No pause. Ever.
Pausing is switched off for the whole fight, for both of you. Vent the fire, reroute power and fire the volley while your opponent does exactly the same. Every second you spend thinking is a second they spend shooting.
Different crews.
Same universe.
A tougher opponent.
FTLMultiplayer
The AI never learned. Your opponent will. Real-time 1v1 FTL with no pause: build a ship with 10,000 scrap, queue up, and fight another captain while a dedicated server runs the battle.
Free. macOS only for now. Requires FTL: Advanced Edition 1.6.13.
- Ships allowed
- 0
- Scrap to build
- 0
- Server ticks / s
- 0
Quick Match
Paired with the next captain who is ready.
ServerONLINE · Belgium
- Build budget10,000 scrap
- Hulls allowedAll 28
- PauseOFF
- Draw offersON
- Reconnect window30 s
Queue
MATCH FOUND: accept within 10 s
The core rule
The pause key does nothing.
FTL taught you to think in frozen time. Multiplayer takes that away. Everything you know still applies; you just have to do it while someone else is doing it to you.
Single player
00:00Paused
You stop the universe, read every tooltip, queue four weapons on the exact room you want and unpause into a perfect turn. The AI waits politely. It has always waited.
Multiplayer
04:12Live
Their missiles are already in the air, their beam is lining up on your weapons, and the shield you were about to repower just took an ion hit. Nobody is waiting. Decide now, or decide worse in four seconds.
What you get
FTL's combat, aimed at a human
FTL's systems, weapons and crew. A dedicated server decides every hit, so neither player's game decides the fight. The better captain wins.
A server runs the fight
Neither player's game decides who won. A dedicated match server simulates every shot, hit and system 60 times a second, using a transcription of FTL's own code that is checked against recordings of the real game. Both screens show the same fight.
Fog of war, enforced by the server
The enemy's interior and crew, their weapon charge and their reactor only reach your computer once your sensors are good enough to show them. Upgrade sensors to see more; until then, that state is never sent to you.
10,000 scrap, any ship
All 28 player ships are allowed, and any hull can fight any other. Start with exactly 10,000 scrap in a full, searchable store of weapons, drones, augments, crew and systems. Flagship and enemy-only gear is left out, and missiles and drone parts stay at your hull's defaults. Save the result as a loadout.
Quick Match
Press QUEUE and the server checks your build, then pairs you with the next captain who is ready. You both accept a MATCH FOUND prompt within ten seconds, and the fight starts.
Draws and reconnects
Offer a draw at any point; if you both do, it ends even. If your connection drops mid-fight you have 30 seconds to reconnect and take your seat back before it counts as a forfeit.
The hangar
Bring the ship you actually trust
All 28 of FTL's player ships are allowed. Ion builds, beam volleys, drone swarms: 10,000 scrap, spent however you like.
The hangar
- Hulls
- 28
- Budget
- 10,000
Any hull can fight any other. You pick from FTL's own hangar, so which ships you can choose may depend on what you have unlocked in FTL. One gap for now: the Crystal crew's lockdown ability can't be triggered yet.
KestrelABC
EngiABC
FederationABC
ZoltanABC
MantisABC
SlugABC
RockABC
StealthABC
LaniusAB
CrystalAB
Getting started
Three steps to your first match
01
FTL 1.6.13 on a Mac
You need FTL: Advanced Edition, version 1.6.13, on macOS. It is built and tested against the Steam copy. Intel and Apple Silicon Macs both work; Apple Silicon runs it through Rosetta.
02
Run the installer
Unzip the download and double-click install.command. It patches your FTL install, keeps an untouched copy of the game data, and puts an FTL Multiplayer launcher on your Desktop.
03
Build, queue, fight
Open FTL Multiplayer and press MULTIPLAYER. Pick a ship, spend your 10,000 scrap, then press QUEUE. Accept when the match is found, and good luck.
Questions
Before you download
The AI never learned.Your opponent will.
Download the client, build a ship with 10,000 scrap, and queue for your first match. Free, for macOS.