Drone (XCOM: Enemy Unknown)

For the enemy in The Bureau: XCOM Declassified, see Drone (The Bureau: XCOM Declassified).

Drone
Statistics
Aim	60 | 60 | 70 | 70
Critical Chance	0 | 0 | 10 | 10
Defense	10 | 10 | 10 | 10
Health	3 | 3 | 5 | 7
Health (EW)	- | - | - | -
Mobility	12 | 12 | 12 | 12
Will	0 | 0 | 0 | 0
Damage Modifier	- | - | - | -
Attributes
Weapon	Drone Beam
Abilities
Traits
Gene Mods

A Drone is an enemy in XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

Description

Drones are small floating spherical robots that are often seen escorting Cyberdiscs and Sectopods. Drones tend not to pose much of a direct threat due to their low health and weak ranged attack (2 base damage); their ability to repair the robotic units they escort for 3 health can prolong the threat posed by these heavier units, however. Additionally, Drones provide a certain harassment factor due to their base +10 Defense, often boosted by their frequent use of flight, making them harder to target than ground units while simultaneously making them able to gain line of sight to soft targets, like injured units or civilians during Terror Site missions.

Drones will always appear at the Alien Base Assault, though if assaulted during month two, they will not be accompanying any alien robotic units.

Abilities

Ability	Description
Airborne	Flying units can bypass ground obstacles. They can remain in flight if they have sufficient fuel.
Overload	Overload the unit's own power source, destroying the unit but causing explosive damage similar to a grenade's.
Repair	Repairs robotic units.

Traits

Trait	Description
Evasion	Enemies targeting this unit when it is airborne suffer a -20 Aim penalty.
Hardened	Reduces the chance of suffering a critical hit by 60%.
Robotic	Immune to fire, poison, and several Psionic abilities.
Stun Immune	This unit cannot be stunned with the Arc Thrower; taking a live specimen is not possible.

Capturing

Drones cannot be captured and returned intact to XCOM headquarters like organic units. However, after completing the Drone Capture Foundry project, they can be hacked with an Arc Thrower and controlled during a mission. A captured drone can be used to repair S.H.I.V.s and MECs, or attack aliens, and should it survive until the end of a successful mission, it will self-destruct.

Research

• Drone Autopsy - Unlocks the Drone Capture Foundry project.

Tactics

• A Plasma Pistol shot will deal 2+ damage to them, so you can save primary ammo on lower difficulties.
• As long as the player doesn't mind losing the Weapon Fragments from the Drone Beam, using a Heavy's rocket or any grenade can kill the Drones and deal damage to the main robotic target. The death detonation of the escortee robotic units are likely to destroy the Drones as well.
• A high-rank Sniper with height advantage (such as a rooftop or flying with Archangel Armor) and a Plasma Sniper Rifle can reliably take out a Drone with a single non-critical shot on any difficulty. When using In The Zone and feeling lucky, aim for them first, then for the robot they're escorting.
• Disabling Shot prevents a hostile Drone from doing anything but moving. If hacked, the Drone can be ordered to reload its beam weapon to regain the repair functionality.
• Drones have an invisible flight fuel counter of 20 or so units. This can be noticed on especially long missions such as a crashed Battleship mission if a Drone is hacked early on: if the gauge is depleted the Drone will be forced to land to move, or if the final fuel unit was used to move to a tile with no landing surface, the Drone will remain stuck in place.
• It is possible, albeit uncommon, for civilians to survive a single attack from a Drone during a Terror Site mission in Enemy Within. This is because the Drone Beam has a minimum damage of 1 and civilians have 2 health. It's still not a good idea to ignore them if no other civilian-targeting aliens are in play, though.

Multiplayer

Drones can be used as scouts or as a support to a Cyberdisc. They have the same stats as on Easy difficulty. Unlike Sectoids, they have an innate 10 Defense and can gain an additional 20 Defense while flying, which make them less vulnerable.

Gallery

A pair of Drones

Drones escorting a Cyberdisc

Drones escorting a Sectopod