What would you say would be a normal build for a ship that was "fit to last and destroy everything", for you? You may be overemphasising some areas at the expense of others. Common examples include overvaluing shields relative to engines (shields won't protect you against missiles, so you should be upgrading both at about equal rates), and spending your scrap on upgrades as soon as you have enough instead of keeping a bank of a couple of hundred (leaving you with no scrap to buy new components from stores you encounter).

You say you're always suddenly overwhelmed: do you use the pause function? I basically abuse it: every time something unexpected (or massive) happens, I pause the action and evaluate the situation. The enemy fired his missiles: do I use the cloak now? An enemy drone boarded my ship: which crew members do I send to fight it? Et cetera. Take your time to evaluate everything. Also, save your scraps: you don't need to upgrade shields (for example) until you can power them up too. You don't need to fix every hull damage the moment you get them. And finally, you don't need to send your crew members to battle each giant spider. You can say no to certain distress messages too.

Well, I tried many things : upgrading my shields only once and relying on my engine, buying weapons, not buying any and counting on my good fortune, saving scraps only to upgrade, answering to every request, and finally not sending anyone - ever ! The trouble is that with the random factor, I found it very hard to analyze my attempts efficiently... not to mention that - and I hate that ! - the game seems to take great pleasure in randomizing the exact opposite of my decisions : rely on drones ? Never find anything helpful ! Only use missiles ? Every encounter will only offer you to exchange them for fuel - never ask for drone parts you never use...

Sometimes, my ship seemed balanced enough, only to stumble on a ship that had two lasers, missiles, a couple of drones, and a boarding party ! Even using pause didn't help, because there was no room for any coherent action without leaving one system of the ship aside, which only leads to destruction. Or if I manage to escape, I'm left with so little parts to use that the next encounter will be the last one anyway.

Really solid, simple strategy framework (there's a few ships that are 'special'):

End of sector one: Upgrade shields to level two (four bars) and reactor by two (so shields are always powered).
End of sector two: Upgrade engines to level four (four bars) and reactor by two (so engines are always powered).
End of sector three; Upgrade engines to level five (five bars) and reactor by one (so engines are always powered).
By end of sector five: Shield up to level three (six bars).
By end of sector seven: Engines up to about 45-55% dodge. You should have crew that gives bonus to dodging by that point to help out.

You need weapons that can break two shields reliably by sector three. Three shields by sector five. Four shields by sector seven. Most starting ships weapons are good until the end of sector two and okayish during sector three. With above plan you should be able to start saving up for new weapons sector three and on (if you haven't found anything for free that works by that point, already!). Synchronise your volleys. Don't over use autofire, but wait until all your weapons are charged then fire them in one volley (or a staggered one - but that comes with experience) at least until you've overwhelmed the opposing ship defences and they aren't a danger any more. Use pause, target all weapons, then unpause.

Things to target on enemy ships by priority in early game:
1&2. Weapons / Helm - about equal. If you take out weapons they can't hurt you. If you take out helm they can't dodge or run away, and more of your damage output reaches them.
3. Shields. With shields down you get more of a chance to put hurt down. Plus enemy crew tends to focus on repairing these, so they won't repair things elsewhere.
4. Drones. Only if a danger, really. Otherwise those are nice to train your crew with. Caveat: You use missiles and opponent has defence drone - than this one comes a much higher priority.
5+ Everything else (situational).

Late game:
1&2. Helm / Shields. Later on ships defence and dodging becomes better. The quicker you knock that down the easier it gets. At this point (with above ballpoint plan) you should have better defence / dodging yourself so can 'ride out' the one or the other volley by opponent.
3. Weapons. If they can't hurt you it's good.
4&5. Drones / Engines. This may be higher priority if they try to run away or have drones that hinder you. As ships have more armour now it's likely that enemy crew will repair a destroyed helm before the ship goes down - so hitting the engines, too, before the helm is repaired means they are still sitting ducks, regardless.
6+ Everything else (situational.)

