How do I into DA-SR12?

[MushrooMars]

So, I decided to try out the Stealth Cruiser which I unlocked in my very first run playing FTL - I got very lucky - seriously for the first time. The thing, while unwieldy and vulnerable, is an absolute monstrosity. Once I got past my Kestrel training of targeting shields/pilot first and then weapons, I was able to consistently sweep the first 4 sectors before I encountered any issues. Today I managed to reach the Flagship - which I would have destroyed if I wasn't so damn trigger-happy with my cloak - and unlocked the DA-SR12 after being obliterated during a Drone Power Surge.

So I tried out the DA-SR12 3 times tonight.


Why.


Why does this ship *exist*? I understand the point behind it, being a literal glass cannon, but this thing doesn't even deserve to be called a ship. It is functionally a Glaive Beam with a Cloak and an FTL Drive bolted to it, with some crew twist-tied on for good measure. If I were building it, I would have eschewed the Medbay, Doors System, or both to bump that Cloak up to 3 power bars by default. Even with that buffer zone, I feel like I'm just straight-up unlucky with the thing. In the second picture, the reason I'm engaging the Rebel Fleet is because the Exit Bacon was inaccessible except for a single route towards the top of the sector, at which point I shouted "FUKKIT", flew to the opposite end of the sector and made a final stand - blowing up 4 Advanced Rebel Fighters in the process.

I mean, it feels so successful to two-shot a ship with 2 layers of shields and 3 weapon systems, but I'll be damned if I can get past Sector 2 without dying.

[English Narwhal]

The Stealth ships are not easy ships to use. Period.
Using the Type B is almost literal insanity unless you're really good at the game.

[5thHorseman]

You should literally never be in the situation you're in in picture 3, on any ship. Fighting the rebels in open space in sector 1 is suicide.

The DA-SR12 is hard to learn, but one of the easiest ships to play if you do it right.

Step 1: let them fire, then cloak. You'll likely dodge their shots and then your Glaive will destroy them in one shot. do this until you can move to step 2.
Step 2: Get your cloak to level 3. I see you did this in your "fight the rebels" pic you you didn't have it charged to level 3 which is the same as having it at level 2.
Step 3: Buy shields.

Only buy the power you NEED. I'm talking NEED. No medbay. No oxygen. Once you get the cloak to level 3 you don't need engines. Power them down for the cloak and the Glaive.

Watch out for charge weapons. that 6 second charge means they can hit you even with a level 3 cloak. Wait for those to fire once (or charge once and keep charging) before you cloak.

Oh, and if you're outclassed, or they shoot your guns or cloak and you're taking damage and going to die... RUN. If you can, of course

And finally... yes. You'll die a lot. If you don't want to die a lot don't play the ship. Or hard mode.

[Levgre]

AE has given Stealth B a quality of life buff with manned sensor stations. From the first jump, you can see the enemy's weapons charge if you want by manning your sensors.

Generally you want to just cloak after being shot at. But beams are an obvious exception, and also when your glaive beam can charge to full before you'd uncloak, since there's still a chance you'll be hit when stealthed, a chance you don't want to take if not needed.

But yeah Stealth B is definitely a space-worthy ship, you do have to know exactly what you are doing early on, though.

[project_mercy]

One thing I'll add. Your natural tendency will be to save scrap for shields (which are 120 scrap if you can find them in a shop) before upgrading anything. For Stealth A and C this sorta works. For B though, you need to rely on the cloak a bit more due to the glaive beam charge time. Since you start at 2 points of cloak, it's 50 scrap to upgrade to 3. With this upgrade, if you cloak right as the enemy fires, there's a good chance you'll get a glaive beam shot off before the next shot. Usually if you get the glavie beam off, you'll either destroy or severely cripple the enemy ship. Unfortunately because your engines are so terrible, you'll still be sitting at an 80%'ish evade even with the cloak up, which means a shot at your guns will probably still hit. You can make the case that upgrading your engines to 4 after the cloak might also be handy instead of the shields. This assumes you don't end up in a system where you're required to cross an asteroid field to progress.

AE has made using beams a lot easier. If the room is going to take damage, it will highlight in yellow. So, try to aim the beam across as many rooms as you can get, starting in the corner of one room. You can sometimes get 4-6 rooms with one glaive beam. Start at (or near) the shield if you can. If the glaive damage drops the shields a point in that one room, they won't apply for the future rooms it targets.

[New Guy]

1. Wait until enemy fires (If beam, cloak as soon as you feel the beams are ready to fire, preferably in the split second before it does).
2. Get cloak to Level 3; buy adequate power for it.
3. Save up 125 for Shields, only spend if scrap is greater than 125.
3a. You might prefer to save up 165 - 175 scrap if you want to use shields immediately.

I would suggest keeping your engines powered up, but don't upgrade them until you have reliable shields. The extra noob 15% bonus is quite big enough to make a noticeable effect on cloak, bumping it up to somewhere around 70-80% dodge.

Next, man the engines with the Zoltan you start with. Helps a lot when you're boarded and you realize you can't leave the weapons room due to having your Zoltan power it up.

Finally, aim to destroy the following rooms: Shields > Weapons > Drones
If the enemy has its shields and weapons / drones far apart, try aiming for the weapons /drones first as it will buy you more time to kill. Of course, if the enemy doesn't have combat drones, prioritize on the weapons.

[keptick]

It's actually one of my favorite ships, probably because of the glaive beam. I mostly obliterated everything on a run yesterday but died to the final boss stage...

[MushrooMars]

I think I just got really unlucky with those first 3 runs... On all of them, I encountered at least two Rebel Riggers in the first section, and as you can see I just gave up in the last one when I realized the beacon in Sector 2 was unreachable.

Also, I know the OP looks like a ragepost, it wasn't, I thought some people would find my failure comical. I think I've figured out the formula behind the DA-SR12, it's just so much different than the Type A. With the Nesasio, I can consistently get to Sector 8 on Normal, even encountering otherwise unsalvagable situations (namely those evil Assault Drones which have a tendency of drowning players in Drones and Ion Weapons). I mean, even on Sector 1, the Type A is an absolute monster - Cloak once their weapons fire, then unload a full volley on their weapons systems, even with the default gear that will get you through the first sector without any scrap spent on hull repairs.

The Type B just seems a bit more reliant on conservative playing and positive RNG in the early sectors. Even though it can one-shot most Sector-1 ships.

[al244098]

My best run



To summarize: Get 100 scrap early on, buy shields and you're good to go.

I had to try multiple times to get this far, lost to a boarding lanius.

[ain]

My best run



To summarize: Get 100 scrap early on, buy shields and you're good to go.

I had to try multiple times to get this far, lost to a boarding lanius.

You've got it wrong. Get the cloak first, or the way to a shield system will be RNG hell.