Does FTL make enemies stronger once you get better weapons?
In the last game, I've got the Ion Beam Weapon (which can disable shields) in the first sector. In this game all enemies in the 2nd sector happened to have 2 levels of shield, thus I lost on 4th due to the inability to break these shields (and no power to use Ion Weapon).
In previous games, I've never seen more than 1 ship with 2 level shields in second or even third sectors. Does it mean that the game adapts the enemies to your ship's setup?
If yes, how can I handle that? Will selling/destroying the weapons which are too powerful for the first sector help?
Best Answer
From experience, I believe the game tries to take into consideration both the system you're in as well as whatever upgrades you did on your ship.
I've played several games aggressively (meaning, trying to visit all possible beacons in the first sector, boarding ships, etc) and very rarely did any ship in the following sectors have less than 2 levels of shielding, most likely because by then I had a semi-upgraded ship, that would stand a better chance against weaker enemies.
On the other hand, when I started to play the game (and didn't optimize my path as well as I do now), I do remember the enemies on the 2nd and even third sector being on par with me.
As far as weapons go, I don't believe there is a specific relationship between what weapons you have and what enemies you face, mostly because I have never seen an enemy develop a specific strategy against my choice of weapons. However, I do notice that if you upgrade your Engines or your Subsystems, the enemies you face would be harder than they would be if you didn't upgrade your systems, for the same sector.
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