Ion Usage

[Sines]

I'm still not entirely clear on how Ion weapons work.

As far as I can tell, each point of Ion damage disables another bar of the system, while adding 5 seconds to the duration. There is no need to 'stagger' incoming Ion Damage. Does real damage and ion damage stack, or are they mutually exclusive? For example, a ship has 4 bars of shields, takes on laser damage, and one ion damage. Does it have 3 or 2 bars of shield remaining?

But I'm still not sure, so I wanted to clarify. As far as I can tell, Ion is somewhat limited in usefulness, because all it's good at doing is lowering the shield, since it can 'damage' the shield system while the shields are still up. This limits the usefulness of all but the Mark II Ion Blaster since it's the only one that can maintain it's Ion damage on it's own. Ion Bomb is nice, as it pierces shields and can go straight to whatever system you like, although I think I prefer to plant a regular bomb and break the system, while setting it on fire or breaching the hull.

[5thHorseman]

I don't like to think of ion as "damage." I refer to it as "ion" and when you hit a shield you are "ioning" it. Ions are a little tricky. I suggest experimenting and noting what happens. Ions take off of "full shields" while lasers damage "current shields"

To answer your question: If you hit it laser, then ion, it would have 3 shields left, and that shield would come up after about 5 seconds or so. If you hit it ion then laser, though, they'd be at 2 shields. One would come up in a second or so and the other 5 seconds later. So, you want to hit ions first.

Ions don't work all that well alone (Except the Ion Blast II), and in many cases you'll be wishing you had a laser instead. They work best in pairs where you can keep hitting a system (usually shields) until it's down and will never come up.

The important (and powerful) thing about ions is that if you hit a system that is already ioned (or recharging, like a cloak or teleporter), then the new ion "damage" is ADDED to the current. For shields, you also continue to take them down so long as the ion effect does not wear off before you hit them again. So, if you can pummel a shield with ions, it'll come down eventually no matter how many they started with.

You can in theory beat the final boss with 2 Ion Blasts and a Basic Laser. I wouldn't suggest it, but it's possible. The same cannot be said for 3 Basic Lasers.

[The Captain]

Ions don't work all that well alone (Except the Ion Blast II)...

And the Ion Bomb - does 4 ion damage, which will ionize two layers of Shields - not too shabby. It does require ammo, though. Not a fast weapon, either.

An Ion Blast Mk I fires quickly enough that two consecutive hits will take down a shield layer. But when enemy evasion goes up, it does need help.

Another thing ion weapons can do is keep firing without much supervision while you're boarding, as they don't do actual damage,and your weapons officer gains experience. You have to be a little more careful with other weapons, so as not to hit your away team or destroy the ship while they're still on board.

After you've taken the enemy's shields down with ion weapons, and put a few volleys in for good measure, you can switch to other systems and temporarily take them offline, too.

[5thHorseman]

Ions don't work all that well alone (Except the Ion Blast II)...

And the Ion Bomb - does 4 ion damage, which will ionize two layers of Shields - not too shabby. It does require ammo, though. Not a fast weapon, either.

An Ion Blast Mk I fires quickly enough that two consecutive hits will take down a shield layer. But when enemy evasion goes up, it does need help.

I forgot about the Ion Bomb, but I hate anything that needs missiles

In my experience, by the time you can do that with the Ion Blast 1 (which IIRC takes a fully leveled gunner AND an auto reloader), enemies are good enough at dodging to make it not work so well. Give me a second Ion Blast (or an Ion Blast 2) any day over that.

[Twinge]

You are correct - each point of ion damage takes down 1 power bar and lasts for 5 seconds.

For a single Ion Blast I to chain, you would actually need 2 Automated Reloaders AND a Level 2 Creman manning the system. It's still an okay weapon though, because it costs 1 power to take down 1 shield bubble on an 8-sec cooldown - not bad.

Also worth noting is that if you get the cooldown low enough (one Reloader can basically get you there, though does require some careful aiming and timing), a single Ion Blast II can actually lock down both the Shields AND another system at the same time.

As for the bomb - Ion Bomb is the single strongest weapon in the game IMO. It combos well with almost everything, does a massive 4 bars worth of ion damage (two hits in a row completely locks down FOUR shield bubbles), chains with itself and requires a mere 1 power - the missile requirement is not a big deal at all.

Heavy Ion is mostly terrible, being a 2-power ion weapon that cannot chain with itself at all (without a Reloader+Crewman). This is a big part of why the Engi B is as awful as it is. However, it still has some use comboed with other ion sources, because then it can still stack nicely.


As for combined damage stacking - my understanding is that if you do 2 ion damage to a tier 4 Shield System and then do 2 system damage, it will only drop the shields to tier 3. However if you deal the 2 system damage and then 2 ion damage, it'll drop to tier 2 shields because the ion damage only affects what is powered when it hits. (I'm not 100% certain of this, though.)

[BKT]

As for combined damage stacking - my understanding is that if you do 2 ion damage to a tier 4 Shield System and then do 2 system damage, it will only drop the shields to tier 3. However if you deal the 2 system damage and then 2 ion damage, it'll drop to tier 2 shields because the ion damage only affects what is powered when it hits. (I'm not 100% certain of this, though.)

You're correct. Ion basically remove power from the system, while 'normal' damage destroy the system's 'bar'

The most visible example of this is a Breach MK2 bomb (or any 3+ dmg weapon) + Ion bomb— if you fired the Ion bomb first then Breach afterward, the enemy still have 2 shields, but if you fired the Breach first and then Ion, the enemy will have no shields left at all.

[The Captain]

D'OH! For some reason I thought I remembered seeing the Ion Blast chain, but clearly my memory has been playing tricks on me.

[BKT]

For any Ion lover who haven't try this yet, here's a dumb, yet funny and incredibly effective strats that you can try!

What you need

- 4 Ion gun that can be use all at once (4x Ion MK1, 4x Heavy Ion, 2x MK2 + something, etc)
- 2 Reloader for a setup with Ion blast MK1, if not, you need only 1
- Lv.2 weapon crew
- Some kind of attack drones— the Beam one is recommended

What to do in battle

1- At the start of battle ...

• For any non-automate ships, auto-fire at this system :

• Cockpit
• Weapon
• Shields
• Oxygen

• For any automate ships, auto-fire at this system :

• Cockpit
• Weapon
• Shields
• Drones Control / Something
• + Deploy your attack drone

   
2- Have some beer ...
3- Win!

[5thHorseman]

For any Ion lover who haven't try this yet, here's a dumb, yet funny and incredibly effective strats that you can try!

What you need

- 4 Ion gun that can be use all at once (4x Ion MK1, 4x Heavy Ion, 2x MK2 + something, etc)
- 2 Reloader for a setup with Ion blast MK1, if not, you need only 1
- Lv.2 weapon crew
- Some kind of attack drones— the Beam one is recommended

What to do in battle

1- At the start of battle ...

• For any non-automate ships, auto-fire at this system :

• Cockpit
• Weapon
• Shields
• Oxygen

• For any automate ships, auto-fire at this system :

• Cockpit
• Weapon
• Shields
• Drones Control / Something
• + Deploy your attack drone

   
2- Have some beer ...
3- Win!

You just gave me an idea: Red Tail with Ion 1's instead of Basic Lasers. Might have to nerf something else (no shields or maybe make it 3 ions on a ship with only 3 weapons) because if you find another weapon, you can kill the final boss with 3 ions and anything

Time to do some play testing!

[BKT]

3 Ion also work, but it's not as foolproof (i.e. dumb) since it require more attention, and so you may not be able to relax and enjoy your beer as much as using 4 Ion gun.