Achievements

For ship achievements, see Ship Achievements.

Slightly Used Achievement Screen

An Achievement is a meta-goal defined outside of a games parameters. You can acquire them by completing challenges set forth by the achievement's description.

In FTL, achievements are organized into three categories:

• General Progression
• Going the Distance
• Skill and Equipment 

General Achievement Information

General Progression

The "General Progression" category is about, well, general progression. The achievements in this category are unlocked mainly by getting to a certain sector, defeating a certain amount of enemies, or collecting a certain amount of scrap. Basically these achievements will be unlocked by simply playing the game.

	Just Getting Started
	"Get to sector 5."

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	Federation Base in Range
	"Get to sector 8."

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	Federation Victory (Easy)
	"Beat the boss on Easy."

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	Federation Victory (Normal)
	"Beat the boss on Normal."

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	Your Own Fleet
	"Unlock every playable ship."

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	Rule Ten: Greed is Eternal
	"Collect 10000 scrap across all games."

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	Warlord
	"Defeat 1000 ships across all playthroughs."

Going the Distance

The "Going the Distance" category is an extension of the "General Progression" category. The achievements in this category are unlocked by getting to a certain sector without doing specific things along the way such as getting to sector 8 without losing a crew member.

	Coming in for my Pacifism run!
	"Get to sector 5 without firing a shot, using an offensive drone, or teleporting."

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	I don't need no stinkin' upgrades!
	"Get to sector 5 with no system/reactor upgrades."

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	On a Wing and a Prayer
	"Get to sector 5 without repairing at a store."

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	Ballistophobia
	"Get to sector 8 without using missiles/bombs."

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	Technophobia
	"Get to sector 8 without using drones."

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	Living off the Land
	"Get to sector 8 without buying at a store (Repairs are ok)."

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	No Redshirts Here
	"Get to sector 8 without losing a crewmember."

Skill and Equipment Feats

The “Skill and Equipment Feats” category is a list of the more difficult achievements to unlock. The achievements in this category are also a lot more random in terms of the first two categories which seem to have a common theme of the achievements inside of them.

	Some people just like to watch ships burn
	"Have every square of an enemy ship on fire simultaneously."

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	Astronomically Low Odds
	"Fail to evade 5 shots in a row with a full powered and upgraded engine."

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	BOARDING OBJECTIVE SUCCESSFUL
	"Have a single boarding drone kill 4 crewmembers on one ship."

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	They never saw it coming
	"Use the Weapon Pre-Igniter augmentation to destroy an enemy ship in one volley before the enemy can get a single shot off."

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	Trustworthy Auto-Pilot
	"Defeat an enemy ship with all of your crew aboard it."

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	Slice and Dice
	"Hit every room of a ship with at least one beam in under 5 seconds."

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	Victory through Asphyxiation
	"Empty the oxygen (Net level less than 5 percent) of a non-automated, hostile enemy ship."

Tips

Going the Distance

• Most of these achievements can be quite easily acquired by simply running the Nesasio through the game using the Long Range Scanners and starting engines to avoid encounters. Further tips are to pick nebula (and by extension, Zoltan) sectors where possible due to the lower encounter rates, and aim for short routes to the exit that pass by shops and distress calls. Whilst the Pacifism achievement only requires you to reach Sector 5, reaching Sector 8 using this strategy is extraordinarily easy and almost all of these achievements can be ticked off in one hit (as well the Stealth Cruiser ship achievements, and potentially even unlocking the Zoltan Cruiser).

They never saw it coming

• The game's definition of one volley is "no weapon can be fired twice". Waiting until shields are down before using a beam weapon is fine, so long as the other weapons are not fired again.
• An asteroid field can help get this achievement. A ship that takes lethal damage from asteroid strikes after having its shields destroyed counts for this achievement.
• Anti-Ship Drones can be used without invalidating this achievement. If your "alpha strike" is just a little short of destroying the opposing ship, consider using a drone to finish off the target.
• Cloaking can help delay the return fire of the enemy ship (particularly when leveraging the above tips), but remember to disable auto-fire.

Slice and Dice

• The Artillery Beam on the Federation Cruisers counts for this achievement. If you have any other sort of beam weapon equipped, simply "filling in the gaps" immediately after an artillery shot should be a trivial matter.
• One could get this achievement in a single random artillery beam shot against an AI drone.
• As the description indicates, it is possible to obtain this achievement with multiple beam weapons as long as they are discharged at nearly the same time. A room can be hit by more than one beam without penalty.

Living off the Land

• As noted, you can repair at stores, but you may also sell at stores.
• The Osprey/Nisos Federation Cruisers are a good choice for this - the Artillery Beam comes pre-installed, and is a powerful weapon.

