Difference between revisions of "Drones"

From EVE University Wiki
Jump to: navigation, search
m (Change indent.)
 
(213 intermediate revisions by 41 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
[[Category:Guides]]
+
{{Update}}
[[Category:Ship Fitting]]
 
  
In Eve, drones are semi-autonomous vehicles launched from larger spacecraft, designed to augment the launching ship's capabilities. All four races use drones, so every combat pilot is likely to use them sooner or later. This article explains how to load, deploy and control drones, and discusses the different types of drone available. See [[Using Drones]] for a detailed discussion of drone control and drone tactics for PvE and PvP.
+
<!-- On-page CSS at the end -->
 +
{{Weapon Systems Links}}
 +
{{Hatnote|This article describes the various kinds of drones and explains how they work. <br>For a detailed discussion of the use of drones, including PvP and PvE tactics, see [[Drone mechanics]]. If you are looking for ships that carry drones, see [[Drone-capable ships]].
 +
}}
 +
'''Drones''' are semi-autonomous vehicles launched from ships and designed to augment the launching ship's capabilities. All four races use drones to a greater or lesser degree, so many ships, especially larger ships, will have drone capabilities.
  
==Drone Basics==
+
While most drones are used as support, some ships use drones as their primary way of dealing damage. In addition, there are drones for specialized uses: such as [[mining]], [[electronic warfare]], and [[logistics]].
  
'''The Dronebay'''
+
Compared to the other combat [[weapons|weapons systems]] in EVE, drones provide a great deal of flexibility. On the other hand, drones need to travel to their targets before applying their damage, and they can be destroyed by enemy fire.
  
A ship must have a dronebay to use drones. You can find out if your ship has a dronebay, and how big it is, by looking at the Attributes tab in its Show Info window -- if it has a dronebay, it will tell you the dronebay's capacity in meters cubed (m<sup>3</sup>).
+
== Drone basics ==
 +
[[File:Drone control window.png|thumb|left|The drone control window, showing drones in the drone bay and drones in space.]]
 +
If you undock with drones in your drone bay, a new window for controlling drones will appear on your screen. Via this window, you can launch drones from your drone bay, give commands to them once they are in space, and recover them back into your drone bay.
  
To open the dronebay, either right-click on your ship in your hangar and select 'open dronebay' or click on the dronebay button at the bottom left of the fitting screen (near the cargo hold button). You can load drones into your dronebay by dragging and dropping them into the dronebay window. Nothing else can be loaded into the dronebay. You can carry drones in your cargo hold, but you cannot use drones while they are in your cargohold, and you cannot transfer drones from your hold to your dronebay while you are in space.
+
This window also shows the active status of any drones you currently have in space. These are listed in the last folder. If any of those drones are damaged, the three little bars to the right of the drone will turn red - indicating hull, armor and shield … in that order.
  
'''Drones in Space'''
+
[[File:Drone group.png|thumb|200px|Add drones to a group through the right-click menu.]]
 +
Drones can be grouped through the drone control window. This makes controlling drones easier, as you can give a command to the entire group. To move a drone in or out of a group, right-click on the drone, or drag it in or out of the group.
  
If you undock with drones in your dronebay, you will see a new window for controlling drones appear on your screen. You can launch them by right-clicking on them in this window and selecting the launch option, by selecting them in this window and then clicking the launch button in the selected item window, left clicking and hold - making the radial menu appear which gives the option for launch, or the fastest method - click,hold and simply drag the drone/s into empty space. (Especially effective when you group drones, you can drag the group entry into space and launch all drones in the group.)
+
Create groups of drones that you intend to launch and use together; usually, this means groups of five identical drones, but in some cases, you may want to create groups with a mix of drones. Only drones of the same type may be grouped (you cannot, for example, put e-war and combat drones in the same group.)
  
You may only have a maximum of five drones in space at once -- one for every level you have trained in the [[Skills:Drones#Drones|Drones]] skill -- even if you can carry more in your dronebay. (The three exceptions to this limit are [[Capital_Ship#Carriers|carriers]], [[Capital_Ship#Supercarriers|supercarriers]] and the rare [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Guardian-Vexor Guardian-Vexor].<ref> [http://wiki.eveonline.com/wiki/Drones Drones, EveOnline Wiki]</ref>)
+
You can delete unused drone groups by right-clicking in your drone control window and selecting "Delete group".
  
'''Bandwidth'''
+
Drones have built-in weapons that don't need to reload. If damaged, a drone's shields will slowly regenerate on their own, but damage to its armor and hull will need to be repaired (e.g. by using the repair services at a station).{{clear}}
  
The other constraint on the drones you can launch is your ship's bandwidth -- again, you can find this on your ship's Attributes tab. Bandwidth represents your ship's ability to coordinate your drones, and bigger and more powerful drones always require more bandwidth (with the exception of fighters and fighter bombers, a drone's bandwidth requirements in Mbit/sec is always the same number as its size in m<sup>3</sup>). It is possible to have more drones in your dronebay than your ship can control, of course, you just can't have more in space at once than your bandwidth limit.
+
Drones are capable of serving many different roles and exist in many different sizes. There are five general categories:
 +
* [[#Combat_drones|Combat drones]]<br>
 +
: Targeting enemy ships, these apply the [[NPC damage types|basic types of damage]].
 +
* [[#Electronic_warfare_drones|Electronic warfare and combat utility drones]]<br>
 +
: Targeting enemy ships, these [[Electronic warfare|weaken and interfere]] with the enemy.
 +
* [[#Logistics drones|Logistics drones]]<br>
 +
: Targeting friendly players, these provide aid to ships in a fleet.
 +
* [[#Salvage drones|Salvage drones]]<br>
 +
: These target wrecks for [[salvage]].
 +
* [[#Mining drones|Mining drones]]<br>
 +
: These target asteroids or ice and [[mining|mine them]] for resources.
  
'''Control and Behaviour'''
+
Details on the characteristics of individual drone types are shown below in [[#Drone Type Details|Drone Type Details]]. A discussion of the uses of these drones in game can be found in [[Drone mechanics]].
  
Right-clicking in the drone control window on the drones you have in space lets you order them to attack your selected target, or to return and orbit you, or to return and dock with you and return to the dronebay. There is usually a short lag period before they actually perform your orders.
+
=== Drone bay ===
 +
[[File:Tristan-get-info.png|thumb|left]]
 +
A ship must have a drone bay to use drones. You can find out if a ship has a drone bay, and how big it is, by looking at the Attributes tab in its Show Info window. If it has a drone bay, it will tell you the drone bay's capacity in cubic meters ({{m3|ns}}). The size of a ship's drone bay determines how many drones you can carry with you, ready to be launched into space; larger and more powerful drones take up more space in your drone bay.
  
By default, your drones are set to behave aggressively, which means they will attack anything hostile to you within their range. In the drone settings window, which you can access from the white triangle at the top left of the drone control window, you can set them to behave passively instead, which will make them simply orbit you until you order them to attack something.
+
{{example|The [[Tristan]] has a 40{{m3}} drone bay, which means it can carry up to eight light drones (which take up 5{{m3}} each), or four medium drones (10{{m3}} each), or a combination of the two (e.g. two medium and four light drones).}}
  
There's much more to be said about the use of drones, some of which is covered below, but if you've read the above you should know the basics required to load and deploy drones in Eve.
+
The size of your ship's drone bay is fixed and cannot be enlarged using modules or skills. Only drones can be carried in a drone bay; it cannot be used to carry other cargo. While you can carry drones in your cargo bay, you can only use them if they are in the drone bay. You can only move drones in or out of your drone bay while docked at a station, or by using a ship/structure with a fitting service (e.g. a [[Mobile Depot]] or a [[Capital Ship]]).
  
===Drones Orbiting Targets===
+
=== Bandwidth ===
 +
The other important ship attribute is its "bandwidth". This is the ship's ability to control drones in space and is measured in Mbit/sec. You can only deploy as many drones as you have available bandwidth on your ship, and bigger drones require more bandwidth. Your ship's bandwidth is fixed and is not affected by skills or modules.
  
Drones have 2 hidden attributes which help determine the range and speed they will attempt to orbit a target. EntityFlyRange and Orbit Velocity are the 2 attributes.
+
Many ships (and especially [[Drone Capable Ships|dedicated drone ships]]) can carry many more drones in their drone bays than they can deploy at once; this allows them to selectively deploy different types of drones, or to replace drones that are destroyed in combat. With the exception of [[fighters]] (which are only used by capital ships) and special limited edition drones, a drone's bandwidth requirements (in Mbit/sec) is always the same number as its volume (in{{m3}}).
  
All drones, from logistics and EWar through the fastest 'Augmented' types, will try and orbit at the EntityFlyRange.
+
However, irrespective of your ship's bandwidth, you can only have as many drones in space at once as you have levels in the {{sk|Drones}} skill which allows up to 5 drones at level V. (The only exception to this limit is the very rare [[Guardian-Vexor]] cruiser.) This means that with high bandwidth you might be able to deploy five heavy or five light drones, while with lower bandwidth you may only be able to put out five of the light ones.
: Light Drones will try and orbit at a range of 500 meters.
 
: Medium Drones will try and orbit at a range of 900 meters.
 
: Heavy Drones will try and orbit at a range of 1000 meters.
 
  
The Orbit Velocity is the non-MWD (MicroWarp Drve) Speed a drone travels at. When in close proximity to a target, it will attempt to use this speed for following and orbiting.
+
{{example|The Tristan's bandwidth is 25&nbsp;Mbit/s, allowing it to deploy, at most, five light drones in space at once (they need 5&nbsp;Mbit/s each), but only if the pilot has trained the {{sk|Drones}} skill to level V. If it's carrying a mixture of light and medium drones, it could deploy up to two medium (10&nbsp;Mbit/s each) and one light drone at once, assuming the pilot has trained Drones III.}}
  
: ''Note that there is a more common value used for ships, max velocity, but this is not the case with Drones. A Drone's max velocity is based upon an installed MWD (MicroWarp Drive) which is integral to the drone but is a module installed on a ship. As such, this is a major difference when determining such things with drones versus ships.''
+
=== Control range ===
 +
You can only command a drone to attack/repair/mine a target if that target is within a certain range of your ship; this range is known as the "drone control range". By default, your control range is 20km, which means that you can only order a drone to attack an enemy ship if it's within 20km of your ship. This range can be extended by training:
 +
* {{sk|Drone Avionics|mult=yes}}: Increases drone control range by 5km per skill level.
 +
* {{sk|Advanced Drone Avionics|mult=yes}}: Increases drone control range by 3km per skill level.
  
This ventures into EVE physics and goes beyond the scope of this document but, suffice it to say that a drone will ''attempt'' to orbit at the EntityFlyRange and not its optimal range.
+
Note that in order to command a drone to attack/repair/mine a specific target, you'll need to have a target lock on it, which can limit the benefit of the control range. If the command can be given without having a target (such as for salvage drones), the drones will seek out applicable targets within the entire command zone regardless of targeting capacity.
  
An example of this, from testing:
+
With Drone Avionics and Advanced Drone Avionics at level V, your drone control range is 60km. To increase it further, you can install modules and rigs on your ship:
A Hobgoblin I (Gallente T1 drone) vs a Hobgoblin II
+
* '''Drone Link Augmentor''' module: A high-slot module, that increases drone control range by 20km (24km for the Tech 2 module)
Both have an Entity Fly range of 500.
+
* '''Drone Control Range Augmentor''' rig: Increases drone control range by 15km (20km for the Tech 2 rig)
T1 has an Orbit Velocity of 550 m/s
 
T2 has an orbit Velocity of 660 m/s
 
  
The T1 orbits at 705 meters
+
Once you've ordered them to attack a target, your drones will pursue that target even outside your drone control range, whether or not you continue to have that target locked.
The T2 orbits at 724 meters
 
  
Whereas a Hammerhead II (Gallente T2 medium drone) with an Orbit Velocity of 480 m/s; ends up at 1096 meters vs the 900 meter attempt.
+
Drones will shut down if they exceed 500km distance from their host ship, or if their host ship activates its warp drive. See [[#Abandoned drones|Abandoned Drones]], below, for your options if you lose touch with your drones.
And a Ogre II (Gallente T2 heavy drone) with an Orbit Velocity of 300 m/s ended up at 1196 meters vs the 1000 meter attempt.
 
  
Neither of these 2 attributes (EntityFlyRange nor Orbit Velocity) can be adjusted by player skills nor modules. Only the MicroWarp Drive Max Velocity stat can be adjusted by modules and skills.
+
=== Navigation and Distance ===
 +
Almost all drones (except the stationary sentry drones) have a built-in [[MWD|microwarp drive (MWD)]], which allows them to travel quickly to engage a target. Once they arrive near their target, they shut down their MWD, orbit the target, and fire their weapons. This means that drones have to travel to the target and then stay within range of it in order to apply their damage. In practice, this means that drones will have difficulty against faster, more agile targets, as even though they may be able to catch them thanks to their MWD, they may not be able to stay within weapons range for long at their non-MWD speed. Larger drones in particular are almost useless against fast frigates for this reason.
  
== Drone Types ==
+
No skill or module affects the orbit speed of drones.
  
Drones are capable of serving many different roles and exist in many different sizes. The most popular use of drones, however, is in combat.
+
=== Direct Drone Commands ===
 +
You can give commands to each drone individually, or to all of your drones at once. If you issue a command like "attack that target", the drone will fly to the target you have selected and start firing on it once it's within weapons range, ''but you cannot exercise any finer control than that''.
  
=== Combat Drones ===
+
You can give a drone commands either by right-clicking it, selecting it in the [[overview]] and using the overview buttons or by using a radial menu (by long-clicking). You can also give "launch" and "return to drone bay" commands by dragging drones in the drone control window from the "drones in bay" to the "drones in space" folder.
  
These drones are easily the most common. They fall into three main groups: standard combat drones of different sizes; stationary sentry drones; and fighters and fighter-bombers, which are only used by capital ships.
+
Additionally, you can use keyboard shortcuts for many of these commands. These can be changed in the [[Game Settings]] window.
 
+
{| class="wikitable" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"
The types of damage they do are determined by their race of origin:
+
! Command
 
+
! Shortcut
{| class="wikitable" border="1"
+
|-
 +
| All Drones: Engage || F
 +
|-
 +
| All Drones: Return and Orbit || Shift-Alt-R
 +
|-
 +
| All Drones: Return to Drone Bay || Shift-R
 
|-
 
|-
!  Race
+
| Drone Settings: Toggle Aggressive/Passive || (None)
!  Primary Damage
 
!  Fighter Damage*
 
 
|-
 
|-
| Amarr
+
| Drone Settings: Toggle Focus Fire || (None)
| EM
 
| Thermal
 
 
|-
 
|-
| Caldari
+
| Fighter Settings: Toggle Attack and Follow || (None)
| Kinetic
 
| Thermal
 
 
|-
 
|-
| Gallente
+
| Launch Drones || Shift-F
| Thermal
 
| Kinetic
 
 
|-
 
|-
| Minmatar
+
| Reconnect To Lost Drones || (None)
| Explosive
 
| Kinetic
 
 
|}
 
|}
  
*This is an additional damage type that the fighter sized drones do as secondary damage.
+
You can give any drones these generic commands:
 +
* '''{{co|wheat|Launch}}''': Launch the selected drone(s) from your drone bay into space.
 +
* '''{{co|wheat|Return and Orbit}}''': Order your drone(s) to fly back to your ship and orbit it, awaiting further commands.
 +
* '''{{co|wheat|Abandon Drone}}''': [[#Abandoned drones|Abandons]] your drones in space. While normally you would want to order your drones to return to your drone bay, in some situations (particularly PvP) this can take too long, and you may want to abandon your current drones in order to launch a different drone type which is better suited to engaging your current enemy.
 +
* '''{{co|wheat|Return to Drone Bay}}''': Order your drone(s) in space to fly back to your ship and land in your ship's drone bay.
 +
* '''{{co|wheat|Scoop to Drone Bay}}''': If your drone has become disabled in space (i.e. is no longer responding to commands), you can fly your ship to it and, once you are nearby (2500m), scoop the drone into your ship's drone bay. You can also scoop up drones abandoned by other players (e.g. their ship was destroyed, or they warped off without docking their drones).
 +
* '''{{co|wheat|Scoop to Cargo Bay}}''': Similar to the "Scoop to Drone Bay" command, but scoops the drone to your cargo bay instead of your drone bay. This is useful if your drone bay is already full.
  
'''Standard Combat Drones'''
+
You can give the following commands to drones that have the associated abilities.
 +
* '''{{co|wheat|Engage}}''': Orders your drones to engage (attack, repair, jam, mine, etc) the target you have currently locked. They will fly to your target, attempt to orbit it, and engage it. Note that your drones will engage whatever you order them to, including your other drones or your fleetmates.
 +
* '''{{co|wheat|Assist}}''': If you give this command your drones will assist a member of your fleet, and will engage whatever target they are attacking.
 +
* '''{{co|wheat|Guard}}''': Similar to the "Assist" command, except that your drones will engage whatever ships attacks the fleet member you order your drones to guard.
 +
* '''{{co|wheat|Mine}}''': Orders your mining drone(s) to mine the asteroid you have targeted for one cycle (60 seconds), then return to your ship, drop the mined ore off in your cargo or mining bay. They will immediately return to the asteroid after they have dropped off their ore at your ship and continue mining. You can redirect them to a different asteroid at any time.
 +
* '''{{co|wheat|Salvage}}''': Orders your salvage drone(s) to salvage the wreck you have targeted; if you give this command without anything targeted, your salvage drones will automatically salvage every wreck ''belonging to you'' within your drone control range. To salvage wrecks belonging to other players (coloured yellow on the [[overview]]), you need to manually target them and give the "Salvage" command.
 +
 +
Once you give a command to your drones, they start carrying it out in the next [[server tick]]. In practice, this means that your drones may take 1-2 seconds to respond after you give a command.
  
These all work in a fairly simple way. They have short ranges, and when told to attack they fly close to their target and shoot it. Light and medium drones have a slightly different skill tree to heavy drones.
+
=== Default behavior settings ===
 +
[[File:Drone options.png|thumb|Modify drone behavior.]]
 +
The  drones' default behavior can be set through the menu that appears when clicking the cog icon on the "Drones in space" folder bar. The icon becomes visible when hovering over the folder bar.
 +
; {{co|wheat|Auto Attack}}
 +
:; Disabled : Drones will not automatically attack hostile ships, but will stay in orbit around the ship until given a specific command. This is the default mode, and it is recommended to keep drones in this mode for PvE (particularly when running missions, as you want to control which rats you aggro) and for most PvP.
 +
:; Enabled : Drones will automatically attack any entity which shows aggression to them or the ship (using the same targeting logic as [[Missile Launchers#Auto-Targeting Missiles|auto-targeting missiles]]{{Verify}}). Note that they will only react to hostiles which begin aggressing <em>after</em> the drones were launched{{Verify}}.
  
