The kind of Captain that you create is probably the most important aspect of your away them, even if your captain is never going to be part of it, because that is going to determine the sort of foes that your away teams are most likely going to face over the course of the game.

By this I mean that a Bounty Hunter or Pirate is naturally going to be facing mostly other humans in ship-to-ship combat, while an Explorer or ExoTrooper is more likely to be facing Xenos, and usually on the ground, which are best delt with differently.

Whether or not your captain intends to join the front line is another major consideration. If he/she does, then you're going to need some kind of combat Job in the secondary or tertiary position. If not, then don't bother with anything that offers pistols, sword or rifle skill since you won't be needing them.

There are pros and cons to bringing your captain along, so let's consider them:

Pro: The captain has potentially the best attributes of anyone on your ship, especially if you made a custom template that placed attributes as the top priority. Strength really only matters if you're taking a sword as a weapon, because for extra hitpoints you're better off putting your points into Fortitude, or better yet how about not getting hit at all and cranking up your Evasion and staying in the back line (4th position) as a Sniper?

Pro: The captain has potentially higher skill levels, depending on where you placed that on the template. These are skills that go above and beyond whatever your jobs give you, allowing you to eventually surpass even top level characters of the more normal variety.

Pro: At normal difficulty levels, the captain is immune to permadeath.

Con: Losing your captain in a boarding action can end the entire battle as a loss, even if the enemy ship was barely functional at the time.

Con: Unless you heavily invest your skill levels in those combat jobs, the other, more specialized crew will leave you behind in terms of ability. That detracts from your other skills, which you may need to be using more often. This is especially true of merchants, spies and smugglers.

Con: At high difficulty levels captain permadeath is a thing, so you risk losing the game entirely with every battle.

Even if you've (wisely) elected to keep your own precious butt away from enemy gunfire, this is still important. So here we go:

1) No matter what your playstyle is going to be, buy a gottverdammen A5 Weapons Locker[startraders.gamepedia.com] immediately. This should invariably be the first ship upgrade you get. Period. This will give all your crew access to level 5 armor and weapons. Yes, you can buy better individual pieces from special Contacts, but that's for later down the road. This will get you started and makes a good fallback for when you have to send some peon in to fill an empty space in an emergency.

2) If you've playing a dedicated ship combat class, such as Pirate, Bounty Hunter or Commander then it may be wise to invest in at least one contact who sells special equipment. These can be devices, weapons or armor, and these items - while expensive - can go beyond level 5. Naturally only your real fighters will need this stuff unless you just have oodles of cash to burn and don't know what to spend it on. This will give you an extra edge in the long run. If you don't start with those contacts, or you're playing a more peaceful route, don't fret too much as you can be introduced to them later if you're willing to toss money at the right people or have the right talents.

3) Do not mix and match on one character unless you're doing a combo swordsman/pistoleer officer. Under no cirmumstances should any one character, you or your officers, have both pistols and rifle skills. There is no point to this at all because you can only bring one or the other. Or swords and rifles. The only exception is, again, an officer whom has pistol and swords can bring both into battle at once. Everyone else just pick one thing and stick with it.

4) Don't forget your weapon options. By default, every Soldier will be given a light machinegun, which can only be used from positions 4 and 3. If you have the A5 locked there will also be the option for a heavy machinegun, which is basically the same only slower firing (lower initative) and has a decent enough higher damage output that you should definitely be using it (until you can buy something level 6 or higher, at least). Of course it may be handy to keep around a soldier or two armed with snubguns, which work from position 2 and 1. This is handy in case one of your swordsmen or pistoleers go down and you need to fill the gap in a hurry. Since you can't change weapons while in combat, having this done in advance is a good idea. And of course every team should have their #4 slot filled with someone with a sniper rifle, even if you can't find/afford a proper sniper just yet. They hit harder than even machine guns, and with an A5 locker you can often knock out most lower level foes in a single hit.

5) Don't forget to upgrade your armor, especially after you got that A5 installed. Yes, the heavier stuff causes an initative hit, but it's well worth it for the added protection. Light wounds can be healed by Combat Medics on the fly and Doctor talents between ship rounds. Because of this it's better to take two light wounds than risk one heavy wound that knocks you out of combat entirely.

