FTL Augment tier list.

An alphabetical run down of all the augments in FTL.

[@benjadryl_7393]

Laying it out like this makes you really realize how many "nothing" augments there are. It's a shame that so many of the ship-specific augments are really most useful as free scrap for the second shield bubble in sector 1.

[@know1care]

I respectfully disagree. This guide is based on one goal: win the game, especially in hard difficulty. Honestly, those who don't have the same goal won't watch this video, but it definitely provides a variety of fun and goals for a spectrum of players to choose. They are not "nothing." They are not nothing even if winning is the ultimate goal. They are needed because they provide a pool of theme-matching augments for players to analyze the benefits and drawbacks, which generates learning curves and debates. How boring a game is if there is only one fixed strategy and all you do is praying to the RNG God.

[@Walczyk]

@@know1careit isn’t a perfectly balanced game dude, see: stun bomb

[@itsraventm]

Check out the multiverse mod. As someone who 100% ftl and beat hard/ae with all ships and variants, I still don't think that FTL is 'stale' as it is my favorite game of all time, but multiverse does a fantastic job of fixing the problems of vanilla and changing it up to be even more repayable and varied.

[@misteral9045]

​@@itsraventmJust here to echo, Multiverse is basically FTL2 and fleshes out so many things. The nanobots become an internal ship upgrade as an option at empty beacons available every run to ships with medbays. Scales with medbay, with investment and a few other things can basically make crew invincible on your own ship.

[@mt-wizard]

Cool guide, I would also mention one thing about Zoltan Shield (unless I missed it) - it doesn't block ASB, which is a bummer and may be a bit surprising when you get used to not having any damage while the shield is up

[@crowrevell2082]

Good point. It's kind of nuts just how much there is to consider about zoltan shield.

[@scyfrix]

@@crowrevell2082 For the sake of completionism and being pedantic, it also prevents boarding drones from entering your ship.

[@mikehopley]

Another great video! Some thoughts: Occasionally, Adv. FTL Nav helps you route "split" sector layouts and find the stores. I had that happen once with a free one. Pre-igniter speeds up a Vulcan much more than a Reloader, albeit at 3 times the cost. With training, a Reloader drops the spool time from 28.4 to 25.8 seconds, whereas Pre-igniter makes it 19.5. There are times where I think Pre-igniter is correct to buy in sector 4 or even earlier. That's definitely the exception rather than the rule. Reconstructive Teleport has some niche benefit in cloning at a pulsar (though you can kinda do that anyway), and with Lanius boarders in fights where you can't stall to kill them off (especially pulsars). I've bought Battery Charger a few times (late game) and found it decent. Can't be sure if I've done that outside Zoltan C, but I think so. It makes more sense if you upgrade your battery. An upgraded battery with the augment helps quite a lot in plasma storms. Enemy FTL charge isn't affected by how long you've been fighting, it's a fixed timer for the event. The standard values are 40 seconds if running from the start, or 15 seconds otherwise. Repair Arm I like quite a lot. I'll try to keep a free one, and occasionally I'll buy it very late. Getting a regular trickle of repairs between stores is a significant amount of additional safety. I think players' attitudes to this augment depend on the "default max" hull repair they normally take at stores (unless pressing scrap needs dictate otherwise). If you're only repairing to 22, it's going to seem really bad. My "default max" hull repair is all of it. Distraction Buoys might be worth buying if you're good for scrap but hurting for systems / weapons. It's a 28 scrap investment and +1 jump might make a big difference to how effectively you can scout the next sector(s) for stores. This is a bit theoretical as I don't think I've done it yet, but the logic is sound. I quite like DNA Bank, mainly since it lets you board automated ships with impunity. If the fight is really bad, you may otherwise be forced into risking your boarding crew. So it's one of those "situational, but the situation can really matter" augments. Kinda like anti-drone in that respect. Similarly with Reverse Ion, it's situational but the situations where it matters can be significant. Like so many augments, it's rare that I'd buy one, but there are spots where I think it's justified. I'll try to keep a free one. Slug Repair Gel is pretty good, it's just that 30 scrap in the early game is better. I'll try to keep this but it's almost always getting sold in practice. It's a shame I'm literally never getting this outside the Slug ships. Pulsars randomly deal either 3 or 4 damage to a Zoltan Shield. Fire Suppression is better than you described. It's not like having one Crystal in every room, it's like having one on every tile that has a fire -- so four tiles on fire means four "Crystals" in the room. Actually even that's inaccurate, because multiple crew all fight the same fire, whereas Fire Suppression acts on all fires at the same time. So really it's like every fire gets its own sprinkler, which has the same effectiveness as a Crystal crew. It does stack with crew.

