Weakest ship you've won with.*ENDING SPOILERS*

[oә⅂]

I just completed a run with the Engi A that appeared to have a very slim chance at beating the mothership, especially coming in with just half of my hull points(only path for first teleport in final stand led to rebel controlled space and repairs were not accessible). I got my 3rd shield right before the boss, and upgraded engines to level 5 after phase 2. Here are the details of the build:

Weapons: Ion Blast and Ion Blast II. Can't do any damage with them in other words. Didn't find any other passable weapons that fit my energy plans.

Drones: Combat II and Defense II. Basically, what the ship is made for. The Combat Drone was my only source of damage. Also had an anti-personnel drone that I didn't have the chance to sell, didn't use it at all.

Crew: All system operators maxed. Also had two Mantis, a human and an Engi for extras, which gave me very good coverage for repairs and boarding. Had one Zoltan on the crew. Everyone survived.

Augments: Engi Medi-bot Dispersal, Shield Recharge Booster and Drone Recovery Arm. Couldn't have won without these probably. I would've lost some hull points or crew without the medi-bots, I would've lost the whole thing if I ran out of drones, and considering I won with just two hull points left, I'd say the shield recharger also came in handy.

I also had level one cloaking, which is pretty much a requirement unless your ship is otherwise extremely strong.

Picture at the beginning of phase 2:
http://imgur.com/wY6bIwZ

So there's my story - strong drones and ion blasters backed up by a versatile crew, decent augments and little else. Not an awful build but really not one I expected to win with on normal -- and indeed it pulled through just barely. However it was quite a fun run, certainly moreso than those I've had with Federation Cruisers with three Burst IIs, etc.

How about you guys? I'd be interested to hear what kinds of piece of junk ships you've managed to beat the game with.

[Gorgeous Freeman]

Red-Tail with 2 pike beams, a basic laser and a burst laser mk 2. 2 mantis boarding party for the weapons and i think i had weapon pre ignitor but i can't fully remember

[NK SemTex]

Zoltan C on Hard mode. Score: 4040. That is the lowest score i've gotten on hard mode and WON. I don't remember the setup, but the scrap count was around 1200-1250 when I beat the flagship.

I don't remember the set-ups of all the runs, so it's easier to use scrap count to indicate how bad or good the run was.

If I got:

2000+ scrap = exellent run.
1800-2000= good run
1600-1800= okey run
1400-1600= bad run
1400 and below= very bad run, don't know how I survived.

[slappy_d0]

Weakest is a relative term unless there is a point grading system. I recently took down mothership on hard with 2 shields. However the vulcan and ion-2 got me by. Is that stronger or weaker than a 4 shield ship with a cloak?

[Skinny Pete]

Originally posted by slappy_d0:

Weakest is a relative term unless there is a point grading system. I recently took down mothership on hard with 2 shields. However the vulcan and ion-2 got me by. Is that stronger or weaker than a 4 shield ship with a cloak?

About the best way to keep the enemy from hitting your ship is to blow his out of the sky. Ion II and Vulcan is a super combo for that.

[acorn stairlift]

Engi B.

[Gen_Shotgun]

engi a but i had it loaded with systems and a laser 3 as well as a laser 1 to bring down the shields. and 2 combat 1 drones to keep up the suppresion.
used a teleporter to take down the wepons. fully upgraded shields. hardly upgraded engine. and 4 crew members. 2 engi 1 matis 1 rockman. sadly the rock man got destroyed after fixing my life support systems and my matis was on board the second stage whene i blew it up.
R.I.P. Patrick and Jerry.
I also got a score of 3300 or so.

[Gen_Shotgun]

Originally posted by acorn stairlift:

Engi B.

wow i hated trying to get to becon 8, let alone even try beat the flag ship with that. you deserve a cake. i tip my hat to you sir.

[Skinny Pete]

Originally posted by NK SemTex:

2000+ scrap = exellent run.
1800-2000= good run
1600-1800= okey run
1400-1600= bad run
1400 and below= very bad run, don't know how I survived.

Sounds like a good rule of thumb. I just noticed this, because I ended this Hard run with Lanius B after getting 2200+ scrap, and the boss fight was a cakewalk. (Got a scrap arm in the first shop, then got a second scrap arm in an encounter later in Sector 1.)

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=363284128

Forgive the superfluous picture. Because of my odd setup, it took some work to get screenshots/game overlay to work and I'm just testing whether I can actually post them.

[Likjee]

Apparently Engi B is pretty bad, but I won with it.