How to build Kestrel B as a boarding ship?

[Infiltrator]

I'm having difficulty making the ship good enough for boarding (usually get killed on normal at sector 3/4), I want to get the Mantis ship so thats why I'm doing it.. can anyone share their successful upgrade path/strategy? Thanks..

[Todes_Schnitzel]

Ok on the start you send your Mantis into the weapon controll ,
save 75 scrap for the Teleporter,
upgrade your Teleporter too level 2
get 2 more members ( one shoot fight well)

[UglyBastard]

1.) Buy a teleporter.
2.) Board enemy ships.
3.) ???
4.) PROFIT!

[hybridfive]

I'm not sure that step 3 is necessary.

[UglyBastard]

It's the step where you make sure, that you don't teleport your crew into a room with 4 Mantis or onto an enemy that's about to jump away.

On a more serious note, get lvl2 Scanners as fast as you can afford it (usually after basic shield and engine upgrades + teleporter), so you know where you send your comrades in (or not). If you don't see where you are going, it's getting much more of a gamble and you might fail in a horrible way because one of the scenarios mentioned above might happen.
Also having bombs is always a good idea to disable med-bays and weaken/finish enemy crew.

[Kolkko]

I would upgrade teleporter to lvl3, because you have only 2 spots in it and you want to send at least 4 depending on what species they are.

Try to have at least 65 scrap before visiting stores. Recruit any crew you can find, engi and zoltan are poor fighters, human and slug are fine, mantis and rock are great.

You don't necessarily need to buy any weapons all game. If they have a medbay, you can just destroy their shields with your boarders and then hit the medbay with lasers.