Own crew position priorities:
1. Helm (to dodge / charge FTL drive at all). Essential. Don't move this person unless you really have to.
2. Engines. Helps with dodge and how fast the ftl charges. This is, usually, where my Zoltans go. A Zoltan powered engine still charges even if affected by ion guns / bombs.
3. Weapons. Increases rate of fire.
4. Shields. To recharge shields faster. That's usually also my designated 'repair' person, as shields don't need to be manned as urgently as the three above. An engi is good here if you have one!

This framework should see you through most runs. Of course the game is random and you can't predict what will happen, but it is beatable on most runs, and the more you learn about mechanics and about what the random encounters do the more you can move away from this. It is not a guaranteed winning strategy - just a decent sensible one. You'll be building your ship like that most of the time.

General tips:
* Don't purchase things during the first two sectors, at all, and only if you have scrap left over - really left over.
* Don't 'over-repair'. As long as you keep your hull in the 20-25 range you are fine. There are random events that repair your ship - always being at full health means you lose out on these and essentially waste scrap. Also: Check how much a shop charges you for hull repairs. Some ask for 2 scrap per point, others for as much as 4 scrap. Only repair hull at the 4 scrap shops if you absolutely must.
* Don't upgrade your ship systems until you reach the end of a sector.
* Grind each sector. Take your time - don't rush to the exit. As long as you stay ahead of the rebel fleet you are fine. Plan ahead a little though, check that you are not running into a dead end (with AE the option that shows how each jump connects onward, when you hover over a system, is turned on by default; non AE games you can turn it on in the options).
* Manage your resources. If your ship requires missiles don't trade them away (unless you really have plenty). If it relies on drones don't trade those (unless you really have plenty). Keep at least four fuel at hand - don't trade below that unless you know already where the next shop is and are positive that you still will have enough to reach it after the trade. You don't have to accept each trade. Resource management is an important part of the game. As with repair costs, shops charge different amount for fuel, too.

Most importantly: Running away is a valid and decent option. You lose too much scrap if you have to constantly repair your ship, and that, too is part of the resource management. So if an enemy is too tough bail. It's ok. There's plenty more scrap to be found elsewhere. You'll notice how the battle goes fairly quickly (and as you gain experience will be able to handle more 'stressful' situations easier, too).

Pause. Press pause when in panic. Wait until panic subsides. Only then prioritise what to do next and give orders. Unpause.

Slight spoiler: The one system in shops that you should probably splash out on, especially when learning the game, is cloaking. You don't ever need to upgrade it after that - the first cloak level is long enough. It's a backup panic button to the pause button, of sorts: As long as you have at least 40% base dodge nothing (that hasn't already passed your shields [or isn't a beam]) will hit you nor can the opponents weapons charge while you are cloaked. If things look bad, cloak. This gives you a bit of breathing space to either recharge shields, charge weapons or work on some much needed repairs - or even to just buy some time charging your FTL drive and jump away. Note that firing weapons while cloaked reduces the time that you are cloaked so hold back fire. It's also a system that will be (guaranteed) useful at the very end of the game :).

Thanks for this long insight ^^ I'll try to follow your guidelines

Tell how it goes :) .

And remember that dieing is fun, really. I just had a run where I was done to two hull points [damn slug ship starting fires all over the place!], with the ship completely out of air, my two remaining people in the still working medical bay being just about kept alife. Killed the enemy ship, bought an ugrade to the medbay with my last cash (so that it healed faster than they were suffocating) and repaired the oxygen. Was then still out of cash and needed to go through most of a sector and jumping into the next one before finding a shop to repair at.

Continued the run then until sector seven before I made the mistake of letting run some invaders rampant a moment too long - but getting back from that situation earlier, alone, was worth it.

