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Crew members gain [[Skills|skill]] through experience working at various ship tasks: Piloting the ship, Shield recharging, running the Engines, Weapons operation, Repairing damage, and engaging in Combat. All races have the same experience gains except humans who are slightly faster. |
Crew members gain [[Skills|skill]] through experience working at various ship tasks: Piloting the ship, Shield recharging, running the Engines, Weapons operation, Repairing damage, and engaging in Combat. All races have the same experience gains except humans who are slightly faster. |
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| + | There are [[Special Event Crew Members|specific crew members]] that may be found through random events. |
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Crew members have distinct [[races]] (listed below.) |
Crew members have distinct [[races]] (listed below.) |
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+ | == '''Human''' == |
{{:Races/Human}} |
{{:Races/Human}} |
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== '''Lanius''' == |
== '''Lanius''' == |
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{{:Races/Lanius}} |
{{:Races/Lanius}} |
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| + | == Ghost == |
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| + | Unless a bug occurs in the Flagship fights, you have a mod that includes them or uses a save game editor, you will never see one of these in a normal game. This type of race cannot be found within ftl.dat (Mac OS) or data.dat (Windows), and although there is an event that references this race (GHOST_SHIP), this event was never finished, but you can still see how this event was to be planned out [https://tcrf.net/FTL:_Faster_Than_Light/General_Unused_Events#events.xml here]. The event was probably supposed to use the "Horror" track from the FTL OST. |
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| + | Other than that event, there is supposedly a single ghost on the Rebel Flagship after the "Advanced AI" takes over, hence representing it, although this is highly unlikely since the Rebel Flagship maintains its power surge consistency and behaves like any other AI ship, auto firing and having Lv.1 manning on all systems. |
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| + | Statistics/Abilities: |
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| + | : - 50 base HP |
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| + | : + Immune to suffocation. |
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| + | The ghost sprites and exact mechanics were ported in ''FTL: Captain's Edition'' as AI holograms. This mod also has rogue AIs as a separate race in addition to having "normal" AIs as servants to other races (chiefly, the Engi and Zoltan). AI ships in ''CE'' have a boxy, gray-colored hull reminiscent of computer hardware. |
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| − | == ''' |
+ | == '''The Differences Between Races''' == |
| − | {{:Races |
+ | {{:Races}} |
==Pages== |
==Pages== |
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[[Races/Crew Members|Races]] | [[Ships]] | [[Systems]] | [[Weapons]] | [[Drones]] | [[Augmentations]] | [[Sectors]] | [[Achievements]] | [[Ship Achievements]] | [[Random Events]] | [[Easter Eggs and Trivia|Easter Eggs]] |
[[Races/Crew Members|Races]] | [[Ships]] | [[Systems]] | [[Weapons]] | [[Drones]] | [[Augmentations]] | [[Sectors]] | [[Achievements]] | [[Ship Achievements]] | [[Random Events]] | [[Easter Eggs and Trivia|Easter Eggs]] |
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[[Category:Guides]] |
[[Category:Guides]] |
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| + | [[Category:Races]] |
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Revision as of 03:23, 4 February 2019
Crew members come in a variety of shapes and sizes.
Each ship can carry a maximum of eight crew members. Each ship starts with a small crew already on-board, but the rest must be found by the player.
Crew members gain skill through experience working at various ship tasks: Piloting the ship, Shield recharging, running the Engines, Weapons operation, Repairing damage, and engaging in Combat. All races have the same experience gains except humans who are slightly faster.
There are specific crew members that may be found through random events.
Crew members have distinct races (listed below.)
Human
- Humans are common and uninteresting.
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.
- -10% experience requirements
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Engi
- It's unclear if the 'Engi' are partly organic or entirely mechanical, but it's well known that they make exceptional engineers.
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.
- Repair speed: 200% (system repairs, hull breaches sealing, fire-fighting)
- Combat damage: 50%
- Engi distress call
- Engi fleet discussion (Unlocks Stealth Cruiser)
- Malfunctioning defense system (equivalent of Ion weapon or Cloaking-3)
- Nebula seen ships exchange fire (equivalent to a standard correct answer)
- Refugee ship trading for scrap
- The Engi virus
- Two smashed Engi ships
- Unknown disease on mining colony (equivalent of Rockman crew)
Mantis
- The Mantis disregard for individual lives led to their evolution as a vicious warrior race.
