Small vs Large Disruption Shields (Apocalypse)

The Small Disruption Shield is the most useful of the two shield types, so why should you ever use the Large Disruption Shield? That question is often asked, and there is no real clear cut answer.

The Large Disrupter Shield appears to be designed to be fitted in pairs on the Annihilator, which is also the only ship that can make the best use of the large shields in combination with 3 small shields or a variety of other 2×2 options. On

On any other ship, the large shield will prove to be inefficient. A large shield will take up more slots than two smaller shields (9 vs. 8 slots), but provide an equal amount of shielding. On ships with 4×4 slot space, a large shield will only offer 400 extra hitpoints and any leftover room can only be filled with small accuracy modules. On the other hand, four small shields will fill all of the space, but provide 800 points of shield energy.

Why do the large shields work best on the Annihilator when it's inefficient on almost every other ship? The Annihilator has a 5×6 block of option slots, which is an uneven number of rows, as are the large shields.

To arm an Annihilator with maximum shields, there are two options (henceforth referred as 6S and 2L3S respectively):

1. 6 small shields, with a 1×6 free gap. Or;
2. 2 large shields and 3 small shields, no gaps.

The total amount of shielding provided by each method:

1. 6S: 6 × 200 = 1200
2. 2L3S: (2 × 400) + (3 × 200) = 800 + 600 = 1400

The only benefit of using 6S is that you have that free 1×6 strip that can fit a variety of small or medium accuracy modifiers. Due to the nature of the weapons that you will fit on the Annihilator, there is little benefit to using the accuracy modules for anything but filler in this instance.

With the 2L3S combination, if you replace one small shield with an X-Com advanced accuracy mod, you will be given the same amount of shield energy as 6S, but with a vastly superior accuracy increase. Or if accuracy modification isn't your cup of tea, then a Missile Evasion Matrix or Teleporter can be used. The 2×2 gap offers more flexibility than the 1×6 strip.

The only other ship that may benefit from the Large Shield would be the Explorer. It can fit only two small shields and a pair of medium accuracy modifications, or one large shield and three small accuracy modifiers. As Accuracy modifiers of either caliber aren't terribly effective, it doesn't matter which setup is used as you'll always get a maximum of 400 shield points.