Pre-igniter vs Auto-loader

[MC3craze]

I've been debating with myself over which augmentation is better. The Pre-igniter is great for weapons with long recharge times, but so is the reloader. The reloader also stacks, but that means it takes more slots (not that big of a deal, augments aren't that common.)

Which do you think is better?

[BKT]

Pre-igniter vs Auto-loader

- Ignitor, of course.


I never play the game with an expectation to get one, though— In real playthrough, where you want to win in every game you play, things become much more complicated and never really that simple and clear-cut as my answer might suggest...

... Not to mention that you can always have both of them at the same time.

[Fluffywolf]

Pre igniter is great all around. With pre-igniter and cloak you can pretty much kill or at least severely disable all enemy ships before they have a chance to fire. Even the last boss can be killed really quick if you have something like two burst laser mk II and two hull beams that way.

Reloader is only good when you dont have good weapons and have to fight longer battles or if you use missile tactics and want to get your missiles in before they can and cripple their weapons. But all in all, igniter is pretty much always better.

I also loved my rock cruiser B run with pre-igniter and 4 fire bombs with teleporter and two rock boarding teams, also cloak ofcourse so the fires have some time to do their damage to their systems. Unfortunately I died in sector seven with that set up to a 6 mantis boarding party (two from the ship and four from random encounter) killing my cloak pretty much instantly and a few unlucky fire bomb misses. :'(

[magicwalker]

If you use a strategy that involves using Ions- or in general weapons that have a short cooldown, then the Auto-loader makes them just that much more powerful. A Ion Mk II with an Auto-loader *chews* through all kinds of shields. Follow up with beam weapons to hit the cockpit/engine, and you spammy Ions will never miss and your enemy will never be able to repair. So I wouldn't say that the Pre-igniter is best in *all* cases- it obviously shines when you have weapons with long cooldowns- Glaive Beam, Burst Laser MK III, Fire Beam, etc. etc.

[al244098]

Preigniter: Long recharge time, better chance of taking down enemy systems

Auto-Reloader: short-medium recharge time

[Kenshkrix]

I pretty much always go for an auto-reloader, because I prefer to remove enemy shields with ion blasts.
If you have 2 or more ion blasts (And master gunner), then the reloader allows you to apply an infinitely increasing amount of ion damage, allowing you to defeat any ship without worry...
Except the mantis boarding event + mantis boarding ship + boarding drones all at the same time.

[cometbus]

Foolish question that has probably already been answered numerous times:

Does the Auto-Loader augmentation also speed up the charging of the Artillery Beam on Fed Cruisers?

[BKT]

It does.

[cometbus]

Great, thanks! Figured it did, now that just makes it even higher priority for Fed Cruiser runs.

[5thHorseman]

Too bad the pre-igniter doesn't do the same!