Additional bit to add about the "always choose rep over power" tip. If given the choice between power and and a rep objective that you don't think you can complete, go with power. Power objectives are seriously easy, just don't let a key building get destroyed. Meanwhile, sometimes you'll get an objective like "kill 7 veks" on a map with no water or chasms, when 2 mechs are kitted out to reposition or disable enemies rather than deal damage. That's probably not a star you'll be earning.
Good tips, but I'd add for #3: don't forget that sometimes it's worth moving with a mech only after another one attacked. Don't keep your options locked by wanting to move only first with everything, but always think in advance and try to follow through every move's impact in advance before committing with your first attack. And for #8, if you do get the award for clearing all objectives, always pick the pilot - unless you actually want to use the offered weapon. Pilots are always "sold" for 2 reputation, but weapons sometimes only sold for 1, and if you want power you can just use that 2 reputation to get the 2 power grid - again, having a choice instead of having the game make it for you.
@@CreeperMan-dr6ql Funnily enough, I picked the game up recently after a long break and was wondering if something was off after the first island - that explains it!
I've just been loving Into The Breach! I was a massive FTL fan but I think I agree that this is better. A couple of tips I've picked up: If you have a 'building shield' upgrade, take that into account. I've needlessly gotten rid of enemies thinking that altogether they would do more damage because I forgot that I had equipped a passive ability that shields buildings after they take damage, sacrificing a bonus objective for no good reason. Match your pilots properly to the right mech. It's tempting to just let them default but sometimes a mech having a flying ability or being able to move through enemies can be WAY more useful for some mechs than others. Experiment with different playstyles and layouts! Trying out one squad and then giving a different one a go means that you end up looking at the game in completely different ways, and then when you return to your original squad you find solutions you wouldn't otherwise have found. And finally, a battle is never lost until the final turn. So many situations have come up for me that I thought were impossible, but just giving myself enough time to play with combinations has made for some really inspired plays, and honestly ended up creating the most exciting gameplay moments. But yeah, great video, and I'm loving this game so much! Got it a week ago and have already sunk in around 16 hours - would be more if I wasn't at work!
Your tip about the shield brings up a problem that everyone will probably have, which is forgetting that you have a particular weapon because you're not used to having it with a certain squad. I love coming up with new solutions to problems. For instance, sometimes shooting one of your own mechs is the only way to hit that one target you can't otherwise get to.
Something that helped me a lot when I realised was that sometimes you should take damage on your mechs to save some buildings or objectives. Break a few eggs to make a cake sort of. Mechs heal after every mission so as long as you're not letting your mechs die it doesn't have any big impact. :)
There's another huge tip missing from this: Do not be scared of loading out a mech with a weapon not of their class type. Yes, it costs one additional power to do so. The weapon might just well be worth the cost.
"Move all your mechs first" is advice I'm going to start applying. It would save me so many needless resets. Of course, there will still be situations where a mech has a movement-based attack that I need to use to clear space for another mech. That happens fairly often but I should still learn to recognize it as the exception, not the rule.
Here's some for the Hazardous Mechs specifically: Upgrade your passive first! It mitigates the risk of the other upgrades. If you die killing something, the heal comes _after_ death and your pilot and mech survive. It 'unkills' them. The pilot that gives you two shots if you don't move? Put him in the leap mech. This is the single most overpowered combination I've personally experienced, and that includes shield heroes on the Ice squad.
Mr Numbers Thanks, I never wanted to take that risk when I found him on a 4-island winning campaign but cool to know for next time. Was unsure sense Leap causes one to move.
Mr Numbers I like to use Abe with the Hazardous Mechs (on the Leap Mech), since Abe's armour lets you upgrade the damage early. Also, regarding resurrection when making a kill, if you're on fire the fire effect stops when you die. That's something I had to test to find out about.
It's worth stressing that precisely because you "heal" yourself back from death after killing Vek, you CAN safely upgrade the self-damage attack boost as it will make your mech incredibly strong in early game, specifically for the Leap Mech. Of course, the downside is that you have to be very careful to not land on any emerging Vek squares until you get more health per se as you only have 3 HP at first (2 from self-damage + 1 from the burrow attempt, unless you use the armored pilot which would block 1 point of self-damage, allowing you to survive). The mech upgrade that allows any mech repair ALL mechs when they repair is also really good for the Hazardous Mechs in general.
Very useful tips. They made all the difference and I just nabbed my first victory! I usually skip your listicle videos as a matter of principle, but this one is worth it -- and is actually justifiably a "list".
I've never really been into turn-based games, nor do I like the look of this one, but FTL is one of my all-time favourite games so I'll have to give it a go!
Very nice! I didn't know that you can move all mechs and then attack, I always thought that you have to move shoot move shoot move shoot (maybe I knew it when the game came out and I played the tutorial, but when I played again a year after I didn't know it anymore.
I've been playing this game on and off for a year... And I just figured out the tip about moving first on my own this morning... I wish that I'd seen your video when I started. Very very important tip
The environment can change the tide of a battle. It can kill your enemies, or it can kill you or prevent you from moving/blocking/attacking/etc. somewhere. Also, know your squad’s skill set: its advantages, disadvantages, whether the pilot you have in that mech is the best fit, should you swap out a pilot that’s maxed out for one that isn’t?, do you have the best reactor core upgrades for you play style?, and more. PS. I learned all this just from watching one guy’s playthroughs of ITB.
Oh yeah, also, shields don’t matter when it comes to environmental damage or effects (such as burning or acid. I believe. I’m not 100% sure about the effects part of this). You can shield all you want, and it won’t do a thing if you’re about to be hit by a rock, or dropped into a chasm.
An example of a case when "All moves first" isn't best: You can push a Vek into a mech to damage it, then have that same mech move elsewhere to kill it.
These are pretty obvious once you've played the game enough, but they can be nice for new players who don't want to figure it out for themselves. However, regarding #2, I keep my ranged mech outside of combat, but I can see how trying to keep it in the middle might open up a few more options. The one think I do have problems with, now and then, is keeping the order of turns in mind when you have exploding vek to deal with.
I didn't watch the video. Here is the ultimate tip you need: This game is not a strategy game. It is a puzzle game (like chess puzzles). Each turn is a puzzle you need to solve. Solve each puzzle and you win. This means that you don't have to worry much about the overall strategy. Unless you are doing very good or very bad, each turn you can find a way to both avoid taking a grid damage and mech damage. You can take 0 damage every turn. I don't remember being owerwhelmed (ever) with this method but If you have full grid health the game can force you to take damage. Otherwise the AI play in such a way that you can avoid all the damage. So here it what you should do: (tl dr) Always look for the way to avoid the damage current turn. If you have spare moves then you can worry about the future turns. Don't worry about missing opportunities like pushing a dangerous enemy to water. When you take no damage, dangerous enemies aren't that dangerous.
I doubt anybody will be watching this in the year 2023, and further doubt anybody will see this comment. That being said, only advice is to SLOW DOWN. This game is hard, yes, but its not like you are on a time limit, and you can save the game mid run.
i find that most mechs in this game are totally useless. i only use the first punch mech the tank mech and the laser mech. everything else that i have tried is balls
honestly, i have no idea why people think this game is better than ftl. rock paper shotgun even put this at #1 in their top 50 strategy games of all time, lol. this game is great for sure but #1 of all time, uh no. this game should not even be in the top fifty. this game is not in the same league as starcraft or aoe for example. saying this game is #1 is like saying mousetrap is better than chess
