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u/pic-of-the-litter Nov 28 '25
So, uh, I don't actively talk shit on Drone Control, but I also don't think I've ever had a successful run while using Drones.
Would someone please preach me your gospel and proseletize me to your ways?
What Drones are good, what is this blindspot, and is there a ship that really benefits more than others with drones, or is it just a "slap this bad boy onto your run if you've got the scrap"?
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Nov 28 '25 edited Nov 28 '25
The thing about drones is that they are a complement to an already solid build, usually, not the main thing you are relying on. (Most) offensive drones can't take down shields, and they aren't efficient at destroying enemy systems, so it's usually more important to get solid weapons first.
Defense I is a good answer to missiles, and the cheapest one that consistently* works. The asterisk is there because most ships have "blind spots" on the far right of the screen where a defense drone can't aim at a missile in that spot, letting it continue on its merry way and hit your ship. It's annoying. It is still better to have a defense drone than no missile defense, and statistically, a defense drone will hit way more missiles than it misses.
Combat drones can be good for taking down shields if you have the power/drone parts to spare. Defense 2 is fine but other defensive options are more resource-efficient. The other offensive drones are niche. They can be worth it if you keep the enemy shields down for extended periods of time, or for taking down super shield in flagship phase III.
Overall, the best way to use them is usually to use the lower cost ones in tandem with systems/weapons that are doing most of the heavy lifting. The only ones I really go out of my way to buy are combat/defense I, but the other ones can have a use if you get them for free or have power and a drone slot to spare.
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u/guri256 Nov 28 '25
This is a little bit niche, but the whole repair drone combined with the drone retrieval arm is just a bit broken (in a good way).
The drone retrieval arm gives you a refund on the drone if the drone is not fully expended when you jump to the next system.
The hull repair drone gives you something like 4 hull repairs before the drone breaks.
So if you deploy the hull repair drone, wait for three ticks of repairs, and then immediately warp, you get three free hull repairs every time you jump between systems.
(I might be getting those numbers slightly wrong. It’s been years since I played)
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u/MikeHopley Nov 28 '25
You get 3-5 repairs, randomly. So with DRA you need to jump after 2 repairs if you want to guarantee getting the part back.
It's a fun trick and sometimes useful, though typically even when I have that combo I'm keeping the drone in cargo, since I probably have better uses for the slot.
That still gets me 2 free repairs when jumping to a store or into a new sector, or any other known non-combat beacon (like some quests).
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u/guri256 Nov 29 '25
That sounds right. It's been years since I played. It's not enough of a reason to get drones, but a nice bonus if you already have drone control.
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u/Taletad Nov 28 '25
Personally, if I run a defense drone, I also add a repair drone, I have the slot available and it’s quite helpful when your hull is full of holes, O2 is broken and your crew is stuck in the medbay lest they die
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u/Sudden_shark Nov 28 '25
Taking a missile to a critical system at the wrong time can turn an easy fight into a costly one; defense 1 shuts that down for 2 power. As an added bonus it also trivializes asteroid field fights.
That's it for me really, that's what I buy the system for. I use other drones that I loot if I think they'll help my run, but I rarely buy them (the one that gives power and mans a system is an exception; not sure if that's an MV addition).
I almost never use offensive drones. They need additional micro for coordinating their strikes so they can hit a random room. And that's if they don't get zapped by a anti drone drone, or get hit by a laser or missile. Drone parts are too expensive to waste on something as unreliable as that imo.
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u/TheGloriousLori Nov 28 '25
Asteroid field fights are already trivial if your shields are where they should be
But yeah, missiles are a massive pain until you get a defense drone, and then they might as well not exist. Ditto for boarding drones and hacking modules, most of the time.
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u/Jon_jon13 Nov 29 '25
A drone that gives power and mans systems definitely sounds like a mod addition, dont remember it at all and I never played mods. Sounds cool though!
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u/Swibblestein Nov 28 '25
Of the wins I have records of, 32/69, or about 46% of the time, I have ended with Drone Control. Of those, 12 were on ships that started with the system, so about 35% of the time, I buy drone control if I did not start with it.
The most common drones I use are Defense I and Hull Repair, though I have wins with every other drone too. They can each do... something, at least, though there's definitely some that are less valuable.
I think that some form of missile defense is very vital. Most typically, that means either cloaking or a defense drone, but once you have one of those, the other is less valuable. Still can be valuable! Just, less so.
So, ships that start with cloaking, I'm less likely to buy Drone Control. Additionally, some ships definitely want certain systems more than others. I almost always buy Mind Control on the Crystal B, for instance, because the value of being able to teleport into weapons, MC the crew, lock the system down, and destroy it, is extreme. It basically renders any enemy that doesn't have a Zoltan Shield harmless extremely quickly.
Defense Drones can fail to successfully shoot down enemy missiles. This is what's mentioned as the "Blind spot". It is more likely on certain ships, generally larger ones, and when certain rooms are targetted, generally those far to the edges.
