Yeah I'm familiar with all that, I guess what I'm looking for is advice with combat. I am nowhere near the point where I can travel to the planet to disable them, so I need to be able to deal with them.

Hi everyone, I recently got into this game and am having a great time. But, I'm having a lot of trouble dealing with the Slylandro probes which seem to be incredibly prevalent throughout the universe. I have progressed to the point that I've discovered Fwiffo and his ship on Pluto, which apparently is supposed to be helpful in fighting these ships, but I've been having a lot of difficulty with them still to the point where, if I encounter one, it's a 50/50 chance if I have to restart from the last save. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated, as it has become quite frustrating!
Thanks!