After a while the game started to feel like Strange Adventures in Infinite Space humped by Desktop Dungeons. Sometimes, you get nothing. Sometimes you run into 3 slavers within the same sector, doubling your crew, then get a free scrap collector and a repair arm.

What kind of encounter you get is random. But to gauge the outcome of those encounters before you play them out depends on the player's knowledge of the game.

You just have a small crew consisting mainly of weak fighters like Engi? You better avoid those spiders. You have a larger crew or a small crew with a few Mantis or Rockmen? Those spiders are toast!

Small crew and no Rockmen? Better not go in to put out those fires.

What kind of weapon you get in the game is random too. But to put those weapons that you get to the best use again depends on the player's knowledge of the game. Of course it may still not be enough to beat the final boss but then you die in sector 8 and not in sector 5 and get a better score.

Definitely getting the hang of it.

Some tips in no particular order:

1) Get level 2 shields ASAP. It will reduce the amount of resources you have to spend fixing your ship. By the time you meet the final boss, you should at least have level 3. Also, make sure your power generation keeps up with your new system requirements for upgrades or you'll have squandered them.

2) Don't keep uncessary system powered up (med bay, oxygen past level 1) unless you need them.

3) When targeting enemy systems, targeting weapons or drones is usually the way to go (if it's an easy target, one of your weapons has missiles and you want to go for the kill with minimum ammo wastage, targetting the shields work well too). For the final boss, favor his missile bay, because his missiles will bypass your shield. Use your own missiles to do it (they'll bypass his shields and disable his missiles sooner rather than later).

4) During invasions against a superior force, move all your troops to med bay and adjacent areas and cut the oxygen off the rest of the ship (open the outer doors and all inner ones, except for the med bay and ajdacent rooms you want to keep oxygen in). They will come to you, take damage while coming to you and then fight with a huge disadvantage (your troops are healing during the battle, theirs aren't).

4) Don't be shy about using the jump drive to get out of sticky situations. In particular, if you hit a sun, bail ASAP.

5) Merchants are good to repair your ship, resupply drone parts or missiles (depending on which you use) and get fuel. Make sure all those things are covered before throwing money on fancy equipment (unless it's a long range scanner). Won't do you much good if you run out of fuel, run out of missiles/drones in a tough fight or enter a tough fight with 25% hull.

6) Try to maintain your fuel above 12. If you ever hit less than that, consider getting fuel at stations a priority unless your ship is falling apart.

7) During random events, try to avoid choices that puts your crew at risk (eg, "send a rescue"). Crewmen are invaluable to defend you against boarding, fix damaged rooms and optimize some systems.

8) If you ever find a merchant that sells the long range scanner, you've hit the jackpot. Get it and use it to avoid hazards (suns in particular).

9) Don't jump out of sectors ASAP. You should always be just a planet or two ahead of the rebel fleet in order to "maximize" the loot and get stronger before you hit the next sector (because the opponents in the next sector will be stronger).

10) If your ship is in lousy conditions, favor green sectors over purple or red ones. The sector you hit right before the final one should ideally be green.

I reached the mothership and got nailed in the second battle with it. I used the engi ship on normal and I got a couple decent upgrades. Playing a Kestrel on easy I barely got to the last system. I think that you can really get screwed on some playthroughs but the randomness forces you to learn different adaptations an become better, I get farther than before even if I end up with a crew catastrophe or weaker equipment. In the long term, who knows?

Well, there is skill involved for sure because first I had problems with getting to sector 5-6 and now I almost always win.

But I have different problem - it too repetitive and I can't unlock new ships to get some fresh experience. I have 3 ships now (basic, Engi and ship that is reward for finishing a game) and even tho I know what I have to do to unlock other ships, I can't because I'm not lucky enough to find those special events that reward you with ships.

I've found it's best not to upgrade systems to far until seeing what you can find in stores and as loot. Let your findings dictate your build rather than what ship or intent you had going in. There are only a couple things I dont think I would pass up ever (accept near then end when it's too late to add/change): weapons pre-igniter, stealth weapons + cloaking, and glaive beam.

The best strategy to unlock new ships I find it took at how they should be acquired (they give hints when you pass your mouse over interrogation marks) and pick the types of sectors that correspond while jumping.

Additionally to the ships you have, that got me the stealth ship (you go in Engi sectors and look around until you find the mission where they ask to you track a Manthis ship that stole some plans).

Sometimes, it does mean you have to make decisions that reduce the chances of winning the game you are in (ex: go to more dangerous systems rather than friendly ones).

The Kestrel works too.

You just need to upgrade shields and weapons aggressively and be careful that you don't overuse the missiles (you need to meet the final boss with at least 20 missiles in your reserve).

Yes, I know. I checked how to unlock them. I'm doing playthroughs that are dedicated to unlocking new ships, yet I have no luck to find those events. For example I fought with dozen slug ships in their homeworld and I let them surrender, but none of them had an experimental weapon on board.

You know, I'm wondering if in some case, you should refuse surrendering so that you don't look like a door mat they come back to the bargaining table with a desperate plea offer.

At some point, I hit a mission that looked like it was the Manthis ship , but then I let the guy surrender which didn't give me much (I trashed a fighter pretty bad and he jumped, but I could track the jump signature... when I got to where they jumped, they had transfered to a heavy bomber, but I let him surrender after smacking him around for a bit).

Maybe if I hadn't, he would have gotten desperate and just gave me the ship or something.

I just borke my record earlier today (1800 points), reach sector 6 I think?

No idea what this "flagship" is (yeah sure, it's the final boss right?).

I thought I was doing pretty well, got a bit of luck to get a higher count of scraps, had 6 crew members, updated shield (2 squares), teleporter, defense drone,... I got to an uber strong mantis fighter (cloack and the like), managed to get away, sped right on another one, lost two crew members I teleported, then soon after my ship was burning everywhere, no shield, no weapon, I quickly lost...

I don't see how this is not a lottery, I got to the point I got through sheer luck (and a couple skillful decisions), no more...

It looks like this game can be fun, but it's like 80% frustration.

I 100% Binding of Isaac btw, so I think I'm not too shabby concerning "playing on luck" rogue games.

Oh during my run I had the occasion to unlock the mantis pirate ship, I used the mantis dialogue but I still had to fight 'and destroy) him, no idea how to unlock that.

All in all I have the Kestrel, the engi ship and the "energy beings" ship (stupid layout this one :P).

I'll keep on trying but I'm dubitative for now.

And no I am not playing on easy... :D

One thing that made a difference for me was trying to fully explore each sector and responding to any distress calls, even if half are ambushes and prioritizing shield upgrades early on(saves on repairs and missile usage, letting you buy more upgrades). I've gotten crew members, weapons, and tons of scrap by exploring the early systems almost completely, just being mindful of the rebel horde on my tail. I kind of create a tenative flight path through the system to take advantage of nebulae as it buys you more time. Congrats on getting the zern ship, I'm stuck with the first two for now.

Yeah definitely useful to upgrade the shield. But that last run I was stuck with the original weapons, which killed me I think.

Yeah, I couldn't get an upgraded attack drone with the engineer, and once the missiles ran out with end boss, I couldn't damage the shields enough to do anything but die slowly. I think I got around 3k as my final score, I was blown away (after my ship was similarly blown away).

You can save and copy the profile.sav and continue.sav files from the saves folder to some other place before going against the boss. Should you need a rematch you just copy those files back.