Factory

The  is a Level 45 Tier 4 tank and one of the six current upgrade choices of Overseer. It can not upgrade any further. Upon upgrading, all Overseer barrels are replaced with a single Spawner. The Factory may also spawn new players in team modes as a result of a past update.

Design
The Factory features a square body with one Factory Spawner mounted at the front. In addition, all the spawned Drones present Barrels of their own. It is the second playable tank to have such a shape, the first being the Necromancer.

Technical
The Factory can control up to six Factory Drones, also called Minions. When not controlled by the player, the Drones will go after nearby entities, continually shooting very small Bullets (similar to that of the Gunner’s) at them.

Drones and Bullets
The Factory’s Drones have barrels of their own from which they can shoot bullets. Individual Drone bullets do not deal much damage—relatively speaking they’re about 53% as strong as those of an Auto Turret. But the Factory makes up for it in numbers: when combined, the firepower of the 6 Drone-barrels is around 96% of that of a Basic Tank. Given equal builds, each Factory Drone shoots as many Bullets as a maxed-Reload Basic Tank, albeit with reduced range and Bullet Speed.

As Drones, the Factory’s weapons present increased durability when compared to other projectiles. Nevertheless, their bodies, being twice as strong as normal triangle Drones, move at around half the speed in return. The Drones are released from the Factory’s Spawner at a fairly regular rate, equal to that of the Manager’s Drone spawn rate. When taking the Drone’s HP into account, the firepower of the Drone-Spawner alone is equal to that of the Overlord’s 4 spawners combined.

Controls
The Factory Drones present more complex behavior than other types of Drones. They will move differently depending on their location in relation to the cursor.

Attract
Through the use of left-clicking, Drones will move in various patterns while shooting in the cursor’s direction:
 * If the Drones are far away from the pointer, they will be attracted to it until the orbit range is met.
 * Once a distance of about 16 Background Squares from the cursor is met, the Drones will start moving around it in a counter-clockwise orbit, shooting in its direction at the same time.
 * If the distance is lower, the Drones will be repelled until the orbit range is met.

Due to the points above, the Drones won’t ram targets on their own. However, they can still be tricked into doing it by hovering one’s mouse past the target’s position (instead of above it), attracting the drones past the target’s location, and thus tricking them into trying to go past it.

Repel
Through the use of right-clicking, Drones will move in various patterns while shooting away from the cursor:
 * Any Drones between 15-18 Background Squares from the cursor will move in a clockwise orbit, eventually escaping from it.
 * Past the 18 Background Square limit, and the Drones stop orbiting and are repelled from the cursor like any normal Drones.
 * Below 5 Background Squares, the orbit collapses and Drones are forced together in a star formation. This is the only exception where Drones actually “attract” while using right click.

AI
When not controlled, the Factory’s Drones will go after nearby Polygons and Tanks, but once the player is damaged, they will target whatever damaged their Factory (if the aggressor is within their trigger range).

Stat Effects

 * Bullet Speed: Increases Factory Drones’ Bullet Speed and Movement Speed.
 * Bullet Penetration: Increases the Drones’ Bullet Penetration and Health.
 * Bullet Damage: Increases the Drones’ Bullet and Body Damage (or simply Health).
 * Reload: Increases Factory’s Drone spawn rate as well as the Drones’ rate of fire.
 * Health Regen, Max Health, Body Damage and Movement Speed only make an effect on the Factory, just as how they buff other tanks.

It is good to note that Stat upgrades are instantly given to any spawned Drones upon upgrading, unlike other Drone Classes, where the Drones must respawn to get the new Stats. Only the Drone’s Body Damage, Health, and Movement Speed require respawning to take an effect.

Strategy

 * Strong Against: If skilled, the Factory can beat almost any class in one-on-one combat, mostly because of the high amount of damage its Drones can inflict if used well.
 * Weak Against: Due to its limited Movement and Bullet Speed and the short distance its Drones’ bullets can travel, this class is quite vulnerable to groups of enemies. Any tanks considerably faster than 7 Movement Speed can ignore the Factory altogether.