6) Once you've got the right contacts and some money to spare, start upgrading your alpha team with level six gear from those contacts. It's expensive, often $15K+ per item, but it is absolutely worth it. Just as, if not more, important is finding someone who sells combat devices. Don't bother with Specialist Gear, it pales in comparison to the straight-up Military Gear.

The two items you want the most are the Crator Ammo (+20% armor piercing and +20% to ranged damage), which will turn your three gun wielders into murder machines. Coupled with a level 6 pistol, you'll be able to penetrate anything but the toughest of enemy armor even with just pistols. As for your sniper, your penetration will be high enough to blow holes through small planets. So you'll want three of those and then get a Fractal Edge (+20% damage, +10% critical) for your front line blade master, because why not?

When it comes to armor it is pretty much straightforward - the higher the level the better, so your final upgrade should be that. It is worth noting here that some armor says "requires stealth to use." This does not mean you need to activate stealth in combat. Rather it means that if the user has the stealth skill it will use that in place of evasion whilst that armor is equipped. Therefore you may want to get stealth armor for your sniper and bladesman because they will likely have higher stealth skills than evasion skills. Your pistoleers, of course, should just get the heaviest protection they can with regular armor. Again, it's worth the initiative loss (for now) because it's much easier to deal with a soldier taking two or three minor wounds that can be easily healed than taking one big one that kicks them out of the fight entirely (or kills them, depending on your difficulty setting). later down the road, however, once you get more experience you'll find that lighter armor without initiative penalties works better than the heavy stuff.

At this point, and this point only, when you have a high level away team that your are confident can handle any threat and have been completely upgraded with level 6+ equipment - that means both weapons and armor - you can go ahead and trade in your A5 Weapons Locker for a different piece of equipment. Congradulation, because if you've reached that point then you've basically won the ground combat game, friend.

Picking the right people for the team is essential, and whenever possible you want to put an Officer in that role rather than a regular crewmember. Officers get higher attributes which always helps in combat. They can also split themselves into three different jobs, which allows you to bring more useful talents and skills into battle.

Now on smaller ships this isn't always an option, as the Scout Cutter, for example, only allows for two officers besides yourself, and while your starting Doctor can cross train just fine, using your starting Quartermaster isn't so efficient. In the long run you'll want to either upgrade your ship to something with more officer room.

Ideally your entire away team should be officers, but since that's not likely to happen unless you're flying a Titan-class, let's break it down by priority.

1) Cross-train your starting Doctor officer as a Combat Medic and Pistoleer, in that order. In the end you'll want a build of at least 8 levels in Doctor and 8 in Combat Medic, and the rest in Pistoleer. The order you do that with is up to you, just keep in mind that if you slack on Pistoleer too much you'll become a priority target because the AI prefers hitting the easier, weaker targets first (and that will be this person). Best kept in position #3.

2) Use your contacts to aquire a Sniper or ExoScout or Bounty Hunter and cross train them as all three. Even if you're not planning on fighting a lot of xenos, there are ExoScout talents that will turn your sniper into an unholy terror. You'll only need 1 rank ExoScout to unlock those talents, too. Obviously stays in position #4.

Piling these three together will allow to create the Sniper from Hell, because it allows you to unlock all of Steadfast Aim (BH 1, normal shot that gives you +25% aim and +25% damage buffs) and Steady Mobility (ES 1, normal shot gives you +25% armor piercing, +25% dodge and another +25% to damage). Open up with one and follow with the other and your shots are now doing +50% to damage... and that's before you throw in any of other one-shot high damage talents you'll be using while the buff is active.

3) For the front line position #1 you can get some pretty devestating combos with an officer who has Pistoleer/Swordsman/Bodyguard. First, that's the best way to unlock pistols and blades together.[/s] Second, the number of tactical options go through the roof. Third, their damage output will be almost as high as your sniper. I've heard rumors of Swordsman/Assassin/Zealot but honestly, I've never found a real use for zealots as other job types do the same things and usually better.

