Two Offensive Done I, or One Offensive Drone II?

[Thward]

I am now the proud owner of two offensive Done I units, and an offensive Drone II unit. I only have four drone power capability and I'm not buying much more. Which is better, the Drone II or the two Drone Is? I'm selling whichever combo is worse. If they're equal I'd keep the Drone II because it gives me more remaining drone slots to play with on my Engi B. I'm parked at a store right now, so I eagerly await your responses.

[Jimmy McGill]

It is your decision, but if I would be you I could use a Combat I and II and later replace the I with something more useful.

[Kaerius]

I'd keep the MK II, but that said, there's certainly a point that could be made about having two drones that fire in sync, they'll more easily get through a single layer of shields(any more than that and the MK II is just as good as 2 MK Is).

[Psykechan]

Neither is better. The two Defense I drones are more preferable in my opinion but you'll have to use more drone parts. The Defense II shoots faster than a Defense I, but remember that it does shoot lasers as well as missiles.

[Kaerius]

Originally posted by Psykechan:

Neither is better. The two Defense I drones are more preferable in my opinion but you'll have to use more drone parts. The Defense II shoots faster than a Defense I, but remember that it does shoot lasers as well as missiles.

It's offense drones, not defense drones. :p

[David]

Sinnaj and Kaerius have the gist of it. It depends on how you define better. 2* combat drone I is better in terms of dps and shield breaking, 1* combat drone II will save you a slot but require more power or power-switching. I'd keep the combat II personally, and maybe at least one combat I.

[1bean234]

Take the lv2. It frees a space which could be used for another drone system, and it dosnt cost nearly as much in drone parts.

[TehJumpingJawa]

Neither, offensive drones suck. (fire drone being the one exception)

[Jimmy McGill]

Originally posted by TehJumpingJawa:

Neither, offensive drones suck. (fire drone being the one exception)

Maybe you should experiment with layouts. Because Offensive Drones are as good as every other drones, and if anything, Fire and Beam Drones suck.

[gambit]

I was forced to play with fire drone with Vortex.
No other offensive drone was available ingame. Funny I got another fire drone as a reward in sector 8. And that was after shop I found in sector 8.
Anyway didn't use it much, but it did it'sjob in flagship phase 3.
If you can get shields down for 10 seconds, maybe even less, it will wreck havoc.

Anyway combat drones. Depends if you have 3 or 2 drone slots, and how much drone parts you have.
Did anyone try combat2 against anti-combat drone?

[Basement cat]

I don't like the laser drones. They belong to the "overwhelm" catagory.

I can only think of vulcan when it comes to overwhelm type weapon. Maybe chain laser too.

[arealhumanbean]

Use one of each type. For the boss battle Defense I can only take out 1 of the 3 rockets each volley, while Defense II can take out 2. This means if you can keep both up you should be able to negate that problem and even gimp some of the other laser attacks. Sometimes a rocket will get through though, because Defense II likes shooting at lasers from time to time. If you're focusing on droids, you should have a couple of power left over (3 I think?) to use an attack droid of some type.

[Pelandes]

IMO, two Laser Drones MK I are better that a LD MK II, but you'll have to consider that the drone piece consuption will be doubled.

Here is why I prefer it. Having two LD MK I allows you to recieve damage in the Drone Control Room and still have the chance of having at least one MK I working, because only the first one will deactivate. The same applies if you have to take power from somewhere in an emergency and you can deactivate one of your drones for 2 extra power and still have the other one working. This wont be possible with a MK II, because in both cases will stop working instantly.

And there is a way to avoid the double consuption rate of drone pieces: the Drone Piece Recovery augmentation (I think that's the name, but I may have misspelt).

But, giving the random nature of FTL, you should just take what you got in a lucky event and be thankful that you got it, wherever it is the most efficient or not. Just keep an eye for stores in the path as it may allow you to search for another options.

[anarcher]

^ It's called "Drone Recovery Arm".

[slappy_d0]

With recovery arm use 2 level 1's, then if the system takes a hit one is still running. Without recovery arm take 1 level 2.

[Drain]

The damage rate is basically the same, as is the power. The main difference is that the bigger drone only costs 1 part, which is obviously smarter than spending 2 parts to do the same thing. 2 drones is a bit safer because if the system gets hit, you'll only lose 1 of 2, not the whole single drone, but it isn't worth dumping parts twice as fast. You can also take advantage of having a second slot open, rather than being 2/2 on drones. Although the Engi ship gets 3, so this isn't really a concern.