Main Thrusters

Main Thrusters are the forward pushing thrusters, with a varying amount of power efficiency depending on the one you use. Ships that support reversible thrusters (such as the Carrier) use main thrusters for reverse throttle unless precision translation is enabled. Otherwise ships use Maneuvering Thrusters for reverse thrust.

While some thrusters are very efficient like dark thrusters, 10 thrust for 600 mw, others are very inefficient like racing thrusters which have 25 thrust for 4000 MW. For purposes of comparison, Thrust Power Efficiency (TPE) has been calculated and documented on each component's page (lower is better).

In general, the more powerful a thruster becomes, the more power-inefficient it becomes. The correct one(s) to use depends on your needs and it is perfectly valid to mix thruster types in your setup. For most ships you don't necessarily need to max out thruster level even to win the Ion Races.