My sons and I are always ready for the next jump!
My sons and I are always ready for the next jump!

In the vast emptiness of space, where every decision can mean the difference between survival and catastrophic failure, FTL: Faster Than Light teaches us more than just how to manage a spaceship. I first installed this game on my iPad on April 10th, 2014, and it has always been my mainstay for taking a break from life or enduring long haul flights around the world. I introduced my two sons to the game not too long after I started playing it, and I’ve said to them over the years that beneath the pixel art and spaceship battles lie profound life lessons that extend far beyond the touch screen controls of the game.

1. Resources Are Finite, Choose Wisely

In FTL, scrap is your primary currency. You need it for repairs, upgrades, new weapons, and hiring crew. There’s never enough to do everything you want.

Life Analogy: Think of your time and energy like scrap metal in FTL. Just as you must decide between upgrading shields or engines in the game, life demands prioritization. Should you invest time in a new skill or strengthen existing relationships? There’s no perfect answer - only trade-offs.

When you face a merchant in FTL with limited scrap, you’re practicing the art of opportunity cost - understanding that saying “yes” to one option means saying “no” to others. This mirrors our daily choices about where to direct our limited resources of time, energy, and attention.

2. Planning Helps, But Adaptation Is Essential

You might begin an FTL run with a perfect strategy in mind. Perhaps you’ll focus on a drone-heavy build or a teleporter boarding strategy. But the random nature of the universe often throws wrenches in those plans.

Life Analogy: Life is like jumping your ship into an unknown star system. You can plan your course, but you can’t predict what you’ll encounter. The most successful FTL captains—and people—are those who can adapt when the situation changes.

When your carefully planned weapon system gets hit by an ion blast, you must quickly reroute power and adjust your strategy. Similarly, when life disrupts your carefully crafted plans, the ability to pivot and find new approaches determines your success.

3. Small Decisions Compound Over Time

In FTL, the consequence of a single poor decision might not be immediately apparent. Maybe you skipped that distress beacon to save fuel, but missed a crucial weapon upgrade that would have helped against the final boss.

Life Analogy: Like navigating through FTL’s sectors, life’s journey is shaped by countless small choices that compound over time. The daily decisions—what to learn, who to connect with, which habits to maintain—may seem insignificant in isolation, but collectively determine your trajectory.

Just as experienced FTL players learn to think several jumps ahead, success in life often comes from understanding how today’s small choices create tomorrow’s opportunities or limitations.

4. Failure Is Inevitable, Learning Is Optional

Perhaps FTL’s most famous feature is its difficulty and permadeath system. Your ship will be destroyed. Your crew will perish. The mission will fail. Repeatedly.

Life Analogy: Like an FTL run, failure in life isn’t just possible—it’s guaranteed. The question isn’t whether you’ll fail, but what you’ll learn when you do.

Each FTL defeat offers lessons: perhaps you relied too heavily on shields against beam weapons, or maybe you neglected to upgrade your oxygen system before facing a boarder. Similarly, personal and professional setbacks provide invaluable data for your next attempt—if you’re willing to examine the wreckage.

5. Diversity Creates Resilience

The most successful FTL ships often have diverse crews with complementary abilities. Engi repair systems faster, Rockmen excel at fighting fires, Zoltans provide extra power, and Mantis make formidable boarders.

Life Analogy: Just as a homogeneous crew limits your options in FTL, surrounding yourself with only like-minded people creates blind spots and vulnerabilities. Teams with diverse perspectives and skills create resilient systems that can handle unexpected challenges.

When your ship gets boarded by hostile Mantis warriors, you’ll be grateful for that Rockman security officer. Similarly, in life’s challenges, different perspectives often illuminate solutions we couldn’t see alone.

6. Sometimes You Need to Power Down Non-Essentials

When your FTL ship faces a critical situation—perhaps your shields are down and a missile is incoming—you often need to make quick power allocation decisions. This might mean temporarily shutting down oxygen or engines to divert power to weapons.

Life Analogy: During intense periods in life, you simply can’t power everything simultaneously. Sometimes you need to temporarily deprioritize certain aspects of life to focus energy where it’s most critically needed.

Just as a wise captain knows which systems can briefly go offline during a crisis, wisdom in life means recognizing which commitments can be paused during challenging seasons without causing permanent damage.

7. The Journey Matters More Than the Destination

In FTL, reaching and defeating the final flagship is ostensibly the goal. However, most players find the varied encounters, narrow escapes, and emergent stories along the way far more meaningful than the victory screen.

Life Analogy: We often fixate on destination goals—the promotion, the relationship milestone, the achievement—while undervaluing the growth, connections, and experiences along the way.

Just as FTL’s procedurally generated sectors create unique journeys with each playthrough, life’s value lies in its unrepeatable sequences of moments and choices, not just in reaching predetermined endpoints.

8. Sometimes, No Perfect Solution Exists

FTL frequently presents dilemmas with no clearly optimal choice. Do you intervene in a fight between ships, potentially making an enemy? Do you risk your crew to save civilians from a plague?

Life Analogy: Like FTL’s morally ambiguous scenarios, life often presents situations where all options involve trade-offs or compromises. Ethical dilemmas rarely have perfect solutions.

The game teaches us to make the best decision we can with limited information, accept the consequences, and move forward—a valuable template for navigating life’s complex choices.

Conclusion: The Captain’s Chair

FTL puts us in the captain’s chair of a starship, but it’s really putting us in the captain’s chair of our own lives. It reminds us that resources are limited, failure is educational, adaptation is crucial, and sometimes there are no perfect answers.

The next time your ship explodes in the cold vacuum of space, remember that each failed run makes you wiser for the next attempt—in the game and in life. After all, the universe is vast, unpredictable, and full of danger, but with enough attempts and sufficient learning, even the most challenging journeys can help you grow and evolve. No clone bay required.