Hello, I’m tehepicwin, and I’ve been playing since the beginning of alpha! I’m here to discuss the things that us alpha testers have pain-stakingly learned over the past 9 months. After everything that’s happened, we’re proud to tell you that Torment 12 can be beaten consistently with most ship+commander combos! We went through this journey so you don’t have to, so hopefully with this guide…you won’t have to!
What too much VW does to you: At 814 scrap, the lowest known win at T12

Generally, I like to divide the torments as such: T0-3 = Easy, T4-5 = Normal, T6-9 = Hard, and T10-12 is Extreme. I believe these names to be “reasonably accurate” as a die-hard FTL player. YMMV. T6 and T10 are the big walls that even skilled players are intimidated by. You should feel confident about your skill level–you got this far!–but these walls may be humbling nonetheless. This guide aims, in the quickest way possible, to enable you to break these walls and keep climbing until you can reach the level of smashing up T12 too.
This guide will assume that you’ve achieved a significant level of experience in this game. I recommend playing instead of reading if you haven’t reached T6 yet, but you do you.
And quick tip for those who don’t know: Crew kill scrap = hull kill scrap in this game unless CK is the only way to collect a container. STOP SHOOTING MIND BOLTS TO CK IT’S A WASTE OF TIME.

Tower of Skulls is the single most OP module in the game for 20 scrap. It’s totally disgusting how much stats this gives you and requires so little of you to convert it to wins. Not even Hate Matrix has a bar this low.
Speaking of which, Hate Matrix comes second.
Next up are Heavy Translocator and Aethergate. The ability to targeted mass-board for a low cost is game breaking.
Fusion charge is buy on sight. Bails you out of any situation and murders bosses.
Shield charger is best system. Doom Engine is 10x harder without it.
Get Purify, it’s good against all bosses.
Stun equipment is disgusting for boarding parties.
Chaos Rift is the last spell worth mentioning for now, like wtf is this thing. Yeet boarders, yeet to board, yeet their psyker onto your ship, yeet their pilot onto your ship, yeet and beat up their demon so you can board the poss ship. This just does so much.
Assault Cyborg is stupid and has a quirk where you can drain all of the bosses’ munitions and make them unable to shoot you anymore. I’ll leave how to do this to you. Is still the best crew member in the game without this trick.
If you don’t know what comm to pick, pick Exile.
Keep reading if you’re not a lazy scrub schmuck.

<---You after using fusion charge for the 20th run in a row

The way to understand VW strategy is to work in reverse. No matter what happens, at the end of the game you MUST beat the boss. This means that whatever we do, we must have a plan for overcoming this final hurdle. Once you reach T6 and get the scrap penalty, and again at T10, your viable options for doing so become narrower and narrower.
The design of the bosses in VW is really ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up. High evasion, 55 hull, and shield charger combined mean that the bosses are stupidly ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ resilient to regular weapon shots. When you have 1600 scrap in T6 and 1200 scrap in T10, it’s ridiculous how hard it is to kill the boss by shooting it. We have to adapt our mindset to focus on how we can use our scrap to have even a chance of scratching the bosses’ paint. Overall, we’ve found 4 categories of viable builds in endgame:
1)Fusion Burst
2)Boarding Shields-Smash
3)Busted Module
4)Ions
In T6-9 this is a bit more flexible, but in T10-12 I virtually never win with a different build than these, because the scrap to make other strategies work simply isn’t there.

You'll be seeing this a lot

This build resembles regular ships the most. The idea is pretty simple. You do whatever you want for the 6 sectors leading up to the boss, and once you arrive at the boss you load up your tool slots with fusion charges, board into the shields, and blow them up. You follow up with enough DPS and stall to trigger the next phase. Then, board with another round of fusion charges and win the game.
If you pick Exile, you’ll have an easy way of doing this every time. If you don’t have Exile, you’ll have to think a bit harder on how you’ll guarantee a fusion charge into the shields. If you don’t manage to get fusion charges into shields, you are screwed in T6-9 and just dead in T10-12. Abilities that ignore or break doors one way or another can be very helpful in not getting killed.