[@crowrevell2082]

FTL in a nut shell. Spend over 90 minutes talking about augments, most of which are skippable, and yet still miss out on 2 dozen nuanced plays.

[@mikehopley]

@@crowrevell2082 Yeah it's just endless!

[@outryder7773]

Excellent video, Crow! Though I do not agree 100% on everything here, the 95% or so is surely right for any case (IMO). I would like to add some details, which I didn't notice in the video, if you don't mind. Drone Recovery Arm: to recover the Hull repair drone after 2 repair bursts, it mustn't be depowered. Backup DNA Bank: even an enemy hack on the Clone Bay doesn't purge the crew. Engi Medbot-Dispersal: with level-2 Medbay it gets a blue option weapon reward. (Unknown disease on mining colony) Rock Plating: the weapon/statis pod event happens once per sector in Engi, Rock, and Pirate sectors. Crystal Vengeance: the shard can collide with any other projectile, including yours, targeted at the enemy ship. Reverse Ion Field: vs pulsar it either blocks the ion damage completely or the puslar ionizes the systems normally. (~50% chance with 1 or even 2 augments) (thanks go to Mike for discovering and testing) Stealth Weapons: the only option to break the cloaking cycle vs 'untimed' flagship phase-3 surge is to move (2-3) zoltans through the system. Long-Ranged Scanners: beacon map reveal reward shows the info as well. Zoltan Shield: can be detrimental when boarding enemy boarding ships with stronger crew and without Hacking/Crystal crew support (one would want to separate the enemy crew, if they cannot be destructive on your ship), and when boarding ships with MC without having your own MC system (e.g. auto-ships with MC level 2 will suffocate both of your crew; mitigated by having Clone Bay and boarding with 4 crew - 2 crew will cancel each other).

[@ddshocktrooper5604]

The one thing that's kinda neat about the backup battery charger is the timing perfectly aligns with cloaking cooldown. If you activate battery and L3 cloak at the same time, and use the backup bars on the cloaking system with the battery augment, the battery will come back online a little before the cloaking does. It's absolutely not worth 40 scrap, but it is incredibly convenient.

[@RackaGack]

The augment I actually have been buying the most is autorealoader, specifically since I almost always have early weapon training, its very nice for being super fast, and its cheap. Stealth weapons I am also a big fan of, but if I have cloaking I am usually already winning so its pretty redundant at that point. Everything else I actually am extremely unlikely to buy unless I am already winning. Even bypass Im not super sold on because its only useful for 9-12 ships, the ones that buy or start with teleporter, and its only useful for a small percentage of fights. Granted, it is against the worst fights in the game being riggers and zoltan ships, so there is something to be said for that, but most of the time, I don’t like boarding ships anyways unless their shields are down and I can hack something, especially if its a rigger with like 3 dudes, a shield drone, and an anti personnel drone and a medbay. In that case zoltan shield bypass can be not super useful even though in theory it is. I will say that zoltan shield bypass to me is more useful as a win condition, specifically for fed c or mantis b, which can struggle against the boss sometimes, and having to pay only 55 scrap for essentially a guaranteed win against phase 3 is a great bargain.

