Ship Upgrades: system levels, subsystems and reactor power

About this game

Developer: Subset Games · Publisher: Subset Games · Platform: PC (Steam) · Art style: Minimalist & vector · Screen type: Tech / Research

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What to study

Upgrading is a power budget before it is a shopping list. Every system on the DA-SR 12 is a vertical column of pips, shields, engines, oxygen, weapons, medbay, sensors, with the price of the next pip printed under its icon (20, 15, 25, 50, 35, 50 scrap), and two columns stand empty where systems the ship does not own would go, advertising purchases instead of hiding them. The panel's real argument is the REACTOR box at bottom-right: 7 POWER BARS, 20 scrap for the next. A level bought for a system is useless until the reactor can feed it, so each purchase is silently two purchases, and the screen lays both halves side by side so the trade-off is made with open eyes. Subsystems (pilot, doors, sensors) sit in their own cheaper row because they draw no power. The game stays paused behind the panel, the PAUSED watermark shows through, and UNDO sits beside ACCEPT because the intended behaviour is to model a build, not commit click by click. Frame at about 0:43 in the FTL Faster Than Light Trailer (Steam).

Patterns

How the screen is arranged.

upgrade-grid cost-list power-budget

Components

Parts on screen.

Tabs Nameplate Pips Slots

Screen inventory

• UPGRADES / CREW / EQUIPMENT tab row
• ship name plate DA-SR 12
• six SYSTEMS columns with vertical level pips, system icons and scrap costs (20 / 15 / 25 / 50 / 35 / 50)
• two empty system slots
• SUBSYSTEMS tiles with costs 20 / 60 / 20
• REACTOR panel reading 7 POWER BARS with a 20-scrap next bar
• UNDO and ACCEPT buttons
• scrap balance 52 in the top HUD
• faint PAUSED overlay behind the panel

Top 3 colors

#000000 26%#141312 25%#687065 20%

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 extracted from the official FTL Faster Than Light Trailer (Steam) by the pipeline scene-change pass and inspected visually at full resolution; real game UI (Upgrades panel, system costs, reactor power bars, UNDO/ACCEPT) confirmed visible and legible; no trailer text overlays the frame

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

Rights holders: see Copyright & takedown.