Wanted to add this is my first guide on Steam ever, I would really appreciate some upvotes if it was in the least bit helpful to anyone :) Also, keep in mind that it's much more fun to discover things on your own, and even though this doesn't have many, it does have SOME spoilers in it.
So, I have the game for nearly 2 days, finished it onceabunchoftimes and I wanted to share some basic stuff with the ones who are just starting, and maybe getting frustrated. Some of this was already said in various threads here but let's call this one a "compilation" of sorts.


What not to expect:
- If you're just starting play on EASY (can't emhasize this enough)
- Do not expct to win or even see the "boss" ship on your first playthrough
- Do not expect to beat the "boss" ship once you get to it for the first time. Chances are you will be vaporized in a matter of minutes (for tips there is a "boss' section below).

basic startup tips:

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Teleporter and Cloak are activated by the little white control buttons next to them. I actually played my whole first game with a cloak from sector 2, fully upgraded, never used it once cause I didn't know this.... -_-;
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Do not frantically restart your game because you feel it didn't go well enough at the start. there are some events that you can "figure out" for later and it will immensly benefit your later games.
- Do not save your intial ammo (rockets, drones) for later. You will get more later on, I promise. I finish my game having 30+ to spare.
- Prioritize repairs and fuel in the first shops you meet.
- As soon as you begin, before you even move 1 beacon forward, move your crew to their posts, and keep them there at all times unless you have to move them (more on crew in a separate section). Initial crew members should man engines and weapons. Shields are insanely easy to upgrade "by hand" later on.
- Watch your power consumpion, it's cool that you can afford that weapons/engine expansion, but they will be wasted without power. make sure you can also upgrade your generator to match.
- Try to save up the scraps through the first sector. There are some major upgrades that you will need (advanced tactics like boarding can disregard this) to beat the last boss on your first real try (more on that below).
- beam weapons, fire weapons, bombs and ion particle cannons are for experts. As a newbie stick to pulse lasers and most enemies will beg for mercy real soon.
- It's not always better to destroy an opponent. You will most likely get more scraps then what they "offer for their lives", but you will almost certainly loose that fuel/rockets/drone parts they put there (does not apply if you can kill the crew).
- Although you're obviously mr-goody-goody of the galaxy noone is judging. Just because you can save a station/ship from exploding doesn't mean you should, if you don't save them, some might join you as valuable crew members (if they're human you can just shoot them out the airlock ;)

- The more the merier. having more crew doesn't cost any resources AT ALL. So if you can have more by all means do it, especially if they're free. The guys who have no obvious jobs at the start will come in handy later for repairs/boarding parties or repelling parties (the ones who stop your ship from being overwhelmed by boarders).
- Diversify your crew if possible. Having all humans might be right by you, but it's damn xenophobic and most races won't care for you much in random encounters. Also humans are generally uninteresting ;)
Stations:
(all stations provide 2 levels of experience noted by green and gold bars on the crewmember's info screen; all races level just as fast anywhere - doesn't mean a zoltan will be a good fighter)
- Gunner
Provides you with increased reloading speed for all weapons based on his experience.
He gains that experience by firing weapons, they don't have to do damage (so you can use that ion gun to shoot a ship 200 times if they don't run and level him up to max).
- Engineer
Provides you with increased dodge chance based on his experience.
He gains that experience when your ship dodges a shot in combat.
- Shield ensign
Provides you with faster reloading speeds of shields.
He gains experience when a shield RELOADS from an inactive state (that can be triggered manually by disabling power to your shields and putting it back there in between the enemy ship's shots - if timed right you can level your "shielder" to gold in 1 encounter.)
Decided this required additional explanation:

As you can see in the above screenshot, leveled my shields to max in one of the first random encounters in sector 1. You can just wait for it, as the other ship only does 1 laser damage to me, but in order to do it faster you can time it - I was able to turn power off to my shields manually twice between each of his shots, giving me an effective 3 upgrades / shot on my shields.