4) If you've got lots of space, you can add a fourth officer combo in to position #2 with Pistoleer/Military Officer. You can rank up that MO rank to 15 if you want to unlock ship capture, but at 75% cost you'd probably better off just hiring a proper Pirate who only has to pay 50% the retail value for captures. Most of the MO talents are kind of lackluster unless you're playing a very law-abiding style of gameplay (unlikely), but it does help in combat a little and pairs up with Pistoleer just fine. You could even add a third job of your chosing,

5) If you don't have lots of space for that last officer, that's fine. Put a soldier in position #2 with a snubgun. Not pistoleer or swordsman, just a soldier with a snubgun. No point in doubling up and talent cards you already have elsewhere. Just have them focus on those short-range attacks and be happy with it. It works just fine if you stick with it, and later on you can trade them in or upgrade them to something more powerful (Solider is an all-around weak class that is far surpassed by other rifle using careers, however it is still acceptable as a 2nd or 3rd career choice for #2 position fighters provided that they have something with better talents mixed in with it).

6) Generally speaking as far as the #2 slot goes if you're not going to fill it yourself then you'll want a pistol or snubgun expert (a 2nd sword user is kind of redundant and slightly less effective from this spot). The choice you need to consider is this: Pistols will have more & better skill options, giving you more tactical flexibility. However snubguns do more overall damage and have better armor penetration, which will become an issue in the late-game eras as enemies start wearing heavier armor over time. Either choice is equally valid just so long as you understand these differences and plan your tactics accordingly.

Now the fun part. Picking the best talents by job type and why they're important.

1) Combat Medic is the most important class you'll be wanting to bring with you, and there are three main talents you'll want them to have. They are E-Suture (1), which gives light healing to the whole team. BioToxin Slugs (1) add a DoT effect to every one of your shots. LifeLine (8) provides a massive heal to one crew member.

If you've cross-trained as a Doctor (and you have) this will add even more points to all your healing effects as well as unlocking the option for Field Surgery (1) which is a good low-level heal for one person, though LifeLine makes it moot so either skip it or retrain it to something else once you have LifeLine. A top level officer with Combat Medic and Doctor crosstrained can pretty much heal almost any amount of damage as fast as it comes in. Just keep in mind that the AI will most likey make them their favorite target, so keep them safe.

2) Your Sniper/ExoScout combo has plenty to work with, too. Most sniper talents require stealth to use, which wastes an action to activate, so I honestly rarely even bother with that. A sniper's base damage output is already high enough as it is and frankly rarely needs that kind of elaborate effort to get kills in.

From the ExoScout tree we'll want to pull BioAgent Flechette (1) no matter what, as this adds DoT to all your shots for no extra cost, which is good for when you hit someone and they survive with only a few hitpoints left. No need to follow up, then, they'll fall dead at the end of the turn anyway. Also note that while BioAgent Flechette looks like BioToxin Slugs and does the exact same thing, they are not the same power and thus can stack together for double the effect. That's very handy for xenos with their high hitpoint pools, letting you work with your Combat Medic to double-tap them with poisonous death.

If you're not fighting xenos then most of the ExoScout tree will be of little intrest to you past that, except for Steady Mobility (1) which gives you free buffs (and really good ones at that) while taking a regular shot and does not have the annoying stealth requirement.

If you are fighting xenos then yes, things like Burrowing Shot and Plas-Charge Slugs can be useful. Either way, though, there is no reason to take ExoScout past level 11. Throw the rest of your skill levels and talents into whatever Sniper stuff you enjoy the most.

3) Your Pistoleer/Swordsman/Assassin in the front row will end up with so many versatile tools at their disposal the hardest part is chosing which horrible way you want to screw the enemy this round. Luckily they'll end up getting plenty of actions per turn due to having pistol-level initative combined with sword-level damage output.

From the Swordsman branch:
Bravery Line (1), a free buff that costs nothing
Sharp Counter (1) which gives you free counter attacks on anyone who attacks that person.
Devestating Charge which comes in handy for when an enemy pushes you back a slot as it turns that "debuff" into an advantage on your next move.
Blade and Hilt (11) lets you hit the first two opponents at the same time.

From the Assassin branch:
Smoke Bomb (1) debuffs the first two targets and grants stealth. Sometimes handy, as this unlocks...
Hitman Rush (1) a free buff that requires stealth.
Venemous Blade (1) adds a free DoT to your regular stabbing attacks.
Arterial Slash (8) is more powerful version of the above but requires stealth.
Dissection (11) basically ends the first two enemies but, again, requires stealth.

