Augmentations

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Augmentations are items that passively provide benefits to your ship. Your ship can equip up to three of them; spare augmentations cannot be stored in the cargo hold. They can be bought at stores or rewarded from events.

Their benefits range from improving stats (FTL Recharge Booster) to granting entirely new abilities (Adv. FTL Navigation) and effects (Reverse Ion Field).

Most of the stat-boosting Augmentations stack with each other. The ones that don't stack are grayed out in stores if you already own one (or if all your augmentation slots are filled). If you loot an augment that you already own and does not stack, you receive 25 scrap instead (regardless of the augment value). If you loot an augment and don't have room for it, you must choose one augment to leave behind, and you do not earn the resale value.

Weapon Augmentations

Automated Re-loader

"Cooldown between weapon shots is improved by 10 percent."

• This also applies to the artillery system on the Federation Cruisers
• Stackable, but each one is less effective than the last
• One Reloader multiplies weapon charge by 0.909. Two Reloaders, 0.833. Three Reloaders, 0.769
• Cost: 40
• Rarity: 2

Reloader bonuses stack with crew skill but are calculated differently. Crew skill is a simple multiplier of 0.9, 0.85, or 0.8. Reloaders are "divided instead of multiplied". If "C" is crew skill and "N" is the number of reloaders, the charge multiplier is: C/(1 + N/10)

For example, with fully-trained crew and three reloaders, the multiplier is 0.8/(1 + 3/10) = 0.615.

Weapon Pre-Igniter

"Weapons are made immediately available after an FTL jump."

• Only charges a single charge of multi-charge weapons (Advanced Edition).
• This does not apply to the artillery weapons found on Federation Cruiser variants.
• This only works for the weapons that were powered when you left the previous beacon.
• The most expensive augment in the game.
• Cost: 120
• Rarity: 4

Stealth Weapons

"Prevents your weapon fire from disrupting your cloak, allowing you to shoot at will while cloaked."

• This augmentation negates the cloak duration shortening effect caused by firing non-beam weapons while cloaked.
• Cost: 50
• Rarity: 3

Helpful with quick-firing weapons, if you want to fire during your cloak that is. Otherwise, the quick-shots will drain your cloak very quickly. Intentionally draining your cloaking can be useful to help your cloak recharge when the flagship uses its power surges. Having this augment ensures you can't do that.

Explosive Replicator

"Missile based weapons have a 50 percent chance of not using a missile."

• Multi-shot weapons (Swarm and the Pegasus Missiles) have the same 50 percent chance of not using a missile in their volley. This is because one missile is used when firing these weapons, even though there are multiple attacks from them.
• Not stackable.
• Cost: 60
• Rarity: 3
• Advanced Edition only.

Hacking Stun

"All crew inside a room during a Hacking Pulse will be stunned for the duration."

• Affects both the enemy's and player's crew members.
• Crew members who enter the affected room during the Hacking Pulse are stunned to the end of the duration as well.
• Cost: 60
• Rarity: 3
• Advanced Edition only.

This augment is almost useless, since hacking already locks doors and impedes enemy crew movement.

Defense Scrambler

"Prevents enemy defense drones from targeting anything."

• Causes defensive drones (Eg: Defense Drone Mk1, Defense Drone Mk2, Anti-Combat Drone) to be unable to shoot down projectiles (Lasers, Missiles, Asteroids, combat drones, boarding drones, hacking drone).
• Does not affect the enemy Shield Overcharger.
• Does not affect enemy combat drones or boarding drones.
• Will show the enemy defensive drones spinning when the augment is in use.
• The Engi Cruiser Layout C starts with this augment.
• Cost: 80
• Rarity: 4
• Advanced Edition only.

Defensive Augmentations

Shield Charge Booster

"Boosts the ship's shield recharge rate by 15 percent."

• Stackable.
• Cost: 45
• Rarity: 2

Useful when dealing with a lot of lasers, such as the drone assault in phase two of the flagship.