Furthermore if presented with a perfect opportunity you can level the whole crew to the highest potential in one encounter. Just rotate them and go grab a coffee or disable the automatic background pause and read an ebook. As you can see the ship shoots at me for 1 damage, I shoot back for the same amount, both of us just remove the shielding we posess, thus end up doing no damage to eachother. In the meantime I dodge his shots (to prevent that I could remove my pilot), recharge my shields and shoot back, leveling my crew indefinately (or until bored).
- Pilot
Provides your ship with increased dodge chance, same as the engineer.
He levels up in the same way as the guy in the engine room does, the major difference between them being that without upgrades to the helm you can't really move the pilot, as your dodge chance gets lowered to 0%. You also cannot go to FTL without a pilot present.
- Repair crew
Engi come to mind here, but a human will do if needed. Rockmen will do ok if the damage is close to their post as they are slow, great at stomping out fires though. The repair man levels as he repairs things, enough said.
- Boarders/Defenders
Mantis, Humans, Rockmen. Avoid anything else here, unless you're being boarded and they are in that room anyway or your repair crew *cough* engi *cough* is idle.
They gain experience by duking it out with hostiles, be that on your ship or their ship it makes no matter. It worth noting you can allow the other boarders to destroy some non-essential components on your ship if that means they will come to your med-bay next. Once in medical your zoltan can take a mantis 1v1 (depends on medbay upgrades). If a crew member is low on health move him to med at once. You can (and SHOULD) do that in mid-combat without any penalty. best way to learn kiting is to board a ship with med-bay on it. They will show you what's what faster then i can explain it.

Quick and short on races:
- Humans
Boring, decent at every task, first ones to go out the airlock if a better crew member appears.
- Mantis
Exquisite fighters. Fast, strong, ruthless. Not good at anything else though. Only post them at stations if you have like 4 or 5 for some weird reason.
- Rockmen
Good for boarding in combination with fire weapons as they are immune (doesn't stop them from suffocating though). Solid at stations, especially critical ones like engines/weapons as they brush off damage from those spots being attacked and jump on fires. Bad roamers for obvious reasons.
- Zoltans
Good for critical systems as they provide power. Should be used at stations and not moved unless really necessary. Not recommended for pilots though, as that spot uses no energy. When you have a zoltan in a room it basically means that room uses 1 less power. Could be used as roaming batteries for some advanced tactics involving the transport and cloak but I have not tested that yet.
- Slugs
Make for perfect pilots (mainly cause they are valuable and pilot is the safest spot I know), but can be used at stations just as well. Recommend having 1 in the crew for the telepathy and racial interactions they provide. Any more is a waste.
- Engi
One of the most common (except for humans). You will have no problems getting these. Think human with awesome repair times and pretty bad combat abilities. Best suited to roam as repair crew. I put mine in the O2 tank so it gets fixed instantly when damaged.

It's 10 times more fun and 100 times more frustrating to figure this out on your own:
- Even on easy, especially if this is your first time you will be needing these for the boss fight:
- Shield at MAX
- Every single part of the ship at least at lvl 2 (no need to power them, this is just because when some part gets destroyed and goes red you take damage to your hull, best prevent that and have your repair crew run around and fix orange systems.)
- Cloak (level 1, any more is actually worse)
- Teleport (same as above)
- Hull Repair drone + the ability to use drones and about 10-15 drone parts (you will need this in between rounds)
- A full crew compliment (if you have like 3-4 crewmembers here don't even try....)
- experienced stationed crewmen, putting that new mantis you just got at the helm will just get you killed.
- Some way to deal 5 damage to the enemy ship (drones are ok, missiles/ions are not recommended as he will shoot them down in phase 3 way too fast). For beginners 2x Pulse laser II or a Pulse Laser III will be enough. Pair that pulse III with a ship assault drone II and you're golden.

Sector 8 in general:
- repair spots are worthless (on easy), by this time you should have everything anyway, you can visit one for some free missiles/drones/fuel but it should not be necessary. If it is you did something wrong.
- Try to meet the "boss" ship ASAP. Lingering here will just drain at your resources and hull integrity. You can figure out where he's going next from the map (the huge red line next to the extra-bigass ship, can't miss it).
- After each stage of the encounter remember to heal up to full with the repair drone, set up for the next round and jump to where he is going next. The time for sightseeing was earlier.

