Can't manage The Osprey

[Treamayne]

I must be backwards, since the Osprey is one of the only ships I can consistently win with (the other being the Red tail, and I am getting better with Basilisk). Granted, I'm still fairly new to this since I only got it a month or two ago on a GOG sale, and I still haven't unlocked Rock or Crystal ships at all and I still play on easy. But, for me, with the OspreyI just make sure the Engines are at 4 by the end of the first sector, 5 by the end of the second, and arty beam level 2 in the second sector and everything else falls into place.

It'll likely be different when I start playing normal (wanted to unlock all ships before making the jump, but that's looking unlikely since I haven't seen the Rock home Sector in a week's worth of playing).

[itg]

The Osprey seems to be a love-it-or-hate-it ship. If you scan the tier list thread, you'll see a lot of people consider it an A-tier ship. The people who like it seem to like it because:
a) The artillery beam ensures you never NEED to find any weapons to win.
b) it starts with a good crew and an endgame-quality weapon in the burst II.

I'm in the camp that doesn't like this ship much, for these reasons:

a) The ship is a slow starter. The burst II is a great weapon, but JUST a burst II is actually pretty mediocre. The artillery beam is worthless until you upgrade it, since you'll practically never fire it before you already won the battle otherwise.
b) The artillery beam doesn't mix well with boarding. Not only will it kill your boarders on occasion if you aren't extremely careful, but you can't aim it at the medbay or weapons, which are generally the only things you care to hit when boarding.
c) It has the worst defense in the game, thanks to its inability to get cloaking and the fact that defense drones frequently flake out when using this ship.

Incidentally, I got my #1 high score with this ship, so I highly doubt I think it's weak because I've just had bad experiences.

[Levgre]

Osprey is my favorite ship. I find it to be the most consistent non-boarding ship. All the weapons you have are suitable for end game. Burst laser 2 alone is slow, sure, but slow battles lead to better shield + evasion leveling, and it will almost always disable early weapons system in one salvo. Artillery makes so you are basically always able to penetrate enemy defenses, and thus get are ensured scrap. Although fleeing weapons, can be an issue if you don't get a 2nd weapon.

Upgrading the artillery is low priority, it still serves it's purpose in drawn out battles at level 1. You are generally tight on scrap/power early on, you need to get a 2nd weapon, good evasion (and/or drone system + defense drone), and level 2 shields in a timely manner.

Here's my starting crew setup.

Engi - Pilot
Mantis - Engines
Rockmen - Shields
Human - Weapons

Ideally I'd have Engi at weapons since that requires a higher possible repair load, however the weapons station location is too vulnerable to boarders for the Engi. The human is more self-sufficient. Double repair speed at pilot is also very useful to keep you from 0% evasion, plus the mantis is a good fighting partner and the Engi can repair the engines for the Mantis if needed (mantis can take over pilot duty, if you don't have another crew member).

Rockman at shields at middle lets him go wherever he needs in a reasonable amount of time.

[Braydon]

Osprey's beam will eventually kill any ship so I'd suggest buying mainly shields, cloak, and engines, maybe a defense drone. As long as you can keep your ship from sustaining significant damage you will eventually win every fight.

[jitters88]

Here are some general tips. You can upgrade the beam without upgrading power supply by switching from powering the engine room to powering the beam. This takes a ton of pausing because every enemy salvo you have to switch quickly. But dont depower the beam entirely because it will dissipate charge. I generally like having the engi in the shields because you need him to run around and repair, and manning the shields is least important of the 4 stations. I like the rock on pilot because it is the most important position so you need someone solid to hold it. Dont upgrade the doors too early because the shield and door room are close so you can move the engi there quick enough.

Since the ship has inevitability due to the beam you can focus on defense but the best options are not already on the ship. Defense drone and cloaking are what you want but cost a ton of scrap. So early game missiles will terrorize you. But the ship has 4 diverse crew and good airlock layout with a starting weapon you can take to the end and has the best blue options out of other ships and has 4 weapon slots. That being said I would rate this ship high b or low a.