edit: holy smokes, brace yourselves for the wall of text.
i used to feel the same way about this game, so much so that i called it "a gambling simulator", but not anymore. actually, i don't think i can do a easy mode run and actually lose .. maybe with the stealth ship, but with every other ship it's pretty much a cakewalk.
i simply know how the game works .. where to hit the enemy. what to spend scap on. what weapons are better, and which combinations work best.
boarders are easy to deal with, just have someone run to the door control room, and then asphyxiate them. or fight them in the medbay. or both.
there is a thing called FTL Profile Editor, it's a cheat thing that gives you pretty much anything you want; you can use it to give yourself a little boost, maybe more money, a couple extra crew, an extra gun ..
then just reduce the amount of extra stuff you get when you are comfortable.
once you dominate the game, it's easier to notice what's happening, what game mechanics are doing what, and therefore learn faster.
don't panic. pause the game. think of what is likely to happen next and what is your best move.
also, i recommend trying Disable Fleet, a mod which ... ermm.. disables the enemy fleet.
you just get to go to every jump point, which results in much more scrap. it kinda makes the game trivial but you might want to try it to see what you can learn. i agree that the basic unmodded FTL is brutal, but easy mode is not beat because of luck, trust me, it's just so easy once you know how.
for example, you really should always have at least 65 scrap saved - if you find a Flak Cannon I. 80 is for a Burst Laser II, 120 for Weapon Preigniter.
Defense Drone II is OP, and totally worth buying 85 Drone Control + 70 Defense Drone II.
Unless you have a medbay (i recommend a clone bay instead), or 4+ crew, you MUST buy Doors II; this will help you with boarders, just lock them in a room and cut off the oxygen.
I dont use missiles, although i am partial to a Breach Bomb II, more for the final boss than anything.
Flak Cannon I, Burst Laser MkII, Burst Laser I, are in order the best weapons.. although what you really should be looking at is combinations of weapons. For example, Burst Mk2 and Flak I do not work well together.(although they are still OP and you can totally make it work)
Learning how do to volleys is fundamental. Very rarely does Autofire work.
If you do have a missile weapon, save the ammo, don't spam it.
Upgrade to Shields 2 (4 notches) as soon as you enter sector 2 (if possible, earlier, but save some money).
Do not jump into a shop if you do not have scrap to spend.
Mind control is awesome; zap the pilot and the dodge ability of the enemy ship will plummet, thus giving you more hits on target. Good for everything, really.
Hacking is a noobcannon, it seems awesome at first but actually kinda sux.
Teleport is ok if you have mantis, or lanius, or even crystal,but kinda crap with everyone else, including rockmen.
Upgrading to sensors 2 is cheap, gives you many blue options to chose, and allows you to see what the enemy is doing .. totally worth it.
Get your crew from defeating slavers, NEVER pay for crew unless they are zoltan.
Get your evade to 45, 5 notches of engine. Get to 3 ASAP, its only 15 scrap. Higher engine evade also means faster skill-up of both pilot and engineer, this even more evade.
You dont need to madly push to 8 weapons, it's expensive, fix the rest of the ship first. 6 is good.
2 shields will do until sector 5~6 .. get that dodge up instead and build a ship that hits hard.
Weapon Preigniter is by far the best augmentation you can get; Drone Recovery Arm can work really well if you can find 2 Combat I drones, even at the final boss. ideally, carry a Defense II before the boss to avoid much damage and save tons in repairs.
Without this, you will run out of drones quickly, so i dont really do a drone run unless i can get it.
Defense Scambler is also great for drone runs, AND it allows the Hacking to pass too.
the Autoloader is decent, ok to fill an empty slot.
Stealth Weapons is nice if you have a good deal of good guns and want to do a cloak build .. but once you have tons of good weapons, you dont really need a good build.
Scrap Recovery Arm makes the game easier by just giving you extra scrap, AND you can sell it once you are near the endgame, to save a slot.
Besides these, the only good augmentation is the Zoltan Shield, second best aug in the game after the Preigniter. You can get it on ANY ship by visiting Zoltan sectors and finding the Zoltan Peace Envoy quest - you need a bit of luck though.
Everything else can be sold, most straight away.
Beam Weapons .. aren't that terrible, but they need *something else* to work with, and on their own they suck, so sell them.
Slow weapons are bad, like, the Flak Cannon II; but, in a pinch, a Hull Laser I or Hull Laser II can help until you find something better.
It's really easy to beat the boss on easy mode with just four Burst Laser I (not the OP BLII); with 10 seconds recharge, minus 20% from gold skill weapons crew, and having all the same recharge time, just aim at shields, press autofire, and go afk.
Slugs make the best pilots. Zoltan for everything else. If you have other races, put them in Doors, then Sensors, then Weapons (to help repair), then Oxygen. Oxygen 2 can be useful but it's not vital.
People say great things about Ion weapons, i find them either UP or too slow ..
Bombs are far better than missiles in every way, although there's only a couple to chose from; heal and stun bombs are a waste of good ammo. The Breach I and even better Breach II are godlike.
The Chain Burst Laser is an awkward weapon, it's pretty solid once it spins up (after 3 shots) and if you have 2 or more of them to sync, they are a worthy investment; however, at the start of the game, they are just too slow, and will cost you, because you get hit more and take damage = scrap loss.
The Chain Vulcan is the same, too slow for normal combat, but it *will* guarantee a victory against the boss.
The horrible Laser Charger is actually a pretty decent weapon, but you have to micromanage it.