Rate the shop Augmentations

[Levgre]

Either on hard, normal, easy. Specify which.

(Hard Difficulty)
Here's my ranking (I also gave a number value out of 10 to show how far apart I put them). I think Reloaders and Pre-Igniters contribute the most towards a win, I place the Reloader higher because it is easier to buy early, and it works well with almost all weapon combos. The Igniter can be weak with some. Scrap Recovery Arm loses a bit of value on hard, and since it adds no combat value it 'can' leave you behind for a bit if you buy it early. If bought later it doesn't give you a ton. It's still incredible, though.

I have not got Stealth Weapons very often, never on hard yet, but it can contribute as much as an Automated Reloader once you have 15 second stealth, depending on your weapons. Defense scrambler might be higher, again not sure due to lack of use. It is pricey at 80, though.

1.Automated Reloader - 10
2.Weapon Pre-Igniter - 9.5
3.Scrap Recovery Arm - 9.3
4.Reverse Ion Field - 9
5.Stealth Weapons - 8.5
6.Long-Ranged Scanners - 8.4
7.Drone Recovery Arm - 7.8
8.Defense Scrambler - 7.7
9.Explosive Replicator - 7.5
10. Distraction Buoys - 7.3
11. Shield Charge Booster - 7.1
12. Reconstructive Teleport - 7
13. Zoltan Shield Bypass - 6
14. Fire Suppression - 5.5
15. Hacking Stun - 5
16. Backup DNA Bank - 4
17. FTL Jammer - 3.5
18. Lifeform Scanner - 3
19. FTL Recharge Booster -3
20. Adv. FTL Navigation - 3
21. Repair Arm - 1

[Merudo]

I personally think Backup DNA Bank and Repair Arm are cruelly underrated.

If I do well by sector 5 at hard, I'll be pretty confident that I'll defeat the flagship. In my experience the main thing that could jeopardize such a run is losing crucial crew members as a result of a unlucky shot disabling the clonebay at the wrong moment.

The loss of crew can be catastrophic, especially if they are your boarders or have few crew members. Losing your two mantises and only having Zoltans/Engi/Slugs/Humans with no combat experience can set you back tremendously if you rely on boarding. Getting a backup DNA bank 100% immunizes you from crew loses (if you pick the right options during events), which is invaluable.

I also think Repair Arm is underrated, especially if it is found in Sectors I-II with ships that aren't very good. In those sectors on hard, the scrap gains are so little (8-15 scrap per fight) that losing 15% of it isn't such a big deal. On the other hand, the hull restoration is pretty good, especially if you would have to buy repairs in the first place. Usually I'll be quite happy to keep the repair arm for a few sectors until my run is stabilized.

[cretin]

id also rate backup DNA higher (its only little more than the FTL stuff?) but repair arm is a waste of scrap if u got a ship running which rarely loses hull. id also rate it the worst one which i try to get rid of immediately if acquiring random, only in the early sectors it might be useful on some ships imo.

some of the augmentations depend heavily on ship setup if useful (for example zoltan shield bypass is quite useless if u get fast charging ion/lasers) or drone recovery arm can be incredibly useful if u use drones/hacking throughout the whole game and more than 1 each battle.

if i had to make a general rating id agree on most other ratings

[itg]

I think stealth weapons and reverse ion field are very overrated here. Stealth weapons is only significant with very fast-firing weapons. Otherwise, it'll let you fire 2-3 second earlier, at most. Reverse-ion field is only useful against the very few enemies with multiple ion weapons, and even then, good engines and/or cloaking are sufficient defense against ion weapons.

I think distraction buoys are underrated here. It's no scrap recovery arm, but it's still a worthwhile investment which is good on any ship. Not that you should buy it in every situation, but more ships would want it than, say, a drone recovery arm.

A lot of augments are tough to rank against each other, because they're very strategy-specific. Obviously, an explosive replicator is one of the best augments if you're using missile weapons, but one of the worst if you're not, for example.

[Merudo]

I disagree with the claim that Reverse-ion field only helps against enemies with multiple ion weapons.

Even if the enemy has 1 ion weapon, Reverse-ion field is still useful. A single ion shot will disable one of your shield for 5 seconds + recharge time, and will also prevent your crew from manning the shield. Avoiding this is quite helpful.

Also, the flagship as a Triple Ion Cannon during phase I.

[itg]

I'm not saying it's not helpful, just that it's far from a top-5 augment. In 80% of fights, it does literally nothing, because most enemies don't even have ion weapons. If the enemy has one ion weapon, chances are it's going to be an easy fight regardless (unless they also have missiles, in which case the RIF also makes no difference). Against the flagship, it would help compensate for under-upgraded engines, but really, a decent ship has only a minuscule chance of taking non-missile damage in phase I, anyway.

