Federation Cruiser

Lore & Background

The Kestrel is the starting vessel of FTL, not the Federation Cruiser. The game begins with a single available ship, the Kestrel cruiser in its default "A" configuration, which carries a Burst Laser II and an Artemis Missile. Nine additional ships, including the Federation Cruiser, are unlocked by completing various optional objectives. The player's crew has intercepted a data packet from the rebel fleet containing the location of the Rebel Flagship's weakness or critical intelligence.

The goal is to reach Federation headquarters, waiting several space sectors away, while avoiding destruction from hostile ships or by the pursuing rebel fleet. The final sector ends with a battle against the Rebel Flagship, a multi-stage fight which results in either victory or defeat for the Federation. The Kestrel is the vessel that carries this critical information and crew through eight procedurally generated sectors.

Reader's Guide

The Federation Cruiser, as the starting Kestrel, is the player's introduction to FTL's gameplay. At game start, the player chooses a spacecraft to start with, each one with a different top-down layout and containing a different mix of weapons, systems (piloting, engines, weapons, oxygen, etc.), and crew. The player must "jump" the ship between waypoints, normally unaware what awaits at each point, and make headway to an "exit" point leading to the next sector.

The player's ship can accumulate scrap (in-game currency), equipment (ranging from weapons to combat and support drones and various ship augmentations) and extra crew members by maximizing the number of beacons they visit, but each encounter has the potential to deal damage to their ship and/or crew. The player cannot typically revisit waypoints, and each warp jump consumes fuel and causes the rebel fleet to advance in each sector, and slowly take over more of the beacons.

During a fight, the player can manage the ship's systems by distributing power, order crew to specific stations or rooms, and fire weapons at the enemy ship. A ship is destroyed once its hull points are reduced to zero, or defeated once its crew is eliminated. A player victory earns them resources to use in trading with stores or upgrading their ship; an enemy victory results in game failure, deleting the save file and forcing the player to start over.