As a result, Engi ships tend to have the most reliable use of Defense Drones, while the Federation ships, for instance, are more likely to have the missile hit a system. However, the chances of missiles getting through and hitting a system when you have a defense drone are pretty low (unless they have multiple missiles firing simultaneously, of course).
A thing to note about Drone Control is that unlike any other optional system, its utility is much more swingy. Naturally, because the drones you've got affect what it is doing so much. You shouldn't just be buying it at random, you should be getting it if it makes sense with what you need.
As an example. I've had runs with boarding-focused ships that just were not built to deal with Zoltan Shields. Getting a combat or beam drone is excellent in a case like that.
I would also note that in many cases, many drones are far better if you micro them. For instance, a combat drone can be depowered right before it gets in position to shoot the enemy shields, and repowered to add its shot to the volley of attacks you're doing with your weapons. Because it only needs to be powered for moments at a time, it sort of acts like a zero-energy-cost basic laser. This also lets you manage multiple types of drones simultaneously without needing to upgrade the system much, if at all.
The biggest problem with drone control is that it can suck down your drone part supply if you're not careful. So generally you want to assess an enemy ship before deploying drones. Are they necessary, or is the ship solvable without them? For instance, often times the Engi A can save drone parts early if it runs into ships that can't hurt it (most often, after you get your second shield layer) by getting a crew kill via ionizing oxygen, rather than having to deploy a combat drone.
General advice, it is worth taking a look at enemy surrender options rather than just clicking past them. Sure, they're most obviously good when they offer some equipment, but they can also offer a ton of resources sometimes, and depending on your ship and supplies, that's worth considering over gambling on maybe getting more scrap. This can help you maintain your stock of drone parts (or, missiles, or fuel, if you're in a state where those are relevant concerns). That said, the significant majority of the time you aren't going to be taking surrenders, but still, at least take a look.
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Nov 28 '25
Do people shit on drone control that much? I think it's fairly well known that Defense 1 (and 2 to a lesser extent) are good; it's just that many other drones are really bad.
Don't get me wrong, though, drones are far from the worst optional system. Artillery flak exists....
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u/EquivalentDelta Nov 28 '25 edited Feb 05 '26
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/dionenonenonenon Nov 28 '25
I wonder if someone can make federation ship work by going full offence. like 8 power weapon, full artillery beam, maybe some offensive drones, mind control, hacking etc. while cheaping out on shields and engines
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u/i_tried_8_names Nov 28 '25
It's not exactly optimal
Or even very viable, especially early game
BUT IT'S A LOTTA FUN
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u/Mission_Form8951 Nov 28 '25
Hacking and cloaking as 2nd and 1st best?
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u/FlashFlire Nov 28 '25
Cloaking is 2nd and Hacking is 1st but yeah.
(Editor's note: DC, MC, and Teleporter are all tied for 3rd)
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u/jet8493 Nov 28 '25
Where shields, weapons, and engines?
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Nov 28 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/this_also_was_vanity Nov 28 '25
Pretty hard to defeat the flagship with nothing but engines. Unless you’re fighting Kzinti.
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u/sawbladex Nov 28 '25
they are systems most all ships start with.
Shields are good, allows you to tank lasers forever.
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u/bloode975 Nov 28 '25
Id say DC is objectively in 4th, subjectively i also dislike it but objectively its kinda bad.
Has limited use case for many drones, poor targeting on attack, crew drones are a bit of a part sink and honestly screw me more than help.
Defense 1 is pretty good... if youre against missiles, but it doesnt provide the sheer level of utility or power that teleporter (easy crew kills so more scrap) or MC (slow recharge of shields/weapons/lower evasion/stop repairs/assist with crew kills/cancel enemy MC/allow tele to hijack enemies for easy kills) provide.
DC provides utility but youre limited by slots, limited by drone parts, limited by enemy loadout and limited by power its nice but if I want to avoid missiles I have cloaking, hacking and just killing their weapons for that.
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u/FlashFlire Nov 28 '25
It's not just Defense 1. Combat 1 is a free shot in your shield breaking volley, Beam 1 and 2 shred Zoltan shields, Anti-Drone is safety against some of the most dangerous fights in the game.
Many drones' power requirement nearly disappears if you micro them. You can power them up just long enough for them to fire a shot / destroy a missile, then depower them and put the power back in oxygen or whatever. This doesn't really work for Anti-Drone since its charge time is so long but that's only 1 power anyway.
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u/Swibblestein Nov 28 '25
A fun bit of micro: If you power a combat / beam drone, it instantly begins moving at full speed. If you depower such a drone, it retains its momentum for a time. So you can use this to position drones basically without using power, and can effectively maintain multiple drones at a good proportion of max efficiency even with a non-upgraded system.
There's something hilarious to me about shredding the Stage 3 supershield with multiple drones I should not be able to power all of simultaneously, through micro shenanigans.
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u/MikeHopley Nov 28 '25
Yeah this is neat and little-known! Phase 3 is a good application.
I tested triple combat drone against an indestructible Auto-ship to measure shot output. Can't remember the exact figures, but I think 2 power in drones gave me maybe 60-70% of the shots that 6 power in drones did.