'''Light scout drones''':
+
Enabling this mode can be useful when being [[Electronic Countermeasures|jammed]], as it gives a chance to attack <em>something</em> at least. However, as drones are fairly dumb in their target selection, in almost every other situation you want to command the drones manually as drones may inadvertently attack something you would rather not.
* use 5m<sup>3</sup> space and 5Mbit/sec bandwidth
 
* move and track targets very fast
 
* are the best drones to use against frigates and destroyers
 
  
'''Medium scout drones''':
+
::; {{co|wheat|Focus fire}}
* use 10m<sup>3</sup> space and 10Mbit/sec bandwidth
+
::: Only applies when Auto Attack is enabled.
* move and track moderately fast
+
:::; Disabled : Every drone will decide its own target.
* are the best drones to use against cruisers, and are also good against battlecruisers
+
:::; Enabled : All drones attack a single target. There are almost no situations in which this box should not be checked.
  
'''Heavy attack drones''':
+
; {{co|wheat|Attack and follow}}
* use 25m<sup>3</sup> space and 25Mbit/sec bandwidth
+
{{Hatnote|(18 August 2024: In the old image this option was shown under the section "Fighter Settings" Today's upload does not have that section, but the source was also not fighter capable.)}}
* move and track slowly, but do lots of damage
+
: Only applies to fighter and fighter-bomber drones (as used by [[capital ships]]). As these drones have built-in warp drives, they can follow targets even if they warp away - to prevent this (and keep the drones with you), uncheck the box. Disabling the "attack and follow" setting is a good idea if you suspect that the target may warp to a [[POS]] and if the fighters follow, they will likely be destroyed by the POS' defenses.
* are good against battleships, and can handle battlecruisers
 
  
'''Sentry Drones'''
+
=== Abandoned drones ===
 +
If you warp away while your drones are in space, if your ship is destroyed, or if you give the "abandon" command, your drones will become inactive and remain stationary in space. At this point, anyone can recover them (by flying to them and using the "scoop to drone bay" or "scoop to cargo bay" command). You can also reconnect with any drones which you have personally abandoned by right-clicking on your ship (or the capacitor on your HUD) and selecting "reconnect to lost drones"; this works as long as the drones are nearby, on the same [[grid]]. It's not possible to use a tractor beam on abandoned drones.
  
These are the same size and require the same amount of bandwidth as heavy drones. However, instead of orbiting the target ship they instead sit where they have been deployed and fire at their targets from long range. They have varying ranges and falloffs, all much longer than heavy attack drones, but they have very low tracking speeds. A target still needs to be within your drone control range before you can order sentries to fire on it.
+
If you've warped away without recalling your drones, but cannot directly return to the location (e.g. if you left your drones in a mission [[deadspace]] pocket, but you completed the mission, and therefore no longer have the bookmark for the location), you can [[Probe scanning|probe scan]] your lost drones using combat probes.
  
You can think of sentries as something like battleship-sized turrets in drone form. They can hit quite small fast targets if their targets have low angular velocity, but most of the time their ideal targets are battlecruisers and battleships. The Sentry Damage Augmentor rig grants a damage bonus to sentry drones only.
+
=== Damaged drones ===
 +
[[File:Damaged drones.png|thumb|200px|Two damaged drones. The first drone has only taken shield damage, while the second drone has taken both shield and armor damage.]]
 +
Your drones can take shield, armor, and structure damage during a fight (just like your ship). Their shields will regenerate slowly, whether the drone is in space or in your drone bay (at the same rate), but armor and hull damage need to be repaired. When in combat with drones, keep an eye on your drone's health through the drone control window, and when a drone starts taking armor damage, recall it to your drone bay and launch a fresh drone (if you have spares) - it's much cheaper to repair drones than to replace them.
  
[[File:Sentrydrones2.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Sentry drones' damage ratios over distance]]
+
If you dock at a station with repair facilities, you can easily repair all damaged drones at the cost of some ISK. Also, they get repaired automatically at no cost while your ship is [[Citadels#Tethering|tethered]] to a [[Citadels|Citadel]].
  
Sentry drones are unique in that their range and falloff vary by race, unlike the other combat drones. The graph to the right illustrates the different damages the drones <font color="cyan">Garde</font>(Gallente), <font color="green">Curator</font>(Amarr), <font color="red">Warden</font>(Caldari) and <font color="blue">Bouncer</font>(Minmatar) do over distance<ref>[http://forum.eveuniversity.org/viewtopic.php?p=225628 E-Uni Forum Post:  "Drone damage types and missioning"]</ref>. This can be summarised by the following table:
+
If you don't have access to a station, you can repair drones in space by using remote armor and hull repair modules, or by using logistics drones. If you plan on being away from stations for a while, it may be a good idea to carry small armor and hull repair modules with you, and fit these modules to your ship (using a [[Mobile Structure#Mobile Depots|mobile depot]]) in between combat encounters to repair your drones. Light armor and hull logistics drones are also an option if you have space in your drone bay, but keep in mind that they repair very slowly - a single light armor repair drone takes about 3 minutes to fully repair a damaged heavy drone, while a small remote armor repair module can do it in about 30 seconds.
  
 
+
== Drone-centric factions ==
{| class="wikitable" border="1"
+
Certain factions offer ships that are focused on drones. These ships are most often used as "[[Drone Capable Ships|Drone Carriers]]" by players who are using drones as their primary weapons.
|-
+
!
+
{| class="wikitable drones" style="text-align: left; max-width: 70em;"
!  Best
 
 
 
!  Worst
 
 
|-
 
|-
! Damage Modifier:
+
! colspan=2 | Empire factions
| <font color="cyan">Garde</font>
+
|-
| <font color="blue">Bouncer</font>
+
| nowrap style="padding: 0; text-align: center;" | [[File:Logo_faction_gallente_federation.png|64px|link=|Gallente Federation]]
| <font color="green">Curator</font>
+
| style="vertical-align: top;" |  The '''Gallente''' have some of the most powerful drone-using ships among the empire factions;  nearly all their combat ships can field drones, with generous drone bays and bandwidths. About half of their ships are heavily focused on drone use, with bonuses to drone damage, hit points, range, tracking speed, and speed.
| <font color="red">Warden</font>
+
|-
 +
| nowrap style="padding: 0; text-align: center;" | [[File:Logo_faction_amarr_empire.png|64px|link=|Amarr Empire]]
 +
| style="vertical-align: top;" |  The '''Amarr''' are the other drone-using empire faction, although they are less focused on them than the Gallente. They tend to have somewhat lower drone bandwidths than the Gallente, but with large drone bays, allowing them to carry a wide variety of drones into combat.
 
|-
 
|-
Optimal/Falloff:
+
! colspan=2 | Other factions
| <font color="red">Warden</font>
+
|-  
| <font color="blue">Bouncer</font>
+
| nowrap style="padding: 0; text-align: center;" | [[File:logo_faction_guristas_pirates.png|64px|link=|Guristas]]
| <font color="green">Curator</font>
+
| style="vertical-align: top;" |  The '''Guristas''' have a very particular way of using drones: their ships can field only two drones of the appropriate size at a time, but each drone is many times stronger than normal. While their drones' total damage output remains comparable to other top-tier drone boats, Guristas drones are much tougher, which gives them an edge in PvP.
<font color="cyan">Garde</font>
 
 
|-
 
|-
!  Tracking:
+
| nowrap style="padding: 0; text-align: center;" | [[File:logo_faction_sisters_of_eve.png|64px|link=|Sisters of EVE]]
| <font color="cyan">Garde</font>
+
| style="vertical-align: top;" |  The '''Sisters of EVE''' ships have high drone bandwidths and truly enormous drone bays (even larger than the Gallente), as well as bonuses to drone damage and hit points.
| <font color="green">Curator</font>
 
| <font color="blue">Bouncer</font>
 
<font color="red">Warden</font>
 
 
|}
 
|}
  
 +
== Drone type details ==
 +
Drones are capable of serving many different roles and exist in many different sizes. There are seventeen different groups of drones, which can be divided into five categories:
 +
; Combat drones
 +
: These are the most common drones and are (as the name suggests) used to damage and destroy enemy ships. There are six different types of combat drone:
 +
:* '''{{co|wheat|Light}}''', '''{{co|wheat|medium}}''', and '''{{co|wheat|heavy}}''' drones, generally for use on frigate, cruiser, and battleship-sized ships, respectively.
 +
:* '''{{co|wheat|Sentry}}''' drones, which act as stationary, long-range turrets.
 +
 +
; Electronic warfare and combat utility drones
 +
: These drones impair an enemy ship using [[electronic warfare]] or similar methods. There are drones for each of the four methods of electronic warfare: '''{{co|wheat|tracking disruption}}''' (TD), '''{{co|wheat|electronic countermeasures}}''' (ECM), '''{{co|wheat|sensor dampening}}''' (SD), and '''{{co|wheat|target painting}}''' (TP). Additionally, there are drones that drain an enemy's capacitor ('''{{co|wheat|energy neutralisers}}'''), or reduce a ship's speed ('''{{co|wheat|stasis webifiers}}''').
 +
 +
; Logistics drones
 +
: These drones assist friendly ships by repairing their '''{{co|wheat|shields}}''', '''{{co|wheat|armor}}''', or '''{{co|wheat|hull}}'''.
 +
 +
; Salvage drones
 +
: These drones are used to '''{{co|wheat|salvage nearby wrecks}}'''.
 +
 +
; Mining drones
 +
: These drones '''{{co|wheat|mine asteroids or ice}}''' for resources.
 +
 +
=== Combat drones ===
 +
 +
Combat drones come in four types:
 +
 +
[[File:icon_bracket_drone.png|22px|Light drones|link=|Light drones]]'''{{co|wheat|Light drones}}''':
 +
* Use 5{{m3}} space and 5&nbsp;Mbit/sec bandwidth
 +
* Move and track targets very quickly
 +
* Are the best drones to use against [[File:icon_white_frigate.png|16px|link=]]frigates and [[File:icon_white_destroyer.png|16px|link=]]destroyers
 +
 +
[[File:icon_bracket_drone.png|22px|link=|Medium drones]]'''{{co|wheat|Medium drones}}''':
 +
* Use 10{{m3}} space and 10&nbsp;Mbit/sec bandwidth
 +
* Move and track moderately quickly
 +
* Are the best drones to use against [[File:icon_white_cruiser.png|16px|link=]]cruisers, and are also good against [[File:icon_white_battlecruiser.png|16px|link=]]battlecruisers
 +
 +
[[File:icon_bracket_drone.png|22px|Heavy drones|link=]]'''{{co|wheat|Heavy drones}}''':
 +
* Use 25{{m3}} space and 25&nbsp;Mbit/sec bandwidth
 +
* Move and track slowly, but do lots of damage
 +
* Are good against [[File:icon_white_battleship.png|16px|link=]]battleships, and can handle [[File:icon_white_battlecruiser.png|16px|link=]]battlecruisers
 +
 +
[[File:icon_bracket_sentry_drone.png|22px|Sentry drones|link=]]'''{{co|wheat|Sentry drones}}''':
 +
* Use 25{{m3}} space and 25&nbsp;Mbit/sec bandwidth
 +
* Do not move in space
 +
* Can hit targets at long ranges, but have poor tracking, and so will have difficulty against close or fast targets
 +
* Most effective against [[File:icon_white_battleship.png|16px|link=|battleships]]battleships and [[File:icon_white_battlecruiser.png|16px|link=]]battlecruisers, but can also hit smaller targets if they are far enough away
 +
 +
Each race has its own light, medium, heavy, and sentry drones, and they each do one [[damage types|damage type]] (for instance, all Amarr drones do EM damage, while all Caldari drones do kinetic damage).
  
'''Fighters and Fighter-Bombers'''
+
===== Light, medium and heavy drones =====
  
'''Fighters''' are frigate-sized drones that do cruiser-sized damage and can only be fielded by [[Capital_Ship#Carriers|carriers]] and [[Capital_Ship#Supercarriers|supercarriers]]. They are capable of warping, and will pursue a target into warp -- the only escape from fighters is to jump system or to dock<ref>[http://wiki.eveonline.com/wiki/Item_Database:Drones:Combat_Drones:Fighters Fighters, EveOnline Wiki]</ref>.
+
These are the types of drones people first think of when they hear "drones". They are mobile platforms that fly to the target and shoot them once they get close. 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.
  
The following table displays the differences between the four fighter drones<ref>[http://eve.chantal13.com/drones/ Melindra's Universe Drone Information]</ref>:
+
The faction variants do not just deal with different damage types.
 +
* Minmatar drones are the fastest drones (50% faster than Gallente drones with MWD on), and so excel at chasing fast ships. However, they do the lowest damage.
 +
* Gallente drones do the most damage (23% more than Minmatar drones), but are the slowest.
 +
* Amarr and Caldari drones fall between Gallente and Minmatar drones in terms of damage and speed (Caldari drones do a little less damage than Gallente drones, but are a bit faster; Amarr drones do a little more damage than Minmatar drones but are a bit slower). Additionally, these drones orbit a little further away from their targets, making them apply their damage more consistently, and are a little tougher (+25% more hit points, compared with Minmatar and Gallente drones).
  
{| class="wikitable" border="1"
+
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).
|-
+
{| class="wikitable drones " style="border: none;text-align: center"
!  Drone Name
 
!  Race
 
!  Base Damage
 
(T2/T1)
 
!  Range
 
!  Falloff
 
!  Tracking Speed
 
(rad/sec)
 
 
|-
 
|-
| Templar
+
! colspan=4 style="background-color: transparent; border: none;" |  
| Amarr
+
! colspan=2 | <span style="cursor: help;" title="Damage type">Damage</span>
|  200/100
+
! colspan=4 | <span style="cursor: help;" title="Performance of each faction's drones in comparison to the other factions'.">Faction comparison</span>
|  4500
 
| 2500
 
|  0.075
 
 
|-
 
|-
|  Dragonfly
+
! Faction
|  Caldari
+
! Light
|  213/106
+
! Medium
|  5000
+
! Heavy
|  3500
+
! <span style="cursor: help;" title="Primary damage type, dealt by all drones.">Prim</span>
|  0.0625
+
! <span style="cursor: help;" title="Secondary damage type, dealt only by 'Integrated' and 'Augmented' drones.">*Sec</span>
|-
+
! colspan=2 | <span style="cursor: help;" title="Damage per second">DPS</span>
|  Firbolg
+
! colspan=2 | <span style="cursor: help;" title="Speed with MWD on, and orbital speed (MWD off).">Speed</span>
|  Gallente
 
|  175/88
 
|  1500
 
|  3500
 
|  0.1
 
|-
 
|  Einherji
 
|  Minmatar
 
|  125/63
 
|  1000
 
|  5000
 
| 0.125
 
|}
 
  
It must be noted that fighters not only deal their respective race's damage type but also deal an additional damage type as outlined in the table at the start of this section.
+
|- <!--'''Gallente'''-->
 +
| [[File:Logo_faction_gallente_federation.png|70pxpx|link=|Gallente Federation]]
 +
| [[File:Hobgoblin.png|60px]]<br>Hobgoblin
 +
| [[File:Hammerhead.png|60px]]<br>Hammerhead
 +
| [[File:Ogre.png|60px]]<br>Ogre
 +
| [[File:icon_damage_therm.png|32pxpx|link=|Thermal damage]]<br> Thermal
 +
| [[File:icon_damage_kin.png|32pxpx|link=|Kinetic damage]]<br> Kinetic
 +
| rowspan=4 style="background-image: linear-gradient(#00AA00, #AA0000); background-color: #111111;" |
 +
|  | +23%
 +
| rowspan=4 style="background-image: linear-gradient(#AA0000, #00AA00); background-color: #111111;" |
 +
|
  
'''Fighter-bombers''' are a special anti-capital-ship design of fighter, which can only be used by supercarriers. They launch torpedoes which will do tremendous DPS to very large targets, and can be very dangerous to slow battleships. They are not as dangerous to smaller ships, however, because their torpedoes have very slow explosion velocities and very large explosion radii.
+
|- <!--'''Caldari'''-->
 +
| [[File:Logo_faction_caldari_state.png|70pxpx|link=|Caldari State]]
 +
| [[File:Hornet.png|60px]]<br>Hornet
 +
| [[File:Vespa.png|60px]]<br>Vespa
 +
| [[File:Wasp.png|60px]]<br>Wasp
 +
| [[File:icon_damage_kin.png|32pxpx|link=|Kinetic damage]]<br> Kinetic
 +
| [[File:icon_damage_therm.png|32pxpx|link=|Thermal damage]]<br> Thermal
 +
| +15%
 +
| +13%<br>(+13%)
  
At the time of writing a single fighter-bomber costs more than a first-tier battlecruiser hull.
+
|-<!--'''Amarr'''-->
 +
| [[File:Logo_faction_amarr_empire.png|70pxpx|link=|Amarr Empire]]
 +
| [[File:Acolyte.png|60px]]<br>Acolyte
 +
| [[File:Infiltrator.png|60px]]<br>Infiltrator
 +
| [[File:Praetor.png|60px]]<br>Praetor
 +
| [[File:icon_damage_em.png|32pxpx|link=|EM damage]]<br> EM
 +
| [[File:icon_damage_therm.png|32pxpx|link=|Thermal damage]]<br> Thermal
 +
| +8%
 +
| +37%<br>(+26%)
  
=== Electronic Warfare Drones ===
+
|- <!--'''Minmatar''' -->
 +
| [[File:Logo_faction_minmatar_republic.png|70pxpx|link=|Minmatar Republic]]
 +
| [[File:Warrior.png|60px]]<br>Warrior
 +
| [[File:Valkyrie.png|60px]]<br>Valkyrie
 +
| [[File:Berserker.png|60px]]<br>Berserker
 +
| [[File:icon_damage_exp.png|32pxpx|link=|Explosive damage]]<br> Explosive
 +
| [[File:icon_damage_kin.png|32pxpx|link=|Kinetic damage]]<br> Kinetic
 +
|
 +
| +50%<br />(+36%)
  
Unlike combat drones EW drones do not do damage but instead apply a type of electronic warfare, decided by the racial origin of the drone, to their target. There are three EW drones per race, in the same light, medium and heavy sizes as combat drones. The type of EW is indicated by a two-letter abbreviation in the drone's name, while the size is indicated by the numbers 300 (small), 600 (medium) and 900 (large), so for example a medium-sized tracking disruption drone is called a Valkyrie TD-600 in-game.
+
|-
 +
| colspan= 10 style="background-color: #222222; text-align: left; ; line-height: 130%;font-size: 95% font-weight: normal;" | All drones deal the primary damage type.<br>* 'Integrated' and 'Augmented' drones deal a mix of the primary and secondary damage types.  
 +
|}
 +
 
 +
Please note that you can hover over the titles for an explanation of the terms and units.
  
