Early on, things were going kinda slowly. I sustained a fair amount of damage, thus spending scrap for repairs. I did manage to buy a Burst Laser Mk II, opting for that instead of much needed repairs, and survived to upgrade weapons to use it. Same with the Heavy Ion purchase later. I rescued a couple Humans, but lost one repelling boarders - while Zoltans were running away to the Medbay, a Human was left alone, outnumbered, and, not being next to the door, didn't quite flee in time. I later found an Engi.
While I slowly upgraded Shields, Weapons and Engines, I bought repairs instead of a Teleporter, only really having one Human as a potential boarder. I did buy Drone Control in the early-mid game, but got a System Repair Drone, that later got sold off for a Defense Mark I. I finally got a Rock in sector 6, then another late in sector 7, but dang it, I hadn't found a store with a Teleporter. Didn't find a lot of weapons - an early Hermes Missile Launcher was sold for repairs. Did get a Fire Bomb late in sector 7, but only used it a couple times in sector 8. Cloak came late, sector 6 or 7.
I was fortunate to have a store right at the beginning of sector 8, and it had a Teleporter! /phew! My Rocks were only 1-stars in Combat, having fought some boarders and then going boarding a few times. I did retrieve them to heal and teleport back each time. But not having boarded much, I had maxed Weapons, but only had 21 Power (with 3 Zoltans), level 6 Shields (couldn't get that extra bar for padding), level 5 Engines, L3 Drone Control, and L2 everything else (well, the O2 came after the first round, because that's all I could afford).
Weapons were the Burst Laser Mk II, Halberd Beam, Heavy Ion, and Leto Missile Launcher, believe it or not. Augments were an Auto Reloader (which was a fortuitous accident, as I jumped between store and ship, and accidentally clicked - oh, crap, what did I just buy?! - oh, OK) and Zoltan Shield.
I had only minor damage going into the first round of the boss fight. I felt that since my Rocks weren't full masters of combat, they didn't take out the Burst Missile Launcher as fast, so I took a couple hits. I took care of business. Now that I think about it, it's possible my 2nd Rock didn't get to one star till the boss, as I boarded the Missile, Beam and Ion rooms. But I felt pretty good going into the 2nd round.
Things didn't go quite like I planned. I got my Defense Drone Mk I up to shoot down the boarding drones, but one got through to my Shield room, so I sent my plodding Rocks to go help, thus being late to board the boss. Then I jumped the gun a little early a couple drone surges in, and came out of cloak while they were still active, and suddenly I was at 50% hull. Well, I finished that round and healed up and repaired. Onto the final round!
I think I might have had a repair shop in range, but my blood was up, and I clicked on where the boss was going before making sure. "Captain, maybe we should go to - " "After them! We will finish them now!"
I hadn't really used the Leto missiles against the boss, not conserving ammo, just not needing that piddly bit of damage. But with the Zoltan Shield, it was all weapons on deck. Again my Cloak timing was a bit off, being a little too late early meant the Cloak was not ready a few power surges in, and I took multiple hits. D'OH! I looked up and saw one (1!
) hull left! Fortunately, the Heavy Ion hit, and I took out the boss in my last volley. /PHEW!4338 pts for the Great Zot, a Tough Little Ship.
