You a fan on facebook of Borderlands 2? They're constantly giving codes for golden keys to use with Borderlands.

The beginning ship is a bit lame, try and unlock some of the others or at least get the B layout. The thing I did wrong on first was not using my shields properly, I upgraded my shields but didn't power them to actually get the extra power.

Additionally if you get the defence drone 2 and use that, you'll be pretty much impossible to kill by most of the game.