External Fuel Tanks: Extra fuel for maneuvering during fights, or running away. Replacing fuel tanks with a weapon means giving up survivability for extra damage.
Quick Recharge Fuel Tanks: Shorter boosts, but more useful over longer distances/fights. A good pick for new players, they can be more forgiving.
High Capacity Fuel Tanks: Niche. Avoid if you’re new.
Rocketpods (Hellfire, Breaker, Dual Photon pods): Can kill both infantry and ground vehicles, but aren’t great against either. Ammo reserve upgrades are mandatory.
Hornet Missiles: The best weapon against ground vehicles for an ESF. Bad against infantry, unreliable against aircraft. Don’t expect to win alone often against AA vehicles.
Tomcat Missiles: Extra damage for killing large aircraft (Liberators and Galaxies). Bad against ESFs. Can only be shot at aircraft. Must acquire a lock before firing.
Wyrm: Machine gun for killing large aircraft. Harder to use than Tomcats and with a shorter effective range, but with better potential DPS. Not worth the time/risk using them against ground vehicles.
Coyote Missiles: Training wheels for A2A. Only effective against ESFs. If you pick these, drop them for fuel tanks once you build up some confidence.