I give up. Help me with Kestrel B aka Red Tail.

[r3born.bs]

I've beaten the game with all ships except this one, engi B (didnt try playing it yet) and crystals A-B (havent unlocked). It is funny, because i've seen it listed as high tier. I am not saying the listing is wrong, this ship is just not working for me. I do not understand either i get RNG'd or i am doing something wrong. I've achieved best results with getting double mantis and teleporter asap, these runs usually ended at final boss 2 stage ).

Sooo what is your strategy and priorities with this ship guys, i rarely ask for help at forums, but 50+ failed runs (at least it feels like 50+) is enough for me to ask for advice.

[5thHorseman]

The big thing with with Red Tail is that your starting guns are AMAZING for the first 3 sectors, but after that they are just no very powerful and the fact that they take up all 4 of your weapon slots makes them a bit hard to upgrade. Well, not hard to upgrade but hard to fit an upgraded weapon into.

Without knowing any specifics of your troubles, I can only give you a few general pointers. When you buy or find your first weapon upgrade, stop auto firing. Hold back on your basic lasers until the upgraded weapon is ready to fire, and then fire all at once. If that upgraded weapon is a heavy weapon, let the basics fire first to take down shields and then fire the heavy to damage the ship. As you get more upgraded weapons, you'll have to continually change the way you fire to account for it and it can be a pain. However, 3 basics and a single Burst Laser II can take out the final boss (though I wouldn't want to do THAT again).

If you can make it to the final boss but die in round 2, I wonder if you've got a cloak or defense drone, and if you pause the game a lot or not. Generally that round is the hardest but if you cloak correctly and/or have a defense drone to take out the boarding drones, AND pause whenever you feel overwhelmed, it is doable.

That's about as much as I can think of just for the red tail. Its big strength and weakness is those basic lasers. They're great... until they're not.

[HeadHunter]

My first win in FTL was with the Red Tail. You can do it, as long as you have the other systems installed. I had a level 2 teleporter, a level 2 cloak, and 4 points in drones - allowing me to use a Defense II or an Anti-Ship I (I never did find an Anti-Ship II on that run). But swapping out the guns at a certain point is highly recommended - Basic Lasers just won't do when you start encountering ships with level 4 shields. By Sector 8, my loadout was a Heavy Laser II, two Burst Laser I's and a Fire Bomb. I'd have preferred four Burst Laser I's, but you have to work with what you're offered.

With a cloak and a teleporter, you basically just need to hang on long enough to board each of the weapons turrets and take them out (easy if you have a couple of Mantis).

The Defense II drone was a major lifesaver in the second stage - and the cloak is perfect for those drone swarms. I'm a rookie (only been playing for about a week) and I did it the first time I tried the Red Tail. You can too!

[r3born.bs]

Thanks for the tips, yes i've learned to stop using auto fire with this ship very early. The main challenge for me is, ironically, the first two-three sectors because i want to have that 100+ scrap to not miss an upgrade and have to choose between not taking damage (wasting scrap for repairs and shields/engine), or having cash to get a good setup for the following sectors. It just feels like this ship needs everything at once, honestly.

Compared to A variant which has burst 2 and artemis, i dont really like these lasers at all. One awesome thing though is the medbay being so close to teleporter, so if i get a second mantis or even a rockman i know what i will buy next.

Stage 2 boss is very hard for me because i need to disable the drones immediately, and mantis drop cannot do that. Last time i had 2x defense mk1 drones vs rockets, 3 shield and comparable engine, ion bomb (to stop drones), mantises with teleporter 3 and lvl 2 medbay and i dont remember my other weapons. I really missed the cloak but there was just not enough cash in the end. Gotta try again i guess.

[zeek]

Do you generally use boarding to beat enemies or do you destroy their ships? Boarding has a lot of advantages. It gives you more scrap and once in a while a weapon, drone, augment, or crewman. I usually try to convert ships into a boarding machine as soon as possible. From then on it's all fairly straight forward IMO. One of the best weapons you can get to complement a boarding strategy is the small bomb. Use that to take out medbays and then start clearly out enemy crew. I'll use just about any crewman besides zoltan as boarders (yes even engi). I try to get 2 of them leveled up as soon as possible and then rotate in another crewman to level them up. I like to have 4 crewmen fully leveled for hand to hand combat and at least level 2 teleporter. Using boarding to finish off enemies is a great way to get all the scrap you need to buy everything else to stay alive and beat the flagship.

I generally don't worry much about the drone control on round 2 of the flagship. So, that might be where you're getting into trouble. If you have enough shield layers and engine dodge then you can tank the normal drones and just cloak through the overloads.

[Dontmindme]

Taking out the drone control in Phase 2 isn't that much of a priority, taking out the missile launchers is. Not specific to the Red Tail, but I find the biggest problem with Phase 2 is energy management. I find it best to maximize defense, with the minimum of energy spent elsewhere.
This means
1) A single Defense drone I (which I'll turn off when the boarding drones are exhausted and missile launchers down)
2) One dot in Cloak (it's enough)
3) I sometimes spare extra for teleport in order to get the weapons down quicker, but I want that down to one bar before the first swarm.
4) The rest of the power you aren't using for weapons goes to defense (well 1 O2, but you can even borrow that for awhile if your shields are getting low and during swarms)

I'm not that big a fan of attack drones (they seem to use too much energy and my defense suffers for it, especially in Phase 2).

[CFIT]

Those first couple of sectors, you're invincible, so take advantage of it. Autofire on, target the weapons first. With the weapons offline, hit the shields and the helm. Apply a third volley if necessary to finish them off. With two shields, hit the shields first (or make a judgment call based on weaponry you're facing)
You might take a few missiles, but not many. Your first priority is to build up a large cash reserve. If you can buy LR sensors, Auto-Reloader, Scrap Recovery or even a Pre-Igniter, do it. A Teleporter early on will increase the likelihood of events that give you a new crew member. Before heading into a distress beacon, boost your health bay to lvl2, for the same reason.
Finally, in the first two levels, your armament is sufficient to take on the elite cruisers, so don't be afraid to fly past the beacon, and make the last two hops through enemies.

When you get other weapons, fire in volleys, but fire in sequence so that the shots arrive on target in this order:
1) Missiles/Bombs
2) Ion weapons
3) Standard/Burst/Hull Lasers
4) Heavy Lasers (they are 1 pt against shields and 2 pts against ships)
5) beam weapons (or when the shields go down).

Capture ships is always the best way to go, but it is in art that you must learn.

The Phase 2 mothership is pretty much as said: The boarding drone is annoying, but the missiles are the bigger threat. That's why in Phase 1 you kill the dude operating the missiles. In Phase 2, teleport in at the start.

I find Ion bombs frustrating; I get the feeling that their miss rate is twice the to-miss percentage of other weapons. If you are using ion bombs, use them on shields. With one ion bomb and three simple lasers, you should be able to kill the mothership, eventually. Of course, you want more than that.

[MightyThor2000]

I don't get how this would be any different from your regular krestrel strategy except that you need a bit more luck finding weapons. If anything the red tail has better systems off the bat.