The second advantage of the Engi A is that the ship starts the game with a Drone Control system and a Combat Drone. The Ion Blast II is therefore a real 'fire and forget' weapon, and you can autofire the thing against enemy shields and generally do pretty well. As long as the ion shots keep hitting, they will eventually take down any level of shielding.
The Ion Blast II is one of the only ion weapons that fires fast enough to permanently remove shields. This is arguably the best ion weapon in the game, firing off an ion shot every four seconds at the cost of three weapons power. The first of these is the starting weapon: the Ion Blast II. It does have two powerful advantages which can help players get off to a strong run. (All you have to do is reach Sector Five with any of the Kestrel ships, on any difficulty level.) I've also seen this ship floating around near the top of the FTL tier lists online a lot of people seem to like the Engi A. This is probably one of the first ships that most people play after the Kestrel A, since it unlocks so easily.
Time to take a look at another new family of ships in FTL, starting with the Engi A Cruiser. Livestream Link (for those who would rather watch first before reading)
