Best items by faction.

[Equalizer]

Now that I have all the DLCs I would like to equip my ships with the best items: shields, weapons, engines, etc. What are the faction specific items that are best to use?

[Gibbo]

Terran shields, Split weapons and Split mk4 comabt engines. You don't have to have Split weapons. You may not like them? They are an up close and personal weapons lol. To be honest a mk 2 pulse laser is enough, but you want something that packs more punch. I wouldn't use beams. I only use them on turrets.

[conrado.lacerda]

Terran shields as mentioned, and they also have some excellent weapons, notably their pulse laser (very accurate) and their version of the repeater (accurate and powerful, but can only be equipped on terran ships).

Split weapons are very powerful, but suffer from low accuracy and range; still, they're a great choice for OOS combat. The Split also have Mk4 combat engines, but they're insanely expensive.

Boron stuff can only be equipped on Boron ships.

Nice video guide: https://youtu.be/Hji_IvgpUlQ?si=wRXbFa9tnacmaYCj

[Gibbo]

lol the sound from the repeater is excellent and the Terran version even better. That's one of my favourite weapons, but as mentioned can only be fitted to Terran ships.

A lot depends on what you're doing and what ship you use. I like several. The Hydra is probably my most used and they can only have Boron kit, Katana is great and I do like a Dragon with its 6 guns. Now you fit 6 Taus to that and only destroyers and upwards have more firepower. Can 1-2 shot any S ship and in the players hands can be very good in a dogfight. But they are rubbish when the ai controls them. They are like glass as have low shields, but a decent player can deal with that. When you fire the Taus the whole cockpit moves back and forth lol and it's great fun gliding in and blasting ships and just picking them off. Taus are very close range weapons. A bit risky in a Dragon, but lots of fun.

[Doom]

Originally posted by Equalizer:

Now that I have all the DLCs I would like to equip my ships with the best items: shields, weapons, engines, etc. What are the faction specific items that are best to use?

It is a matter of taste, and not all equipment is compatible, remember?

Generally a common suggestion would be:
Argon M Flak (high turn rate)
Terran L Beam (damage boost)
Terran Shields.

But. Beyond that it is matter of choice. Also Flak + Lasers is "anti-fighter" defense, an people can equip their ships very differently. It used to be a common advice to install Terran L Combat Engines onto L ships, but now there's Beta version, there will be changes in the engines, so the advice will no longer apply. Regarding split engines, Split engines have slower travel speed. Sometimes that matters.

Terran "Proton Barrage" is quite good, but only goes onto terran ships.

Also see this: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2826705145

Also, note that in encyclopedia there's "ship comparison" menu where you can quickly throw together a loadout and see what numbers it gets you.

[blackphoenixx]

Terran shields are best for M and larger ships but for S ships i generally prefer the shorter recharge delay of PAR shields over the ability to take one more pulse laser shot.

For weapons it's mostly a choice between beams, shard batteries and pulse lasers if you want to stick to non-missile weapons, or proton barrage for TER and PIO ships.
Otherwise light smart missiles vs fighters and heavy heatseekers vs stations and capitals.

For engines it depends on what the ship is doing, especially in 7.5 (all the following applies to that):

- Split engines generally have the highest cruise speed which is important for combat and patrol behavior, but their travel drive top speed, charge time and acceleration sucks.

- Argon engines are generally slightly above average in most categories with strong boost (good for smaller combat ships)

- Teladi engines are slightly slower than Argon but have shorter TD charge and faster TD acceleration (good for traders & miners)

- Paranid have second-highest cruise speeds and highest TD top speed but slow TD charge & acceleration and weak boost (good for traders, especially slow ones like the Vulture or Tern).

- Terran engines have slow top speeds but very strong boost and very fast TD charge time and acceleration (generally good for already-fast small combat ships and L & XL traders & miners, the fast TD acceleration is VERY noticable on those).

[Equalizer]

Thanks for all your answers, it will help me a lot :)