Drone Companion - Summon Combat Drones

Drone Companion

V walks into every gig alone.

Panam has a family. Jackie had a bike and a plan. Kerry has a band. V has a cyberdeck worth more than a car and nobody to cover the second entrance.

Militech and Arasaka fly combat drones over your head all day. Every corpo squad has one. Every Maelstrom hideout has one shooting at you. You? You get to shoot them down and walk away.

So I gave them to the player instead.

🤖 What it does

Call a drone with a hotkey. It follows you, picks fights with whoever shoots at you, and enemies shoot back at it. Pick the chassis, pick the faction paint, deploy up to three of each.

Nine chassis: Octant, Wyvern, Griffin, Bombus, Minotaur, Android, Cerberus, Flathead, Chimera. Militech, Arasaka, Kang Tao, NCPD, Maelstrom, Wraiths, Aldecaldos, Scavengers, Sixth Street, Trauma Team paint. 34 units in total.

They use the game's own follower system - the same one your quest buddies use. They fly, they teleport to catch up when you leave them behind on the highway, and they come back after a fight without me babysitting them with scripted commands.

🚀 Quick start

• []Summon: press F6 (LB+A on a controller). F7 picks the next model, F8 opens the mod screen.[/]

  []Drone camera: in F8 > Squad, open a drone's row and pick Drone camera. WASD moves it, Jump and Crouch climb and dive on flying drones. F10 or Exit camera brings you back.[/]

  []Chauffeur: summon an Android, stand next to a car (or look at it) and pick Board vehicle in F8 > Squad > Chauffeur. Set a map waypoint, get in and press G. Q switches to the outside camera.[/]

  ⚔ Your squad, not decorations

  • []Each chassis fights differently. Octant patches itself up after a hit. Wyvern blinds whatever it's shooting. Griffin stacks reactive plating as it soaks damage. Bombus repairs nearby drones and carries no gun at all. Minotaur pulls enemies onto itself. Android gets more accurate the longer the fight drags.[/]

    []Signature abilities. Leave them on autopilot or fire them yourself. Blind, scan and mark, EMP burst, comms jam, taunt.[/]

    []Command them by quickhack. Scan your own drone like any other target and its orders show up in the wheel: repair, hold position, send it home, self-destruct run, overclock, fortify, optical zoom. Costs RAM, recharges per drone.[/]

    []They hold aggro like they mean it. Enemies size drones up as real threats and switch targets to the one shooting them instead of chasing you across the map. Snipers and netrunners still go for you, and melee thugs leave the flyers alone. Mechs no longer flinch at every stray bullet.[/]

    []Kills count as yours. XP and street cred land as if you pulled the trigger. Your drone killed them, but you paid for the drone.[/]

    []Name them. Count their kills. Kills and deaths sit on the squad card, saved with your playthrough. Yes, I named mine.[/]

    []They earn rank. 25, 75 and 200 kills promote a drone and each rank adds damage and health. The chevron shows on the card and the HUD.[/]

    []Squad title. A separate upgrade with three ranks that cost 2, 3 and 4 points: more health, more damage and faster abilities for the whole squad, one summon point less per rank. Fewer drones, meaner drones.[/]

    []Immortal drones. One toggle and the squad stops taking damage, for the people who named a drone and want to keep it. Hijacked units don't get it.[/]

    []Paint jobs. Every faction skin the game ships for a chassis, per drone. Pick one, or set Random and let the squad look like a mixed crew.[/]

    []Field repair. A destroyed drone leaves a wreck for 60 seconds. Walk up to it and press F, or use the card. Costs components in Rigger mode, free otherwise. The wreck shows in red on the HUD, minimap and map so you know which one went down.[/]

    []Hijack. Aim at an enemy drone, mech or turret and press the hijack key: 8 RAM and it fights for you until it dies. Three at a time.[/]

    []Androids loot. After a fight the androids walk to the bodies, dropped guns and loot containers and bring the items to you. Quest items stay where they are.[/]

    []Ghost mode. Crouch and the squad goes quiet: enemies stop spotting you through your own drones.[/]

    []Scanner focus. Tag an enemy with the scanner during a fight and the squad switches to it.[/]

    🖥 Squad HUD and menus

    []Compact panel next to your health bar: chassis icon, name, HP, stance, cooldown. Minimap and map show the real chassis icon instead of the generic square.[/]