The universe of ftl is inhabited by friendly and enemy ships. If this tier list were based on my experiences the zoltan a would be lower than the slug b.

Tier List Part 8 Phoenix Ii Walkthrough Amp Guide Gamefaqs
Faster than light ship tier list. The one exception in amazing tier would be the pike beam and thats because its fairly easy to get something to break through shields and the trade off is immense. Relative position within a tier doesnt matter each ship in a tier is about even with others in its tier and better than any in tiers below it. Crystal b belongs in a tier by itself. Ive started playing ftl again after a half year hiatus. Top tier broken crystal b carnelian. The weapons at the top of the list are consistently effective in almost any ship set up.
A tier kestrel b mantis b lanius b zoltan a. Halberd beam and leto is an awful awful starting arsenal good for sector 1 2 if youre lucky. Ive divided the 28 ships into five main tiers based around different levels of overall strength. B tier kestrel a federation a kestrel c engi a. Engi a is a very polarizing ship but i think it should be higher stealth b does not belong with the trifecta of rock a engi b and slug b heres my rankings. I may attempt to add the new ships to the tier list after some derusting and playing the new ships however i am currently in college nearing finals and am also invested competitively in other games so no promises.
After seeing so many ftl tier lists floating around on the internet i decided that i might as well put one together myself and post it here on my website. Also im ranking win ability not fun or personal preference. Each player ship can carry a maximum of eight crew members of various races with an initial crew of between one and four members. The only ship ive piloted which more restarts let alone anywhere near as many is the dreadful engi b. S tier crystal b. These ships come in a variety of layouts and can be equipped with various systems and subsystems weapons drones and augmentations.
Zoltan a is arguably better than zoltan b. Each ship starts with varying systems weapons power levels. Since ftl is a game of rng you want to minimize any variance as much as possible. Even my favorite ship is low tier.