As long as the target is within the drone control range they can engage. Though travel time may be a problem at long ranges, especially with heavy drones. Therefore, the four race's drones represent a sliding scale between damage and speed the percentages in the table below are relative to the worst-performing drone family.
Note that the table lists two values for speed: the speed with MWD on when the drones are chasing a target , and the orbital speed with MWD off when the drones are orbiting and attacking a target. Sentries are immobile drones that serve as stationary gun platforms.
They are carried in a ship's drone bay and launched as needed. However, they cannot move and must be picked up physically at the conclusion of an engagement. Their immobility and somewhat low tracking speeds makes them most effective against slower, larger targets, and generally they are deployed from battleships or similar combat vessels.
Sentry drones begin with approximately HP of defense shields, armor, structure. Although each type of sentry drone does the damage typical of its racial affiliation, drone choice often has to do with relative damage, range, and tracking. These are summarized here, with the detailed numerical data shown next. Like the light-heavy drones, the sentry drones too have faction variants.
Though no 'integrated' or 'augmented' sentries exist as only the navy variants are available. Each race's drones apply their racial type of EWAR:.
Each race has three EW drones, based on their light, medium and heavy combat drones. The type of EWAR is indicated by a two-letter abbreviation in the drone's name, while the size is indicated by the numbers small , medium and large. So, for example, the small sensor dampening drone is called a Hobgoblin SD based on the Hobgoblin light drone , while the medium tracking disruption drone is called a Valkyrie TD based on the Valkyrie medium drone. EWAR drones have the same bandwidth and drone bay space requirements as their combat drone counterparts, but tend to be more fragile.
Tracking disruption drones cannot be scripted i. For comparison, a Tracking Disruptor I module has a This can be increased to ECM drones act like multispectral jammers i. For comparison, the Multispectral Jammer I module has a jam strength of 2. When a ship is jammed by ECM drones they can only target the ECM drones that jam them allowing the drone owning ship to avoid target locks. Unlike regular ECM modules, successful jams from ECM drones will only last 5 seconds instead of the regular 20, while still having a 20 second cycle on jam attempts.
Sensor dampening drones cannot be scripted i. For comparison, a Remote Sensor Dampener I module has a Similar to EWAR drones, these perform auxiliary tasks in combat. Just like EW drones, ship bonuses, skill bonuses, rigs, or modules do not increase the amount of capacitor neutralized or the speed reduction. These drones drain a fixed amount of energy from the target ship's capacitor working in a similar manner to energy neutralizers, also called "neuts" , and are not stacking-penalized.
They come in three sizes, are based on Amarr combat drones, and operate on a 6-second cycle like small neuts. Energy neutralizing drones are occasionally used to cap out tackle frigates or to keep a neuted target at zero capacitor. Stasis webifier drones work much like Stasis Webifier modules "webs" , slowing the sub-light speed of the target, making them easier to hit and damage. They are stacking-penalized with other SW drones or with normal web modules.
These drones repair their targets. Unfortunately, you cannot target your own ship, and therefore you can't use your logistics drones to repair your own ship you can, however, use them to repair your own drones. There are Tech 1 and Tech 2 drones, in three sizes light, medium and heavy, each based on the respective combat drone , which repair either shield, armor or hull damage.
The hull repair drones are half as effective as the shield and armor counterparts. For comparison, the small, medium and large remote shield and armor repair modules repair 80 HP, HP, and HP every 5 seconds, respectively. Salvage drones work like Salvager modules, and extract salvage from the wrecks of destroyed ships.
This can be increased by training Salvage Drone Operation and Salvage Drone Specialization , allowing them if trained to level V to salvage any wreck.
Their chance to salvage cannot be improved by other skills, or by modules, rigs or implants. Just like for salvager modules, salvage drones do not loot wrecks; if a wreck containing loot is salvaged, the loot is left in a container in space. Additionally, they can be specifically ordered to salvage wrecks belonging to other players marked in yellow on the overview , although this must be done manually for each wreck.
When a drone successfully salvages a wreck, it will return to your ship to drop off the salvage into your ship's cargo bay before immediately heading back out into space. Making salvage drones salvage wrecks automatically can be tricky. If you target a wreck and command your drones to salvage it they will not move to a new wreck after they are done. Instead you need to select the drones such as through the drone window and command them to salvage either in right click menu or in the selected item window.
After this the salvage drones will keep on salvaging all wrecks that are in range. As their name suggests, these drones mine ore from asteroids. Mining drones will mine the targeted asteroid for one cycle 60 seconds , then return to your ship, drop off the mined ore into your cargo bay or ore hold , and fly back to the asteroid to continue mining. Despite these drones having a MWD that is always running, they are very slow about half as fast as heavy combat drones , and therefore it's important to keep your ship as close as possible to the asteroid they are mining, to avoid losing too much time in transit.