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.
- Repair speed: 50% (system repairs, hull breaches sealing, fire-fighting)
- Combat damage: 150%
- Movement speed: 120%
- Confused Mantis
- Legendary thief KazaaakplethKilik (Unlock Mantis Cruiser) (serves only for Diplomatic Immunity achievement)
- Slug oxygen malfunction
Rockmen
- The 'Rockmen' of Vrachos IV are rarely seen and are known for their fortitude.
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.
- Hitpoints: 150
- Movement speed: 50%
- Fire-fighting speed: 167%
- Immune to fire
- Crystalline research facility
- Fire on small research station
- Mantis ship with Rock body parts (serves only for Diplomatic Immunity achievement)
- Rock armoured transport
- Slug drink
- Unknown disease on mining colony (equivalent of Engi crew)
Zoltan
- The 'Zoltan' are allies of the 'Engi'. Their innate energy can power ship systems.
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.
- Hitpoints: 70
- Explodes upon dying and deals 15 HP damage to all enemy crew in the room
- Damage to drones is halved (full-HP drones will be shown missing 8 HP, however, a drone actually loses only 7.5 HP - it is how the game rounds down the decimal values)
- No damage to allies, if the exploding Zoltan was mind-controlled
- Adds 1 zoltan (yellow) power bar to an occupied system or replaces 1 reactor (green) power bar in a system; subsystems are unaffected. Adds to or replaces the top-most system power block (with few exceptions)
- Weapon Control and Drone Control:
- Weapons and drones are powered by Zoltans from the left-most weapons/drones slots (e.g. from the bottom, contrary to the game visuals)
- Leaving the room without enough spare reactor power will de-power these weapons/drones
- If Zoltans' power is not enough to fully power the left-most weapons/drones when there is no spare reactor power available, these weapons/drones cannot be operational and must be swapped to another slot (e.g. it is also possible to have maximum power in the Weapon/Drone Control systems and not be able to use the weapons/drones, which normally could be powered with reactor power, due to Zoltans only partially powering some of the weapons/drones - not only the Zoltan power is wasted, but the system power levels are wasted)
- Fully powering the left-most weapons/drones slots with zoltan power will keep the weapons/drones online. When a drone schematic is deployed, the drone will be operational without the ability to de-power it manually
- With Zoltans in the Weapon/Drone Control, the weapons/drones in the left-most slots can become depowered when other weapons/drones get positioned in these slots if there is not enough cumulative power in the system or not enough spare reactor power for both of these weapons/drones. (example: 1 zoltan and 2 reactor power are powering slot 1 Halberd in Weapon Control level 4 system, slot 2 Leto is unpowered due to lack of reactor; if slot 2 Leto is moved into slot 1, the Halberd goes offline)
- Shields system:
- 1 Zoltan can fill power into a buffer (uneven system power level)
- 2 Zoltans replace the reactor power in pair and unable to fill into a buffer
- Weapon Control and Drone Control:
- Adds, removes, or replaces power from ion-locked systems (depending on the system)
- Adds power if a system has no power or if there are unfilled system power levels due to partial ionization of Shields, Engines, Medbay/Clonebay, Oxygen.
- Removes power by passing through (or leaving the room) when as many Zoltans pass through the room as there are power levels in a system. (common use examples: freeing up reactor power from systems on cooldown - Cloaking, Mind Control, and Hacking, usually leaving 1 power bar to keep the passive disruption debuffs vs enemy ships; e.g. 2 zoltans can free up only 2 reactor power from a previously fully powered level 3 self-ionizing system)
- Replaces regular reactor power
- When entering Weapon/Drone Control system rooms
- When as many Zoltans enter and stay in the room as there are power levels in Shields, Engines, Medbay/Clonebay, Oxygen, and other systems.