From the Pistoleer branch:
Raining Steel (1) is nice, and another free buff.
Fading Shot (1) can set up for a Devestating Charge if the enemy won't do it for you.

There are other useful pistol talents but I'm going to skip those because in the end you'll be doing far more blade attacks than pistol attacks, because Assassin buffs your sword skill and not your pistol skill. The real reason you're taking the pistol job is to keep padding your initiative, which pistoleers gain faster than swordsmen.

4) Your Military Officer, while the least useful, is still useful none-the-less. Damning Aim (5) is good for softening up heavily armored foes. Boarding Rush (11) is free buff. Steely Authority (8) is a good enough buff that it's actually worth spending an action on. While not directly combat related, Call for Surrender (5) as a between-battles ship action can seriously fark over enemy morale, making it that the next wave might all start completely broken and demoralized into helplessness.

Again, you're real focus is to put everything past level 11 into Pistoller to make your MO more worthwhile in direct combat, and so putting talents in there will help. Since you're not fighting from position #1, do not take Close-Range Barrage. Even Pinning Shot (1) is a better choice for newbie officers. Raining Steel (1) is natural, of course, because again, free buff. Tricky Gunplay (5) is sometimes useful. Both it's bleed and debuff are fairly weak, but it does do both at once, so there's that. What you really want is Rapid Fire (11) which hits both your front row targets and gives them a bleeding DoT as a bonus.

5) If you've decided to skip MO and just put a regular grunt Soldier there, we can work with that too. Roaring Barrels (1) is the default attack for your snubgun wielder in slot #2. Do not take Ferocity - it does more harm than good, yet still considers itself a buff for some reason. Likewise you won't get a chance to use Supressing Fire so skip it in favor of Covering Fire (5) to knock around your foes and make them lose actions trying to get back into place. Full-Auto is great but can't be used from postion #2, so sadly we'll have to skip it (or not, see below). Frontline Brave (8) is a good enough buff to be worth spending an action on.

6) An alternate configuration for those who don't like snubguns is to move their Combat Medic to positon #2 and their Soldier back to position #3, while giving them a heavy machine gun (from the A5 armory). This is perfectly valid, and allows you to actually use Full Auto (Suppressing Fire is completely inferior to this and should only be taken, if at all, as a filler until you can unlock Full Auto). Keep in mind, however, that doing so greatly increases the risk to your Combat Medic, as they'll become even more of a favorite target to your foes.

So my advice would be that, even if you'd rather use the heavy machine gun option, at least start with a snubgunner until your Combat Medic has leveled up enough to handle the extra risk of being in position #2 themselves, then swap weapon on the Solider and move them back to position #3.

Even though they won't be participating in direct combat, the rest of your crew still matters in ground comabt. Here is where I explain why.

1) Your crew skills directly effect the Danger Rating[startraders.gamepedia.com] of spying, patrolling, blockading and exploring. Especially of note is exploring, because bad draws there lead directly to ground combat. The best way to keep your away team alive and happy is to not get them into pointless battles in the first place.

2) Having Advanced Medical facilities[startraders.gamepedia.com] on board allows crew who fall in one battle to come back in the next one with a good portion of their hitpoints restored.

3) In ship combat, your Doctor can use their Treat Wounded (1) talent to heal your team between boarding actions.

4) Call for Surrender (MO, 11) can seriously demoralize enemy ship crews, especially when stacked with the regular free demoralize crew action.

5) Boarding Assault (Gunner, 1) can let you board from range 3, but limits post-battle options (see below)

6) Unauthorized Access (Spy 5) swipes free Intel from enemy ships post boarding. Far superior to the zealot's Rough Interrogation, as it doesn't cause any extra rep loss.

7) Blood Game (Bounty Huner 1) allows you to do a free boarding action from any range, but only for mission targets. Limited in usefulness, but it's there.

8) Your pilots and navigators will need to use both their skills and talents to close ship range for boarding actions, so don't forsake them.

