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The Anti Ship Drone Mark I fires a small laser.
The Anti Ship Drone Mark II fires a small laser faster.

How much faster? Is the firing rate of two Mark I drone's greater than the firing rate of a single Mark II?

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  • In my limited experience with the resources to test this, two Mark Is will outperform a single Mark II. Don't hold me to that.
    – user9983
    Commented Feb 4, 2013 at 16:10
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    "Outperform" is tricky because raw DPS isn't a good measure of anything in FTL. You have to be able to handle shield regen to do damage. So in an extreme case, two synchronized drones firing once per ten seconds is more useful than one drone firing every second, despite a 5x theoretical DPS difference. It'd be most useful to have firing rates in shots per standard shield bubble than shots per second.
    – user2640
    Commented Feb 4, 2013 at 16:23
  • @Joe your absolutly correct, and I edited the question to reflect your point.
    – Ender
    Commented Feb 4, 2013 at 17:21

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1 Mark II is not quite as fast as a 2 Mark I drones. According to the fan wiki, the firing speed of a Mk I is 15, and a Mk II is a 28. OrigamiRobot's observation would hold there; 2 Mk I drones will produce more shots than a single Mk 2 over time. Though it may take a couple of volleys for that to bear out.

There are other considerations that might dictate usage. A Mk II costs the same to power as 2 Mk I drones, but the Mark II only takes up one drone slot, and some ships are limited to 2 drones.

I believe it takes ~ 2 seconds to recharge a point of shields, before crew skill ( worked/level 1/level 2: 10/19/29) and the shield recharge augmentation (15) comes into play.

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    There's also the consideration that if you take damage to drone control, you might still have one Mk 1 working, but your Mk 2 would be disabled completely. On the pro side, the Mk 2 requires half the drone parts to use.
    – bwarner
    Commented Feb 4, 2013 at 19:42
  • @bwarner to me how many drones are used is irrelevant, if I'm going to go drones I always have the recovery arm. Never leave home without it.
    – Ender
    Commented Feb 6, 2013 at 21:12
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    @Ender it's not the case for everybody, though, so it's a reasonable thing to point out. You aren't even guaranteed to find a drone recovery arm.
    – peacedog
    Commented Feb 6, 2013 at 21:23

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