FTL: Faster Than Light

FTL: Faster Than Light is a singleplayer top-down view roguelike, strategy and vehicle combat game.

The game was re-branded as the Advanced Edition as of the 1.05.4 patch from April 3, 2014.

General information

Official forum

GOG.com Community Discussions

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

r/ftlgame - subreddit.

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Developer website		Humble widget.
Epic Games Store		DRM-free when launched directly from executable.^[1]
GOG.com		5 songs from the soundtrack, a mini-artbook, some wallpapers & avatars.
Humble Store
Microsoft Store
Origin		Included with EA Play Pro. Currently only visible in the EA App's Browse menu.
Steam

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%APPDATA%\FasterThanLight\settings.ini
Microsoft Store
macOS (OS X)	$HOME/Library/Application Support/fasterthanlight/settings.ini
Linux	$XDG_DATA_HOME/FasterThanLight/settings.ini

This game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux.

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\FasterThanLight\
Microsoft Store
macOS (OS X)	$HOME/Library/Application Support/fasterthanlight/
Linux	$XDG_DATA_HOME/FasterThanLight/

Save games are fully cross-platform.^[2]

ae_prof.sav contains overall game progress.

continue.sav is only generated when pressing 'Save & Quit' or 'Main menu'.

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Epic Games Launcher
GOG Galaxy
Origin
OneDrive		Requires enabling backup of the Documents* folder in OneDrive on all computers.*
Steam Cloud		Sync is not cross-platform.^[3]
Xbox Cloud

Video

General settings.

Graphics feature	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution		Native resolution is 1280x720.
Multi-monitor		Pillarboxed 16:9.
Ultra-widescreen		Pillarboxed 16:9.
4K Ultra HD		See Borderless fullscreen windowed, 1440p and 2160p resolutions are pixel-perfect.
Field of view (FOV)	Uses 2D artwork.
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed	See Borderless fullscreen windowed.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS	Optional framerate cap at 60 FPS.
High dynamic range display (HDR)	See the glossary page for potential alternatives.
Color blind mode

Borderless fullscreen windowed

Edit settings.ini^{[citation needed]}

Go to the configuration file(s) location.
Open settings.ini.
Set the required values:

       fullscreen=0
       lastFullScreen=0
       manual=1
       screen_x=your x value screen resolution
       screen_y=your y value screen resolution
       windowed=0
       stretched=1

4. Use one of the available borderless fullscreen solutions. This was tested using the AutoHotkey method. NOTE: Your x and y value resolution can be determined by finding your resolution, for example: 1920x1080, 1920=x value, 1080=y value

Input

Input settings.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support

Audio

In-game language settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Music and sound.
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Simplified Chinese
Czech				Fan - Advanced Edition
French
German
Hungarian				Fan translation
Italian
Japanese
Polish
Brazilian Portuguese
Russian
Spanish

Issues fixed

The developers of FTL have a page with common fixes for the game, navigate to their support page to learn more.

Performance issues

Set the Dynamic Backgrounds option in the general settings to Disabled^[4]

Notes

This setting doesn't have a considerable impact on the visual quality of the game.

Mouse Lag on Nvidia Graphics

Disable Vsync and change maximum pre-rendered frames to "1" in Nvidia control panel^[5]

Open Nvidia control panel.
Go to manage 3D settings.
Go to Program settings.
Add ftlgame.exe from <path-to-game> if it is not already present.
Disable Vsync and set pre-rendered frames to "1".

Notes

On Nvidia Optimus notebooks also make sure the correct GPU is selected for FTL.

Ubuntu logs off at game startup

Delete `libstdc++.so.6`^[6]
Delete `libstdc++.so.6` from `<path-to-game>/data/amd64/lib` and `<path-to-game>/data/x86/lib`

Pixelated Graphics (Windows)

Problem associated with older laptop graphics cards.

Run as Administrator^{[citation needed]}

Right click on FTLGame.exe and select Properties.
Click the 'Compatibility' tab.
Check 'Run this program as an administrator'.
Click Apply.
Click OK and run FTLGame.exe.

Notes

Right-click on the game executable and select 'Run as Administrator' to test this fix.

Update graphics card drivers^{[citation needed]}
Visit AMD.com or Nvidia.com depending on what graphics card manufacturer your computer uses.

Game is permanently zoomed in and cannot be played

Fix^{[citation needed]}

Right click on FTLGame.exe and select Properties.
Click the 'Compatibility' tab.
Check 'Disable display scaling on higher DPI settings'.
Click Apply.
Click OK and run FTLGame.exe.

Notes

Problem associated with higher DPI settings.

Audio is silent or doesn't follow system preferences when using PulseAudio on Arch Linux

Fix^[7]

Open a terminal and enter the following command to install an ALSA configuration for PulseAudio:
pacman -S pulseaudio-alsa

Notes

If you are experiencing this issue on another Linux distribution, try installing that distribution's equivalent package to resolve the issue.

Audio is silent or doesn't follow system preferences when using PipeWire on Arch Linux

Fix

Open a terminal and enter the following command to install an ALSA configuration for PipeWire:
pacman -S pipewire-alsa

Notes

If you are experiencing this issue on another Linux distribution, try installing that distribution's equivalent package to resolve the issue.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
OpenGL	2.0

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Audio	BASS

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	XP, Vista, 7, 8.1, 10
Processor (CPU)	2 GHz
System memory (RAM)	1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	175 MB
Video card (GPU)	128 MB of VRAM OpenGL 2.0 compatible

Some integrated Intel HD graphics cards have been known to work but are not officially supported.^[8]

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	10.5.8
Processor (CPU)	2 GHz
System memory (RAM)	1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	175 MB
Video card (GPU)	256 MB of VRAM OpenGL 2.0 compatible

Linux
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
Processor (CPU)	2 GHz
System memory (RAM)	1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	175 MB
Video card (GPU)	OpenGL 2.0 compatible

References

↑ Verified by User:Baronsmoki on 2019-12-27
↑ Helpful Profile File Location Info! - SubsetGames.com - last accessed on May 2023
↑ Verified by User:Anonymous on 2016-04-29
↑ Primer comments on FTL release today: everything you need to know - /r/games - last accessed on May 2023
↑ Mouse Cursor Lagging subsetgames forum - last accessed on May 2023
↑ Starting the game logs me out of my computer - Steam Community discussions - last accessed on May 2023
↑ No Sound with PulseAudio on Arch - last accessed on May 2023
↑ Official FAQ

[1] Verified by User:Baronsmoki on 2019-12-27

[2] Helpful Profile File Location Info! - SubsetGames.com - last accessed on May 2023

[3] Verified by User:Anonymous on 2016-04-29

[4] Primer comments on FTL release today: everything you need to know - /r/games - last accessed on May 2023

[5] Mouse Cursor Lagging subsetgames forum - last accessed on May 2023

[6] Starting the game logs me out of my computer - Steam Community discussions - last accessed on May 2023

[7] No Sound with PulseAudio on Arch - last accessed on May 2023

[faq-8] Official FAQ

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

Developers

	Subset Games
Release dates
Windows	September 14, 2012
macOS (OS X)	September 14, 2012
Linux	September 14, 2012
Reception
Metacritic	84
IGDB	89
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Microtransactions	None
Modes	Singleplayer
Perspectives	Top-down view
Genres	Roguelike, Strategy, Vehicle combat
Vehicles	Space flight
Themes	Sci-fi, Space