Reverse Ion Field

"Protects your ship from ion damage, giving a 50 percent chance to negate it entirely."

• Stackable.
• Immunity to ion damage with multiple. (A.E.)
• Can protect from the ion pulse environmental hazard.
• Cost: 45
• Rarity: 2

Repair Arm

"Repairs your hull every time you collect scrap, but reduces scrap collected by 15 percent."

• Repairs your hull for 1-2 points every time you collect scrap.
• The scrap reduction percentage rounds against you.
• Not stackable.
• Cost: 50
• Rarity: 3

Before 1.5.10 would charge Scrap penalty even if Player's Ship is completely repaired, but doesn't do that anymore. It's generally advised to sell this when you get it from an event, as the augment takes a significant amount of your scrap.

Emergency Respirators

"Crew take half damage from low oxygen."

• Crystal crew members take only 25% damage from low oxygen with this augment.
• The effect also works when boarding enemy ships, allowing the crew to more safely board into vacuums.
• The Lanius Cruiser (Type A and Type B) start with this augment. This can help when trying to achieve the Loss of Cabin Pressure achievement or when using depressurization to defend your ship from fire and invaders.
• The Federation Cruiser (Type C) Starts with this augment. With this augment, a boarding crew can survive long enough to disable a system or two on oxygenless ships.
• Crew members can heal in a lvl 1 medbay without oxygen with this augment.
• Not stackable.
• Cost: 50
• Rarity: 2
• Advanced Edition only.

Fire Suppression

"Automatically put out fires throughout the ship."

• Cost: 65
• Rarity: 3
• Advanced Edition only.
• Puts out fires at the speed of a Mantis; you are advised to sell it, unless perhaps your crew is really bad against fire.

Backup DNA Bank

"Your crew is safe in clone storage even if the system is off or broken."

• Dead crew members will remain in the clone queue regardless of the state of the Clone Bay, effectively allowing you to delay the cloning process for as long as necessary.
• Does not resurrect crew members who died before getting the augment, or who died when a Clone Bay was not installed.
• Discarding the augment while crew members are in the clone queue with the Clone Bay depowered will trigger the "Crew are dying" warning back.
• If all of your crew die and the Clone Bay is destroyed, there will be no-one to repair the Clone Bay (unless you are able to deploy a System Repair Drone or Repair Burst) and your crew will stay in the bank forever. The game over screen won't show, forcing you to restart manually.
• Cost: 40
• Rarity: 2
• Advanced Edition only.

FTL Augmentations

FTL Recharge Booster

"The ship's FTL Drive powers up 25 percent faster."

• Stackable.
• Cost: 50
• Rarity: 2
• The recharge boost from this augment is rather weak, so scrap is usually better spent on engines instead.

FTL Jammer

"Scramble enemy ships' FTL computers, doubling the time it takes for them to jump."

• Not stackable.
• Cost: 30
• Rarity: 3
• Can be slightly useful for defensive setups, though the 30 scrap might be better spent on improving your offensive capabilities instead.

Adv. FTL Navigation

"Allows the ship to jump to any previously visited Beacon."

• Not stackable.
• This means you can go back to any 'blue' beacon in only one jump.
• Used in some blue events.
• Cost: 50
• Rarity: 3
• Occasionally this lets you get extra beacons when "diving" past the exit. Otherwise, mostly useless providing you plan your route in advance.

Distraction Buoys

"Leaves a false signal at sector start to delay Rebels 1 jump."

• Not stackable.
• Only works at the beginning of a sector, so it's never useful right away.
• Cost: 55
• Rarity: 3
• Advanced Edition only.
• Best to sell it by Sector 7 as its effects become pointless in the final sector. This augment is effectively a slightly worse version of Scrap Recovery Arm.

Misc. Augmentations

Long-Ranged Scanners

"Adds additional info about nearby Beacons on the star map."

• Allows you to see if an adjacent beacon contains a ship or an environmental hazard before jumping to it.
• If a beacon does not indicate a ship, it may still result in a ship fight. Likewise, even if a ship is detected, there may be ways to avoid a fight.
• Is used in some events.
• The Stealth Cruiser (All Layouts, A, B and C) starts with this augment.
• Some quests will not be shown on the map with the scanner (Rebel Shipyard, Unarmed Zoltan Transport, and The Engi Fleet Discussion).
• Cost: 30
• Rarity: 1
• This augment is well worth purchasing. Finding more fights significantly increases scrap income, and seeing hazards is also useful.

Scrap Recovery Arm

"Allows the ship to collect 10 percent more scrap from any source."

• It always rounds down, and extra arms stack additively (before rounding).
• If you had the arm and got 19 scrap, you would get 1 extra scrap. If you had 2 arms, and got 15 scrap, you would get 3 extra scrap.
• Provides a blue event option which involves mining an asteroid field.
• Cost: 50
• Rarity: 1

This augment will almost always pay for itself, unless purchased very late. The scrap gains are considerable. However, the opportunity cost can also be high, especially when purchased early. Rarely a wise purchase on Hard.

Drone Recovery Arm

"Non-destroyed drones will be retrieved when jumping, allowing their parts to be reused."

• Only recovers your own drones, not enemy drones.
• Only recovers external drones. Does not recover Boarding Drones, Ion Intruders, or hacking drones.
• Allows you to use multiple combat or defensive drones in every fight, without running out of parts.
• Can be used together with Hull Repair Drone. The drone always repairs a minimum of 3 hull before vanishing, so jumping after 2 repairs makes those repairs always free. Waiting longer might gain more free hull, but has a chance to lose the drone part.
• Cost: 50
• Rarity: 2

Battery Charger

"Backup Battery's lock time is halved."

• Not stackable.
• Reduces the battery cooldown period to 10 seconds.
• Cost: 40
• Rarity: 2
• Advanced Edition only.

Zoltan Shield Bypass

"Allows crew/bomb teleportation and mind control to work through Zoltan Shields."

• Can be useful when boarding, especially against the Rebel Flagship in phase 3.
• Cost: 55
• Rarity: 3
• Advanced Edition only.

Reconstructive Teleport

"Crew gets fully healed by teleportation."

• More useful with a clone bay, allowing you to have full-health boarders without waiting multiple jumps or resurrecting them with loss of skill
• A defeated ship can be teleported on as long as you still have boarders remaining on it. That way you can heal post-combat your normally non-boarding crew.
• Will heal mind-controlled enemies
• Cost: 70
• Rarity: 3
• Advanced Edition only.

Lifeform Scanner

"Detects the location of any life forms, even when sensors don't function."

• Functions exactly like a slug crewman showing crew. You could just spend 45 scrap and outright buy a Slug crewman, however.
• Cost: 40
• Rarity: 3
• Advanced Edition only.

Non-Purchasable Augmentations

Engi Med-bot Dispersal

"Engi nano med-bots heal the crew outside of the med-bay (at a reduced speed)."

• Does not work if you have a Clone Bay instead of a Medbay.
• Not affected by Medbay upgrades.
• Will not work outside your ship.
• Used in some blue event options.
• Not stackable.
• The Torus (Engi Cruiser Layout A) starts with this augment.
• Can be acquired by any ship through the Rebel attacking Engi event.
• Cost: 60
• Heals 1.67 health points per second.
• Does not work on crew that is on another ship (teleported).

Rock Plating

"Superior hull armor provides a 15 percent chance to negate incoming hull damage (hit systems will still be damaged)."

• This augment also provides blue options for a few events. These include a guarantee of being able to acquire the Damaged Stasis Pod when the appropriate event is found. Without it, chances are only 1/3.
• The Rock Cruiser (A, B and C Variants) starts with this augment.
• Can be acquired by any ship through the Rock Cruiser unlock event, even if the Rock Cruiser has already been unlocked.
• Cost: 80
• Assuming decent luck this effectively grants you about 5 "extra" hull points on the flagship fight. It also saves some repair costs.

