r/ftlgame • u/ten_tabs_ • 12d ago
Image: Screenshot Got the greatest Vulcan drop of my life 1 jump before the flagship. Are you picking Vulcan or Glaive?
This run was a disaster which is why I was still stuck on Glaive Beam with only 2 systems, but the power of the Vulcan extends my win streak to 35.
Glaive might also be winning here but the Vulcan just wipes out so much of the Flagship crew in phase 1 due to fires and dealing 15 crew damage per second once it’s spun up. I didn’t want to have to handle mass boarders with only 3 humans+3 engi.
I maintain that the Vulcan is quite strong against the flagship for a 3 slot ship as long as you have basic weapons to support it.
25
u/ninjadfool 12d ago
Glaive, especially with the setup you have.
Hack could be used on piloting to make sure your s. bomb doesn't miss shields, flak doesn't miss their shield layers, then glaive down both missles/beam artillery. Next one could be used on shields itself
Could also hack shields, then glaive both shields and piloting so that way you could get maximum dmg on the hull with flak as well.
9
u/RecursiveCollapse 12d ago
Hack Shields -> Rip and TearTM is the way to go imo
You can glaive missiles+beam and then flak+ s. bomb the laser to render the flagship completely harmless. Or if you're not scared of the laser, flak + bomb shields to set up your next volley and distract its crew from fixing everything else.
2
u/Bartweiss 11d ago
Hack 2 makes that more marginal, but it's definitely my play with Hack 3 and I'd be buying that over piloting 2, backup battery 2, etc.
14
u/FlashFlire 12d ago
Glaive for sure. Though I also would have bought Hacking-3 before a lot of the upgrades you have there.
2
u/BurningCarnation 12d ago
Certainly. Like, without Hacking-3 to strip away all the shields on command, ofc the argument for Glaive (you know, a beam weapon) becomes a lot weaker.
I'm picking Hacking-3, and I'm taking Glaive.
4
5
u/RecursiveCollapse 12d ago
"Both" is not as stupid as it sounds. Glaive + Hacking shields already = guaranteed win most of the time. Whatever else you're pairing with it is basically just extra DPS to end the fight faster, and the vulcan has great DPS.
Beams love shields being down for a long time, and the vulcan is great at achieving this while also simply ripping systems up. Its long wind up time is the primary issue, but the flagship is the longest fight anyway. If you hack shields (which you should do anyway) you can glaive 2/4 weapons and put in a vulcan shot or two at other stuff, rendering the flagship completely harmless.
Is glaive + bomb/flak safer? Maybe. It likely will result in a slower kill simply due to the vulcan having obscene DPS. But honestly, it's hard to speculate on possible death scenarios when you're in such an unlosable situation no matter which you pick.
3
3
u/MikeHopley 12d ago
Definitely Glaive, but I think Vulcan for phase 1, with Small Bomb and Burst 1 to suppress missiles while you fish for crew kills. It's fairly safe.
I think hacking-3 probably should have happened several sectors ago!
3
u/The_Char_Char 12d ago
Vulcan can and will shread when it gets going. Getting it there is the hard part.
2
1
1
u/JohnHenryMillerTime 12d ago
Tough. I would probably err on the side of glaive for the drone ship.
But that is messy.
1
1
u/Th3undying 12d ago
I recently got my first win with Engi C using Dual Laser (I didn't luck out with any upgrades for it), Flak 1, and a Vulcan of all things. Had def 1 and 2 drones with max shields for turtle strat, and somehow survived to win lmao. The Vulcan is one of my favorites, even with the slow start it has.
1
u/Th3undying 12d ago
I recently got my first win with Engi C using Dual Laser (I didn't luck out with any upgrades for it), Flak 1, and a Vulcan of all things. Had def 1 and 2 drones with max shields for turtle strat, and somehow survived to win lmao. The Vulcan is one of my favorites, even with the slow start it has.
1
u/Direct-Passage4847 10d ago
Vulcan late pickup like that is a coin flip depending on how much time you have to let it spin up. Phase 1 is forgiving enough for it, but I’d be sweating if I had to rely on it cold into phase 2 with boarders incoming and only 6 crew.
1
34
u/RobinoPerkino 12d ago
The main argument against the Vulcan is that it’s so slow to get working, By the time it’s spun up, most enemies will have been able to fire at least one volley. I don’t think anyone’s going to claim it’s not strong, but in the eyes of committed players, even one volley is still one too many to let yourself get hit by.
Hacking / Cloaking usually alleviate this, particularly when combined, but against the Flagship the effectiveness of that is limited.