A note on boarding actions: When doing a Boarding Assault from range 2 or 3 via talent, post boarding actions are limited to the talents of the away team itself. When you board manually from range 1, however, you can use all the available talents of the entire crew. This is by far the better option, so my advice is to only use the Boarding Assault talent to soften up an enemy ship (i.e. take out their four combat type crew in advance) as you close range to finish the job. If you want that free Intel via Unauthorized Access then be wary of accidentally ending fights too soon with smaller ships (with smaller crews) before you can grab it.

Do's:

1) Use as many officers as you can spare. Make sure your ship has enough cabins for the ship limit, even if that means tossing something else out. It's worth it, trust me.

2) Have at least one backup Soldier ready in case one of your Alpha Team gets KO'd in a fight. Two ideally, one with a snubgun and one with a machinegun, so that you've got all spaces covered. At least until you get confident that your away team can handle anything. Then fire them and free up the space for someone you can get more use out of.

3) Void Damage is a great way to soften up ships for boarding by knocking out their weapons and engines so they can't fight back or run away. Radiation Damage directly hits the crew itself, weakening them for boarding actions later. Use both in conjunction to optimize your results.

My favorite tactic is to just keep pounding a ship from max range (5) with an array of fast firing Torpdeo Dual-Lancer Arrays[startraders.gamepedia.com], four of them at 2RP each, until they're completely crippled, then kick in the defense buff talents (if they have any functional weapons left - they often don't) and close range on them for boarding. The other advantage of this is that if things go sour in this artillery duel I'm already at range 5 and can escape more easily.

4) Heal your team both in and out of combat whenever possible.

5) Buy that dang A5 Weapon Locker already, you cheapskate.

6) Buy Armored Officer Cabins and Armored Barracks next. In fact, these are the only types of ship armor buffs that don't inhibit ship operation in some other way, and don't take any extra slots.

7) Suck up to weapons, armor and device dealers. Most of them buy Intel, so either find some laying on the ground, sift it from orbit or just take it from enemy ships. You'll need at least one spy or explorer on board to do this, so expanding your contacts list helps no matter what your playstyle is.

8) Hire a second doctor as a regular crewmember. For the reasons stated below, your away team doctor will never hit max level as a doctor. This new person can, and it only takes a crew bunk to do it. And adding extra points to the ship's doctor pool is always a good thing.

Ditto for any non-combat starting skill you picked as a captain if you're planning on having them be part of your away team, as those non-combat skills will eventually hit a ceiling. By this I mean that, if you're a spy/pistoleer you will not be able to hit level 32 as a spy after you've maxed your pistoleer (which you will want to do as an away team member).

In short, an officer is a jack of three trades but can only be master of one, and if they're away team material then that one is going to be a combat skill. A crewmember, in comparison, will eventually master their one chosen skill. So your spies, smugglers, merchants, diplomats, explorers, etc, are still good to have on board even if you've got an officer or captain with those skills already.

So get enough pilots, navigators, engineers, mechanics and crew dogs to keep your ship flying and no more. There is no point to having any of their skills past the 200% rating on your ship screen. The rest of those spaces should go to your playstyle specialists, such as dedicated merchants, diplomats, smugglers and spies.

Don'ts:

1) Use any ship weapon that has neither void or radiation damage, because those will just blow up the whole ship enitrely, leaving you with nothing but debris to salvage and a bored away team.

2) Mix any officer jobs together that give both pistol and rifle. No solider/pistoleer, no sniper/swordsman or other silly mixes.

3) Put your combat medic in position #1.

4) Try to fight xenos without an ExoScout unless you're really high level or on a really low difficulty. Yes those talents are purely situational, but this is that situation and you will most likely be glad you have them when it happens.

5) Put a Doctor out there if they aren't a cross-trained officer. They'll just become the prime target and the only person they'll be healing is themselves.

6) Train secondary skills more than needed. Your sniper/exoscout doesn't need exoscout past the minimum to unlock their talents. If you want more exploration skill just hire an actual Explorer to buff up your ship pool further.

In fact, most cross trained officer non-combat roles are actually better served by just finding the actual crew types instead (quartermaster, merchant, dipmlomat) and letting them stay focused. I mention this because the maximum level for any character is 40. For a crewmember, that will get them to the max of 32 in that job. An officer gets 39 job ranks and has to split that amongst however many jobs they have, which means if they max any one job type they'll only have 7 ranks left over for their secondaries. So there is no real point to cross training other than the talent unlocks - you're not doing it for the raw job/skill levels (usually, though a combat medic certainly needs the higher evasion that pistoller gets with rank).

