Hello there! I am Pelandes and I want to welcome you all to my guide of the FTL vast weaponry and equipment with which you can fill your ship! Consider this a consultation guide in which you will always find specific information about that weapon, drone or augmentation you just don’t know how works or you want to compare two of them and decide which one is better.

I know, I know, there are already some guides talking about weapons and whatnot. But I haven’t seen one that talks about neither drones nor augmentations yet. And none of the weapon’s guides I’ve seen includes the Advance Edition update. So I guessed that someone may find this useful.

I have used the majority of weapons, drones and augmentations that are mentioned here, but not all of them. I checked You Tube and the FTL Wiki for data, but if you see that something’s missing or I wrote something wrong, feel free to comment and correct me. Also, most of the images come from the Wiki, but some have been edited from screenshots, from me or the web.

And, last but not least, I have you note that English is not my native language, and I MAY have grammar mistakes, typos, misspells or any other errors. Please, don’t lynch me and point out in the comment section any mistakes you see.

Without further delay… Let’s get started!

• EC – Energy Consumption
• D – Damage (Hull and System; if Hull is unaffected, it will be noted down)
• ID – Ion Damage (Ion weapons only)
• BL – Beam Length (Beam weapons only)
• CD – Crew Damage
• WC – Weapon Cool down (in seconds)
• P – Price (in shops)
• EE – Extra Effects

Note that if the weapon can attack multiple times, the Damage stats will still show the actual damage for each hit, adding a multiplayer that indicates the number of shots.

This is the most common type of weapon. Shields will stop them, one shield bubble per hit, doesn’t matter the laser damage, and then deactivate shortly. Lasers don’t consume ammunition, but require energy to work.

Basic laser
EC – 1 D – 1 (x1)
CD – 15 (x1)
WC – 10 sec
P – Cannot be bought. Sold for 10 Scrap.
EE – Fire (low chance)
It is the most basic of all lasers. Causes minimal damage, requires minimal energy consumption. What did you expect? Just be thankful that it can ignite fires. You cannot buy it, but the Kestrel B comes with four of these, what it is not as bad as you may think.

Dual Lasers
EC – 1 D – 1 (x2)
CD – 15 (x2)
WC – 10 sec
P – 25 Scrap.
EE – Fire (low chance)
Not a bad choice for a main weapon in the early game and a support one in the latter phases. Doubles the amount of fun for the same price! A bunch of ships comes with this as their initial weapon setup.

Burst Laser MK I
EC – 2 D – 1 (x2)
CD – 15 (x2)
WC – 11 sec
P – 50 Scrap.
EE – Fire (low chance)
Now, here we have a weapon that, even if it looks good, actually it isn’t. Just compare it with the last one. Same damage, also shoots twice, but requires two energy bars and adds one more second to the cool down. And, in top of that, doubles the scrap cost if you want to buy it! Not worth it. Keep it if you get it in a random event, but sell it in the first chance you have to upgrade your arsenal and NEVER EVER EVER buy it.

Burst Laser MK II
EC – 2 D – 1 (x3)
CD – 15 (x3)
WC – 12 sec
P – 80 Scrap.
EE – Fire (low chance)
Now we’re talking! Consider it the most efficient weapon in FTL, at least, in vanilla FTL. Keeps the same energy consumption, but fires an extra shot, up to three. One extra second of cool down and a higher price shouldn’t be an obstacle to get it. My personal ideal ship will have 4 BL MK II, regardless the drones or augmentations.

Burst Laser MK III
EC – 4 D – 1 (x5)
CD – 15 (x5)
WC – 19 sec
P – 110 Scrap.
EE – Fire (low chance)
This weapon is a beast. Five shots in a row, in exchange of a longer cool down. This means that it can go through four-layered shields and still does damage, assuming no misses. But consider that in terms of efficiency, two BL MK II are still better that a BL MK III, because they shoot six lasers and will take only 12 seconds to do that, with the same energy consumption. Still, don’t throw it away if you get it. That would be almost criminal.

Pierce Laser
EC – 2 D – 2 (x1)
CD – 30 (x1)
WC – 12 sec
P – Cannot be bought. Sold for 27 Scrap.
EE – Fire (low chance) and Breach (low chance)
This weapon is special and cannot be found in the game. It comes in the Rock Ship B weapon setup, and nowhere else. Pierces one shield bubble, and does 2 damage. Requires two bars of energy, but c’mon, worth it!

Heavy Laser MK I
EC – 1 D – 2 (x1)
CD – 30 (x1)
WC – 9 sec
P – 55 Scrap.
EE – Fire (low chance) and Breach (medium chance)
An improved version of the basic laser. Still shoots a single laser, still requires a single energy bar, but deals double damage if you get past those pesky shields! And this requires special mention: even if this deals double damage, it will still take only one shield bubble if you hit it. Be sure to shoot when the shields are down!

Heavy Laser MK II
EC – 3 D – 2 (x2)
CD – 30 (x2)
WC – 13 sec
P – 75 Scrap.
EE – Fire (low chance) and Breach (medium chance)
Improvement of the previous one. Doubles the amount of shots, still with double damage on impact, and the cool down only adds 4 seconds. Awesome! Just be aware of the shield disadvantage that I mentioned before and that the power consumption TRIPLES, not doubles, which can be inconvenient.

Hull Laser MK I
EC – 2 D – 1 (x2; doubles in systemless rooms)
CD – 15 (x2)
WC – 14 sec
P – 65 Scrap.
EE – Fire (low chance) and Breach (medium chance)
Now, we have a dilemma. This gun shoots two lasers, each deals one damage, alright? Doubles damage if you hit a systemless room, so, great, no? Not as much as you may think. It is good for taking down a ship faster, because the hull will suffer it, but we normally seek for damaging systems in the process (i.e. Shields, Weapons…) in order to not get blown up to smithereens in the meantime. So, what is the point of aiming to systemless rooms?

Hull Laser MK II
EC – 3 D – 1 (x3; doubles in systemless rooms)
CD – 15 (x3)
WC – 15 sec
P – 75 Scrap.
EE – Fire (low chance) and Breach (medium chance)
Improvement of the last one. A stray barrage to a systemless room will strip a whooping 6 points of the hull’s health, which is impressive. Consider the previous dilemma and take your own decision.

Chain Laser (Advanced Edition)
EC – 2 D – 1 (x2)
CD – 15 (x2)
WC – 16 sec (reduces 3 seconds in each volley, up to 3)
P – 65 Scrap.
EE – Fire (low chance)
Also known as "Chain Burst Laser", this weapon imitates the Burst Laser MK I, so you may initially think that it is BS, especially with that 16 seconds cool down on his back, but it isn´t. Every time you fire, the cool down for the next shot is reduced, up until 7 seconds. How’s that?

Chain Vulcan (Advanced Edition)
EC – 4 D – 1 (x1)
CD – 15 (x1)
WC – 11.1 sec (reduces 2 seconds in each volley, up to 5)
P – 95 Scrap.
EE – Fire (low chance)
With those stats, an inexperienced player may shout “What is this piece of crap?!” You may want to take a closer look to the Weapon Cool down stat. Approximately 11 seconds. Reduced by 2 seconds in each volley, up to 5. Now, quick math. You see it? After a while, this beast shoots a laser every second! There isn’t a shield out there which can stand longer before that, even with a ridiculous evasion. Downsides: 4 energy bars will be consumed in this beauty, and the time that takes to warm up can be fatal if you don’t have anything to damage their weapon system before full potential. If they land a hit in your Vulcan, that would be terrible, because all stacked volleys are lost if this weapon depowers.

Charger Laser MK I (Advanced Edition)
EC – 2 D – 1 (x1-2)
CD – 15 (x1-2)
WC – 6 sec (each charge)
P – 55 Scrap
EE – Fire (low chance)
Now, this weapon will be pretty useful in the early game, but not in the later sectors. This laser will “store” a shot as soon that it finishes charging, and immediately begin charge the next one. Once full, you can shot all projectiles at once. With the MK I, this means up to two shots in storage. You can also shoot them separately, if you want. If you put this weapon in auto-fire, it will shoot lasers one by one as soon as it finishes charging them.

Charger Laser MK II (Advanced Edition)
EC – 3 D – 1 (x1-4)
CD – 15 (x1-4)
WC – 5 sec
P – 70 Scrap
EE – Fire (low chance)
Improvement of the last one. Stores up to 4 shots and improves the recharge time by one second, both great features. A four laser barrage can be pretty useful to take shields down or heavily damage a system or the hull if there’s nothing to stop them. And, even though this is not what this weapon was designed for, consider use it in auto-fire mode to shoot a laser every five seconds, which is not half bad. It won’t take apart any active shields by itself, but it can still be pretty damn useful to cause continuous damage to a shieldless ship.

