All You Ever Need

[PillowTalk]

So I've found pretty much the best solution to anything you can encounter that you actually can influence (random events that are a 50-50 chance of good/bad outcomes obviously can't be dealt with except by taking your chances).

Upgrades:
Engine Level 4
Shield Level 4
Weapon level 3
O2 level 2
Door Level 2
Full power.

Augments: Anything, really. I'd definitely recommend at least the Scrap Recovery Arm to make upgrading your ship quicker.

Weapons:
Ion Burst II
Burst Laser II x2 (alternatively, 1 Burst II and 1 Burst III sacrificing missiles)
<any missile launcher>

Crew:
1 Human - Pilot
3 Zoltan - Shield, Weapons, Engine
2 Mantis - Teleporters
1 Rock - Leave in Life Support
1 Engi - Keep in mid-ship to assist in repairs.

Tactics:

Ship Combat: Target weapons with Ion, target shields with lasers. Use missiles sparingly against targets with 4+ shields. Beam Mantis fighters into life support room, beaming back either when life support is dead, the ship is near dead, or your crew members are near dead.

When Boarded: Move crew so you can open all the doors and drain the oxygen, station your Mantis crew members on the opposite side of the door the enemy tries to get through. They will either die from no air, or at least be drained of health by the time they start fighting your crew members. Bonus if you put your crew in the medbay and/or have medbots.

Near a Star: Keep the O2 drained from rooms without systems so fires die instantly. It also messes with intruders.

In a Plasma Storm: Just make sure your shields, engines and O2 are good. At max power, these become less of an issue; but at the beginning can be quite terrible. Just avoid nebulae when possible, since this is the most devastating environmental effect.

In Asteroid Fields: If you have 2 shields, you're gravy. Otherwise, move crew members not manning stations into system rooms to assist with repairs quickly, especially the shields.

[magicwalker]

I think it is safe to say that you will not be able to achieve this kind of setup reliably. And really, you can beat the game with very little grief if you have a Ion Cannon Mk II + another weapon, a Defense drone, and good evade/shield levels for however deep you are in the game. Ion Cannon Mk II alone (manned with a good crewmember) can take down level four shields (if it doesn't miss)- the other weapon is just to keep it down easier. A Cloak level 1 and a Teleporter level 1 help a lot.

I don't know why you would suggest having a bunch of high power weapons, but then only have level 3 weapons.

[Raytiger3]

Or just 4 burst Mk. II lasers... + weapon-preigniter and preferably cloak + stealth weapons.

[BKT]

4x Mantis + 4 Pad tele

Battle strategy & tactics:

1 - Tele your insect into some room
2 - ????
3 - Win


Just finished a run with a telepad after haven't bother using it for quite some time, and gosh... It's so immensely powerful it's not even funny...

[jeditoby]

Just beat it my second time around, this time with the Nesasio. (First time with the Red-Tail). I'm a hoarder in games, so the first thing I look for is Scrap Recovery Arm. All those 10% of EVERYTHING adds up. Scrap=goods. The critical element is to knock out the flagship's missile-launchers (they're the weapons 3rd from the left, next to the beam weapon). It's ability to fire 3 awesome shield-penetrating missiles must be stopped. To that end, I gotta say I love Breach Bomb. Shuts down the system in one hit and in two, kills the guy fixing it. No complaints here. I backed it up with the Pegasus Missile, which is, of course, just awesome, but the second time, it was just the Breach Bomb. 40 seconds in and no missiles. Of course, I have level 4 shields; that's what gets you through the second stage (and stealth is great, too: Power Surge? You don't say!)

Once the Missiles are down, my shields easily handle its Burst Laser 2-like laser, and I don't think I've ever been hit by the beam more than once, and that was probably my mistake.

Take out the missiles, take out the shields, just keep taking out the shields with the breach bomb. Eventually, there's no one left on the ship and it goes on autopilot, which means no repairs. By the end, I had bombed every system on that ship and finished it off with the Burst Laser 1 I started with.

Missiles, then shields, then whatever you want.

[Dr_Zegobob]

I prefer Ion Blast Mk. II and at least one other Ion type weapon. When I have that load out, I can easily take down four-shielded ships with drones, one-shot lasers, or any other weapon that does hull damage. Even though I do agree with you on the level four shields and high-level engines, I don't use the teleporter as much.