[neofit]

I have found a Massive Shield Depleter in some ruins. According to the description, it's a "Massive gamma radiation beam that saps all of a target's shields but does no other damage".

As I understand it one hit is enough to kill all of a ship's shields. Yet they come in many levels, each making more damage than the previous one, and being more costly too.

Why do these weapons have a damage rating at all? If the description is correct they shouldn't have one, and the next level should just be cheaper to produce and maintain that the previous one. And there shouldn't be any reason to put one in a mount.

Or is the description misleading and it works just like a regular weapon, with just a lot more damage (to shields only) for its cost in research?