FTL: Faster Than Light is getting an update called FTL: Advanced Edition that'll bring major additions to the stellar indie hit by Subset Games.

The Lanius are a scavenger race of robots that can drain the oxygen from a room making them especially dangerous when boarding an enemy ship. They also look cool crystal robots and who wouldn't one of those on their ship?

Here are some of the new features that are coming to FTL straight from the FTL official blog:

  • Lanius Ship: New player ship with its own achievements and alternate layout.
  • Type C Ship Layouts: 8 of the original ships will have a third layout that capitalizes on the new content.  With the Lanius ship, that makes for a total of ten new starting ship designs.
  • Backup Battery Subsystem: Subsystem that can provide temporary reactor power in a pinch.
  • New Drones: Expanded drone options includes: the Shield Drone that generates a green super shield for your ship, the Anti-Combat Drone that shoots down enemy combat drones, and the Ion Intruder that blasts into the enemy ship and randomly ionizes systems while stunning and distracting crew.
  • Gameplay Refinements: Doors and Sensors can be manned to increase effectiveness; you can now rename crew mid-game; each race has a small variety of colors which allows for easier visual recognition;

Anyone who wants to play the vanilla version of FTL can disable the new features via the hangar set up screen in-game.

The FTL: Advanced Edition update is coming out early 2014 for PC and iPad.

//player.vimeo.com/video/79104930