[@crowrevell2082]

yeah - it's kind of why i purposely have an always buy category with nothing in it. like, nothing in the game is an always buy, but it's so seldom that I buy augments. And a lot of the time it feels like win more. While, yeah, zoltan bypass can take a boarding run from a maybe to an easy win.

[@ZappBranniglenn]

FTL augments are a lot of solutions in search of problems. Especially once you've become a better/more knowledgeable player to address those concerns. I agree with all these placements except for one. I've bought Battery Charger a lot and I would certainly vouch for C tier at the lowest. Obviously it's of no use if you don't have backup battery yet, but pretty much all of my runs will pick that up if there's nothing more pressing to buy. I know a lot of power issues can be solved by micro-ing better, but no amount of microing gets your battery back online in a longer, protracted fight. On a bad fight with an iffy ship, battery on cooldown can really stall your momentum, and getting ten of those seconds back can really matter if your mid-game ship has picked up more systems than it has Reactor to keep everything chugging.

[@everythingisinmovement4187]

No augment in S-Tier is ridiculous!!! Weapon Pre-Igniter ALWAYS buy it if you can afford it!!

[@Pennycilin3]

Crow said in the beginning of the video that every augment is situational, and nothing is a must-buy. If an augment is so good that it justifies delaying getting systems or ship upgrades, then that augment deserves to be S-tier, but no such augment does that. Buying Hacking is always the priority, getting 2 shields in Sector 1-2 is always the priority, upgrading your weapons setup if the ship starts with a bad one is always the priority. Pre-Igniter only comes into consideration once your ship is well-rounded and you want to win more.

[@wheeI]

pre igniter isnt super useful on a boarding/drone ship that only has a couple lasers for weapons

[@millerman12]

Thanks for doing this! Most surprising part was that long ranged scanners were only a B. I get your explanation but (1) many people don't map out their paths as you do (maybe we all should) and (2) even if you're mapping it out, surely there are situations where you have a choice between 2-3 jumps where the choice won't otherwise affect your mapped route, and getting even one ship fight over an empty jump would pay for the LRS on its own. What do you think?

[@crowrevell2082]

I have a video about "value" in FTL or why LRS are bad that goes into the details of why I generally ignore LRS augment. I have a total of 11 losses in my last 321 hard mode runs, and LRS wouldn't have saved any of them. Also I've seen several people die because they bought LRS and couldn't afford a key purchase. My philosophy is if something can get me killed, drop it and see if I regret it.

[@metalgearsolidsnake6978]

great game, i think Weapon pre ignieter is the best of all the stuff

[@jeanpauldupuis]

Scrap arm is S. Bump almost anything for dual scrap arms if you can. Many of those Ds are at least Cs: holding them for a few jumps is better than the scrap they provide until something obviously better bumps them. There is extreme urgency to dump the cursed repair arm almost always. There is some urgency to sell useless loadout-specific augments (reconstructive teleport, backup DNA, battery charger) for early scrap if you never plan to upgrade in those directions - however, keeping them around can be worth the blue options they unlock. Things like titanium casing provide loadout-independent benefits almost every jump, and are absolutely worth keeping until bumped (even to the boss), unless you are absolutely desperate for the scrap.

[@crowrevell2082]

My first thought is to ask if you are playing on hard mode because there is an abundance of scrap on easy, compared to hard. (I did some tracking, and sector 1 and 2 produce about 100 scrap per sector on average compared to hard mode). I wouldn't say go out of you well to sell augments, except in the early sector when getting stability upgrades on ships is paramount for consistently winning. Zoltan shield is the only augment I can think of, that provides enough of an impact in the game that I almost always have it through to the flagship. Like, there are some spots you don't sell something like rock plating or casing because there isn't a benefit to do so (your ship has all the upgrades you need and you plan on visiting a different store). It would make sense to hold on to see if some negation of damage could be helpful

[@segalliongaming8925]

You need to separate out the bottom tier into two, because there are way too many augments there, and some are situationally more useful than others. For example, Reconstructive Teleport is almost invaluable for boarding ships with Clone Bays. Defense Scrambler is good for drone-based strategies, and Mantis Pheromones can give your crewmates a little extra time to fight, repair, or just plain survive.

