FTL Sector Tier List

This is an overview/review of the various sectors in FTL. I explain my preferences for one sector over another. Hope you find this informative.

[@commenter4898]

0:37 Things to consider ==S tier: always go== 2:45 civilian: always go. most scrap and most stores. 6:54 Crystal: free extra sector. always worth it. ==A tier== 8:55 Engi: 3 stores, few fights, good with Engi. 11:20 Abandoned 2-3: 2 stores. high scraps. Not good for boarding. 13:03 Mantis: 1-2 stores. Easy to kill the crew and defend against. ==B tier== 15:43 Slug: 2-3 stores in nebula. higher scrap and more jumps. need to deal with cloaking, missile, and large crew. 18:36 Rock: 2 stores. strong ships. rock crew slow. 21:29 Rebel: 1-2 store. high scrap. strong ships with offensive drone and hacking. 23:14 Pirate: 1-2 stores. weak enemy. average scrap. can get slavers. ==C tier== (25:10 Last stand: 1 store. Highly variable.) 26:33 Abandoned 4: 2 stores. Cloak, mind control, teleport. Lanius boarder hard to deal with. == D tier: avoid whenever possible == 29:35 uncharted nebula: 1-2 store, sometimes 0 store. empty events. Lowest scrap. 31:10 Zoltan: 2 stores. Zoltan shield, mind control. Bypass still limits hacking. Hard events. Nebula mostly empty. 36:10 Abandoned 5+: 2 stores. Boarding with 2 Lanius hard to defend.

[@Pyrosity]

Super helpful, thank you

[@Urbanstrangler]

Thank you

[@weepingangel4638]

Thank you

[@TheHirokaraka]

Thx, this whole video could have been a reddit post.

[@metalgearsolidsnake6978]

what is Crystal? i don´t have Crystal in my games?

[@luckystars4208]

FTL is a game I love to go back to from time to time, so I'm glad there's still people creating content for it.

[@crowrevell2082]

I got 1-2 more things i wanna make videos for, but haven't quite figured out how to present them (one on how to route sectors and one about budgeting)

[@metalgearsolidsnake6978]

yea it is cool, since the game is always different every time you try it

[@goop2345]

Your channel is such a great resource, it's so nice to have so much good info consolidated here. Thank you for your work!

[@crowrevell2082]

Thanks. it's something I work towards. I've watched so many players as well as talk with several about theory or store choices. It's helped me become the player that I am.

[@farb]

so sector 1 is the best sector. got it.

[@crowrevell2082]

Not sector 69? You deserve a medal for that level of restraint.

[@farb]

🤣

[@elfakyn]

Finally! This is something I'd been looking for for a long time. Sector choice is one of my weaker aspects of strategy. Thanks for making this.

[@crowrevell2082]

Welcome. it's a thing that can get overlooked because, you don't get a lot of choice in the matter. I've seen way to many people die trying for zoltan shields or misjudge the risk of certain sectors. Just trying to put it in some perspective.

[@xansoraa4426]

I don't care how dangerous it is, I'm always jumping to an abandoned sector just to hear the music.

[@SteelRider]

Respect !

[@julian59028]

I’m glad someone else is pointing out how insanely trash Zolton sectors are.

[@demit189]

Youre so knowledgeable at this game thanks for making these vids

[@RackaGack]

Pretty much spot on, If it were me I would probably have an option for sector 4 slug controlled ahead of mantis, the fights can be really easy for both boarding and gunships and the hard ones are still manageable, the events aren’t that scary and they don’t have like 7 crew yet like they do later. And the 2-3 stores plus event stores is really good.

[@crowrevell2082]

that's a fair point. I was somewhat concerned with splitting hairs to much, but also kind of ignorant on all the differences between early/later sectors

[@RackaGack]

@@crowrevell2082 i prefer how you did it, too many different sector number specific options would have been a little bit too much information for players trying to learn about sectors, when explaining the sectors how you did accomplishes the same thing

[@IntrusiveThot420]

Before watching, very interested to see how the Engi sectors fare. I always feel like they're a little bit like a slot machine!