A dangerous type. These weapons will consume ammo, so use them sparingly, but they have a special feature: they bypass all shields, except Zoltan Super Shields. That’s right, those four-layered shields will no longer stop you for blowing their faces up! Assuming that you aren’t unlucky enough to miss, that’s it. And consider that the same can happen to you. But the missiles have a natural enemy, the Defense Drones! I will explain those latter on.

Leto Missile
EC – 1 D – 1(x1)
CD – 15 (x1)
WC – 9 sec
P – Cannot be bought. Sold for 10 Scrap.
EE – Fire (low chance) and Breach (low chance)
The most basic missile. Minimal energy consumption, minimal damage inflicted. Some ships come with it as their initial weapon setup, because it is only effective in the early game. If you want to have a powerful missile weapon, better change it for a best one when you have the chance.

Artemis Missile
EC – 2 (or 1) D – 2 (x1)
CD – 30 (x1)
WC – 11 sec (or 10 sec)
P – 38 Scrap (the standard)
EE – Fire (low chance)
There are actually two versions of the Artemis Missile. The standard version can be acquired in a random event or via shopping. It is a missile that causes an extra point of damage in exchange of an extra energy bar. The other version is a quite efficient missile weapon because it stills causes double damage, but only requires one bar of energy. It even strips a second out of the cool down meter, but it cannot be bought. It comes with some ship’s initial setup. The enemies can come with both versions, and you won’t be able to tell the difference until they hit you. A little late, don’t you think?

Hermes Missile
EC – 3 D – 3 (x1)
CD – 45 (x1)
WC – 14 sec
P – 50 Scrap
EE – Fire (low chance) and Breach (low chance)
This one can be considered as both a main weapon, if you somehow are sitting in a stockpile of missiles, or as a weapon that remains unpowered until emergencies or ridiculously durable shields on the enemy side. Three points of damage to a system is going to take a long time to repair, even for Engi, and if you are lucky enough, you can set something on fire or open a hull breach, which is going to be incredibly annoying. For the enemy, this is. Oh, and even this and the following missile weapons look all the same, an alarm should start ringing in your head every time you see one of those ones in the enemy ship. Better equip some Defense Drones.

Breach Missile
EC – 3 D – 4 (x1)
CD – 60
WC – 22 sec
P – 70 Scrap
EE – Fire (low chance) and Breach (high chance)
This is The. Most. Powerful. Missile. At least, when it comes to damage per projectile. A stray shot to any room of the ship will tear apart the hull’s health by 4. Bonus points if you hit a system. Jackpot if it was the shield system or their weapons. You get the idea, right? And also consider that this missile is specially designed to open breaches, so it will take more time to repair one if it breaks the hull. If the oxygen system happened to be down or hacked... it will become in a tragedy pretty quickly, no? Just keep in mind that 22 seconds will be needed to charge this behemoth, and a lot of stuff can happen while then.

Hull Missile
EC – 2 D – 2 (x1; doubles in systemless rooms)
CD – 30
WC – 17 sec
P – 80 Scrap
EE – Fire (low chance) and Breach (high chance)
The missile version of the previously mentioned Hull Laser. This weapon works the exact same way the laser version did, and has the same drawbacks. Causes standard damage to systems, and doubles the digits if there is nothing within that room. Now, doubling the damage here will be equal to 4 hull points, which is not half bad. If you also open a crack in the enemy ship, that one is for free.

Pegasus Missile
EC – 3 D – 2 (x2)
CD – 30 (x2)
WC – 20 sec
P – 80 Scrap
EE – Fire (low chance) and Breach (low chance)
This beauty solves two of the main issues with the missile weapons at once. One: limited ammo. No problem, since two shots are fired for the cost of one. Two: Defense Drones. Solved! Since these fires two missiles in quick succession, it is highly likeable that the enemy Defense Drones will only be able to shot down one of them. Drawbacks? High energy consumption, long cool down and expensive at stores if you are able to find it, ‘cos it is freaking rare!

Swarm Missile (Advanced Edition)
EC – 2 D – 1 (x1-3)
CD – 15 (x1-3)
WC – 7 sec
P – 65 Scrap
EE – Fire (low chance) and Breach (low chance)
This weapon is only available with the Advanced Edition enabled, and beats the Pegasus Missile in every field except for the total damage caused. It works like the Charger Lasers: every time it finishes charging, stores the shot and begins with the next one, up to three, which can be shot all in quick succession once he’s done with the charging. And here comes the best: even if it shoots more than once, it still takes only one missile! Also remember that due its quick reload speed, you can “Alpha Strike” an enemy without the Weapon Pre-Igniter Augmentation if you shot the first missile as soon as it is ready to fly!
BTW, the Swarm Missile works like a Flak weapon (see those in his own section) and the projectiles don't hit an specific room, but instead scatter and hit random rooms in the enemy ship. Aim for the middle to increase effectiveness! Thanks to "Happiness Officer" to point that out in the comments.

This is an interesting weapon type. Deals no damage to the enemy’s ship hull, but instead, it disables one energy bar from the targeted system (shields mandatory if they were active when the shot came) for 5 seconds for each Ion Damage Point, preventing the enemy for using them. Since the Advanced Edition Update, the crew (both friends and foes) standing in the room which was hit (includes shields if they were active) have a chance of get stunned by the attack for a few seconds. Ion damage can be stack up in a system if you have fast recharging ion weapons. All ion-type weapons cause double damage against Zoltan Super Shields.

Ion Blast MK I
EC – 1 ID – 1 (x1)
WC – 8 sec
P – 30 Scrap
EE – Stun (medium chance)
The most basic of all ion blasters. Deals a single ion damage point, enough to take out a bubble from the enemy’s shields or disable one of their weapons for a few seconds. I won’t deny that it is a great support weapon in the early game, but when you pass the third or fourth sector, you should start thinking about getting rid of it.

Ion Blast MK II
EC – 3 ID – 1 (x1)
WC – 4 sec
P – 80 Scrap
EE – Stun (medium chance)
The ones who haven’t used it may be wondering if it is worth triple the amount of energy and a whole lot more of scrap just to take a few seconds off from the cool down. Short answer: yes, it is! Shooting a blast each 4 seconds, adding the crew manning bonus, means that no shield is able to resist the concentrated fire of just this weapon alone, assuming no misses. Remember what I said about stacking ion damage? Now is your chance! And once the pesky shields are gone, beam away! Or use any other weapon type, I really don’t care.

Heavy Ion
EC – 2 ID – 2 (x1)
WC – 13 sec
P – 45 Scrap
EE – Stun (medium chance)
Consider it an improvement of the Ion Blast MK I, because the MK II is just light years forward if you want to compare. Deals an extra ion damage point, doubling the amount of energy taken out from the enemy and the time the effect last and still shivers of some seconds from the cool down count if we were to use two shots from an IB MK I. Good weapon? I guess… Is better that an IB MK I, but if you want a powerful Ion weapon, better get your hands into an IB MK II, or any other possibility offered by the Advanced Edition.

Ion Stunner (Advanced Edition)
EC – 1 ID – 1 (x1)
WC – 10 sec
P – 35 Scrap
EE – Stun (granted)
Basically an Ion Blaster MK I which ensures that whoever was standing in the room which just got hit is going to be stunned. Period. This weapon can be a gift from the gods when it comes with the initial setup of a ship or you find it in sector 1, because it is pretty useful in the initial sectors. Can be strategically used to delay repairs or make enemy crew suffocate or burn alive on their own ship if you stun them in the right moment in the right room. I am a terrible person, I know…

Ion Charger (Advanced Edition)
EC – 2 ID – 1 (x1-3)
WC – 6 sec
P – 50 Scrap
EE – Stun (medium chance)
I think that, by now, I don’t have to explain what the charger weapons do all over again from the top, so I’ll just summarize it: can store shots if you let it charge enough time, up to three. Not to mention that a three-ion-hit in any enemy ship will most likely screw up good a system for 15 seconds. Totally worth the prize having one as your unique ion weapon.

Chain Ion (Advanced Edition)
EC – 3 ID – 1-4 (x1)
WC – 14 sec
P – 55 Scrap
EE – Stun (medium chance)
Now, this is an interesting weapon. Takes a lot of energy to work and a lot of time to charge, but its capacity of increasing the Ion Damage dealt to the enemy every time if fires is something definitely worth having a look at. At its maximum, can take out 4 energy bars from any system for 20 seconds every 14 seconds, so, theoretically, you can stack Ion Damage. How’s that? Just keep in mind that if the weapon is depowered, the chain process will be lost. Keep your eyes peeled for missiles!

