Fusion stinks

[RobotBastard]

Just in case anyone hasn't figured it out yet, Fusion is a waste of space.

"But wait," you say, "three power per turn for four turns, that's twelve total power! And subtracting five to cast it gives you seven net power!  Power Drip would only give you four in that same amount of time!"

Well, sure, but you have to keep five in reserve to re-cast Fusion after its cooldown is over.  You don't actually have a benefit from using Fusion until turn *fifteen*--and there isn't a consistent benefit until turn twenty-three.

Stick with the drip.  Slow but steady wins the race.

[Nickster206]

You probably don't know Charge exists. Charge increases program cooldown by 1 and decreases PWR cost by 2.

Fusion with Charge costs 3 PWR to activate and generates 15 PWR, with a net gain of 12 PWR over 5 turns. And what do you get with Power Drip? 5.

Still want to stick with Power Drip? Your slow and steady may be just that, and it could just be the end of your run.

 

EDIT: This math was done not taking into consideration starting PWR, only the amount of PWR gained over the course of any 5 turns.

 

[Cyberboy2000]

Your math is completely wrong. Even if you subtract 5 power that you keep to reactivate, it still turns profitable at round 12, and reliably so at 14.

Here's a chart proving my point

Spoiler

   Power with Fusion      Power with Fusion     Power with Power Drip

     subtracted by 5

 

                0                                5                                10
                3                                8                                11
                6                                11                              12
                9                                14                              13

 

                7                                12                              14
                10                              15                              15
                13                              18                              16
                16                              21                              17

 

                14                              19                              18
                17                              22                              19
                20                              25                              20
                23                              28                              21

 

                21                              26                              22
                24                              29                              23
                27                              32                              24
                30                              35                              25

 

                28                              33                              26

                31                              36                              27

                34                              39                              28

                37                              42                              29

 

Even then, you don't actually have 0 power the first turn. You can still use the power you have as long as you either have a console in range or 2 power the turn before it runs out.

 

[Nxf7]

At one point you'd be right. The developers nerfed it to a cooldown of 3 which made it take 15 turns to break even but this was ridiculous so they reverted it back to a cooldown of 4.

@Cyberboy2000 is close but his left column doesn't need to be -5, only -2, and only on the turn before you need to reactivate Fusion, otherwise these cells can be equivalent. This means that on the 5th turn (assuming starting at turn 0 just like in-game) you will break even with Power Drip.

My graph is a little different I put the 2 columns you need to compare on the right, and assumed starting power = 5. Usable power just means how much power you can use without accidentally leaving too little to reactivate Fusion the following turn.

Turn:       Fusion                   Usable Power                Power Drip

     

0                0                                0                                5
1                3                                3                                6
2                6                                6                                7
3                9                                7                                8

 

4                7                                7                                9

5                10                              10                              10

6                13                              13                              11
7                16                              14                              12

 

8                14                              14                              13
9                17                              17                              14
10              20                              20                              15
11              23                              21                              16

Past turn 5, "Usable Power" never drops below Power Drip.

[Cyberboy2000]

Yeah, I basically said that indirectly after the chart, I just forgot to add it to the complete equation.

[Caischcer]

On 3/25/2016 at 7:46 AM, Nickster206 said:

You probably don't know Charge exists. Charge increases program cooldown by 1 and decreases PWR cost by 2.

Fusion with Charge costs 3 PWR to activate and generates 15 PWR, with a net gain of 12 PWR over 5 turns. And what do you get with Power Drip? 5.

That's indeed very clever! But what happens to your breaker programs? You sure get a ton of power, but you loose 1 program slot and assuming your only breaker is lock pick 1.0 you can only break a net of 1 ICE every turn, which makes all that PWR you generate pretty useless. But please feel free to correct me. I am not entirely sure if Lock pick becomes a 1 turn use program if you install Charge.

[Nickster206]

You are correct in your assumption that it would greatly hinder many available programs, but some begin to appear as shining stars. My favourite programs to pair with fusion and charge are Golem, Parasite 2.0, wrenches, Hunter, Lightning, and by far the best two that benefit from this are Wisp and Oracle.

GOLEM becomes a 1 PWR program for hacking leftover firewalls (2) because of the way the game handles Golem. So 1 PWR for 2 firewalls. Win win.

PARASITE 2.0 costs 0 PWR the first time you use it and I usually end up replacing Golem with this because it is far superior in the sense that it keeps hacking.

WRENCHES aren't used as often but you end up hacking 4 or 5 Firewall strengths for a mere 2 PWR. Great exchange rate there. Pairs well with Parasite 2.0 as well to speed up the process.

HUNTER kills Daemons for 3 PWR now every 4 turns, which is fun unless you get Fractal 2.0 in endless, which makes it really only useful for killing the daemon on the daemon database and any validates or paradoxes you find.

LIGHTNING, oh boy do I love this one. 6 PWR to KO a guard for 2 turns, 1 turn cooldown (with fusion). A beautiful clutch since it pierces armor, so no more 9 armor K&O guards being threatening to you.

WISP, 1 PWR to tag ALL GUARDS once a turn. Amazing if you ask me.

And finally, ORACLE. An amazing pair with Fusion, as it now becomes a program that FULLY HACKS A (random) CAMERA, regardless of firewall strength, FOR 2 PWR. BEAUTIFUL.

The best part about having all this is it's never a hindrance, cuz you can always load someone up with buster chips and emp packs as a clutch if you are out of programs to use during that turn. You will never run out of PWR with charge and fusion if you have an agent who generates PWR like archive Xu or Olivia.