I thought this is the worst ship I have...

[UltraMantis]

The Zoltan type B is definitely one of my favorite ships of the ones I have. I enjoy having the starting weaponry that can get through level four shields and still do damage, and with another beam, it is very powerful. The Engi B is probably my absolute favorite of the ones I have, though.

I always dismissed Engie B as a joke ship. I cant see any advantage of using it over regular Engie.

That rusted donut is funner than other ships. If that's not a reason to play it, i don't know what is.

[mrguy888]

Zoltan ships are pretty strong. Avoiding the enemy's first volley is very strong. Add cloak and even pretty poor weapons will disable most enemies before they have a chance to hit you. Starting with 3 zoltans gives you a much better endgame too. The B type can have some rough starts due to the lack of shields but once you get 100 scrap you are golden.

[Johnny(TM)]

Hey guys, it's me again. I have successfully unlocked the Stealth and Slug ship, and did a few tries with all the ships I had. It was kinda funny that I managed to beat the game with Engi Type B, the game was really generous, except I had to go through on 2 sectors with 1 crewmember, even the stores had no offers for them.

What makes this funny that my Uber Federation Cruiser got smashed in boss phase 3. This is a really good ship, I always thought a lot where to spend my energy. I defineately use it to unlock the 3 last ships (Mantis, Rock, Crystal).

Now about Stealth: this actually looks weaker than Zoltan ships I criticized first. With no shield it's extremely fragile, and the weapons aren't really convincing either.

And we have the Slug ship. So far this is the weakest I own, but it might be because I have no idea where to put this. It has 3 weapons, I can use 2. Breach costs missiles, the lasers are good for taking out shields, and the Anti-Bio beam. It could be fun to duckhunt on the enemy crewmembers, but I can hardly rely my strategy on that, rather I should take out his systems instead. The beam is useless if the enemy has shields on, so it might be just a burden late game. Any experience with this ship?

[mrguy888]

This is a really good ship, I always thought a lot where to spend my energy.
The lack of cloaking ability of the Fed cruiser actually makes it sub par. Doubly so since even defence drones have trouble keeping missiles away. You can't rid yourself of the missile weakness but it is far from fatal.

Now about Stealth: this actually looks weaker than Zoltan ships I criticized first. With no shield it's extremely fragile, and the weapons aren't really convincing either.
It is weaker. Zoltan ships are very strong. Don't discount its weapons or the defence provided by cloak, though. It has one of the best starting set of weapons and combined with dodging the first volley you will find that you won't take nearly as much damage as you think you might. Drones hurt at the start but are not fatal.

And we have the Slug ship. So far this is the weakest I own, but it might be because I have no idea where to put this.
The anti bio beam lets you take out the crew and get bonus scrap at the very start of the game. You will be ahead of the game really quickly. It is fairly good and very fun to play.

[UltraMantis]

The Nesasio is a powerhouse in early sectors IF you master the Mini-Beam. The ships power does not keep up though and if you fail to secure decent weaponry, you may end up boned in the later sectors. But early on, it's a menace.

It's one of my favourite ships, and one that i proudly dragged shieldless to the last stand on three occasions. Stage 2 went about as well as you can imagine though.

[MoD1982]

I've tried the Torus and found it terrible for my style of play - I have no patience for drone warfare, or the extra costs that come with needing to purchase drone parts on top of my other upkeep requirements. Now the Kestrel B, that's a lot of fun. I do like a bit of pew-pew with my lasers I've tried the Osprey and while it was alright, it felt too over-powered; almost like I was cheating, it made things that easy.
I'm also a bit of a fan of the Stealth ship - for me, it adds a tactical edge until you get the shields. I'm tempted to play through a session without shields, just to see if I can do it or not. I blame VoV's youtube channel for giving me the idea.

Currently I'm experimenting with the Mantis A. Boarding thrills me now I know what I'm doing, the hard part I've found is staying alive long enough for the boarders to do their job and come home. More often than not the lack of starting weaponry leaves me missing two crew as a Rebel Rigger warps off without warning, as I'm usually unable to disable the engines before that happens.

[madattak9]

I've tried the Torus and found it terrible for my style of play - I have no patience for drone warfare, or the extra costs that come with needing to purchase drone parts on top of my other upkeep requirements. Now the Kestrel B, that's a lot of fun. I do like a bit of pew-pew with my lasers I've tried the Osprey and while it was alright, it felt too over-powered; almost like I was cheating, it made things that easy.
I'm also a bit of a fan of the Stealth ship - for me, it adds a tactical edge until you get the shields. I'm tempted to play through a session without shields, just to see if I can do it or not. I blame VoV's youtube channel for giving me the idea.

Currently I'm experimenting with the Mantis A. Boarding thrills me now I know what I'm doing, the hard part I've found is staying alive long enough for the boarders to do their job and come home. More often than not the lack of starting weaponry leaves me missing two crew as a Rebel Rigger warps off without warning, as I'm usually unable to disable the engines before that happens.

I love Kestrel B, nothing comes close to matching it except the Zoltan B

[Johnny(TM)]

Chapter 3, I unlocked Mantis A. I thought this would be a fun ship, but I'm still struggling with it. I'm kind of frustrated with these ship unlocks, I didn't unlocked Rock Cruiser yet though people say it's the easiest to unlock. Without that I won't even try to unlock Crystal Cruiser. I'm seriously lost my luck lately in this game, I almost got a Kestrel B late into game, when the enemy wiped out my 3 crewmembers with a rocket and his boarders survived. Also I only miss Mantis B and Stealth B from the unlocks, they might take a long while until I get them.

[UltraMantis]

It's less frustrating to let the unlocks come to you, because there is no guarantee that any particular game will have the unlock quest.

Mantis A has bitten me in the ass everytime i played it, and i played it very very greedy. Sooner or later i bit off more than i could chew.

Every ship is different. You must adapt to it. If FTL was a fighting game, the ships would be the characters, with special moves and vulnerabilities each. So much talk of weapons and augs or the RNG... Adapt to the ship instead. You get farther.

Except the Nisos, that one is too boring to enjoy.

[Shadow01]

call me crazy but my personal favorite is the Engi B, I don't know what makes it so good for me but all i know is that out of 120 times played I've won more victory with that ship than any other