FTLHELM is a gamepad and touchscreen layer for FTL: Faster Than Light on Linux, including the Steam Deck, written in Rust. It loads with the game and maps pad and touch input to the game's own mouse and keyboard controls; the game files remain untouched.
- Zones: the D-pad and sticks jump between rooms, doors, weapon and drone boxes, event choices, beacons, store items and menu buttons
- Weapons:
- Arm the next powered weapon with one press, aim with another
- Volleys: fire all weapons, or those selected on the weapons wheel, at one room
- Beams: lay beams through as many rooms as possible, then turn, slide or move them with the pad
- Reorder: move weapons and drones one slot at a time
- Crew: select a room's crew one at a time, then all, with repeated presses; step to the next crew member with another button; add or remove crew members with the crew wheel
- Doors: open or close all doors in a room at once, or control individual doors
- Wheels for weapons, crew, systems, ship orders and abilities, using the game's own artwork
- Overlay:
- Focus brackets around the item under the cursor
- Crew markers over selected crew members
- Mode badge where the game writes PAUSED, showing the aimed weapon, selected crew and active modes
- Autopause: the game pauses while a wheel is open, while aiming, or both
- Fast forward: speed up the game while a button is held
- Mouse mode: move the game's cursor freely with the D-pad and sticks
- In-game help: button, wheel, weapon, crew and door controls; shown on first run
- On-screen keyboard: rename the ship and the crew with the pad or by touch
- Small screens, enabled by default below 1280x720:
- Zoom: magnify the ship view around the cursor; enlarge the map, ship and store screens to fit
- Frame filter: smoother, sharper picture
- Text size: scale event boxes and tooltips up to 2x the game's original size
- Pointer size: keep the mouse cursor at the game's own size, or set it from half to twice that
- HUD shift: on screens narrower than 16:9, move the HUD's edge panels toward the middle, as far as the ship allows
- iPad icons: use the larger icons from FTL's iPad edition for map beacons and crew station buttons, each controlled by its own switch
- Touch: use the touchscreen as a mouse
- Tap to click, hold to right-click, drag to select
- Swipe up or down on a system icon, its power bars or a weapon box to adjust its power
- Two-finger tap or the on-screen button to pause
- Pinch to zoom and move the ship view
- Near misses land on the closest button, room or icon
- In-game settings: adjust zoom, text size, pointer size, autopause, fast-forward speed, overlay, frame filter, iPad artwork, button swap, touch and rumble from the settings wheel
- Any pad: the last controller used takes control; the game pauses if it disconnects; A/B and X/Y can be swapped for controllers with different button layouts; rumble support
- Remappable: configure tap and hold actions for every button, and the wheels and their plates, in
ftlhelm.ini; changes are reloaded while the game is running
 Zones |
 Touch |
 Zoom at 640x480 |
 Beams |
 Small screens: without and with FTLHELM |
|
| Button | Tap | Hold |
|---|---|---|
| D-pad, sticks | the next zone that way | |
| A | click; select the room's crew | drag |
| B | cancel, back; pause with nothing to cancel | abilities wheel |
| X | arm the next weapon | weapons wheel |
| Y | next crew member | crew wheel |
| L1 | previous tab | systems wheel |
| R1 | next tab | ship orders wheel |
| L2 | toggle the room's doors | doors become the zones |
| R2 | beacon map | fast forward |
| L3, R3 | the other ship | |
| Start | pause | zoom out while zoomed |
| Select | settings wheel |
Wheels
Requires the native Linux build of FTL: 1.6.13 from Steam or 1.6.12 from GOG, and glibc 2.35 or later. The Windows and macOS builds are not supported. On another Linux build, FTLHELM stays inactive and the game runs without it.
Download ftlhelm-linux-x86_64.tar.gz from the latest release and unpack it anywhere, e.g. ~/ftlhelm/. ftlhelm.sh expects the other files where the archive puts them.
-
In FTL's Properties > General > Launch Options, enter:
~/ftlhelm/ftlhelm-linux-x86_64/ftlhelm.sh %command% -
In Properties > Controller, set Steam Input to Disabled for FTL.
-
In Properties > Compatibility, leave Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool off.
As for Steam, except step 2: leave Steam Input on, and in FTL's Controller Settings open the current layout and apply Templates > Gamepad.
For touch in Game Mode, open FTL's controller layout (Controller Settings > Edit Layout > Action Sets), choose the gear of the action set, Add Always-On command, and set it to the System command Touchscreen Native Support. Desktop Mode needs no setting.
~/ftlhelm/ftlhelm-linux-x86_64/ftlhelm.sh "/path/to/the GOG install/start.sh"
A Steam copy runs from its own directory:
cd "/path/to/FTL Faster Than Light"
~/ftlhelm/ftlhelm-linux-x86_64/ftlhelm.sh ./FTL
On aarch64 handhelds, FTLHELM comes with the FTL port for PortMaster.
Each release carries the port as ftlhelm-portmaster.zip; PortMaster installs it from its autoinstall folder.
If FTLHELM does not start, see Troubleshooting.
- Controls: zones, doors, weapons, wheels, keyboard, touch, zoom
- Configuration: settings, bindings, wheels, environment variables
- Troubleshooting: the log and what its lines mean
- Building: build commands, CI, test channel
If you find the project useful, here is how you can help:
- Tell other people about it. Sharing the project helps it reach more users.
- Report bugs and request features in Issues. Feedback is welcome. Attach
ftlhelm.logfrom the folder offtlhelm.shto a bug report. - Star the repo. It helps the project get noticed and keeps me motivated.
- Buy me a coffee on Ko-fi.
Copyright (C) 2026 Maxim Gorin. FTLHELM is free software under the GNU General Public License v3.0 or later, with the additional terms in NOTICE. The name, logo and icon: TRADEMARKS.md.
FTLHELM is an unofficial mod, not affiliated with or endorsed by Subset Games. FTL: Faster Than Light is a trademark of Subset Games.