Note that neither hull bonuses and skill bonuses to drone damage nor electronic warfare support skills such as [[Skills:Electronics#Turret_Destabilization|Turret Destabilization]] can enhance the effect of ewar drones.
+
{| class="wikitable drones collapsible collapsed"
 +
|+ '''Drone attributes'''
 +
! Faction
 +
! Drone
 +
! <span style="cursor: help;" title="Damage per second.">DPS</span>
 +
! <span style="cursor: help;" title="Activated when approaching targets and not firing.">MWD Speed</span>
 +
! <span style="cursor: help;" title="Orbiting distance (m) and velocity (m/s).">Orbit</span>
 +
! <span style="cursor: help;" title="Tracking (rad/sec)">Tracking</span>
 +
! <span style="cursor: help;" title="Optimal + falloff weapon range (m).">Weapon range</span>
 +
! <span style="cursor: help;" title="Effective hit points">EHP</span>
 +
|-
 +
|Amarr
 +
|Acolyte I
 +
|7.0 [[File:icon_damage_em.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
|[[File:Icon_velocity.png|24pxpx|link=]] 3850 m/s
 +
|800 m [[File:icon_orbit.png|24pxpx|link=]] 830 m/s
 +
|2.49 [[File:Icon_remote_tracking_computer_i.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
|2400+2000 m [[File:Icon_target_range.png|24pxpx|link=|First falloff: 4400 m]]
 +
|500 [[File:icon_hull.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
|-
 +
|Caldari
 +
|Hornet I
 +
|7.5 [[File:icon_damage_kin.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
|[[File:Icon_velocity.png|24pxpx|link=]] 3150 m/s
 +
|800 m [[File:icon_orbit.png|24pxpx|link=]] 745 m/s
 +
|2.04 [[File:Icon_remote_tracking_computer_i.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
|2400+2000 m [[File:Icon_target_range.png|24pxpx|link=|First falloff: 4400 m]]
 +
|500 [[File:icon_hull.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
|-
 +
|Gallente
 +
|Hobgoblin I
 +
|8.0 [[File:icon_damage_therm.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
|[[File:Icon_velocity.png|24pxpx|link=]] 2800 m/s
 +
|700 m [[File:icon_orbit.png|24pxpx|link=]] 660 m/s
 +
|1.815 [[File:Icon_remote_tracking_computer_i.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
|2100+2000 m [[File:Icon_target_range.png|24pxpx|link=|First falloff: 4100 m]]
 +
|400 [[File:icon_hull.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
|-
 +
|Minmatar
 +
|Warrior I
 +
|6.5 [[File:icon_damage_exp.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
|[[File:Icon_velocity.png|24pxpx|link=]] 4200 m/s
 +
|700 m [[File:icon_orbit.png|24pxpx|link=]] 900 m/s
 +
|2.70 [[File:Icon_remote_tracking_computer_i.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
|2100+2000 m [[File:Icon_target_range.png|24pxpx|link=|First falloff: 4100 m]]
 +
|400 [[File:icon_hull.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
|-
 +
| colspan=8 style="background-color: #222222; line-height: 0.5em;" | &nbsp;
 +
|-
 +
|Amarr
 +
|Infiltrator I
 +
|11.2 [[File:icon_damage_em.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
|[[File:Icon_velocity.png|24pxpx|link=]] 2300 m/s
 +
|1600 m [[File:icon_orbit.png|24pxpx|link=]] 525 m/s
 +
|0.80 [[File:Icon_remote_tracking_computer_i.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
|4800+3000 m [[File:Icon_target_range.png|24pxpx|link=|First falloff: 7800 m]]
 +
|1000 [[File:icon_hull.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
|-
 +
|Caldari
 +
|Vespa I
 +
|12.0 [[File:icon_damage_kin.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
|[[File:Icon_velocity.png|24pxpx|link=]] 1890 m/s
 +
|1600 m [[File:icon_orbit.png|24pxpx|link=]] 470 m/s
 +
|0.65 [[File:Icon_remote_tracking_computer_i.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
|4800+3000 m [[File:Icon_target_range.png|24pxpx|link=|First falloff: 7800 m]]
 +
|1000 [[File:icon_hull.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
|-
 +
|Gallente
 +
|Hammerhead I
 +
|12.8 [[File:icon_damage_therm.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
|[[File:Icon_velocity.png|24pxpx|link=]] 1680 m/s
 +
|1400 m [[File:icon_orbit.png|24pxpx|link=]] 440 m/s
 +
|0.58 [[File:Icon_remote_tracking_computer_i.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
|4200+3000 m [[File:Icon_target_range.png|24pxpx|link=|First falloff: 7200 m]]
 +
|800 [[File:icon_hull.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
|-
 +
|Minmatar
 +
|Valkyrie I
 +
|10.4 [[File:icon_damage_exp.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
|[[File:Icon_velocity.png|24pxpx|link=]] 2500 m/s
 +
|1400 m [[File:icon_orbit.png|24pxpx|link=]] 550 m/s
 +
|0.87 [[File:Icon_remote_tracking_computer_i.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
|4200+3000 m [[File:Icon_target_range.png|24pxpx|link=|First falloff: 7200 m]]
 +
|800 [[File:icon_hull.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
|-
 +
| colspan=8 style="background-color: #222222; line-height: 0.5em;" | &nbsp;
 +
|-
 +
|Amarr
 +
|Praetor I
 +
|22.4 [[File:icon_damage_em.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
|[[File:Icon_velocity.png|24pxpx|link=]] 1380 m/s
 +
|3200 m [[File:icon_orbit.png|24pxpx|link=]] 320 m/s
 +
|0.63 [[File:Icon_remote_tracking_computer_i.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
|4800+5000 m [[File:Icon_target_range.png|24pxpx|link=|First falloff: 9800 m]]
 +
|2000 [[File:icon_hull.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
|-
 +
|Caldari
 +
|Wasp I
 +
|24.0 [[File:icon_damage_kin.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
|[[File:Icon_velocity.png|24pxpx|link=]] 1125 m/s
 +
|3200 m [[File:icon_orbit.png|24pxpx|link=]] 280 m/s
 +
|0.54 [[File:Icon_remote_tracking_computer_i.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
|4800+5000 m [[File:Icon_target_range.png|24pxpx|link=|First falloff: 9800 m]]
 +
|2000 [[File:icon_hull.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
|-
 +
|Gallente
 +
|Ogre I
 +
|25.6 [[File:icon_damage_therm.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
|[[File:Icon_velocity.png|24pxpx|link=]] 1000 m/s
 +
|2800 m [[File:icon_orbit.png|24pxpx|link=]] 250 m/s
 +
|0.45 [[File:Icon_remote_tracking_computer_i.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
|4200+5000 m [[File:Icon_target_range.png|24pxpx|link=|First falloff: 9200 m]]
 +
|1600 [[File:icon_hull.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
|-
 +
|Minmatar
 +
|Berserker I
 +
|20.8 [[File:icon_damage_exp.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
|[[File:Icon_velocity.png|24pxpx|link=]] 1500 m/s
 +
|2800 m [[File:icon_orbit.png|24pxpx|link=]] 350 m/s
 +
|0.71 [[File:Icon_remote_tracking_computer_i.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
|4200+5000 m [[File:Icon_target_range.png|24pxpx|link=|First falloff: 9200 m]]
 +
|1600 [[File:icon_hull.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
|-
 +
| colspan=8 style="background-color: #222222; line-height: 0.5em;" | &nbsp;
 +
|-
 +
|
 +
|Gecko <ref>The Gecko is a cross between a heavy and a fighter drone, which was given out for free to every pilot before the Kronos expansion. It can be flown by subcapital ships but requires 50 Mbit/s of bandwidth (twice as much as a heavy drone) and deals omni-damage (i.e. its damage is split equally between the four damage types). It requires the same skills to fly as a Tech 1 heavy drone, and there are no Tech 2 or other variants of it.</ref>
 +
|65.6
 +
|[[File:Icon_velocity.png|24pxpx|link=]] 1820 m/s
 +
|3200 m [[File:icon_orbit.png|24pxpx|link=]] 400 m/s
 +
|0.85 [[File:Icon_remote_tracking_computer_i.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
|4800+5000 m [[File:Icon_target_range.png|24pxpx|link=|First falloff: 9800 m]]
 +
|6140 [[File:icon_hull.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
|-
 +
|
 +
|'Subverted' JVN-UC49 <ref>The 'Subverted' JVN-UC49 is a cross between a medium and a heavy drone. It can be flown by subcapital ships but requires 20 Mbit/s of bandwidth (twice as much as a medium drone) and deals omni-damage (ie its damage is split equally between the four damage types). It requires the same skills to fly as a Tech 1 medium drone, and there are no Tech 2 or other variants of it.</ref>
 +
|27.2
 +
|[[File:Icon_velocity.png|24pxpx|link=]] 1680 m/s
 +
|1400 m [[File:icon_orbit.png|24pxpx|link=]] 440 m/s
 +
|0.65 [[File:Icon_remote_tracking_computer_i.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
|4200+3000 m [[File:Icon_target_range.png|24pxpx|link=|First falloff: 7200 m]]
 +
|1722 [[File:icon_hull.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
|-
 +
|
 +
|Hellhound I <ref>The Hellhound I is a rare Tech I heavy drone. It can be flown by subcapital ships but requires 25 Mbit/s of bandwidth (as much as any other heavy drone) and deals thermal damage. There are no public ways of producing new copies and they can not be sold on the market. Many collectors stock them in the drone bay of their {{Sh|Guardian-Vexor}}. There are no other variants.</ref>
 +
|56.0 [[File:icon_damage_therm.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
|[[File:Icon_velocity.png|24pxpx|link=]] 700 m/s
 +
|1000 m [[File:icon_orbit.png|24pxpx|link=]] 250 m/s
 +
|0.30 [[File:Icon_remote_tracking_computer_i.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
|1200+4000m [[File:Icon_target_range.png|24pxpx|link=|First falloff: 5200 m]]
 +
|2074 [[File:icon_hull.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
|}
  
'''Tracking Disruption (TD)'''
+
<small><references /></small>
  
These Amarr EW drones reduce the optimal, falloff and tracking speed of their target's turrets. Tracking disruption does not affect missile launchers. TD drones' effects are stacking-penalized with other TD drones and with normal TD modules.
+
In addition to the basic Tech 1 drones (described above), there are four other [[Tech and meta levels|variants]] of drone within each race's light/medium/heavy drone lineup:
  
'''ECM (EC)'''
+
* A '''{{co|wheat|Faction}}''' drone, available from [[Loyalty Points|LP stores]]. They don't require additional skills to use (beyond those required for the Tech 1 drones). They have a very large number of hit points, but slightly lower damage than their Tech 2 counterparts.
 +
* A '''{{co|wheat|Tech 2}}''' drone, which is more powerful (better speed, damage, and hit points) than its Tech 1 counterpart, but requires additional skills to use.
 +
* '''{{co|wheat|'Integrated'}}''' and '''{{co|wheat|'Augmented'}}''' drones, which can be thought of as enhanced Tech 1 drone and Tech 2 drones, respectively. These drones are produced from the components found in NPC rogue drone wrecks. They need the same skills to use as Tech 1 and Tech 2 drones, respectively but have slightly improved stats. The damage they do is split between the race's primary and secondary damage types (unlike all other types of subcapital combat drones, which deal only the race's primary damage type). However, the 'integrated' drones are fairly rare and therefore very expensive.
  
These Caldari drones have the ability to jam their target's sensors. This not only breaks any current locks that the target may have but also makes them unable to lock again for a short time. Note that -- like module-based ECM, but unlike the other ewar drones -- ECM drones have a ''chance'' to jam, not a certainty. EC drones are '''not''' subject to stacking penalties with each other or with normal ECM modules.
+
The table below lists the stats of these drone variants, using the Tech 1 drones as a baseline.
  
'''Sensor Dampening (SD)'''
+
{| class="wikitable drones collapsible"
 +
! Variant
 +
! <span style="cursor: help;" title="Damage per second">DPS</span>
 +
! <span style="cursor: help;" title="Speed (MWD on)">Speed</span>
 +
! <span style="cursor: help;" title="Orbiting velocity">Orbit</span>
 +
! <span style="cursor: help;" title="Effective hit points">EHP</span>
 +
! <span style="cursor: help;" title="Minimum skills required">Skills</span>
 +
|-
 +
| Tech 1
 +
|
 +
|
 +
|
 +
|
 +
| (Size) Drone Operation I
 +
|-
 +
| 'Integrated'
 +
| +15%
 +
| [[File:Icon_velocity.png|24pxpx|link=]] +10%
 +
| +10% [[File:icon_orbit.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
| +10% [[File:icon_hull.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
| (Size) Drone Operation I
 +
|-
 +
| Faction
 +
| +20%
 +
| [[File:Icon_velocity.png|24pxpx|link=]] +20%
 +
| +20% [[File:icon_orbit.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
| +100% [[File:icon_hull.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
| (Size) Drone Operation I
 +
|-
 +
| Tech 2
 +
| +22% to +30%<ref name="T2" />
 +
| [[File:Icon_velocity.png|24pxpx|link=]] +20%
 +
| +20% [[File:icon_orbit.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
| +20% [[File:icon_hull.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
| (Size) Drone Operation V<br />(Race) Drone Specialization I
 +
|-
 +
| 'Augmented'
 +
| +34% to +42%<ref name="T2" />
 +
| [[File:Icon_velocity.png|24pxpx|link=]] +32%
 +
| +20% [[File:icon_orbit.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
| +80% [[File:icon_hull.png|24pxpx|link=]]
 +
| (Size) Drone Operation V<br />(Race) Drone Specialization I
 +
|}
  
These Gallente drones specialise in reducing the range and increasing the locking speed of enemy targeting systems, meaning the target has to come closer to lock and/or will take longer to achieve that lock in the first place. SD drones' effects are stacking-penalized with other SD drones and with normal SD modules.
+
<small><references>
 +
<ref name="T2">Tech 2 and 'Augmented' drones gain an additional +2% damage for every level of the appropriate racial drone specialization skill (e.g. {{sk|Amarr Drone Specialization}} for Amarr drones) you have trained.</ref>
 +
</references></small>
  
'''Target Painting (TP)'''
+
==== Sentry Drones ====
 +
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.
  
These Minmatar drones increase the target's signature radius, essentially making it "bigger" in combat terms. This means ships are able to lock on to the target faster, hit better with turrets and deal more damage with missiles. TP drones' effects are stacking-penalized with other TP drones and with normal TP modules.
+
At the same size (25{{m3}}) and bandwidth (25Mbit/sec) as heavy drones, sentries are powerful, long range damage dealers. 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.
  
=== Combat Utility Drones ===
+
Sentry drones begin with approximately 2800 HP of defense (shields, armor, structure). They are incapacitated after being 75% damaged.
  
Similar to EW drones, these perform auxiliary tasks in battle. Again, hull or skill bonuses to drone damage do not make these drones more effective.
+
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.
  
'''Energy Neutralisation (EV)'''
+
'''''Notes'''''
 +
* The Warden has the longest range. Targets are generally drawn straight towards it from far away, which offsets its slow tracking and smaller damage factor.
 +
* The short-ranged Garde has the fastest tracking and damage factor. This makes it more effective than the others as a close defense.
 +
* The Bouncer and Curator are in the middle and somewhat comparable; the Curator has a higher tracking speed and slightly higher damage factor, while the Bouncer has a longer range.
  
These drones drain the capacitor of the target vessel (working in a similar manner to energy neutralizers) and come in three sizes (300, 600 and 900) based on Amarr combat drone designs.
+
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
 +
|+ Sentry Drones: Comparison
 +
|- style="background-color: #222222;"
 +
! scope="col" style="width: 60px" | Name
 +
! scope="col" style="width: 60px" | Race
 +
! scope="col" style="width: 40px" | Range
 +
! scope="col" style="width: 40px" | Tracking
 +
! scope="col" style="width: 70px" | Damage (type)
 +
|-
 +
| style="text-align: left"| Bouncer || style="text-align: left"| Minmatar || + || -  || - [[File:icon_damage_exp.png|18pxpx|link=|Explosive damage]]
 +
|-
 +
| style="text-align: left"| Curator || style="text-align: left"| Amarr   || - || +  || + [[File:icon_damage_em.png|18pxpx|link=|EM damage]]
 +
|-
 +
| style="text-align: left"| Garde || style="text-align: left"| Gallente  || -- || ++ || ++ [[File:icon_damage_therm.png|18pxpx|link=|Thermal damage]]
 +
|-
 +
| style="text-align: left"| Warden || style="text-align: left"| Caldari  || ++ || -- || -- [[File:icon_damage_kin.png|18pxpx|link=|Kinetic damage]]
 +
|}
  
'''Stasis Webification (SW)'''
+
{| class="wikitable sortable collapsible collapsed" style="font-size: 80%;"
 +
|+ Sentry Drones Attributes<br>''+ Shows T2 values if different''
 +
|- style="background-color: #222222;"
 +
! scope="col" style="width: 60px" | Name
 +
! scope="col" style="width: 40px" | Race
 +
! scope="col" style="width: 40px" | Damage Type
 +
! scope="col" style="width: 40px" | Optimal (km) +TII
 +
! scope="col" style='width: 40px" | Falloff (km) +TII
 +
! scope="col" style="width: 40px" | Tracking (rad) +TII
 +
! scope="col" style="width: 40px" | Damage (hp)
 +
! scope="col" style="width: 40px" | Damage Modifier (%)
 +
|-
 +
|| [[File:Bouncer.png|30px]] Bouncer|| Minmatar || [[File:icon_damage_exp.png|center|24px|link=|Explosive damage]] || 30 +6 ||45 +9  ||.014 + .003 || 64  || 1.45
 +
|-
 +
|| [[File:Curator.png|30px]] Curator || Amarr || [[File:icon_damage_em.png|center|24px|link=|EM damage]] || 35 +7 || 10 +2  ||.020 + .004 || 64  || 1.55
 +
|-
 +
|| [[File:Garde.png|30px]] Garde|| Gallente|| [[File:icon_damage_therm.png|center|24px|link=|Thermal damage]] || 15 +3||25 +5||.028 + .006|| 64 || 1.65
 +
|-
 +
|| [[File:Warden.png|30px]] Warden|| Caldari || [[File:icon_damage_kin.png|center|24px|link=|Kinetic damage]] || 50 +10||35  +7||.010 + .002|| 64 || 1.4
 +
|}
  
This drone slows the sub-light speed of the target, making them easier to hit and damage. With the Inferno expansion small and medium sizes were introduced in addition to the heavy-drone-sized Berserker SW-900. The web effects will be stacking-penalized with other SW drones or with normal web modules.
+
Like the light-heavy drones, the sentry drones also have faction variants. Though no 'integrated' or 'augmented' sentries exist as only the navy variants are available.
 +
* T2 drones do the same base damage as T1s. However, they have longer range and better tracking.
 +
* T2 sentry drones gain additional damage bonus from the trained racial drone specialization skill level.
 +
* Faction variants do the same damage as T1 and T2 drones. They have the same range as T2 sentry drones, but higher tracking speeds and are stronger defensively. T2 drones are boosted by the racial drone specialization skill; faction drones are not.
  