Great advice. Though I will typically do an engine upgrade or two before shields on the slower ships. I actually had a similar experience a few runs ago. Believe it was an automated ship in my case. I lost two crew earlier in the fight, oxygen was on fire so I vented it, door system taken out, later hit knocked out oxygen, engines damaged, shields knocked out, ran out of air, remaining 3 crew all less than 50% health, everyone to the medbay and finished off the ship with the undamaged weapon systems. I only lasted to the next sector, but I was still pleased.

If you're having difficulty against boarders, follow these steps:
1. Upgrade doors once
2. Have someone man the door system (gives you a free point in doors)
3. You now have blast doors, which are usually enough.
4. Once the enemy boards your ship, open the airlocks: this will suck all the air out. Once the enemy notices an O2 drop in the room, they will stop attacking whatever system they're working on, and try advancing to the next room. Once they're there, the loss of oxygen will follow them. Finally, they will either have to teleport back or suffocate. In most cases you don't even have to fight anyone at all.

I'm a programmer. We solve problems. We often beat our heads against the same problems over and over again with great frustration. That said, two of the very smart guys I work with play the game on easy. It's okay to play at whatever level is fun for you. I think it took 200 tries for me to finally beat the game on normal and about 150 of those attempts not getting anywhere was due to rage-quits because I forgot to turn off my weapons after boarding or jumped out of the system with my crew still on a wreck (they give you a popup for that now).

But now it's just fun. I know what it takes to beat this game. The odds are stacked against you. It's fun to try and find new ways to solve the problem. And with AE and a new hard drive (lost all saves) it took about a dozen tries on normal. It is in many ways harder and easier but it definitely gave those of us who might have ADD a break on the 'duh' stuff.

Maybe check out this guys twitch channel, he won 18 games in a row live, which indicates that this game can consistently be won despite the random factors.

http://www.gog.com/forum/ftl_advanced_edition/normal_win_streaks_conclude_tonight_on_stream_930_pst_currently_15_in_a_row


He has a very long tutorial video where you can learn how to improve:

http://www.twitch.tv/darktwinge/c/2609597

Solid advise overall.

I find level 3 cloacking quite useful in many scenarios as it gives you weapons plenty of time to charge your weapons and takeout his in one clean volley. It's especially vital if your final arsenal incorporates some slower firing 4 slot weapons.

Also, unless you use missiles, having 2 brutes (preferably rock or mantis) and a teleporter to take out the end bosses' missile launcher right after his first volley reduces the difficulty level of the final boss significantly and should be mentionned. I usually secure the teleport at sector 5 or later.

Concerning guns, I think keeping missiles as backup even if you don't plan to use them is important to mention. Often, you'll find a proper assortment of laser guns to takeout all shields by the endgame, but until your final "unstopable" laser gun combo is secured, having at least one missile weapon as a backup is a life saver if you get rotten luck and don't get the right laser weapons. You keep the missile weapon stashed in your inventory and only take it out when really needed while stockpiling missiles.

For sector exploration, I find it's useful to aggressively locate the stores by visiting the systems that have a lot of "unscanned" adjacent systems first, and in the event that I find a store, I circle it visiting the systems around it to sature some extra ressources and then hit the store to make a potential purchase.

By "unscanned" adjacent systems, I mean that when you visit a system, the presence of a store will be indicated in adjacent systems, so if you combine the system you visited as well as the neighbors of all the systems you visited, you will know the locations of all stores for a fact (minus maybe less than a handful of stars at the corners) in a lot of sectors by the time you leave them... if you navigate them with that information in mind that is.

And finally, automated-reloader augmentations and stealth weapon augmentations (if you use cloacking) should be favored most of the time as firing first really makes a difference, especially when missiles are involved. In some games, the right assortment of fast-firing weapons (and/or cloack) made-up for sub-part shielding/engines because the vast majority of opponents wouldn't get even one salvo out. This strategy is actually vital for the federation stealth ship as it starts with no shield. You should literally jump on those augmentations whenever you spot them at a store. The pre-loaded weapons one is also a keeper, but it's quite rare I find and can't really be depended on. I can find an automated reloader augment (often two) in practically all games though.