Training Mining Drone Operation and Drone Interfacing improves their mining yield, and training Drone Navigation increases their speed. There are no mining drones for gas harvesting. Ice harvesting drones gather ice from ice asteroids. These drones operate identically to mining drones, except their cycles are longer and they only harvest one unit of ice at a time. Combat drone skills: These skills allow you to use light, medium, heavy, and sentry combat drones, respectively.
Level V is needed for Tech 2 and 'Augmented' drones; all others only need level I. Note that you don't need any skills to load drones into your drone bay; you only need the skills to launch and control them.
Improved drone performance skills: These are the "drone support skills", which improve the performance of your drones. Nearly every skill requires Drones to level IV or V. Racial drone specialization: These skills are requires to use each faction's Tech 2 and 'Augmented' drones. These skillbooks come from LP stores and therefore vary in price; they require Drones V. Support drone skills: These skills unlock the electronic warfare EW , combat utility, logistics, and mining drones.
Lastly, if you're flying a drone boat, training its spaceship command skill will often improve the performance of your drones considerably. Unfortunately, these bonuses don't transfer to other ship classes or factions - your Gallente Cruiser skill won't help you to fly an Amarr Prophecy battlecruiser, or improve the performance of its drones - but if you're planning to flying a particular ship for a longer period of time, then investing skill training time here can be very beneficial.
It replaced a previous skill that actually gave you one extra drone in space per level, but this had some major lag issues in big fights, so it was changed to an equivalent bonus to drone damage. If you only ever train one drone support skill, make it Drone Interfacing. Drone Durability - makes your drones tougher and harder to kill.
Useful if you find your drones dying quite a lot. Drone Navigation - makes your drones faster when they are using their microwarpdrive. It doesn't affect non-MWD speed, so it doesn't affect how much damage your drones do. Teachers note in case people ask: it used to have a bug that made your drones do less damage, but this has now been fixed. Useful to get your drones places faster. Drone Sharpshooting - increases the range at which your drones can shoot effectively.
Great for Sentry Drones, still useful to allow your drones to get into range faster. Drone Avionics - it unlocks one of the drone modules the Drone Link Augmentor module , and it also gives you a bigger drone control range for all drones.
We'll cover drone control range in a minute. Advanced Drone Avionics - it unlocks EWAR drones, but possibly more importantly, and it also gives you a bigger drone control range for all drones.
Drone Damage Amplifier - a low-slot module introduced with the Inferno expansion, it simply increases the damage your drones deal. Fitting more than one will suffer from stacking penalties, just like other low-slot damage modules. Very effective in specialised drone ships. Drone Link Augmentor - a high slot module, increases your drone control range by a lot.
Remember that the further you send your drones, the longer they will take to get there. Drone Navigation Computer - a mid-slot module that increases the thrust gained from your drones' microwarpdrive. Because it increases thrust, instead of directly increasing speed boost, it is more effective in lighter drones. You will gain a much bigger effect from this module for light combat drones than you will for heavy combat drones. Omnidirectional Tracking Link - a mid-slot module that increases your drones' tracking speed and optimal range.
Great for sentry drones, less used for other drones although it can still add some damage, especially if you use your drones against smaller ships than intended e. These can be fit with Tracking scripts, just like turret tracking computers. Omnidirectional Tracking Enhancer - a low-slot module introduced with the Kronos expansion, it is very similar to the Omnidirectional Tracking Link, with slightly different stats.
They cannot use Tracking scripts, just like turret tracking enhancers. Drone Control Unit - a module that can only be fitted to capital ships that gives you the ability to launch one extra drone more importantly, one extra fighter or fighter-bomber in space. There are also eight different drone rigs that can be fitted to your ship with various effects on your drones.
There is a range limit to your drones. The basic drone control range is 20,m or 20km. Training both these skills to V will give you a drone control range of 60km. This is always the distance from your ship, to your drones and to your target even if you assign your drones to someone else. If your drones are further away than this you cannot order them to engage, mine, assist or guard anything, and if the target is further away than this you cannot order your drones to engage, mine, assist or guard that target.
Remember this drone control range is only the range at which you can give orders, and that drones operate semi-autonomously. If for some reason your drones do become further away than your drone control range, they will happily continue doing what they are doing autonomously. For example, if you set your drones to attack a target that subsequently moves away, your drones will continue attacking that target even if it moves out of your drone control range.
You can order drones to return either to orbit, or to drone bay so long as they are within km of you. Once your drone s are further away than this km, you can't even do that - and if their target is destroyed or warps off then they will become abandoned, and you will have to go and get them. Watch out when setting drones to attack fast-moving targets such as interceptors. They move at extremely high speeds, which means your drones will often need to activate their microwarpdrives to catch up with them.