=== Logistics Drones ===
+
{| class="wikitable drones collapsible"
 +
! Variant
 +
! <span style="cursor: help;" title="Damage per second">DPS</span>
 +
! <span style="cursor: help;" title="Optimal and falloff">Range</span>
 +
! <span style="cursor: help;" title="Tracking">Tracking</span>
 +
! <span style="cursor: help;" title="Effective hit points">EHP</span>
 +
! <span style="cursor: help;" title="Minimum skills required">Skills</span>
 +
|-
 +
| Tech 1
 +
|
 +
|
 +
|
 +
|
 +
| Sentry Drone Operation I
 +
|-
 +
| Faction
 +
| Same
 +
| [[File:Icon_target_range.png|24pxpx|link=]] +20%
 +
| [[File:Icon_remote_tracking_computer_i.png|24pxpx|link=]] +26%
 +
| [[File:icon_hull.png|24pxpx|link=]] +80%
 +
| Sentry  Drone Operation I
 +
|-
 +
| Tech 2
 +
| +2% to +10%<ref>Tech 2 sentry drones gain an additional +2% damage for every level of the appropriate racial drone specialization skill (e.g. {{sk|Amarr Drone Specialization}} for Amarr drones) you have trained.</ref>
 +
| [[File:Icon_target_range.png|24pxpx|link=]] +20%
 +
| [[File:Icon_remote_tracking_computer_i.png|24pxpx|link=]] +20%
 +
| [[File:icon_hull.png|24pxpx|link=]] +20%
 +
| Sentry Drone Operation V<br>(Race) Drone Specialization I
 +
|}
 +
<small><references /></small>
  
[http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Item_Database:Drones:Logistic_Drones These drones] work to repair their targets. Unfortunately, a pilot is not able to target him/herself, therefore making it impossible for a pilot to use their own logistics drones in order to repair themselves. Hull or skill bonuses to drone damage do not make these drones more effective.
+
=== Electronic warfare drones ===
 +
{{see also|Electronic warfare}}
 +
Electronic warfare (EW) drones apply electronic warfare (EWAR) to their target. Each race's drones apply their racial type of EWAR:
 +
* Amarr EW drones apply tracking disruption (TD)
 +
* Caldari EW drones apply electronic countermeasures (ECM)
 +
* Gallente EW drones apply sensor dampening (SD)
 +
* Minmatar EW drones apply target painting (TP)
  
For once, these drones are explicitly named for their size ('Light Armor Maintenance Bot', 'Heavy Shield Maintenance Bot', etc).
+
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 300 (small), 600 (medium) and 900 (large). So, for example, the small sensor dampening drone is called a Hobgoblin SD-300 (based on the Hobgoblin light drone), while the medium tracking disruption drone is called a Valkyrie TP-600 (based on the Valkyrie medium drone).
  
'''Shield Repair'''
+
Unlike module-based EWAR, the strength of their EWAR is not affected by ship bonuses, skills, rigs, or modules. Also, since the EWAR effects are [[Stacking penalties|stacking penalized]] with other EWAR drones and module-based EWAR, so, starting from the third or fourth EWAR source, additional drones will have very little additional effect. ECM drones (like ECM modules) are not stacking-penalized.
  
These drones work to repair the shield of the target and use the designs of the small, medium and heavy Caldari drones.
+
EWAR drones have the same bandwidth and drone bay space requirements as their combat drone counterparts but tend to be more fragile.
  
'''Armor Repair'''
+
In order to use EW drones you need to train {{sk|Advanced Drone Avionics|icon=yes}}. Additionally, each class of EW drones needs training in its EWAR skill (e.g. tracking disruption drones need the tracking disruptor skill {{sk|Weapon Disruption|icon=yes}}).
  
These drones work to repair the armour of the target and use the designs of the small, medium and heavy Gallente drones.
+
==== Tracking Disruption Drones ====
  
=== Salvage Drones ===
+
Tracking disruption drones cannot be scripted (i.e. they will always reduce both an enemy's tracking speed and their turret range). For comparison, a Tracking Disruptor I module has a -15.3% reduction in enemy tracking and range (and can be scripted to -30.6% in either one or the other). This can be increased to -19.1% with all skills at level V, and -26.3% when flying a dedicated EWAR ship (e.g. an [[Arbitrator]]) (-52.6 with scripted EWAR ship).
  
The Salvage Drone I was added in December 2012 with the Retribution expansion. It has a very low (3%) base access difficulty bonus and is affected by the new (actually very old, but re-implemented) Salvage Drone Operation skill. This change coincided with the addition of a small drone bay to the Noctis.
+
Tracking disruption drones require {{sk|Weapon Disruption|III|icon=yes}}.
  
=== Mining Drones ===
+
{| class="wikitable drones"
 +
|+ Tracking disruption drones
 +
|-
 +
! style="text-align: left" | Drone
 +
! style="cursor: help" | <span title="Reduction in enemy tracking speed.">Tracking</span>
 +
! style="cursor: help" | <span title="Reduction in enemy turret range (optimal and falloff).">Range</span>
 +
|-
 +
| style="text-align: left; background-color: #333333;" | Acolyte TD-300
 +
| -5%
 +
| -5%
 +
|-
 +
| style="text-align: left; background-color: #333333;" | Infiltrator TD-600
 +
| -12%
 +
| -12%
 +
|-
 +
| style="text-align: left; background-color: #333333;" | Praetor TD-900
 +
| -25%
 +
| -25%
 +
|-
 +
|}
  
Aside from combat and support model drones, these drones exist purely to mine ore from asteroids. There are four mining drone models:
+
==== Electronic Countermeasures (ECM) Drones ====
 +
ECM drones act like multispectral jammers (i.e. they have the same jam strength against all four sensor types). For comparison, the Multispectral Jammer I module has a jam strength of 2.2, which can be increased to 2.75 with all skills at level V, and over 4.5 when flying a dedicated EWAR ship (e.g. a [[Blackbird]]). 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.
  
{| class="wikitable" border="1"
+
{| class="wikitable drones"  
|-
+
|+ ECM drones
!  Drone Name
 
!  Size m<sup>3</sup>
 
!  Bandwidth
 
!  Ore Yield
 
!  Speed
 
(m/sec)
 
 
|-
 
|-
| Civilian Mining Drone
+
! style="text-align: left;" | Drone
| 5
+
! style="cursor: help;" | <span title="Jamming strength (all sensor types).">Jam strength</span>
|  5
 
|  10
 
|  300
 
 
|-
 
|-
| Mining Drone I
+
| style="text-align: left; background-color: #333333;" | Hornet EC-300
|  5
+
| 1
|  5
 
| 15
 
| 400
 
 
|-
 
|-
| Mining Drone II
+
| style="text-align: left; background-color: #333333;" | Vespa EC-600
| 5
+
| 1.5
| 5
 
|  25
 
|  500
 
 
|-
 
|-
| Harvester Mining Drone
+
| style="text-align: left; background-color: #333333;" | Wasp EC-900
|  10
+
| 2
|  10
 
| 30
 
| 250
 
 
|}
 
|}
  
Mining drones add to your mining rate but do use up dronebay space which could instead be used to defend yourself against rats with combat drones. Remember that mining drones' speed dramatically affects their real yield rate, as they have to repeatedly travel between you and your target asteroid.
+
==== Sensor Dampening Drones ====
 +
Sensor dampening drones cannot be scripted (i.e. they will always reduce both an enemy's targeting range and their scan resolution). For comparison, a Remote Sensor Dampener I module has a -13.7% reduction in enemy targeting range and scan resolution (and can be scripted to -27.4% in either one or the other). This can be increased to -34.2% with all skills at level V, and -47.1% when flying a dedicated EWAR ship (e.g. a [[Celestis]]).
  
=== Drone Names ===
+
Sensor dampening drones require {{sk|Sensor Linking|III|icon=yes}}.
The following table lays out the names of each different kind of drone.
 
  
{| border="1"
+
{| class="wikitable drones"  
! Drone Type !! Amarr !! Caldari !! Gallente !! Minmatar
+
|+ Sensor dampening drones
 
|-
 
|-
||'''Light Scout''' || Acolyte || Hornet || Hobgoblin || Warrior
+
! style="text-align: left;" | Drone
 +
! style="cursor: help;" | <span title="Reduction in enemy targeting range.">Targeting range</span>
 +
! style="cursor: help;" | <span title="Reduction in enemy scan resolution.">Scan resolution</span>
 
|-
 
|-
||'''Medium Scout''' || Infiltrator || Vespa || Hammerhead || Valkyrie
+
| style="text-align: left; background-color: #333333;" | Hobgoblin SD-300
 +
| -8%
 +
| -8%
 
|-
 
|-
||'''Heavy Attack''' || Praetor || Wasp || Ogre || Berserker
+
| style="text-align: left; background-color: #333333;" | Hammerhead SD-600
 +
| -12%
 +
| -12%
 
|-
 
|-
||'''Sentry''' || Curator || Warden || Garde || Bouncer
+
| style="text-align: left; background-color: #333333;" | Ogre SD-900
 +
| -25%
 +
| -25%
 +
|}
 +
 
 +
==== Target Painting Drones ====
 +
For comparison, a Target Painter I module increases the enemy's signature radius by 20%. This can be increased to 25% with all skills at level V, and 34.3% when flying a dedicated EWAR ship (e.g. a [[Bellicose]]).
 +
 
 +
Target painting drones require {{sk|Target Painting|III|icon=yes}}.
 +
 
 +
{| class="wikitable drones"
 +
|+ Target painting drones
 +
! style="text-align: left;" | Drone
 +
! style="cursor: help;" | <span title="Increase in enemy's signature radius." >Signature radius</span>
 
|-
 
|-
||'''Fighter''' || Templar || Dragonfly || Firbolg || Einherji
+
| style="text-align: left; background-color: #333333;" | Warrior TP-300
 +
| +4%
 
|-
 
|-
||'''Fighter Bomber''' || Malleus || Mantis || Cyclops || Tyrfing
+
| style="text-align: left; background-color: #333333;" | Valkyrie TP-600
 +
| +8%
 
|-
 
|-
 +
| style="text-align: left; background-color: #333333;" | Berserker TP-900
 +
| +20%
 
|}
 
|}
  
=== Faction, Augmented and Integrated Drones ===
+
=== Combat utility drones ===
 +
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 are all unusual versions of combat drones. To cut a long story short, none of them offer significant benefits, and they are usually unjustifiably expensive.
+
==== Energy Neutralizing Drones ====
 +
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). For comparison, the Tech 1 small, medium and large Energy Neutralizer modules neutralize 45 GJ, 75 GJ, and 125 GJ every 6 seconds<ref>The medium and large neuts operate on 12 and 24-second cycles, respectively, but this way of presenting the numbers makes comparisons easier.</ref>, respectively.
  
The faction drones are produced by the militaries of the four factions (so they're called 'Federation Navy Hobgoblin', 'Republic Fleet Warrior', and so on). Their performance is on a par or slightly better than their T2 equivalents.
+
Energy neutralizing drones are occasionally used to cap out tackle frigates or to keep a neuted target at zero capacitor.
  
'Integrated' drones and 'Augmented' drones represent drones which have been souped-up with rogue drone parts. In practice, the 'Integrated' drones are worse than T2 drones and the 'Augmented' drones are about on a par with T2 drones.
+
Just like EW drones, these drones require {{sk|Advanced Drone Avionics|icon=yes}} and the EW skill {{sk|Capacitor Emission Systems|III|icon=yes}}.
  
== Skills ==
+
{| class="wikitable drones"
 +
|+ Energy neutralizing drones
 +
|-
 +
! style="text-align: left;" | Drone
 +
! style="cursor: help;" | <span title="Amount of capacitor neutralized per cycle (6 seconds).">Capacitor neutralized</span>
 +
|-
 +
| style="text-align: left; background-color: #333333;" | Acolyte EV-300
 +
| 5 GJ
 +
|-
 +
| style="text-align: left; background-color: #333333;" | Infiltrator EV-600
 +
| 10 GJ
 +
|-
 +
| style="text-align: left; background-color: #333333;" | Praetor EV-900
 +
| 25 GJ
 +
|}
 +
<small><references /></small>
  
As there are many varied drones in existence, so too are there a myriad of drone skills available, to the extent that drones get a section of their own. You can find a full list of drone skills [[Skills:Drones|here]]. Some key ones are discussed below.
+
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. For comparison, a Stasis Webifier I module reduces the target's speed by 50%.
  
=== Basic ===
+
To use these drones, train {{sk|Drone Navigation|icon=yes}} and {{sk|Propulsion Jamming|III|icon=yes}} (which is also required for stasis webifier modules).
  
; [[Skills:Drones#Drones|Drones]]: Training this to V is mandatory for nearly everyone.  Each drone you add increases your damage output.  2 drones = 100% damage increase over 1 drone. 3 drones = 50% over 2.  4 drones = 33% over 3.  5 drones = 25% increase over 4.  Having less than 5 drones costs you DPS. Drones V is also a prerequisite for several other drone skills, including Drone Interfacing.
+
{| class="wikitable drones"
 +
|+ Statis webifier drones
 +
|-
 +
! style="text-align: left;" | Drone
 +
! style="cursor: help;" | <span title="Reduction in enemy ship's speed.">Speed</span>
 +
|-
 +
| style="text-align: left; background-color: #333333;" | Warrior SW-300
 +
| -5%
 +
|-
 +
| style="text-align: left; background-color: #333333;" | Valkyrie SW-600
 +
| -10%
 +
|-
 +
| style="text-align: left; background-color: #333333;" | Berserker SW-900
 +
| -20%
 +
|}
  
; [[Skills:Drones#Scout_Drone_Operation|Scout Drone Operation]]: Adds 5km to max drone range per level and is needed at 5 to gain access to T2 light and medium drones.  Range of control is crucial to all types of drones and T2 drones are roughly twice as powerful as T1 drones.
+
=== Logistics drones ===
 +
{{see also|Logistics}}
 +
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 Tech 2 drones receive a 20% boost to repair amount, hit points, speed, and orbital velocity, but require {{sk|Repair Drone Operation|V|icon=yes}}.
  
; [[Skills:Drones#Combat_Drone_Operation|Combat Drone Operation]]: +5% Damage per level for light/medium drones. A good candidate to train to at least IV, for obvious reasons.
+
The hull repair drones are half as effective as the shield and armor counterparts. All logistics drones require {{sk|Repair Drone Operation|icon=yes}} as well as the skills for remote repair modules: {{sk|Shield Emission Systems|icon=yes}}, {{sk|Remote Armor Repair Systems|icon=yes}}, and {{sk|Remote Hull Repair Systems|icon=yes}}, respectively.
  
; [[Skills:Drones#Drone_Interfacing|Drone Interfacing]]: +20% Damage/Mining Yield per level. This is the second biggest boost skill to the damage your drones can do, directly behind Drones. Most combat pilots will want to train this to IV; drone specialists will probably be able to stomach the training time necessary to get it to V.
+
For comparison, small, medium and large remote shield and armor repair modules repair 80 HP, 160 HP, and 320 HP every 5 seconds, respectively.
  
=== Advanced ===
+
{| class="wikitable drones"
 +
! style="text-align: left;" | Drone
 +
! style="cursor: help;" | <span title="Shield HP repaired per cycle (5 seconds).">Shield repair</span>
 +
|-
 +
| style="text-align: left; background-color: #333333;" | Light Shield Maintenance Bot I
 +
| 12 HP
 +
|-
 +
| style="text-align: left; background-color: #333333;" | Medium Shield Maintenance Bot I
 +
| 24 HP
 +
|-
 +
| style="text-align: left; background-color: #333333;" | Heavy Shield Maintenance Bot I
 +
| 60 HP
 +
|}
  
; [[Skills:Drones#Heavy_Drone_Operation|Heavy Drone Operation]]: Allows for the use of heavy attack drones and adds +5% damage per level. Level V opens up T2 heavy drones. If you never fly ships with a 125m<sup>3</sup> or bigger dronebay, you may never want to use heavy drones. But pilots considering the Armageddon, Typhoon and Megathron should seriously consider heavies, and drone specialists moving into the Dominix or Rattlesnake should certainly train them.
+
{| class="wikitable drones"
 +
! style="text-align: left;" | Drone
 +
! style="cursor: help;" | <span title="Armor HP repaired per cycle (5 seconds).">Armor repair</span>
 +
|-
 +
| style="text-align: left; background-color: #333333;" | Light Armor Maintenance Bot I
 +
| 12 HP
 +
|-
 +
| style="text-align: left; background-color: #333333;" | Medium Armor Maintenance Bot I
 +
| 24 HP
 +
|-
 +
| style="text-align: left; background-color: #333333;" | Heavy Armor Maintenance Bot I
 +
| 60 HP
 +
|}
  
; [[Skills:Drones#Sentry_Drone_Interfacing|Sentry Drone Interfacing]]: Allows for the use of sentry drones and adds +5% damage per level. T2 sentries can be a viable alternative to T2 heavies: they remove the problem of travel time, although they require the pilot to be close to them in order to recover them (whereas heavies can fly back to the pilot).
+
{| class="wikitable drones"
 +
! style="text-align: left;" | Drone
 +
! style="cursor: help;" | <span title="Hull HP repaired per cycle (5 seconds).">Hull repair</span>
 +
|-
 +
| style="text-align: left; background-color: #333333;" | Light Hull Maintenance Bot I
 +
| 6 HP
 +
|-
 +
| style="text-align: left; background-color: #333333;" | Medium Hull Maintenance Bot I
 +
| 12 HP
 +
|-
 +
| style="text-align: left; background-color: #333333;" | Heavy Hull Maintenance Bot I
 +
| 30 HP
 +
|}
  
; [[Skills:Drones#Electronic_Warfare_Drone_Interfacing|Electronic Warfare Drone Interfacing]]: 3,000m more drone control range per level for ''all'' drones (yes, all drones, not just EW drones). EW drones are sometimes useful, but the extra drone control range is a good reason to put at least a few levels in this, and more than a few if you're planning on sentry sniping.
+
Effectively, a full flight of T1 repair drones amount to less combined repair capacity than a single remote repair module of the same type:
 +
* 75% for light and medium, 93.75% for heavy armor and shield repair drones
 +
* 37.5% for light and medium, 48.875% for heavy hull repair drones
  
=== Support ===
+
=== Salvage drones ===
 +
{{see also|Salvaging}}
 +
Salvage drones work like Salvager modules, and extract salvage from the wrecks of destroyed ships. The Salvage Drone I and II need 5{{m3}} of drone bay space and 5 Mbit/s of bandwidth (like a light combat drone). They have a lower chance to salvage wrecks than the salvager modules (3% and 4% base access difficulty, compared with 5% and 7% for the Tech 1 and Tech 2 modules, respectively). This can be increased by training {{sk|Salvage Drone Operation|icon=yes}} and {{sk|Salvage Drone Specialization|icon=yes}}, 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.
  
