No shops?

[Blacksails23]

Just beat the game on lol-easy with Kestrel C and ran into a first time issue. I literally went through sectors 6 through 8 (not bee lining the for exit) without seeing a single shop. I had so much scrap and extra weapons at the end it was ridiculous. Anyone else have this happen before?

[zaku_zelo]

What kind of sectors were they?

[Blacksails23]

Can't remember, one was rebel the other I forget. Makes sense that could have been a factor.

[DarkTwinge]

There's at least one guaranteed Store in every sector. Prioritize your beacon hopping based on looking at more beacons so you can see the majority of them in every sector.

Additionally, Civ, Engi, and Slug Sectors are best for stores (2 or 3). Rock, Zoltan, and Lanius are middling (exactly 2), and Pirate/Rebel/Nebula/Mantis have the fewest (1 or 2). The Last Stand has 1 store, though you often won't see it before it gets overtaken.

[ForKarl]

Originally posted by Twinge:

There's at least one guaranteed Store in every sector. Prioritize your beacon hopping based on looking at more beacons so you can see the majority of them in every sector.

Additionally, Civ, Engi, and Slug Sectors are best for stores (2 or 3). Rock, Zoltan, and Lanius are middling (exactly 2), and Pirate/Rebel/Nebula/Mantis have the fewest (1 or 2). The Last Stand has 1 store, though you often won't see it before it gets overtaken.

Pretty much this. Your beacon jumping should not be a straight beeline for the sector exit but instead aim to cover as much of the potential beacon spots as possible, maximizing your potential to find stores with valuable goodies in them. This is important in case you don't get lucky weapon drops like you did, especially with ships that don't have good starting weapon layouts (and honestly, Kestrel C has one of the worse ones).

[Blacksails23]

Just wanted to let you all know I thought it was the pirate markings on the Kestral C's exterior limiting shop access haha. Well that was my theory at the time.