Using Ion Weapons

[Sines]

So, I've been playing for a while, but I just do not get Ion weapons. While I do use them, it's pretty much solely because I got one for free, whether from an event or as a starting weapon. But when it comes to stores, I just do not understand why I would get one over just getting a laser. In the end, they both disable systems. And while there are some advantages to Ion weapons, like that the damage cannot be repaired except by waiting, they seem to be just way too niche to ever choose over a laser weapon if you had both for free.

So can anyone explain to me how to use Ion weapons in such a way that I wouldn't be just as well off using lasers? My next run will be with the Noether, the Zoltan B ship, which comes with 2 Ion cannons. If that's a decent start to an ion-utilizing build, then give me advice on how to work that ship. And either way, general Ion use advice would be appreciated. I want to enjoy everything this game has to offer, but I just do not see the point of Ion weapons.

[Antorius]

Well, speaking as someone who has only ever piloted the Kestrels and Engi A, the short cooldown on the Engi A starting ion weapon is absurdly powerful. Stacking ion weapons basically means you can kill just about anything with a pike beam or even a combat drone, on full auto-shoot.

[Tomdroid]

If there is an enemy with multiple shields, just put some ions on auto fire, and watch it go away. So, if you can't get past with laser, and you don't wanna use a missile, ions are nice.

[Sines]

So, essentially, if you can chain Ions (or have one of the faster ones that can self chain) they put the shield out of commission permanent, as compared to merely opening it for a brief window like Lasers do. This would make it easier for drones to score hits, and you would no longer have to sync up your other weapons fire, effectively speeding your attack rate for your other weapons.

This comes with the downside, however, that a dodged shot can break the Ion chain, and therefore you want to be able to miss a shot and still chain, or to fire at the helm or engines as soon as reasonable.

I think I got it. I'll try out a few ships with starter Ion cannons and try to make weapons build favoring their usage.

[N3m4t4]

Ion blast I is a very decent 1 power bar weapon to finish a build if you don't have any better since it will not delay even a flak mk1 + dual laser burst when shot first. Very decent for the Flagship's Zoltan shield too.

With two fired at like 4 second interval on auto fire (ctrl +click the shield, wait 4 seconds, pick the second and ctrl + click the shield again), you can perma disable any shield just like the Ion blast II does but for less energy at the cost of two weapon slots.

That said, Heavy Ion and Chain Ion are complete rubbish imo, and since maintaining a ion chain requires the helm to be down on the flagship, I'll discard Ion Blast II or a second Ion Blast I at the first sight of a half decent laser like burst mk1 to replace them. Vulcan can do all what the ion chains do and some more without caring much about evades...

For Zoltan type B, I just used the ions on cooldown on the weapon system and used the pike whenever it was ready and the shield was down on the first ennemies, then the perma disable strat on bigger shields and pike (or any replacement) on cooldown on the most annoying systems. By the end, I replaced as much as possible to get a regular laser strat (something like ion I + 3* dual shot lasers, hopefully get a burst II or flak I instead).

[Sines]

Why do you stagger the Ion Blast instead of firing them together?

[N3m4t4]

After further testing, you indeed don't need to bother with delaying the 2nd, I was wrongly thinking ion only lasted 5 seconds after the last hit, which is stupid since even if I don't use it often, opposing ships and the ion storm hazard do and it definitely lasts more than 5 seconds after it stacks.

Even if delaying still does work anyway, It's a bad idea since not shooting them at the same time makes it so a defense drone II can shut down both hits.

[Sines]

Yah, I had sensors up and ran a test. Whenever you hit an already ionized system, the number inside will go up by one, while the "5 second ring" bit stays the same.

Anyway, I beat the game on easy with it. Partially because I was more concerned with unlocking than score or challenge. I did fairly well against the flagship, though I did make a couple of mistakes.

My loadout was...

Ion Blast
Ion Blast
Pike Beam
Ion Bomb

Defense Drone
Fire Drone

Hacking
Mind Control

I had a combat drone and a charge laser in reserve. Now, in retrospect, I should have placed the Charge Laser in place of the Pike Beam. While the Pike Beam is nice, this setup left me with almost no capacity to directly attack a system. With the Charge Laser, I could have simply fired 4 shots at the missle room as soon as the shields were low enough, and I would have escaped stage one with a lot more health.

