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RacesALL
Crew races

Each ship can carry a maximum of eight crewmembers. Each ship starts with some crew on-board, and the rest can be hired or bought, or rewarded in different events. Crewmembers may belong to different distinct races.

Crew races comparison[]

Crew races comparison
Race Store cost Maximum health Repair speed Fire-fighting speed Combat damage Movement speed Blue options Special characteristics
Humans
MaleHuman1
FemaleHuman1
45 Ftlgame-scrap 100 ×1 10.4 ×1 ×1 1 -10% experience requirements
Engi
Engi1
50 Ftlgame-scrap 100 ×2 5.2 ×0.5 ×1 8
Mantis
Mantis2
55 Ftlgame-scrap 100 ×0.5 20.8 ×1.5 ×1.2 2 (3)
Rockmen
Rockmen4
55 Ftlgame-scrap 150 ×1 6.2 ×1 ×0.5 5 (6) • Immune to fire
Zoltans
Zoltan2
60 Ftlgame-scrap 70 ×1 10.4 ×1 ×1 2 • Adds or replaces 1 power bar to an occupied system
• Can add or remove power from ion-locked systems
• Explodes upon dying, dealing 15 HP damage to all enemy crew in the room
Slugs
Slug4
45 Ftlgame-scrap 100 ×1 10.4 ×1 ×1 10 (11) • Immune to mind control
• Reveals live enemy crew on ships
• Grants vision of adjacent rooms' interior
Lanius
Lanius1
50 Ftlgame-scrap 100 ×1 10.4 ×1 ×0.85 11 • Immune to suffocation
• Drains oxygen from an occupied room
Crystal
Crystal1
60 Ftlgame-scrap 125 ×1 12.5 ×1 ×0.8 3 Lockdown ability
-50% suffocation damage

Notes:

  • Repair speed: all crew complete one repair animation per second.
  • Fire-fighting speed: the fire-fighting speed multiplier for Rockmen (×1.67) and Crystals (x0.83) were acquired with datamining.
  • Combat damage: the default damage dealt by unmodified crew varies randomly between 3 and 7 HP per hit, an average of 5 damage per hit. System sabotage damage is the same for all crew and cannot be increased.
  • Movement speed: Lanius speed is not specified in-game, and was measured by testing crew speed.
  • Crew dying animation: different races take different amounts of time to complete their dying animation. This affects when the cloning starts, and when the crew kills against enemies with a clone bay register. It also affects when the dead crewmember's position in a room becomes free for another to take their place. Crew during their dying animation deals sabotage damage if no opposing crew is present (e.g. on Auto-ships). The values are: Rock, Crystal, Engi = 2 sec; Humans, Slugs, Lanius = 1.8 sec; Mantis = 1.7 sec; Zoltans = 1.5 sec.


Crew races cost and rarity[]

The possible crew races, and how common they are, depends on the sector. The values: 1 is common, 5 is rare. For a different view of the table, look here. The crew rarity also defines what crew races can be present on a pirate ship in a certain sector type.

Crew cost and rarity in stores, by sectors
Race /
Sector
Humans
MaleHuman1FemaleHuman1
Engi
Engi1
Mantis
Mantis2
Rockmen
Rockmen4
Zoltans
Zoltan2
Slugs
Slug4
Lanius [1]
Lanius1
Crystal [2]
Crystal1
Civilian, Pirate, Rebel, The Last Stand 1 2 2 3 5
Engi 3 1 4
Zoltan 2 3 3 3 1 3
Mantis 2 3 1 4
Rock 2 1 3
Abandoned 2 3 3 3 4 4 2
Slug Nebulas 2 4 4 4 4 2
Uncharted Nebula 1 4 4 4 4 3
Cost 45 Ftlgame-scrap 50 Ftlgame-scrap 55 Ftlgame-scrap 55 Ftlgame-scrap 60 Ftlgame-scrap 45 Ftlgame-scrap 50 Ftlgame-scrap 60 Ftlgame-scrap
  1. Advanced Edition Content.
  2. Purchasable only in the Hidden Crystal Worlds sector.