; [[Skills:Drones#Drone_Navigation|Drone Navigation]]: Increases drones' MWD speed by 5% but can cause your drones to overshoot. This cuts down travel time delays, and may help your light drones to catch up with fast targets in PvP.
+
Salvage drones can automatically salvage any nearby (up to the edge of the player's drone control range) wrecks, as long as they belong to the player or their fleet/corporation. 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. Salvage drones have an MWD that is always running, but are still very slow (about 10% slower than the slowest heavy drone), so salvaging more distant wrecks may take some time.
  
; [[Skills:Drones#Drone_Durability|Drone Durability]]: +5% to drone shield, armour and hull hit points. Not the most useful drone skill but can give you more time to save your drones.
+
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, order the drones to salvage without having any target selected. After this, the salvage drones will keep on salvaging all wrecks that are in range. Note that they will all focus on the closest wreck first, and work their way further away. To be more efficient, zip around the battlefield (looting or orbiting something) so that the 'closest' wreck changes often; or micromanage them by assigning individual wrecks to salvage. They will auto-salvage after they finished on their assigned wreck if they have been given that command earlier, resuming their closest-to-furthest routine.
  
; [[Skills:Drones#Racial_Drone_Specialization|Racial Drone Specialization]]: There are four flavours of this skill, each of which lets you use one race's T2 light and medium drones. You also get +2% damage to that race's T2 light and medium drones. Gallente and Minmatar drones are generally the most useful, and most pilots will want to train for T2 Gal and Min scout drones. Racial drone specialization at IV is also a prerequisite for that race's T2 heavy drones.
+
{| class="wikitable drones sortable collapsible""
 +
|- style="background-color: #222222;"
 +
! Variant
 +
! Max Velocity
 +
! Salvage Chance
 +
! Skills
 +
|-
 +
| Tech 1
 +
| 900 m/s
 +
| 3%
 +
| Salvage Drone Operation I
 +
|-
 +
| Faction
 +
| 1000 m/s
 +
| 4.5%
 +
| Salvage Drone Operation IV
 +
|-
 +
| Tech 2
 +
| 900 m/s
 +
| 4.0%
 +
| Salvage Drone Specialization I
 +
|}
  
== Modules ==
+
=== Mining drones ===
 +
{{See also|Drone mechanics#Mining drones|l1= Drone Mechanics: Mining Drones|ORE Basic Ship and Skill Guide#Drones|l2= Ore Ship Guide: Mining Drones}}
 +
As their name suggests, these drones [[mining|mine]] [[Asteroids and ore|ore from asteroids]].
  
Drones are renowned for taking the heat off a pilot's module slots, essentially becoming additional damage/EW/logistics without the need to fit, rig or spend cap on them. However, if a pilot is serious about their usage of drones, it is important to be aware of the modules available to help augment their ability<ref>[http://wiki.eveonline.com/wiki/EFT Eve Fitting Tool]</ref>.
+
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 mining 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 {{sk|Mining Drone Operation|icon=yes}} and {{sk|Drone Interfacing|icon=yes}} improves their mining yield, and training {{sk|Drone Navigation|icon=yes}} increases their speed.
  
'''Drone Damage Amplifier'''
+
For comparison, a Miner I mining module can mine 40{{m3}}/min of ore. There are no mining drones for [[gas cloud harvesting]].
  
Introduced in the ''Inferno'' expansion, this low-slot module increases damage inflicted by combat drones. The Tech I version increases drone damage by 16%, and the tech II version increases damage by a whopping 23% - no good drone boat pilot should undock without at least one of these modules fitted. Both the Tech I and Tech II versions use 30 tf of CPU and only 1 powergrid. For those who want to know why it took so long for drones to get a damage-enhancing module, the in-game lore explains the rationale here: http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Drone_damage_amplifier_(lore)
+
Much like a mining module, if the mining cycle is manually cut short (in this case, by ordering the drone to return), the drone will get the amount of ore mined proportionally to how much of the cycle was completed, but in other cases, progress will be canceled, including if the ship has no more room for the ore by the time they return.
  
'''Drone Navigation Computer'''
+
{| class="wikitable drones"
 +
! style="text-align: left;" | Drone
 +
! style="cursor: help;" | <span title="Volume required in drone bay ({{m3|ns}}) and drone bandwidth required (MBit/s).">Volume/Bandwidth</span>
 +
! style="cursor: help;" | <span title="Volume of ore mined per minute (m³/min).">Ore yield</span>
 +
! style="cursor: help;" | <span title="Drone flight speed.">Speed</span>
 +
|-
 +
| style="text-align: left; background-color: #333333;" | Civilian Mining Drone
 +
| 5
 +
| 13
 +
| 300 m/s
 +
|-
 +
| style="text-align: left; background-color: #333333;" | Mining Drone I
 +
| 5
 +
| 25
 +
| 400 m/s
 +
|-
 +
| style="text-align: left; background-color: #333333;" | [[File:Icon tech2.png|16px]] Mining Drone II
 +
| 5
 +
| 33
 +
| 500 m/s
 +
|-
 +
| style="text-align: left; background-color: #333333;" | [[File:Icon faction.png|16px]] 'Augmented' Mining Drone
 +
| 5
 +
| 37
 +
| 550 m/s
 +
|-
 +
| style="text-align: left; background-color: #333333;" | [[File:Icon faction.png|16px]] Harvester Mining Drone
 +
| 10
 +
| 42
 +
| 350 m/s
 +
|-
 +
|-
 +
| style="text-align: left; background-color: #333333;" | [[File:Icon faction.png|16px]]'Excavator' Mining Drone<ref>Can only be used by the [[Rorqual]]</ref>
 +
| 1,100/25
 +
| 80
 +
| 175 m/s
 +
|}
 +
<small><references /></small>
  
This module has two variants the [http://wiki.eveonline.com/wiki/Drone_Navigation_Computer_I Drone Navigation Computer I] which adds +25 N thrust to the deployed drones MWD and the [http://wiki.eveonline.com/wiki/Drone_Navigation_Computer_II Drone Navigation Computer II] which adds +30 N Thrust.  This module allows  the drone to get into optimal range faster as well as keep up with a moving target. It has a very low powergrid usage and low CPU usage at 30 tf / 35 tf. Since it increases the MWD thrust by a flat amount for all drones, the relative speed increase is much lower for larger drones.
 
  
'''Omnidirectional Tracking Link'''
+
Ice harvesting drones [[Ice harvesting|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.
  
The [http://wiki.eveonline.com/wiki/Omnidirectional_Tracking_Link_I Omnidirectional Tracking Link I] adds +20% and the [http://wiki.eveonline.com/wiki/Omnidirectional_Tracking_Link_II Omnidirectional Tracking Link II] adds +25% to both the optimal range and tracking speed of drones. This often makes little difference to standard combat drones which have small optimal ranges but can make a big difference to the sniping abilities of sentry drones. This module uses very little powergrid and has a CPU usage of 35 tf. [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Federation_Navy_Omnidirectional_Tracking_Link A faction version] is also available: it uses slightly more CPU, and costs a lot, but gives a 25% bonus instead of 20%.
+
For comparison, an Ice Harvester I module has a cycle time of 220 seconds.
  
'''Drone Link Augmentor'''
+
{| class="wikitable drones"
 +
! style="text-align: left;" | Drone
 +
! style="cursor: help;" | <span title="Volume required in drone bay ({{m3|ns}}) and drone bandwidth required (MBit/s).">Volume/Bandwidth</span>
 +
! style="cursor: help;" | <span title="Time to mine 1,000{{m3}}.">Cycle time</span>
 +
! style="cursor: help;" | <span title="Drone flight speed.">Speed</span>
 +
|-
 +
| style="text-align: left; background-color: #333333;" | Ice Harvesting Drone I
 +
| 50
 +
| 330 s
 +
| 200 m/s
 +
|-
 +
| style="text-align: left; background-color: #333333;" | [[File:Icon tech2.png|16px]] Ice Harvesting Drone II
 +
| 50
 +
| 300 s
 +
| 250 m/s
 +
|-
 +
| style="text-align: left; background-color: #333333;" | [[File:Icon faction.png|16px]] 'Augmented' Ice Harvesting Drone
 +
| 50
 +
| 280 s
 +
| 275 m/s
 +
|-
 +
| style="text-align: left; background-color: #333333;" | [[File:Icon faction.png|16px]]'Excavator' Ice Harvesting Drone<ref>Can only be used by the [[Rorqual]]</ref>
 +
| 1,100/25
 +
| 310 s
 +
| 90 m/s
 +
|}
 +
<small><references /></small>
  
This module comes in three variants [http://wiki.eveonline.com/wiki/Drone_Link_Augmentor_I Drone Link Augmentor I], [http://wiki.eveonline.com/wiki/Drone_Link_Augmentor_II Drone Link Augmentor II] and the [http://wiki.eveonline.com/wiki/Black_Eagle_Drone_Link_Augmentor Black Eagle Drone Link Augmentor] they add 20 km, 24 km  and 26km to drone control range respectively as well as using 50 tf, 55 tf and 45 tf CPU respectively, all have very low powergrid usage.  This is an essential module for sentry drones but of limited use to scout drones due to the long recall times creating the potential for drone damage and loss.
+
=== Mutated (Abyssal) Drones ===
 +
{{See also|Abyssal modules}}
  
'''Drone Control Unit'''
+
Mutated drones are created using Abyssal Exigent Mutaplasmids. These are acquired either from Triglavian Bioadaptive Caches found in [[Abyssal Deadspace]] or in the wrecks of Invading Precursors found in [[Triglavian Invasion]] systems. Mutaplasmids are also tradable on the market.
  
This module can only be fitter on carriers and supercarriers, and only has one variant: [http://wiki.eveonline.com/wiki/Drone_Control_Unit_I Drone Control Unit I]. Each module used allows the pilot to field one more drone in space. However, this module requires the [http://wiki.eveonline.com/wiki/Advanced_Drone_Interfacing Advanced Drone Interfacing] skill to use, allowing the pilot to install one control unit per level of the skill. The fitting requirements for this module are massive, needing 75,000 MW of the powergrid and 7,500 tf of CPU.
+
The process of combining a mutaplasmid and an existing T1, T2, or Faction combat drone "mutates" it into a unique Abyssal drone with the original drone's stats randomly modified (for better or worse). The new drone will have the word Mutated inserted into its name such as Sentry Mutated Drone, and it will have unique stats and thus cannot be traded on the Market (you can trade them via Contracts etc.)
 
 
==Rigs==
 
 
 
Drone Rigs are available that give a bonus to a number of the the drones important specifications.  Drone rigs are available in Tech I and Tech II variants. The Tech II rigs are significantly more expensive than their Tech I counterparts.  All drone rigs have a -10% penalty for CPU. There is a Skill specifically for Drone rigs to reduce the penalty. [[Skills:Rigging#Jury_Rigging|Jury Rigging III]]
 
  
 +
There exist separate mutaplasmids for each drone type and size and there are different ones depending on which stats you want to improve. "Exigent Sentry Drone Firepower Metaplasmid" as an example that increases the damage stat. The effects that the mutaplasmid will have on the drone are described in its info. It will specify one or more stats that will be improved (by 0%-20% as an example) and it will alter each of the remaining stats (by -30% to +15% for example, but it varies by mutaplasmid and stat). Each stat change appears to be random and independent. By choosing the appropriate mutaplasmid you can thus guarantee that the stat(s) it primarily targets will go up (maybe not by much), but the rest of the stats are likely to decrease on average. You could, of course, get lucky and end up with a very powerful and valuable drone. A table of possible attribute changes is below.
  
 
{| class="wikitable"
 
{| class="wikitable"
{| width="700" border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1"
 
|+Small / Medium / Large Drone Rigs||||
 
 
|-
 
|-
! ||Bonus||Penalty
+
! Attribute !! Falloff !! HP !! Damage !! Speed !! Optimal !! Tracking
 
|-
 
|-
| Control Range Augmenter I||+15 km Control Range||align="right"| -10% CPU
+
| rowspan="2"|Durability || {{co|red||-30%}} || rowspan="2"|{{co|green||+30%}} || {{co|red||-30%}} || {{co|red||-30%}} || {{co|red||-30%}} || {{co|red||-30%}}
 
|-
 
|-
| Control range Augmenter II||+20 km Control Range||align="right"| -10% CPU
+
| {{co|green||+15%}} || {{co|green||+10%}} || {{co|green||+15%}} || {{co|green||+15%}} || {{co|green||+15%}}
 
|-
 
|-
| Drone Durability Enhancer I||+20% Hit Points||align="right"| -10% CPU
+
| rowspan="2"|Firepower || {{co|red||-30%}} || {{co|red||-30%}} || rowspan="2"|{{co|green||+20%}} || {{co|red||-30%}} || {{co|red||-30%}} || {{co|red||-30%}}
 
|-
 
|-
| Drone Durability Enhancer II||+25% Hit Points||align="right"| -10% CPU
+
| {{co|green||+15%}} || {{co|green||+15%}} || {{co|green||+15%}} || {{co|green||+15%}} || {{co|green||+15%}}
 
|-
 
|-
| Drone Mining Augmentor II||+10% Mining Amount||align="right"| -10% CPU
+
| rowspan="2"|Navigation || {{co|red||-30%}} || {{co|red||-30%}} || {{co|red||-30%}} || rowspan="2"|{{co|green||+30%}}|| {{co|red||-30%}} || rowspan="2"|{{co|green||+30%}}
 
|-
 
|-
| Drone Mining Augmentor II||+15% Mining Amount||align="right"| -10% CPU
+
| {{co|green||+15%}} || {{co|green||+15%}} || {{co|green||+10%}} || {{co|green||+15%}}
 
|-
 
|-
| Drone Repair Augmentor I||+10% Damage Repair Bonus||align="right"| -10% CPU
+
| rowspan="2"|Projection || rowspan="2"|{{co|green||+30%}} || {{co|red||-30%}} || {{co|red||-30%}} || {{co|red||-30%}} || rowspan="2"|{{co|green||+30%}} || {{co|red||-30%}}
 
|-
 
|-
| Drone Repair Augmentor II||+15% Damage Repair Bonus||align="right"| -10% CPU
+
| {{co|green||+15%}} || {{co|green||+10%}} || {{co|green||+15%}} || {{co|green||+15%}}
 
|-
 
|-
| Drone Scope Chip I||+15% Optimal Range||align="right"| -10% CPU
+
|}
 +
 
 +
You perform a mutation by right clicking the mutaplasmid and activating it. This produces a window where you can drop a drone of the appropriate type at which point it will show you the possible range for every stat after it is mutated. Once you commit to the mutation it will go through an animated sequence of rolling each stat change one by one. The mutaplasmid and the input drone are consumed by the process. The mutated drone gets a new icon, and its altered info window Attributes will show red or green with a tooltip to show you where in the probability range it rolled, and a new large tooltip will appear any time you mouse over any mutated drone icon that shows its complete information including the original drone type, and red/green bars that clearly indicate how good or bad the mutation changes are. This is also visible when looking at the items in Contracts etc.
 +
 
 +
Creating a mutated drone does not require any skills (thus making "drone gambling" a potentially viable Alpha activity) but using one will require Omega clone status and {{sk|Mutated Drone Specialization|icon=yes}}, which in turn requires all four of the main faction Drone Specialization skills at I, and Drones V. Total cost for all those skill books is roughly 100M ISK. The Mutated Drone Specialization provides a 2% damage boost per level for all mutated drones.
 +
 
 +
You can't use a mutaplasmid on an already Mutated drone, so if you don't like the new stats you get you'll need another drone and another mutaplasmid to try again.
 +
 
 +
A Gecko, Hellhound I, Aralez, Civlian Hobgoblin, or 'Subverted' JVN-UC49 cannot be mutated.
 +
 
 +
== Skills ==
 +
{{See also|Skills:Drones}}
 +
 
 +
'''Basic skills:'''
 +
* {{sk|Drones|mult=yes|price=yes}}: Allows you to operate 1 drone per level (up to 5 at level V). This is the foundation skill of any drone pilot, and should be trained to at least level III as a top priority, and to level V soon after (at latest when you start flying ships with 25{{m3}} drone bays or larger).
 +
 
 +
'''Combat drone skills:'''<br>
 +
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. Additionally, these skills increase the damage of their respective drone group by 5% per level. 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.
 +
* {{sk|Light Drone Operation|mult=yes|price=yes}}. Requires {{sk|Drones|I}}.
 +
* {{sk|Medium Drone Operation|mult=yes|price=yes}}. Requires {{sk|Drones|III}}.
 +
* {{sk|Heavy Drone Operation|mult=yes|price=yes}}. Requires {{sk|Drones|V}}.
 +
* {{sk|Sentry Drone Interfacing|mult=yes|price=yes}}. Requires {{sk|Drones|V}}, {{sk|Drone Sharpshooting|IV}}, and {{sk|Drone Interfacing|IV}}.
 +
 
