What are all the Beacon Special Effects?

What are all the Beacon Special Effects? - Rainbow on sky over sea

In FTL, some beacons have some of the following "environmental/special effects":

  1. Asteroid Field
    • periodically an asteroid "attacks" yours and the enemy ships - causing 1 damage
  2. Ion Storm
    • half available reactor power (removed randomly if in use)
  3. Too Close to the Sun
    • periodically the sun flares causing random fires on yours and the enemy ships
  4. Planetary Defence Cannons
    • periodically the planet's weapons fire into space against yours or the enemy ships, maybe both
  5. Ion Event
    • random amount of ion damage is applied to several systems on yours and the enemy ships

Not sure of the names for #4 and 5 (both added with Advanced Content).

Does anyone have more specific information about these beacon modifiers (or any I have missed)?

  • How often does each happen?
  • How much damage does each do (where applicable)?
  • Anything else of note?


Best Answer

So the full list is

  1. Giant star
    • this creates random fires in your and the enemy's ships and, as a secondary effect, will cause hull damage if a system is destroyed
  2. Nebula
    • this disrupts the sensors and rebels' speed is halved for the next jump
  3. Plasma storms
    • this causes the reactor to run at half efficiency as well as disrupting sensors
  4. Asteroid field
    • this causes asteroids to periodically strike your ship and the enemy's ship. If your ship is running with just 1 shield with an unskilled crewmember at the station, it can take damage just from asteroids as the period between asteroids is random. Each asteroid does 1 damage.
  5. Pulsar
    • New to the advanced edition. This causes 2 or 3 ion damage to a system (shields if they are up) and 1 ion damage to another system (if shields are down)
  6. Anti-ship battery
    • New to the advanced edition. This randomly sends a shield piercing 3 damage shot to your or the enemy ship, hitting a random room and causing a hull breach. While you will be shot at multiple times, the only one that may hit will give you a warning before doing so.

For more info go here

Long-range scanner augmentation will give you, in essence, advanced warning about most of these hazards!




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