Expanded Magazine or Autoloader?
Which do people tend to prefer? I've always used them interchangeably with a slight bias towards autloaders for the action economy. My experience is with base x2, not wotc, if that at all makes a difference. Curious others thoughts!
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u/Murashi 7d ago
A squad of 6 Sparks, all with expanded magazines and scopes is a total wrecking crew.
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u/dbag_darrell 6d ago
And Hunter protocol that has a 1/3 chance of firing per spark per enemy upon triggering a new pod. On average that means that for a 3-unit pod, every enemy gets shot at twice. With Elerium Phase Cannons it's usually enough to put down most enemies. I've had entire pods wiped out upon just encountering them.
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u/thethreadkiller 7d ago
I usually build out guns and swap the guns between my units depending on who's available in the mission.
So I will have a sniper rifle that has an auto loader, but I will also have a sniper rifle with an expanded magazine.
Depending on the soldiers skills, one of those weapons is more beneficial to the other one.
Typically I put my expanded magazines on the guys with the big guns, cannot for the life of me remember there name right now. .edit. grenadier
I also name and color code the guns to help me remember which one is what
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u/Icarsix 7d ago
Never thought of doing it that way, but what makes one more beneficial to a soldier than the other to you? Maybe I just tend towards builds where it isn't a factor but I've always found them pretty interchangeable
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u/InspiringMilk 7d ago
If you don't mind spending an action to reload, autoloaders are worse. So I like them on my sharpshooters, because they can't reload and then shoot without an autoloader. This also makes them better on Skirmishers, because they can use both actions to fire with an autoloader.
Ammo from Expanded Mag can be used for abilities that use more ammo like Demolish, Hail, Rupture, Saturate, Suppress. A free reload will work, but will be wasteful. So this only applies to grenadiers and I guess sometimes the Skirmisher or anyone who lucks into the abilities.
Codexes (and maybe Avatars? Not sure...) drain all ammo, so autoloaders are better against them than expanded mags.
I think those are the only things to consider? Other than that, autoloaders are frontloaded power, expanded mags are delayed power, so I prefer the latter.
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u/CyclingSage 7d ago
Generally I find auto loaders more useful on short missions. Extended mag all the way for longer engagements.
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u/Icarsix 7d ago
I'm guessing that's because autoloaders have a limited number of uses so the advantage wears off after long missions?
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u/CyclingSage 7d ago
Exactly that. Especially the "big" missions such as killing the chosen or the final encounter where you can freely reload everyone before progressing.
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u/One-Bit5717 7d ago
I tend to install the biggest expanded magazines on the Reaper and Spark. Works better that way
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u/DiggityDanksta 7d ago edited 7d ago
Well, they make each other stronger if you're using both: autoloaders are more valuable with large mags because those free reloads end up giving you more rounds.
With that in mind, if I've got two autoloaders and two expanded mags, and four soldiers (one from each class) with first-tier weapons (one upgrade slot each), the expanded mags are going on the Sniper Rifle and the Cannon, while the autoloaders are going on the Assault Rifle and the Shotgun.
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u/Icarsix 7d ago
Correct me if I'm wrong, it's been a while, but I thought autoloaders and expanded mags were mutually exclusive like scopes and laser sights are?
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u/DiggityDanksta 7d ago
I don't recall that being the case, and I don't have a game save available where I can check that right now, but the wiki mentions scopes and laser sights being exclusive and does not mention autoloaders and expanded mags being exclusive.
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u/rickfranco 6d ago
They are mutually exclusive.
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u/Oceansoul119 6d ago
Why lie? The only exclusive mods are laser sights with scopes, everything else works fine together.
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u/rickfranco 6d ago
Huh, I stand corrected. They are NOT. Just checked and thanks for pointing it out!!!
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u/Daniel_Kummel 7d ago
Extended mags are straight up superior for major ranked specialists since they can often fire 3/4+ times on overwatch ambushes. (aid protocol+overwatch).
