What's up with the Lock Decoder?

[K. the Land-Surveyor]

Maybe I'm not being open-minded enough, but it seems like a pretty weak and almost unnecessary item. Having a permanent keycard is cool, I guess, but its stats (Two turns to work, three turn cooldown) makes it seems like it's meant to bust through heavy doors, but the only doors I've seen like that are Vault doors, which it doesn't work on.

Is there some secondary use for it? The only use that springs to mind is Security Dispatch missions, where you can get the gear without having to find a guard first. I've never come across a locked door I had to go through, usually locked doors just mean I need to take a slightly more inconvenient route if I don't have a keycard/Banks with me.

I'm a dirty pleb who hasn't completed the game on Experienced difficulty yet, though, so maybe there's a good use for it I just haven't seen yet.

[lozacenz]

it's not uncommon for the routs which pass through locked doors to be safer, and faster. not always, of course. the decoder gives up (some of) that speed advantage to keep the safty advantage without having to find a keycard or bring Banks with you. it's quite useful, really. whether it's More useful than something else is, of course, debateable.

i'm not sure there Are locked doors other than vault doors and the mission type you mentioned that you ever have to go through. sometimes it's a choice between one of those or finding the power supply for an energy barrier, though, which can be a long way out of your way. it's also not uncommon for the locked doors to be a Much shorter/safer path to the exit, particularly if hte exit's near the entrance and you can unlock them on the way in.

[Qfasa]

I don't have Banks in my current team and at the higher level missions I can't run through the level like a wind, instead I can stuck very often in one room for a few turns. As a result Nika has plenty of time to open me those doors with the Decoder and increase number of my routes. She also has that implant to decrease cooldown of items she uses, so I find that Lock Decoder is very useful for me now.

In fact, before I thought about lots of items and programs that they are useless but after day 5 in Endless mode I've changed my mind :D Suddenly I need buster chips, I need flash grenades, I desperately want to use Wisp but Incognita has no room for it. I'm even thinking to start use Tag Pistol! All of those things were useless for me at the start of the endless run but now they can save my life more often than I ever thought.

[obliviondoll]

I've used it when I've got to do something. Place it on the door, leave it to do its thing while my agent loots the nearby safes, then when I return to the door, it's unlocked and I can retreive the decoder.

It's not hugely powerful, but it's also a cheap purchase, and the times it lets you loot that one extra room you'd otherwise miss out on can make up the cost.