Mantis C

Rush shields, then look for weapons or hacking. Finding weapons is not urgent though, as the Stun Bomb lets you beat any enemy in the game — including the Flagship! If you’re still low on crew in the mid-game, buy some.

Hit early stores to fund your shield upgrades. Selling Lockdown Bomb and Mantis Pheromones gives you 47 scrap.

Although keeping both bombs does extend your tactical options, they mostly overlap in function. Either bomb is sufficient for boarding support. The Stun Bomb is more tactically useful, and also lets you break Zoltan shields.

Start the Mantis in the teleporter. Walk the Engi pilot to sensors during the FTL jump (force them to go the bottom route), and the Lanius from weapons to the teleporter (so the teleporter stays oxygenated). This gives you sensor information, and lets you board as fast as possible with either two or three crew.

Sometimes the safest option is the simplest: just kill the enemy crew as quickly as possible.

Boarding with all three crew often lets you disable clone/medbays without spending missiles. It can also be your most effective way to disable enemy weapons, using distraction tactics similar to Lanius B. Board shields and leave one crew in there, while the others break weapons. For more time breaking weapons, swap healthy crew into shields (always keeping one in the room).

This tactic fails when enemies have three crew and a two-tile shields room. In some fights it’s also risky to leave your ship unattended. It may be safer to leave your Engi at home for repairs.

Time lockdowns with your fastest crew one tile from the exit square. Regardless of Pheromones: Mantis just before the bomb is completely solid, Engi with a solid middle “cross”, Lanius with the sudden increase in solidity, and Rock before the bomb tray retracts.

With good timing, it’s possible to dodge all your crew out a room while stunning the enemy crew. Even just stunning your Lanius is effective: enemy crew will rapidly suffocate. Stunning them in an airless room can be more effective than attacking the medbay.

The Lanius cannot use the medical airlock, so try to limit damage to them or get them killed off just before the fight ends. When completely safe, destroy systems for surrender offers (as low as 1 hull).

Note that stuns can be chained when manning weapons with level 1 training, and so can lockdowns with fully-trained crew (but only just, so occasionally enemy crew will get through).

Defence drones cover this ship poorly: shields and weapons are vulnerable.

With a Lanius and clone bay, venting below 50% oxygen is reasonably safe. Consider doing this in the early game, to increase the chance that enemies target O2 instead of something that matters.

Sector 1 distress beacons are well worth visiting — maybe even better than a guaranteed fight, considering how useful extra crew are to this ship. You have a clone bay, plus blue options from the Engi (good) and teleporter (good for this ship).