It appears the drones cannot activate their microwarpdrives when they are outside your drone control range not too sure of the exact range, but I assume it is your drone control range. If their target is too far away they will instead become Idle and start making their way slowly back to you, without using their microwarpdrives.
With intensive drone skill training, and by fitting drone modules and rigs, you could theoretically extend your drone control range to over km. Using non-sentry drones as extended-range snipers is not very effective, however, as it takes a lot of time for even the fastest drones to travel long distances - it would take half a minute for the speediest drones, Tech II Warriors, to reach the target at such long range.
Most drone boat pilots try to establish an effective drone control range of about km. Most drone engagements for pilots with typical drone skill levels occur between km.
Sentry drones, on the other hand, benefit greatly from extended range. They have very long ranges, allowing for easy sniping. Most new players use drones in a rather ham-fisted fashion. They fly into a mission room, deploy drones, target enemies, order drones to engage, and see what happens. This can be effective in simpler missions - but can also be a disaster in more complex situations. Understanding how to engage and control your drones effectively will maximize your chances of success - or survival.
Look at your drone control window. This should be placed on your screen where it is easily accessible, especially if you are a drone boat pilot. Many pilots put this in the lower right corner, but you can place it anywhere as long as it won't be cluttered behind your overview or other windows.
To launch your drones, you need to right-click on the desired drones within the 'Drones in Bay' section of the drone window, and select 'Launch Drones'. To make launching multiple drones faster, you can add drones to groups to do this, right-click on a drone in the drone bay and select Move Drones. Note that you cannot launch more drones than your ship bandwidth allows.
To know your ship's bandwidth, right-click on your ship in space, click the "Show Info" option and select the "attributes" tab. If you try to launch more drones than permitted for example, if you add six drones to a group and then try to launch the group you will still launch all the drones you can, and then also get an error message saying you can't launch that many in space.
The 'Launch Drones' command cannot be keybound. In the upper left corner of your drone control window, you will see a square consisting of horizontal parallel lines. Left-click on this square, and you will see the " Drone Settings " option.
You will see options for Passive vs. Changing the options in this window will set the default behavior for your drones. The Passive option will keep your drones under your direct control - with this option selected, your drones won't automatically attack when you are being aggressed by another entity. They will continue to orbit and remain idle until directed otherwise by you. If you select the Aggressive option, your drones deployed in space will engage targets by themselves if they meet these conditions:.
An interesting note: Drones and "Friend or Foe" missiles use the same aggression pointer. So, whatever target your drones are attacking, either by your direction or by their own aggressive selection, any FoF missiles will go after the same target. Under the new Crimewatch system, any pilot that does the last two actions in high security space gets a SUSPECT flag, and becomes a valid target for anyone. Be aware that if you then attack them, then you become a valid target for the aggressor, and they can fight back!
Drones set to aggressive will not automatically engage a target if doing so would cause a limited engagement. Drones will only engage such a target if you explicitly order them to attack. Someone shooting your MTU would not only gain a suspect flag, but also your aggressive drones would start to shoot at them. This was fixed in Rubicon 1.
Having drones launched and set to aggressive is very important if you are engaging opponents who have jamming ECM capability. You won't be able to direct them between targets if you become jammed, but if you have them set to aggressive they will automatically attack the jamming ship anyway assuming it is within your drone control range.
The " Focus Fire " option, when selected, will direct your drones to concentrate all their fire on one target until it is destroyed, or until you direct them to engage a different target, instead of spreading their fire on multiple targets. It's usually a good idea to have this selected. The " Attack and Follow " option pertains only to fighters, which is beyond the scope of this class, so we won't cover that here. Basically, it means that fighters will pursue a designated target until it is destroyed, even if it warps away.
With this option selected, the only ways for a target to evade your fighters are to either destroy the fighters, jump out of system, or dock at a station. When you launch your drones, you'll see on your overview that they are now considered 'Drones in space'. If you expand that menu you can monitor your drones' health. You'll see three bars for each drone for shields, armor and structure - when the structure bar turns all red, your drone is destroyed.
It's a good idea to recall your drones that are in danger of being blown up, especially if they are Tech II drones, which are expensive. To command a drone, select it from the drone window and right-click to open the command menu. If you want to command multiple drones at the same time, right-click the group of drones, or the 'Drones in space' bar to order all drones in space.
Your drone command options are: Attack : This will tell the drone to attack the current selected target until it's destroyed or it warps off. If your drones are set to 'Aggressive', once the target is destroyed or warps off your drones will then pick another valid target if there is one and immediately attack that target. If there is no other valid target, they will return and orbit your ship. If they are outside your drone control range when the target is destroyed or warps off, they will just stop in space.