 +
'''Improved drone performance skills:'''<br>
 +
These are the "drone support skills", which improve the performance of your drones. Nearly every skill requires {{sk|Drones|icon=yes}} to level IV or V.
 +
* {{sk|Drone Interfacing|mult=yes|price=yes}}: Increases your drones' damage (and mining yield for mining drones) by 10% per level. Train this to level IV quickly to make your drones much more effective (level IV is the equivalent of having two extra drones in space); the long train to level V is worth it if you're specializing in drones, or as a prerequisite for capital ship drones.
 +
* {{sk|Drone Durability|mult=yes|price=yes}}: Increases the shield, armor, and structure hit points (HP) of your drones by 5% per level. Useful to make (particularly your more expensive) drones live longer but it is not a high-priority skill.
 +
* {{sk|Drone Avionics|mult=yes|price=yes}}: Increases your drone control range by 5km per skill level, and allows you to use Drone Link Augmentor modules (which increase your drone control range even further). Training this skill is vital for sentry drone users, and moderately useful for other combat drones. It's less useful for salvage and mining drones, due to their need to return to the owner periodically.
 +
* {{sk|Advanced Drone Avionics|mult=yes|price=yes}}: In addition to unlocking EW drones (see below), this skill also increases your drone control range by 3km per skill level.
 +
* {{sk|Drone Sharpshooting|mult=yes|price=yes}}: Increases your drones' optimal range (but not their falloff) by 5% per level, and allows you to use Omnidirectional Tracking Link and Omnidirectional Tracking Enhancer modules (which boost drone optimal range and tracking). This skill is vital for sentry drones but less important for other drones.
 +
* {{sk|Drone Navigation|mult=yes|price=yes}}: Increases your drone's microwarpdrive speed by 5% per level, and allows you to use Drone Navigation Computer modules (which increase it even further). This skill is very important for users of heavy drones (and of no small benefit to light and medium drones). Also useful for most other types of drones (except Sentry drones)
 +
 
 +
'''Racial drone specialization:'''<br>
 +
These skills are required to use each faction's Tech 2 and 'Augmented' drones. Additionally, they increase the damage of these drones (but not other drone types) by 2% per level. These skillbooks come from LP stores and therefore vary in price; they require {{sk|Drones|V|icon=yes}}.
 +
* {{sk|Amarr Drone Specialization|mult=yes|price=yes}}
 +
* {{sk|Caldari Drone Specialization|mult=yes|price=yes}}
 +
* {{sk|Gallente Drone Specialization|mult=yes|price=yes}}
 +
* {{sk|Minmatar Drone Specialization|mult=yes|price=yes}}
 +
 
 +
'''Mutated drone specialization:'''<br>
 +
This skill is required to use drones created using rogue drone and Triglavian technology. It adds a 2% bonus per skill level to the damage of light, medium, heavy, and sentry drones requiring Mutated Drone Specialization.
 +
* {{sk|Mutated Drone Specialization|mult=yes|price=yes}}. Requires {{sk|Amarr Drone Specialization|I}}, {{sk|Caldari Drone Specialization|I}}, {{sk|Gallente Drone Specialization|I}}, {{sk|Minmatar Drone Specialization|I}}.
 +
 
 +
'''Support drone skills:'''<br>
 +
These skills unlock the electronic warfare (EW), combat utility, logistics, and mining drones.
 +
* {{sk|Mining Drone Operation|mult=yes|price=yes}}: Unlocks mining drones and increases their yield by 5% per level.
 +
* {{sk|Repair Drone Operation|mult=yes|price=yes}}: Unlocks logistics drones and increases their repair amount by 5% per level. Requires {{sk|Drones|V}}.
 +
* {{sk|Salvage Drone Operation|mult=yes|price=yes}}: Unlocks the salvage drone and increases its chance to salvage by 2% per level. Requires {{sk|Drones|IV}}.
 +
* {{sk|Salvage Drone Specialization|mult=yes|price=yes}}: Unlocks T2 salvage drone and increases salvage chance and maximum velocity by 2% per level. Requires {{sk|Salvage Drone Operation|V}} and {{sk|Salvaging|IV}}.
 +
* {{sk|Advanced Drone Avionics|mult=yes|price=yes}}: Unlocks EW and energy neutralisation drones. Also increases your drone control range (see above), and requires {{sk|Drones|V}}.
 +
 
 +
=== Spaceship Command ===
 +
Lastly, if you're flying a drone boat, training its [[Skills:Spaceship Command|spaceship command]] skill will often improve the performance of your drones considerably. For instance, if you're flying a Gallente [[Vexor]] cruiser, training {{sk|Gallente Cruiser|icon=yes}} gives a 10% bonus per skill level to your drones' damage and hit points. 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 fly a particular ship for a longer period of time, then investing skill training time here can be very beneficial.
 +
 
 +
== Equipment ==
 +
Most drone modules fit into mid and low-slots, leaving the high-slots free for weapon or utility modules. Most modules in this list are subject to [[Stacking penalties]].
 +
 
 +
{{See also|Abyssal modules}} for the Drone and Fighter equipment which can be mutated with Mutaplasmids.
 +
 
 +
{| class=wikitable style="width: 900px; background: #111111"
 
|-
 
|-
| Drone Scope Chip II||+20% Optimal Range||align="right"| -10% CPU
+
| colspan=2 style="text-align: center; background: #222222;" | High slot modules
 
|-
 
|-
| Drone Speed Augmentor I||+10% Drone Speed||align="right"| -10% CPU
+
| [[File:Icon drone link augmentor i.png|link=]]
 +
| '''{{co|wheat|Drone Link Augmentor}}''' increases your drone control range by 20km (24km for the Tech 2 variant). This module is particularly useful for sentry drones (allowing them to snipe distant targets), but less useful for other drones, as the travel time usually precludes using drones at long ranges. Unlike the rest of the list, this module is not subject to stacking penalties.
 +
 
 
|-
 
|-
| Drone Speed Augmentor II||+15% Drone Speed||align="right"| -10% CPU
+
| colspan=2 style="text-align: center; background: #222222;" | Medium slot modules
 +
 
 
|-
 
|-
| Sentry Damage Augmentor I||+10% Sentry Damage||align="right"| -10% CPU
+
|[[File:Icon drone navigation computer.png|link=]]
 +
|'''{{co|wheat|Drone Navigation Computer}}''' increases your drones' microwarpdrive (MWD) speed by 25% (30% for the Tech 2 variant). Note that this doesn't affect their non-MWD speed (i.e. it will help them reach a target faster, but won't help them while orbiting the target). This module is particularly useful for heavy and fighter drones, allowing them to better catch up to faster ships.
 +
 
 
|-
 
|-
| Sentry Damage Augmentor II||+15% Sentry Damage||align="right"| -10% CPU
+
|[[File:Icon tracking enhancer.png|link=]]
 +
|'''{{co|wheat|Omnidirectional Tracking Link}}''' increases your drones' tracking speed and weapon range (optimal and falloff). Great for sentry drones, less used for other drones although it can still improve their damage application, especially if you use your drones against smaller ships than intended (e.g. medium combat drones versus frigates). Just like [[Turrets#Related Modules Summary|turret tracking computer]] modules, these can be loaded with [[scripts]] to double either the tracking or the range bonus, at the cost of eliminating the other bonus. Unlike low-slot Omnidirectional Tracking Enhancer modules, they need to be activated to provide a benefit, and they need a little capacitor energy to run.
 +
 
 
|-
 
|-
| Stasis Drone  Augmentor I||+15% Drone Web Velocity Decrease||align="right"| -10% CPU
+
| colspan=2 style="text-align: center; background: #222222;" | Low slot modules
 +
 
 
|-
 
|-
| Stasis Drone  Augmentor II||+20% Drone Web Velocity Decrease||align="right"| -10% CPU
+
|[[File:Icon drone damage amplifier.png|link=]]
 +
|'''{{co|wheat|Drone Damage Amplifier}}''' increases the damage your drones deal by 15% (20.5% for the Tech 2 variant or 31.2% for Mutated).
 +
 
 
|-
 
|-
|  
+
|[[File:Icon tracking enhancer.png|link=]]
|}
+
|'''{{co|wheat|Omnidirectional Tracking Enhancer}}''' increases your drones' tracking speed and weapon range (optimal and falloff). It's similar to the mid-slot Omnidirectional Tracking Link module but provides slightly higher bonuses to range, and slightly lower bonuses to tracking. Also, it cannot be scripted and is a passive module (i.e. it does not need to be activated and uses no capacitor energy).
 +
 
 +
|-
 +
| colspan=2 style="text-align: center;background: #222222;" | Other
 +
 
 +
|-
 +
|[[File:Module_icon_drone_rig.png|link=]]
 +
|
 +
{{See also|Fitting Modules and Rigs Guide#Rigs|l1= Rigs list}}
  
== Care and Feeding ==
+
Various rigs improve drones at the expense of the CPU of the ship.
Drones can take shield, armor, and structure damage during a fight just like you can. Shield damage will get regenerated by the drone being recalled to your drone bay and spending some time nestled in its charging socket, but the other types of damage need repair. In a fight, if you have a big drone bay, you probably want to keep an eye on your drone health, and when one dips into armor, recall it back, and launch a fresh drone.  It will be cheaper to fix a broken drone than to replace it entirely.
+
* '''{{co|wheat|Drone Control Range Augmentor}}''' Increases drone control range by 15km (20km for the Tech 2 rig).
 +
* '''{{co|wheat|Drone Durability Enhancer}}''' Increases drone hit points (shield, armor and structure) by 20% (25% for the Tech 2 rig).
 +
* '''{{co|wheat|Drone Mining Augmentor}}''' Increases mining drone yield by 10% (15% for the Tech 2 rig).
 +
* '''{{co|wheat|Drone Repair Augmentor}}''' Increases the amount repaired by repair drones by 10% (15% for the Tech 2 rig).
 +
* '''{{co|wheat|Drone Scope Chip}}''' Increases drone optimal weapons range by 15% (20% for the Tech 2 rig).
 +
* '''{{co|wheat|Drone Speed Augmentor}}''' Increases drone microwarpdrive (MWD) speed by 10% (15% for the Tech 2 rig).
 +
* '''{{co|wheat|Sentry Damage Augmentor}}''' Increases the damage done by sentry drones by 10% (15% for the Tech 2 rig).  
 +
* '''{{co|wheat|Stasis Drone Augmentor}}''' Improves velocity decrease caused by your stasis webifier drones by 15% (20% for the Tech 2 rig).
  
If you're working out of a station with repair facilities, the armor and hull damage can be easily fixed.
+
|-
 +
|[[File:Icon implant hardwiring.png|link=]]
 +
| There are no "normal" implants for improving drones. Though four limited time implants exist that were obtainable from past events.
 +
* '''{{co|wheat|Overmind 'Hawkmoth' Drone Tuner S10-25T }}''' improves drone speed by 10% while reducing their structure, armor and shield capacity by 25%
 +
* '''{{co|wheat|Overmind 'Goliath' Drone Tuner T25-10S }}''' improves drone structure, armor and shield capacity by 10% while reducing their speed by 25%
 +
* '''{{co|wheat|CreoDron 'Bumblebee' Drone Tuner T10-5D }}''' improves drone structure, armor and shield capacity by 10% while reducing their damage by 5%
 +
* '''{{co|wheat|CreoDron 'Yellowjacket' Drone Tuner D5-10T }}''' improves drone damage by 5% while reducing their structure, armor and shield capacity by 5%
 +
|}
  
However, if you aren't working out of a station with those facilities, it can be more difficult to determine which drones are damaged, and then how to deal with them.
+
== External links ==
 +
* [https://www.eveonline.com/news/view/giving-drones-an-assist Dev blog: Giving Drones an Assist] (2014)
  
One approach is to try and 'repackage' your drones while you're in station.  If they repackage, then they're at full health.  Those that aren't at full health won't be able to be repackaged.  This is a good way to determine which drones need some attention. 
 
  
An alternate approach while you're in space is to 'Scoop to Cargo Hold' the wounded drones instead of returning them to your drone bay.  Then when you get back to station, you know that the drones in your cargo hold are damaged.  However, this has some drawbacks: (1) if you scoop a wounded drone into your cargo hold, it can't help you again until you get back to a station and (2) then it takes up space in your hold which could be used to hold loot.
+
[[Category:Drones]]
 +
[[Category:Weapons]]
  
Once you've determined which drones need some repair, you can load them up and take them to a nearby station with repair facilities.  Alternately, you can load them up into your drone bay, mount a remote armor and/or hull repairer module, and head out into space. Once there, launch your drones, target them, and use the remote repairers to bring them back up to full health, return them to the bay (or scoop to your cargo hold) and launch more wounded ones and remote rep until they're all back at full strength.
+
{{#css:
 +
table.drones {
 +
  font-size: 90%;
 +
  text-align: center;
 +
  }
  
 +
table.drones tr th {
 +
  background-color: #222222;
 +
  padding: 0.2em 0.5em;
 +
  white-space: nowrap;
 +
}
  
== Notes ==
+
table.drones tr td {
<references/>
+
  padding: 0.2em 0.5em;
 +
}
  
== See Also ==
+
}}
*The [[Drones_101|Drones 101]] and [[Drones_102|Drones 102]] class syllabi
 
*[[Using Drones]]
 
*[[Skills:Drones|Skills Drones]]
 

Latest revision as of 14:28, 18 August 2024

This page should be updated due to game changes. Reason: No reason was specified.


This article describes the various kinds of drones and explains how they work.
For a detailed discussion of the use of drones, including PvP and PvE tactics, see Drone mechanics. If you are looking for ships that carry drones, see Drone-capable ships.


Drones are semi-autonomous vehicles launched from ships and designed to augment the launching ship's capabilities. All four races use drones to a greater or lesser degree, so many ships, especially larger ships, will have drone capabilities.

While most drones are used as support, some ships use drones as their primary way of dealing damage. In addition, there are drones for specialized uses: such as mining, electronic warfare, and logistics.

Compared to the other combat weapons systems in EVE, drones provide a great deal of flexibility. On the other hand, drones need to travel to their targets before applying their damage, and they can be destroyed by enemy fire.

Drone basics

The drone control window, showing drones in the drone bay and drones in space.

If you undock with drones in your drone bay, a new window for controlling drones will appear on your screen. Via this window, you can launch drones from your drone bay, give commands to them once they are in space, and recover them back into your drone bay.

This window also shows the active status of any drones you currently have in space. These are listed in the last folder. If any of those drones are damaged, the three little bars to the right of the drone will turn red - indicating hull, armor and shield … in that order.

Add drones to a group through the right-click menu.

Drones can be grouped through the drone control window. This makes controlling drones easier, as you can give a command to the entire group. To move a drone in or out of a group, right-click on the drone, or drag it in or out of the group.

Create groups of drones that you intend to launch and use together; usually, this means groups of five identical drones, but in some cases, you may want to create groups with a mix of drones. Only drones of the same type may be grouped (you cannot, for example, put e-war and combat drones in the same group.)

You can delete unused drone groups by right-clicking in your drone control window and selecting "Delete group".

Drones have built-in weapons that don't need to reload. If damaged, a drone's shields will slowly regenerate on their own, but damage to its armor and hull will need to be repaired (e.g. by using the repair services at a station).

Drones are capable of serving many different roles and exist in many different sizes. There are five general categories:

Targeting enemy ships, these apply the basic types of damage.
Targeting enemy ships, these weaken and interfere with the enemy.
Targeting friendly players, these provide aid to ships in a fleet.
These target wrecks for salvage.
These target asteroids or ice and mine them for resources.

Details on the characteristics of individual drone types are shown below in Drone Type Details. A discussion of the uses of these drones in game can be found in Drone mechanics.

Drone bay

Tristan-get-info.png

A ship must have a drone bay to use drones. You can find out if a ship has a drone bay, and how big it is, by looking at the Attributes tab in its Show Info window. If it has a drone bay, it will tell you the drone bay's capacity in cubic meters (m3). The size of a ship's drone bay determines how many drones you can carry with you, ready to be launched into space; larger and more powerful drones take up more space in your drone bay.

The Tristan has a 40 m3 drone bay, which means it can carry up to eight light drones (which take up 5 m3 each), or four medium drones (10 m3 each), or a combination of the two (e.g. two medium and four light drones).

The size of your ship's drone bay is fixed and cannot be enlarged using modules or skills. Only drones can be carried in a drone bay; it cannot be used to carry other cargo. While you can carry drones in your cargo bay, you can only use them if they are in the drone bay. You can only move drones in or out of your drone bay while docked at a station, or by using a ship/structure with a fitting service (e.g. a Mobile Depot or a Capital Ship).

Bandwidth

The other important ship attribute is its "bandwidth". This is the ship's ability to control drones in space and is measured in Mbit/sec. You can only deploy as many drones as you have available bandwidth on your ship, and bigger drones require more bandwidth. Your ship's bandwidth is fixed and is not affected by skills or modules.

Many ships (and especially dedicated drone ships) can carry many more drones in their drone bays than they can deploy at once; this allows them to selectively deploy different types of drones, or to replace drones that are destroyed in combat. With the exception of fighters (which are only used by capital ships) and special limited edition drones, a drone's bandwidth requirements (in Mbit/sec) is always the same number as its volume (in m3).

However, irrespective of your ship's bandwidth, you can only have as many drones in space at once as you have levels in the Drones skill which allows up to 5 drones at level V. (The only exception to this limit is the very rare Guardian-Vexor cruiser.) This means that with high bandwidth you might be able to deploy five heavy or five light drones, while with lower bandwidth you may only be able to put out five of the light ones.

The Tristan's bandwidth is 25 Mbit/s, allowing it to deploy, at most, five light drones in space at once (they need 5 Mbit/s each), but only if the pilot has trained the Drones skill to level V. If it's carrying a mixture of light and medium drones, it could deploy up to two medium (10 Mbit/s each) and one light drone at once, assuming the pilot has trained Drones III.

Control range

You can only command a drone to attack/repair/mine a target if that target is within a certain range of your ship; this range is known as the "drone control range". By default, your control range is 20km, which means that you can only order a drone to attack an enemy ship if it's within 20km of your ship. This range can be extended by training:

Note that in order to command a drone to attack/repair/mine a specific target, you'll need to have a target lock on it, which can limit the benefit of the control range. If the command can be given without having a target (such as for salvage drones), the drones will seek out applicable targets within the entire command zone regardless of targeting capacity.

