Last updated on February 6th, 2026 at 10:21 am
FTL: Faster Than Light – Strategy Game Review
FTL: Faster Than Light is a Strategy/Simulation game from Subset Games, LLC, first launched in 3rd April 2014.
It’s rated 9+ and currently has 821+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes FTL: Faster Than Light Stand Out
The award winning PC spaceship simulation game from Subset Games comes to iPad! Includes the free expansion, FTL: Advanced Edition, which adds new ships, enemies, events, weapons, and more!
PC version’s awards include:
- IGN – Game Of the Year Nominee 2012
- PC Gamer – 2012 Best Short-Form Game
- Indie Game Festival 2013 – Excellence in Design
- Indie Game Festival 2013 – Audience Award
- Game Developers Choice Awards 2013 – Best Debut: Subset Games
In FTL you experience the atmosphere of running a spaceship trying to save the galaxy. It's a dangerous mission, with every encounter presenting a unique challenge with multiple solutions. What will you do if a heavy missile barrage shuts down your shields? Reroute all power to the engines in an attempt to escape, power up additional weapons to blow your enemy out of the sky, or take the fight to them with a boarding party? This "spaceship simulation roguelike-like" allows you to take your ship and crew on an adventure through a randomly generated galaxy filled with glory and bitter defeat.
Key Features:
- Give orders to your crew, manage ship power distribution and choose weapon targets in the heat of battle.
- Pause the game mid-combat to evaluate your strategy and give orders.
- Upgrade your ship and unlock new ones with the help of seven diverse alien races.
- Hundreds of text based encounters will force you to make tough decisions.
- Each play-through will feature different enemies, events, and results to your decisions. No two play-throughs will be quite the same.
- Permadeath means when you die, there's no coming back. The constant threat of defeat adds importance and tension to every action.
Website – www.FTLgame.com
Twitter – @FTLgame
NOTE: Only compatible with iPad 2 or newer — Will NOT run on iPad 1!
This Strategy game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, FTL: Faster Than Light is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 5th October 2021
Recent improvements include:
Update for newer iPad Mini support.
Download & Availability
FTL: Faster Than Light is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Get FTL: Faster Than Light on App Store
Requirements: Requires iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 / iPad Mini 3 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 4 / iPad Mini 4 (Cellular) or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
The people that are crying for a save feature are the same people in line at your local ebt office. For those that want an awesome and challenging experience get FTL.
Could we have a game mode where we dont have to run the fleet or a game mode where we can play against other people or perhaps a sandbox mode this game is perfect for more to be added in a sense of attack attacking planets attack attacking other ships more in detail maybe building your own creating your own shape of the ship great game thank you.
Lets start by saying this isnt a game for the casual fans or gamers. This thing is complicated as heck and youll spend a lot of time learning its mechanics and whats expected of you. Some of the game is based on skill and most on luck. But on other times the roll of the dice mechanics can just about destroy the experience sometimes. Those times you put it down and try later. What gets us is the randomness can sometimes hinder you from winning at all. You can get to the end and find you werent able to get everything and lose or another run find that you had everything to kick butt only to find you were destroyed near the end because you didnt get the missile drone you were tryna find the whole dang time. However the randomness adds a dimension of depth and complexity not found in a lot of times. One time youll listen to someones story and get a crew member and other times they kill one of your crew members instead. Makes it genuinely rewarding and you feel guilty when you listen to the lost crew members story only to find one of your crew was killed by them. Good game otherwise. Just wish there was a way to not randomize store drops as much so you can actually have a chance to win more often than not. But thats part of the games charm. Recommend looking up any random encounters that completely stump you because youll need it.
Frankly, this about the only iPad game we still play because of the crazy cost of playing what are essentially remakes of old games with less playability, and constant attempts to force or irritate gamers into more in app purchases. Zero Bugs, Reasonably challenging on easy difficulty and very challenging on hard. We come back to this game every year.
It's definitely our favorite. Undoubtedly it is challenging, even on easy mode. It took us months to beat the boss the first time. But over time you adapt your strategy, you get better, the game unfolds new subtleties and scenarios. We find it endlessly replayable, with lots of variety with the different types of ships and multiple pathways to victory. We started playing this when our sons were very young — they are teenagers now and the whole family plays this game (our wife and the boys play on their laptops). We have tournaments where we all play on the same ships and compare scores. We have played this game for thousands of hours and they have easily played for hundreds. One son wrote a 50+ page strategy guide for this game for a school writing assignment. It is hard, but stick with it, it is so rewarding.