Assist : Your drone will be assigned to one of your fleet members, and then they will engage automatically any object that the fleet member attacks. The fleet member can't control your assigned drones directly - the assigned drones will simply attack the last thing the fleet member activated a hostile module on.
This can mean that if the assisted fleet member activates different modules on different ships fairly frequently, the drones will simply spend their time flying between targets uselessly - the assisted fleet member should be aware of this and just target one enemy for the drones to be useful.
Be aware that if the fleet member to whom you assign your drones commits an aggression in high-security space, triggering CONCORD to intervene, your ship will be targeted and destroyed as well, as the drone owner responsible for their behavior. Guard : Your drone will protect a target fleet member, thus the drone will automatically retaliate on any threat attacking against that ship.
Note that the target fleet member in question has no control over the drone. Again, the drones are still yours and are affected by your skills and your drone control range. This is similar to the 'Aggressive' setting, except the drones respond to attackers on the guarded ship instead of yours.
Mine : Your drones that are capable of mining will mine the target for one cycle then return and orbit your ship. Mine repeatedly : Your drone capable of mining will mine the target over and over until it is depleted. Return to drone bay : Your drones stop what they are doing and travel with maximum speed towards your ship's drone bay and re-dock there. Return and orbit : This command tells your drones to stop doing what they are doing and return to your ship, where they will orbit.
Abandon : Drones can sometimes become stuck and unable to return to their controller's drone bay. In such cases, abandoning them to be able to launch a new wave could be a wise decision, or so that you can scoop them up later.
This will abandon the drone and it will stop in space and become inert more on this in a minute. Scoop to Cargo : With this command, you will scoop the drone to your cargo hold, if it is within 2, meters of your ship. Be careful, though, as you will not be able to launch the drone from there. Use this if your drone bay is full or if you want to salvage an abandoned drone.
Scoop to drone bay : Choose this command when you want any disabled drones to be re-docked in your drone bay so that you can re-launch them. Again, this only works if the drone is within 2, meters of your ship. If a drone-controlling ship warps out of an area without retrieving its drones either to its drone bay or cargo hold, the drones left behind will become inert and abandoned.
This also happens if the drones are more than km from their owner when their current command comes to an end - they will just stop and become inert. If the owner returns to the same grid or approaches the out-of-range drones they can right-click their ship capacitor and select 'Reconnect to Lost Drones' to regain control over them. Any abandoned drone is free loot to any pilot that cares to collect them.
You will not be combat flagged for taking abandoned drones. The wiki page Using Drones contains a lot of useful information and tips on how to use drones to their maximum potential. This class will cover the main points, but consult that page if you want further information and ideas. More drones will almost always be more suitable than fewer drones. If your ship has a weird bandwidth, try to maximize the number of drones you can launch. Although light combat drones are designed to be used against frigate-sized ships, they can also dish out pretty good damage on larger ships as well.
From here, the Drones may be launched via the Overview menu and controled in a similar manner to other weapons. Many ships, right down to Frigate-class, have Drone Bays, and any ship with a Drone Bay should try to make use of it, as it can be an extra weapon that doesn't need Capacitor or Grid.
Drones : This skill is the basic requirement, and a pilot may control launch one drone for every level of this skill, up to a maximum of five. These may be any size-class or damage type, or combination. Additional Drones may no longer be fielded using specialist ships with Drone Control as a ship bonus e. Destroyed Drones may be replaced from the Drone Bay stock as long as there are Drones left to launch.
Drones may not be launched from the Cargo Bay, and can only be transferred between the two in a Station. Additional skills in the Drones category can help improve Drone damage, maxiumum operating range and so on. Drones travel at Microwarp speeds to engage a target, and may automatically pick out next targets, so careful control is needed for multi-cluster deadspace work. Drones do not tend to survive long if they pick up 'agro' from NPC ships, so Drone users do best if they launch the Drones after the target s have engaged the mothership.
Disconnected Drones: If for any reason a drone controlling ship warps out of an area without Scooping the Drones back up, the Drones will become inert. Upon return, the pilot will not be able to control them, and must pick them up and reset them in the Drone Bay before they can be used again. Mining Drones: These are quite simple to use; simply have the rock targets, right-click the drone and select 'Mine Repeatedly'.
They'll then round-trip with small ammounts of ore they've dug out until your Cargo Bay is full. As a rule of thumb, two Basic Mining Drones are about as effective as a single Civillian Mining Laser, but the Drones are working in addition to the laser. Generally it is not practical to mine soley using drones, but they augment mining lasers well.
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