Crew races[]

Humans[]

Humans are common and uninteresting.

MaleHuman1 MaleHuman-2 MaleHuman-3MaleHuman3 

FemaleHuman1   FemaleHuman-2 FemaleHuman-3   FemaleHuman3

Hailing from Earth, Humans are one of the most common races in the galaxy. Humans comprise the majority of the Galactic Federation and all the Rebellion. Humans learn skills faster due to their reduced XP ability, have no notable weaknesses and are the cheapest race to hire. Additionally, they are the only race with unique male and female sprites; neither have any skillful advantage over the other.


Engi[]

It's unclear if the 'Engi' are partly organic or entirely mechanical, but it's well known that they make exceptional engineers.

Engi1

Engi-kickstarter

Official Engi artwork from the FTL Kickstarter page

Though their inhabited worlds are well known, the origins of the emotionless Engi are a mystery. The majority of their bodies are made from nanomachines, giving the illusion of a silvery metallic 'skin.' At their construction yards, the Engi are seen working together to form massive organic machines adept at building ships, although they mostly mantain a bipedal appearence otherwise.

Their culture revolves around traditional social interactions. The Engi also wield powerful knowledge of machinery, and are gifted mechanics — especially when they're only expected to service and repair comparatively primitive human technology.

While the Engi are extremely intelligent, their primarily robotic bodies are very fragile. The delicate and very technical inner workings of an Engi are not nearly as rugged as regular organic material, like that found in humans. As a result, Engi usually make poor fighters; however, their immaculate knowledge of mechanics coupled with their immunity to most diseases can make them excellent allies.

The many scientific anomalies of Engi have been endless points of contention for human scientists; they argue incessantly over whether Engi are organic lifeforms by definition, or sentient machines. Despite their unique composition, Engi still require oxygen to survive. Most accept the explanation that they're simply a bridge between organic and robotic.

Despite a nonaggression pact with the Rebels, the Engi are the strongest supporters of the Galactic Federation, and have been secretly aiding them whenever possible. They consider restoring the Federation to be the highest priority. The Federation outsourced designing of their new Stealth Cruiser to the Engi. In addition to the Federation, the Engi are allies of the Zoltan. Since the collapse of the Federation, they have been preyed upon incessantly by the Mantis, who regard them as ideal slaves. Many Mantis ships have Engi crew members, possibly slaves, compensating for the Mantis' poor repair abilities.

Despite being mostly made up of nanobots, Engi can still suffocate and die from lack of oxygen.

Besides their advanced Med-bot Dispersal device, Engi often make use of drones in combat situations, though only of the defensive type.

Engi as crewmembers are most useful as repair crew.


Mantis[]

The Mantis disregard for individual lives led to their evolution as a vicious warrior race.

Mantis1 Mantis2 Mantis3 Mantis4 Mantis5

The violent and hostile Mantis appear, to Humans anyway, to resemble man-sized Praying Mantes, although they are much more aggressive than their namesakes. Whereas praying mantes kill prey merely to survive, the much larger and more intelligent Mantis race kill remorselessly to suit their own personal agendas — usually without survival as a concern, making for a pitiless and brutal insectoid warrior species. While humans and most other species have manufactured handheld weaponry to utilize in combat, the Mantis usually default to their agility and sharpened exoskeletal appendages to tear through their enemies, and their skill as warriors goes almost unchallenged in 1v1 combat, even against the rock species. The Mantis also possess extremely acidic saliva which can burn through flesh and melt most metal alloys. While Mantis excel at combat, especially personal combat, they are the least adept of all the races at technical repairs. They have overcome this problem by frequently taking Engi slaves. Engi slaves can be found on a majority of their bases and ships. Though some individual Mantes have been known to work with the Galactic Federation, the race as a whole tends to be deceptive, opportunistic, and untrustworthy, and can commonly be found piloting their signature style of well-armed spacecraft, hunting down weaker enemies in pursuit of their belongings. Human children are told tales of their red ships, and of the Mantis invasion of Earth.

