot with early decision making.You'll notice that your ships two weapons have 11 and 12 second charge times respectably. What this means is that until you upgrade them you'll be a sitting duck for the first 11 seconds of every battle. However, these weapons also work VERY well together and can teach you the basics of ship to ship combat.In most cases the quickest way to take down an enemy ship is to take out it's shield system and then blow it out of the sky. The easiest way to do this with the Kestrel is to use your missile launcher to target there shield room and burst laser to target their weapon system. That way not only do you damage the enemy ship you are able to avoid them damaging you. The grand flaw in this plan is that missiles don't grow on trees and if you autofire you'll be out of ammo quickly. To combat this I recommend you use 1 missile per fight and alternate between targeting weapon systems and shields to keep both down. Using this technique you should be able to clear most fights in the first 2 zones.That said, when you die almost immediately don't feel bad. Learn from it and try again!YOUR FIRST UPGRADES:In general I try and save up 100 scrap as quickly as I can to upgrade and power a second layer of shields. Through all the other things I've tried it seems to make sense that staying alive should be your first priority early.Secondly I always upgrade blast doors. The ability to use these doors to kill or weaken boarders and put out fires is worth far more than the upgrade costs.PRO TIPS:-Remember that you can always sell equiptment that you arn't using in stores you find. What good are a couple defense drones when you don't have a drone system and don't plan on ever buying one.-Try to exit each sector with the with the enemy fleet directly behind you. The more beacons you're able to cover the more experience, scrap, random encounters, and quests your able to collect. This is why beacon-pathing and proper fuel management are so important.-The Scrap Recovery Arm is one of the best items in the game especially if you are able to buy one early. The extra amount of scrap you're able to net at the end of every combat will go a long way twards fully upgrading your ship.-In general having scrap for stores is more important than having your ship upgraded. You can upgrade your ship at any time and stores often have the weapons, extra systems, and gear you need to win. Avoid spending all your scrap before jumping to a new zone as you may start close to a store. This particular tip doesn't really apply to the first zone or two but becomes very important later.-Slavers are scum but always get to live. Sparing a slaver ship early to gain an additional crew member is almost always a no brainier.CONCLUSION:I hope this helps! Good luck and gods speed Captain!