Drones

If fleets seem too stressful or costly or the Pilot wants to supplement operations for other reasons, drones offer a comparably cheap and surprisingly powerful way for offloading tasks to meekly flying space robots.

Drones, in contrast to mercenaries, are a one-off investment, and while they do have disadvantages when compared to them, they also provide for some rather welcome benefits. Even, at times, for comic relief.

Also, instead of requiring an hourly recharge in hard currency, they will happily operate just on the occasional electric shock.

Verified for build 0.0123The following information has been verified for Astrox Imperium build 0.0123

## Drone introduction

Drones for various purposes and in various sizes and builds can be purchased at space station markets, while Pilots in possession of the respective documents may craft them at fabricators. Prices even for more advanced drone models are in the very low five digit segment, and less capable models can almost be had for change.

As with Mercenaries, finding more advanced or specialty drones might require you to inspect multiple station markets, until a model fitting the requirements is found.

Since drones, in contrast to a fleet's mercenaries, do not bring their own habitat, they will need to be placed aboard the Pilot's ship.

Also, unlike the number of ships in a fleet, the number of drones a Pilot can command can be increased by purchasing an appropriately fitted ship or installing additional, specialized passive modules, instead of just raising the related skill.

Once drones have been bought, they can be launched from the ship's cargo bay, and from then on managed through the drone management interface in the lower right of the screen. Provided the Pilot has the proper skillset and/or equipment as outlined above.

Drones are flexible tools for re-configuring a ship's stance mid-flight, since they can be moved freely back and forth between the ship's cargo hold and the Drone Command slots, for example for switching from a highly offense oriented set of drones used for supporting a ship in combat to a set of drones capable of salvaging ship wrecks, which would free up active module slots for weaponry otherwise used for Salvage Beams.

### The Drone Operation skill

Operating a drone requires the Pilot's Drone Operation skill to be at least at the same level as the drone's. Each additional level of the skill trained will allow more advanced drones to be operated by the Pilot.

Note, that this skill does not decide on the maximum number of drones that can be commanded at any one time. See below.

### The Drone Command Systems skill

The total number of drones the Pilot can command is governed by the following:

* The number of a ship's pre-installed Drone Command slots, including faction shipyard bonuses (denoted by "Drones" followed by the maximum number in a ship's overview)
* The number of slots provided by additionally installed Drone Command Bay passive modules
* The Pilot's level in the Drone Command System skill

For example, adding one Improved Drone Command Bay passive module to the DE-1 Basic Escort, which has no built-in Drone Command slots will allow a Pilot to command two drones without any levels in the Drone Command Systems Skill.

The KJE-2 Mantis, which has four built-in Drone Command slots, will enable a Pilot to command four drones without any levels in the Drone Command Systems skill or installing any Drone Command Bay passive modules.

Conversely, flying the DE-1 Basic Escort, which does not have any built-in Drone Command slots, with two levels in the Drone Command Systems skill will allow a Pilot to command two drones without the need for installing a Drone Command Bay passive module.

A fully loaded SCA-1 Demi carrier combined with 10 levels in the Drone Command Systems skill will allow the Pilot to command 48 drones:

* 8 drones using the built-in Drone Command slots
* Additional 30 drones using six Prototype Drone Command Bays providing additional six times five slots
* Additional 10 drones using the Drone Command Systems skill providing 10 additional slots

Drones will not take up space in a ship's cargo bay when docked.

### Obtaining drones

Drones come in various sizes and models, each which different sets of capabilities. Drones are available in station markets listed in the SUPPORT and USABLE item class, with even the most advanced ones seldomly exceeding very low five digit credit purchasing prices. Using the proper documents, Pilots are also able to fabricate their own drones.

Buying or fabricating a drone transfers the drone into the ship's cargo bay. If clicked, the text "USE" will appear of the drone's icon. Clicking the drone a second time will launch it, unless the ship is currently docked or does not have any free Drone Command slots left.

Once you launched a drone, it is fully functional and can be controlled using the DRONE COMMAND panel.