In the end you'll get more results from having two max level regular crew than one non-combat officer trained in two different non-combat jobs. So keep that in mind.

Rank 1: Your front line fighter goes here, and your best pick for this is a Pistol/Swords combination. The specifics are up to you, however I highly advise making one of those career slots straight Pistoleer and training it to 11 to unlock Rapid Fire. Being able to hit two targets at once for full damage is something that you really should not pass up for any reason. Or you can opt to take straight Swordsman to 11 and get Blade & Hilt, which does the exact same thing but with a sword. The new Bodyguard class makes an very strong contender for your 2nd or 3rd pick, as it combines both pistol and blade skills in more or less equal amounts. You'll want to make sure that you also have at least one skill that attacks & advances a position, which may seem odd since you're starting off in position #1 but it actually comes in very handy because many enemies will use push-back attacks and your front row fighter is going to be their favorite target for these. This turns that problem into a non-issue because all they've done is open themselves up to your charge attack talent.

Rank 2: This is where the most flexibility lays. If your a direct combat captain, this is a good spot for you. Pistols, snubguns and machineguns are all equally valid here; you just have to make sure that you've chosen the right skills for it. I mention that because a lot of rifle skills can only be used from positions 3 and 4, which means they'll be useless to you here. Grenades come in handy, as they can hit two rows at once. If you're taken the pistols path you want to get Rapid Fire (same as before) and some kind of advancing attack (same reasons as before). Tricky Gunplay can be useful for taking down high initiative opponents. Yes, it costs you x1.5 initiative but that's just you - if that 6 point knockdown lets two or three of your other crew get their shots in before that enemy then it's more than worth it. It should also be noted that there is a story mission that gives you a powerful, high-level snubgun using officer and another story mission that gives you a level 11 snubgun. So even if they aren't your thing right now, later down the road you might change your mind.

Rank 3: Pistoleer/Combat Medic/Doctor, period. End of discussion. They're just far away enough to avoid being the enemy's alpha target and still close enough to use BioFlechette shots every round. In order, you want to get Cleansing Purge, BioAgent Bomb, Flatline, Lifeline, BioToxin Rounds and then start thinking about your Pistol Skills. You won't be pulling much from the actual Doctor branch until you've gotten all your combat skills. The real reason you're taking Doctor is to maximize the effect of all of your healing powers. Later on find a contact to let you hire at lease one regular Doctor (or two) as a regular crewmember to focus on the actual Doctor talents.

Rank 4: Start with Sniper plus Xeno Hunter and then add Bounty Hunter or ExoScout, depending on your play style. Do not waste your time with the Solider tree, ever. Half it's talents only work at close range, the other half only work at long range, and none of them compare to the stuff you'll find in these dedicated rifle branches. Grenade Launch is a cheap Xeno Hunter skill that does acceptable damage to an enemy's front row - the real perk is a chance to stun them. Start off with a good sniper rifle and then take Steadfast Aim (BH) or Steady Mobility (ES) for your opening move during the mid-game levels. No matter how you build it, however, in the end you will want to get Plasma Burner (XH) and switch to a level 7+ heavy machinegun with L4 Crator Ammo. Yes, it will completely consume all your intitiative for the turn but it when you hit that button you're basically erasing anything that the enemy has in their first two positions, and I mean anything - I've seen full strength xenos get vaporized in one hit via this method. Until then, though, stick with a good high-level sniper rifle.

The few things that I forgot to mention so far:

Q: Do you go for the enemy with the highest health or the lowest health?

A: Neither - always focus fire on the opponent with the highest initiative, period. Why? Because that's the one who's going to be attacking you next. Skills that can knock down enemy initiative are vital, including stunning attacks, as is hitting speed buffed enemies with debuff attacks to take those precious initiative points away from them.


Q: Which is better, bleeding or poison?

