Drones: Difference between revisions

== 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:

;Electronic warfare and combat utility drones

;Logistics drones

;Salvage drones

;Mining drone

Combat drones come in four types:  

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

These are the types of drones people first think 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.

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In addition to the basic Tech 1 drones (described above), there are four other [[Techs, Tiers and Meta levels|variants]] of drone within each race's light/medium/heavy drone lineup:

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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.

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Most players recommend treating sentry drones as if they were a second set of guns. Deploy a full flight within range of your targets and turn them on - and then then use your ship to defend the drones, shooting the smaller, faster ships that will be the first to arrive. Given the power of the drones, the larger, slower ships will likely be killed ''before'' they can arrive. If they do arrive, however, and if any drones are damaged, pick them up and replace them. (Remember that sentry drones cannot fly back to your ship ... you must physically go and get them.) If things get too hot, pick up all your drones, run out to range, drop the drones again, and continue the fight. This approach is is sometimes described as boring, but it is effective and relatively safe.

*All damage types not available at all ranges

{{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:

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}}).  

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).  

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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.

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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]]).  

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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]]).

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Similar to EWAR drones, these perform auxiliary tasks in combat. Just like EW drones, ship bonuses, skill bonuses, rigs, or modules do not increase the amount of capacitor neutralized or the speed reduction.  

These drones drain a fixed amount of energy from the target ship's capacitor (working in a similar manner to energy neutralizers, also called "neuts"), and are not stacking-penalized. They come in three sizes, are based on Amarr combat drones, and operate on a 6-second cycle (like small neuts). 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.

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{{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}}.

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{{see also|Salvaging}}

Salvage drones work like Salvager modules, and extract salvage from the wrecks of destroyed ships. The Salvage Drone I (the only variant) needs 5 m³ of drone bay space and 5 Mbit/s of bandwidth (like a light combat drone). It has a lower chance to salvage wrecks than the salvager modules (3% 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}}, allowing them (if trained to level V) to salvage any wreck in EVE except for advanced [[Sleeper]] wrecks. 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.  

Making salvage drones salvage wrecks automatically can be tricky. If you target a wreck and command your drones to salvage it they will not move to a new wreck after they are done. Instead you need to select the drones (such as through the drone window) and command them to salvage (either in right click menu or in the selected item window). After this the salvage drones will keep on salvaging all wrecks that are in range.

:''See also: [[Drone_mechanics#Mining_drones|Drone Mechanics:Mining Drones]], [[ORE_Basic_Ship_and_Skill_Guide#Drones|Ore Ship Guide: Mining Drones]]

As their name suggests, these drones [[mining|mine]] [[Asteroids and Ore|ore from asteroids]].