With Drone Avionics and Advanced Drone Avionics at level V, your drone control range is 60km. To increase it further, you can install modules and rigs on your ship:

  • Drone Link Augmentor module: A high-slot module, that increases drone control range by 20km (24km for the Tech 2 module)
  • Drone Control Range Augmentor rig: Increases drone control range by 15km (20km for the Tech 2 rig)

Once you've ordered them to attack a target, your drones will pursue that target even outside your drone control range, whether or not you continue to have that target locked.

Drones will shut down if they exceed 500km distance from their host ship, or if their host ship activates its warp drive. See Abandoned Drones, below, for your options if you lose touch with your drones.

Navigation and Distance

Almost all drones (except the stationary sentry drones) have a built-in microwarp drive (MWD), which allows them to travel quickly to engage a target. Once they arrive near their target, they shut down their MWD, orbit the target, and fire their weapons. This means that drones have to travel to the target and then stay within range of it in order to apply their damage. In practice, this means that drones will have difficulty against faster, more agile targets, as even though they may be able to catch them thanks to their MWD, they may not be able to stay within weapons range for long at their non-MWD speed. Larger drones in particular are almost useless against fast frigates for this reason.

No skill or module affects the orbit speed of drones.

Direct Drone Commands

You can give commands to each drone individually, or to all of your drones at once. If you issue a command like "attack that target", the drone will fly to the target you have selected and start firing on it once it's within weapons range, but you cannot exercise any finer control than that.

You can give a drone commands either by right-clicking it, selecting it in the overview and using the overview buttons or by using a radial menu (by long-clicking). You can also give "launch" and "return to drone bay" commands by dragging drones in the drone control window from the "drones in bay" to the "drones in space" folder.

Additionally, you can use keyboard shortcuts for many of these commands. These can be changed in the Game Settings window.

Command Shortcut
All Drones: Engage F
All Drones: Return and Orbit Shift-Alt-R
All Drones: Return to Drone Bay Shift-R
Drone Settings: Toggle Aggressive/Passive (None)
Drone Settings: Toggle Focus Fire (None)
Fighter Settings: Toggle Attack and Follow (None)
Launch Drones Shift-F
Reconnect To Lost Drones (None)

You can give any drones these generic commands:

  • Launch: Launch the selected drone(s) from your drone bay into space.
  • Return and Orbit: Order your drone(s) to fly back to your ship and orbit it, awaiting further commands.
  • Abandon Drone: Abandons your drones in space. While normally you would want to order your drones to return to your drone bay, in some situations (particularly PvP) this can take too long, and you may want to abandon your current drones in order to launch a different drone type which is better suited to engaging your current enemy.
  • Return to Drone Bay: Order your drone(s) in space to fly back to your ship and land in your ship's drone bay.
  • Scoop to Drone Bay: If your drone has become disabled in space (i.e. is no longer responding to commands), you can fly your ship to it and, once you are nearby (2500m), scoop the drone into your ship's drone bay. You can also scoop up drones abandoned by other players (e.g. their ship was destroyed, or they warped off without docking their drones).
  • Scoop to Cargo Bay: Similar to the "Scoop to Drone Bay" command, but scoops the drone to your cargo bay instead of your drone bay. This is useful if your drone bay is already full.

You can give the following commands to drones that have the associated abilities.

  • Engage: Orders your drones to engage (attack, repair, jam, mine, etc) the target you have currently locked. They will fly to your target, attempt to orbit it, and engage it. Note that your drones will engage whatever you order them to, including your other drones or your fleetmates.
  • Assist: If you give this command your drones will assist a member of your fleet, and will engage whatever target they are attacking.
  • Guard: Similar to the "Assist" command, except that your drones will engage whatever ships attacks the fleet member you order your drones to guard.
  • Mine: Orders your mining drone(s) to mine the asteroid you have targeted for one cycle (60 seconds), then return to your ship, drop the mined ore off in your cargo or mining bay. They will immediately return to the asteroid after they have dropped off their ore at your ship and continue mining. You can redirect them to a different asteroid at any time.
  • Salvage: Orders your salvage drone(s) to salvage the wreck you have targeted; if you give this command without anything targeted, your salvage drones will automatically salvage every wreck belonging to you within your drone control range. To salvage wrecks belonging to other players (coloured yellow on the overview), you need to manually target them and give the "Salvage" command.

Once you give a command to your drones, they start carrying it out in the next server tick. In practice, this means that your drones may take 1-2 seconds to respond after you give a command.

Default behavior settings

Modify drone behavior.

The drones' default behavior can be set through the menu that appears when clicking the cog icon on the "Drones in space" folder bar. The icon becomes visible when hovering over the folder bar.

Auto Attack
Disabled
Drones will not automatically attack hostile ships, but will stay in orbit around the ship until given a specific command. This is the default mode, and it is recommended to keep drones in this mode for PvE (particularly when running missions, as you want to control which rats you aggro) and for most PvP.
Enabled
Drones will automatically attack any entity which shows aggression to them or the ship (using the same targeting logic as auto-targeting missiles[Verify]). Note that they will only react to hostiles which begin aggressing after the drones were launched[Verify].

Enabling this mode can be useful when being jammed, as it gives a chance to attack something at least. However, as drones are fairly dumb in their target selection, in almost every other situation you want to command the drones manually as drones may inadvertently attack something you would rather not.

Focus fire
Only applies when Auto Attack is enabled.
Disabled
Every drone will decide its own target.
Enabled
All drones attack a single target. There are almost no situations in which this box should not be checked.
Attack and follow
(18 August 2024: In the old image this option was shown under the section "Fighter Settings" Today's upload does not have that section, but the source was also not fighter capable.)
Only applies to fighter and fighter-bomber drones (as used by capital ships). As these drones have built-in warp drives, they can follow targets even if they warp away - to prevent this (and keep the drones with you), uncheck the box. Disabling the "attack and follow" setting is a good idea if you suspect that the target may warp to a POS and if the fighters follow, they will likely be destroyed by the POS' defenses.

Abandoned drones

If you warp away while your drones are in space, if your ship is destroyed, or if you give the "abandon" command, your drones will become inactive and remain stationary in space. At this point, anyone can recover them (by flying to them and using the "scoop to drone bay" or "scoop to cargo bay" command). You can also reconnect with any drones which you have personally abandoned by right-clicking on your ship (or the capacitor on your HUD) and selecting "reconnect to lost drones"; this works as long as the drones are nearby, on the same grid. It's not possible to use a tractor beam on abandoned drones.

If you've warped away without recalling your drones, but cannot directly return to the location (e.g. if you left your drones in a mission deadspace pocket, but you completed the mission, and therefore no longer have the bookmark for the location), you can probe scan your lost drones using combat probes.

Damaged drones

Two damaged drones. The first drone has only taken shield damage, while the second drone has taken both shield and armor damage.

Your drones can take shield, armor, and structure damage during a fight (just like your ship). Their shields will regenerate slowly, whether the drone is in space or in your drone bay (at the same rate), but armor and hull damage need to be repaired. When in combat with drones, keep an eye on your drone's health through the drone control window, and when a drone starts taking armor damage, recall it to your drone bay and launch a fresh drone (if you have spares) - it's much cheaper to repair drones than to replace them.

If you dock at a station with repair facilities, you can easily repair all damaged drones at the cost of some ISK. Also, they get repaired automatically at no cost while your ship is tethered to a Citadel.

If you don't have access to a station, you can repair drones in space by using remote armor and hull repair modules, or by using logistics drones. If you plan on being away from stations for a while, it may be a good idea to carry small armor and hull repair modules with you, and fit these modules to your ship (using a mobile depot) in between combat encounters to repair your drones. Light armor and hull logistics drones are also an option if you have space in your drone bay, but keep in mind that they repair very slowly - a single light armor repair drone takes about 3 minutes to fully repair a damaged heavy drone, while a small remote armor repair module can do it in about 30 seconds.

Drone-centric factions

Certain factions offer ships that are focused on drones. These ships are most often used as "Drone Carriers" by players who are using drones as their primary weapons.

Empire factions
Gallente Federation The Gallente have some of the most powerful drone-using ships among the empire factions; nearly all their combat ships can field drones, with generous drone bays and bandwidths. About half of their ships are heavily focused on drone use, with bonuses to drone damage, hit points, range, tracking speed, and speed.
Amarr Empire The Amarr are the other drone-using empire faction, although they are less focused on them than the Gallente. They tend to have somewhat lower drone bandwidths than the Gallente, but with large drone bays, allowing them to carry a wide variety of drones into combat.
Other factions
Guristas The Guristas have a very particular way of using drones: their ships can field only two drones of the appropriate size at a time, but each drone is many times stronger than normal. While their drones' total damage output remains comparable to other top-tier drone boats, Guristas drones are much tougher, which gives them an edge in PvP.
Sisters of EVE The Sisters of EVE ships have high drone bandwidths and truly enormous drone bays (even larger than the Gallente), as well as bonuses to drone damage and hit points.

Drone type details

Drones are capable of serving many different roles and exist in many different sizes. There are seventeen different groups of drones, which can be divided into five categories:

Combat drones
These are the most common drones and are (as the name suggests) used to damage and destroy enemy ships. There are six different types of combat drone:
  • Light, medium, and heavy drones, generally for use on frigate, cruiser, and battleship-sized ships, respectively.
  • Sentry drones, which act as stationary, long-range turrets.
Electronic warfare and combat utility drones
These drones impair an enemy ship using electronic warfare or similar methods. There are drones for each of the four methods of electronic warfare: tracking disruption (TD), electronic countermeasures (ECM), sensor dampening (SD), and target painting (TP). Additionally, there are drones that drain an enemy's capacitor (energy neutralisers), or reduce a ship's speed (stasis webifiers).
Logistics drones
These drones assist friendly ships by repairing their shields, armor, or hull.
Salvage drones
These drones are used to salvage nearby wrecks.
Mining drones
These drones mine asteroids or ice for resources.

Combat drones

Combat drones come in four types:

Light dronesLight drones:

  • Use 5 m3 space and 5 Mbit/sec bandwidth
  • Move and track targets very quickly
  • Are the best drones to use against Icon white frigate.pngfrigates and Icon white destroyer.pngdestroyers

Medium dronesMedium drones:

  • Use 10 m3 space and 10 Mbit/sec bandwidth
  • Move and track moderately quickly
  • Are the best drones to use against Icon white cruiser.pngcruisers, and are also good against Icon white battlecruiser.pngbattlecruisers

Heavy dronesHeavy drones:

  • Use 25 m3 space and 25 Mbit/sec bandwidth
  • Move and track slowly, but do lots of damage
  • Are good against Icon white battleship.pngbattleships, and can handle Icon white battlecruiser.pngbattlecruisers

Sentry dronesSentry drones:

  • Use 25 m3 space and 25 Mbit/sec bandwidth
  • Do not move in space
  • Can hit targets at long ranges, but have poor tracking, and so will have difficulty against close or fast targets
  • Most effective against battleshipsbattleships and Icon white battlecruiser.pngbattlecruisers, but can also hit smaller targets if they are far enough away

Each race has its own light, medium, heavy, and sentry drones, and they each do one damage type (for instance, all Amarr drones do EM damage, while all Caldari drones do kinetic damage).

Light, medium and heavy drones

These are the types of drones people first think of when they hear "drones". They are mobile platforms that fly to the target and shoot them once they get close. 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.

The faction variants do not just deal with different damage types.

  • Minmatar drones are the fastest drones (50% faster than Gallente drones with MWD on), and so excel at chasing fast ships. However, they do the lowest damage.
  • Gallente drones do the most damage (23% more than Minmatar drones), but are the slowest.
  • Amarr and Caldari drones fall between Gallente and Minmatar drones in terms of damage and speed (Caldari drones do a little less damage than Gallente drones, but are a bit faster; Amarr drones do a little more damage than Minmatar drones but are a bit slower). Additionally, these drones orbit a little further away from their targets, making them apply their damage more consistently, and are a little tougher (+25% more hit points, compared with Minmatar and Gallente 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).

Damage Faction comparison
Faction Light Medium Heavy Prim *Sec DPS Speed
Gallente Federation Hobgoblin.png
Hobgoblin
Hammerhead.png
Hammerhead
Ogre.png
Ogre
Thermal damage
Thermal
Kinetic damage
Kinetic
+23%
Caldari State Hornet.png
Hornet
Vespa.png
Vespa
Wasp.png
Wasp
Kinetic damage
Kinetic
Thermal damage
Thermal
+15% +13%
(+13%)
Amarr Empire Acolyte.png
Acolyte
Infiltrator.png
Infiltrator
Praetor.png
Praetor
EM damage
EM
Thermal damage
Thermal
+8% +37%
(+26%)
Minmatar Republic Warrior.png
Warrior
Valkyrie.png
Valkyrie
Berserker.png
Berserker
Explosive damage
Explosive
Kinetic damage
Kinetic
+50%
(+36%)
All drones deal the primary damage type.
* 'Integrated' and 'Augmented' drones deal a mix of the primary and secondary damage types.

Please note that you can hover over the titles for an explanation of the terms and units.

  1. ^ The Gecko is a cross between a heavy and a fighter drone, which was given out for free to every pilot before the Kronos expansion. It can be flown by subcapital ships but requires 50 Mbit/s of bandwidth (twice as much as a heavy drone) and deals omni-damage (i.e. its damage is split equally between the four damage types). It requires the same skills to fly as a Tech 1 heavy drone, and there are no Tech 2 or other variants of it.
  2. ^ The 'Subverted' JVN-UC49 is a cross between a medium and a heavy drone. It can be flown by subcapital ships but requires 20 Mbit/s of bandwidth (twice as much as a medium drone) and deals omni-damage (ie its damage is split equally between the four damage types). It requires the same skills to fly as a Tech 1 medium drone, and there are no Tech 2 or other variants of it.
  3. ^ The Hellhound I is a rare Tech I heavy drone. It can be flown by subcapital ships but requires 25 Mbit/s of bandwidth (as much as any other heavy drone) and deals thermal damage. There are no public ways of producing new copies and they can not be sold on the market. Many collectors stock them in the drone bay of their SerpentisGuardian-Vexor. There are no other variants.

In addition to the basic Tech 1 drones (described above), there are four other variants of drone within each race's light/medium/heavy drone lineup:

  • A Faction drone, available from LP stores. They don't require additional skills to use (beyond those required for the Tech 1 drones). They have a very large number of hit points, but slightly lower damage than their Tech 2 counterparts.
  • A Tech 2 drone, which is more powerful (better speed, damage, and hit points) than its Tech 1 counterpart, but requires additional skills to use.
  • 'Integrated' and 'Augmented' drones, which can be thought of as enhanced Tech 1 drone and Tech 2 drones, respectively. These drones are produced from the components found in NPC rogue drone wrecks. They need the same skills to use as Tech 1 and Tech 2 drones, respectively but have slightly improved stats. The damage they do is split between the race's primary and secondary damage types (unlike all other types of subcapital combat drones, which deal only the race's primary damage type). However, the 'integrated' drones are fairly rare and therefore very expensive.

The table below lists the stats of these drone variants, using the Tech 1 drones as a baseline.

Variant DPS Speed Orbit EHP Skills
Tech 1 (Size) Drone Operation I
'Integrated' +15% Icon velocity.png +10% +10% Icon orbit.png +10% Icon hull.png (Size) Drone Operation I
Faction +20% Icon velocity.png +20% +20% Icon orbit.png +100% Icon hull.png (Size) Drone Operation I
Tech 2 +22% to +30%[1] Icon velocity.png +20% +20% Icon orbit.png +20% Icon hull.png (Size) Drone Operation V
(Race) Drone Specialization I
'Augmented' +34% to +42%[1] Icon velocity.png +32% +20% Icon orbit.png +80% Icon hull.png (Size) Drone Operation V
(Race) Drone Specialization I
  1. ^ a b Tech 2 and 'Augmented' drones gain an additional +2% damage for every level of the appropriate racial drone specialization skill (e.g. Amarr Drone Specialization for Amarr drones) you have trained.

Sentry Drones

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.

At the same size (25 m3) and bandwidth (25Mbit/sec) as heavy drones, sentries are powerful, long range damage dealers. 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 2800 HP of defense (shields, armor, structure). They are incapacitated after being 75% damaged.

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.

Notes

  • The Warden has the longest range. Targets are generally drawn straight towards it from far away, which offsets its slow tracking and smaller damage factor.
  • The short-ranged Garde has the fastest tracking and damage factor. This makes it more effective than the others as a close defense.
  • The Bouncer and Curator are in the middle and somewhat comparable; the Curator has a higher tracking speed and slightly higher damage factor, while the Bouncer has a longer range.
Sentry Drones: Comparison
Name Race Range Tracking Damage (type)
Bouncer Minmatar + - - Explosive damage
Curator Amarr - + + EM damage
Garde Gallente -- ++ ++ Thermal damage
Warden Caldari ++ -- -- Kinetic damage

Like the light-heavy drones, the sentry drones also have faction variants. Though no 'integrated' or 'augmented' sentries exist as only the navy variants are available.

  • T2 drones do the same base damage as T1s. However, they have longer range and better tracking.
  • T2 sentry drones gain additional damage bonus from the trained racial drone specialization skill level.
  • Faction variants do the same damage as T1 and T2 drones. They have the same range as T2 sentry drones, but higher tracking speeds and are stronger defensively. T2 drones are boosted by the racial drone specialization skill; faction drones are not.
Variant DPS Range Tracking EHP Skills
Tech 1 Sentry Drone Operation I
Faction Same Icon target range.png +20% Icon tracking computer i.png +26% Icon hull.png +80% Sentry Drone Operation I
Tech 2 +2% to +10%[1] Icon target range.png +20% Icon tracking computer i.png +20% Icon hull.png +20% Sentry Drone Operation V
(Race) Drone Specialization I
  1. ^ Tech 2 sentry drones gain an additional +2% damage for every level of the appropriate racial drone specialization skill (e.g. Amarr Drone Specialization for Amarr drones) you have trained.

Electronic warfare drones

See also: Electronic warfare

Electronic warfare (EW) drones apply electronic warfare (EWAR) to their target. Each race's drones apply their racial type of EWAR:

  • Amarr EW drones apply tracking disruption (TD)
  • Caldari EW drones apply electronic countermeasures (ECM)
  • Gallente EW drones apply sensor dampening (SD)
  • Minmatar EW drones apply target painting (TP)

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 300 (small), 600 (medium) and 900 (large). So, for example, the small sensor dampening drone is called a Hobgoblin SD-300 (based on the Hobgoblin light drone), while the medium tracking disruption drone is called a Valkyrie TP-600 (based on the Valkyrie medium drone).

