Mantis B combat basics | FTL tips

00:00 Intro
00:23 Automated ships
03:05 Teleporter-2 discussion
05:03 Crewed ships boarding intro
06:40 Beating three Mantis with just boarders
11:26 Using the boarding drone for more safety
13:43 Boarding vs. medbay
17:23 Boarding vs. clone bay
21:50 Boarding medbay + dangerous weapons
24:29 Running away instead
25:42 Enemy running away, with doors and a shield drone
28:54 Enemy with a missile, AP drone, and medbay

[@gamingin-betweengaming3499]

This helped me A LOT to get my first Mantis B win!
TYSM!!

[@Leylite]

Thanks for a comprehensive video on boarding tactics _and_, perhaps more importantly, the strategic decisions of whether to board or not, and how to convert a fight into a safer fight that won't lose you the game.
This video is pitched as a Mantis B tactics video, but these are the kinds of tactics and decisions that are helpful on any boarding ship, too - it'll help the player save bombs on Mantis A, win winnable fights with Federation C, etc.

[@mikehopley]

Thanks! As you say, some of these ideas can be applied on other ships too. I feel like Mantis B puts them into sharp relief because you only have two crew and boarding can be very committing.

[@AdrianColley]

That was terrific. I keep thinking I understand this game, but I learned a lot from this.

[@mikehopley]

Great, thanks for mentioning it! I never know for sure what will be useful.

[@outryder7773]

@@mikehopley Perhaps some ships' configurations to run away from or to consider negotiating with can be added to the ship guides or compiled into a separate (video) guide? E.g. "this ship" - run, "that ship" - 50/50.

[@mikehopley]

@@outryder7773 It's an interesting idea. I think there would just be too many combinations though?

[@outryder7773]

@@mikehopley I have to agree with you that the list can be massive. In the end it is in the players' interest to know the weapons, drones, crew, systems, augmentations and their synergy.

[@outryder7773]

Mike, thank you for showcasing the hard and the dangerous fights.
It is weird how the Door System level visualization can be misleading! E.g.: they appear as Lv 3 while they are in fact only Lv 2 (ruclips.net/video/E2ONp_TmFG4/видео.html).

[@mikehopley]

Yes I was surprised by that. I don't *think* it's an artefact of the mod here, but I don't know why it happens. I remember seeing it a lot with doors that look level 1 initially and then are level 2 when you start the fight.

[@outryder7773]

@@mikehopley I didn't notice it (or more like didn't pay attention to), but something similar happens with a player's ship when entering and/or exiting nebulas - I don't recall the exact patterns, though.

[@mikehopley]

@@outryder7773 Yep I've seen that too. I don't know why this happens, but so far I've not seen it have any practical consequences either

[@outryder7773]

@@mikehopley From my point of view It is similar to drones deployment: game needs to be progressed a frame (or few frames) after the auto-pause to see the actual situation. So a quick hasty look and losing the focus can play out bad for the boarding party - but I that never caught me (probably due to the habit to progress the game few frames forward in order to spot any sneaky weapons, e.g. a bomb launcher).

[@MajandraFan]

4:00 autoships with separated rooms never have cloaking and are unlikely to deal 2 damage to the teleporter in sector 1.

[@mikehopley]

Tell that to the Auto-hacker with Burst 2 and Small Bomb. Don't forget fires exist. And "unlikely" isn't good enough when you are playing to win every single run.
The cloaking comment was not specifically about helping the boarding drone. People board Auto-ships for other reasons too, like breaking weapons. I'm not saying you can't board Auto-ships, I'm saying you need to be careful and it's very questionable whether the upgrade is worthwhile early.

[@MajandraFan]

@@mikehopley Okay, so 10% of autoships can have separate rooms with boarding drone stuck in piloting. What is the percentage of autoships that can take out a level 2 teleporter, and then do? Is it greater or less than 10%?
Is giving up the chance at the rest of those autoship encounters worth it? Plus having armour on the teleporter in general is useful, and of course the blue slaver option.
I don't know the answer, but I generally go for level 2 teleporter.

[@mikehopley]

Giving up scrap from those auto-ship encounters is completely irrelevant. You don't need to win those fights, just leave. I'm not saying that the upgrade is bad, I'm just saying I don't recommend it early on. You're welcome to play differently if you like.