As the Factory

 * Players should keep their Drones to themselves at all times.
 * When they’re not attacking anyone, moving with the Drones in a star formation around the tank itself will protect the players from incoming projectiles while also hiding their Bullets (and thus their location) at the same time.
 * The Drones are rather slow, but they still make for a remarkably strong force both offensively and defensively (and especially at a close range) due to their speed — their capacity to execute both actions at the same time decreases the further away the Drones’ position is from the player’s body.
 * When they are in battle, the players should move with their Drones while clicking ahead of them. This will both enhance their drone shield and let them use their Bullet Stream offensively.
 * Due to its short range, high DPS and complex controls (orbits), the Factory benefits from close range fights the most, as it can use its similar Drone-body speed to simultaneously protect itself and attack at the same time despite its slow Drones.
 * As usual, ambushes are always welcome, no matter the class. The strength of the Factory’s Drones and the class’s enhanced FoV let it squash careless tanks.

Against the Factory

 * If the player is a tank of the Sniper branch with a wider FoV (most notably the Assassin branch), fire at the Factory while 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 you fire is crucial to keep your location hidden and successfully kill the Factory. The Predator can use this same strategy, right clicking to see the Factory and firing when its 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).
 * As rammers, players should be careful not to speed through more than 1 or 2 Factory Drones; as collision damage will be very high and their health will be worn down. Players should also beware of the Drones' bullet stream, as well as the Factory being able to spawn new drones in their direction. For in either case collision damage will slow them down; taking sizeable damage on the latter.
 * As the Battleship, a glass build is best for fighting a Factory. Make the Drones go around the Factory Drones' bullets and focus on the Factory itself, damaging it until it dies or gets too close. If the latter happens, controllable Drones should be put in front of the Battleship to weaken incoming bullets, and let the AI Drones target the Factory instead.
 * Like rammers, Bullet Rammers should attempt to lure the Factory into departing from its Drones, focus on the Factory, or weaken its defense. Beware that unlike with the Overlord and other Overseer branches it will be impossible to overwhelm the Factory's reload if the tank is using its Bullet stream to enhance its defense.

History

 * This tank was released on the 8th of November, 2016.
 * The tank was originally called the 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.
 * The previously uncontrollable drones were given extensive controls in exchange for the firepower lost with the additional barrels.
 * As of November 19, 2016, the Factory has a chance of spawning new players.

Trivia

 * This tank, alongside the Necromancer and the Summoner, is the only entity with a square-shaped body.
 * It is the first class to use other tanks as.
 * It is the first class 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 November 19th, there is a very small chance for new players to spawn out of it. It is the only tank with such a feature.
 * The Factory has a very slight recoil as it spawns its Drones (Less than 2 Background Squares every 6 Drones, when stationary).
 * Although weak, individual Drone bullets are still more durable than Battleship’s partisans.
 * The Drones themselves are as strong as 1.4 traps each, rivaling with the Skimmer’s missiles in terms of durability. 2 Factory Drones are usually enough to nullify 1 Destroyer class projectile.
 * A level 45 Factory Drone is still smaller than a level 1 controlled tank.
 * It takes as few as 3 maxed out Factory drones and 8 bullets to kill a non-Smasher branch rammer at full health.
 * The Drone’s trigger range is smaller than the one of an Auto-Turret yet larger than the one of most other Drone-controllers.
 * The Factory is the only tank that can effectively buff itself by gaining more aimable cannons, cannons it can then use in addition to its Drones to increase its frontal fire capabilities.
 * The size of a factory drone corresponds to the level of the factory at the moment at which it spawns. In Sandbox, if a factory spawns a drone, levels up, and then spawns another drone, the second drone will be bigger than the first.
 * For a few days between November 12th and 18th, the Factory’s drones would move in circular orbits rather than elliptical ones when using right-click. Because of this, the player was able to get a more stable control of its drones when repelling using right-click.
 * The Drones gets very slight recoil when firing rounds. It is so slight that one needs max Reload and 0 Bullet Speed for it to make a visible difference. They drones are considerably faster when AI controlled tho.