athorist wrote:Yeah, but it's really inefficient to only get 4 shots from 4 power bars. I found a hull beam, but because I only had 3 other shots, it's not very reliable against 2 shield layers.
You're thinking about it wrong. You start with 4 shots every 10 seconds for FREE. If you find a BL2, you don't need to upgrade your weapons system and now you have 5 shots every 12 seconds. Or even better, find a Flak 1 and you have 5 shots every 10 seconds without having to upgrade weapons. If you DO upgrade weapons (at your leisure because it's not critical to success) you always have another shot.
When you find a Glaive Beam, it's hard to buy 3 weapon slots and 3 power bars to get it going on most ships. On the Red Tail you can keep upgrading weapons one bar at a time, shuffling your weapon around and using the basic lasers as filler.
Oh, and there's a LOT to be said about fully leveling up your weapons officer in a single sector.