OK, looks like you’re still alive, I wanted to remind you that whilst we talked about Turrets earlier, I didn’t mention that you were also awarded salvage drones.
Salvage Drones
You probably managed to kill a Pirate or two by now, but did you spot the Orange Salvage Drone icon lite up on your console? Each time you or your turret or drones kill a Pirate their scattered ships remains form a wreck. These can be salvaged by your minions – specifically Salvage Drones. You should find some Salvage Drone Mk1’s in the consumables section of your Ships Inventory. They need a wreck to go after, but these little mechanical devices are a sight to behold.
Salvage Drone Bandwidth
These are rated at 5 Bandwidth, so if they were the only things deployed you could deploy 3 in your Marauder. If you have a Turret out then you’d only have room to deploy 2 Salvage drones.
Let loose the Salvage Drones!
These little guys come in different versions, but they all do the same thing. Namely, they locate the nearest wreck and start salvaging what they can from it. Each time their little holds are full they will zip back to you and drop in your Cargo Hold.
Full Hold VS No Wrecks
A full hold will cause them to return and attempt dropping off their cargoes. Of course if you’re full this won’t happen so keep an eye on them and recall when full.
An important difference, if they have no wrecks to salvage this will trigger a deactivation followed by self-destruction after 30 seconds.
Note: Salvage drones are not picky they Salvage ANY wrecks in the area, so be mindful if entering an area full of wrecks, it may be polite to ask the person who created them if its ok to clear up 🙂
So we have talked about Turrets and Salvage drones, but your last mission earned you some Shield and Armour repair drones. Again only Mk1’s but even a Mk1 repair drone can be VERY useful.
Repair Drones
Shield and Armour drones have different tasks, each once launched will circle your ship in a tight pattern, repairing either shields or Armour based on their job and if you have any damage. If you leave them out they will continue to repair your ship.
Use more than one for Defence ?
Sure if you wanted you could deploy 3 Shields Mk1 drones (5 BW each) and thereby be repaired faster in combat. This is a decent tactic early on though I would suggest a Turret and 2 Repair drones to start with until you get use to the combat mechanics.
DON’T leave them behind!
They are not able to leave the combat field on their own so must be recalled. Repair drones don’t take damage so you can recall them at a moments notice, but don’t leave the combat zone with them deployed.