Totally worth it. Ive been playing this game for years. We keep coming back to it despite having gotten about 90% of the achievements. We wish they still made content or expansions. But between this and Into the Breach, we have really enjoyed our time with this studio.
We dunno what to say other than this is the best game. We love it.
FTL has been our most played game on the iPad by far. Every time we travel we log in and play many many games. We have unlocked so much. Which is why it was upsetting when we purchased a new iPad, logged in to our account, played with a late game ship, and then it reset everything (except that game). So now we only have access to the base ship like its 8 years ago. Although in our stats it shows the play with the advanced ship. Im afraid we will never have access to our stats and ships again.
Like the title says, this is one of the best games of all time. Ive played this game for years. Ill play a ton for a few weeks then stop for a few months. Rinse and repeat. No matter how many times we play it is always a challenge. This is a very rare gem that just never gets old. We just wish there was a second game.
We love every aspect of this game. The rouge like gameplay is fantastic. The different ships you unlock offer wildly different gameplay tactics which makes for a lot of replayability. The higher difficulty will have begging for mercy if you are into that type of challenge. This is one of the most unique and well designed strategy games Ive ever played.
This game is the best! You can play it without Wi-Fi which makes it the ONLY reason we ever use our old iPad Even our son loves the game. And he is a stinky boy who plays with his toy. And makes a lot of noise. Cuz hes a stinky boy a stinky boy.
Years later, as all other mobile games have fallen away from playability, FTL holds strong. One of the most well balanced, well crafted video games Ive ever played. Simple, yet deep; immense, even. Every sound was meticulously crafted. They somehow made, in lofi, the most realistic feeling space survival game out there. Excellent work.
Hard. Infinitely replay-able. Filled with quirks, humor, and depth that take the generative style to an entirely new level. This game is famous because its good, and its famous because its fun. Highest recommendation. If you like puzzles, if you like spaceships, if you like Star Wars, if you like Into The Breach (same team) or Hades or any other infinite generative replay game, you must play this. Id buy it for you if we could.
We bought this game when we were a kid, having saved up some money from lawn mowing. We recently noticed it was on the app store and decided to pick it up. It is the perfect game to play in between classes or when taking a break from work. Dont be fooled however. This game can be relaxing but it is far from easy. Once you start to unlock other ships you realize there are so many different play styles. You will have to learn the ins and outs if you want to come close to beating the final boss. Our tips: – Make getting a second shield your first priority – Dont rely too much on missiles, use them to take out key systems before finishing them off with other weapons – Target the enemys weapons first. Take out their shields if you cannot get through them, target their pilot if they keep dodging – Manage your power well! Do not keep your medbay powered unless you need to heal, and you can de-power your oxygen if you need a quick boost – Shields and engine are priority upgrades. If you have the extra scrap, level up doors, oxygen, and pilot so you have a damage buffer – Your main objective is to avoid damage. Scraps you spend on repair could have been better spent on upgrades One of our favorite games from our childhood. Still holds up, and there is nothing like the feeling you get when you finally beat if for the first time.
All right. Im redoing this review. We love this game. We used to complain that you could not get mods on mobile, but then we found out you could. We could not find the exact way, but we found out that you could. If you could share the way, that would be great. For now, Im just using mods on the computer. But its kind of frustrating to get the mouse out, clear room on the table, and then load the game. We think the crystal cruiser is awesome! Love the crystal weapons.
We love this game (we found out it was on the iPad) no we didnt get any victories but we just think its fun roast us if you think Im bad at the game but the game is really fun we know theres not gonna be a developers response (because of Subnautica ) [we know you created Subnautica] the Music is overall banger (thats the main reason why we like the game) (we just decided to type this before we played the game again).
This is by far one of the best games we have ever played, the art is amazing, the design is amazing, and the soundtrack is a bop. Its a very good rougelite and the variation between each playthrough keeps the gameplay fresh and rewarding, Ive played this over 100 times and we have never beaten the game but we still love it. The controls on IPad are really nice and Id highly recommend getting it for the 2 dollars it costs because its absolutely worth it and its amazing for long car rides or for just playing a game by yourself, it doesnt even need WiFi which can be a big plus as well. 10/10 game, would get absolutely demolished by the final boss again.
We remember playing this game years ago, still as fun as we remember it. Some sort of cloud support would definitely be appreciated, we remember having a lot of progress on a previous account, and we would love to use that one again.
