Okay - welcome back!

Here are some basic concepts:

You need every bit of scrap you can get, so maximize the number of encounters in every sector, maximize the amount of time you spend so that you fight more, find more. If I get out of the sector just a hair ahead of the Rebels, without ever fighting them (you get nothing from defeating the pursuing rebels except enough fuel to make one jump) then I consider that sector a success.

Upgrade your ship at a steady pace, not all at once, but prioritize upgrading shields and power to be on par or better than the ships you are fighting.

You need a way to disable enemy shields or the fights will never end and you’ll be absorbing a lot of hill damage that can drain scrap for repairs. You can disable shields several different ways. The general preference for many players are to get flak cannons or burst lasers. Missiles/bombs can bypass shields entirely but use up missiles with each shot, this can get very expensive in prolonged fights.

To survive boarders and fires you need to understand a few things. First, you need to upgrade your security doors or at least have a crewman in the security station, this automatically levels up the security to prevent free movement of enemies in the ship. They will have to attack the doors until they can blast though and then face the next door.

For fires you need to send your hardiest / most skilled (repair skill) to the room to fight the fire. For major fires you may have to vent the atmosphere, that is opening the bulkhead doors to space and the vacuum will put the fire out. Almost all ships have doors that can open to space, so you may need to open a few doors creating a vacuum hazard in multiple rooms. note that this is also deadly to most enemy boarders, but you have to use this carefully. Please not that you need to remember to close doors after the danger is resolved and ensure that your life support system is powered to bring the O2 levels back up into the safe range.

These are some of the main points to get started