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 aquire 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.
• Federation Base in Range: Get to sector 8.
• Federation Victory (Easy): Beat the boss on Easy.
• Federation Victory (Normal): Beat the boss on Normal.
• Your Own Fleet: Unlock every playable ship.
• Rule Ten: Greed is Eternal: Collect 10000 scrap across all games.
• 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.
• I don't need no stinkin' upgrades!: Get to sector 5 with no system/reactor upgrades.
• On a Wing and a Prayer: Get to sector 5 without repairing at a store.
• Ballistophobia: Get to sector 8 without using missiles/bombs.
• Technophobia: Get to sector 8 without using drones.
• Living off the Land: Get to sector 8 without buying at a store (Repairs are ok).
• 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. An example of one of the achievements in this category is “Have every square of an enemy ship on fire simultaneously.”

• Some people just like to watch ships burn: Have every square of an enemy ship on fire simultaneously.
• Astronomically Low Odds: Fail to evade 5 shots in a row with a full powered and upgraded engine.
• BOARDING OBJECTIVE SUCCESSFUL: Have a single boarding drone kill 4 crewmembers on one ship.
• 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.
• Trustworthy Auto-Pilot: Defeat an enemy ship with all of your crew aboard it.
• Slice and Dice: Hit every room of a ship with at least one beam in under 5 seconds.
• 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

• 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.

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.
• Hypothetically, one could get this achievement in a single random artillery beam shot against an AI drone.

Astronomically Low Odds

• The odds aren't nearly as low as one would think. If the final shot absorbed occurs simultaneously to a dodge, it still counts. Extrapolating this logic, any ship that fires eight simultaneous shots at you gives you a roughly 50% chance of getting this achievement; assuming your engine is maxed out.

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)

Trustworthy Auto-Pilot

• It is possible to unlock this achievement while your crew is aboard an enemy ship that teleports away. 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 transporter as you should have a smaller crew.

• The easiest way is to find a hostile with no med-bay or to take out the med-bay with weapons, then transport all your crew across to kill the opposing crew while they try to repair it; just don't blow up the ship while your crew is on board. This is badly worded, and works against trying for the achievement.

• 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.

Victory through Asphyxiation

• 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. The fact that you can't scan their ship for life signs makes the battle continue as long as you don't damage the hull. This is not true.
• 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. Two Ion blasts (2nd doesn't need to be Mark II) makes this easier, with the second targetting their weapons.

Some people just like to watch ships burn

• You can get this award in The Rebel Flagship's 3rd stage but you need fire weapons. Destroy the Zoltan 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 term "redshirt "
• "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