Defense
Defense
Defense (in-game Planetary Defense) builds stationary defensive drones at the selected colony. You design them under Drone Assembly in Assembly; finished drones stay on the planet that built them and defend it automatically.
Designing drones. A drone has a chassis (Light, Striker, Hunter, Reaper, Devastator, Behemoth Drone, with 6 to 130 assembly points), a battery, weapons, hull plating and a shield, but no engine. Each higher chassis needs 3 more Drone System levels, each better battery 4 more Energy Research levels. The battery sets how many combat rounds the drone fires, from 1 (Capacitor Pack) to 5 (Singularity Core); 4 and 5 rounds raise the drone's cost by 6% and 12%. After its parts are added up, a drone's hull is divided by 1.5 and its shield and damage by 2.5, while its Aslit and Crlit costs are halved and its Iopla and SEM costs divided by 6.
Building. No shipyard is needed. Build time per drone is its base time × 0.6 per Robot Assembly level × the server's construction speed; shipyard levels do not help. The full cost is paid when you order, and the Cyber Ascendancy government makes drones 20% cheaper. The queue holds 10 orders per colony, separate from the shipyard, and drones join the defense one at a time. Cancelling refunds 80% of a waiting order or 60% of the unbuilt part of the running one.
In combat drones fight together with the planet's ships and allied fleets stationed there, every stack firing in reaction-speed order (see Player Combat). Once its battery rounds are used up a drone stops firing but stays on the field. Bombers fire at defenses and drones first with double damage. The colony's Shield Emitter raises shield regeneration between rounds from 12 to 25% by 1 point per level, up to +25 points; the Resonance Barrier government adds 10% to both ends, never above 50%. The header shows the current range.
Losses. Destroyed drones are gone for good; nothing is rebuilt automatically. 60% of their resource cost lands in the planet's debris field, compared with 40% for ships.
Tips: Drones are cheap in Iopla and SEM, so they suit colonies short on those. Batteries for 1 to 3 rounds carry no surcharge; the 6% and 12% for 4 and 5 rounds only pay off if your fights last that long, since a battle ends as soon as one side is wiped out.