Best ship to beat normal difficulty with?

[Nihy]

I've unlocked the following:

Kestrel B
Federation Cruiser A and B
Mantis Cruiser A
Engi Cruiser A

On easy difficulty, I've had the most success with the Engi cruiser but perhaps that's because I've only recently unlocked the others.

[meiam]

Engi or Fed B would be your best bet

[Maya]

The Engi Cruiser A isn't a bad choice if you can manage the Rockets, wich you encouter often in Normal and with a littlebit luck you can gain an early Defense Drone.
Otherwise i had a good first run with the Mantis Cruiser A, but most of the bonus scrap you get from invades in the first few sectors will be paid in hull repairs, as long as you can't defend your ship against rockets (But you can Sell your Mantis-Augmentation wich doesn't grand a significant bonus, but 50 Bonus-Scrap^^).

[Yellow]

Engi Cruiser A is your best bet. The ionblast II, a beam weapon (pikebeam or the halberdbeam), a defense drone (possibly a drone recoveryarm if you can find it), a cloak and you won the game.

oh yeah i forgot you need a bomb weapon that can dmg systems. my favorite is the breachbomb II it wrecks everything but S. Bomb does the trick too

[Devious]

My first completion was with the Kestral A, as it was the only ship I had. Right away I got lucky and found a store with another Burst Laser MkII, so I sold my Artemis and off I went. The first few sectors were cake. Next I found a Breech Bomb MkII which I'm convinced is one of the best weapons out there, and to round out my arsenal was the rocket launcher that fired two projectiles, can't remember the name but it may have been Pegasus. As for augmentations, The Pre-igniter was very helpful in taking down problem systems without taking a hit. I would also suggest an auto-reloader if you can find it, I didn't have one but it was very useful in other games. and to round out probably the scrap recovery as it will help you upgrade. Now I used a lot of rockets during the last boss, I'm talking like probably close to 30, maybe more. This wasn't much of an issue for me since I had my twin MkII bursts. I didn't use stealth, bots, or the transporter just upgraded my shields weapons and engines mainly so I could dodge/block most attacks and use my weapons. Hope this helps and our luck holds.

[Peo01]

My first completion was with the Kestral A, as it was the only ship I had. Right away I got lucky and found a store with another Burst Laser MkII, so I sold my Artemis and off I went. The first few sectors were cake. Next I found a Breech Bomb MkII which I'm convinced is one of the best weapons out there, and to round out my arsenal was the rocket launcher that fired two projectiles, can't remember the name but it may have been Pegasus. As for augmentations, The Pre-igniter was very helpful in taking down problem systems without taking a hit. I would also suggest an auto-reloader if you can find it, I didn't have one but it was very useful in other games. and to round out probably the scrap recovery as it will help you upgrade. Now I used a lot of rockets during the last boss, I'm talking like probably close to 30, maybe more. This wasn't much of an issue for me since I had my twin MkII bursts. I didn't use stealth, bots, or the transporter just upgraded my shields weapons and engines mainly so I could dodge/block most attacks and use my weapons. Hope this helps and our luck holds.

Yeah, it's a Pegasus missile launcher, pretty cool since most of the times 1 of 2 missiles hit.

I defeated the flagship 3 times on normal everytime using the kestrel A.
I recommend this one to beat the game on normal, too.
Yet you shouldn't forget that different ships have different playstyles, one ship might be more suitable for you.
Same with weapons setup, etc.
You should just ask yourself: What do I want, and how do I want to do it?
Like I mostly use lasers and beams, plus missiles as support weapons.
I hate drones and use them as an additional weapon only.
I always "try to be a hero" and safe someone in distress.
Even though I know that without a certain module or crewman it's a 50/50 chance to mess up.

First setup:
2 Burst laser II
1 Halberd beam
1 Pegasus missile
crew teleporter
defense drone II
hull repair drone

I used the Pegasus and burst lasers to destroy their shields, changed from missile to halberd beam.
Meanwhile my away team killed the missile launcher weapons array.
The defense drone was active all the time, shooting down both missiles AND lasers.

I got hit pretty good, but due to the massive amount of drone parts (I had ~30 of each ressource) 'I could use the hull repair drone after the battle to repair the ship before hunting down the flagship again.

Second setup:
Ion cannon II
Burst laser II
Hull breach missile
Halberd beam
Teleporter
Cloak

I mainly activated cloak whenever missiles or super weapons were fired.
I wanted two Ion cannons but not finding one I had to rely on my burst laser.
The ship was upgraded to withstand or avoid most of the incoming damage, while boarding parties raided the enemy ship.
I took out all weapon stations in each phase rendering the flagship useless.
Due to the massive upgrades to shields and engines I didn#t fear the drones in phase II and whenever the super weapons was activated so was my cloak.

My weapons were kinda messed up in this one, without a second ion cannon I had to rely on the burst laser to hit...

Destroyed the ship without going below 70% hull, but it took some time, since all I could to was dealing 2-3 damages if all beams hit, the missile was out of question since it always missed...
I prefer the first setup, but I'm going to try out the stealth ship next.

[liq3]

Well, I just beat the game with The Torus (Engi A). Ion MK 2, Ion Mk1, small bomb (very useful), 2 beam drones and a def drone mk II. Other notable stuff was 40% evade, level 3 shields and level 1 stealth (really useful for dodging drones in second phase and lasers in 3rd).

Just standard stuff for beating the boss.

Before the boss, you really need a bomb (or missile) and another ion weapon. The mk 2 ion by itself can be pretty bad at keeping shields down, and it needs help. If you don't get shields down, the drones are useless. I wouldn't even bother with non-ion/bomb/missile (altho 2 ion + a beam could work... gonna hurt vs the boss though) unless you're planning to sell the Ion Mk 2. Ion Mk 2 by itself just isn't that useful.

Oh, I also found the level 3 sensors REALLY useful for managing the amount of ion on their weapons/shields. Each "level" of ion is 5 seconds.

[Nihy]

I just beat it on normal difficulty with a Kestrel B aka Red-Tail. It was super close! In the end both my ship and the flagship had 1 hull left and enemy boarding crew were swarming me. Most of my crew was dead. The anti-ship drone which I had never used before finished the flagship off!

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... d=97198765

The Kestrel B is definitely a strong option. The starting weapons make sector 1 and 2 a breeze and we all know how important a good start is.