Mantis are best used as boarding crew, as their increased damage and increased movement speed allow them to disrupt and destroy enemy systems and crew. They are also great at repelling boarders from your own ship, as they can arrive at their location quickly and either kill the crew before they can teleport back, or induce them to return quickly.


Rockmen[]

The 'Rockmen' of Vrachos IV are rarely seen and are known for their fortitude.

Rockmen1 Rockmen2 Rockmen3 Rockmen4

The Rockmen, as they have been nicknamed by humans, are called so because of their unique skin, which, according to scientific experiments, can be nearly as hard and rugged as solid rock. Additionally, the Rockmen are extremely well-conditioned and physically strong to compensate for their thick rock-like skin, giving them an astounding resilience. As a result of their physical attributes, the Rockmen have evolved throughout their race's existence into a warrior race which values personal strength and martial prowess over nearly everything else. While the Rockmen are generally not an adventurous race, and can only be consistently located within their own territories' borders, the Rockmen are liable to open fire on any ship they encounter that they aren't familiar with. Still, there are always exceptions to the rule, and having Rockmen crew can be very beneficial. Also, from random occurrences, some Rockmen seem to be quite religious.

Their increased health make them useful as both defense and boarding crew, as they can outlast any other race in one on one combat, except for the Mantis, unless they are experienced combatants. Their extra health is also great for fixing hull breaches since they take longer to suffocate. Their immunity to fire obviously makes them perfect for putting out fires, and Rockmen can be devastating to enemy crew when boarding enemy ships in conjunction with fire weapons. However, their poor speed makes it hard for them to respond quickly in urgent situations.

The Rockmen are the only alien race whose homeworld is canonically mentioned by name. The Rockmen are described as xenophobic, though are tolerant of the wisdom of the Zoltan. A store in Rock Space is established in an abandoned capital ship by a few Zoltan.


Zoltans[]

The 'Zoltan' are allies of the 'Engi'. Their innate energy can power ship systems.

Zoltan1 Zoltan2 Zoltan3 Zoltan4 Zoltan5

With the majority of their bodies composed of pure, harnessable energy, the Zoltan are ambivalent towards the Galactic Federation. Whilst a deeply officious and obtuse people, they generally favour diplomacy over acts of aggression and are known for being fair and just in their dealings with others. Although they inhabit their own home systems, Zoltans often appear in Engi Homeworlds and Engi-Controlled Sectors due to their alliance with the Engi.

Being ingenious experts of technology, the Zoltan race pioneered a unique ship-based shielding technology which can be found on nearly every Zoltan vessel. These shields are very difficult to breach, however they cannot regenerate during a battle - unless a Shield Overcharger drone is deployed. Therefore, once they are impacted by enemy fire enough to deactivate them, Zoltan vessels must rely on conventional shielding systems.

The Zoltan ability provides a single block of power to the ship system whose corresponding room they are currently standing in (no effect on subsystems). This is especially useful in reduced-power battles, or in battles against ships with ion weapons, as their energy cannot be blocked by the ion effect. For example, having two Zoltan in the shield system room will ensure that your ship will always have at least one layer of shields active at any time. The addition of Zoltan-provided power means maximum reactor power can be exceeded.

The Zoltan ability can also be used to "clean" power. Cloaking, Hacking, Crew Teleporter, and Mind Control systems require a cooldown period after use that locks power into that system. By walking a Zoltan into a room with a system in cooldown, one of the power bars will turn from blue (cooldown) to yellow (Zoltan power). Leaving the room will empty the power bar, allowing that unit of power to be utilized elsewhere while the system is cooling down.

