Difficulty: Easy Duties: Weed the colony, build the hive, plant eggs for the Hive Guides: no separate guides Quote:"Frenzy: on. Knuckles: cracked. Weed: ready. Link: Connected. Yep, it's Drone time."
Drone has the most expansive evolution options of the entire caste. As a drone you can evolve into the tier 2's carrier or hivelord, or straight into the tier 4 shrike, queen, or king, or into the bizarre tier 0 hivemind.
Slash is the melee damage when the xenomorph is in harm intent and slashing marine. In the code, it's melee_damage.
Melee, bullet, laser, energy, bomb, bio, rad, fire, and acid are soft armor values, not hard armor, which means that they reduce damage by a percentage rather than a flat value. Low sunder % reduces the effectiveness of this armor.
Pheromone Strength determines how powerful some activities will be, such as pheromones themselves, as well as using abilities that heal.
Speed is calculated inversely, meaning the lower speed value you have, the faster you are.
Coming out of its former but short life as a small larva, the drone looks up in the nighty sky, gazing at the millions of stars sparkling down from the heavens. Which worlds become a home for the hive, which battlefields demanding of resin, which species will face extinction, and which aspirations will the hive have. Such questions will be answered as the drone looked away from the heavens and started planting resin nodes on the unfertilized ground.
Playing the Drone
Chances are if you've gone drone, you plan to either evolve to carrier, hivelord, deflier, shirke, queen, or even combat drone. You plant weed like no tomorrow and putting marines on edge with weed and speed.
The primary objective of the Drone as with most other Tier 1 caste Xenos is first, to stay alive.
In the meantime, here are some things you should focus on:
Weeding areas like no tomorrow
Planting weed behind xenomorphs' push so that they can retreat faster
Healing wounded xenomorphs
Annoying marines by stinging them with larval accelerator
Cocooning marines for psychic points
Making resin walls far FOB to make marines cry when they can't gun-ho
Building resin walls near FOB to let xenomorphs rest
Try not to combat drone all the time; remember, you cannot take a lot of damage, so guerilla hit and run tactics are your best bet if forced into combat.
The drone's most important duty is expanding the hive, whether by weeding new areas or building new defenses. When building, keep in mind that xenomorphs have a strong advantage against marines in tight winding corridors, and offset patterns. When weeding, keep in mind that you cannot plant weeds on rock, grass, or catwalks. Don't hesitate to set up forward hives and nesting areas close to combat, and bring eggs from the queen's hatchery to assist in quick infection of marines. R
Drone Abilities
Ability
Description
Plasma cost
Recharge
Toggle Bump Attacks
This ability allows you to toggle bump attacks on and off. If for some reason you want to avoid them, toggle this off. The red arrow means it's on, you attack; the green arrow means it's off, you push.
N/A
N/A
Rest
This ability is used to rest and get up, you will heal faster when resting on weeds.
N/A
N/A
Psy Drain
This ability is executed on dead marines. Every dead marines psyhic drained will give 60 psychic points (scaled from 30 to 90 on number of marines) and 1/8 of a larva.
100
N/A
Toggle Cocoon
Devour your victim to cocoon it in your belly, then expels the contents of your stomach onto the current tile. With the marine inside, they still have life force and able to be revived, but it will give psychic points for 5 minutes. Yields a minimum of 1 psychic point every 5 seconds, but increases to a maximum of 5 points with lower server population.
N/A
N/A
Corrosive Acid
Expells acid onto an object or wall, destroying it after a while. If used on wall, after some time a hole will appear. Small xeno can climb through, large xeno can break the wall with hole.
Depending on caste:
Drone and Sentinel have weakest acid. Takes 8 minutes for a regular wall. Cannot be used on reinforced walls.
Hivelord, Shrike, Spitter, and Praetorian have common acid. 3 minutes for a regular wall. Cannot be used on reinforced walls.
Boiler Boiler, Queen, and King have strongest acid. Any wall is taken down in about one and a half minute.
75
N/A
Plant Weeds
Plants a resin weed node, which will start growing resin in a 3-tile radius that allows xenomorphs to heal and restore plasma while on top of the tile. Plasma cost is also halved before the shutters have been opened.
Right-Clicking the ability icon will allow you to select different types of weeds to plant.
