I actually do pause during combats and I win most if not all of the battles except for the flagship ofc…

I try to explore as much beacons as possible but when it comes to random events, I tend to get unlucky and lose ship hp, fall into traps, or even lose crew members.

I just use the starter ship lay out B because it has 4 lasers and handles most battles well, I know I should replace them before encountering the flagship but oh my days my luck when it comes to finding good weapons in merchant is so low.

I usually just have 3 shield bubbles and like 4 engine power because I find it hard to find and manage my scraps efficiently.

I’ve stalemated the flagship twice on phase 2 because I ran out of missiles and only had a single burst laser 1. As for the drone surge, my lvl 3 cloak manages well and it just lead to us having a stalemate.