A: Frankly neither is all that impressive, because while base damage increases with better skills & equipment, these DOT bonuses remain fixed in place. After a while your base damage output will become so high that these DOT effects become moot. However, they can be handy in one specific situation, and that is also the one time you can ignore the previous rule: When an enemy has enough DOT affects applied that you know they'll die at the end of the turn you might go ahead and skip them in the priority list in favor of a target with more health left. This is the one exception to that rule.

Q: What is the best way to board enemy ships?

A: You see those speed & agility stats in your ship description? Ignore those, because their effects are completely dwarfed by skills and ship equipment effects. If you want to banzai rush enemy ships it's all about Tactics, Electronics, Pilot and Navigation. What it boils down to is that Navigation helps you dodge at range 5-4, Pilot dodges at 3-1, and Tactics & Electronics help at all ranges. This, in turn, means that your Small Component section should have at least 2 x Level 4 Pilot Assist modules and 2 x Level Navigation Assist modules. From there you want to make sure you've got the crew skill pools to actually fill your new higher ceiling caps to at least 150% (200% on the dot is deal). Evasive Action is a cheap Pilot skill that every pilot should have, then throw in things like Twitch Surge and you're basically done with talents. The gunner Boarding Assault is kind of useless in the long run, because if you can close to range 3 then there's no reason why you can't just finish the job and close to range 1.

As far as weaponry goes, what you're looking for is maximum radiation damage, because that's what hurts enemy crews in ship combat. Dead enemies don't oppose your boarding actions and wounded ones become dead ones a lot easier. This means that your ideal weapons are going to be Plasma Cannons. From the small slot you can get the base model which has a pretty even split between regular and radiation damage. The nice thing about the smalls is that they only use 2RP each, so once you get to range 3 you can hold position and fire off four of them per turn until your target is down to minimum hull before boarding.

However, if you've got the room there are also medium slot plasma weapons that work even better. And if you're truly insane/dedicated (and can find a planet with a military rating of 9+ to install it) there is one that fits in the large slots which is the ultimate weapon for boarding attacks. Again, not the grav-cannon that everyone talks about - those just blow ships up entirely. You're looking for the plasma weapon with an ideal range of 3 (same as all plasma weapons). What makes this thing so great is that it's base hull damage is barely 80 per hit but it's radiation damage is almost 300. That, in turn, means that you'll be doing x3 as much damage to crews and components as you are to the target's hull. If you're one who like to take enemy ships rather than simply exploding them, this baby is hands down the best ship weapon in the game. Get two and you won't need anything else and you'll be free to completely pack your small slots row with more defense modules (Pilot & Nav Assist, all level 4).

Q: I've got this super-heavy armor...

A: Stop right there. See first tip - speed is the name of the game here. In the end, it's not who has the best armor or the biggest gun (but the gun helps) - it's who moves first. Initiative not only determines who gets the first shot off but also how many shots you get off per turn. This is why ground combat captains must have a Quickness of 30 above all else. Any away team members with a Quickness less than 20 need to get the boot. Use you Discerning Glance and associated skills to sift through the muck of the recruiting system as much as needed; do not settle for 2nd best. And armor that has initiative penalties just isn't worth it. The best protection is not getting hit in the first place, and the best way to make that happens is hit them first... and second... and third... before they can even get one shot off.

Armor is just your last line of defense when either a mistake was made or the RNG decided to royally screw you that day. That's why when shopping from contacts your first priority should be better weapons (L7), followed by military gear (L4) and better armors last.

Don't think "Robocop" - think "Aeon Flux."

Q: You contradict yourself in several places. First you talk about how to use soldiers, then you say they're useless. You talk about A5 weapons lockers and then say you don't need them. You talk about the advantage of heavy armor and then say to stick with light stuff.

A: Different strategies for different parts of the game, and the point here is starting off vs endgame. When you are starting off, A5 weapons locker, Soldiers and heavy armor are what you want. In your endgame, contact & story weapons L7+, classes other than Soldier, and light armors are what you want. At low levels you just won't have the contact rep to buy elite gear or specialist fighters, so L5 stuff and Soldiers will have to suffice until you can. Likewise, at low levels your crew is going to have low Evasion and get hit more often, so heavy armor keeps them safe. At high levels, however, once their Evasion is high enough and your Combat Medic is experienced enough, switching to the light stuff to save on Initiative is the path you'll want to take.

For me, success means that my enemies never even get one shot off...