This game has plenty of guides, but few of them just tell you what to do. After figuring things out for myself, I've decided to just spill the beans for all of you. This is how to make things easy on yourself.

This probably all sounds obvious and lame to people who already know this trick, but I like being obvious and lame.

At the start, check your drones' starting equipment. You'll randomly have one of these three modules:

• Lure
  
  • The worst by far. Just reset. All you can do is drop bait and hope it works out.
• Motion Sensor
  
  • Not too bad. Inconclusive readings will screw you over regularly. Look for Stealth ASAP and scrap this module after.
• Stealth
  
  • Ideal. Enemies can't see through your stealth, so you can scout any room you can access with little danger.

If you want, you can reset until you get Stealth. Otherwise, you'll have to make do.

Next we need to make our way to a shop. You'll want to loot as many ships as possible on the way. See the sections "Safe Clearing" and "Resource Management" for help. In the mean time, check your system to see if it has a shop. If not, that's fine. The neighboring systems might have one, and you can check without having to visit them. Just hover over the system and press 3.

Our goal is to obtain two modules: Teleport and Sensor. After upgrading Teleport, you can drop a sensor and then teleport it to any room on your map. Sensors have 100% accuracy and detect all enemy types, including Slimes. So Teleport+Sensor makes it easy to avoid danger. I recommend setting up some aliases for this. Here are mine:

• t=teleport 1 $r; scan; stealth
  
  • Teleports the drone to a room, then instantly scans and activates stealth. If you don't have scan, it's fine. This assumes that Drone 1 is your teleport drone. Example usage: t r3
• q=teleport sensor $r
  
  • Teleports a sensor to a specified room.
• w=teleport sensor r1; teleport 1 r1
  
  • Panic button. Gets your sensor and your teleport drone out of there and back to safety. Very important.

You can also teleport mines and traps to remotely destroy enemies. Just make sure not to accidentally detonate a trap right on top of all of your drones and completely end your run right then and there I'm so mad dude it dropped two traps for some reason I was in a hurry so I didn't notice man it's SO ASDKLMALFDFKLJS

Though you don't need it, it helps if you find Ship Surveyor.

After obtaining the Teleport+Sensor combo, you can now start working towards completing your mission objectives.

If it's not 100% safe, don't bother with it. It's really that simple, isn't it? Well, the principle is simple, but there are plenty of ways to go wrong.

• "Opening this door exposes my generator drone to danger, but I'm sure I can close it in time!"
  
• "Getting everyone back to the ship will be hard like this, but I'm sure nothing will ever make me need to quickly evacuate!"
  
• "Sounds like a pipe's going to burst, but how could I turn back now?"
  
• "That asteroid's going to hit soon, but I can make it in time!"

No. Get out. Learn to cut your losses fast. It's better to miss out on 3 scrap than it is to lose your entire run in 3 seconds. You should have a smash and grab mentality, since time usually isn't on your side. Every second saved is one that might give you more time to deal with an emergency later. Risky plays should ONLY be made when you have absolutely no other option.

If all you have is Motion Sensor, then just only go in green rooms. With Stealth, you can go anywhere as long as it doesn't expose your other drones to danger. One good method is to use the Dock command to dock at different airlocks. That way you can avoid having to open a door that an enemy could use to reach your generator drone. You'll often have no way to explore without exposing yourself to danger. In that case, just leave.

If the first room has a door that starts open, then the room that door leads to will also always be safe.

Things get more interesting once you get Teleport. Since you generally won't need doors to be opened, you can leave your other drones in the shuttle where it's safer for them. Just leave the generator off until you need it. You can also use the Swap command to change out your teleport drone's modules, so it can do just about anything you need. Teleport all over, scanning rooms and popping stealth for extra safety, then swap Stealth for Gather and let your teleport drone do the clean-up.

When you encounter enemies, you'll of course want to corral them into empty rooms. Or maybe you'll send them to rooms where you can vent them, or kill them with bombs or something. Check out the number of infestation types at the start of the mission. You can also view this by using the Status command. Of the different types of enemies, only two are particularly bad.

• Swarm
  
  • The flying bugs. They can be very troublesome because they can force open doors or go through vents. For this reason, never treat a room with a vent as safe unless you know there are no bugs on the map.
• Slime
  
  • Slow but relentless. Drastically reduces the time you have to explore, because it spreads through doors. Hard to get rid of. It spawns a slime node in a new room every few minutes, which then spreads and overwhelms the room. It spreads quickly towards any visible drones, but it is fooled by Stealth. If you have Sensor, make sure to have one where your generator drone is at all times. If you find the Turret module, put it on your generator drone. If you react as soon as the slime shows up in the generator room, you can nip it in the bud. If you have Trap, know that one detonation will destroy ALL of the slime in the room.

Assume you're dealing with both of these until proven otherwise. You do not want to be surprised by Slime.

When clearing, you have just a few big priorities:
1. Finding the fuel
2. Recovering disabled drones
3. Getting scrap

If you can accomplish priority 1 or 2, then it's a good haul. If you only accomplish 3, then it's a bad haul.

Remember this maxim:

Repair is bad, replace is good

Repairing modules will usually set you back by at least 10 scrap, whereas new modules can be purchased from shops for as low as 3 scrap, or maybe 0 if you find it lying around. Never repair a module unless it's essential (like Teleport) and you have no replacement waiting. Keep extra copies of the modules that you use. Note that in the modules menu, you can actually always spend scrap to make new Generator, Tow, and Gather modules. The cost is about the same as repairing, so it's fine to let these modules break.

Say that a drone's video feed is going out. You could repair it for 7 scrap. Or you could scrap the drone, spend 1 scrap to repair a salvaged drone up to 10 HP, and then use that one for a profit. The drone has less health, but you've freed up some scrap that you might need.

You should even replace your ship from time to time. If it starts breaking down, commandeer a new one. It might have only 1 module slot, or a low scrap capacity, but at least it's free. Of course, you'll want to aim for newer ships when doing this. Use the command Help Commandeer for more info.

The easiest way to commandeer is with Teleport, Sensor, and Trap. Just find where the enemies are and send explosives to them like it's Battleship. When commandeering, the game gives you the option to cancel, so don't be afraid to check if it's worth it.

When it comes to fuel, it's actually pretty easy. Since your fuel for jumping around in systems (P-fuel) gets recharged every time you hop to a new system, this means that finding just 1 or 2 J-fuel per system is all you really need. You can even buy and sell fuel at shops.

Alright that's it you win the whole game. Telesensor OP, please don't nerf. I wouldn't be able to beat the game otherwise.