Did you know? List little tips and tricks here!

[KeronCyst]

Ship caught on fire in a Nebula? Don't know where? Don't want to vent your whole vessel? Activate a System Repair Drone. The green dot will tell you where the offending blaze is. If it's not in a critical room, you can then simply vent the area, de-activate him, and put that power into something useful.

Of course, that's assuming there's only one fire, but it's still certainly a useful trick to have!

[itg]

I think most players know the basic idea of power juggling--basically, you pause and move power from a system you don't need at the moment to one which you do need. I think very few players juggle power optimally, though. With skillful power juggling, you can, for example, effectively use every single system on a maxed-out ship, even though the power cap leaves you far short of being able to power everything at once.

I am going to try to put together a list of useful power juggling tricks, some obvious, some perhaps less obvious:

• For completeness, let me mention the most basic of power juggling tricks: don't leave your medbay on when there's no one in it.
• You don't need oxygen turned on all the time. You can usually keep it turned off for the entire battle, as long as you remember to turn it back on and refill the ship afterward.
• Your engines don't need to be powered until right before a shot hits your ship. I think missiles which make it inside the shield graphic are already determined to hit or miss, but you can boost you dodge right up to that point. The single most common use of power juggling for me is to dump power from other systems into the engines right before a shot lands, then pull it back afterward.
• Defense drones don't need to be powered until after a missile is fired. You do want to keep them powered just long enough after they shoot the missile to recover from shot lag (they'll turn green when they're ready to shoot again). Often, I will run a defense drone and an anti-ship drone on the same two power bars, thanks to this trick. Note that re-powering a drone does not require an extra drone part.
• For that matter, every kind of drone can be turned off temporarily without sacrificing much.
• Check out your enemy's weapons. You may be able to depower a layer or two of shields and still fully block their lasers.
• It may be worth re-routing power from shields to engines right after a missile is fired at you. After all, those shields aren't doing anything to stop the missile.
• If you used a bomb/missile weapon, but you're not planning to fire it again, turn it off!
• Fast-charging weapons, or weapons which have just fired, can be turned off temporarily in order to funnel more power to a system like the engines. An ion blast II is a good candidate for lending power very briefly, for example.
• Cloaking and the teleporter do not need power until you use them.
• As you cloak, you any power in the engines that puts you over 40% evasion is wasted, since the 60% evasion from cloaking brings you to 100%. With a level 2 engines man, 4 bars is all you need.
• When cloaked (after all active shots have been resolved), engines and shields are not necessary. If you borrow power from the shields, make sure to put it back a few seconds before the enemy fires again.

[Mister Sammy]

When you're playing the Engi A, and come across a Distress Beacon, upgrade your medbay before jumping in. You might just encounter the diseased colony, and by using the blue option to have your medbots cure the colonists, you can snag a weapon for a meager 35 scrap!

[Mister Sammy]

When you get the event that opens up a store and repairs your hull, returning to that store will continue to give you free repairs, like the stations in the Last Stand. This can be a risky way to get back on your feet if you're low on scrap.

[recumbentrider]

If you are playing the Vortex, you should hold on to the starting drones that come with the ship as long as you can. Besides being useful for repairing systems and defending against borders, these drones also give you some rewarding 'blue-options'. The repair drone can often be used to repair damaged ships in distress. The anti-personnel drone can defeat giant alien spiders. More information on these options can be found in these two links:
http://ftl.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Repair_Drone_Option
http://ftl.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Anti ... one_Option

[KeronCyst]

If you are playing the Vortex, you should hold on to the starting drones that come with the ship as long as you can. Besides being useful for repairing systems and defending against borders, these drones also give you some rewarding 'blue-options'. The repair drone can often be used to repair damaged ships in distress. The anti-personnel drone can defeat giant alien spiders. More information on these options can be found in these two links:
http://ftl.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Repair_Drone_Option
http://ftl.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Anti ... one_Option

Can they still be used for blue options even if they're stored in the cargo of the ship and not in active use?

[5thHorseman]

Can they still be used for blue options even if they're stored in the cargo of the ship and not in active use?

Yes. You don't even need to have the power or have your drone bay powered up enough. You may not even need a drone bay at all though I'm not sure.

I once had a 2-drone ship, with a defense drone in one slot and an offense drone in the other, and 2 power for the system total. I had a boarding drone (which needs 3 power) in storage and still got the blue option for spiders. Score!

[KeronCyst]

Hm, got it! By the way, those two power bars are all you'd need to put both drones to use by alternating them (only divert power to the defense drone when a missile is fired, and turn it off once the drone's light has turned green once more after firing to prepare its next counterattack—otherwise, disable the offense drone until right after or before your own weapons hit, to line up your shots).

[5thHorseman]

Hm, got it! By the way, those two power bars are all you'd need to put both drones to use by alternating them (only divert power to the defense drone when a missile is fired, and turn it off once the drone's light has turned green once more after firing to prepare its next counterattack—otherwise, disable the offense drone until right after or before your own weapons hit, to line up your shots).

Yup. That's why I only had the default 2 power upgrade to the system

[Twinge]

Can they still be used for blue options even if they're stored in the cargo of the ship and not in active use?

No, they can not. You can get blue options if you don't have enough power or if a weapon isn't turned on, but they have to be equipped on your loadout and not in your 4 cargo slots.