- The only way to increase the total power supplied to the Weapon/Drone Control systems if more Zoltans end up in the room than there was cumulative power in the system prior to the ion-lock. (note that weapons and drones in the slots can be swapped when the system is ionized)
- Can "ion-proof" most systems by providing zoltan power and enabling the functioning of the systems
- The ion-lock status, preventing manning the system console, is not removed, and ion damage can accumulate up to a maximum of 5 if the system continues to get ionized
- Cloaking, Hacking, Mind Control, and Crew Teleporter cannot be activated if they are ionized
- Mind Control system with a Zoltan will not shutdown if it gets ionized by external factors. (system power levels not filled with zoltan power can get ionize, thus, reducing the maximum MC effect and duration)
- Hacking cannot be ion-proofed with zoltan power - the hacking disruption gets interrupted and the systems enters cooldown equivalent to the ion damage received. (number of Zoltans occupying the room doesn't affect the outcome - 1 ion damage is enough to shutdown a level 3 Hacking pulse)
- Federation terraforming team C12 (equivalent of Sensors 2-3)
- Zoltan trade hub
Slug
- These telepathic Slugs were shunned in the Galactic Federation for their constant thievery and attempts at manipulation.
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.
- Immune to mind control
- Reveals live enemy crew (drones are undetectable)
- Grants vision of adjacent rooms' interior
- Disabled Rock transport
- Intelligent lifeform on planet
- Nebula seen ships exchange fire
- Pirate ship selling drones (serves only for Diplomatic Immunity achievement)
- Poorly armed Slug ship
- Single life form on moon
- Slug Home Nebula surrender (Unlock Slug Cruiser)
- Slug transport with military escort (advice role only)
- The Black Raven
- Zoltan security checkpoint (equivalent of Mind Control)
Crystal
- Ancient ancestors of the Rockmen.
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.
- Hitpoints: 125
- Movement speed: 80%
- Fire-fighting speed: 83%
- -50% suffocation damage
- Lockdown ability
- Ancient device
- Crystal civilian question
- Crystalline cache (equivalent of Breach Missiles)
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
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This section describes content that only appears in Advanced Edition. |
- These anaerobic beings seem friendly enough.
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.
- Movement speed: 85%
- Immune to suffocation
- Drains oxygen from an occupied room (at the rate of a breach)
- Civilians fleeing from Lanius
- Civilians under fire from Lanius
- Lanius absorbing jump beacon
- Lanius absorbing rebel base
- Lanius salvaging
- Lanius scavenger trader
- Merchant docked with Lanius
- Powered-down Lanius vessel
- Science craft docked with Lanius
- Space station under construction
- The Engi virus
Ghost
Unless a bug occurs in the Flagship fights, you have a mod that includes them or uses a save game editor, you will never see one of these in a normal game. This type of race cannot be found within ftl.dat (Mac OS) or data.dat (Windows), and although there is an event that references this race (GHOST_SHIP), this event was never finished, but you can still see how this event was to be planned out here. The event was probably supposed to use the "Horror" track from the FTL OST. Other than that event, there is supposedly a single ghost on the Rebel Flagship after the "Advanced AI" takes over, hence representing it, although this is highly unlikely since the Rebel Flagship maintains its power surge consistency and behaves like any other AI ship, auto firing and having Lv.1 manning on all systems.
Statistics/Abilities:
- - 50 base HP
- + Immune to suffocation.
The ghost sprites and exact mechanics were ported in FTL: Captain's Edition as AI holograms. This mod also has rogue AIs as a separate race in addition to having "normal" AIs as servants to other races (chiefly, the Engi and Zoltan). AI ships in CE have a boxy, gray-colored hull reminiscent of computer hardware.
The Differences Between Races
Crew members come in a variety of shapes and sizes.
Each ship can carry a maximum of eight crew members. Each ship starts with a small crew already on-board, but the rest must be found by the player.
Crew members gain skill through experience working at various ship tasks: Piloting the ship, Shield recharging, running the Engines, Weapons operation, Repairing damage, and engaging in Combat. All races have the same experience gains except humans who are slightly faster.
There are specific crew members that may be found through random events.
Crew members have distinct races (listed below.)
Human
- Humans are common and uninteresting.
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.
- -10% experience requirements
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Engi
- It's unclear if the 'Engi' are partly organic or entirely mechanical, but it's well known that they make exceptional engineers.
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.
