Leading up to the final showdown, I lingered in each sector absolutely as long as possible (sometimes overstaying my welcome), and with a little luck I had a pretty awesome setup by the time I reached the final stand: double defensive drones, fully upgraded shields, teleporter, plus the artemis, burst laser II, ion blast, and hull laser I. With 2 Zoltans on my crew I was able to supply full power to nearly every system simultaneously.
When the time came to face my nemesis, the rebel flagship, which had crushed my hopes in the past, I felt as ready as ever. I immediately deployed both defensive drones, and teleported my 2 mantises onto the enemy ship to take out their weapons systems (missiles were priority number one). At the same time, I targeted their shields with my own weapons, starting each volley with the artemis missile and ion blast, then immediately following up with all of my lasers.
I made it through phases one and two without taking any hull damage at all! In phase three, I continued my strategy while redirecting most of the artemis missiles to their teleporter "superweapon". Sadly I could not maintain my perfect run, and I took 3 hit points of damage during phase three. But still, a pretty awesome run! This victory definitely makes up for the last three times those scoundrels managed to take me out. Here's a screenshot of my final setup, taken after phase two of the Last Stand: http://i.imgur.com/AxfJJ.jpg.
Oh and as an added bonus, I unlocked the Slug Cruiser on this run-through, so that gives me something to look forward to next time I play. Also, just thought I'd add that this game is awesome! This is my first roguelike game, and I'd never imagine such a simple game could have so much depth to it.
