I've reached sector 8 a few times, though I have yet to destroy the final boss. Without a doubt the one factor that most affects my success right now is whether I get an enemy with a teleporter.
I invariably end up losing a crew member or two when I'm attacked, and I typically lose the fight as well once that's happened. I usually scramble my crew to the fight as fast as I can, but they only win when they outnumber the enemies and even then sometimes a friendly goes down (or if the enemy is in a 2-square room I can't even outnumber them).
Is there a tactic or technique that I'm missing here to make enemy away teams less horrible? Obviously a Mantis crew member helps when you can get one, but even that doesn't seem to give me much edge.
Best Answer
The combat effectiveness of your crew varies, and additionally they level up as they fight.
For instance, Engi and Zoltan crew members have lower health than Humans, Slugs, Mantis, or Rock crew members. Mantis crew also have a bonus to combat damage. Engi and Zoltan especially are worthless in a fight - be ready to move them quickly, and plan on any combat taking a while if you can't get the enemies into the medbay quickly.
I tend to assign at least one, but ideally two of my crew members to "security detail" - they're the ones that get pulled into rooms to fight if there are enemy boarders. They're also typically my away team if I have a teleporter. I will tend to pick Mantis first for this, then Rock, and finally Human. If I've got to double up and have my subsystem crew work security detail, I tend to leave the weapon officer and pilot alone - other crewmates will pull security detail before I'll move them.
Some other tips: