The Anti-Ship Drone is armed with a laser, which does damage to a single room targeted randomly by the drone. It also takes the shields down one level if it hits a shield..
The Anti-Ship Beam Drone is armed with a beam weapon, which does damage to multiple rooms along the path of the beam, but which does not affect shields at all. Instead, shields affect the beam, in that each level of shield reduces the damage of the beam. Since the Anti-Ship Beam Drone only does 1 damage per room, even a single active shield can render the Anti-Ship Beam Drone completely useless.
From this page:
Humans comprise the majority of both the Galactic Federation and the Rebel Fleet. Humans learn skills faster due to their reduced XP ability, have no notable weaknesses and are the cheapest race to hire from Stores.
- Skills improve slightly faster (10%)
Engi originate from the Engi Homeworld. They take 50 to hire, with the following special traits:
- Repair speed is doubled
- Combat damage is halved
The Mantis originate from the Mantis Homeworld. It takes 45 to hire them.
- Inflict 1.5x damage in combat
- 1.2x move speed
- Halved repair speed
Rockmen are strong creatures and take 65 to hire. Their abilites are:
- Immune to fire
- Movement speed is halved
- Health is increased to 150%
Zoltan usually appear in Engi Homeworlds or Engi-Controlled Worlds. They appear rarely, and it takes 65 to hire them. Their special abilities are:
- Provides (1) power to occupied system
- Health is 70
- Explode when killed, damaging all enemy crew in the room
Slugs are one of the rarest crew to find. Their advantage is the ability to see your enemy's crew, and to be able to see the rooms surrounding the slug in your ship if your sensor goes down. They cost 45 to hire.
- Telepathic powers reveal rooms and lifeforms even when sensors are down.
The Lanius are scavengers – metallic lifeforms that rely on the absorption of minerals to sustain themselves. They are available only in advanced edition and even then are almost exclusively found in the Abandoned Sector where they cost 50 to hire. They need no oxygen and also drain oxygen from the room they are in.
- Drains oxygen from rooms
- -20% movement speed
- No damage from suffocation
And a final 'secret' race:
Crystals can be found in Life support pods that are revived by scientists. Doing so also begins a special quest to the Rock Homeworlds.
- Lockdown power: When finished charging, sends crystals to surround the room they are in, making it completly invincible to damage (Only that specific room). Nothing can exit/enter the specific room until the ability wears off.
- Reduced suffocation damage
- Movement speed -20%
- Health 125
Best Answer
From the wiki:
This gives you an advantage against larger ships as the variance between two randomly selected points will be larger, which means the average difference will be higher, which of course means you have the potential to hit more rooms, and thus do more damage.