few of these tips are so basic i even realized but still GJ!

Man, thanks for all the comments giving more tips guys!

The most ironic part of this video is i was looking through guides while doing tip seven and found it. Funny how that works

Yes hacking is very good. A max upgrade hack can disable 4 shield bubbles. You can even depower it right as a defense drone is about to shoot it down to dodge. Allowing you to disable all shields on every ship in the game.

Could also use hacking to mess up the ai. Good on nearly any system. Taking out Oxygen is also a good way to kill the crew without boarding parties or something of that sort, just gotta be smart with weapon timing. Also a basic mindcontrol system to mindcontrol the mindcontrolled is helpful to counter the 3rd stage of the boss

more tips:
Get long ranged scanners if you can you can increase the number of fights you do which gives you more scrap. It also helps you with finding certain quests if you know what to look for. For example if you're in zolten homeworlds go for becons that don't have a ship presence detected. As one of these has the unarmed zolten transport quest, which can get you super shields. Definately worth the 30 scrap it costs.

If you're about to enter a nebula and you haven't already upgraded your piloting, upgrade your piloting. There's a certain nebula storm event that can get you a weapon or crewmember almost always if you have upgraded piloting. Also if a stray shot hits your piloting it won't be completely shut down. Very cheap 20 scrap upgrade.

Here are some of my own tips.
Upgrade to a 2nd shield bubble asap. You save a lot of scrap from repairs with the reduced damage taken.

Get a defense drone, defense drone is super useful it almost always shoots down enemy missiles eliminating the #1 cause of hull damage (again saving money). It also shoots down hacking and boarding drones which are super annoying.

I have a few things to say about a few of these tips.
1. It's better to upgrade your shields instead of engines. It cost the same amount of scrap and each extra shield gurentees an extra shot blocked, whereas with engines it's just +10% extra avoid.

2. completely agree on this

3. Yes, I always forget to upgrade doors and it's caused me a lot of headaches.

4. Buying a teleporter is a bit overrated. There are other investments to gain/save scrap, and the rebel flagship in hard mode doesn't have the same weakness.

5. completely agree, also get long langed scanners to maximise the number of fights and thus scrap you get.

6. I just don't see targetting the medbay being as useful as targetting enemy weapons or shields, unless your boarding, if you're boarding definately take out the medbay.

7. CHEEEEEEEEEEEESE!

cheers for this