Games : How to defeat Starbound's first boss?

Starbound's first boss, the giant crystal monster found at the end of Erchius mining facility, is finicky and difficult, especially considering there is no way of progressing to the next tier of armor and weapons until you defeat it. The boss has several phases, some of which contain attacks that seem too fast to dodge, and his damage is high enough to kill within a few hits, even with a full set of steel armor.

So how do I defeat this very hard first boss? Defeating him requires platforming skills which I don't have, and finding gear is difficult, and useless anyway because he cannot be attacked directly.

^{This is not including the bugginess of the boss, like when invisible beams moving in the opposite direction of his actual beams hit and kill me}