In Weapon Control and Drone Control systems, Zoltans provide power starting with the highest priority module (the left-most slot), and their power can only be redistributed by changing the priority of the modules.


Slugs[]

These telepathic Slugs were shunned in the Galactic Federation for their constant thievery and attempts at manipulation.

Slug1 Slug2 Slug3 Slug4 Slug5 Slug6

The xenophobic, leisurely Slugs are the third rarest race in the galaxy, behind the mythical Crystal and Lanius. Their home world and all sectors under their control are engulfed in enormous nebulae. They developed on an ocean planet which lead to them evolving unique telepathic abilities in order to overcome the general lack of visibility. As a result, Slug ships aren't built with sensors; the telepathic powers of the crew are just as effective, if not more so, than any electronic system. This leaves them at a distinct disadvantage outside nebulae however, so that even within their sectors they are almost never seen outside the concealing clouds. While not as aggressive as the Rockmen or the Mantis, Slugs are both greedy and deceitful. They prey upon ships that wander into their home systems, often leading them into traps, as well as resort to piracy in other systems.

Slugs can see into adjacent rooms connected to the one they're standing in. They can also detect enemy crew members on your ship or theirs.


Crystal[]

Ancient ancestors of the Rockmen.

Crystal1 Crystal2 Crystal3 Crystal4

Descended from a splinter group of Rockmen who rejected their species' violent ways long ago, the Crystalmen are almost completely unknown in the galaxy, having hidden from all other sentient life. They can be encountered as starting crew on the Crystal Cruisers, in Tektite (the 3rd layout of the rock ship), in the Dense asteroid field distress call event, or within the Crystal Homeworlds itself (they are at shops to recruit/found as prisoners/etc as the only race there). Acquiring a Crystal crew member from the aforementioned event allows The Crystal Cruiser quest.

Crystal Lockdown[]

Crystals possess a Lockdown ability (activated in the crew box or with a default keyboard shortcut set to "P"). When activated, the crystals appear in the room and create a coating around it preventing anyone from entering or leaving; if timed correctly, a room can be coated with crystals while a Crystal crew is leaving it (thus, avoiding contact with enemy crew or other hazards, like fires or suffocation). The crystal coating wears off over time and lasts 12 seconds. The ability requires 50 seconds to recharge (i.e. 38 seconds downtime). A door covered with crystals is hard but possible to break through: at least 5 crew are required to start punching the door almost immediately to be able to break it (just before the crystals melt down); more crew break the locked down door faster.

The Doors system level doesn't affect the strength of the crystal coating, and if the coating gets broken then the door will be broken as well and will be stuck open for 7 seconds (just like any broken door). The Lockdown also resets the "health" of the room's blast doors. This applies to the doors of a hacked room as well, meaning a well-timed lockdown can extend the time your crew are damaging the systems. However, if a room is locked down with crystals before a hacking drone attaches to the system, then the room's door takes only 4 hits to be broken after the coating disappears (instead of regular 10 hits, on Hard mode); but another lockdown will reset the doors health and also protect it while the coating lasts.

While a room is covered with crystal coating, it is impossible to manually open or close the doors, but not the airlocks. Nevertheless, it is possible to open all doors simultaneously (the default keyboard shortcut is set to "Z") in order to override this limitation and create a suffocation trap (any other rooms' doors can be closed manually as necessary).

The Lockdown ability is instantly recharged after an FTL jump, unless a Crystal crew is in the Clone Bay.

Crystal Lockdown Bomb is completely identical in its effects.


Lanius[]

AE Content Enabled (clear corners) This section describes content that
only appears in Advanced Edition.


These anaerobic beings seem friendly enough.
Lanius1 Lanius2 Lanius3 Lanius4

The Lanius are a metallic scavenger race prone to aggression, whose biological composition somehow drains oxygen from the rooms they occupy, making them potentially deadly adversaries. They arrived to the FTL universe with the release of FTL: Advanced Edition.

