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11 
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oB2XJ2NfEU
The video linked above is a good starting point.
I would also recommend the ship guides[ftl-ships-guide.netlify.app] by the same person for what to prioritize in the early game, and if you don't care about event spoilers their event safety guide[mikehopley.github.io]. I found that a lot of my problems learning the game came from constantly hemorrhaging crew because I didn't know which event choices were safe.
You want to destroy the ship's ability to hurt you before anything else. This almost always means you first shoot at the enemy weapons until whatever's still online can't deal damage. Rarely, you get a ship with offensive drones where Drone Control is the greater threat. If/once the ship cannot damage you and you are suppressing the weapon repair, you want to shoot out anything annoying (meaningful hack, Mind Control, Cloaking), then Piloting and/or Shields. If the ship is running away, shoot Piloting (and if they keep fixing it and you can spare the pressure shoot Engines too)
Just one caveat though: the ships guide is more intended for expert players who are doing stuff like win streaks on Hard.
That's not to say it isn't useful for other players. But at the very least, newer players will (1) encounter some extremely technical information and (2) have some of the self-discovery elements "spoiled".
In the beginners' guide, I deliberately stuck to generalities that would nudge players in the right direction and hopefully save a lot of frustration, without being too specific and giving away "all the answers".
I have two very, very simple tips. Well, three.
First, space bar is your friend. You've probably figured this one out already, but always stop and think if anything remotely unusual happens. Sometimes even if it doesn't. You may think you do this enough, but you probably don't. With a few thousand hours in the game, I know I don't.
Second, any time you lose, or even just have a really disastrous encounter, do a post-mortem. Stop playing for a moment. Go through everything that happened and what you did in response and contemplate whether you could have done something that would have gone better, or more importantly, would have had a HIGHER CHANCE of going better. I know it's fun to make fun of RNG whiners, but everything that happens in this game is either entirely in your control, entirely chance, or more often, you can't completely control the outcome, but you can vastly improve your odds or make them worse.
Roguelikes and even roguelites like this are largely dependent on RNG and unpredictability, and the RNG is your enemy, even if it sometimes delivers you a miracle for nothing you did that made any sense. Even a slot machine sometimes pays out. You don't want a slot machine, though. You want to take one damage in a horrible scenario where you were looking at death.
Third, don't get mad.
A lot of the top players who give advice don't even mention that, because they don't get mad. Or at least they don't let it disrupt their play, or at least not often. The one way to guarantee a death spiral is getting mad and making increasingly bad decisions in response to some utterly unfair "there was one chance in a thousand of THIS ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ HAPPENING and it JUST DID!"
Guess how I learned that? Hit the space bar to think, preferably BEFORE the worst case scenario happens, but if you miss that opportunity, definitely do it after it does and you feel a head of steam coming on.
Oh, fourth, in my list of two things. This game is really good at lulling you into a sense of complacency with a dozen in a row encounters that are absolutely no issue with the enemy ship having no chance of doing anything to you even if you were playing like Mister Magoo.
Then it throws something deranged at you where you have to deal with a half-dozen things simultaneously where you have to triage your response and sometimes decide you have to suck up hull damage here, or sacrifice a system, or even a crewmember, or the utter anathema of running away like a coward, to keep the run going.
Thank you!
This made me think though. Which of those 20 tips did I actually get wrong on my first run(s)? Which did I get correct?
[1] On my first run I immediately thought the second shield seemed like the best use of 50 scrap, but I didn't appreciate the value of a shields buffer until much later. I did realise that I should get the shield before the power.
[2] Using scrap wisely? I never overspent on stuff like sensors, crew, or augments; and I did prioritise weapons after the second shield. Though of course there would also have been substantial errors here, as it's a huge topic.
[3] I remember appreciating systems enough to load up on them fully for the Flagship, even in my first run. However, for several years I still didn't appreciate them properly: I built heavily into weapons and hacking only, in the first half of the game. I also took a long time to move away from an inflexible "give me hacking, cloaking, and MC" mindset, and was very reluctant to buy teleporter or drone control.
[4] Ship upgrades? Most of this is directly what I worked out from run #1, such as "stopping" engines at level 5, getting the fourth shield at the end.
[5] Obviously I learned from some mistakes, but I was also extremely stubborn and insisted on winning every fight. Then one run that completely changed. There are other examples where I was stubborn in sticking to a playstyle, or just generally wanting to "have everything my way" and trying to force the game to do what I wanted.
Mothership is good for new players. I think I needed over 300 runs until my first victory, so you're on a good path :)
Try to find a ship you really enjoy and play a couple of rounds and see what it struggles against and try to prepare. Knowing what's coming is a huge help to me. Don't beat yourself up over losses. There are ships that are supposed to be the challenge pick and thus more difficult.
Some weapons with a higher number are not worth it. "Number go up" and "new is always better" do not apply in the face of double Burst Laser II.
"If you have been boarded by Mantis before your captain upgraded the door subsystem, you may be entitled to damages. Call 555-engi now and talk to one of our qualified professionals."
Some weapons are better than others, and certainly the version numbers on weapons aren't an indication of quality (Burst Laser II is far better than Burst Laser III; Ion Blast I is more useful than Ion Blast II).
However, be wary of getting too picky about the weapons you buy/keep. You can never count on a store to offer a good weapon when you need one. It's almost always better to buy a mediocre but usable weapon now, than to hope that the next store is going to have a Burst Laser II there for you.
It is better to think in terms of what a weapon's advantages and flaws are. Burst Laser II is one of the best, maybe best, you can get because of its excellent efficiency in terms of shots and damage by power usage, and it has a moderate rate of fire.
Burst Laser III is an awful weapon because it has such a slow rate of fire. Enemies are always going to be firing first and that will get you killed. However, if you can mitigate that slow rate of fire, then Burst III does have better than average shots and damage to power efficiency. You can mitigate the slowness of your weapons with Cloaking, Hacking (on enemy Weapons), Weapon Pre-Igniter, Auto Reloader (probably not enough help for Burst III), Zoltan Shield. Burst III also has one other asset, in that it gives you those five shots/damage for one weapon slot- that is a consideration for ships with only 3 weapon slots.
Burst III is also awful because it is so costly and power-hungry, which could be prohibitive even if you could deal with the slow rate of fire. I am not advocating buying the Burst III whenever you see it. I am just using it as an example of the kind of thought process you can use to decide whether to buy or keep those mediocre to bad weapons.
Fair points.
I kind of forgot that we're talking about easy where weapon cost is not that much of an issue. So yeah, I agree about the short term "burst 1 with benefits" part.
If you wish, you can look into experienced players like Mike Hopley, Holoshideim, Crow Revell and others who've shared much of their knowledge. They've helped me out a lot.
Also, I have to add: This is the most civil Steam discussion forum I've seen and I love it. People here are open to learning, something you don't see that often.
Underrated advice. Sometimes you can forget that there's no actual time pressure for you to make decisions. You can take all the time you need to think things through in combat.
(It was scuffed in some areas, but let's not get into the gritty details; wins a win)
I can tell I still have a lot to learn and master, but this first victory has felt really nice and I'm excited to complete more and more runs in the future! Testing out new ships, weapons, seeing what advanced edition has to offer; I'm eager!
Thank you all again! You've all been very, very help and kind.
May I ask, does the FTL community - similar to Deep Rock Galactic's "Rock and Stone!" - have a phrase or mantra that indicates endearment or solidarity amongst players?
Giant alien spiders are no joke.