Strategy:

Phase I
He comes in fully armed here, but will not use drones or board your ship so it's pretty safe.
Just as soon as his cloak is gone your boarding party (of 2, for optimal results) should start boarding his secluded weapon ports. Start at the missiles (second from the right), then go whereever (I usually go for the triple-laser thingie next, and leave the red beam for last as it does nothing to me when left on its own).
While you are teleporting your crew watch for the missiles being shot from his ship. When he shoots, activate your 5 second cloak (your timing would have to be genuinely ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ to screw this up) and watch the missles harmlessly run through you.
Now you can begin to augment your attack with missiles, bombs, while the cloak reloads. I advise shooting weapons, especially if you got something that can kill the crew in that room, makes for a faster boarding or you can even destroy it completely.
After all weapons are disabled he will no longer do any damage to you in this round. take your away party back home, no sense sending them into 6-8 enemy crew members with a lvl 3 med-bay on their side.Even if you destroy it the AI will rotate and your boarders will take damage. What you need to do now is take out the damage dealing weapons you packed for this specific spot. Use missiles, lasers, drones... whatever you need to get past his shields and nuke his defenseless ♥♥♥. Trust me, this was NOT hard at all....

Phase II
Now this phase is by far the most challenging for me. I might be doing something wrong, hell if I know - I'm still a noob at this game. He will have lost the left-most weapon and will only have 3. You have to take down the supershield before you can teleport in, so cloak from those missiles and prepare for some initial fires/repairs before you can start responding.
Take the shield down with lasers, as missiles/bombs and ions will be laughed at and shot down by the insane lvl 10000000000000000 defense drone. If timed right you can slip 1 missile through by baiting the drone with an ion or bomb or another missile. Requires good timing and I do not recommend this at your first try - you will concentrate on doing this and when you look back 7 fires will be spread over your ship and half your crew would have suffocated.
After the shield is down you will need to board the weapons (start with missiles, duh..) like before. The difference here is that you will be constantly boarded by his drones as well. If your defense party is not strong enough to take the drone you might need to somehow kite it to the medbay. Also keep in mind the boarding drone punctures your hull so the isolated defese party will most likely suffocate. To prevent this, open doors to nearby compartments, as the air in them gets shared. This will give you a few more seconds to deal with the drone and the air leak. There are two things you can do here:
1. divert power to lasers (you need at least 2x II or III + II) and set them on autoattacking his drone control room, this will (given some luck) prevent constant harass from his drones and make the round WAY easier.
2. lacking the above you will need to divert power to the O2 and MedBay. While the increased oxygen helps with leaks, the medbay will allow you to quickly cycle fighters and repair crews in and out of the danger area. For this strategy I would recommend your roaming defender be mantis'.
When all his weapons are down it becomes the same as Phase I, with the small difference of the insane defence drone. I just use lasers here and it's all good.

Phase III
After II this almost feels like a breeze. he gains a special super-weapon here that periodically shoots some "OMFG!thatdamage" barrage at you, which you simply cloak through every second time, and heal through the rest of the times. You can pop a heal drone here if need be.
As before, board his missile bay, then the other thing (he only has 2 weapon ports + super weapon left now). After that your boarders become secondary firemen/repairmen. Once his weapons are down you just pop everything you got at him, aim at his shields and watch him
BURN

It's actually easier to win with the "brick" , the engi ship you get for the 5th sector achievement imho. Winning with the kestrel takes some getting used to the game, while the second ship provides engi crewmen, all-ship heal and drones right from the get-go.
Why the above recommendations:
Cloak: having it at lvl 3 gives you a slight advantage in drone phase true (but only if you do not shoot with lasers on auto at their drone control - shooting makes you decloak unless you have the augment for it, which in turn makes it harder if you have the lasers), while having the 5sec duration of cloak is more than enough to time for rocket bursts, which I find to be the most devastating attack the boss has. 3 rockets hitting vital systems and starting 3 large fires pretty much seals it for a newbie (it did for me , around 3 times overall). Now a 15 sec duration is cool, but it will make the next 2 rounds of missiles hit you, while the 5 sec one allows you to react to every second missile barrage. Overall take the lvl 3 if you can spare the scrap, but power it all the way up only for P2.
Teleporter: the level 1 is sufficient to teleport 2 mantis crew members into a weapons room, have them kill the guy there and destroy the rockets. It goes off coldown way before this is done, thus, together with the 2 points in cloak saves you 4 energy which you can spend on shields/engines to maximize your dodge and defensive capabilities.
You can have them on 3 if money allows, in fact you should have everything maxed out if you can afford it, just for the benefit of being harder to destroy by lucky missile shots, power constraints will make you power down the teleporter to 1 anyway.