FTL never gets old for us. Ive been playing for at least 5 years, with long breaks and then suddenly remembering how fun it is. Playing as mantis and killing the entire ship without firing a shot is <chefs kiss>. Or the Vulcan cannon, pew pew! It does take a while to learn how to make the most out of the random encounters you will have. However, once you do its a blast trying to make a lethal ship out of whatever life gives you on that run.
This game is phenomenal and the experience on iPad is seamless. A lot of care was put into this port.
We really wish game developers would implement a way to balance the randomness locally, just a bit. This game allows situations where even the best player will lose due to a string of poor luck. It doesn't happen often, but it shouldn't happen at all (in our opinion).
We originally gave a review, but now we need to address the one star reviewers of this game, a lot of the strategy is knowing what events happen, for example one review complained about the refusal to accept wares event, weve all had it, we all know it, you just need to get in the rhythm of the game, if you want a review listen to the fivers (stars) and not these ungrateful sinners towards this wonderful game, again if you want a review not listen to those hillbillies. Another note, there are clearly better and worse ships, but they all work, we have won with both the crenkov and the bulwark, all it needs is rather these hillbillies have no rythem.
One of our favorite indie games of all time, FTL is a joy to play on iPad and the developers keep updating the app so it looks great on all of the new iPad dimensions. Also, the soundtrack is fantastic.
We need it! FTL is amazing but ItB is a masterpiece.
We have played this games for many years on computer, and it is one of the best single player games. Its not beginner friendly, but once you learned what to do, its a lot of fun, and there are so many different strategies. The game is also well build, and we have never experienced any significant bug or crashes. Its kind of rare these days to see a game that is so unique in term of design and gameplay, yet so well built and balanced.
We love this game. But it is too too hard to beat the boss at the end. Sadly, no more updates. So it is what it is still an amazing game. Just know the odds of winning are low.
Absolutely love this game but we were extremely disappointed when pulling the game up for the first time in a long while only to find all our unlocked ships were gone and we have to unlock it all again.
For as many times as you restart it would be great if you could speed up the game when you want. Fun game, but boring until you progress a little.
We got a new iPad. All our achievements are there, but all of our actual progress is gone. Only have one ship even though we previously unlocked everything.
Love the game, we do, but it needs a save function so you can continue your run. We were doing well for 6 games straight and lost those 6 games. Best we were doing ever, high scores on each consecutive run. Then it says game over and we lose all of our progress. Not even a Restart current sector? Option. Where is the incentive to continue when each time you think youre doing better you still lose.
The controls are just too cramped and unintuitive for us. This game is clearly old and needs to be modernized. But it functions well, just isnt for us. If you like this kind of thing and can get your head around the controls, youll like it.
Selecting weapon doesnt do anything or allow us to target the enemy ship.
Somehow, we got the impression that this was a relatively casual space trading game with a minor battle function, not unlike ancient games like Taipan or Sid Meyerss Pirates. That is not the case; it is primarily a space battle game. We think. Even doing the tutorial and checking out online walkthroughs, we couldnt really figure out how to play. Which is totally on us, since Im really looking for a casual fling, not a committed relationship involving a learning curve and research and so on. Im sure the game is awesome and that Im just not the target audience.
We love the idea of this game but come on!!! Easy mode is soooo hard. We are just wondering what hard must be like!!! Reduce things a bit so that we can at least get to the big boss once.
This version of the game is our favorite because we can pick it up and put it down for a few minutes at a time. The only problem is that repositioning crew placement inside of a room is impossible with the crystal crew unless their lockdown power is recharging. The huge blue P button that appears above their head will trigger the lockdown if you press anywhere near it. This makes it impossible to click on the room that the crystal crew members are currently standing in without activating the lockdown power, which makes it impossible to change whos fighting whom during a boarding scenario. Please add an option to hide this button, as there is already a lockdown button in the crew list on the left where it has always been.
(SPOILERS: Not that it matters: the game is unfunny difficult even on easy) Over 200 hours playing across PC and iPad and Ive only beaten the game once, on easy. Achievement data shows only 1 in 4 have ever beaten the game at all. We adore the concept, love the challenge, Im fine with the permanent death, and Im fine with fighting the final boss three times. Our problem is that the final boss breaks the established rules of the game. Disable its cloak and it can cloak anyway, knock out its FTL drive and pilot the watch it light speed escape anyway. Kill every crew member and the AI takes control. Our last straw was watching our crew of seven in an undamaged ship, with as many upgrades affordable with its limited power slots, completely drained of oxygen by the boss hacking drone and game over within 45 seconds. This is not a strategy game, its a gotcha RNG game with poorly designed features. We wonder if the devs can beat actually this game on normal mode. Even though we got our moneys worth, so they say, we cannot recommend this game.