Beams are a weapon type which work a little different from what you are used to. Instead of targeting a single room, you draw a line between A and B, and deal as much damage as how many rooms are onto the beam’s path. Main advantage: beams cannot miss; even if the enemy ship is clocked (you can shot to an invisible ship if you have vision on their rooms and a weapon ready to shoot, but extended dodge chance is applied). Main drawback: most beams deals no damage if enemy’s shields are up, and does not cause any shield bubble to even move. That said, be sure to shoot your beams ONLY when shields are down (unless your beam is powerful enough), and NEVER put them into auto-fire.

Mini Beam
EC – 1 D – 1 x rooms hit
BL – 3 tiles
CD – 15
WC – 12 sec
P – 50 Scrap
EE – Fire (low chance)
This can be considered as a support weapon for early sectors. Is not fatal keeping it until the Flagship, but you may want to upgrade it as soon as you can. It can deal up to three of four damage, which is not bad, but if you’d bothered to get a beam weapon, which is only lethal once the enemy's shields are down, you may want it to deal more than four damage in those few moments in which you take down the shields of your opponent. Main advantages? Only one energy bar consumption, so it is cheap to maintain and repair, and has a relatively low cool down, being a beam.

Pike Beam
EC – 2 D – 1 x rooms hit
BL – 6 tiles
CD – 15
WC – 16 sec
P – 60 Scrap
EE – none
This is, for me, the average beam. Is common among the enemy weapon setup and is rather easy to be found in shops. Having a beam length of six character tiles, this beam can deal a lot of damage if you find a ship with a bunch of rooms packed together, and that’s not hard, if you think about it. This beam can last an entire FTL run if you don’t find any upgrades to your beam weapon and you’ll be fine.

Halberd Beam
EC – 3 D – 2 x rooms hit (descends to 1 if one shield bubble is active)
BL – 4 tiles
CD – 30 (can be reduced)
WC – 17 sec
P – 70 Scrap
EE – Fire (low chance)
This beam is special. Is one of the few that can go through shields. Can only bypass one shield bubble though, and it damage is reduced, but at least you don’t have to wait till shields are completely down nor having them unexpectedly rise in the middle of the beam strike. Sure that three energy bars are a lot to maintain this weapon and that in 17 seconds can happen a lot of things, but you can easily level down a shieldless ship with this if you get the chance.

Fire Beam
EC – 2 D – none
BL – about 5 tiles
CD – none
WC – 20 sec
P – 70 Scrap
EE – Fire (high chance)
Now, this weapon works a little different than other beams. Does not deal any direct damage upon hit, but, man, can it create a huge mess in the enemy ship! Each tile hit has a great chance of being ignite when is reached. Each one. Of course, you can be ridiculously unlucky and end up with the shields being raised in the middle of your strike, or not having anything burst with flames, but usually you can set ablaze multiple rooms with this thing. You can use it to kill the enemy crew, support a rockmen board, deal damage over time to the systems, delay repairs or just blow up an almost wrecked ship with a few systems alive yet. This weapon usage is heavily discouraged against AI ships, Rebel Riggers, or any other ships without oxygen or with Repair Drones.

Hull Beam
EC – 2 D – 1 x rooms hit (doubles in systemless rooms)
BL – 5 tiles
CD – 15
WC – 14 sec
P – 70 Scrap
EE – none
This is the “Hull” version of the beams. As you expected, it doubles damage when hits a systemless room, and we already clarify the pros and cons of that. BUT, here we can somehow solve the classic issue with Hull weapons (“do I target a system to do minor damage to it, or an empty room in order to cause major damage to the hull?”) since you can target multiple rooms –this is a beam weapon, after all– and cause several double hits, when still hitting some systems in the way. A five-tile-long beam is a long beam, and strategy comes in handy here. And, BTW, remember that, even if it causes 2 points of damage to a systemless room, that doesn’t mean that it can bypass a single shield bubble, even if you are targeting an empty room.

Glaive Beam
EC – 4 D – 3 x room hit (reduced by 1 per nº of active shield bubbles)
BL – 4 tiles
CD – 45 (can be reduced)
WC – 25 sec
P – 95 Scrap
EE – Fire (low chance)
Now, this weapon is a MONSTER, in capital letters, bold, italics and underlined. And, as every monster, it is difficult to use and keep it under control. This is another one of those beam weapons which can go through shields, up to two shield bubbles, reducing the damage by every penetrated layer. If the enemy shields are down and this thing is ready to fire, you can easily rip an entire ship apart with a single ray, with careful aiming, not having to worry about the shields being raised unexpectedly, because you’ll keep doing an impressive amount of damage. This is also the weapon with the longest cool down in game, so if they hit your weapon system in the middle of the charge, you’re pretty much screwed. Also requires FOUR energy bars to keep this beam online, which will probably force you to have this as your main weapon, while the rest will be low-energy-consumption support weapons. Strategy: use the 25 seconds to damage the enemy shield system as much as you can with your support weapons and, once you are ready to open fire, low the enemy shields for the last time and unleash hell on them. If the shot isn’t fatal, at least they will take long enough to come back online to you to destroy them or to recharge the Glaive Beam once again, which is pretty much the same.

Anti-Bio Beam
EC – 3 D – none
BL – about 5 tiles
CD – 60 (half to drones)
WC – 16 sec
P – 50 Scrap
EE – none
If you board for profit and fun, this is your support weapon. Causes no damage to neither hull nor system health, but can absolutely devastate the enemy crew in a few shots. Will inflict 60 points of damage to any entity standing in the exact tile the ray goes through, 30 if it hits a drone –enough to destroy a System Repair Drone, but ineffective against Boarding / Antipersonnel Drones–. Two shots will be enough to annihilate most of the enemy races, and if someone survives with a shiver of health, you can finish him off with standard weapons or with a boarding party. And remember to use this weapon carefully if your boarders are on duty, because you can totally hit your own guys by accident.

Vindicator Beam (Federation Cruiser A & B)
EC – 1-4 D – 1 x room hit (ignores shields)
BL – about 10 tiles
CD – 15
WC – 40-20 sec
P – Cannot be bought. Comes as a system in the Federation Cruiser A and B.
EE – none
This is an even more special beam weapon. It appears only in the Fed Cruiser (layouts A and b), and it has its own system, so if the weapon system is damaged, the Vindicator Beam still works and vice versa. This is a weapon which comes with both huge perks and gigantic drawbacks. This beam completely ignores all shields in his path, and it is a LONG path! Disadvantages: aims and shoots automatically –as soon as it finishes charging, it picks a random room A and another random room B and draws a line between them. This can lead to stupid aiming patterns. And it also takes FOREVER to reload! (It is not affected by the Pre-Igniter Augment, but, if hacked, stops the charging but does not make it go backwards, which is a relive). As it has its own system, you can upgrade it separately and pump extra energy bars in order to reduce the cool down, but even at its maximum will take 20 seconds. Oh, and remember to power it down if you are going to board, because it can shoot without prior warning and terminate a ship with your poor boarding party inside. It has happened to me. Twice.

This is a kinda-missile weapon type: consume ammo upon shot and can bypass all shields, except Zoltan Super Shields. But it also can ignore Defense Drones, which is the most annoying thing when using missiles. It teleports directly into the selected room and explodes. Note that bombs can miss the target by a mile. But keep on mind that bombs do not damage the hull, at least directly. Their role is of a support weapon and its target to damage a system or help you kill the crew. And bombs can also be targeted inside your own ship on order to deal with enemy boarders. That option may include some repairs afterwards. Bombs always have relative low energy consumption and always fire a single projectile.

Small Bomb
EC – 1 D – 2 (Hull unaffected)
CD – 30
WC – 13 sec
P – 55 Scrap
EE – Fire (low chance)
It can mess up an enemy system which you rather having down during the battle. It can also ignite a fire and most likely send the crewmember crying to the medbay, or at least draw the attention of near ones. The low energy consumption makes it a great support weapon.

Breach Bomb MK I
EC – 1 D – 1 (Hull unaffected)
CD – 30
WC – 9 sec
P – 70 Scrap
EE –Breach (high chance)
This is a bomb which is always nice to have. Even if it has low energy consumption, differs from the Small Bomb in that it recharges way faster, causes less damage, but not in the crew damage, because whoever was standing there will complain the same as the last one. In addition, it has a high chance of opening a breach, so it will not only delay the repairs, but also takes out the oxygen of that room! (If the enemy AI is dumb enough to let you do that).

Breach Bomb MK II
EC – 2 D – 3 (Hull unaffected)
CD – 45
WC – 17 sec
P – 70 Scrap
EE – Fire (low chance) and Breach (high chance)
In exchange of a longer cool down, the Breach Bomb big brother triples the original damage and adds the slight possibility of causing a fire in the targeted room. If that happened, the fire will be put off before the enemy can deal with the breach, so increases the chance of having all the room’s oxygen suck out. Fun fact: it costs the same in shops that the MK I version.