### Managing Drones

Purchased or crafted Drones will be stored in the ships CARGO BAY. They can be launched into space by double-clicking on them. Once they have launched, they will circle the Pilot's ship, awaiting orders given through the DRONES tab of the COMMAND panel.

The "Select and Dock All" command will select all Drones, and order them to dock into available Drone Command slots, while the "Select and Launch All" will have them launch again. Launched Drones will engage the ship's current target, if told to do so by using the "Engage Target" command.

Docked drones can be moved back from the Drone Command slots to the ship's CARGO BAY using the "Load into Cargo" command. Undocked Drones will ignore this command.

Following is a complete list of commands available through the shortcut button bar:

Some drones have a built-in cargo bay. You do not have direct access to the cargo bays of your Drones. Rather, they will automatically unload any cargo they carry into your ship's cargo, or transfer items they need from your ship's cargo bay into their built-in cargo bay.

    Owned Drones may require a firmware upgrade after the Pilot trained on Drone skills. Docking all respective Drones, and transferring them to the ship's CARGO BAY will automatically upgrade all affected Drones.

### Drone range, armor and energy consumption

The operating range of a drone is limited. Once a drone exceeds its operating range, the drone will be severely limited in its operating speed. The Drone Range Signal skill can be trained to improve the operating range of all drones.

Just as ships, drones are armored. If a drone's armor reaches zero, it will be destroyed. Docked drones will automatically, but slowly repair their armor.

Also, drones require energy to operate. All drones have a built-in energy storage, which allows them to operate independently from your ship. Drones will slowly recharge their energy storage from your ship's energy, if they are docked. Recharging can be greatly sped up by docking the carrying ship.

Assigning a drone to a task for which it does not have the required energy will have the drone automatically dock and recharge. Drones will consume a large amount of their energy, if they warp alongside your ship, instead of being docked prior to warping.

### Notes on drone models

#### Mining and Salvaging Drones

    Drones of this type will automatically mine or salvage any object you point them to until their built-in cargo bay is full or they run out of energy. They will then return to their command ship and transfer the contents of their built-in cargo bay into the ship's cargo bay.

Note, that Mining Drones seem to be incapable of extracting Electron Orbs from stars, which requires an extraction beam.

#### Micro Leech Drones

Micro Leech Drones will try and leech a small amount of energy from the object it is pointed to by you. The progress of the leeching is shown in the DRONE COMMAND panel as a percentage. Once the leeching is complete, the Micro Leeching Drone will return its commanding ship, and transfer its charge to the ship's energy storage.

#### Recon Drones

This type of drone will scan a target. Having multiple Recon Drones scan the same target can speed up the process considerably.

#### Combat Drones

Combat Drones will attack targets. While a single Combat Drone inflicts rather low damage, swarming a target with Combat Drones can have devastating effects. Combat Drones do not require ammunition.

#### Defense Drones

Missiles, other projectiles and even lasers aiming in on the target these drones defend will be taken out by them.

#### Bomber Drones

These will quite literally bomb their target. Bomber Drones carry a bomb in their built-in cargo bay, and once the bomb has been dropped, will return to their command ship in order to pick up another bomb. of the type the Pilot specified the drone to carry. While bombs of various kinds can be bought and built, the only available Bomber Drone can only carry Shield Bombs.

#### Repair Drones

This kind of drone will repair a target's armor mid-flight.

#### Burglar Drones

These are arguably the most fun drones, as they literally try to steal an item from a target ship's cargo and, upon returning to their commanding ship, transfer the item to the ship's cargo.

#### Tractor Drones

Apart from moving smaller objects around, Tractor Drones can protect a target from incoming missiles and even torpedoes.

## Related skills

This list is transcluded from Skills. Please do not edit it.

## Drone Command Bay models

This list is transcluded from Passive Modules. Please do not edit it.

## Drone models

This list is transcluded from Support. Please do not edit it.

## Related documents

### Drone Documents

This list is transcluded from Documents. Please do not edit it.

### Drone Command Bay documents

This list is transcluded from Documents. Please do not edit it.