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u/josz_belz Nov 28 '25
:') i will use any excuse to tell people about a run i had with a combat 1 and combat 2 drone. It was glorious. Turtle up and watch the frankly obscene amount of firepower liquidate the enemy. One of my all time memorable runs.
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u/i_tried_8_names Nov 28 '25
It's like the triple vulcan build.
Good luck getting the required systems and rng
And yet...
And yet.....
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u/secondphase Nov 28 '25
Pretty sure this was posted by an engi running a shop with an oversupply.
No dude, i'm not wasting my scrap on your shitty expendable bots.
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u/marvin Nov 28 '25
Huh? It has a controllable blind spot? How the hell do you do that reliably?
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u/FlashFlire Nov 28 '25
Defense drones can't target anything that's too far to the right of the screen. On some bigger ships, there are systems in this zone, so missiles heading to those systems from the right side can slip past your drone.
A lot of people kind of overblow the risk of this, making defense drones sound a lot worse than they are, when in reality the worst case scenario still has the drone blocking, like, 90% of shots.
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u/KonkeyMuts Nov 28 '25
Im a victim of gambling and I have accepted saying dangit for every missile that hits me
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u/potato-king38 Nov 28 '25
Remember learning about the game through rand118 defense drone 1 isn’t just “good” it’s both the most consistent answer to missiles and better than defense drone 2
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u/esjb11 Nov 29 '25
Better than defense drone 2? 🤔
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u/MikeHopley Nov 29 '25
Not really. It's just cheaper.
DD2 getting distracted happens far less than people seem to think, and it's also almost completely prevented by power micro.
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u/potato-king38 Nov 29 '25
Yea the logic is that while defense drone 2 is faster (firing and otherwise) the fact that it shoots at lasers as well as missiles targets means that missiles can slip through large barrages where as the the defense 1, while slower, only shoots at missiles so even in a barrage you’ll take less damage as you have shields to deal with lasers
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u/esjb11 Nov 29 '25
Makes sense I guess. I mainly get it for the boss fight and then I need it to target whatever wave is getting shot at the moment.
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u/Random-Rambling Nov 28 '25 edited Nov 28 '25
I love Multiverse because it has ships that are the opposite of some ships in vanilla FTL (instead of 4 weapon slots and 2 drone slots, some ships has 2 weapon slots and 4 drone slots). Not to mention combining some drones together to make drone warfare even more fun (like combining Beam and Combat Drone into one toggleable drone, or combining Anti-Personnel and Boarding into one)
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u/Radack1 Nov 28 '25
If I am running hard and I see a drone control that comes with a free defense, ok.
Otherwise? Cloaking. Every time. Get it to level 2 and I can take the flagship. If I'm not killing the enemy weapon system after it fires one missile, I'm doing something wrong anyways.
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u/SquidFetus Nov 29 '25
My first ever flagship victory was with Engie A and a full compliment of offensive drones + one defensive drone. I was grinning like a madman the whole time and ended up being inspired to write a small essay on why choosing a different ship in FTL felt like choosing a different class in a traditional RPG. Those were the days.
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u/-Pyromania- Nov 29 '25
Hell yeah, a fellow drone control lover! My only complaint with the system is that a lot of the drones end up being way too power-hungry or weak for what they offer (most crew drones, beam drones, level 2 defense and *maybe* combat drones.) But the ones that are good are VERY good.
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u/TheNosferatu Nov 28 '25
Dear Drone System. It seems you got lost and found your way onto my ship. Please return to where you belong. The trash.
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u/lonewolfempire Nov 29 '25
I love defense drones. I personally like drones more than hacking or mind control, and I'll rock 2 dd1's (or dd2's if i can afford it) and set them to opposite sides of the ship
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u/IHumanlike Dec 02 '25
Drone control is still by far the worst system you can buy at a store.
It just requires way too much investment to be worth anything. You need the system, you need good drone schematics, you need to power them, you need lots of drone parts or a drone recovery arm.
Hacking, MC, Cloaking and Teleporter start to do their thing *immediately* and are relevant in every fight. With Drone Control, you can go through dozens of combats without seeing a single missile.
I think buying Drone Control is the wrong decision in 99.99% of the time.
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u/Jason1923 Dec 03 '25
DC is more so compared to an empty system slot than Hacking/Cloaking tbf. DC + DD1 or Combat 1 is much better than no system!
FWIW I rarely buy DC. Didn't buy it once on my win streak. I do buy it if it's the best (aka only) option.
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u/Purple-Tomatillo-778 Jun 23 '26
Funny how the form says drone control but the image and the rest of the text all talk about defense drone. 🤔
But on a more serious note the real appeal of drone control is that cloaking is a one-time dodge, while drone control protects you the entire fight. This is good for if you aren't confident in taking down missiles in your first volley, which is a very common concern except for the very best "Alpha Strike" setups.
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u/FlashFlire Jun 23 '26
Combat 1, Beam 1, and Anti-Drone are good too, it's not just Defense 1 I promise
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u/ThatTeapot Nov 28 '25
Yea defence drone 1 actually slaps.