Fire Bomb
EC – 2 D – none
CD – 30 (halves with drones)
WC – 15 sec
P – 55 Scrap
EE – Fire (high chance)
This bomb does no damage the enemy system you targeted directly, but can set the room ablaze in the blink of an eye, heavily damage the crew as they try to put it out and probably attracting a lot of attention into that room. Every time a fire bomb goes off, each tile has a high chance of igniting, so even if one of them isn’t set on fire, the rest will do the job just fine. I personally recommend synergy this weapon with high-upgraded hack system, having the enemy door subsystem under control. You block all doors and then open the ones next to the room which just became hell itself. The fire will spread fast across the ship and the crew will be unable to reach it. The usage of this weapon is discouraged against ships without oxygen (IA scouts, Lanius); ships with System Repair Drones (Rebel Riggers, Engi) and Rockmen ships.

Ion Bomb
EC – 1 ID – 4
WC – 18 sec
P – 65 Scrap
EE – Stun (medium chance)
If you find one on these in a shop, you pretty much hit jackpot (they are rare). Buy it immediately, unless you already have a good ion weapon. It is not even expensive. For a single energy bar, allows taking four energy points out of an enemy system for 20 seconds, so it can be lethal if you aim to the shields (takes out two bubbles for at least two volleys) or can save your butt if the enemy weapons are just ridiculous. Of course that it is going to require ammo, but did you expect an OP weapon to not have drawbacks?

Healing Burst
EC – 1 D – none
CD – none (heal friendly)
WC – 18 sec
P – 40 Scrap
EE – none
Now, this is a pretty decent support weapon for boarders. Does no damage to hull, system or enemy crew, but instead heals all your allies back to full health, which will save a trip back to ship or an ensured death due to stupid board tactics. Yeah, you know the feeling of discovering in the last second the enemy had blast doors and that now your guys are trapped. Takes long to reload, so be careful, because you are probably only going to have one try. Also goes well with ships without Medbay (i.e. Slug B) and, since Advanced Edition, with ships with Clone Bay. Only thing left to do is check if it works with brain controlled foes or friendly drones. I don’t think it does, though.

Crystal Lockdown Bomb
EC – 1 D – none
CD – none
WC – 15 sec
P – 60 Scrap
EE – Replicates the “Lockdown” ability
For those of you who don’t know what the “Lockdown” ability is, it is an active ability of the crystalmen. When used, the crewmember in question locks the room he is currently in, preventing anyone from getting neither in nor out for a short period of time. This is pretty damn useful when boarding, or when wanting to avoid enemy crew coming to repair the system you are currently damaging, or to letting them suffocate of burn alive without chance of getting out of there. Well, this weapon allows doing precisely that, in exchange of a missile.

Repair Burst (Advanced Edition)
EC – 1 D – none (repair system)
CD – none
WC – 14 sec
P – 40 Scrap
EE – none
This is useful when under heavy fire from an enemy ship which just seems to get a free volley few seconds after the last one. In those situations you cannot afford having your systems shutdown, specially weapons, shields, bridge, engines, in that order, because you need to return fire at some point. It won’t fix your hull, but at least will take a wrecked system back online. It repairs instantly up to 8 points of system damage.

Stun Bomb (Advanced Edition)
EC – 1 D – none
CD – none
WC – 17 sec
P – 40 Scrap?
EE – Stun (granted)
Some of you may notice that this image is not pixel-perfect with the actual Stun Bomb. This is because, after several runs and not find it, I took the image of an Ion Bomb, which is the same spirite with different colors and edited it. Close enough. Well, this is another support weapon for boarders or to kill the enemy crew if you find the right spot to make them freeze. It will stun any crew in the selected room for 15 seconds, which is a lot of time in a battle, of you think about it.

This weapon type will appear if you enabled the Advanced Edition option in the hangar. Flaks are like shotguns, and what they do is fire multiple debris pieces at once, each of them counting as an individual shot. These projectiles can be stopped by shields and shot down by Defense Drones, but only one at a time. The idea here is hitting the enemy shield hard and take it down quickly with several impacts at the same time, leaving a lapse for your actual barrage, which comes behind. Even though this is a good weapon type for taking down shields, it is pretty inaccurate because it targets for random rooms in an area around the one you selected. By the way, it also have extended missing ratio, which means that you can miss a 0% evasion ship. It sucks when it happen.

Flak Gun MK I
EC – 2 D – 1 (x3)
CD – 15 (x3)
WC – 10 sec
P – 65 Scrap
EE – Fire (low chance)
This is the basic flak weapon. Three debris projectiles can take upon three shields bubbles from the enemy if you are lucky enough. Charges really fast, so you can pretty much have it ready before your main weapons finish charging, so waiting for the flak won’t be an issue. Keep in mind that Defense Drones can shoot your projectiles down, so a single one can reduce your effectiveness by a 33%, and can be just what you DON’T need.

Flak Gun MK II
EC – 3 D – 1 (x7)
CD – 15 (x7)
WC – 21 sec
P – 85 Scrap
EE – Fire (low chance)
This is an improved version of the Flak Gun MK I, and the differences are huge. First, takes one extra bar of energy to work, which is not too bad. Next, takes 21 seconds to cool down, and that IS bad, because that rises this gun to the podium of the slowest rate of fire in FTL. Now, this thing fires 7 projectiles, which will probably wreck any shield in its way and probably still do damage, even if there is a active Defense Drone (the lost of effectiveness is of only 14%).

Adv. Flak Gun
EC – 1 D – 1 (x3)
CD – 15 (x3)
WC – 8 sec
P – Cannot be bought.
EE – Fire (low chance)
This weapon comes equipped with the Lanius B, and I haven’t seen it anywhere else, so I assume that it cannot be bought. This is another improved version of the Flak Gun MK I, but in a different way that the MK II. Instead of shooting a lot of extra projectiles, it drops the energy consumption and the reload time with the same three debris pieces than the original Flak. Now it is up to you to decide which path you want to take: glass cannon (FG MK II), or play it safely (Adv. FG).

Flak Artillery (Federation Cruiser C)
EC – 1-4 D – 1 (x7)
CD – 15 (x7)
WC – 40-20 sec
P – Cannot be bought. Comes as a system in the Federation Cruiser C.
EE – none
The Fed Cruiser C has no weapons to start with, but it has the lethal Flak Artillery instead, that is the definition of an FTL shotgun by itself. It works like the Vindicator Beam from the other two layouts: has its own system and it is upgraded separately from the weapon system. Each extra energy bar pumped into the Flak Artillery system will reduce the never ending cool down by 10 seconds, up to a twenty-second-long charge. Since this is not a beam, the attack method is different: works pretty much like an auto-Flack Gun MK II, shooting 7 projectiles at once as soon as it finishes charging, but it doesn’t shoot around a specific room, but instead, the whole enemy ship is the target area. And, like the Vindicator Beam, is not affected by the Pre-Igniter Augment and, if hacked, stops charging but doesn’t drain the charged process.

This is a variant of the laser weapons, but rather powerful in comparison. This weapon type fire crystal shards that can pierce one shield bubble, but can be shot down by Defense Drones. Instead of fires, the crystal shard can cause breaches. Some crystal weaponry comes equipped in the Crystal Cruiser A (the B layout does not have weapons), and can also be found in the Crystal Homeworlds Sector, at a cheap price. If you don’t know about that sector nor have you unlocked the Secret Cruiser (the crystal one) you may want to go and unlock it, then come back.

Crystal Burst MK I
EC – 2 D – 1 (x2; pierces 1 shield bubble)
CD – 15 (x2)
WC – 15 sec
P – 20 Scrap (Crystal Sector only)
EE – Breach (low chance)
The Burst Laser MK I version of the crystal weapons. Same warnings from the BL MK I apply here, but the extra effects from the crystal brand can make it worth it. Remember that can be stopped by Defense Drones and the breach effect and you should be fine.

Crystal Burst MK II
EC – 3 D – 1 (x3; pierces 1 shield bubble)
CD – 15 (x3)
WC – 17 sec
P – 20 Scrap (Crystal Sector only)
EE – Breach (low chance)
The improved version of the last one. It is not as efficient as the BL MK II was in comparison, but the crystal perks are still applied. Adds an extra shot, but requires an extra energy bar and two seconds more in the cool down. Keep that in mind. And remember to always target the drone control room if there are Defense Drones in duty.

Heavy Crystal MK I
EC – 1 D – 2 (x1; pierces 1 shield bubble)
CD – 30 (x1)
WC – 13 sec
P – 20 Scrap (Crystal Sector only)
EE – Breach (low chance)
This weapon has a resemblance with the Heavy Laser MK I, with the crystal type benefits added. Shoots a single projectile that deals twice the amount of damage than the usual crystal shard, and only requires one energy bar. Great! The cool down is also the shortest of all crystal weaponry.

