Drones

Drones used by the Overseer, Overlord and the Manager

Not to be confused with the AI-controlled Base Drones and Crashers.

Drones are weapons used by the Overseer branches and the Hybrid. Most look like smaller versions of Triangles, with the only exceptions being the Necromancer’s Drones, which are tinted Squares, and the Factory’s, which look like small Arena Closers.

A Factory Drone

Technical

Behavior

All Drones (with the exceptions of Hybrid’s and Overtrapper’s AI-controlled ones and the Factory’s Minions, which exhibit more complex behavior) can be controlled via left-clicking or by pressing E to enable Auto-Fire. This forces them to follow the player’s cursor. Right-clicking or pressing Shift will force drones to move away from it.

If not controlled, all the Drones regardless of their type will automatically seek the nearest player or Polygon in their immediate area. If no target is available, they’ll become "idle" and passively orbit around their tank.

The Mothership and the Battleship, present both controllable drones and uncontrollable Drones. (Presumably, due to their exceptionally high Drone Count). The latter, automatically protecting the tanks from enemy users.

Note: When a drone-controllable uses Auto Fire and Auto Spin simultaneously, the Drones will orbit the tank uncontrollably unless either auto function is off.

Stats

Drones are affected by these Stats:

• Bullet Penetration increases their Max Health.
• Bullet Damage increases their Body Damage
• Bullet Speed increase their Movement Speed.
• Reload increases their respawn rate (or Drone Limit in the case of Undead Drones)

Note that in Factory’s case the mentioned Stats also modify these Traits:

• Bullet Penetration increases their Bullet Penetration.
• Bullet Damage increases their Bullet Damage.
• Bullet Speed increases their Bullet Speed.
• Reload increases their Bullet Reload.

Drone Users

Tanks with controllable Drones are:

• Overseer: up to 8 drones per tank.
• Overlord: up to 8 drones per tank.
• Manager: up to 8 drones per tank.
• Necromancer: up to 22-36 per tank.
• Factory: up to 6 drones per tank.

Tanks that present uncontrollable Drones are:

• Hybrid: up to 2 drones per tank.
• Overtrapper: up to 2 drones per tank.

Tanks that use both controllable and uncontrollable partisans are:

• Mothership: 16 controllable Partisans and 16 uncontrollable Partisans.
• Battleship: Infinite controllable Partisans and infinite uncontrollable Partisans; both types disappear after 4 seconds.

Bosses that use Drones are:

• The Guardian: 24 Crashers
• The Summoner: 28 Squares
• The Fallen Overlord: 28 gray Crashers

Battleship Drones

Their drones, also known as Partisans, are only accessible by the Battleship and Mothership. They are aesthetically the same, except:

• The Battleship’s drones decay after a certain amount of time.
• The Battleship’s drones are much weaker than those of the Mothership’s
• Only half the drones can be controlled by the Tank at any given time.
• They exhibit an exceptionally wide Trigger Range.

Necromancer Drones

These drones, also known as the Undead, are only accessible by the Necromancer. They are essentially the same, except:

• They are presented in far greater numbers, but in return, they have lower health and deal less damage.
• They have a square shape and somewhat reduced Speed.
• All the tanks that use this type of drone have a Square base.
• The Necromancer must collect its drones by infecting squares since it doesn’t spawn them on its own.
• Note: The Summoner's drones, are almost identical to the Necromancer's drones, except for the fact is the Summoner's drones are generated via the four spawners, and do slightly more damage.

Factory Drones

These Drones are exclusive to the Factory. They are also known as Minions. They present some singular characteristics in the sense that:

• They move at roughly half the speed of normal Triangle Drones.
• They are twice as strong as normal Triangle Drones.
• They are the only type of drones in which their body isn’t their main offensive weapon.
• They are smaller than Level 1 Tanks and have a similar appearance to the Arena Closer.
• They do not chiefly use melee attacks — they keep their distance and shoot, like miniature tanks.

Technical

• Both the Factory’s projectile types are affected by the same stats. (e.g. Bullet Damage increases both the Minion’s Body Damage and their Bullet Damage)
• When idle, the Minions will orbit the player, similar to other Drones but further away from the player’s body.
• When using Left-Click the minions will go, and fire, in the cursor’s direction. Given a certain distance, the drones will start orbiting around the pointer while shooting at it.
• When using Right-Click, and depending on their position with the cursor. The minions will either orbit the cursor while shooting outwards, clump together in a star formation, or go away from it like normal repelled drones.

Achievements

They ain’t a real tank — Destroy 100 Factory drones

They ain’t a real tank Destroy 100 Factory Drones

History

• After the June 15^th changelog, when you upgrade to Overseer or any of its branches, Bullet Penetration, Bullet Speed and Bullet Damage will, respectively, become Drone Health, Drone Speed and Drone Damage. For Necromancers, Reload will also change to Drone Count.
• Since November 19^th, 2016 the Factory has a chance of spawning new players in team game modes.

• Back when the Factory was first introduced, its drones were fully automatic. The mechanic was changed later because the AI was flawed and the Drones did not defend their Owner.

Trivia

Stat Table of a Drone Class cropped down to 4 Stats, notice how "Bullet" is replaced with "Drone"

• The Hybrid’s and Overtrapper‘s drones are AI-controlled because you cannot control a Cannon and Drones at the same time.
• A Necromancer’s maximum number of Drones increases by two for every skill point spent on Reload/Drone Count. Combined with a basic maximum of 22 Drones, a Necromancer player can have up to 36 Drones under control depending on the number of skill points spent on Drone Count.
• The Factory has the most powerful drones in the game. Their Health and Speed being on par with Mothership’s.
• The Factory is the only class to spawn drones that also have weapons of their own.
• Individual Minion Bullets are stronger than a Battleship’s Drones.
• Minions are the first drone type to exhibit more complex movements than the normal attract and repel of other Overseer branches.
• Unlike other classes that use them, Necromancer tanks do not spawn Drones of their own. Instead, the player must run into Yellow Squares to convert them into Drones. When there is at least one Drone under control, the player can start infecting Squares with its Drones instead.
  • In older versions of the game, a Necromancer Drone would occasionally, albeit very rarely, spawn from the side of the tank. This could not be used to reach the maximum Drone capacity, however, as it would take many hours or perhaps even days to reach even 20. Considering that Servers don’t stay open that long, it would be an impossible task to accomplish via this method. Its ineffectiveness was likely the reason why this feature was later removed.
• The size of most Drones increases based on the tank’s level, except for the Necromancer. Its Drones are always the same size.
• Occasionally, Drones can be spotted surrounding and attempting to attack another Drone.
  • This is a result of the player controlling their Drones while the cursor is stationary. As all the drones pile into the same space where their cursor is, it gives the appearance of them cannibalizing each other. No damage is incurred by the Drones when this happens, however.
• After the July 18th changelog, a new class of Trapper tanks was added including the Overtrapper, which spawns two uncontrollable Drones like the Hybrid.
• Drone AI cannot detect the tanks that are already invisible, but they can still detect any tanks that aren’t fully cloaked.
• Uncontrollable Drones, generated by the Hybrid and Overtrapper, are weaker than controlled drones.

Gallery

Necromancer with some of its drones

Necromancer with some of its drones (New colors)

Battleship drones

Guardian with its drones

Fallen Overlord with drones

Mothership drones, only right ones are player-controlled (removed)

A Example of Factory Drones And Factory

A red Teams Drones