Drone Upgrade Path

It Compounds Across Your Whole Account

A hero upgrade improves one hero. A gear piece improves one slot. A drone upgrade improves every squad you field, in every battle, for the lifetime of the account. Accounts that treat the drone as a background system and focus spend elsewhere tend to notice the gap clearly around Headquarters level 25, when opponents at similar hero and gear levels start pulling ahead. It's easy to neglect early on precisely because the payoff isn't as visible as a shiny new hero — don't let that fool you into deprioritizing it.

Level Freely to Around 50

For the first 50 levels, Drone Parts requirements are manageable — level whenever you have enough Battle Data and Drone Parts without much strategic thought. A realistic F2P target is reaching Drone level 50 within your first month.

Build the Drone Parts Workshop at HQ 30+

Once Age of Oil unlocks, build and prioritize the Drone Parts Workshop — it produces Drone Parts passively every day (up to roughly 6/day at max level, around 180/month), which becomes essential once checkpoint costs rise. From level 5 onward, checkpoints appear every 5 levels through level 150, climbing steadily from just 5 Parts at level 5 up to 6,000 Parts by level 150 (roughly 28,000 Parts cumulative to get there) — so start banking Parts well ahead of when you'll actually need them rather than reacting after you're stuck. See Upgrade Costs & Scaling for the full precise cost table up to level 250.

Grind Steadily to 150, Then Brace for the Real Climb

A reasonable target is reaching Drone level 150 by around Season 2-3. Past level 150, the requirement shifts from "every 5 levels" to every single level, often needing 500+ Drone Parts per level — treat this as a long-term, months-long grind rather than something to rush, and keep progressing your other systems in parallel rather than pausing everything for the drone.

Lean Right-Side When Given a Choice

Components unlock at HQ 15 across six slots, split into a left side and a right side. Both sides provide stat buffs, but the right-side components (Missile, Fuel Cell, Thermal Imager) carry higher base stats and better long-term scaling than their left-side equivalents at the same rarity. When a Component Choice Chest forces a pick, favor the right side unless you have a specific reason not to — this is one of the harder early decisions to unwind later, since components aren't easily swapped once invested.

Stop the Chip Lab at Level 20

The Chip Lab can be upgraded to level 35, but every chip becomes craftable by level 20 — the remaining 15 levels don't unlock anything new. Once you hit level 20, redirect resources toward Drill Ground, Tech Center, or Barracks instead of pushing the Chip Lab further.

Crafting Priority Order

Once you can craft Legendary chips, this order is well-corroborated across multiple independent guides:

1. Memory Ultra Fission Chip — craft it matched to your main squad's troop type first. It cuts incoming tactical/skill damage, and is worth pushing to star level 2 before moving to the next chip.
2. Gravitational Resonance Armor (Defense) — a battle-long defense buff for your squad's troop type, with extra benefit to front-row heroes specifically.
3. Attack Chip vs. Absolute Quantum Field (Initial Move) — close third place. The Attack Chip increases how many targets your drone hits at star levels 2 and 5, making it the stronger pick up to star 5 — past that point, its relative value drops and Initial Move becomes the better next investment.

Keep Chip Levels Uniform

Bring all four equipped chips up to the same level or star tier together rather than maxing one before starting the next — for example, get every chip to star 2 before pushing any single one to star 3. This spreads the Combat Boost-adjacent benefits evenly rather than over-investing in one slot.

Epic Chips Are Now Material, Not Gear

Following updates to the chip system, Epic chips are generally considered better used as crafting material for Combat Boost upgrades than kept equipped. Keep them active only as a stopgap until your Legendary replacements are ready, then retire them into materials.

Hero Shards Before Drone Parts, Early On

If your core 5-hero squad isn't finished yet, Hero Shards from the Alliance Store generally return more account-wide power per unit spent than Drone Parts at the same price. Once your core squad is locked in, flip that priority — Drone Parts become the better Alliance Store purchase from that point on.

Save, Then Spend on the Right Day

Stockpile Drone Parts between events rather than spending them as soon as you have enough, and use them during Alliance Duel's Drone Development day for double-dip value — the same spend that levels your drone also banks Alliance Duel points that day. The same logic applies to Skill Chip chests: hold them and open on Monday for maximum Alliance Duel scoring rather than opening on sight.

Don't Buy Drone Parts With Diamonds

Directly converting Diamonds into Drone Parts is widely considered inefficient compared to other diamond uses. Farm Parts through daily tasks, radar missions, the Drone Parts Workshop, and events instead, and reserve Diamonds for VIP Status, Drone Components, or other higher-value spends.