Tip: Boarding Drones require 1 drone part to deploy for each new enemy. Small research station with no responseДЄ drone schematic is required to operate a drone, and there are four types: Boarding Drones, Combat Drones, Crew Drones, and Defensive Drones.While the Drone Control System itself does not open any options, the various different drones do. Some equipment opens additional Options during certain events. For example, it's possible to use a Defense Drone, Combat Drone, and Beam Drone (all Mark I) together in a fight, without upgrading the system at all. One benefit of drones is that they can share power effectively. The drone system is quite expensive to upgrade, considering what the upgrades do. The Ion Intruder can be very disruptive if it lands in an important system like weapons Mind Controlling an enemy crew will pull it into their system. They are not effective at getting crew kills by themselves, and if you have a teleporter, you can get the crew kills without them. They do have some good blue options.Д«oarding and Ion Intruder drones have limited applications. They can be useful, but you likely won't get much benefit from them if you already have a large and diverse crew.

Onboard drones overlap in function with your crew. Using multiple offensive drones in every fight is not sustainable, unless you obtain a Drone Recovery Arm. They are also effective at stripping Zoltan Shields, especially the Beam Drone Mark II, which does 2 damage each swipe. You can time a Combat drone to remove a shield before your weapons land. Nevertheless, they can combine well with weapons in a supporting role. Shield drones are slow to recharge but can block any shot, and can even be timed to block a missile they can also neutralise ion pulses at a pulsar, but only if you have have a shield system.Д¬ombat and Beam drones are generally not a good substitute for weapons, since they cost drone parts to use, and you cannot choose which rooms they attack. An Anti-Combat drone will typically suppress one enemy drone quite effectively, but not completely. The Defense Drone Mark II can also shoot down lasers and ions these may distract it from shooting a missile, but careful micro-management largely prevents that.ДЄnti-Combat drones are an effective defence against offensive drones, which can be among the most dangerous fights in the game. While all drones can potentially be useful, some of them require very specific circumstances to be worthwhile.Дefense Drones are the most widely useful, as they can shoot down missiles, Boarding and Ion Intruder Drones, and some asteroids.

Crew and boarding drones can be damaged and destroyed by hostile crewmen, and also take damage if the room they are in is struck by a missile, laser, bomb (except for Healing Burst or Repair Burst), or flak, or if the tile they occupy is hit by a beam (except for the Anti-Bio Beam).

Drones that fly around a ship can be shot down by enemy fire if they are in direct line of fire.

Most ships have 2 slots for Drone Schematics, though a few ships have 3.

Upgrading lets you power more drones simultaneously (although you can have multiple deployed and only have one powered at a time, switching power as necessary).

Crew drones stay on the ship and only need to be redeployed when destroyed.

External and boarding drones are lost when jumping to a new system and have to be redeployed at each new location or encounter, though a Drone Recovery Arm lets you recover the drone parts of external drones.

The drone will stay active until it is destroyed, its system is too damaged to power it, or you deactivate it.

Activating a drone will power it and, if the drone is not already deployed, will spend one drone part to deploy the drone.

Activating a drone is done in a similar way as activating weapons, by clicking on or pressing the key (5-7).

Drones are automated robots that each perform a different task.Drones are automated robots that perform tasks like attacking enemy ships or repairing systems.

Ftl superluminal drones