[@IntrusiveThot420]

Also, yes, Lanius Bombers are my use case for "i am going to hack their teleporter"

[@crowrevell2082]

Eng sectors are considered by a few people to have a lot of variance. Lvl 2 sensors have 6 blue options, Engi have 4-5. As well as the general lack of fights for crew killing ships to generate more money.

[@Usernameneverseen]

Really like your content, can I suggest that you turn down the background music or turn your audio up? Its kinda hard to hear you sometimes!

[@crowrevell2082]

i have to improve in that regard. but i think it's mostly the song just has such a wide range in terms of peak and valleys.

[@user-cs2zo9xj4w]

It's mentioned in the beginning of the video that Engi sectors are average in terms of scrap, however this is incorrect. On average, Engi sector yeilds more scrap that any other sector because of the free equipment that you tend to get.

[@glupshitto5019]

also this account is criminally underrated

[@crowrevell2082]

Kind of you to say.

[@ianallen738]

Some important considerations for the crystal sector: You lose all the remaining jumps in your current sector, which sucks if you find this early, AND you dont get to choose what the next sector you jump into is going to be, when you leave crystal, because cyrstal isnt on the map. Im not sure how the game loads you back into the map, haven't gone to crystal yet, but given how so many other things are coded I would imagine there's some kind of priority position that always gets selected first, out of the list of "sector X" possibilities.

[@VinticoreGaming]

Thanks for the video Chris! Overall I feel a bit sad about what has happened to the paladin, one of my fav classes (smite nova was cool)

[@crowrevell2082]

think this comment is for someone else's video. But i appreciate the algorithm bump

[@ProvencaLeGaulois]

Hey dude thanks for the content :) are those tips helpful even for Multiverse or does it work differently there?

[@crowrevell2082]

multiverse is a whole other can of worms. There are different weapons, drones, ships, I think even systems, and a lot of different events. I don't have experience playing it, but I would assume this video really isn't applicable.

[@ProvencaLeGaulois]

@@crowrevell2082 cheers :)

[@mrjeffs0723]

Do one for ftl multiverse !

[@metalgearsolidsnake6978]

How do you avoid being hit by missles?

[@crowrevell2082]

Sometimes you can't. A lot of it comes down to taking weapons off line as soon as possible. at least in the early game. As you build up scrap to consider options, cloaking is the most obvious. Hacking is another tool, because you can hack their weapons to slow down their volley, giving you multiple chances to break their weapons before they fire. Defense Drone is another. Not as popular because the right side of the ship isn't fully covered (there's a bug in programming that Defense Drones basically don't see that part of the screen) and it somewhat competes for drone parts with hacking. Training your crew early can also help - find a safe fight and allow you crew to get enough experience in piloting and engines for a few more dodges. Lastly I would say is engines. I tend to not upgrade engines unless i'm far behind and need to run from fights (that's why mantis b upgrades engines first).

[@metalgearsolidsnake6978]

@@crowrevell2082 Even when i am cloaked i get hit some times, i and don´t understand why? Yes i have found out that engines helpes, but i still don´t understand why i get hit when i am cloaked? But thanks for the answer:)

[@crowrevell2082]

@@metalgearsolidsnake6978 cloaking adds a flat +60% evasion. higher levels of cloaking just increase the duration of your cloak. 5/10/15 seconds at levels 1/2/3. If you have level 4 engines powered, and a trained person in piloting and a trained engines person on engines you will have 100% evasion when cloak is activated.

[@elongatedwombat]

luv me secta!

[@glupshitto5019]

first

[@Zempgara]

Heavily disagree with the list. Engi sectors are shit; so little fights means less money. More fights = more kills = more money. Stores should be approached only when needed; as each store is a dead sector you don't make any money in.

[@crowrevell2082]

At the higher end of winrate (above 90% in hard mode), scrap becomes less of an issue. Instead players should rely on crew kills for more value, power juggling for less money in reactor, and other tactics/strategy. Obviously scrap is still an important factor, but it's best to scale your ship as fast as you can, and stores provide the best place to find weapons and only place to find systems.