If you don’t have fusion charges, this is most likely what you are doing. It’s simply not feasible to break shields against the boss: It’s too evasive, too tanky. That’s why you board into shields and destroy them with your boarding party instead. If you stack enough boarders, equipment, and abilities, you can more or less wipe out the bosses’ crew and destroy the shields in the meanwhile. If you manage to accomplish this, even weak weapons can finish off the boss.
Be careful to let 1 crew member stay alive, maybe even 2. If you trigger the demon heart on accident and don’t have suffocation resist/immunity, you likely lose on the spot.
This is the build I go most often. I frequently end up at the boss with only 1 new weapon, sometimes my starting weapons, and I’ve even winded up with fewer weapons than I started with before. This is not the only way to play, but it’s the one you should probably be considering first because of how much the stores sell boarding tools.

It doesn't have to be so strong: A good enough party is good enough!

Some modules are busted enough that you can build around them and kill the bosses through their defenses. I’m thinking of 3: Hate Matrix, Demon Lance, and Seraphic Resonators, though others may exist. These give you a ridiculous amount of damage if you play your cards right. Worth noting in the case of Demon Lance in particular that you probably want fusion charge anyway to destroy the bosses’ evasion, and be aware that if your damage burst is large enough you can skip the phase changes entirely.

Don't miscount your damage!

If you don’t have boarding and don’t have the busted modules, then realistically speaking this is your last viable way of consistently winning. One of the core reasons the boss is so resilient to armaments is its shield charger. Quad storm 2 will get stonewalled. Ions break the usual dynamic by ignoring shield charger if you take down shields.
Ions are very efficient at breaking shields. I’d say 5 power worth of ions should be enough to take down the bosses’ shields, sometimes 4 works too. Between siege bombard, siege beam, hull reaper, and maybe some armaments, you have enough DPS to win.

PSA: Heavy Ion Lance is busto

I’ll just quickly go over the recommended combos.
Imperial A: Recommend Exile, though anything goes.
Imperial B: MUST pick Exile or Cyberfused, favour the former.
Imperial C: Recommend Mutant or Paladin, though anything goes.
Interdictor A: Recommend Exile, though anything goes.
Interdictor B: Recommend Exile, though anything goes.
Interdictor C: MUST pick Exile or Cyberfused.
Relic A: Recommend Exile, though anyone with the ability to beat upgraded doors+Paladin is also a decent option.
Relic B: MUST pick Exile or Cyberfused.
Relic C: MUST pick Exile or Cyberfused.
Assault A: Recommend Paladin or Archmage, though anything goes.
Assault B: MUST pick Exile or Cyberfused, favour the former.
Assault C: MUST pick Exile.
Heavy A: MUST pick Exile or Cyberfused.
Heavy B: MUST pick Exile or Cyberfused.
Heavy C: MUST pick Exile or Cyberfused.
Explorator A: MUST pick Exile or Cyberfused, favour the latter.
Explorator B: MUST pick Exile or Cyberfused, favour the latter.
Explorator C: MUST pick Exile or Cyberfused.
Overseer A: MUST pick Exile or Cyberfused.
Overseer B: MUST pick Exile or Cyberfused.
Ancient A: MUST pick Exile or Cyberfused, favour the latter.
Ancient B: MUST pick Exile or Cyberfused, favour the latter.
Oblivion A: Pick Wight, if not then Exile.
Oblivion B: Recommend Exile, though anything goes.
These are not hard “musts,” but you are at a massive disadvantage if you don’t pick Exile/Cyberfused on such ships. At the highest level if you’re good enough, you can consistently win on all of these ships with any comm, with the exception of Ancient A and Assault C.
The logic here is easy to learn. If you don’t have a way to board, then you simply must be Exile or Cyberfused to guarantee that equipment can convert to offense. If you don’t have a boarding method and are neither of them, then equipment is virtually denied as a viable option to upgrade in the early game, and wasting the early game because of that can be game losing. If the mobility of your commander is an issue, then Exile becomes better than Cyberfused.
Oblivion A is unique in that Wight has such a broken synergy with its module that he becomes best. I don’t personally believe in niche picks like Relic B Wight, Relic C Archmage, or Assault C Wight at all. These picks are demonstrably suboptimal for reasons outlined above.
If you do have a boarding method, then it comes down to what covers your weaknesses best. Most of the time Exile is too flexible, but realistically you have a fantastic spread of boarding comms in this game.
Just don’t pick Cannibal, he sucks. Pick Mutant instead if you want something similar.