Heavy Crystal MK II
EC – 3 D – 4 (x1; pierces 1 shield bubble)
CD – 60 (x1)
WC – 19 sec
P – 20 Scrap (Crystal Sector only)
EE – Breach (high chance)
If you were expecting something like the Heavy Laser MK II for the Heavy Crystal MK II, you were wrong, then. This weapon is more like a missile than like the big brother of the Heavy Laser family. It still delivers a single crystal shard, but, my, it is a strong one. Since it also has the crystal characteristics, it can go through a single bubble shield, but it can also be shot down by a Defense Drone, and that will be a waste of a long cool down and large energy consumption. It is also very likely to create a breach wherever it hits, so be sure, for your ship shake, to land that blow properly!

This drones orbit the enemy ship and continuously attack it with whatever weapon they have. Even though they are consider to be an extra aid to take down a ship, they can be pretty deadly by their own, especially if you manage to destroy the enemy shield system. Combat Drones cost a drone piece to deploy and can be powered and depowered at will without further costs (save the energy consumption) and can be destroyed by stray shots of your or the enemy weapons, an accidental asteroid impact, an Anti-Combat Drone or having your drone control room hacked.

Combat Drone MK I
EC – 2 D – 1 (x1)
CD – 15 (x1)
WC – about 4 sec
P – 50 Scrap
EE – none
This drone goes around the enemy ship and periodically shoots it with a basic laser potential. It doesn’t require a lot of energy and can be a nice support weapon. Keep in mind that it is an easy prey for an Anti-Combat Drone but, in the other hand, can synergize quite well with an ion weapon (do you remember the Engi A ship?). Just lower the shields for him and he will do the rest. It can come as a once-in-live offer (or so they say) when buying a drone control system, allowing you to take a free CD MK I into the ship as well.

Combat Drone MK II
EC – 4 D – 1 (x1)
CD – 15 (x1)
WC – about 2 sec
P – 100 Scrap
EE – none
Doubles the shooting rate of his small brother, costs double the amount of Scrap and also requires twice the energy, and that’s about it. No, don’t think this is a terrible drone! It is actually pretty good, if you can afford it. Reducing by half the time that takes to reload, when the last drone was by itself fast, can make it land a lot of shots if you manage to deactivate the enemy shields. Fun fact: it moves so fast that an Anti-Combat Drone can miss it several times, and cause a lot of damage in the meantime before it actually stuns it. And he may recover after that only for keep being annoying for the ship it is targeting.

Beam Drone MK I
EC – 2 D – 1 x room hit
BL – about 1.5 tiles
CD – 15
WC – about 4 sec
P – 50 Scrap
EE – none
Works like a standard Combat Drone, but uses a beam instead of a laser, so it has the same characteristics as all beams: cannot miss, can hit multiple rooms and cannot go though shields nor cause any bubble to drop. In this case is mandatory to take down the shields to make it work, but it can hit two or three rooms if you are lucky (it will hit only one in most scenarios, since its target system is random, and some ship layouts can be a little… let’s say weird, so don’t rely on that, instead do it on its 100% accuracy, that one is granted).

Beam Drone MK II (Advanced Edition)
EC – 3 D – 1 x room hit
BL – about 2.5 tiles
CD – 15
WC – about 6 sec
P – 60 Scrap
EE – none
Don’t assume that this is going to work like a Combat Drone MK II, beam version. The improvements for this one are a little different. It goes slower (Anti-Combat Drones won’t even have to aim to get it), but it increases the beam length, so, assuming you took the shields down, it almost grants that two rooms will be hit, sometimes three, four for tight-like layouts IF you have a lucky day. And the energy consumption is only raised by one, instead of the two extra bars from the CD MK II. Looks good. Random fact: it causes two points of damage against Zoltan Super Shields, instead of the single point that the BD MK I will deal.

Fire Beam Drone (Advanced Edition)
EC – 3 D – none
BL – about 2 tiles
CD – none
WC – about 4 sec
P – 50 Scrap
EE – Fire (high chance)
Imagine that you take a Fire Beam weapon, a Beam Drone MK I and somehow put them together in a huge shaker. The resultant cocktail is the Fire Beam Drone. Keeps the operantus mode from the Beam Drone, but the beam ignites fires instead of causing direct damage. You don’t even need to destroy the shield system, just take it down for a few seconds with ion weapons, let it shoot once or twice (it cannot miss) and sit back to watch the chaos between the enemy ranks. If the fire reaches the shield room and it goes down… free shots! And remember that, like the actual Fire Beam, it synergizes quite well with hacked doors.

This drone type patrolls your own ship and protects it from evil in a lot of different ways. Keep in mind that most defensive drones have their strengths and their flaws, so you better learn how they work unless you want to raise the wrong one and end up having your ship wrecked by a menace that you thought you were safe from. And they aren’t failure-proof, they can still be ineffective against their specified target of they are overwhelmed.

Defense Drone MK I
EC – 2
WC – about 1 second
P – 50 Scrap
Protects against – missiles, Hacking Drones, Boarding Drones, asteroids.
The drone sine qua non, IMO. Shoots down every incoming physical projectile, including the unavoidable Boarding Drone and those pesky missiles against which you can only pray that your evasion chance will hold up. Only requires two energy bars and it’s totally worth the prize. Only disadvantage is that a one-second-reload is not fast enough to stop several missiles in quick succession, and it might only be able to protect you against the first of them, and maybe the third one too, and it can miss (even though it is a rare occurrence), so don’t disregard your evasion level. Watch out for asteroid fields, because it will shoot the asteroids as well, and a missile can take advantage of the reload time to go through. It can come for free when buying the drone control room in a shop.

Defense Drone MK II
EC – 3 since Advanced Edition
WC –0.75 sec
P – 75 Scrap
Protects against – DD MK I + lasers, ion blasts
I have my doubts about this one. Last time I test this, it didn’t go down a good as I expect it would. Recharges faster, aims faster, costs more scrap and requires more energy (it were 4 energy bars in old school FTL, so at least they have reduced that). It not only shoots down all that the MK I version could, but also lasers and ion blasts. It seems good and can save your butt from that stray heavy laser that was coming for you when your shields didn’t work, but it can also intercept a weak basic laser that your shields could have perfectly absorbed and let through that big, fat boy breach missile that was just behind, which will, of course, hit something vital and it is all downhill from there. Defense Drones MK II are awesome against ships which don’t have multiple rapid-fire weapons mixed with missiles. You know what I mean, right? Those you don’t want to fight comprehend almost every freaking ship in FTL.

Anti-Combat Drone (Advanced Edition)
EC – 1
WC – about 6 sec?
P – 35 Scrap
Protects against – both Combat Drones, all three Beam Drones, Hacking Drones, Boarding Drones
Armed with its ion blast, it stuns all enemy hostile drones that come too close for comfortable, potentially destroying them (low chance), it has a slow rate of fire, so if not destroyed, enemy drones will come back online after a few seconds and keep doing whatever their task was, and that includes both Boarding and Hacking Drones, which will only be delayed for a bunch of seconds, then latch into you ship if they don’t explode. Better use Defense Drones to deal with those ones. But it is a cool alternative against the Combat Drones you couldn’t do anything about before Advanced Edition, except destroying the drone control room, which wasn’t always a possibility.

Shield Overcharger (Advanced Edition)
EC – 3 (2 in the Stealth C)
WC – 8 sec
P – 60 Scrap
Protects against – everything a Zoltan Super Shield does, but only for a little while
Now, this is interesting. This drone creates a layer of a Zoltan Super Shield every 8 seconds around your ship, even if your actual shields are down, damaged or destroyed. That effect can be stacked up to five layers if the enemy weapons are somehow not working and will also prevent hacking, brain control and teleport. Of course that little super shield will be easily pop out by a single basic laser, but think that, for a second, you have more than the four bubbles maximum and that special last bubble can also stop missiles and bombs, if they come first. And shots can still miss! This is a drone I always buy if I have a drone control room and an empty slot on it. Worth it, I promise!

These drones will get out of the owner ship as soon as they are deployed and go flying to the enemy ship until reach it, then, they will do whatever task they have assigned. Most of these drones aren’t lethal by themselves, but they can make quite the mess in the enemy ship, making it an easy prey. For those drones which actually get into the enemy ship, they are not directly controlled by the player and will attack any crew in range, then the system his is standing on, after that move to the next room.

Boarding Drone
EC – 3 D – none (acts as a boarding party)
CD – same as a standard Mantis
P – 70 Scrap
EE – Breach upon entrance (granted)
Stats – 150 health points, Mantis attack, immune to fire and lack of oxygen
Will target a random room and fly towards the enemy ship, then enter inside in the most badass way possible: opening a hull breach, causing additional trouble to the crew and giving him advantage in the room he landed on, since he doesn’t care about low oxygen levels. Shields cannot stop him (except, of course, Zoltan Super Shields), but a Defense Drone will take him down before he even has a chance to accomplish his mission and he can be delayed by Anti-Combat drones. He is a tough fighter and will slowly wander around the ship damaging anything in his path until he is destroyed, which will take a long time. If your main strategy is boarding, try synergizing the boarding party with a Boarding drone for extra fun.

