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What ship weapon type is designed to take down enemy ship shields and health?

I am finding space combat probably one of the more difficult things in Starfield. In particular, I am on the mission Legacy's End where.
I sided with the UC SysDef and destroyed the three defensive batteries around the star system that The Key is in. Now I am engaged with multiple fairly high level ships around The Key and I cannot seem to win.
I've since stopped trying and focused on leveling up some of my ship building skills and other space combat related skills, but what I think I need most is some better fire power. My ships weapons are just not cutting it.
There are a ton of weapons one can equip their ship with, but what weapon "type" (i.e. laser, missile, particle beam, etc.) is specifically designed for taking down enemy shields and what ones are meant for health?
Question from user Timmy Jim at stackexchange.
Answer:
There are 5 categories of ship weapons in Starfield, each with an associated skill to improve their power:.
Lasers, which deal good damage to shields but not to hulls.
Ballistics, which deal good damage to hulls but not to shields.
Missiles, which deal good damage to hulls and shields but short effective range and fire rate.
Particle Beams, which deal equal damage to shields and hulls but not as well as lasers and ballistics used appropriately.
EM, which disables systems without damaging hulls so ships can be boarded more easily.
There are also Turrets, which I think each also fit into one of those categories but fire automatically.
In my experience from running into the exact same problem, I recommend a mostly or fully Particle Beam weapon setup. Although they seem less efficient than using lasers and ballistics appropriately, they actually end up being more efficient due to energy management; 12 energy of particle beams will do more DPS against shields than 6 energy of lasers, and more damage against hulls than 6 energy of ballistics. Additionally, investing in the particle beam skill increases damage to both shields and hull while a ship with lasers and ballistics would need to invest in both. Replacing my weapon loadout with all particle beams (alongside the best reactor and shield I could find) turned that mission from an impossible slog to a first-try victory.
Answer from user Kamil Drakari at stackexchange.

I am finding space combat probably one of the more difficult things in Starfield. In particular, I am on the mission Legacy's End where.
I sided with the UC SysDef and destroyed the three defensive batteries around the star system that The Key is in. Now I am engaged with multiple fairly high level ships around The Key and I cannot seem to win.
I've since stopped trying and focused on leveling up some of my ship building skills and other space combat related skills, but what I think I need most is some better fire power. My ships weapons are just not cutting it.
There are a ton of weapons one can equip their ship with, but what weapon "type" (i.e. laser, missile, particle beam, etc.) is specifically designed for taking down enemy shields and what ones are meant for health?
Question from user Timmy Jim at stackexchange.
Answer:
There are 5 categories of ship weapons in Starfield, each with an associated skill to improve their power:.
Lasers, which deal good damage to shields but not to hulls.
Ballistics, which deal good damage to hulls but not to shields.
Missiles, which deal good damage to hulls and shields but short effective range and fire rate.
Particle Beams, which deal equal damage to shields and hulls but not as well as lasers and ballistics used appropriately.
EM, which disables systems without damaging hulls so ships can be boarded more easily.
There are also Turrets, which I think each also fit into one of those categories but fire automatically.
In my experience from running into the exact same problem, I recommend a mostly or fully Particle Beam weapon setup. Although they seem less efficient than using lasers and ballistics appropriately, they actually end up being more efficient due to energy management; 12 energy of particle beams will do more DPS against shields than 6 energy of lasers, and more damage against hulls than 6 energy of ballistics. Additionally, investing in the particle beam skill increases damage to both shields and hull while a ship with lasers and ballistics would need to invest in both. Replacing my weapon loadout with all particle beams (alongside the best reactor and shield I could find) turned that mission from an impossible slog to a first-try victory.
Answer from user Kamil Drakari at stackexchange.
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