I accidentally standard losing only 3 hp

[Himetic]

Massive spoilers, obviously.

Just beat the game this morning after ~20 attempts on easy, at least 5 of which I got pretty far. Managed to capture kazaak finally, then realized i forgot to upgrade medbay, and then got killed trying to get the stealth ship. On my last playthrough, I was going boarding all the way, didn't get many new crew, and then lost my mantis to an unfortunately placed missile right after teleporting home. So, y'know, not a great morning.

So my boarding crew is just a rock guy and a human at this point, and I sorta want to quit but I've still got the 4 lasers on my ship (kestral type B) and solid defense with a mk2 defense drone, so things are sort of OK. I try for red sectors but don't find the mantis homeworlds this playthrough. I keep picking up more rock, guys, though, so it seems to be ok. Pretty tough matches vs mantises but otherwise pretty solid.

Towards the end, though, I pick up some insane gear from some shops. 2 small bombs, a fire beam, and a mk3 burst laser. I kick it up to max shields, and go in against the flagship. I set up my defense and teleport to the missiles ASAP , knocking them out quickly with 2 rocks dudes, and bombing the ion and the beam. The ship is quickly hobbled and my shields easily handle the lasers, so I pull back my guys and think about how to handle the rest of the ship.

I bomb the medbay, spray with the lasers, and start some fires with the beam, then dump 2 rock guys inside. The puny humans try to fight, but they're quickly rotating and can't heal. I dump 2 more rock guys inside. I'm knocking them out quickly buy my rocks are taking some damage, so I'm forced to retreat, and just then the ship cloaks. Damn, now they can probably repair the medbay before I can get back on the ship. But I don't see their systems getting any stronger, and I realize it's because none of their guys can put out the fire before dying. So i heal up and jump back on board and pulverize what's left of the crew, letting them put out the fire in the oxygen bay so the last guy doesn't asphyxiate. I eventually trundle up to the shields and knock them out, then laser the place down.

total damage to me: 0.
total men lost: 0.

Round 2 I jump onto the missiles again and knock them out asap, cloaking to dodge. I've got free reign so I just start knocking out everything, although knocking out the droid bay doesn't seem to do much, annoyingly. Still, cloak works well against the surge and after the shields are down I can just blast away. For the first time, I get past stage 2.

total damage to me: 0.
total men lost: 0.

I'm stunned that I've made it this far, but I've avoided spoilers about the boss so I'm not sure what's next. The shield is annoying to bring down before I can pound on the missiles, plus I realize I accidentally left autofire on last round and used up all my bombs, and he manages to get a little damage on me for the first time. But once the shields are down, I bring down the missiles and then the shields. My defense drone is a real trooper and cloak prevents almost all of the ultimate damage. The zoltan shield keeps slowing me down but eventually I bring the ship down.

total damage to me: 3.
total men lost: 0.

I should also mention at this point that, for the entire playthrough, I kept seeing achievements "unlocked" which I already earned. After I win, though, I finally understand - I was accidentally playing it on standard instead of easy. Massive facepalm. Although it makes it all the sweeter that I managed to devastate the boss so easily.

my final loadout:
upgrades:
max shields
6 engines
2 oxygen
7 weapons
4 droid
max medbay
max teleport
max cloak (although I found only 1 power was best, often, so it's available more frequently to dodge the ultimates)

crew:
2 humans piloting/weapons (max at those skills)
1 zoltan at the engines, max engines
1 engi at the shields, max shields
4x rock dudes for boarding, all max fighting (I think, not totally positive that the last one got there but he was very close before the last fight)

equipment:
fire beam
burst laser mark 3
small bomb x2
defensive drone mk 2
defensive drone mk 1 (I sorta wanted get enough power to do both but ran out of time)
long-range sensors (really helped make sure I was always getting fights instead of dead zones I think)
drone recovery arm
shield charge booster

Anyway, a real insane playthrough, fire + 4x rock people is just crazy.

[Agg Shell]

not as insane as 2 burst laser 2's a heavy laser 2 and an ion bomb, with gold rock/mantis boarding

[Himetic]

not as insane as 2 burst laser 2's a heavy laser 2 and an ion bomb, with gold rock/mantis boarding

maybe better in a vacuum, but less synergistic for boarding. I feel like you'd most likely have a much harder time clearing the flagship of people like I did, though, since the lasers don't make boarding much easier. You'd be lucky to take out the med facility before boarding, let alone taking it out and setting half the ship on fire, with 4 rock men ready to board.

[Agg Shell]

not as insane as 2 burst laser 2's a heavy laser 2 and an ion bomb, with gold rock/mantis boarding

maybe better in a vacuum, but less synergistic for boarding. I feel like you'd most likely have a much harder time clearing the flagship of people like I did, though, since the lasers don't make boarding much easier. You'd be lucky to take out the med facility before boarding, let alone taking it out and setting half the ship on fire, with 4 rock men ready to board.

I had a fairly easy time clearing the flagship. tele into the door, and autofire ion bombs on the medbay. Took a while, but i still did it.