- Repair speed: 200% (system repairs, hull breaches sealing, fire-fighting)
- Combat damage: 50%
- Engi distress call
- Engi fleet discussion (Unlocks Stealth Cruiser)
- Malfunctioning defense system (equivalent of Ion weapon or Cloaking-3)
- Nebula seen ships exchange fire (equivalent to a standard correct answer)
- Refugee ship trading for scrap
- The Engi virus
- Two smashed Engi ships
- Unknown disease on mining colony (equivalent of Rockman crew)
Mantis
- The Mantis disregard for individual lives led to their evolution as a vicious warrior race.
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.
- Repair speed: 50% (system repairs, hull breaches sealing, fire-fighting)
- Combat damage: 150%
- Movement speed: 120%
- Confused Mantis
- Legendary thief KazaaakplethKilik (Unlock Mantis Cruiser) (serves only for Diplomatic Immunity achievement)
- Slug oxygen malfunction
Rockmen
- The 'Rockmen' of Vrachos IV are rarely seen and are known for their fortitude.
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.
- Hitpoints: 150
- Movement speed: 50%
- Fire-fighting speed: 167%
- Immune to fire
- Crystalline research facility
- Fire on small research station
- Mantis ship with Rock body parts (serves only for Diplomatic Immunity achievement)
- Rock armoured transport
- Slug drink
- Unknown disease on mining colony (equivalent of Engi crew)
Zoltan
- The 'Zoltan' are allies of the 'Engi'. Their innate energy can power ship systems.
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.
- Hitpoints: 70
- Explodes upon dying and deals 15 HP damage to all enemy crew in the room
- Damage to drones is halved (full-HP drones will be shown missing 8 HP, however, a drone actually loses only 7.5 HP - it is how the game rounds down the decimal values)
- No damage to allies, if the exploding Zoltan was mind-controlled
- Adds 1 zoltan (yellow) power bar to an occupied system or replaces 1 reactor (green) power bar in a system; subsystems are unaffected. Adds to or replaces the top-most system power block (with few exceptions)
- Weapon Control and Drone Control:
- Weapons and drones are powered by Zoltans from the left-most weapons/drones slots (e.g. from the bottom, contrary to the game visuals)
- Leaving the room without enough spare reactor power will de-power these weapons/drones
- If Zoltans' power is not enough to fully power the left-most weapons/drones when there is no spare reactor power available, these weapons/drones cannot be operational and must be swapped to another slot (e.g. it is also possible to have maximum power in the Weapon/Drone Control systems and not be able to use the weapons/drones, which normally could be powered with reactor power, due to Zoltans only partially powering some of the weapons/drones - not only the Zoltan power is wasted, but the system power levels are wasted)
- Fully powering the left-most weapons/drones slots with zoltan power will keep the weapons/drones online. When a drone schematic is deployed, the drone will be operational without the ability to de-power it manually
- With Zoltans in the Weapon/Drone Control, the weapons/drones in the left-most slots can become depowered when other weapons/drones get positioned in these slots if there is not enough cumulative power in the system or not enough spare reactor power for both of these weapons/drones. (example: 1 zoltan and 2 reactor power are powering slot 1 Halberd in Weapon Control level 4 system, slot 2 Leto is unpowered due to lack of reactor; if slot 2 Leto is moved into slot 1, the Halberd goes offline)
- Shields system:
- 1 Zoltan can fill power into a buffer (uneven system power level)
- 2 Zoltans replace the reactor power in pair and unable to fill into a buffer
- Weapon Control and Drone Control:
- Adds, removes, or replaces power from ion-locked systems (depending on the system)
- Adds power if a system has no power or if there are unfilled system power levels due to partial ionization of Shields, Engines, Medbay/Clonebay, Oxygen.
- Removes power by passing through (or leaving the room) when as many Zoltans pass through the room as there are power levels in a system. (common use examples: freeing up reactor power from systems on cooldown - Cloaking, Mind Control, and Hacking, usually leaving 1 power bar to keep the passive disruption debuffs vs enemy ships; e.g. 2 zoltans can free up only 2 reactor power from a previously fully powered level 3 self-ionizing system)
- Replaces regular reactor power
- When entering Weapon/Drone Control system rooms
- When as many Zoltans enter and stay in the room as there are power levels in Shields, Engines, Medbay/Clonebay, Oxygen, and other systems.