[Ginrikuzuma]

as a person who mainly plays (well) boarding ship
my top 5 are

backup DNA
reconstructive teleporters
hacking stun
zoltan bypass
Captain's Edition - Firewall something

the bypass makes sure that I don't have to waste time firing weapons keeping my boarders idle. The clone bay is good with boarders however since you can't heal in a fight the reconstructive is nice since it heals crew on teleporting (to or from enemy ship).
backup DNA is almost essential for me when I board someone's ship and there is heavy ion (usually the case with pulsar star closeby its rare the enemy have enough ion damage to ion my clone bay (even less to actually aim for it))
I have lost so many mantis and lanius crew members from ionized clone bays when I fail to teleport them back to my ship in time. and the ion damage on the clone bay leaves me watching my poor crew die from the unpowered clone bays that I can't un-ionized. With the backup DNA I don't have to worry that my clone bay is off (or ionized) I can clone them when the situation is safe.
The hacking stun is very useful if the enemy has a medbay (not a clonebay) since I can teleport to their medbay. Wait for the enemy to fill up the medbay and start healing themselves against my boarders THEN I fire the hacking drone while they are already trapped in. Then its just a matter of hacking the medbay so the medbay poisons them to death as they are stunned and unable to fight back (little less actually shoot at the doors to try to escape).

the firewall aug from Captain's Edition is a simple combat aug that is all-around great. It prevents the enemy from sending hacking drones so I don't have to worry about anything (its a shame you can't activate battle augs against the flag ship though)

[5thHorseman]

It's hard to rank all of them so I broke them up into tiers. Except the first, I ranked them in order of preference.

Situational Tier: These are either God Tier or Useless, depending on if I need them.
Stealth Weapons
Drone Recovery Arm
Defense Scrambler
Zoltan Shield Bypass

God Tier: I want one at all times, and (where appropriate) would love 3 of them on my ship. Though I'd prefer some to others, I'm still happy to get any of these:
Automated Reloader
Scrap Recovery Arm
Long-Ranged Scanners
Weapon Pre-Igniter

Good Teir: I'll take these if I get 'em and not sell them. If it's getting late in the game I'll even buy one (except the Buoys)
Shield Charge Booster
Distraction Buoys (Sell in sector 7!)
Reverse Ion Field

Neutral Tier: I'll take these if I find one and be happy, but will usually sell them for scrap. I'd never buy one.
Lifeform Scanner
FTL Jammer
FTL Recharge Booster

Crap Tier: I never want these. I sell them ASAP.
Backup DNA Bank
Explosive Replicator
Reconstructive Teleport
Fire Suppression
Hacking Stun
Adv. FTL Navigation
Repair Arm

[LostAlone]

While I naturally respect and admire our 5thHorseman overlord, I think he's wrong about reconstructive teleport. It's certainly situational, and I wouldn't ever say it's needed to get a win, but it just lets you be so aggressive with your boarding parties - It's essentially the best features of the clonebay and medbay in one aug. All your guys are always at full health and skills and you can hurl them pell mell into the fray with almost no regard for their safety. Yes, you still need to watch out for cloaks, but pulling your dudes out isn't too hard, and then slam them back in.

I'll always buy it if I see it. I want to be boarding every ship I can anyway for the bonus scrap, and being able to do stupid things like boarding into rooms that are on fire or without oxygen without concern is great. Maybe it's just a me thing, or I lean on teleporting more than I should (also probable) but I like reconstructive tele a lot.

As for the others I am a fan of-

Zoltan Bypass (a must for me if I'm going to take a good shot at the mothership without having my own mind control)
Pre-Igniter (getting in the first shot radically changes a lot of fights, reduces damage and can make for some comically quick runs - try it with Stealth B for Glaive Beam awesome)
Reloader, shield charger and scrap arm are good but unimpressive (they help, but don't feel like they are having an immediate impact.)

Ones I am less of a fan of -
Stealth weapons (there's extremely few weapons that you will get multiple shots with during a single cloak, so you really don't get much oomph out of it.)
Hacking stun (You're already locking the guy in a room by himself and throwing hungry mantises at him; tasering him him first just seems uncalled for.)
Backup DNA (I hate clonebay)

[itg]

It's hard to rank all of them so I broke them up into tiers. Except the first, I ranked them in order of preference.

Situational Tier: These are either God Tier or Useless, depending on if I need them.
Stealth Weapons
Drone Recovery Arm
Defense Scrambler
Zoltan Shield Bypass

God Tier: I want one at all times, and (where appropriate) would love 3 of them on my ship. Though I'd prefer some to others, I'm still happy to get any of these:
Automated Reloader
Scrap Recovery Arm
Long-Ranged Scanners
Weapon Pre-Igniter

Good Teir: I'll take these if I get 'em and not sell them. If it's getting late in the game I'll even buy one (except the Buoys)
Shield Charge Booster
Distraction Buoys (Sell in sector 7!)
Reverse Ion Field

Neutral Tier: I'll take these if I find one and be happy, but will usually sell them for scrap. I'd never buy one.
Lifeform Scanner
FTL Jammer
FTL Recharge Booster

Crap Tier: I never want these. I sell them ASAP.
Backup DNA Bank
Explosive Replicator
Reconstructive Teleport
Fire Suppression
Hacking Stun
Adv. FTL Navigation
Repair Arm

I think a couple of your "crap tier" augments are situationally pretty decent. I've actually purchased the explosive replicator a couple times and had very successful runs with/because of it. No need to go for the full-on missile strategy. It's actually pretty nice for just spamming Artemis missiles and/or some of the better bombs. Hacking stun should also be pretty solid with boarding. If you hack a room, stun its occupants, then teleport in, it's essentially a free kill or two.

Life form scanners is solid on ships that don't have sensors or slugs, mainly for the sake of mind control. A slug crewman is almost strictly better, of course, but they're not always available.

Also, there are a couple augments we've neglected so far. Off the top of my head, we're missing the emergency respirators and the battery recharge booster thing (I forget the name). Emergency respirators is nice for boarding auto-scouts but probably still goes in the "crap tier." The battery recharge booster would be nice for the flagship battle, so it's probably worth picking one up late, if you see it and have an open slot. I'd call it "neutral tier."