materials give a shield multiplier
components a damage multiplier
parts a multiplier multiplier (battle multiplier)
boosts boost and a penalty
drain reduce reduces the penalty
having trouble? I went glass cannon: for base carry I went base1 optimized for damage base2 optimized for battle mult base 3 max penalty reduction + battle mult. trusting outranging the enemies + 2 deflectors to do the trick, which worked for me till 4/6 after which I just didn't have enough damage output.