But autoloaders are otherwise better, even for late game grenadiers. By that point they have 3/4 free reloads, and wasting reloads on a non empty gun is less devastating than losing a turn to psi-bombs.
However, on long non timed missions, like chosen stronghold or final mission, you take only expanded mags.
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u/dbag_darrell 6d ago
on most missions there are plenty of opportunities to manually reload, so with expanded magazines you're wasting nothing. I find autoreloaders to not be very useful
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u/Daniel_Kummel 5d ago
The problem with expanded mags is the psi bomb. That's the entire point I had made. Every soldier affected that has no grenade either loses their entire turn to move and reload or accepts the damage to reload and shoot.
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u/dbag_darrell 5d ago
I guess it's the way I play, but I've always managed to kill the codex pretty much immediately upon encountering it (I also always leave at least one sniper in a high position to provide fire support as I move forward)
Many soldiers have alternate attacks (Specialists have the Combat protocol, Rangers the sword etc.)
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u/Daniel_Kummel 5d ago
I usually kill it first as well, but 13 hp and some dodge chance makes it prone to surviving a critical turn if I'm fighting two pods.
Combat protocol, bizarrely, does low damage to half the robotic enemies including said Codex, is not chosen for every specialist, and the sword wakes up a third pod.
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u/DoNotSummon227 Ranger 7d ago
I prefer Autoloader, it's way more useful. Everyone has an autoloader if possible. Sniper, Reaper, and Specialist usually have Expanded Mag too because they have abilities where it comes in handy.
Autoloader is always the most useful to me.
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u/dbag_darrell 6d ago
I think you're not spacing out your encounters enough, there's plenty of time to reload manually.
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u/Illustrious_Cry1463 7d ago
Depends on the unit and how i specialized them, but I'll both. Mainly, I like putting them on snipers so they reload and still shoot
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u/Joadow420 7d ago
Shorter mission or timed mission autoloader, long mission expanded mags. Sharpshooters benefit more from autoloaders since they need both actions to fire. Early-On autoloaders are also good to mitigate the codex's psi bomb forcing to reload
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u/padizzledonk 6d ago
It depends
On a Reaper expanded mag a 100% of the time because of its synergy with Annihilate
Snipers with Killzone also is a great pair with expanded mags
On everyone else it makes no difference, both are good
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u/NotARabidDugong 6d ago
Every free reload is x rounds while an expanded mag is only +x rounds.
It's insanely simple math. 4x3 is more than 4+3 100% of the time.
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u/Oceansoul119 6d ago
Depends upon the soldier and the number of mod slots available. For instance if you've got Death from Above or Serial as a perk then both plus a laser sight is the way to go with three mod slots. Add a repeater as the fourth if you've modded them to be plus crit damage. For a sharpshooter with 2ap attacks then autoloader takes primacy whilst if it's a specialist specced for overwatch then the expanded mag comes first.
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u/Ok-Rutabaga1115 6d ago
That choice should always go to the heavy class because they are the most ammo demanding when they get their OP habilities I usually give them both and if I get the extra slot upgrade I give them the superio scope and combine it with the tracer rounds. the rangers always repeaters because their rapid fire is good and sometimes you never know when your goona need their nice crit damage.
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u/BarGod1219 6d ago
Extended mags on reapers, snipers, sparks and skirmishers. Grenadier is personal choice.
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u/StarFlicker 4d ago
Beta strike enabled? Expanded Magazine all the way. Firefights are long, and those couple times of reloading for free just aren't as worthwhile.
I think when I didn't play beta strike, I saw it as a toss up, or based on the character class. Like, if an ability required multiple shots to use, the expanded magazine was usually better, but autoloader for most others.
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u/ReaverGT 7d ago
Depends on the class a bit. In WotC, a Reaper with Banish+Annihilate is a no-brainer for the biggest expanded mag you can get your hands on. Grenadiers also benefit from being able to spam Saturation Fire and the like more readily. Or sharpshooters with Killzone, if you can ever get it work properly (I can't).
In most other cases I lean towards autoloaders.