The Drone

An Untargetable Squad Buff

The Tactical Drone fights in every battle — the world map, PvE, and PvP — without ever being targetable by the enemy. Rather than being its own unit to protect, it functions as a flat, permanent buff across your entire hero lineup: every level, Component, and Skill Chip you add improves your whole squad's HP, Attack, and Defense, not just the drone itself. Because that effect compounds across every fight, it's commonly considered one of the highest-return systems to invest in once it's unlocked.

The Drone itself unlocks by clearing Campaign Stage 38 — tied narratively to rescuing Monica, the SSR Tank hero, along the way.

Battle Data & Drone Parts

The drone's base level is raised using Battle Data and Drone Parts. Battle Data comes mainly from hunting zombies on the world map and completing Radar Missions (purple and orange missions give the most). Drone Parts are rarer and more often the actual bottleneck — they're found across various shops, event rewards, and Radar Tasks, and are worth collecting early even before you need them, since they tend to run short later. Each drone level increases base stats and the three squad-wide buffs (Hero HP, Attack, and Defense).

Drone Gear

Components unlock at Headquarters level 15 and work similarly to hero gear — equip the drone with component pieces ranging from common (grey) to top-tier (gold) rarity, each boosting drone power and hero stats. Upgrading a component requires merging 3 identical pieces at once rather than leveling one piece directly, so it's worth planning which components to merge rather than using them as soon as they're available.

Four Chip Types

Skill Chips unlock progressively as Combat Boost rises, starting with an initial unlock around Combat Boost level 10. There are four chip slots, each a different combat role:

Combat Boost (replaces individual chip leveling)

Rather than leveling each chip separately, a single Combat Boost level applies to every equipped chip's attributes at once. Reaching certain Combat Boost milestones unlocks additional chip sets — allowing a second, third, and eventually fourth troop-type-specific chip set to be equipped and swapped between before battle, matching whichever squad type you're currently running. Star levels are the one part of the old system that's stayed: each chip can still be star-upgraded, and stars continue to strengthen that specific chip's effect.

Chip Rarity & the Resonance Set Bonus

Chips range from Common up through Legendary rarity, with each tier offering a meaningfully stronger effect than the last. Equipping four chips of matching rarity across all four slots triggers a Resonance set bonus — a further multiplier on top of the chips' individual effects. Mixing rarities breaks the set bonus, so a full matching-rarity set (for example, four Epic chips) commonly outperforms a mismatched set even if one of those chips is individually a higher rarity.

The Chip Lab

Skill Chips are crafted in the Chip Lab, a building that unlocks around Headquarters level 15 and can itself be upgraded — higher levels unlock crafting for progressively rarer chips. Crafting uses Chip Materials rather than Gold, obtained from chip chests and specific Alliance Duel milestone chests. The Chip Lab also stores your full chip collection and lets you build different chip presets for different squad types.

Mostly Cosmetic, With a Small Stat Bonus

Drone Skins change the drone's appearance and typically add small bonuses like extra attack or crit rate, unlocking at specific drone level milestones. They're a nice-to-have rather than a priority — the stat contribution is minor compared to Component or Chip Lab progress, so most guides recommend collecting them opportunistically (event rewards, pass overflow) rather than spending resources to chase them directly.