Know how a run works

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The game has two major parts, exploration and combat. You travel instantly between jump beacons with your FTL drive, and every location holds a text-based event with a variety of choices and outcomes. You upgrade the ship with weaponry and equipment bought with collected scrap, and the crew improves with experience. Original official FAQ

Death is permanent: when you die, there is no coming back, and each play-through brings different enemies, events and results. Steam store page The developers described play sessions as relatively short, from 5 to 90 minutes. Original official FAQ

Your crew and equipment can open extra choices in events: the original FAQ says that many events have secret options that only special equipment can unlock Original official FAQ, and the Federation Cruiser achievement Diplomatic Immunity asks you to use your crew in "special blue event choices". Steam achievement list

Pause to give orders

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Combat runs in real time, but you can pause the game at any time to give orders to your crew. Original official FAQ Pause when a system takes damage, a crew member needs healing or a new threat appears, and check the whole ship before deciding what is most urgent.

Patch 1.03.0 added pausing with the middle mouse button and hotkeys for many actions, which can be customized in the Options menu. Patch notes 1.03.0, 19 December 2012

Choose weapon targets

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The developers' original FAQ names targeting the enemy's life support as part of the experience they wanted. Original official FAQ Patch 1.03.0 added Ctrl+click while aiming to choose a single weapon to auto-fire. Patch notes 1.03.0, 19 December 2012

Keep the crew alive

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Advanced Edition added the Clone Bay as an alternative to the Medbay. The developers' February 2014 preview, written before the expansion came out, said that crew on a ship without a Medbay cannot heal in the traditional way, but that the Clone Bay heals all crew slightly every jump and replaces a crew member who dies with a clone that loses some of their skills. Developer blog, 18 February 2014

Watch the oxygen in each room: patch 1.03.0 introduced hazard stripes on the floor to mark rooms with very low oxygen. Patch notes 1.03.0, 19 December 2012

Know when to run

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Check the situation rather than treating every encounter as a fight to the death. The developers' overview asks what you would do if a heavy missile barrage shuts down your shields, and its suggested answers are rerouting all power to the engines in an attempt to escape, powering up additional weapons, or taking the fight to the enemy with a boarding party. Developer overview Enemy ships can try to jump away too: patch 1.03.0 added an indicator for when the enemy is attempting to jump away, and whether it is able to. Patch notes 1.03.0, 19 December 2012

Common Questions covers difficulty levels and Advanced Edition, and Power and Shields covers distributing power, extra power sources and what can take down shields. The United Federation covers a crew achievement for the Kestrel Cruiser.