Beacon Map: plotting jumps ahead of the rebel fleet front

About this game

Developer: Subset Games · Publisher: Subset Games · Platform: PC (Steam) · Art style: Minimalist & vector · Screen type: Campaign / World Map

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What to study

The Beacon Map turns time pressure into geography. Your route is a chain of beacon diamonds joined by dashed green lines showing which jumps are in range from where you sit; at the right edge the EXIT beacon glows green, and at the left a solid red front, the rebel fleet, is eating the sector, its leading edge labelled with a vertical WARNING! and arrows so there is no ambiguity about which beacons are already lost (the fleet icons sit behind the line, in taken space). Every decision on this screen is therefore priced in two currencies at once: distance to the exit, and jumps remaining before the front overruns the beacons in between. A STORE beacon is labelled outright and hazard beacons carry warning triangles, so greed has landmarks, detour for the shop, or run? The map opens over the dimmed ship view and closes with one large X: route-planning is a pause in the action, not a separate mode. Frame at about 1:17 in the FTL Faster Than Light Trailer (Steam), manually extracted at 76.5s: the scene-change pass emitted no frame for the map. Caveat: the trailer's burned-in caption band ('And explore a new randomized galaxy every game') runs across the bottom of the frame below the map panel; every beacon, route line and the WARNING front are fully legible above it.

Patterns

How the screen is arranged.

route-map threat-front node-graph

Components

Parts on screen.

Map Marker

Screen inventory

• BEACON MAP header tab and large X close button
• red rebel-fleet advance front sweeping from the left with vertical WARNING! text and advance arrows
• fleet ship icons already behind the front line
• dashed green jump routes from the current-position ship marker
• beacon diamonds across a starfield, with a labelled STORE beacon
• green EXIT beacon marker at the right edge
• hazard beacons marked with warning triangles
• dimmed ship HUD behind the map panel

Top 3 colors

#000000 43%#0f1011 24%#545753 19%

Top three palette colors by share. The remaining colors make up the rest.

Source and credit

© Subset Games, FTL: Faster Than Light screenshot: FTL Faster Than Light Trailer (Steam), shown for design study and commentary. PlayCraft is an unofficial fan project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Subset Games.

Source tier 2 (publisher-released) · screenshot: Steam store page · Steam page

Source details

Fetched 2026-10-22. verified 2026-10-22: frame manually extracted at 76.5s from the pipeline-downloaded FTL Faster Than Light Trailer (Steam) and inspected visually at full resolution; real game UI (Beacon Map, rebel WARNING front, dashed jump routes, STORE and EXIT beacons) confirmed visible and legible; the trailer's caption band crosses the bottom edge below the map panel and covers no map element

no published policy found (checked 2026-10-22); fair-use study use, takedown honored within 48h

Rights holders: see Copyright & takedown.