Paradroid strategy

While there are four different speed enemy droids you lose the fastest speed under ID control.

Fastest droids, I rarely use anything but these for longer time:
(001,) 247, 302, 476, 493, 615, 821, 834, 999

Slowest droids, I tend to avoid these except in emergency:
123, 296, 420, 614, 629, 883

Life expectancy: Full health 001 lasts over five minutes, class 1-4 droids 2:40, class 5-8 1:20 and 999 0:40. Don't get greedy, you have only ten seconds left with class 5-8 droid when it begins flashing, 30 seconds more with the 001. If you are controlling 999 on an empty deck... I'm sorry.

	S	W
001			Transfer to the next possible droid. Now. That's kind of extra life.
123			Not worth grabbing unless you're 001.
139			Only slightly better.
247			Worth getting if you don't control fast droid already.
249			Three legs is slower than none.
296			"Shaken, not stirred." Nayh, it's best exploded.
302			Fast droid to hunt down those remainding low class droids.
329			Relatively fast, get one if there are no 302s around.
420			Disruptor proofness doesn't help you get out of tight spots any faster.
476			My preferred droid for finishing easier decks after 711/742 runs out of juice. Fast, armed, and has low decay rate.
493			Fast but unarmed.
516			Useless except for gaining more transfer points.
571			Ditto.
598			One more.
614			Cannon fodder.
615			If this one had lower decay rate I'd prefer it to 476, but...
629			Big gun but slowness gets you killed.
711			Disruptor is the way to get alert high fast. Watch out for 821 though.
742			Bigger of the disruptor brothers. Kills 420 with one less bump in case you need to destroy one.
751			"The most powerful battle units ever built." If that's true humans aren't doing too well.
821			Choice for gunslinger. Fast, slick and deadly. As a bonus it's disruptor proof.
834			Fast but underpowered.
883			Slow and underpowered. Transfer to next droid you meet. Has nice exterminator tho... not!
999			THE droid to have - for 40 seconds...

My strategy:

Get class 5/6 droid ASAP.
Go to shuttle bay.
Transfer immediately with the first droid (there aren't any low class droids, ever).
Keep transferring until you get 711/742 - if there aren't any, transfer to the fastest one last.
Kill remaining droids except 711/742.
Go back to upper cargo, make your way to the other lift and down to vehicle hold.
Kill everything but 711/742, get a fresh one and go back to middle/upper cargo.
Kill as many droids as possible before going back down (shuttle bay or vehicle hold) to get new class 7 droid.
When all other droids are gone, start transferring between 821/7xx, finishing with 711/742.
If there are many 711/742 leave some behind for later. Shuttle bay is optimal for this, as you can find droids fast.
Note: With the changed behavior game gets really hard when alert status rises. You may want to play it slow to not get red alert while in the middle portion of ship. Capturing droids instead of shooting/bumping them doesn't rise alert status!
Next clear quarters (transferring to 821 if there are some, leaving with 711/742 if possible). There are never low-level droids, so it's safe to keep transferring between droids if you prefer that over shootouts. Watch out for disruptor droids unless you're disruptor proof yourself.
After that it's time to conquer the bridge. Disrupt as many droids as possible. If you're lucky, the 999 dies in explosion, otherwise you need to transfer to it and back to lower class droid (almost) immediately.
Clean right side decks (with remaining 711/742 if any). 420 is handy if you have some disruptor droids in reserve and get blown to low-class droid.
Go to the left side decks and finish the ship with class 4/5 droid. If you are fast and had some extra disruptor droids you can do that with red alert to get 1500 point bonus.