The Lanius are scavengers — metallic lifeforms that rely on the absorption of minerals to sustain themselves. Their society ebbs and flows in hibernation cycles; they may lie dormant for many years, even while hurtling through space. As soon as they become aware of significant metal deposits, they reawaken. Usually, this occurs in the dying stages of a galactic civilization or in the wake of intergalactic war.

Reports of reawakened Lanius have appeared in many of the war-torn and abandoned sectors of Federation Space. Their arrival has created panic as they indiscriminately seek out sources of metal — although more diplomatic individuals have suggested that they can be reasoned with.

They drain Oxygen about as fast as a hull breach in a single square. You can follow the same process used to feed oxygen to a breached room to sustain the oxygen in the room your Lanius crewmen share with other crewmen.


Special events crewmembers[]

These crewmembers are obtained through choosing particular options during specific events and come with unique pre-defined names. Some of them have maximum training in all skills.

Envoy[]

The Envoy is a zoltan crewmember that can be found during the Unarmed Zoltan transport event in Zoltan Homeworlds. This event sequence unlocks the Zoltan Cruiser and rewards you with either the Envoy or the Zoltan Shield augmentation. Envoy comes with fully trained skills.

Kazaak[]

KazaaakplethKilik is a mantis crewmember that can be found during the Legendary thief KazaaakplethKilik event in Mantis Homeworlds. This event presents you with the opportunity to unlock the Mantis Cruiser and recruit Kazaaak. Kazaaak comes with fully trained skills.

Virus[]

The Virus is an engi crewmember that can be received during the Engi virus event which can happen multiples times per game, in Engi sectors - Engi Homeworlds and Engi Controlled Sectors, - but only once per sector. To obtain the Virus, you must have an engi crewmember. Virus comes with fully trained skills.

Ruwen[]

Ruwen is a crystal crewmember that can be retrieved during the Zoltan research facility event after you find a Damaged Stasis Pod in the Dense asteroid field distress call event. A crystal crew is required for the "Crystal Crew" blue option in the Ancient device event in Rock Homeworlds which serves as a 3rd step of unlocking the Crystal Cruiser.

Ariadne[]

Ariadne is the pre-defined name of the Rock Bride from the Rock bride transport quest - if, upon delivering her to her destination, you choose to rescue her instead of turning her in for a reward, she will join your crew. She is otherwise non-notable and is not guaranteed to come with any skills.

Charlie[]

Charlie is a crewmember that can be found during the Single life form on moon event in multiple sectors. During this event, there are two alternative branches. The first branch allows you to obtain a crewmember named Charlie with one level in a random skill. The second branch presents you with a number of outcomes from regular and blue options. These outcomes may be severely negative, with Charlie killing a random crewmember and then being killed, or they may result in Charlie joining your crew. With a Level 3 Medbay, you can obtain a crewmember named Charlie trained to level one in all stats.

Dr. Jones[]

Dr. Jones is a crewmember of any race who can be rescued from the Fire on small research station event (if you choose to dock with the station and try to evacuate scientists). He is otherwise non-notable and is not guaranteed to come with any skills.

Robert Smith[]

Robert Smith is a mantis crewmember that can be recruited during the Confused Mantis event in Engi Homeworlds and Engi Controlled Sectors.

Slocknog[]

Slocknog is a Slug hero for hire, who can be encountered in the Slocknog event.

Translator[]

Translator is a Lanius crewmember you can buy during the Lanius merchant with improved translator event.


Trivia[]

Kazaaak
Kazaaakpleth
Ariadne
Ariadne
Mafan
Mafan
  • Kazaaakpleth is a Mantis that can be found as a pilot in Subset's 2018 game, Into the Breach.
  • Ariadne is a female Rockman that can be found as a pilot in Subset's 2018 game, Into the Breach.
  • Mafan is a Zoltan that can be found as a pilot in Subset's 2018 game, Into the Breach.
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