Second off, I should have swapped out the fire drone for the combat drone after stage one. While I hadn't quite finished killing everyone (accidentally broke the ship in stage one before I could burn them all out), direct damage would have been more important, as the only real threat was the drone spam part, which I could do nothing about except for ending the fight faster. Ditto with part three.

I ended up having to use Hacking on the Shields, thanks to dodge rates and a lack of laser spam to just brute force the shields down. Not a bad plan, but I would have been better off if I could have spared it for other systems.

Ions work really well with the Zoltan Shield, as they do tend to need to build up a bit, but will devastate once they get going.

So after this experiment, I'd say the chief advantage of an Ion system is that once it gets going, you can keep your enemies shields down permanently for only 2-3 Energy. The downside is that you really need to be able to stack the Ion charges somehow, which practically necessitates at least 2 systems (some Ion cannons can stack on their own, but you also want to account for missed shots) and that it takes longer than just punching down their shields with some missles or burst lasers.

One interesting side note about Ions, however, is that they're incredibly easy weapons to train up. Since they do no damage, and can prevent the enemy doing damage to you, you can just max out your weapons officer very quickly. Just find a ship without shields, and pelt their weapons system. This is particularly useful for ions, as faster fire rate improves their margin of error for how many shots they can miss, and help them build up faster. Not to mention, with shields always down, and not having to fire your weapons in synch, you can make better use out of every fire rate enhancing bonus you can get.

[Skinny Pete]

Ions stack and can be autofired to keep shields down so your actual damaging weapons always hit and cause damage instead of just being wasted on shields. By themselves, ion weapons are (nearly) useless. They're always a weapon to use to make sure your other weapons cause damage.

Stacking is their most important feature. Ion damage to systems can stack to 5.

Fire drones aren't that great. They take 3 power and just starting one or two fires is rarely all that useful. A fire beam for 2 power is the ultimate fire weapon as you can set most of the enemy ship on fire with it.

[DarkTwinge]

Here's a video covering the details of how Ion works.

It's generally most useful in conjunction with beams and offensive drones, though also works well enough with other damage options such as Heavy Lasers. The Ion Charger is the most powerful ion weapon, and the Heavy Ion & Chain Ion are the worst.

[anarcher]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Skinny Pete:

Ions stack and can be autofired to keep shields down so your actual damaging weapons always hit and cause damage instead of just being wasted on shields. By themselves, ion weapons are (nearly) useless. They're always a weapon to use to make sure your other weapons cause damage.

Stacking is their most important feature. Ion damage to systems can stack to 5.

Fire drones aren't that great. They take 3 power and just starting one or two fires is rarely all that useful. A fire beam for 2 power is the ultimate fire weapon as you can set most of the enemy ship on fire with it.

If you count the time it takes to charge up the fire beam, vs. the fire drone, the drone wins on the amount of fires started assuming the shields are down the whole time.

[Skinny Pete]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von anarcher:

If you count the time it takes to charge up the fire beam, vs. the fire drone, the drone wins on the amount of fires started assuming the shields are down the whole time.

Being able to aim it and the length of the beam, though, means if you've already caused any system damage and also set that room on fire, along with every other important system room in the ship, it is usually 20-30 seconds from that to the enemy ship being totally nonfunctional.

I have had the fire drone operating entire fights without ever causing more than a nuisance.

[Sines]

Fire Drone also has the advantage of using up drone slots, rather than weapon slots. It can often fit a bit more easily into your loadout than the Fire Beam, especially if you won't be needing a Defense Drone.

Of course, you very rarely get to pick one or the other, so it's more a question of whichever one you come across. All other things being equal, I'd prefer the Fire Beam, as being able to aim it is easily worth the slower rate of fire, especially when you take into fact that the Fire Drone will often times target already burning, or air-less, tiles.

[Baron von Dapper]

Ion weaponry is best at taking down sheilds as for example if you fire a laser and it hits the sheild will be down for 1-2 seconds if you hit it with an ion weapon it will be down for 5+ seconds, so the ion is mainly to get rid of sheilds, however a powerful ion weapon that can do (let's say 2 ion damage) on a ship with many engi will likely keep a system down longer (unless the engi are preoccupied with other systems or boarders) than another weapon.

[Skinny Pete]

That's a good example of how it can be useful to target systems other than shields with ions. Especially once you have the shields down for good, ions should then be used on systems you want down. Like that weapons system about to fire a breach missile at you.

In theory you can even kill the enemy crew by keeping their oxygen system ionized until they asphyxiate, although this is rarely practical.