Ion Intruder (Advanced Edition)
EC – 3 D – none (acts as a boarding party)
ID – 3
CD – none
P – 65 Scrap
EE – Breach upon entrance (granted) and stuns crew in the same room he is into (granted)
Stats – 125 health points, immune to fire and lack of oxygen
It gets into the targeted ship in the same way the Boarding Drone does, so read the previous paragraph if you don’t know how it works. Once inside, it does not attack the enemy crew directly, but instead ionizes the system he is standing on and stuns the enemy crew in the same room for 15 seconds, then he moves to the next non-ionized room and start over. Dealing with these guys can be a pain because they are continuously stunning your crew and bailing out immediately to the next system. Better use a bomb or trap him somewhere with blast doors and destroy the enemy ship to deactivate it. And, in contrast with the Boarding Drone, it does not team up well with a boarding party, since he will stun them as well. Seems like his own “friend or foe” sensor does not work properly.

Hacking Drone (Advanced Edition)
EC – 1-3 D – none
CD – none (unless the medbay is the target)
WC – about 20 sec
P – 75 Scrap for the hacking system
EE – depends of the hacked room
This is the only drone which doesn’t need a drone control room to work, but instead it depends on the hacking system. It still needs a drone piece to work, but you don’t need to have the drone schematic, just the system. When you are going to use the hacking drone, you select the room you want to hack and the drone will take off and latch into the targeted system, assuming there is not the usual Defense Drone standing there to screw you, as always. It is not fun when the enemies are the ones with the DD. But if you successfully attach into the enemy ship, you will passively control the doors for that room (they become blast doors for the enemy) and remove any manned bonus the system could had. Now, you can hit the “hack” button when you see convenient to cause a variety of negative effects on the enemy ship that will depend on the room which is being hacked, then goes into cool down. Putting extra energy into the hacking system (requires upgrading it first) will increase the duration of the “hacking pulse” for 4/7/10 seconds. If you want more information about the hacking system, go and read other guides in the Steam Community, there are some good ones which explain everything in detail. Oh, and remember that you can only use one Hacking Drone per battle, period, so make it count.

They don’t attack the enemy ship nor they defend you against incoming attacks, but will keep your ship all together when you are too busy fighting the vessel in front of you. Most of them only need to be deployed once and will stay in the ship jump after jump without further cost until destroyed, then, you need another drone piece to put them back online. You can’t control the crew drones directly, as they act as a friendly IA. This drone type will wait in the drone control room when they have no tasks left, and heal there if they have suffered any damage, as long as the drone control room is active.

System Repair Drone
EC – 1
CD – none (can’t attack)
P – 30 Scrap
EE – none
Stats – 30 health points, Engi repair speed, immune to fire and lack of oxygen
Everyone’s favorite. Having one in your ship is always welcomed, especially if you don’t have Engi. They stay in the drone control room until a system or subsystem is damaged, ignited on fire or has a breach, in that priority. Then makes his way up there and repair or extinguish whatever was happening at double rate the usual speed (equivalent to standard Engi) and then heads back home. You will want to have one of them when you are focused on a fight and you don’t realize about a crucial system being damaged or that little fire that spread quicker than you expected it to do, since the Sys Repair guy will fix that for you. BTW, it can be a freebie when buying the drone control room for the first time. Side note: there is something slightly annoying about this drone, and it is that he won’t change his path until he reaches his initial destination, and if that hazard is already being solved but in the meanwhile something worst is happening, he won’t head to the latter until he arrives to the first one, even if it is already fixed. If you depower him midway and then power him back online, he will update the priority and go to the biggest menace first.

Anti-Personnel Drone
EC – 3
CD – same as a standard Mantis
P – 60 Scrap
EE – none
Stats - 150 health points, Mantis attack, immune to fire and lack of oxygen
I personally recommend having one of this if your ship is not well equipped against boarders (i.e. Engi or Zoltan crew, lack of blast doors…). This guy work pretty much like the Boarding Drone, but instead of being launched to the enemy ship, it remains in your drone control room and waits for an enemy boarding party. Once they enter your ship, he will seek them and attempt to kill whoever dares to invade your ship, with a high succession rate. After killing the boarders or if they fled, he will return to his base and heal. He has the same path update problem as the System Repair Drone, so if the boarders change the room they are at, this guy can waste time heading first to the prior room, so reactivate him in order to make it reconsider this path.

Hull Repair Drone
EC – 2 D – none (heals your hull)
CD – none
P – 100 Scrap
EE – none
Even though the operantus mode of this drone looks like a defensive drone, it has been classified as a crew drone because his task looks more like the latter than the other one. Once deployed, he will orbit around your ship and heal the hull health for 3 to 5 points (it’s random), then he will deactivate automatically and return to the ship. Activating it again will cost you another drone piece. This is a drone that, even though is usable during a fight, is better to keep it in storage and taking it out when you defeated the enemy to heal you if you are badly damaged and there is no shops nor repair stations (Last Stand Sector) nearby. After that, put him back in the cargo bay and keep going.

The augmentations are “perks” for your ship that you can buy from stores or find them in random events. They may boost the stats of your ship or give them completely new abilities. You can only carry up to three augmentations, but you can sell some of them if you see convenient. This first augmentation type will help you to destroy the rival ship suffering as less loses as possible.

Automated Re-loader
P – 40 Scrap
Reduce the weapon recharge time for a 15% (10% in Advanced Edition). Applies to all weapons, including the Vindicator Beam and the Flack Artillery from the Federation Cruiser. Its effect can be stacked if you have more than one. BTW, the manned bonus is applied AFTER the Automated Re-loader effect.

Weapon Pre-Igniter
P – 120 Scrap
Every one of us wants it for its ship, but it is rare and expensive. It allows you to have all your weapons ready as you arrive to the destination beacon, giving you a massive advantage against the enemy, who have to charge theirs first. You can “Alpha Strike” the rival this way, possibly destroying his ship or at least badly damaging it (you can get the “They never saw it coming” achievement if you wreck the enemy ship with one single volley using this augment). There are some side notes, though: all unpowered weapons won’t be affected, nor will do the Vindicator Beam and the Flak Artillery (it would’ve been a little OP). Also keep in mind that, if playing in Advanced Edition and you have charge-type weapons, it will only instantly get the FIRST charge ready, but you’ll need to wait for the rest of them.

Stealth Weapons
P – 50 Scrap
When you are cloaked, you shouldn’t shoot any weapon towards the enemy (excluding ion weaponry), because doing that will decrease the total cloak duration and could bring you out of your hiding spot just in the inappropriate moment (you know, when a big badass missile is coming your way). Having this augment installed in you ship will prevent firing your weapons from draining your cloak meter. Especially useful when shooting a non-stop Chain Vulcan.

Explosive Replicator (Advanced Edition)
P – 60 Scrap
Gives a 50% chance of not using ammunition every time you shoot a missile or bomb type weapon. Great when relying in those kinds of weapons for destroying a ship (does anyone remember the Rock A runs in its initial sectors?). Oh, and can’t be stacked, you cheater.

Hacking Stun (Advanced Edition)
P – 60 Scrap
All crew (friend or foe) standing in the room in which you just activate the “hacking pulse” will be stunned, granted, for the entire duration of the hack. Anyone who enters the room during the actual pulse will be stunned as well. This could solve the typical problem of having the enemies from running for their lives out of a hacked medbay as soon as the pulse starts, in which the stun will prevent them from bailing out and can ensure a kill.

Defense Scrambler (Advanced Edition)
P – 80 Scrap
Comes equipped in – Engi C
Prevents the enemy’s defensive drones from doing their job (doesn’t affect the Shield Overcharger, though). That way you can shoot missiles, launch Boarding and Hacking Drones or using any type of Combat or Beam Drone even if the rival ship had Defense Drones or Anti-Combat Drones. Who laughs now, suckers?!

This augmentation type gives you more chances to live to see another day (or another jump, in this case), both for your ship and for your crew. Keep an eye on these!

Shield Charge Booster
P – 45 Scrap
Increases the shield bubbles recharge speed for a 15%, and can be stacked. Its use is recommended against ships with enough lasers to deliver a storm of those to you and in the second phase of the Rebel Flagship (you know, where that super-drone-assault power surge thingy takes place).

Reverse Ion Field
P – 60 Scrap
Gives a 50% chance of negating ion damage completely (showed by a blue “RESIST” text). It is stackable and having two of them makes your vessel virtually immune against ion damage, while having three is stupid. In old school FTL only gives a 15% chance (even though the game says 20%), so you should be careful when disabling the Advanced Edition content.

