AWKWARD ZOMBIE

Alternatively the Rock B starts with a crystal crewmember, so you can skip most of the Crystal cruiser unlock quest by just going straight to the rock homeworlds and finding the ancient device. It's what I did.

I believe you are thinking of the C. But supposedly you can do that. Also, trying to unlock Engi C on hard, daisies you Engi B and your falling to pieces every time I feel like I might make it.

Yeah I was, dunno why I said B.

Anyway, I just tried my first real normal difficulty run, and it was close. Managed to get the extremely coveted quadruple mark 2 burst laser setup, so I was wrecking hard. But I kept losing my crew for random stupid reasons, and I decided it would be worth it to get stuck in the rebel fleet for 5 turns to complete a quest. Got into the next sector with 4 hull points, nearly immediately fought an enemy with 2 missle launchers...

I also got the start to the crystal cruiser quest twice, not that it matters.

Am playing only on hard mode. Just unlocked the Engi C. Was rolling hard with the Engi B, hit auto-assault with fast charging missiles before the boss fight, couldn't fix up systems before hand. They hacked sensors, which wouldn't be a problem, except for a fire started in there and spread to the rest of the ship. Shame, really.

That's why you upgrade doors.

I did but they were damaged and my engines were as well. I fixed the engines first and it was too late by then.

Was playing around with the lanius cruiser type b. Got to sector 7 and then my invading crew got killed right when my clonebay took a hit, so both my lanius crewmembers died. Made me ragequit.

A study of 10 runs shows that I'm really unlucky and bad with the mantis ship.
No beacons with fights, multiple automatic drones in a row, enemies who are strong enough to kill both boarding mantis before the teleporter recharges, all in sector 1.

If you get the scrap, upgrade the teleporter to level 2. It will recharge on autoscouts before your crew suffocates, allowing you to win the fight in a convenient 30 minutes.

But won't they still be on the ship once it explodes?

Depends. On Mantis B you can't do much without sacrificing. On A you do all but one of the damage, hit the shields until they only have one bar left and can't be powered, then hit them with your basic laser.

Found something more OP than mass burst lasers, double Scrap Recovery. Was getting around 80 scrap per fight on normal, and with max shields, max artillery, three laser weapons and max cloak I still only managed to draw against the second phase mothership (both exploded at the same time, counting as a loss). It's definitely harder now.