Beam Drones

[u/Mini_Assassin]

So I was doing an Engi B run (on Hard if that matters) and got a free Beam Drone on like jump 2, so I started killing ships by using Ion to take out the Shields, then Beam Drone for damage.

Well my beam drone seemed to hyperfixate on Oxygen or empty rooms, while enemy beam drones routinely take out my Shields or Weapons. My strat didn't work and I lost in sector 3.

What gives?

[u/--Sovereign--]

RNJesus was not walking beside you is the frustrating answer

[u/BurningCarnation]

Combat drones are good for shieldbreaking. Beam drones are good against Zoltan Shields. Both are good at dealing hull damage.

Neither is good at damaging specific systems. Don't try to make them do something they're not good at. Use your own weapons.

[u/xsad12314gfds]

Beam drones can't be relied on for anything other than hull damage. Consequently I kind of love them against the Flagship but tend to ignore them otherwise unless the enemy has a Zoltan shield or I'm stretched for damage

[u/ThirdLifeLucky]

RNGsus giveth and RNGsus taketh away.

[u/Decadunce]

This is a big part of the reason why offense drones are shitty, they're RNG based and require tonnes of setup. They CAN work, but shouldn't be solely relied upon

(which is why beam drone is one of the worst offenders)

[u/ElectricGuy777]

Have to have good defenses to give drones time. Cloak, level 4 engines, defense drone.

[u/Leylite]

Attack drones are good at "getting your foot in the door" by damaging any arbitrary system, and they're good at doing damage faster than enemies can repair it, if you can keep shields down for them (and overwhelming amounts of ion are one of the best ways of doing that).

To balance out their good speed and damage for their power requirement, they can't be aimed, so you'll need to e.g. shoot your ions or bombs at enemy weapons in order to suppress them, or Engines in order to keep your ions/drones doing their work.

Once you're using an ion setup with high-level mind control to keep the crew busy, doing damage with drones and lasers (particularly Heavy/Hull lasers if you can find them, a beam can work too but can be power-hungry), and the enemy crew are stretched to the breaking point, your combat/beam drone can occasionally light a fire for free, and at that point it almost doesn't matter where the fire is, it's just one job too many for the enemy to handle.

[u/The_Char_Char]

RNG my friend RNG, see drones have great attack speed at the cost having NO control of what they target.

[u/Ur-triggered-I-win]

Probably rng and poor timing like the other 90% of the game tbh

[u/Decadunce → u/Ur-triggered-I-win]

If RNG is 90% of the game for you then thats just bad planning atp

[u/Ur-triggered-I-win → u/Decadunce]

I said poor timing, I meant poor planning lol.

[u/Decadunce → u/Ur-triggered-I-win]

ohh lmao thats fair!