Cloak: Is it useful?

[Rufus Gorgonzola]

I have played FTL quite some time and have managed to beat the boss with the Kestral A on easy and came quite close to do so on normal.

In about 60 games I have bought the cloaking device once and felt that it was an utter waste of money. Now I wonder whether I am missing something or not.

What does the cloaking device do?
It allows you to avoid one volley of enemy shots and gain a slight edge regarding recharge time every minute or so at the first level. At a considerable cost of 150 IIRC.

But is that worth it? Investing in shields and engines will shield you from laser and beam weapons and investing in defense drones will protect you from missles; and those have no cooldown phase that leave you vulnerable and do not require micromanagement.

Why and when do you buy and use cloaking devices?

[The Captain]

Yes, a cloak is very useful. Yes, you are missing something.

A cloak will allow you to dodge more than one volley of shots in longer fights. When your engines + pilot + engineer reach 40% evasion, the cloak will get you to 100%. Defense drones do not always shoot down missiles, especially with larger ships; they can also be taken out with a lucky shot, leaving you vulnerable to missiles, if you're not paying attention. Your shields can be knocked down with ions & volume of shots, and beams don't miss - you might like to be able to cloak before shots or beams hit you, giving your shields time to recharge.

A cloak, especially if upgraded, will give you some time to repair systems, which might make the difference in not getting blown up, or being able to escape, or winning a battle - or even the game. While cloaked, your weapons will charge (assuming the enemy doesn't also have one), which can be important if you have ones that take a while. If you have Stealth Weapons with the right weapons loadout, you can shoot an an enemy with impunity, and their weapons can't even charge. A cloak is also very useful against the boss surges.

I guess you haven't played the Stealth cruisers? They don't start with shields, so you might be very glad they have cloaks.

Yes, a cloak is very expensive, so you're not going to want to buy it right away. And you don't need it to win (Fed cruisers can't buy it because of the Artillery beam). But it is definitely not a waste of scrap (when you can afford it).

[Rufus Gorgonzola]

So what sector do you usually buy and upgrade cloak?

[zeek]

Cloak is not a critical upgrade for most of the game, but it definitely has its moments. For instance if the enemy has a couple ion weapons or an ion blast mk II the ion effect can add up and disable all your shields. If you have cloak you can time it to dodge a shot and give the ion effect time to wear off.

Also when fighting the flagship (on normal at least) cloak level 1 will cool down just in time to dodge the power surge attacks in both round 2 and 3.

[aaaaaa50]

Also when fighting the flagship (on normal at least) cloak level 1 will cool down just in time to dodge the power surge attacks in both round 2 and 3.

A little extra note on that: For whatever reason, the boss surges are on a timer that isn't affected by cloaking, so if you want to use cloak to dodge them you need to only use level one cloaking or the timing's off.

[The Captain]

So what sector do you usually buy and upgrade cloak?

I don't keep track, but I'd say a (late-)middle sector, with upgrades to L3 possibly as late as sector 8 (sooner if I'm using Stealth Weapons). Early in the game I'm usually upgrading shields to L4, engines to L4, shields to L6, engines to L5 - then weapons (but possibly sooner with weapons, depending on need and if I get something really good).

I'm also looking to buy drone control and teleporter - then extra power with the former, and with the latter L2, L2 sensors, and L2 Medbay. So it kinda depends what the stores have and how much scrap I have at the time. Of course if you're in a late-middle sector and boarding, then scrap will be rolling in.

[Iranon]

The cloak can wait, as the first few system upgrades are much more scrap-efficient: shields and engines up to 4, weapons if I found something nice. There are also a couple of augmentations I'd rather spend early scrap on, teleporter and blue-option-fodder likely take priority too.

Once I have those, around sector 4, a cloak looks good. I certainly want one eventually - higher tier upgrades lose their advantage in scrap efficiency, and very little comes close to the power efficiency of a lvl 1 cloak. This is important as we'll be fully powered in the endgame and want to get the best use out of it.
Cloaks allow many flawless victories without expending drones/missiles - often it's "dodge their first missile/BL3 and they can't harm us". I rate it highly enough that I feel the Federation ships have the weakest late games despite their artillery beam.