← Base Development · For exact material costs, the drone tools in the Calculators will do the math for you.
“Is the drone actually worth building up?” If you’ve just hit HQ15, you’ve probably asked yourself this. It comes up in our alliance chat often enough that I figured I’d write it down once. Short answer: yes. The drone unlocks at HQ15 and it’s the single biggest power source at that point. There was a player on our server pacing right alongside me who let his drone sit for a few weeks, and the power gap that opened up was visible from orbit. Skip it and you fall behind — it’s that simple.
The short version
The drone is a three-axis growth system: level it with parts and battle data, upgrade skills with chips, lift the ceiling with Combat Boost. Sounds involved, but what you actually do is simple — collect parts and battle data every single day without skipping. That’s the whole game.
The three axes
1. Drone level (parts + battle data)
Drone level rises with Drone Parts and Battle Data. Only certain levels (around 5, 10, and similar breakpoints) need extra parts; the rest run on battle data alone. So the daily routine of collecting parts and battle data is drone growth. Mine happens over morning coffee — open chests, run the missions, done.
2. Skill Chips
The currency for upgrading drone skills. The cost per step climbs steeply at higher levels — late steps run 30–40 chips each. They come from chests and drone/radar missions, and while they feel plentiful early, they get scarce fast. Don’t sprinkle them across random skills.
3. Combat Boost — tiers I–VII
At certain drone-level milestones, a Combat Boost tier opens. Higher tiers add Chip Skill Boost (+1 to +5) and extra chip presets. Here’s the reference table, unchanged.
| Tier | Level | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| I | 10 | Unlock the skill-chip system · Chip Preset 1 |
| II | 150 | Chip Skill Boost +1 · Preset 2 |
| III | 300 | Boost +2 · Preset 3 |
| IV | 450 | Boost +3 · Preset 4 (needs a 4th squad) |
| V | 600 | Boost +4 |
| VI | 750 | Boost +5 |
| VII | 900 (max) | Stats increase significantly per level |
In my experience the stretch right before a tier threshold (150, 300…) is the most tedious, but the payoff on crossing is concrete enough that goal-setting is actually easy.
The order I’d recommend
- Fire up the drone the moment you hit HQ15. It’s your biggest power source at that point — don’t put it off.
- Collect parts and battle data daily (chests, drone/radar missions, events). And don’t spend them on arrival — bank them and dump the level-ups on Alliance Duel Day 1 (Mon) so the same materials score points too.
- Set the next Combat Boost tier (II = 150, III = 300…) as your level target.
- Focus skill chips on your main drone skill.
Common mistakes
The biggest one is the neglect I mentioned up top — it’s your biggest early power source, and catching up takes weeks. The second is spending parts and battle data the moment they arrive; you’re going to spend them anyway, so spending them on Duel Day 1 is free points. If you want exact amounts, pre-compute with the drone parts / skill-chip / combat-boost calculators.
Unofficial fan-site content · no partnership or sponsorship with the developer · figures can change with patches.
By: lastwarhub.com
