Factory

Not to be confused with the Necromancer which resembles the appearance of the .

The  is a Tier 4 tank and one of the six current upgrades of the Overseer. It may not upgrade further.

Design
The Factory features a square body with one Factory Drone Spawner mounted at the front. It is the second playable tank to have a square body, the first being the Necromancer.

Technical
The Factory spawns Factory Drones using its Spawners, and may control up to six such Drones, also known as Minions. Said Minions, when not controlled by the player, are controlled by AI. They continually shoot very small Bullets (slightly larger than Gunner’s) at any nearby objects.

Bullets
Individual Minion bullets do not deal a high degree of damage. Relatively speaking, they are about 54% as strong as an Auto Turret’s bullets. Given equal builds, one Factory Drone shoots as many Bullets as a maxed out Bullet Speed and Reload Basic Tank; albeit with lower range and bullet speed. Combined, the firepower of 6 Minion drones is around 97% of a Basic Tank’s.

Minion Bodies
Minions have much more health and durability than normal Drones. They are twice as strong as normal Overlord’s, but move at roughly half the speed. The Minions spawn from the Factory’s spawner at a fairly regular rate, equal to that of the Manager's Drone spawn rate.

Note: each Minion is smaller than a Level 1 player-controlled tank. The Minion trigger range is smaller than that of a normal Auto Turret’s, similar to other Drone-using Classes.

Controls

 * Attract: Through the use of left-click, drones will be forced to move towards the cursor just like regular ones. However, they also present more complex behavior. For simplicity, the different effects the cursor has over the drones will be described as Control Effects.
 * When given a distance of about 16 background squares; the Minions will start orbiting around the cursor while shooting at it at the same time in a counterclockwise configuration.
 * The Minions won’t ram targets on their own. However, they can be controlled into doing it by hovering the mouse past the target’s location. This Control Effect is called Far Attract. This will force the Minions to keep moving in the cursor’s direction, as they won't reach the orbit limit until they are past the target's hitbox.
 * Repel: Through the use of right-click, the Minions will be forced to perform various actions while shooting outwards.
 * Any Minions between 15-18 background squares away from the cursor will move in a clockwise formation, gradually moving away from the parent Factory.
 * Once Minions have passed the 18 background square limit, they will be repelled like normal Drones.
 * If less than 5 background squares away from the cursor, the Minions will collapse into a star shape, barrels facing outwards This is the only exception where Minions actually “attract” while using right click. This is described as Close Repel.
 * AI:
 * When not manually controlled, Minions go after nearby Polygons and Tanks, but once the player is damaged, they will target whatever damaged the player.

Stat effects
It should be noted that most Stat upgrades are instantly given to spawned Factory Drone Tanks once upgraded, unlike other Drone Classes where the Drones must respawn to get the new Stats. Only the Factory Drones' Body Damage and Max Health require a respawn to take effect.
 * Bullet Speed: Increases Factory Drones’ Bullet Speed and Movement Speed.
 * Bullet Penetration: Increases Factory Drones’ Bullet Penetration and Max Health.
 * Bullet Damage: Increases Factory Drones’ Bullet Damage and Body Damage.
 * Reload: Increases the Factory’s spawn rate of Factory Drones and the Factory Drones’ rate of fire.
 * Health Regen, Max Health, Body Damage and Movement Speed only have an effect on the Factory.

Strategy

 * Strong Against: Any class in a 1v1 situation
 * Weak Against: Teams of enemy players.

