The Kestrel first layout

Achievement :

The United Federation – Have six unique aliens on the Kestrel Cruiser simultaneously.

Kestrel first achievement

I though that this would be the easiest one to get but I never manage to get more than 5 different aliens. Your human count has one and you need to get 5 other from the eight different species in the game.

The Slug and the Crystal alien are the hardest to get. Slug can be recruited in store only in the slug home nebula or with particular event like Slocknog. Getting the cristal are even harder, you can only get them by receive the stasis pod from the Empty Ship in Asteroids quest, and then have the pod activated in the Zoltan Research Facility quest. You can get the achievement without these two race though. Here how to get other race:

Engi : They can be found through event, by defeating slaver ship or paying for a slave from a slaver ship. The can be hired in shop, mostly in engi control sector/homeoworld, zoltan sector/homeworld and even in the mantis sector/homeworld.

Zoltan: Like the Engi they can be found through some event like by defeating slaver ship or paying for a slave from a slaver ship. The can be hired in shop, mostly in engi control sector/homeoworld, zoltan sector/homeworld but less frequently elsewhere.

Mantis: Like the Engi they can be found through some event like by defeating slaver ship or paying for a slave from a slaver ship. you can get one in some occasion if you side with the mantis crew in a event in a engi controlled/homeworld sector The can be hired in shop, mostly in engi control sector/homeoworld, mantis sector/homeworld but rarely elsewhere.

Rock: They can be found too through the slaver and various event. They can be found in store too but mostly rock sector/homeworld but rarely elsewhere.

Lanius: You can get one when you encounter the “do you want our translator device ” event. It’s an event in abandoned sector that usually have Lanius there. You will encounter a Lanius ship that wants to trade scrap for fuel or drone or missile. There will be an option to inquire about their translator. Once you select it they will offer you 40 scrap for the “device” the device will end up being a Lanius name translator.
honestly I haven’t had the chance to find one except with that event or on the new Lanius ship or on a type C layout that sometime include Lanius crew member. However the wiki state that they can be found in store.

Note that This achievement is easier to complete using the Layout B (Red-Tail), as the starting crew includes three of the six required races.

Full Arsenal – Have every system and subsystem installed on the Kestrel Cruiser at one time.

Kestrel second achievement

This was the first achievement I manage to get on this ship and probably the easiest to accomplish of the three. You simply need to have all the system installed on the ship for the standard edition or 3 out of the 5 missing system in the advance edition. The missing system are : Teleporter, Drone Control,Cloaking, Hacking, and Mind Control, costing respectively 75, 85 (or 75, depending on which free drone it comes with), 150, 80, and 75 scrap. For the standard edition you need Teleporter, Drone Control,Cloaking.

The cheapest you can get this achievement in the advance edition is to get the Teleporter, Drone Control (if it 75) and Mind Control. Note your need the Battery subsystem too in the advance edition to get this achievement.

Tough Little Ship – As the Kestrel Cruiser, repair back to full health when it only has 1 HP remaining.

Kestrel third achievement

Probably one of the hardest achievement to pull off but here how you can do it.

Note (from the wiki): For the game to recognize this achievement as earned, the player must have the Kestrel Cruiser down to one hull point before jumping to a store beacon, and then the ship must be fully repaired all at once. If the ship is not repaired all at once or if the Hull Repair drone is used instead of a store, the achievement will not be earned.

I’ve added the note so you know that the Hull Repair drone won’t cut it and that you need to have 1 hp before going to a store.

They are several way to do this achievement but you probably know that having 1 hull is never a good situation to be and the risk of receiving more that 1 hull damage while fighting might throw off you calculation to get to  hull while fighting. And there always the problem that you need scrap to heal you ship full (usually 58 or 87 scrap).

There actually 2 somewhat safe way to do that achievement:

1- The first way is to find a asteroid field near a store, fight any hostile ship that are there. Once they are taken care of, power down your ship shield and watch it to go down to 1 hull while you repair any system or subsystem hit. Then warp to the store and repair it full.

2- You can use a weapon that can target your ship like the fire bomb. you need to have enough missile though (around 1 per point, note you can always lets the fire propagate). When you are near a store and you have enough scrap and missile, target your ship with the bomb until your at 1 hull point then extinguish the fire and jump to the store to repair your ship.