Unlike module-based EWAR, the strength of their EWAR is not affected by ship bonuses, skills, rigs, or modules. Also, since the EWAR effects are stacking penalized with other EWAR drones and module-based EWAR, so, starting from the third or fourth EWAR source, additional drones will have very little additional effect. ECM drones (like ECM modules) are not stacking-penalized.

EWAR drones have the same bandwidth and drone bay space requirements as their combat drone counterparts but tend to be more fragile.

In order to use EW drones you need to train Icon skillbook2.png Advanced Drone Avionics. Additionally, each class of EW drones needs training in its EWAR skill (e.g. tracking disruption drones need the tracking disruptor skill Icon skillbook2.png Weapon Disruption).

Tracking Disruption Drones

Tracking disruption drones cannot be scripted (i.e. they will always reduce both an enemy's tracking speed and their turret range). For comparison, a Tracking Disruptor I module has a -15.3% reduction in enemy tracking and range (and can be scripted to -30.6% in either one or the other). This can be increased to -19.1% with all skills at level V, and -26.3% when flying a dedicated EWAR ship (e.g. an Arbitrator) (-52.6 with scripted EWAR ship).

Tracking disruption drones require Icon skillbook2.png Weapon Disruption III.

Tracking disruption drones
Drone Tracking Range
Acolyte TD-300 -5% -5%
Infiltrator TD-600 -12% -12%
Praetor TD-900 -25% -25%

Electronic Countermeasures (ECM) Drones

ECM drones act like multispectral jammers (i.e. they have the same jam strength against all four sensor types). For comparison, the Multispectral Jammer I module has a jam strength of 2.2, which can be increased to 2.75 with all skills at level V, and over 4.5 when flying a dedicated EWAR ship (e.g. a Blackbird). 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.

ECM drones
Drone Jam strength
Hornet EC-300 1
Vespa EC-600 1.5
Wasp EC-900 2

Sensor Dampening Drones

Sensor dampening drones cannot be scripted (i.e. they will always reduce both an enemy's targeting range and their scan resolution). For comparison, a Remote Sensor Dampener I module has a -13.7% reduction in enemy targeting range and scan resolution (and can be scripted to -27.4% in either one or the other). This can be increased to -34.2% with all skills at level V, and -47.1% when flying a dedicated EWAR ship (e.g. a Celestis).

Sensor dampening drones require Icon skillbook2.png Sensor Linking III.

Sensor dampening drones
Drone Targeting range Scan resolution
Hobgoblin SD-300 -8% -8%
Hammerhead SD-600 -12% -12%
Ogre SD-900 -25% -25%

Target Painting Drones

For comparison, a Target Painter I module increases the enemy's signature radius by 20%. This can be increased to 25% with all skills at level V, and 34.3% when flying a dedicated EWAR ship (e.g. a Bellicose).

Target painting drones require Icon skillbook2.png Target Painting III.

Target painting drones
Drone Signature radius
Warrior TP-300 +4%
Valkyrie TP-600 +8%
Berserker TP-900 +20%

Combat utility drones

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.

Energy Neutralizing Drones

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). For comparison, the Tech 1 small, medium and large Energy Neutralizer modules neutralize 45 GJ, 75 GJ, and 125 GJ every 6 seconds[1], respectively.

Energy neutralizing drones are occasionally used to cap out tackle frigates or to keep a neuted target at zero capacitor.

Just like EW drones, these drones require Icon skillbook2.png Advanced Drone Avionics and the EW skill Icon skillbook2.png Capacitor Emission Systems III.

Energy neutralizing drones
Drone Capacitor neutralized
Acolyte EV-300 5 GJ
Infiltrator EV-600 10 GJ
Praetor EV-900 25 GJ
  1. ^ The medium and large neuts operate on 12 and 24-second cycles, respectively, but this way of presenting the numbers makes comparisons easier.

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. For comparison, a Stasis Webifier I module reduces the target's speed by 50%.

To use these drones, train Icon skillbook2.png Drone Navigation and Icon skillbook2.png Propulsion Jamming III (which is also required for stasis webifier modules).

Statis webifier drones
Drone Speed
Warrior SW-300 -5%
Valkyrie SW-600 -10%
Berserker SW-900 -20%

Logistics drones

See also: Logistics

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 Tech 2 drones receive a 20% boost to repair amount, hit points, speed, and orbital velocity, but require Icon skillbook2.png Repair Drone Operation V.

The hull repair drones are half as effective as the shield and armor counterparts. All logistics drones require Icon skillbook2.png Repair Drone Operation as well as the skills for remote repair modules: Icon skillbook2.png Shield Emission Systems, Icon skillbook2.png Remote Armor Repair Systems, and Icon skillbook2.png Remote Hull Repair Systems, respectively.

For comparison, small, medium and large remote shield and armor repair modules repair 80 HP, 160 HP, and 320 HP every 5 seconds, respectively.

Drone Shield repair
Light Shield Maintenance Bot I 12 HP
Medium Shield Maintenance Bot I 24 HP
Heavy Shield Maintenance Bot I 60 HP
Drone Armor repair
Light Armor Maintenance Bot I 12 HP
Medium Armor Maintenance Bot I 24 HP
Heavy Armor Maintenance Bot I 60 HP
Drone Hull repair
Light Hull Maintenance Bot I 6 HP
Medium Hull Maintenance Bot I 12 HP
Heavy Hull Maintenance Bot I 30 HP

Effectively, a full flight of T1 repair drones amount to less combined repair capacity than a single remote repair module of the same type:

  • 75% for light and medium, 93.75% for heavy armor and shield repair drones
  • 37.5% for light and medium, 48.875% for heavy hull repair drones

Salvage drones

See also: Salvaging

Salvage drones work like Salvager modules, and extract salvage from the wrecks of destroyed ships. The Salvage Drone I and II need 5 m3 of drone bay space and 5 Mbit/s of bandwidth (like a light combat drone). They have a lower chance to salvage wrecks than the salvager modules (3% and 4% base access difficulty, compared with 5% and 7% for the Tech 1 and Tech 2 modules, respectively). This can be increased by training Icon skillbook2.png Salvage Drone Operation and Icon skillbook2.png 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.

Salvage drones can automatically salvage any nearby (up to the edge of the player's drone control range) wrecks, as long as they belong to the player or their fleet/corporation. 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. Salvage drones have an MWD that is always running, but are still very slow (about 10% slower than the slowest heavy drone), so salvaging more distant wrecks may take some time.

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, order the drones to salvage without having any target selected. After this, the salvage drones will keep on salvaging all wrecks that are in range. Note that they will all focus on the closest wreck first, and work their way further away. To be more efficient, zip around the battlefield (looting or orbiting something) so that the 'closest' wreck changes often; or micromanage them by assigning individual wrecks to salvage. They will auto-salvage after they finished on their assigned wreck if they have been given that command earlier, resuming their closest-to-furthest routine.

Variant Max Velocity Salvage Chance Skills
Tech 1 900 m/s 3% Salvage Drone Operation I
Faction 1000 m/s 4.5% Salvage Drone Operation IV
Tech 2 900 m/s 4.0% Salvage Drone Specialization I

Mining drones

See also: Drone Mechanics: Mining Drones and Ore Ship Guide: Mining Drones

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 mining 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 Icon skillbook2.png Mining Drone Operation and Icon skillbook2.png Drone Interfacing improves their mining yield, and training Icon skillbook2.png Drone Navigation increases their speed.

For comparison, a Miner I mining module can mine 40 m3/min of ore. There are no mining drones for gas cloud harvesting.

Much like a mining module, if the mining cycle is manually cut short (in this case, by ordering the drone to return), the drone will get the amount of ore mined proportionally to how much of the cycle was completed, but in other cases, progress will be canceled, including if the ship has no more room for the ore by the time they return.

Drone <span title="Volume required in drone bay (m3) and drone bandwidth required (MBit/s).">Volume/Bandwidth Ore yield Speed
Civilian Mining Drone 5 13 300 m/s
Mining Drone I 5 25 400 m/s
Icon tech2.png Mining Drone II 5 33 500 m/s
Icon faction.png 'Augmented' Mining Drone 5 37 550 m/s
Icon faction.png Harvester Mining Drone 10 42 350 m/s
Icon faction.png'Excavator' Mining Drone[1] 1,100/25 80 175 m/s
  1. ^ Can only be used by the Rorqual


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.

For comparison, an Ice Harvester I module has a cycle time of 220 seconds.

Drone <span title="Volume required in drone bay (m3) and drone bandwidth required (MBit/s).">Volume/Bandwidth <span title="Time to mine 1,000 m3.">Cycle time Speed
Ice Harvesting Drone I 50 330 s 200 m/s
Icon tech2.png Ice Harvesting Drone II 50 300 s 250 m/s
Icon faction.png 'Augmented' Ice Harvesting Drone 50 280 s 275 m/s
Icon faction.png'Excavator' Ice Harvesting Drone[1] 1,100/25 310 s 90 m/s
  1. ^ Can only be used by the Rorqual

Mutated (Abyssal) Drones

See also: Abyssal modules

Mutated drones are created using Abyssal Exigent Mutaplasmids. These are acquired either from Triglavian Bioadaptive Caches found in Abyssal Deadspace or in the wrecks of Invading Precursors found in Triglavian Invasion systems. Mutaplasmids are also tradable on the market.

The process of combining a mutaplasmid and an existing T1, T2, or Faction combat drone "mutates" it into a unique Abyssal drone with the original drone's stats randomly modified (for better or worse). The new drone will have the word Mutated inserted into its name such as Sentry Mutated Drone, and it will have unique stats and thus cannot be traded on the Market (you can trade them via Contracts etc.)

There exist separate mutaplasmids for each drone type and size and there are different ones depending on which stats you want to improve. "Exigent Sentry Drone Firepower Metaplasmid" as an example that increases the damage stat. The effects that the mutaplasmid will have on the drone are described in its info. It will specify one or more stats that will be improved (by 0%-20% as an example) and it will alter each of the remaining stats (by -30% to +15% for example, but it varies by mutaplasmid and stat). Each stat change appears to be random and independent. By choosing the appropriate mutaplasmid you can thus guarantee that the stat(s) it primarily targets will go up (maybe not by much), but the rest of the stats are likely to decrease on average. You could, of course, get lucky and end up with a very powerful and valuable drone. A table of possible attribute changes is below.

Attribute Falloff HP Damage Speed Optimal Tracking
Durability -30% +30% -30% -30% -30% -30%
+15% +10% +15% +15% +15%
Firepower -30% -30% +20% -30% -30% -30%
+15% +15% +15% +15% +15%
Navigation -30% -30% -30% +30% -30% +30%
+15% +15% +10% +15%
Projection +30% -30% -30% -30% +30% -30%
+15% +10% +15% +15%

You perform a mutation by right clicking the mutaplasmid and activating it. This produces a window where you can drop a drone of the appropriate type at which point it will show you the possible range for every stat after it is mutated. Once you commit to the mutation it will go through an animated sequence of rolling each stat change one by one. The mutaplasmid and the input drone are consumed by the process. The mutated drone gets a new icon, and its altered info window Attributes will show red or green with a tooltip to show you where in the probability range it rolled, and a new large tooltip will appear any time you mouse over any mutated drone icon that shows its complete information including the original drone type, and red/green bars that clearly indicate how good or bad the mutation changes are. This is also visible when looking at the items in Contracts etc.

Creating a mutated drone does not require any skills (thus making "drone gambling" a potentially viable Alpha activity) but using one will require Omega clone status and Icon skillbook2.png Mutated Drone Specialization, which in turn requires all four of the main faction Drone Specialization skills at I, and Drones V. Total cost for all those skill books is roughly 100M ISK. The Mutated Drone Specialization provides a 2% damage boost per level for all mutated drones.

You can't use a mutaplasmid on an already Mutated drone, so if you don't like the new stats you get you'll need another drone and another mutaplasmid to try again.

A Gecko, Hellhound I, Aralez, Civlian Hobgoblin, or 'Subverted' JVN-UC49 cannot be mutated.

Skills

See also: Skills:Drones

Basic skills:

  • Drones (1x, 30k ISK): Allows you to operate 1 drone per level (up to 5 at level V). This is the foundation skill of any drone pilot, and should be trained to at least level III as a top priority, and to level V soon after (at latest when you start flying ships with 25 m3 drone bays or larger).

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. Additionally, these skills increase the damage of their respective drone group by 5% per level. 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 Icon skillbook2.png Drones to level IV or V.

  • Drone Interfacing (5x, 750k ISK): Increases your drones' damage (and mining yield for mining drones) by 10% per level. Train this to level IV quickly to make your drones much more effective (level IV is the equivalent of having two extra drones in space); the long train to level V is worth it if you're specializing in drones, or as a prerequisite for capital ship drones.
  • Drone Durability (5x, 100k ISK): Increases the shield, armor, and structure hit points (HP) of your drones by 5% per level. Useful to make (particularly your more expensive) drones live longer but it is not a high-priority skill.
  • Drone Avionics (1x, 60k ISK): Increases your drone control range by 5km per skill level, and allows you to use Drone Link Augmentor modules (which increase your drone control range even further). Training this skill is vital for sentry drone users, and moderately useful for other combat drones. It's less useful for salvage and mining drones, due to their need to return to the owner periodically.
  • Advanced Drone Avionics (5x, 600k ISK): In addition to unlocking EW drones (see below), this skill also increases your drone control range by 3km per skill level.
  • Drone Sharpshooting (1x, 150k ISK): Increases your drones' optimal range (but not their falloff) by 5% per level, and allows you to use Omnidirectional Tracking Link and Omnidirectional Tracking Enhancer modules (which boost drone optimal range and tracking). This skill is vital for sentry drones but less important for other drones.
  • Drone Navigation (1x, 100k ISK): Increases your drone's microwarpdrive speed by 5% per level, and allows you to use Drone Navigation Computer modules (which increase it even further). This skill is very important for users of heavy drones (and of no small benefit to light and medium drones). Also useful for most other types of drones (except Sentry drones)

Racial drone specialization:
These skills are required to use each faction's Tech 2 and 'Augmented' drones. Additionally, they increase the damage of these drones (but not other drone types) by 2% per level. These skillbooks come from LP stores and therefore vary in price; they require Icon skillbook2.png Drones V.

Mutated drone specialization:
This skill is required to use drones created using rogue drone and Triglavian technology. It adds a 2% bonus per skill level to the damage of light, medium, heavy, and sentry drones requiring Mutated Drone Specialization.

Support drone skills:
These skills unlock the electronic warfare (EW), combat utility, logistics, and mining drones.

Spaceship Command

Lastly, if you're flying a drone boat, training its spaceship command skill will often improve the performance of your drones considerably. For instance, if you're flying a Gallente Vexor cruiser, training Icon skillbook2.png Gallente Cruiser gives a 10% bonus per skill level to your drones' damage and hit points. 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 fly a particular ship for a longer period of time, then investing skill training time here can be very beneficial.

Equipment

Most drone modules fit into mid and low-slots, leaving the high-slots free for weapon or utility modules. Most modules in this list are subject to Stacking penalties.

See also: Abyssal modules for the Drone and Fighter equipment which can be mutated with Mutaplasmids.
High slot modules
Icon drone link augmentor i.png Drone Link Augmentor increases your drone control range by 20km (24km for the Tech 2 variant). This module is particularly useful for sentry drones (allowing them to snipe distant targets), but less useful for other drones, as the travel time usually precludes using drones at long ranges. Unlike the rest of the list, this module is not subject to stacking penalties.
Medium slot modules
Icon drone navigation computer.png Drone Navigation Computer increases your drones' microwarpdrive (MWD) speed by 25% (30% for the Tech 2 variant). Note that this doesn't affect their non-MWD speed (i.e. it will help them reach a target faster, but won't help them while orbiting the target). This module is particularly useful for heavy and fighter drones, allowing them to better catch up to faster ships.
Icon tracking enhancer.png Omnidirectional Tracking Link increases your drones' tracking speed and weapon range (optimal and falloff). Great for sentry drones, less used for other drones although it can still improve their damage application, especially if you use your drones against smaller ships than intended (e.g. medium combat drones versus frigates). Just like turret tracking computer modules, these can be loaded with scripts to double either the tracking or the range bonus, at the cost of eliminating the other bonus. Unlike low-slot Omnidirectional Tracking Enhancer modules, they need to be activated to provide a benefit, and they need a little capacitor energy to run.
Low slot modules
Icon drone damage amplifier.png Drone Damage Amplifier increases the damage your drones deal by 15% (20.5% for the Tech 2 variant or 31.2% for Mutated).
Icon tracking enhancer.png Omnidirectional Tracking Enhancer increases your drones' tracking speed and weapon range (optimal and falloff). It's similar to the mid-slot Omnidirectional Tracking Link module but provides slightly higher bonuses to range, and slightly lower bonuses to tracking. Also, it cannot be scripted and is a passive module (i.e. it does not need to be activated and uses no capacitor energy).
Other
Module icon drone rig.png
See also: Rigs list

Various rigs improve drones at the expense of the CPU of the ship.

  • Drone Control Range Augmentor Increases drone control range by 15km (20km for the Tech 2 rig).
  • Drone Durability Enhancer Increases drone hit points (shield, armor and structure) by 20% (25% for the Tech 2 rig).
  • Drone Mining Augmentor Increases mining drone yield by 10% (15% for the Tech 2 rig).
  • Drone Repair Augmentor Increases the amount repaired by repair drones by 10% (15% for the Tech 2 rig).
  • Drone Scope Chip Increases drone optimal weapons range by 15% (20% for the Tech 2 rig).
  • Drone Speed Augmentor Increases drone microwarpdrive (MWD) speed by 10% (15% for the Tech 2 rig).
  • Sentry Damage Augmentor Increases the damage done by sentry drones by 10% (15% for the Tech 2 rig).
  • Stasis Drone Augmentor Improves velocity decrease caused by your stasis webifier drones by 15% (20% for the Tech 2 rig).
Icon implant hardwiring.png There are no "normal" implants for improving drones. Though four limited time implants exist that were obtainable from past events.
  • Overmind 'Hawkmoth' Drone Tuner S10-25T improves drone speed by 10% while reducing their structure, armor and shield capacity by 25%
  • Overmind 'Goliath' Drone Tuner T25-10S improves drone structure, armor and shield capacity by 10% while reducing their speed by 25%
  • CreoDron 'Bumblebee' Drone Tuner T10-5D improves drone structure, armor and shield capacity by 10% while reducing their damage by 5%
  • CreoDron 'Yellowjacket' Drone Tuner D5-10T improves drone damage by 5% while reducing their structure, armor and shield capacity by 5%

External links