Literally no difference

Broadly speaking, I would avoid death cult sectors, especially early game. Death cult sectors have the stupid ships that spam summons at you and are generally speaking some of the ships most likely to kill you. Even if you have boarding, if the death cult ship has upgraded doors then you might be in trouble. Contrary to popular belief, Assassin is a good choice into death cult because she interrupts the psykers no matter how strong their doors are, but Assassin is somewhat of a low-tier in the first place.
Exclusion zones are so good that I would take them almost no matter what. Contrary to popular belief, though boarding ships may have a tougher time into poss ships, the matchup is still fine even without suffocation immunity. Kill the demons aboard, snag some system damage, and finish off with your guns. Health is a resource, so it’s okay to spend it this way. It will regenerate on its own, so as long as you save health where it counts you will be fine.
War cult sectors are good largely because of its shrine. The shrine of rage is 3 fights in one jump.
Technocult sectors also have a good shrine. Machine shrine is one of the few where I actually want it for its effect. The crew purchases in these sectors are AMAZING: Hexpriest, Cyberpriest, Flux-Priest, Engineer, Assault Cyborg, Servo-Excavator, and Combat Husk are all fantastic. It’s just so good across the board in a way that other sectors are not. This sector also has the best midboss fight. Voltaic Cruiser is generally the easiest and has very worth rewards.
I would favour ignoring the other midbosses for now. I still fight them decently often, but I’m not sure how correct it is. As of this time, the fights are also bugged to hell and even if turns out they are worth it right now, the rewards should probably be buffed. Necrophage is the boss with the next best rewards: Thrice-Cursed is very good, Chaos Rift and Heavy Translocator are very good, and the middle option is reasonable too, as long as you didn’t get your hull smashed to bits winning the fight. You find Necrophage in cult and exclusion sectors. If you can interrupt shield psykers, then Necrophage is a lot easier.


This kind of ridiculous gameplay is what Heavy Translocator and Chaos Rift enable. Don't undervalue them!

Your biggest priority here is setting up. It’s common wisdom to get 2nd shield ASAP, but T12 meta right now does not favour this. In T6-9 I would still err on getting that 2nd shield, but once you break the T10 barrier I would recommend delaying second shield to sector 2, maybe even sector 3.
The reason for this is that you desperately want something going for your run early on. Missing 1, likely 2 purchases due to early shield upgrades will frequently brick your run on T10-12. This meta may change in the future, but this is how it is right now.
Visit consumable stores, even with terrible scrap. Fusion charge is buy on sight, and reagents can also bail you out of bad situations, as well as beat down the boss. In particular, the instant reagents can interrupt the death cultist summon spam.
There’s no clear answer on what to buy, and even at T12 there’s multiple viable playstyles. Generally though, shield charger and hull reaper are the best buys, medbay can be fantastic too depending on how boarding-reliant the run is shaping up. I would be happy to buy weapons, including mediocre weapons like bolt cannon and the radium blasters. Options that improve offense are typically favoured, though shield charger might be the #1 grab in most states.
There’s no kind way to put this, but if you are dying to boarders this early, consider if it’s a skill issue. Consider if there’s a way you could have spent HP more efficiently, such as by balling up your crew more before fighting, instead of thinking about how you can buy more crew to not die. More crew to beat boarders is not a priority in the early game, though on Assault C specifically you will take whatever you get.

