Kestrel Cruiser A, Run 1 is where Basket's FTL series starts. Basket deletes the old profile for a clean slate ("So now clean slate, new game"), sets the difficulty to Normal, and takes the only ship the empty profile has: the Kestrel, in layout A. The game's menu shows Advanced Edition content enabled. The Kestrel launches with three crew, Bloch, Layla and Alison, and two weapons, a Burst Laser II and an Artemis. The run reaches Sector 6 and unlocks the Engi Cruiser along the way, and it ends with the Kestrel destroyed in a Slug Controlled Nebula.
Part 1: Slavers and smaller paychecks
Before the first jump, Basket moves the Burst Laser II into the first weapon slot. Sector 1 is a Civilian Sector, and the first stop is a well-known slave trader offering "laborers" for cheap. Buying one costs 33 scrap the Kestrel doesn't have, so Basket picks "Attack the slaver scum." "I never accept paying for the slave," Basket says. "I always just attack them." The slaver's Pirate Scout gets a missile in, but the Kestrel wins, and a fourth name, Liu Jun, joins the crew list.
The rest of the sector pays, just not much. "This does give a lot less money on normal," Basket notes. An event upgrades the Kestrel's sensors, and a Pirate Interceptor that can't win offers fuel, a drone part and scrap to be let go, which Basket takes. The first store has nothing Basket can afford, so the scrap goes on repairs. The part ends in Sector 2, the Uncharted Nebula, attacking an automated Rebel ship that guards a small station.
Part 2: Hacked, then crewed up
The station turns out to be empty. At the next store Basket buys an Ion Blast Mark II, an ion weapon that "charges up pretty quickly" and is good for knocking shields down, plus fuel and some repairs. Intruders board soon after, and the crew runs over and fights them off. The next ship is an Auto-Hacker, which hacks the Kestrel's weapons as the fight starts and charges its FTL. With the weapons locked and a fire burning inside the Kestrel, Basket can't stop it, and it jumps away. "That one didn't go over so well because they hacked the weapons," the commentary says.
Sector 3 is a Rebel Controlled Sector, and the route goes through it "so I can hit the nebula areas." Two events add crew. At a small research station where a laboratory fire is out of control, Basket picks a rescue option and gains a crew member without taking damage. Then a flushed and panicky rebel soldier teleports aboard, and Basket accepts the offer and gets ready to fight the Rebel ship. By the end of the part the crew list reads Bloch, Layla, Alison, Liu Jun, Jones and Mort.
Part 3: Seven hull points and a new ship
Part 3 opens with boarders from the Rebel ship inside the Kestrel. The crew wins, but by the first store of Sector 4, a Slug Controlled Nebula, the hull is down to 7. Basket sells the Ion Blast Mark II, buys the plain Ion Blast, which needs only one power, adds a Drone Control system, which comes with a System Repair Drone, and spends the rest on repairs and fuel. A Slug ship then demands the Kestrel give up its shields, its oxygen or its weapons, and Basket gives up the oxygen. Further on, an event hands over a Drone Recovery Arm, and Basket buys an Anti-Ship Beam Drone I at the next store. With the enemy shields down, "my beam guy is actually doing quite a bit of damage."
At the first beacon of Sector 5, another Uncharted Nebula, the game shows "Ship Unlocked!" for the Engi Cruiser, along with the Just Getting Started achievement for reaching Sector 5. "So now, in the future playthrough, I can play the Engi ship," the commentary says. A big ship with a crew teleporter sends boarders into the Kestrel, and the part ends at a store where Basket looks at a Combat Drone Mark I and repairs the hull all the way instead: "It's probably safer."
Part 4: Fires, and a crew member lost
Part 4 picks the run back up in the nebula. One ship charges its FTL and escapes before the Kestrel can stop it. "Oh, it got away," Basket says. A pirate ship with a cloaking system then beats the Kestrel up badly enough that Basket jumps to the exit beacon to recover. The next fight is worse. Missiles start fires across the ship, and "our doors are out so I can't put out these fires very easily," Basket says. When it is over, Mort is gone from the crew list, leaving five.
Sector 6 is another Slug Controlled Nebula. A Slug Assault carries a Glaive Beam, "which is pretty deadly," Basket says. It offers to surrender without saying what it would give, and Basket keeps shooting. The Kestrel is burning in several rooms before the Slug Assault finally explodes, and the part ends with the hull critical and the crew putting out fires.
Part 5: Out of missiles
Part 5 starts right after that fight. Basket stops at a store, buys fuel and puts scrap into a weapons upgrade, "even though we won't have power for it." Boarders arrive at the next beacon and the commentary calls out a mind-controlled crew member: "Things are looking bad." Basket ignores a big ship at the following beacon, repairs, and jumps on with no missiles left.
The last fight is against a Mantis Fighter. Its crew teleports into the Kestrel, and without missiles the Burst Laser II and Ion Blast can't get through its shields. "I can't get through all these shields," the commentary says. Bloch, Liu Jun and Jones drop off the crew list until only Layla and Alison are left, and then the Kestrel breaks apart. The game-over screen reads "One last explosion marks your fate as your ship is torn apart," with a score of 2480 and "New High Score!" The stats screen lists the Kestrel's best as Sector 6 on Normal. The lesson, from the commentary: next time, "make sure I get some sort of weapons that are going to be able to get through these shields." The video ends on the FTL main menu.
