All excellent advice... except, as the Kestrel, I already do every bit of that minus the scrap recovery arm and the crew teleporter I had a diverse crew of 8, all for free, by the final sector. The crew teleporter could have been the key. Nothing else seemed to work at the time.
I think perhaps I just got shafted with the RNG. I mean, I fired two simultaneous breach & hull missiles THREE times at the stage 2 final boss, and both were either shot down or missed each attempt :/ My defense drone just ate shit that whole time. I don't think it shot down a single missile. 7 simultaneous lasers did minimal damage. Ugh, the worst patty (meant to say "part" but I love this typo too much to correct it) is that my ship was untouchable up until that battle. I blazed through all the sectors just slicing and dicing bitches. Stage 1 of the final boss only managed to do 1 damage to my hull. adsl;fjawveo ifaj dsfkl
Ugh.
FTL has its mind-controlling, roguelike tentacles wrapped firmly around my brain. All I do is die in the most soul-sucking manners, but I keep coming back. God, I love roguelikes.