Weed Types:
Default, does nothing extraordinary. Costs 75 plasma.
Boosts health and plasma regeneration by 20%, and doubles sunder recovery. Costs 150 plasma.
Slows humans and vehicles a small amount, can stack with sticky resin. Costs 225 plasma.
Can only be placed on a tile that does not already have a resin sac, and cannot be placed on rock, grass, catwalks, or snow.
75-225
N/A
Secrete Resin
Builds structures, which can be chosen by clicking on the ability while it's active. More in Guide to resin construction
Resin Buildings:
Resin Walls regenerate their own health. Starting at 150 HP, they restore 3 HP every 5 seconds, with a maximum of 300. Also reduces incoming bullet damage by 60%. 75 Plasma
Sticky Resin slows down human and vehicle movement drastically, while also slightly blocking flamethrower flames. Has 36 HP. Slowness can stack with sticky weeds. 50 Plasma
Resin Doors block movement for non-xenomorph mobs. Has 100 HP. 150 Plasma
50-150
N/A
Emit Pheromones
Toggles to see your pheromones, allowing you to select recovery, warding, or frenzy. You may only emit one at a time, and you can see which pheromones you are effected by in the game tab. Each pheromone uses 5 plasma every regeneration tick. Strength of pheromones is tied to caste and maturity, and increases effect. More in Xenomorph Mechanics.
Allows you to spend 150 plasma on healing a xeno for 50 HP + (Recovery Pheremone Level * the Xeno's max health * 0.01) along with healing (total heal amount/10) sunder.
If you are healing the xenomorph you are linked to is at less than 10% of its total health, you heal for 3 * (50 HP + (Recovery Pheremone Level * the Xeno's max health * 0.01)) along with healing (total heal amount/10) sunder.
150
5 seconds
Transfer Plasma
Transfers your plasma to a fellow xenomorph, giving them up to 200 plasma.
0-200
N/A
Create Resin Jelly
Places Resin Jelly in your active hand, which can be used on yourself or other xeno castes for a 15-second protection from fire.
100
45 sec
Essence Link
Establish a link with another xeno. Both xenos must be within 6 tiles of range for this link to remain active (not necessarily in line of sight), and linked xenos cannot have multiple links. You can cancel this link by right clicking the ability button or using the appropriate keybind. This link will passively gain an attunement level every 1 minute, up to three levels. It will also grant the link's target the following bonuses while active, some of which scale with attunement levels:
If they are missing any health, this link will consume the Drone's plasma to regenerate health every 2 seconds. This passive regeneration scales with attunement levels, and is equal to 1.2% / 2.4% / 3.6% of the target's maximum health. The plasma cost is 2 times that value.
Any heals applied to either of the linked xenos are also applied to the other, with reduced effectiveness. This reduced effectiveness scales with attunement levels, equal to 10% / 20% / 30% of the health restored.
Buffs (such as fire resistance) applied to either of the linked xenos are also applied to the other one.
The level of attunement is represented in the ability icon's changing bar, and the intensity of the beam.
Essence Link can go through walls, so you can be protected by resin walls as the xenomorph you're linked to can go rambo.
N/A
5 SECONDS
Recycle
Deconstruct the body of a fellow fallen xenomorph to avoid marines from harvesting our sisters in arms.
750
N/A
Primordial Evolution
Once the hive has enough psychic points, your queen has the option to unlock powerful primordial upgrades for each tier. Primordial upgrades grant additional abilities for the relevant class.
For the Drone, this primordial ability is enhancement.
Ability
Description
Plasma cost
Recharge
Enhancement
Drive a linked xeno past their limits, increasing their slash damage by 15% and their movement speed by 0.4. This will drain 10% of the Drone's plasma every 2 seconds while it is active. Has an initial requirement of 3 attunement levels, and consumes 1 in its usage.
N/A
120 SECONDS
Drone tips & tricks
You are very weak, but your pheromones and ability to plant weeds make you a strong front line support xeno.
Xenos operate best in narrow, enclosed spaces. Consequently, marines operate worst in narrow, enclosed spaces. Build accordingly.
Your corrosive acid is very weak, but it's better than nothing. Don't be afraid to secrete some and call for a stronger acid xeno to come in the meantime.
Never try to 1v1 any marine. You are not built for that.
