Some of the best strategies depend on the particular ship.
I used to play trying to delay L2 shields until I could check a few stores. Now I tend to upgrade L2 very fast, even early in sector 1. It's only 50 scrap (plus power) that you're going to spend anyway and there are many encounters that will probably do hull damage if you have L1 shields, but are a joke if you have L2. E.g. basic laser + beam, two basic lasers, anything with a combat or beam drone, anything in an asteroid field. The investment pays off in your repair bill later. I think really early shields are a lower variance strategy if you feel good about your chances of winning with average pickups throughout the game. Waiting for a store is a big payoff if you can buy something great but you can also get wrecked if you get really unlucky facing exactly the wrong ship. Your run is only as good as the worst ship you run into.
(And, the Zoltan ship can get away with shields a little later.)
L2 doors is if you have a soft crew in low numbers, but those ships tend to come with doors upgraded anyway. They are nice to remove oxygen against enemy boarders while they beat down the door to the next room, then you repeat until they're dead. Combinations of losing doors and oxygen and fires and breaches can get really nasty though.
Yeah, L2 sensors aren't that good. You get the same effect just by putting an extra crew in the room now. They do give you a few blue dialog options for more scrap rewards but they're rare.
From my experience, to win safely and pretty consistently on normal with most ships, the Defense Drone is almost mandatory fairly early, to stop missile damage. Otherwise you'll just be spending too much on repairs to get a good build going, unless you luck out into an amazing DPS weapon system.
Oh and if you can get Long Range Scanners, buy that up immediately.
I think the bonus for beating ships intact with boarding is still there, but it maybe feels lower than pre-advanced edition.
I used to play trying to delay L2 shields until I could check a few stores. Now I tend to upgrade L2 very fast, even early in sector 1. It's only 50 scrap (plus power) that you're going to spend anyway and there are many encounters that will probably do hull damage if you have L1 shields, but are a joke if you have L2. E.g. basic laser + beam, two basic lasers, anything with a combat or beam drone, anything in an asteroid field. The investment pays off in your repair bill later. I think really early shields are a lower variance strategy if you feel good about your chances of winning with average pickups throughout the game. Waiting for a store is a big payoff if you can buy something great but you can also get wrecked if you get really unlucky facing exactly the wrong ship. Your run is only as good as the worst ship you run into.
(And, the Zoltan ship can get away with shields a little later.)
L2 doors is if you have a soft crew in low numbers, but those ships tend to come with doors upgraded anyway. They are nice to remove oxygen against enemy boarders while they beat down the door to the next room, then you repeat until they're dead. Combinations of losing doors and oxygen and fires and breaches can get really nasty though.
Yeah, L2 sensors aren't that good. You get the same effect just by putting an extra crew in the room now. They do give you a few blue dialog options for more scrap rewards but they're rare.
From my experience, to win safely and pretty consistently on normal with most ships, the Defense Drone is almost mandatory fairly early, to stop missile damage. Otherwise you'll just be spending too much on repairs to get a good build going, unless you luck out into an amazing DPS weapon system.
Oh and if you can get Long Range Scanners, buy that up immediately.
I think the bonus for beating ships intact with boarding is still there, but it maybe feels lower than pre-advanced edition.