Repair Arm
P – 50 Scrap
Repairs your ship hull by 1-2 (random) health points every time you collect scrap, reducing the amount that you collect by a 15%. That sounds great, and will save the time to look for shops, but it will still apply the reduction even when you have full health and no repairs are needed. Can be countered by the Scrap Recovery Arm, if you find one, but better consider this: equip it before entering a dangerous sector in which scrap rewards are big enough to don’t caring about losing a portion, you expect to take a lot of hull damage and shops are a rare occurrence. Dump it after that.

Emergency Respirators (Advanced Edition)
P – 50 Scrap
Comes equipped in – Lanius A and B
All crew vulnerable to lack of oxygen (this is, everyone except drones and those freaking Lanius) take only half the amount of damage over time when standing in a vacuumed room. This can be stacked with the Crystalmen natural resistance against zero oxygen, making them taking only a quarter of the standard damage over time. Oh, and it also affect boarding parties outside your ship, so manually damaging an AI Auto-Scout system become a lot less dangerous. Also, a lv.1 med bay can heal standard crew even without oxygen.

Fire Suppression (Advanced Edition)
P – 65 Scrap
Fires through your ship are slowly put out automatically. You won’t need to drain the oxygen or have crew or Sys Repair Drones as hard time firefighters (even though, a crew member puts out fires quicker that this augmentation). This will at least prevent fires from spreading and those will slowly disappear without even requiring your attention. But if your ship has Engi, Rockmen or Sys Repairs Drones, or is easily ventable, I recommend just ignoring this augment.

Backup DNA Bank (Advanced Edition)
P – 40 Scrap
This augment is invaluable for those who have a clone bay which seem to act as a missile magnet. It actually happens. Having your clone bay turned off in the middle of a cloning process sucks, because if you don’t repair it quick and your crew start dying en masse, then it’s all downhill from there. All dead crewmembers will be “stored” in the clone bay when it is deactivated or destroyed, even in the middle of the process and will start the cloning process as soon as it comes back online. Tip: even if you have a med bay instead of a cloning bay, the dead guys are still on “storage” and as soon as you swap the systems in a shop, all demised crewmembers will begin to pop up from the cloning bay (note that if you go over the 8 crew limit because you hired more guys, then some of the queued crewmembers will be erased from existence. That’s just sad).

These affect the way your FTL jumps work. You may think they are not really useful, and you may be right, but when playing at “hard” difficulty with the rebel fleet on the heels, you will appreciate anything that gets you out of there before an Elite Rebel Fighter and their lovely mates with ASBs start beating your ship to pulp. Again.

FTL Recharge Booster
P – 50 Scrap
Increases the speed at which your own FTL charges by a 25%. Extremely useful when you have to bail out immediately from a beacon you wish you never landed into in the first place. You can stack this augment in case of have multiple, but you usually will only want one of them in your ship, if any.

FTL Jammer
P – 30 Scrap
Makes the enemy to take double the amount of time they will normally take when preparing their FTL jump in order to flee. You will find these useful when going through a Rebel Controlled Sector or similar, where the rebel will try to bail out and warn the rebel fleet of your position, so our dear Elite guys I mentioned before can get to us sooner. Don’t let them escape. But try to avoid this augment at all costs when doing the Rock Cruiser unlock event, because the Rockmen ship you are fighting is supposed to get away to succeed.

Adv. FTL Navigation
P – 60 Scrap
Allows you to get to any previously visited beacon in a single jump, doesn’t matter how far it is from your current position. That way, you rush it near the exit beacon without actually entering it and then explore the rest of the sector freely knowing that when the rebel fleet is about to catch you, you’ll just jump back near the exit and get out of the sector in a single jump. And can also be used to easily dispatch the “we need escort to our destination” random even.

Distraction Buoys (Advanced Edition)
P – 55 Scrap
Leaves a false signal at the beginning of each sector, delaying the Rebel Fleet for 1 jump every time you enter a new sector. Cannot be stacked. I know that it always seems that there are some spare jumps every time you get into a new sector, even without augmentations. Well, you now have an extra one. Make it count!

About these ones… well, they just don’t fit with anything else in the list. This is some kind of tailor’s booth in which there are a lot of interesting things, so be sure to choose whatever fits better in your ship from this menu.

Long Range Scanners
P – 30 Scrap
Comes equipped in – All Stealth layouts
Invaluable. Remember when finding a ship with information about the sector, which upgrades your beacon map? Well, this augmentation allows to passively doing that in the beacons which are right next to you. You’ll now be able to see environmental hazards marked by a red circle (ion storms, asteroids, red giant stars, pulsars… but NOT ASBs, because those are not classified as “environmental”), tell if there is a ship waiting in there or not with a yellow warning triangle (does not specify if it is ally, neutral or enemy, nor which ship type is it; and keep in mind that not seeing the warning could result in a fight anyway, and seeing it doesn’t mean that the fight is unavoidable), and also replaces lv.3 sensors in most random events blue options. It can help a lot when unlocking some achievements or when doing quests for unlocking ships, because for finding the events you have to search for specific beacon. It is not even expensive! Go out there and get it!

Scrap Recovery Arm
P – 50 Scrap
Increases the Scrap collected from ANY source by a 10%, and can be stacked. It is not very effective in early sectors, but can grant a lot of free money by fourth sector and further. Consider that the game cuts all numbers that do not reach the next unit, even with nine tenths on the back. If you get it, take advantage if it as much as you can and sell it by the end of the seventh sector in order to get something that is actually useful for fighting the Rebel Flagship effectively using the spare scrap this augmentation gave you.

Drone Recovery Arm
P – 50 Scrap
Allows recovering your drone pieces from your own drones after a battle, but they must be active for that. Combat Drones pieces will be recover as soon as the enemy ship is destroyed and the Defensive Drones pieces will be retaken to your storage as soon as to FTL away from that beacon. Assault Drones are not recovered since they are destroyed with the ship explosion. Despite that, this literality erases the drone pieces consumption. And there is a little trick: a Hull Repair Drone takes a drone piece and repairs 3-5 hull points, then returns but the drone piece is spent. Well, no more! Like I said before, it works in a similar way than a defensive drone, and you can take advantage of that: activate it and let him heal you until he is about to start the third repair (if you want to have a granted result, but you can risk losing the drone piece and push your luck a little further), then jump away as it is repairing the third point. Since it was still active in the frame of your jump, the drone piece will be recovered, and the repairs remain!

Zoltan Shield Bypass (Advanced edition)
P – 50 Scrap
Bomb-type weapons and teleportation now are not affected by an enemy Zoltan Super Shield, even though the rest of the restrictions remain. But who cares! Ships with Zoltan Super Shields are often not ready to repel a direct assault from a boarding party, because they think they are save inside their extra protections. Some of them don’t even have med bay nor clone bay! Let’s have some fun.

Reconstructive Teleport (Advanced Edition)
P – 70 Scrap
Your crew gets fully healed when using the teleport system in both directions. You all know those “my boarding crew got injured in their way to the teleport, now back to the med bay to increase effectiveness” or those “I have a fast recharging teleport, but my boarders almost got annihilated in the enemy ship, so they are going to be sitting in the med bay for a while. That is a waste of time!” not to talk about those “barely got my guys out of there, now into the med bay, quick *welcoming missile hits the teleport room when they were still there and kill them both due to low HP* ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥!!! What did I do to deserve that!?”. Well, technically the latter is still possible if they unleash hell in the poor teleport room, but anyway…
This augmentation really shines when you have a clone bay and your boarders got back at really low health, which would have made the following teleport ineffective until they got back to full health again.

Lifeform Scanner (Advanced Edition)
P – 40 Scrap
Allows seeing the enemy crew even if your sensors are down or inactive due to nebula or hack. Pretty much works like having a Slug crewman, and it can be rather useful when aiming anti-personnel weapons or when using mind control (in that last case, seeing the enemy crew is mandatory). Since Advanced Edition, both the Slugs and this augmentation can also tell the race of the enemy crew instead of representing just red dots of which you had to try to figure out their type by how fast they moved. And remember to sell this augmentation for extra scrap if you hire a Slug crewman for your ship.

This type of augmentation cannot be bought, and they are really hard to find (before Advanced Edition, some of them could just not be found). They all come equipped in a certain type of ship and that’s why I call them “unique”, but you can also add them to a different ship if you find the special event in which they are given as a reward (and most of the times you are not granted to get it).