Okay, I tried, i did. But this is just not possible anymore... XD First run, first sector went fine. Ended it with enough scrap to purchase all I needed, and gained a nifty weapon (don't remember the name, the one that fires schrapnel-like rounds). I enter the second sector and after the second jump, I end up in a nebula. Double alarm ! I can't see anything inside my own ship, all systems are down and intruders are on board ! I'm stuck with only my three crew from the start and they die within a minute, as all systems were down, and I couldn't heal them.

Okay.

Second run. I didn't even finish the first sector ! I got stuck near a blasting sun, with a boarding party ! My weapons tore the enemy ship down, but my hull was heavilmy damaged, and the remaining boarding party finished the job...

Okay.

Third run got me actually a jump away from the last sector, but bad luck didn't allow me to upgrade my weapons correctly, and I got myself stuck with a powerful vessel that ripped me apart. I managed to escape, only two crew left alive, and I ended up in a fight that finished me off.

Okay, repeat a couple times.

I tried a last time, and after realising that either a) I'm really bad at this game or b) I don't have any luck at all, I have to admit that the good advice here didn't really help. Micro-managing the ressources relies way too heavily on luck. Sometimes, you have so many ressources you can't even spend it all, but end up in a fight so ridiculously out-matched that nothing you did matters, and the rest of the time, you get to the end of the first sector with barely enough to upgrade either shield OR reactor, but not both... and it goes downhill from there. And you know the most funny part ? It's all on easy !

So, well... thanks again, but this is the end =P

Sorry to hear that. On the off chance you give the game another try, I have some questions and feedback on your runs.

Firstly, the flak cannon is awesome for taking down shields. Secondly, when you say purchased all that you need, what did you buy? Remember, in the first sector you should hold off on being too spend heavy at the stores unless you are purchasing certain systems or augments, as a lot of your scrap should go into upgrading your ship. Thirdly, if no ship was attacking you, it's always a good idea to move the crew and some energy from other systems into the medbay (assuming you have one) and vent the rest of the ship into space to make the invaders come to you and get slaughtered.

Oh, the sun; those events can be a pain. That said, so long as you vent the rest of the ship into space (except for a path to the oxygen room so that repairs can be made by the crew without dying of oxygen deprivation), those fights get much easier; they can still be rough, though, especially if crew start teleporting in. In that happens, try disabling the enemy's weapons while keeping the enemy crew busy (sending people out to fight them to delay sabotage, send someone to the Doors subsystem room to make it harder for the invaders to leave vented rooms, etc.), then after the enemy ship is down, turtle up in the medbay.

When you say "upgrade my weapons correctly", what do you mean? Are you referring to the types of guns you had or the general capacity of the weapons system; if the former, what kinds of guns did you have on board? For that matter, what were the rest of your systems looking like? Remember that some guns work a lot better with some systems than others.

I followed the advices Mnemon gave, for instance "End of sector one: Upgrade shields to level two (four bars) and reactor by two (so shields are always powered). "And the problem with that particular event was that all systems were down, including the medbay. My crew weren't healed, so as the attackers were smart, they focused on two of them and killed them. There was nothing I could do to prevent it...

The trouble is that my ship had already taken some damage, that I intended to repair at the next shop - I had some scrap saved for that. My hull was under constant fire from a drone and laser guns, not to mention the boarding party who attacked the oxygen compartment. Fires declared, and I couldn't save my ship as I couldn't really micro-manage oxygen in rooms to prevent fire from spreading : there was no oxygen left, so no point in parking my crew in a remote room...

Both, and same here again, I followed Mnemon's piece of advice. I had a Beam gun (the one that slices the ennemy ship across) and the Missile launcher from start. I tried to rely on chance and save all my scrap for upgrades and repair, but that didn't serve me well.