Slug C

Rush shields, then look for a weapon. A weapons buffer is also good, but I think the shield upgrades are safer overall (explanation). Get the weapons buffer when you can, but not if it might prevent you buying a weapon.

Rushing shields gives you more opportunities for safe crew kills. Mind control can often get the job done by itself (with lasers to finish them off). Otherwise hack oxygen. You can de-power the Chain Laser to fire a single shot, and it will often keep its chain progress if you pause precisely enough.

Chain Laser is slow, but you can still get the first shot by hacking enemy weapons. Hack liberally to reduce damage and risk, especially while you only have 1 shield.

Early-game tactics are slightly different depending on enemy crew count. Against two crew, consider mind controlling the engines crew instead of the pilot when you fire the Chain Laser. But against three crew, usually mind control the weapons crew instead: this guarantees one point of system damage at 12.5 seconds.

Later, when enemies have more crew, someone will go fight the mind-controlled crew in weapons. But if you hacked weapons, they have to break down the doors first, so often you still get to damage weapons. If a human has to walk 1.6 or more tiles net distance to the doors, they won’t break them in time. “Net distance” means you subtract the distance that the mind-controlled crew move; that 1.6 minimum distance is actually 3 tiles minus 1 diagonal.

When completely safe and with a guaranteed crew-kill, damage the hull for surrender offers (as low as 1 hull). The safest way to do this is mind-controlling the pilot (on ships with level 1 piloting). Hacking often lets you farm crew skill early, by de-synchronising enemy weapons.

Defence drones cover this ship well, as all rooms are outside the blind spot.

Hacking and mind control reset their cooldowns when you jump.

Sector 1 distress beacons are probably worth visiting. You have a clone bay and a blue option from the Slug (weak).