Engi Med-bot Dispersal
Comes equipped in - Engi A
Sell price – 30 Scrap
Special event for other ships – Rebel ship attacking Engi (you have to be generous with the Engi and give them a lot of supplies once you beat the Rebels).
Floods your ship with nanobots which continuously heal your crew at half the rate of a lv.1 med bay. It is not affected by the med bay upgrades and that system must be active for the augmentation to work. It won’t do anything if you have a clone bay instead of a med bay. It has also no effect on your boarding party on the enemy ship. What are the advantages, then? It gives you a massive upper hand against boarders and allows repairing breaches and putting out fires more safely (but you’ll still lose health, you are only more resistant). Also helps for those lazy captains who don’t want to keep sending your crew to the med bay every time they got slightly hit, since they will slowly get back to full health without abandoning their post.

Rock Plating
Comes equipped in – All Rock layouts
Sell price – 40 Scrap
Special event for other ships – the Rock ship unlock event (you just have to complete it, but you are not granted to get the augmentation).
Provides extra protection to your hull giving a 15% chance of negating hull damage (will display a white “RESIST” message when that happens), though the system, subsystem or crew in the room will still take damage. Really useful when fighting the Rebel Flagship in the second and third phase. It is also helps when doing the nearly impossible quest for unlocking the infamous Crystal Cruiser, since it grants to get the Stasis Pod (see more info a few lines ahead).

Titanium System Casting
Comes equipped in – Stealth A
Sell price – 40 Scrap
Special event for other ships – the Stealth ship unlock event (you just have to complete it, but you are not granted to get the augmentation).
Provides extra protection to your systems and subsystems giving a 15% chance of negating system or subsystem damage (will display a white “RESIST” message when that happens), though hull and crew in the room will still be damaged. It really comes in handy with the Stealth ship, in which you cannot afford having your systems down, but same could apply to any other ship, actually.

Drone Reactor Booster
Comes equipped in – Engi B
Sell price – 25 Scrap
Special event for other ships – the Engi virus event (you need a Lanius crewman or the Hacking system to unlock to proper blue options).
Increases the crew drones movement speed by a 25% (in old school FTL it said incorrectly 50%). It fits really well the Engi B since it has three crew drones and the ship relies heavily on them, but it will still do for any ship with crew drones. It does not affect the assault drones on the enemy ship, though. Pity.

Slug Repair Gel
Comes equipped in – All Slug layouts
Sell price – 30 Scrap
Special event for other ships – the Slug ship unlock event (you just have to complete it, but you are not granted to get the augmentation).
Works like the Fire Suppression augment mentioned a few lines back, but instead of putting out fires, it repairs breaches. It also does that at a slower rate compared to any crewman, but at least it won’t require your attention. If you already have an Engi fully dedicated to repairs or a System Repair Drone, you can just sell this for extra scrap.

Mantis Pheromones
Comes equipped in – All Mantis layouts
Sell price – 25 Scrap
Special event for other ships – none
Increases your crewmembers movement speed by a 25%. If you already had Mantis, then they are moving Faster Than Light…! Terrible pun, I know. It does also work in the enemy ship if you are boarding and will allow your repairman to get to the problems faster. Does not affect drones, since they have their own augmentation for that, but it’s still cool! And this is really unique; you cannot get it anywhere if you don’t have the Mantis ship, or at least that is what I have found out.

Crystal Vengeance
Comes equipped in – Both Crystal layouts
Sell price – 40 Scrap
Special event for other ships – none
This is other of these truly “unique” augmentations. It gives a 10% chance of automatically counterattacking every time you take damage with a single crystal shard like the ones from the Crystal Burst, with the same characteristics of all the projectiles of that type (check the Crystal Weapons section for more information). Destroying a ship with this counterattack gives the “Sweet Vengeance” achievement. And by the same procedure, remember that boarding a ship with low hull health can be extremely dangerous if you have this augmentation because you have no control over it at all and can blow sky high the ship with your guys inside.

Zoltan Shield
Comes equipped in – All Zoltan layouts
Sell price – 40 Scrap
Special event for other ships – the Zoltan ship unlock event (you just have to complete it, but you are not granted to get the augmentation).
I’ve been talking about him the whole guide and now it is time to explain it. The Zoltan Super Shields, everyone’s favorite. Makes you ship virtually invulnerable against all damage, teleportation, mind control and hacking until depleted. It even stops missiles and bombs! It has 5 super shield bubbles which do not regenerate (unless you have the Shield Overcharger drone) that will be consumed at the same rate as the hull health would have been dropped if it had been hit (ion weapons deal double damage and beams cause two rooms of damage whatever were its initial objective). The Zoltan Super Shield recharges back every time you enter a new beacon. It is great having one of these, but remember that the Zoltan Shield Bypass augmentation exists and some enemies may have it…

Damaged Stasis Pod (SPOILERS WARNING!)
Comes equipped in – none
Sell price – 15 Scrap
Special events for (all) ships – distress call in an empty asteroid field (you have a 1/3 chance to get it, but it is granted if you have the Rock Plating augmentation).
It is the first step to unlock the Crystal Cruiser. After you find it, you have to go to a Zoltan research station to use it in a blue option and get a Crystalmen crewmember, which will tell you that you have to go to the Rock Homeworlds to open some kind of portal to get to the Crystal Homeworlds, the secret sector, and unlock the Crystal Cruiser as soon as you get there. It is hard, REALLY HARD to do all that stuff in a single run, and you’ll literally need the stars to align for you, but if you want strategies for getting this vessel, better go to a specialized guide. Why did I said that this cointained spoilers? Because the Crystal Sector is supposed to be secret and you should have figured this process by yourself, which is ten times more satisfactory, and about a hundred times more frustrating. No kidding.

Every time you guys say something in the comment section down bellow about a mistake, I’ll just do a minor update in that section, but if you guys come up with a great tip or a strategy I didn’t thought or knew about, then I’ll write it down here for other people to read. Don’t worry; you will get credit for the scratch! Thanks for your collaboration!

"AB Sprunk" suggested a 4 Burst Laser MK II setup for your ship as the most effective layout in energy spending and shots fired. He also mentioned the possibility of having 2 Chain Vulcan for massive damage if you get your hands in them, because they are rare. Both setups require full upgraded weapon system and 8 energy bars.

"Maddyo_Swan" proposes an strategy with the Kestrel C (but, in my opinion, it could work with any ship with Lanius). Get a teleport, disable the enemy oxygen system (personal addition: breach-specialied weapons rock here) and then teleport the Lanius party in the ship, preferably in the oxygen system itself. They will speed up the oxygen lose rate and cause a lot of damage even after they left. The only flaw of this strategy are enemy Engi crewmen, because they can put the life suport back online faster, but keeping him under 65 HP will make him suffocate before he can repair it.

"thewebtiger1375" mentioned a synergy with the Cloack and Hacking systems. If I got it right, he sais that, having the weapons hacked and cloaking just after they fire (standard strategy with the Cloacking system, the intention here is being invisible as soon as they open fire so they waste their barriage), and when they are about to fire again, since you are probably still with the cloack in cool down, hack their weapons so they charge backwards and in between all that, you finish charging your Cloack system and you can become invisible once again and let them waste their charge once more. This strategy does wanders with the Stealth ships and the Zoltan B, which all lack shields.

"Happiness Officer" stated about using the Healing Bomb smartly when boarding. Whitout the threat of an inmediate death because of the HB back-up, you may want to disturbe as many enemy crew as possible, being the pilot the main target of the mess. Getting in and out of the bridge may make the pilot chase after you, effectively dragging him out of his task and greatly reducing the ship's evasion for uncoming barrages.

Hey people! I have recently published another guide in the Steam Community, this time about the in-development videogame that is DayZ, which the only objetcive of giving you the chance of becoming the most dedicated medic of the wasteland... or at least make you survive more than an hour straight. If you happened to play it or you are thinking about giving it a try, then you may be interested on reading it: The Doctor's Handbook: health and medicine in DayZ

BTW, the March of War guide I was talking about is done and uploaded. Have you have it, then I recommend checking it out: March of War - The European Alliance Arsenal

I have recently finished a guide which explains in detail all classes and tank models in the Valkyria Chronicles game, plus some tips and strategies on my behalf. Plot spoilers have been keep to a bare minimum: Valkyria Chronicles - A Word in Classes

I decided to write another "Reference" guide. This time about Invisible Inc, a game with a FTL-ly feel. All weapons, gadgets, augmentations and enemies are listed and explained. Enjoy!
Invisible Inc Reference - Weapons, Gadgets, Augmentations and Enemies

Side Note: does anyone know how to put a guide link that displays the image, description and author all toguether, pretty much like the view from the guides HUB? I have seen it in other guides, but I don't know how to do it XD. Please tell me in the comments.

I want to thank you guys for reading my guide, whatever you read it from top to bottom or you just checked a specific piece of info you were curious about. I hope I have written everything crystal clear and that there are no doubts left, but if you have some, ask in the comment section and I’ll answer you as soon as I read them.

Nothing more from me, I hope you enjoyed. Pelandes, signing out!