This is a great concept game whose fun is ruined by the lack of a save feature. The game designer DECIDED to make this an unsavable, arcade-concept game, and ruined it for a lot of people. We enjoy the game play, but the game demands hours of experimentation AND A LOT OF LUCK for each randomly-generated playthrough, and we aint got time for that. With a save feature: 5 stars, easily. As it is: 2 stars and a lot of frustration.
We love the devs other game Into the Breach, and this game definitely has polishbut the design is not fun. Its not difficulty; its just unfair overall and feels like it tries SO HARD not to be fun.
This game is more frustration than fun. Its more likely than not that you will run into situations that your ship cant possibly overcome. Either a lack of available resources or enemys with abilities that far exceed your own, especially early in the game and even on easy mode. That really saps the fun out this one for us.
This poorly developed games source code has been reviewed. The mechanics arent thought out to provide potential tangents. Its a very poorly coded game with basic RNG and events that actually ensure that you have a chance of playing games that are futile. Its not difficult. It doesnt throw you curveballs. Its just a badly made game that has higher than average chances of null gameplay where the entertainment value is convoluted with challenge, where in actuality its just serving players poor quality playthroughs that are lackluster to the point of not really being entitled to any reference of procedural generation as the curation was mainly in the quest writing; the remainder of the gameplay is terribly dull, repetitive, and generally asinine. Realistically. If our ship is out of fuel, and our only option is to request help via a beacon – we have started restarting the game. Of course you have a chance at help. But if theres also the much higher potential of pressing the button 5-7 times in a row to wait turns where nothing happens, it seems more logical to quit the game and save the time wasted playing something that isnt so much a game but a badly devised pinball machine with text and flying 2d sprites. (Not the ships though, nothing avtually really moves in this lazytrash game from years ago. They were lucky to have released this when they did as it would not pick up today. It really shows since this game was the only one mildly remarkable as it copied the roguelike aspects of other games. The theme is boring and so is the game; we guess someone else will make a original version to just erase this from existence).
Its a fun game if you hate having fun.
After playing this game a few times we have figured out how to pretty consistently (80%ish of the time) make it to the battle with the flagship. Then it goes to crap. It doesnt matter what we do, the flagship completely destroys us. We found out by checking the wiki that the flagship has three levels. We cant even come close to beating the first one after playing the game at least 15-20 times. This wouldnt be so bad, except that you have to beat the flagship to unlock other ships, with one exception. This means there is a ton of content locked behind an impossible task. We are very glad we got this on sale for $1.99. Its not worth more, nor is it worth more of our time to unlock content we paid for.
We will forever play this game. It is as entertaining, strategic and simple as you could want. This game is excellent.
We first bought this game on Steam on the PC and played it for weeks before we finally won. Been playing it on iPad ever since it came out. We dont know why we love this game, but we do. We cant think of a game we play more often.
Could you please add iCloud support for the save files.
Overall the game play is fine, but its all a bit too rushed and you never seem to get enough time to collect the resources you need to have a chance at beating the final boss. Players should be given a little more time to explore and acquire resources in each sector they pass through. Otherwise, they miss about half of the planets most times.
Incredible game, logged tons of hours in it. Plays wonderfully with touch screen.
Unlimited replay value, been playing for years and still using the same ship. Eventually Ill try some other play styles but for now the one ship is more than enough to keep us busy. THIS. IS. NOT. AN. EASY. GAME. Move on if you want hand holding and stress less gameplay. FTL will infuriate you. FTL will beat you down. Are you an hour in with a build you think is great? Boom, that ship is now toast, start over. We might honestly still be playing this game in ten years, its that good. Best experienced with Ipad and Apple Pencil.
After the sun goes red giant, when the last embers of the ash that was earth cool, and humanity is either no more or far flung among the stars, this will still be the one game could have on your iPad/tablet/mindchip and play for your entire life. Before it was only 4 stars, lacking support for larger resolutions but still perfect in form. With the latest update, its straight to 5. All other games may come and go, but this is the millennial version of chess. FTL on iPad is the most perfect game that can, will ever exist on this platform. Nuff said.
When we started this game we thought it was the best, then it got more and more boring.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.6.21
- Size: 237.60 MB
- iOS: 8.0 or later
- Languages: EN, FR, DE, IT, JA, PL, PT, RU, ZH, ES
- Content Advisory: Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence
- Developer: Subset Games, LLC
Last updated: 5th October 2021 | Genre: Strategy, Simulation | Developer: Subset Games, LLC