[@sylvainsanesti3499]

How is Reconstructive Teleport "invaluable"? What does it do, except for saving a few experience points on your crew? What does Defense Scrambler do, when micro-managing your drones can lead to the same result?

[@sleepingdragon5640]

Recon Teleport is only useful if you have Lanius, otherwise if you have a teleporter ship with a clone bay you just vent your crew after the fight. You'll lose gold combat training but who cares? 10% combat skill is not remotely worth 70 scrap. Def Scrambler is actually more useful for missiles, since you can just do drone power/depower to get around antidrones.

[@Real_Sp00ks]

Drone tier list soon?

[@crowrevell2082]

oh no.... well. there' aren't many, but the images for the tier list are really rough. The big thing is just knowing about the targeting glitch on def drone and resetting shield drone on stealth c.

[@Real_Sp00ks]

@@crowrevell2082 I'm just curious, Drones are pretty rarely discussed since they are a pretty suboptimal system, and tend to only be bought on ships stuck with them

[@miracledang3025]

How often do you lose outside of the first two sectors? You put so much emphasis on them in this video it sounds like you’ve basically won if you don’t get screwed early on.

[@crowrevell2082]

In 998 runs of hardmode, i had 35 deaths in sector 1 (representing 33% of total deaths) and 31 deaths in sector 4 (representing 29% of total deaths). Sector 5, 6, 7, and 8 (not counting flagship) is 13 deaths, about 12% total. Flagship deaths a total of 12 (11%). Those numbers are pretty much my entire FTL streaming career, so i have lessened the totals overall. During my 13 runs with every ships (last 364 runs i completed) there were a total of 12 deaths. sector 1 had 3 deaths. sector 4 had 4 i believe. 1 flagship.

[@miracledang3025]

@@crowrevell2082 Interesting! I heard sector 4 was a bit of a difficulty spike, but I didn’t realize it was that significant. I’m betting a fair few of those deaths were from forced abandoned or Zoltan sectors.

[@crowrevell2082]

​@@miracledang3025 definitely killed by a couple zoltans (or pirates on a zoltan ship). the 3 shields can be an issue, and bad early sectors or a scrap hungry ship (or both) can be really deadly

[@davidbates3057]

I mostly agree, though I'd remove the top rank and then redistribute Zoltan Shield into C. Zoltan shield is really not that useful, since even most sector 3 enemy weapon systems are going to blow through it in the first volley. Sure, those extra few seconds to avoid being boarded/hacked are an extra few seconds, but it's unlikely to be something that will make or break a battle. I find far more value in getting Envoy than the shield. I might rate Long-Range Scanners and Scrap Recovery Arm higher, though both are dependent on getting them early on where they'll pay for themselves over the course of a couple of sectors. I also wouldn't put Rock Plating in D tier. Being able to avoid taking damage when those hits land isn't something to be sniffed at, and there are a number blue events out there that use it. If you need the 40 scrap, sell it, but I wouldn't automatically do so the first shop I land in.

[@RackaGack]

This may be the worst take Ive seen in a bit, so just to be clear, rock plating and zoltan shields should both be in C tier?! Zoltan shields is by far the best augment in the game and its not even close, it lets you spec wayyy more into offense and having better offense keeps your shields up longer, and vice versa. Scrap recovery arm is useless and should NEVER be bought unless you aren’t playing to maximize winrate like Crow here does. Long range scanners can have some pretty good value and those can be worth it to buy sometimes, but often if playing optimally, youre routes through sectors are usually predetermined.

[@abovo77]

That's way to much preamble. Skip.