As the Factory

 * Players should keep their Minions close to themselves at all times, especially when they are not attacking anyone.
 * Minions have a rather low base Movement Speed for Drones, but they still make for a strong force; both offensively and defensively, especially at close range. However, this potential is decreased the farther the Minions are from the parent Factory.
 * Players should always move with their drones, even when they are in battle. The Factory has enough frontal power to make its offense also its defense.
 * Against most Spammers, Snipers and Trappers:
 * Players can aim for these tanks by hovering their cursor past them (hence using the “ Far-Attract ” mechanic). And- by predicting where they will be. → To reach them in the least amount of time; block their bullets; and avoid the counter-clockwise Orbit.
 * Focused spammers can also be jawed: A trick the player can use as the Factory against tanks that can’t address every side simultaneously (i.e. the Sprayer or the Triplet).
 * All the Sniper’s Projectiles can be tanked by normal Point & Click.
 * “Do only use the Star Formation while moving” → To both- hide your bullets and block any incoming projectiles. For everything else -  Left-Click .
 * This is specially useful for vertical ambushes; as it let’s you both- hide your location and protect your body from unexpected rammer/destroyer class projectiles, at the same time.
 * When in Battle: It’s most useful to use both- your Drones and your bullets to block and push through most stuff. The use of Left-Click Effects being most important here. → For it stacks both your Bullet and Drone potential.                                                                                              (The Bullet DPS is actually higher than the MinionLauncher’s).
 * Destroyer Branches (does not include Skimmer):
 * When in battle: it is the one case in which spreading and Far-Repeling your drones is more effective than close range.                                                                                            Similarly to other DroneClasses: It’ll let you attack the destroyer from multiple angles at once, negate it ground. And limit its movement’s through the use of bullets.                                     (Faking location is also useful). As always- do not use  Close-Repel  for blocking.
 * Overseer Branches (does not include Battleship):
 * Generally Drone vs Drone Battles are always played through Right-Click.                         Well, in Factory’s case it is actually much much bettter to do it in close range. Not only will you be bringing your defense with you. But you’ll be basically impossible to pressure.    When in Battle: Use a combination of  Left-click Effects  to fence all the Overlord’s attacks (Does also apply to Multi-Directional Claws) while advancing in the tanks direction at the same time.
 * Rammers & BulletRammers:
 * Keep calm. No need to use Close-Repel. All your 6 drones are enough to take on a MaxedOut FullHP Spike head on. Luring the rammers by attacking some low risk player or “running” is best. As soon as they close in for the sandwich a flip of your drones in their direction, while moving your body independently will do the trick. Even just kissing your drones is like kissing a Spike.
 * If playing 2 or 4 Teams, players can just move around the Pentagon Nest and let the Drone’s AI do all the work (for as long as the player’s team has full control of the Pentagon Nest.
 * The Factory is also a great choice for Survival & Maze. Due to the enclosed spaces Factory has an advantage in this modes.
 * Factories are very popular in Domination, as the Factory Drones can solo Dominators just by circling around them. They do also offer great defensive-offensive capabilities when defending.

Against the Factory

 * If the player is a tank on the Sniper branch with a larger FoV, fire at the Factory when it’s distracted or on auto mode or if its Drones are far away enough. Keeping a Factory at the edge of the screen while changing position every time the Stalker or Ranger fires is crucial to killing a Factory. The Predator can use the same strategy as a Ranger, right clicking to see the Factory and firing when it's Drones are absent.
 * Players using the Overseer branch should try to guide the Drones to this tank. (Multi Directional claws are particularly useful against less skilled users).
 * If the Drones are far away from the tank then ramming it could be a good idea. Factories usually have a somewhat glass cannon build. Players should be alert if the Drones appear to be unusually slow and weak in damage; this can be a sign that the Factory is running a Body Damage build.
 * As a ramming tank, players should not try to speed through the Factory Drones as collision damage will be very high and the player’s health will be worn down. Try to ram the Factory in a place where the Factory Drones are in the least concentrated (i.e. closely packed) amount. Or if the drones are far away.
 * As a Skimmer, players should try and shoot bullets behind the Factory as it will probably have it’s drones in front of it and it’s back will be exposed, enabling the small bullets to hit it, thus doing damage.
 * As the Battleship, a glass build is best for fighting a Factory. making use of the arc of drones can go around the Factory Drones and attack the Factory, doing quick damage to the Factory and killing it. Another strategy would be to place the controlled drones in front of the Battleship to bock any bullets from the Factory, letting the AI drones attack the Factory instead. This allows for less damage to be taken, but the Factory may escape.
 * A great disadvantage of the Factory is its painfully slow Drones. This can be used by fast melée tanks to kill it. If they manage to lure the factory into going away from them.

History

 * This tank was released on the 8th of November, 2016.
 * The tank was originaly called Master but was renamed to Factory short after its release.
 * On the day it was introduced, an update came out that changed the appearance of The Factory, it used to have a circular body with three spawners and looked very similar to the Overtrapper, which was called Master. There was also a function added, if the player pressed E or clicked, it would force the Factory Drones to shoot towards the cursor.
 * On November 19, 2016 the Factory had a chance of spawning new players.

Trivia

 * This tank, alongside the Necromancer and the Summoner, are the only entities whose bodies are square-shaped.
 * In a previous version, the Factory was called “Master,” had three Spawners instead of one, and sported a circular body instead of a square one.
 * It is the first tank to use other tanks as Weapons.
 * It is the first tank to have a purple background on the icon.
 * With the introduction of the Factory, the Overseer gained the greatest number of available upgrades (six in total).
 * As of, there is a very small chance for new players to spawn out of it. It is the only tank with such a feature.
 * Maxing out Bullet Penetration and Bullet Damage upgrade will give Factory Drones roughly around 3.2× the HP of a Pentagon.
 * The Factory has a slight recoil as it spawns its Drones ( 2 > Background Squares every 6 drones. When stationary)
 * The old version of Factory, called “Master,” featured a circular body with 3 Spawners around it.