The Back-up

Speed | 17 m/s

*"Backup" redirects here. For the common item, see .*

**The Back-up** is a returning equipment in Risk of Rain 2.

When activated, it summons 4 Strike Drones that follow the player and attack nearby enemies with fast-firing machine guns. After 25 to 28 seconds, the Strike Drones automatically self-destruct.

## Notes

* The Strike Drone is the only ally that does not scale with the monster level, but instead with the player level. As such, it deals less damage as time passes, since monsters level up faster than the player. This is most likely a bug.
	+ It is worth noting that Strike Drones spawned by an Equipment Drone or a  will be at ambient level, since their summoner also scales accordingly.

## Tips

* This equipment is extremely beneficial for , since his  grants every Strike Drone  until their duration runs out.

* Giving The Back-up to an Equipment Drone is quite useful, since the drone itself will activate the equipment when enemies are near. Both the Equipment Drone and Strike Drones will follow the player nearly all the time, since the Equipment Drone reduces its equipment's cooldown by about 80%.
	+ This is especially useful as Captain, as the Equipment Drone *and* the Strike Drones will get Defensive Microbots.

* Due to its 100 second cooldown, it's best to use this against a horde of enemies or during the Teleporter Event, as the drones have a high rate of fire and can draw enemies' attention.

* This item has a hard limit of 20 drones that can be active at any one time. This cap is affected by other drones the player already has, and activating it will no longer have any effect if they have 20 drones already.

* It's possible to gain permanent uptime of the drones by having a  and at least five .
	+ Interestingly, this equipment can still benefit from gathering more Gestures and/or Fuel Cells even after permanent uptime is achieved, since more than 4 drones can be summoned at once.
* Drones summoned will not receive the visual drone augmentations provided by  but will receive the stat boosts.

## Lore

```
"The inclusion of Rapid Response Drone Squadrons (RRDS) by local law enforcement marked a dire turning point of Plank's Rebellion. After its massive "success" in quelling the Rebellion - and subsequent implementation across Mercury - underground drone hackers became highly sought after by black market users."

-Overview of Drone Technology, Vol.2
```

## Version History

Anniversary Update
* Quality of Life
	+ Graphics Updates
		- Update visuals to match other assets

Early Access Artifacts Content Update
* Sound & Music
	+ Fix The Back-up equipment not playing activation SFX correctly over the network

Early Access Hidden Realms Content Update
* Gameplay Changes
	+ Increase size of   Backup Drones

Early Access Scorched Acres Content Update
* QOL
	+ ☂ Add 0.5s cooldown to repeatedly using The Backup equipment

## Trivia

* Prior to the Anniversary Update, the Strike Drones shared the same model as the   Missile Drone.

* The Back-up has a retro "walkie talkie" styled LCD screen, which can be read if examined in the logbook. It has a signal strength (or battery) indicator at the top, says that it's connected to Channel 2, and is set to 0/100 Voice Mod SVL (presumably standing for sound velocity levels).

* A close up of The Back-up's screen.