[TIPS] FTL: Faster Than Light

Some tips for playing FTL:

• Opening doors that lead to the outside is an effective way of putting out fires.  Note that not all ships have airlock doors (e.g. the Rock ship does not).
• When trying to do repairs in a room with no oxygen, open all the doors around it to improve oxygen levels in that room.
• Get used to not using the autofire.  Many weapons work better when fired in sync, even if they have differing cooldown times (e.g. using an Ion weapon to disable the shields as you fire your beam weapon to cut up their hull).
• The Crew Teleporter is not worth it unless you're planning on really committing to boarding actions.  It helps a lot if you have:
• a large crew
• Mantis crew members
• crew with upgraded combat skills
• Note that the final boss cannot be teleported onto while their shields are up.
• Power down systems you aren't using.  If your pilot ran off to put out some fires and you don't have autopilot, you can cut all power to your engines.
• Your fourth crew member helps a lot, but the marginal value of crew after that isn't much (unless you plan on aggressively boarding).
• If you plan on using missiles in the final boss fight, make sure to buy EVERY MISSILE YOU CAN during the game.  The worst feeling is to have a whole array of missile launchers and no ammo.
• At the start of the game, remove a power from your medbay and put it towards engines.  Your medbay doesn't need power unless it's actively healing someone, and the extra engine power will give you more dodges.
• If you're already comfortably killing enemies without taking damage, consider saving your scrap instead of immediately putting it towards upgrades.  You might see something in a store that you want more than an upgrade, and you can always do upgrades at any time but coming back to a store is very difficult.
• If an enemy is crippled and can't fight back, consider using weapons other than missiles to finish them off, to conserve ammo.  Alternatively, if they don't have shields, an asteroid field may kill them for you.
• Consider shooting their weapons first instead of their shields to minimize damage you receive, even if it extends the fight.  This is especially true if they have missiles.
• If you have slow-firing weapons with long charge times, cloak will be very beneficial.  Cloak is much less useful for fast-firing weapons.
• Beam I drone will not do any damage to shields and can't penetrate them either.

Weapons:

• Ion weapons do "ion damage", which temporarily reduces maximum power available to a system.  For example, if you have a shield system with two power (provides 1 point of shielding) and are hit by an ion weapon for 1 ion damage, your shield will power down (since two power is required for each point).
• Ion weapons that hit shields will also inflict their ion damage on the shield system first.  Only after the shields are down can ion weapons damage other systems.

Sectors:

• Nebula sectors will increase the total # of systems you can visit before you need to run from the Rebel fleet.  While individual stars will not slow the Rebels down as much as nebulas in "normal" sectors, it still helps.
• "Homeworld" systems can have a quest that allows you to pick up a race-specific ship for your next playthrough.  Note that this applies to "[Race] Homeworlds" systems, not "[Race]-controlled" systems.

Final Boss (Rebel Flagship):

• The first stage of the boss has lasers, ion cannons, missiles, a beam weapon, and cloaking.
• The second stage the boss has missiles, lasers, a beam weapon, and both offensive and defensive drones.
• When its "power surges" it will spawn a large number of drones to shoot at you for a short period of time.  Have your repair crews ready, or cloak to avoid all the damage.  You can also damage the drone subsystem ahead of time.
• The last stage the boss has lasers and missiles.
• Your priority in every fight should be to kill the triple missile launcher (middle-right gun).  Otherwise it'll keep doing consistent damage against you by bypassing your shields, and it's unlikely you have enough defense drones to shoot them all down.
• Damage isn't carried over from battle to battle, but the crew size is.  If you can, try to whittle the crew down in the earlier battles to make later battles easier.

[TIPS] Papers, Please

Some tips for playing "Papers, Please":

• Your first two citations per day will only result in warnings.  After that, you will be fined 5 credits per citation.
• You get five credits for each immigrant you see, regardless of whether they are admitted or denied.  However, if you receive a citation, you will not receive money for them.  Denying or detaining someone will both give you the cash, but you should generally attempt to detain them if you can as there are other incentives.
• Note that receiving a citation past the second is a "double whammy".  You don't get five credits for processing the applicant correctly, and you lose five more for the fine.
• Work day begins at 6am and ends at 5pm.  As long as you start the applicant process before the end of the day you can keep going, however.
• You start in a "Class 8 Apartment" which costs (25 Rent / 10 Heat) per day.  Moving to a "Class 7 Apartment" costs $100 upfront, and costs (30 Rent / 10 Heat) per day.  If you have to move back down to Class 8, you get $70 back.
• Juggle your family's requirements when cash is tight.  If they're "Hungry" but not cold, make sure to get them food but don't worry about the heat.

[TIPS] Dwemer/Dwarven Artifacts

Quick list so you can keep track of Dwemer artifacts.

Smeltable (bars by weight of item):

• Small Dwemer Plate Metal (.6)
• Large Dwemer Plate Metal (.6)
• Bent Dwemer Plate Metal (.6)
• Solid Dwemer Plate Metal (5)
• Large Dwemer Strut (6.6)
• Large Decorate Dwemer Strut (7.5)

Used for a quest:

• Dwarven Cog (need 10)

Anything else can be sold (or more likely, not picked up at all).

In Summary:

Only pick up (Small/Large/Bent) Dwemer Plate Metal.

Pick up Dwemer Cogs until you have 10.