Astronomically Low Odds

• Note: If the final shot absorbed occurs simultaneously to a dodge, it still counts. If you are going to try for this achievement deliberately, try to use crewmembers that do not have any levels of piloting or engine skill. It is unknown whether this achievement can be gained without a crewmember manning the engines, but you must have a pilot. With an inexperienced pilot and engineer, and a fully-upgraded engine system, your dodge chance will be 45%, which means that an enemy has a 55% chance of hitting you. The chances of getting hit 5 times in a row are 55% * 55% * 55% * 55% * 55% = 5.033% chance of five hits in a row per enemy's 5-shot volley, so it is not as difficult as it may seem. With inexperienced crew, you have a 64.4% chance of getting this achievement after 20 5-shot volleys, in practice, however, it is difficult to keep your crewmembers from gaining experience rapidly when attempting this. The worst-case scenario is a fully-leveled pilot and engineer, which gives you a 55% chance to dodge, which means an enemy has a 45% chance of hitting you. The chances of getting hit 5 times in a row are then 45% * 45% * 45% * 45% * 45% = 1.845% chance of five hits in a row per enemy's 5-shot volley. With less than a 2% chance, you have a 31.1% chance of gaining this achievement after 20 5-shot volleys.
• Note: As of Steam Version 1.03.3 for Windows, I was unable to get this achievement without also upgrading the Piloting Sub-System to level 3. This doesn't seem like it should be necessary, but I let the game run for roughly 5 hours against an opponent with a Level 3 Burst Laser (5 shots), watched combat for about 30 minutes and witnessed 5 non-dodged shots in a row many times, assumed many others happened over the course of 4 to 5 hours while I was not watching, and could not get this achievement. When I upgraded the Piloting Sub-System to level 3, I got the achievement a few minutes later. This could very well be a bug, but if you are having difficulty, you may want to try upgrading the Piloting Sub-System.
• Note: As of GOG version 2.0.0.9 for Windows, I got this achievement with the Piloting Sub-System at level 1 and manned by an expert pilot, but no crew at all in the engine room (giving 45% dodge chance). (This was by accident as I was trying to repair my shields while fighting the boss; I got the achievement and checked what it was, then switched back to the game to check who was in the engine bay. It's possible the crew was moving out of the engine bay to repair the shields when I got the achievement and started repair before I paused, but I don't think the engine was manned.)

BOARDING OBJECTIVE SUCCESSFUL

• Must be the FIRST boarding drone you send out to get the 4 kills. If you send out one, have it killed, and then send another and get the kills on the 2nd one, you will not obtain this achievement. (tested as of v 103.1)
• The drone has to get the killing hit on ALL of them all for it to count. If you use a second droid, the count starts over, so don't even think about spamming droids until the enemy is wiped out. You can help the droid with crew, and must, but the droid must get killing hits. (This is all accurate as of v1.03.1)
• ->The best way to get this is to find an enemy ship that has 4 weak crew (Human Engi Zoltan Slug), but no Medbay, then teleport in 4 strong boarders in a big room (use Mantis or Crystal B variant) along with sending in the droid. Four of the enemy crew will come to fight you while the 5th fights the droid, and they will all lose because 4 Mantis/Rockmen+Droid can easily beat 4 Humans/Engi/Zoltan/Slug. Once they are all injured, teleport your crew back out before any of the enemies die. You'll then have an enemy ship full of nearly dead crew for the drone to mop up. If they do have one, then you'll have to try to keep it locked down while not killing the crew trying to repair it. Remember, the DROID must get the killing hits. The best ships to target are Rebel Cruisers full of Humans, but no Medbay.
• Alternately, you could shoot directly at the enemy crew until they all got wounded, then send in the drone. But with this tactic, you risk destroying the ship itself before you can finish. A Bio Beam might be best, but you've got to be good at getting enemies to low health without killing them. Once the enemies are all low hp, send in the droid to finish them off.
• This particular editor got this achievement after the drone killed five weakened enemies (the entire crew). The ship I found with five crew belonged to the friends who have taken to piracy in the Settlement Mercenary Work event. I weakened all of the crew first with Mantis boarders, making sure not to kill anyone, then recalled the boarders and launched the boarding drone. I gained the achievement only when the fifth and last enemy crew member was dead and the mission ended – nothing happened right after the drone killed the fourth crew member.
• Another way is using Lanius as boarders. Send them in a ship with at least 4 crew. All the enemies should come to fight the Lanius, but once the room is empty of oxygen, the enemies should leave the room on very low health. At that point, they are easy prey for a single boarding drone.
  