At this point in the game, your goal is to round out your ship, and of the 4 strategies you should know which one you are going by now.
You always want to have a way to board, even if you are going ions or a module synergy build. This makes a boarding method high priority: Heavy Trans and Aethergate are the best methods, and are worth getting even if you started with launch bay. Thrice-Cursed Reliquary is just a step below the busted pair. Also, buying 2-4 prisms is the cheapest way to assemble a boarding method for the boss.
Next best is fitting individual translocators to your dudes, as well as buying launch bay if you didn’t start with one. Chaos Rift and Chaos Engine also work for boarding. Finally there’s Displacement Bomb, but this method is so much worse than the others that I mostly don’t count it.
As far as systems go, you definitely want shield charger. All of the systems have their use cases, though Husk Rack is distinctly niche and is the rarest pick. Overall, more systems = more better, especially if you can combine Terror Amp or Graviton with boarding. Don’t sleep on siege systems or missiles, even if you have hull reaper. They can tip the scales before the boss and are very helpful for damage at the boss.
For spells, after the busted as hell Aethergate, there’s Purify and Chaos Rift.
An important quirk to note with Purify and Paladin’s Embolden is that you can get a free 10 seconds at the start of every fight. Activate the spell before jumping, and their effects will carry over to the next beacon.
Bloodspear is good even without thrall generation, and is high damage with thrall pit. Overall though, there’s no shortage of spells to support whatever strategy you’ve chosen. I considered mentioning Drain Strength in the broken category.
Fire is good to pick up, mostly for the boss. Picking up fireball is an easy way to light fires on the boss, and if you’re boarding, it is very difficult for the boss to put out your fires. There are other ways to light fires too.

Fire is actually good, Exhibit A

Get lots of consumables. Consumables can sometimes find value and bail you out before the boss, but at the boss itself they are THE most efficient spends for your scrap. Fusion charge is obviously number one. Reagents do heavy-lifting, repair drone bails you out, med drone bails you out, hull repair bails you out.
I would never go past level 3 engines at this stage of the game. Getting third shield is situational. It’s helpful but expensive enough that it removes a lot of spending scrap at stores.

Note the level 1 engine and the fusion charges, that I use Heavy Translocator to abuse. Other than that, my ship is just a mish-mash of stuff

Some important things to note. First of all, sometimes sector 6 will have no stores at all, so you want to have a prepared loadout in sector 5 and should sell your junk sometime before sector 6 if possible.
One of the scariest jumps in the game isn’t the boss itself, but the second-to-last jump. This is because fleeing this jump is really bad, and your hull damage taken here will stick. Because of this, I generally get my final upgrades before the second-to-last jump, unless there’s a very important upgrade I want to reach. The dumbest way to lose is to get crippled right before the boss. Also, make doubly sure you actually rearrange your tools and stuff, and don’t forget your consumables in the storage.

Hopefully you’ve chosen one of the four strategies outlined above. Just roll them over, commander.
I won’t go all over the little situations and micro-optimizations you can do to beat the boss. If you’ve managed to climb this far, you should be able to identify your own mistakes. It’s possible to beat up the boss with sub-1000 scrap, so to be very blunt, don’t be a scrub. Take accountability for your losses and learn for next time.
One thing to consider is that anti-boarding is particularly valuable against the boss. Necrobarge and Doom Engine both have very threatening boarding attacks against you. Chaos Rift and Chaos Engine are the ultimate “get off me” tools. I’d strongly recommend upgrading doors as well. Be careful about letting doors get broken: I would let boarders through after a few seconds to make sure the doors stay intact.
Necrobarge is generally considered to be the most dangerous boss. It’s a health optimization vs speed game: You want to kill the boss before your health gets grinded down, but you have to weigh speed against preserving health.
Doom Engine should be beatable if you have shield charger. Without it you might be in for a tough time.
For Starflayer, it’s the easiest boss, especially after you learn a few mind control counterplays. You can delay some of your crew actions to wait for the initial projectiles, then dodge the mind control. It takes about 12 seconds for a crew member to do sabotage damage, so if you can distract for a few seconds, then your crew member becomes effectively harmless. One very cheap tactic you can abuse is to let a tendril on your ship live. Since tendrils count as crew members, as long as a tendril lives you can wipe out the entire Starflayer crew.

...And win in style

Thank you for reading all of this. Ultimately, as long as you’re continuously improving, you should feel good about yourself. You’ll eventually beat T6, then T10, then T12, and then if you keep at it you’ll be able to smash T12 continuously with even bad commanders. Keep on the grind commander, and most of all, this game is meant to be fun. The biggest predictor for how far you get in the torments is how much you enjoy the climb.
Big thanks to Fluffy and Ciggy for being fantastic players who helped contribute to this guide. Thanks to Cosmic, PR-Manager, and KinkedSpark for also being great players who helped develop the meta to where it is today and being great people to bounce ideas off. Thanks to Recal, whose work with data was necessary for bringing it all to this point. Thanks to every content creator who helped this game gain the visibility it deserves.
And most of all, thank you devs for this wonderful game!