Tips on using the Slug Cruiser Type A?

[Gethory]

So I had a pretty amazing playthrough where I unlocked the Slug cruiser, the Rock cruiser and the Zoltan Cruiser all in consecutive sectors. I've taken quite a liking to the slug cruiser but am terrible at using it, if anyone could give me any tips I'd be very appreciative.

[wanderthe5th]

That's a really awesome run. Congrats!

One thing that made a significant difference between my okay runs and my good runs with the slug cruiser was not buying sensors. If you station your slugs well and learn to listen for fire and hull breaches, you can get by fine without sensors and it will save you some scrap for things that player skill can't easily compensate for, like better guns. (While hull breaches will repair automatically with the slug cruiser augment, it's still good to pay attention to them for oxygen management.)

Also, this might not be a "tip" per se, but the anti-bio beam that the ship starts with has to pass over the crew members to do damage to them, not just pass through the room that the crew is in. (I didn't figure that out until I got to the boss with the slug cruiser. Whoops.) If you don't have sensors or a visual on enemy crew members, they will appear as red dots on either ship so long as you have a slug.

[Sli Fi]

I found that starting every battle in the first 1-2 sectors with both the Breach Bomb and the Dual Laser (deactivated Anti-Bio until they both hit) significantly helped. Late game strategy is the same as every other ship of course.

[jamotide]

Slug A is one of my favourite Layouts, the Biobeam is fun to play and the other 2 weapons complement it well. Use the dual laser to keep down their shields or take down their weapons or medbay, then just biobeam them down. The increased loot gives this ship a headstart from the first fight onward. Invest your scrap in shields and drone control/def drone 1 to become invulnerable. If theres any weapon that could harm you, just breach bomb it in the beginning. Later use it for the shields when the dual laser doesnt get rhough anymore.
You should be able to capture nearly every ship in the first few sectors.

[Local_Ork]

So far I've got my best high score (didn't beat the game tho ) with this baby.

IMHO it have one of best starting weapons (breach bombs are great, dual laser is excellent for 1 energy, You also start with lvl weapons, so You may take 1 damage and still charge beam). You also should get (S)CRAPLOAD of stuff early on.

You need to coordinate bomb and laser fire so Your beam can damage enemy crew. You need roughly 2 passings to kill enemies (1+ minor damage for Zoltan and 3 for Rocks I believe), Your breach bomb also deal damage (both directly and by breaching hull).
Bombs pass through shields but laser can deal with up to 2 bars (as well as Zoltan shield) so early I suggest hoaring missiles. I suggest targeting either medbay or armory with laser until You start encountering 2 shield. Medbay first IF it's present (tho You may want to make deathtrap by breaching it). Use rule of thumb when spending missiles.

As for upgrades, You start with some cool stuff already + You get more stuff (if You don't blow ships up), so I suggest upgrading basic systems early (like lvl3 doors or lvl2 air/medbay or weapon lvl4; even without energy they make systems harder to destroy and that's the point. Also You may want to "vent" Your ship (pause game, open all doors, close doors around Your slugs, one in armory, one in cockpit) to prevent fires and boardings (lock bastards down, wait till they suffocate), best doors, good medbay and air helps A LOT.). Then pump shield/drones and...