>>321565479
That's first sector for you at times.
That said, Kestrel and Red-Tail are pretty high tier ships and Torus isn't far behind.

>>321565806
I've gone back to the Kestrel for now, I think to be successful with Torus A you have to be some kind of luck wizard

You can and should run from fights you can't win without big losses. That said bad luck can fuck you over especially in the early game.

Run from fights with anti-combat drones.

Get a ton of ion weapons. There's nothing better then seeing your enemy scramble in panic trying to get their systems back online, while your drone is slowly killing them.

>>321565479
Nigga what? Torus is fucking incredible solely due to the Ion Blast 2. That and starting out with a drone system and an augment you can sell for 30 extra scrap doesn't hurt either.

>>321566245
Personally I prefer fire since crew kills net more rewards.
With time it works even against rocks.

>>321565479
One of the best things you can learn is to know when to jump.

Know when the fight isn't worth it and get out.

Also always plot out your run through the sector before going anywhere, a dead end can be lethal.

>>321566094
Ran into a merc ship with insect invaders one playthrough. Ship was lit on fire too. Simply did not have the health for all that shit going on.

>>321566718
Always upgrade doors, O2, Med Bay at least once, doors preferably lvl3 late game.

The cockpit is a good thing to upgrade once as well.

>jump
>ion storm or some shit knocks out my shield
>enemy ship is all beam weapons with a beam droid

think I died in 10 seconds

>>321566993
I don't usually spend money on O2 or medbay. You can put out fires and kill invaders by opening doors anyway.

>>321565479
I did shitload of runs I never got further than the end boss' first form though.

>>321567885
I only got the game yesterday and got the the Flagship's final form with the Torus A, but died because I had no fucking health left.

Also, does anyone else get a bug where the screen will randomly freeze, forcing a restart?


I had 2 ion cannons, a lazer, and the combat drone you start with.

>>321567841
Mostly it's for the extra hitpoint so that they don't go down when something sneezes on them.

Also it's good to grab them early for all the blue options you get, trust me.

>>321568206
Yeah getting one level of doors is great. But I usually spend all my scrap into weapon, shield and engine upgrades until the very end when I put any extra scrap into O2, piloting etc. just to make them harder to knock out.

>>321568386
The blue options more than make up for it and the earlier you get them the more chances of those options you get.

They're relatively cheap anyway, though in Normal/Hard you tend to starve for scrap.

>>321568089
Never got that bug, are you playing with Advanced Edition on or not? AE adds a lot more potential stallbreaker stuff to your arsenal, but makes the game a bit harder. So once you beat the Flagship a few times I'd turn it on.

ALWAYS try to get cloaking for the flagship, and only ever use LV1 cloak. Cloak just as the Missile barrage (Phase 1) Drone (Phase 2) and 'fuck you laser barrage' (P3) shoots and you can win the fight ez if you have enough firepower and level 3+ shields.

I've beaten both easy and medium on the kestral. I'm so damn close to beating hard.

Ground rules:
1) Make as many jumps as possible per sector to maximize scrap.
2) get your shields upgraded quick.
3) scrap recovery arm? Buy it
4) nebulas are good for more jumps, but keep in mind you may be placed in situations where your weapons, shield, oxygen, etc. may be powered down to the point where an easy kill will turn into a wipe of a run.

Essentials for boss fight:
-burst laser (the more BL2s the better)
-cloaking
-at least lvl 3 shields
-beam weapon of some kind
-if playing AE get a flak 1, flak 2 if you can afford it with a burst laser and laser weapon.
-drone control would be the other essential. It's very good early on for defending against missile weapons and good for the final boss who's missile launcher will severely fuck you up.

>>321570225
Mate, lvl2 shields is enough to carry you through till sector 5, afterwards 3 is good. 4 tends to be a waste.

Also boarding teleporter is the best thing you can possibly get, try to push for crew kills for more scrap and crew xp.

Also crew teleporter makes the final boss a breeze if you know what you're doing, in fact it trivialized the fight so much on hard mode they changed the layout to counter boarding strategies.