- The only way to increase the total power supplied to the Weapon/Drone Control systems if more Zoltans end up in the room than there was cumulative power in the system prior to the ion-lock. (note that weapons and drones in the slots can be swapped when the system is ionized)
- Can "ion-proof" most systems by providing zoltan power and enabling the functioning of the systems
- The ion-lock status, preventing manning the system console, is not removed, and ion damage can accumulate up to a maximum of 5 if the system continues to get ionized
- Cloaking, Hacking, Mind Control, and Crew Teleporter cannot be activated if they are ionized
- Mind Control system with a Zoltan will not shutdown if it gets ionized by external factors. (system power levels not filled with zoltan power can get ionize, thus, reducing the maximum MC effect and duration)
- Hacking cannot be ion-proofed with zoltan power - the hacking disruption gets interrupted and the systems enters cooldown equivalent to the ion damage received. (number of Zoltans occupying the room doesn't affect the outcome - 1 ion damage is enough to shutdown a level 3 Hacking pulse)
- Federation terraforming team C12 (equivalent of Sensors 2-3)
- Zoltan trade hub
Slug
- These telepathic Slugs were shunned in the Galactic Federation for their constant thievery and attempts at manipulation.
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.
- Immune to mind control
- Reveals live enemy crew (drones are undetectable)
- Grants vision of adjacent rooms' interior
- Disabled Rock transport
- Intelligent lifeform on planet
- Nebula seen ships exchange fire
- Pirate ship selling drones (serves only for Diplomatic Immunity achievement)
- Poorly armed Slug ship
- Single life form on moon
- Slug Home Nebula surrender (Unlock Slug Cruiser)
- Slug transport with military escort (advice role only)
- The Black Raven
- Zoltan security checkpoint (equivalent of Mind Control)
Crystal
- Ancient ancestors of the Rockmen.
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.
- Hitpoints: 125
- Movement speed: 80%
- Fire-fighting speed: 83%
- -50% suffocation damage
- Lockdown ability
- Ancient device
- Crystal civilian question
- Crystalline cache (equivalent of Breach Missiles)
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
|
This section describes content that only appears in Advanced Edition. |
- These anaerobic beings seem friendly enough.
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.
- Movement speed: 85%
- Immune to suffocation
- Drains oxygen from an occupied room (at the rate of a breach)
- Civilians fleeing from Lanius
- Civilians under fire from Lanius
- Lanius absorbing jump beacon
- Lanius absorbing rebel base
- Lanius salvaging
- Lanius scavenger trader
- Merchant docked with Lanius
- Powered-down Lanius vessel
- Science craft docked with Lanius
- Space station under construction
- The Engi virus
Ghost
Unless a bug occurs in the Flagship fights, you have a mod that includes them or uses a save game editor, you will never see one of these in a normal game. This type of race cannot be found within ftl.dat (Mac OS) or data.dat (Windows), and although there is an event that references this race (GHOST_SHIP), this event was never finished, but you can still see how this event was to be planned out here. The event was probably supposed to use the "Horror" track from the FTL OST. Other than that event, there is supposedly a single ghost on the Rebel Flagship after the "Advanced AI" takes over, hence representing it, although this is highly unlikely since the Rebel Flagship maintains its power surge consistency and behaves like any other AI ship, auto firing and having Lv.1 manning on all systems.
Statistics/Abilities:
- - 50 base HP
- + Immune to suffocation.
The ghost sprites and exact mechanics were ported in FTL: Captain's Edition as AI holograms. This mod also has rogue AIs as a separate race in addition to having "normal" AIs as servants to other races (chiefly, the Engi and Zoltan). AI ships in CE have a boxy, gray-colored hull reminiscent of computer hardware.
The Differences Between Races
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Races | Ships | Systems | Weapons | Drones | Augmentations | Sectors | Achievements | Ship Achievements | Random Events | Easter Eggs
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Races | Ships | Systems | Weapons | Drones | Augmentations | Sectors | Achievements | Ship Achievements | Random Events | Easter Eggs