  Boarding Drone launched towards weakened crew members

  

  the drone kills a third crew member as it walks in the door

  

  the crew-less enemy ship, right after gaining the achievement

I Don't Need No Stinkin' Upgrades!

• Upgrades are OK if they come from any source except the "Ship" button. Random events where you can trade for them, buy them (e.g. run into slugs who offer it for x amount of scrap), or get them for free are safe.
• Additionally, you can buy new systems, sub-systems, weapons, and augmentations in a store just fine. (True as of 1.05.13)

Trustworthy Auto-Pilot

• It is possible to unlock this achievement while your crew is aboard an enemy ship that succeeds in making an FTL jump. However, all your crew will be considered dead, and you will lose the game. However, it is possible to get this achievement by destroying the final boss with all of your crew on board the enemy ship, resulting in a win with no crew.

• This achievement is easier the sooner you get the Crew Teleporter as you should have a smaller crew.

• One way is to find a hostile ship with no med-bay (or alternatively take out the med-bay with weapons), then transport all your crew across to kill the opposing crew while they try to repair it; be careful not to destroy the ship while your crew is aboard.

• If your crew is about to kill the hostile crew but you still have a few crew left to transport, start your crew running about the hostile ship as they won't attack while on the move. This will give you time to transport your remaining crew.
• It is actually possible to get this achievement without a teleporter. If you have a clone bay and all of your crew are dead waiting to be cloned, you will be get the achievement. (Confirmed in v1.5.4 on Linux.)
• Using the Mantis B Cruiser is the easiest way to get this achievement, as you can teleport your two starting crew onboard the enemy ship.

Victory through Asphyxiation

• This achievement can easily be obtained in early sectors when fighting a Slug Interceptor ship because its oxygen system is inaccessible to the enemy crew and thus cannot be repaired. After severely damaging its oxygen system the player just has to wait for the oxygen in the enemy ship to diminish which will kill the enemy crew.
• Go to the Nebula (or otherwise get your sensors down), disable enemy ship's life support, and then continuously attack their ship with Anti-Bio Beam, Fire Beam, Fire Bomb or such.
• Or, boost your shields and engines until you can survive long fights without attacking, find a ship with an O2 system that the crew can't reach to repair (slug interceptor), destroy the O2, and wait.
• Or, using the Ion Blast Mark II, continually target their life support.  Given enough time, it is possible to incapacitate even a level 2 life support system as long as the enemy ship has only one shield.  Two Ion Blasts (2nd doesn't need to be Mark II) makes this easier, with the second targeting their weapons.  Alternately, use the Engi Cruiser and spend your first 50 scrap on shields.  You should find plenty of ships you can kill by draining life support in sector 1.
• You can get this achievement fighting the boss, after the crew has been killed and the AI takes over.

Some people just like to watch ships burn

• This achievement is easy to get if you can get your hand on a Fire Beam. Simply shoot enough to drop the shields, then start torching their ship. Unless they are Engi or Rockmen, they shouldn't be able to fight the fires. Keep spreading fires while trying to let the crew live as long as possible. Once every room is on fire, you'll get credit. Alternately, you could spam a Fire Bomb, but it won't be as effective and may require a lot of ammo to waste. Rock Cruiser B starts with a Fire Bomb along with fire-immune Rockmen; it may be useful for getting this as you could use the Rockmen to defend the fires so they are allowed to spread.
• You can get this award in The Rebel Flagship's 3rd stage but you need fire weapons. Destroy the Super Shield, kill ALL the crew and the AI will activate. Then Fire attack the Individual weapons. When they are down keep Fire attacking the internal areas as much as you can. Do NOT target the O2 (oxygen) room until the Fire engulfs the Med-bay AND the engine rooms. Do this and you get the award.

• If the enemy crew is dead, and the ship has become neutral (and you can no longer see the rooms), this achievement is still obtainable if the fire spreads after your victory.

Trivia

• "Rule Ten: Greed is Eternal" achievement is a reference to Ferengi Rules of Acquisition.
• "I don't need no stinkin' upgrades!" achievement is a reference to a well-known misquoted line.
• "No Redshirts Here" achievement is a reference to Star Trek, in which Starfleet Security personnel (who wear red uniforms) often die soon after being introduced.
• "Some people just like to watch ships burn" achievement is a reference to a The Dark Knight quote.
• "On a Wing and a Prayer" is a reference to a popular American patriotic song from World War 2.
• The icon for "Trustworthy Auto-Pilot" resembles the HAL 9000, a character from Arthur C. Clarke's science fiction Space Odyssey saga.

Gallery

Picture of general progression achievements

An example of a single achievement