Drone (EU2012)

The Drone is a lightly armoured flying robotic engineer with a weak ranged attack. Their main purpose within the Alien armada is to repair allied heavy robotic units in order to keep them gunning down your squad for as long as possible. Their threat is minimal after you've upgraded to Carapace Armor but they are almost always found with extremely deadly Cyberdiscs and Sectopods during combat.

The Drone Capture Foundry upgrade for the Arc Throwers allows you to use them to hack Drone units essentially allowing you to add them to your squad for the rest of the mission. You can use them to repair your S.H.I.V.s. In the Enemy Within DLC, they can also repair MECs). They can also use a self-destruct ability in order to damage enemy units.

Info

1st Appearance	June August (Marathon) Alien Base
HP	3/3/5/7
Aim	60/60/70/70
Defense	10
Will	0
Movement	12
Easy/Normal/Classic/Impossible

Drone Armaments

Weapon	Base Damage	Critical Damage	Critical Chance
Drone Beam	1-3	3 or 4	0

Drone Abilities

Ability	Description
Repair	Repairs robotic units.
Overload	Overload the unit's own power source, destroying the unit but causing explosive damage similar to a grenade's. Although the description implies the drone will self-destruct, on Classic or Impossible difficulty it has enough health to survive the 3 damage explosion.
Flight	Flying units can bypass ground obstacles. They can remain in flight if they have sufficient fuel. Has 35 fuel.
Evasion	Enemies targeting this unit when it is airborne suffer a -20% Aim penalty.
Hardened	Confers extra protection against critical hits. Enemies suffer a -60% chance to inflict critical hits.

Notes

• They also have the Robotic passive ability, making them immune to stun, poison and most psionic attacks.
• If killed during a successful mission a Drone Wreck will be recovered.
  • Finishing Drone Autopsy research unlocks the Drone Capture and the Sentinel Drone Foundry projects.
  • Drone Wrecks are also required for the Advanced Flight and Improved Arc Thrower projects.
• In the Enemy Within DLC, Drones accompanying Sectopods are exceptionally dangerous, as with the Sectopod's new 50% damage reduction, that means that two drones can effectively heal 12 HPs worth of damage each alien turn.
• 4 Drones will always be encountered when you assault the alien base. Attacking the alien base early and you'll find them without Cyberdiscs and/or Sectopods.