Titanium System Casing

"All ship systems have additional plating that provides a 15 percent chance to negate damage when hit (hull will still be damaged)"

• The Nesasio (Stealth Cruiser Layout A) starts with this augment. You are advised to sell this in favour of a Shields system.
• Can be acquired by any ship through the Stealth Cruiser unlock event, even if the Stealth Cruiser has already been unlocked.
• Cost: 80
• This augment is essentially the counterpart to Rock Plating: instead of reducing hull damage, it reduces system damage.

Drone Reactor Booster

"Your shipboard drones have their movement speed increased by 25 percent."

• The Vortex (Engi Cruiser Layout B) starts with this augment.
• Can be acquired by any ship through the Engi Virus event.
• Cost: 50
• A very negligible boost. It makes drones move from 50% the speed of most crew to 62.5% the speed of most crew. Selling it for 25 scrap is the recommended strategy.

Slug Repair Gel

"Slug ships excrete a thick gel that automatically repairs any hull breaches."

• The Slug Cruiser (A, B and C Variants) starts with this augment.
• Can be acquired by any ship through the Slug Cruiser unlock event, even if the Slug Cruiser has already been unlocked.
• Cost: 60

Mantis Pheromones

"Your crew's movement speed is increased by 25 percent."

• Applies both on your ship and when boarding an enemy.
• The Mantis Cruiser (A, B and C Variants) starts with this augment.
• Can be acquired by any ship through the Mantis Cruiser unlock event, even if the Mantis Cruiser has already been unlocked.
• Cost: 50
• Somewhat useful, especially when boarding with 2 crew. Faster movement is helpful with advanced boarding techniques. Less relevant on 4-crew boarding setups.

Crystal Vengeance

"Every time your ship takes damage, there is a 10 percent chance to break off a shard that flies at your enemy."

• This counts as a normal missile shot that does 1 damage and has a 10% chance to breach. Like any other projectile, the enemy can dodge it with their current evasion percentage.
• The Crystal Cruiser (A and B Variants) starts with this augment.
• Can be acquired by any ship through the Crystal Cruiser unlock event even if the Crystal Cruiser has already been unlocked.
• Cost: 80
• This should always be sold at the first store visited. The effect is very weak, and actively harmful when boarding (it could randomly kill your boarders).

Zoltan Shield

"An unexplained technology creates this nearly impenetrable shield. Only the energy outburst from an FTL engine is powerful enough to recharge it."

• Cost: 80
• Upon arrival at a beacon, you start with an additional green energy shield that will absorb 5 points of damage before your standard shields and hull will start to take damage.
• Absorbs damage from all weapon types, including missiles, bombs and beams, but takes twice as much damage from ion weapons. Beam weapons deal their room damage twice to the shield (including the Artillery Beam). Also note that aiming the Hull Beam at systemless rooms will not increase damage on the Zoltan shield.
• Until they are destroyed, Zoltan Shields prevent boarding, hacking, and mind control. However, the Super Shield Bypass augment will allow boarding and mind control. Certain events that spawn intruders aboard your ship are explained in-game by the enemy having that augment.
• The Zoltan Cruiser (A, B and C Variants) starts with this augment.
• Can be acquired by any ship through the Zoltan Cruiser unlock event, even if the Zoltan Cruiser has already been unlocked.
• With precise use of some beams, it's possible to "pierce" a Zoltan Shield and deal damage to one or two rooms.

Damaged Stasis Pod

Spoiler Warning!
"This bizarre alien artifact appears to be barely operational. It has no practical function but perhaps someone can repair it."

• This "augment" is used exclusively in an event sequence to access the Hidden Crystal Worlds.
• Can only be acquired during the Dense Asteroid Field Distress Call random event.
• Can only be used during the Zoltan Research Facility random event.
• More than one Stasis Pod can be acquired and held at a time; each one will occupy an augmentation slot. It is also possible to encounter multiple Zoltan research facilities (even in the same sector), and each one will open a single pod.
• Cost: 30