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Question: Drones - Are they still worth to be hunted?

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Blacktear

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In my dreams,i am not far away from home...
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Calypso settlers
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Sir Donnie Blacktear
Question is simple, is it still worth hunting drones ( camping them ) ,or not
as equipment id use probably
P4a+a104 or can go for P5a+a104

valiant+6a or rascal+3b or shogun +3b
tt vivo and hedoc sk-20 (L)

post your thoughts, any advice welcome.

thanks
 
Blacktear said:
Question is simple, is it still worth hunting drones ( camping them ) ,or not
as equipment id use probably
P4a+a104 or can go for P5a+a104

valiant+6a or rascal+3b or shogun +3b
tt vivo and hedoc sk-20 (L)

post your thoughts, any advice welcome.

thanks
Click to expand...

I've not had a great experience on them to be honest.

Whenever I get bored of argos I switch over to drones using Knight + 3b with Montgomery Anabolic, but my returns are low compared to my argonaut runs. I always end up going back to argos :)

Maybe I'm just unlucky, though. My runs are only 200 mobs long, so probably shorter than they should be for the slightly higher ped cycle.

If you go with the P5a, I'd really recommend using an Opalo or something similar as a finisher weapon.
 
Blacktear said:
Question is simple, is it still worth hunting drones ( camping them ) ,or not
as equipment id use probably
P4a+a104 or can go for P5a+a104

valiant+6a or rascal+3b or shogun +3b
tt vivo and hedoc sk-20 (L)

post your thoughts, any advice welcome.

thanks
Click to expand...

your gear sound oke for me, shougun or kobold +3b as armor i say , better lower protection so u can make some paramedic skills thing is to get at ur125 imo
 
Drones were for a long time one of the best low level mobs to grind and profit.

I reckon something has changed in their return pattern. I still think that for a low level player they are still one of the best markupwise mobs to hunt.
 
Blacktear said:
Question is simple, is it still worth hunting drones ( camping them ) ,or not
as equipment id use probably
P4a+a104 or can go for P5a+a104

valiant+6a or rascal+3b or shogun +3b
tt vivo and hedoc sk-20 (L)

post your thoughts, any advice welcome.

thanks
Click to expand...

Depends only on what you expect from them...
Great mob for cheap skilling dodge and some paramedic skills.
If worthing to you means getting ritch...probably no :D
 
thanks all. no i dont want to be rich from them or so,i would be happy if id keep breaking even and skill 4 free,that is all i am expecting from them :) but if that is possible... dont think any of players can say that :)
 
I have to agree with Mikeemoo there. For me argos r favourite, not once they let me down in long term unlike drones did (many times).
 
Piotr said:
I have to agree with Mikeemoo there. For me argos r favourite, not once they let me down in long term unlike drones did (many times).
Click to expand...

Plus you can afford to go with cheaper decaying armor with argos.

Argos will let you use cheaper armor and the loot cycle is pretty small. Drones will let you skill up dodge and you have potential access to slightly increased payouts, but the loot cycle is more expensive and their attack range means you're attacked from the instant of agro instead of the 5-10 seconds you get with argos.

Drones of course give a slightly higher percentage of mark up, but it's not a huge amount more.
 
i was hunting a lot of argos to be honest,and there was small % of runs that i had possitve results ,that is why im looking for alternatives. I am about 4750 / 5000 on argos,and down on them like 2000 ped
 
Blacktear said:
i was hunting a lot of argos to be honest,and there was small % of runs that i had possitve results ,that is why im looking for alternatives. I am about 4750 / 5000 on argos,and down on them like 2000 ped
Click to expand...

What gear are you using for them?

I'm on about 8000 now and only 100 PED down (TT) and still in profit when including mark up.

2000 PED down seems like a huge amount.
 
i was hunting them since i could kill it without dying :) i was using pixie+tt vivo mostly as defense and as for weapons :
M2a+a102 (did ok with this one but very boring)
h380+a103
p4a+a104
h400+a104
p5a+a104
 
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Blacktear said:
i was hunting them since i could kill it without dying :) i was using pixie+tt vivo mostly as defense and as for weapons :
M2a+a102 (did ok with this one but very boring)
h380+a103
p4a+a104
h400+a104
p5a+a104
Click to expand...

If you try them again, you might be interested in this post:

https://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/...he-loot-pool&p=2734449&viewfull=1#post2734449

If you want to reduce your loss, aim for about 1.05 - 1.10 PED per kill on argo youngs. It'd be worth you killing a few (10-20) then checking all your decay/ammo and divide that by the number you killed to get an idea of how much each one is costing you.

I'd suggest switching to Settler + 4B to half your armor costs, increase your dps very slightly because you'll be taking a little bit more damage, and make sure you use a finisher weapon. :)

Good luck, anyway :) If you decide to go with drones I'll be very interested to see how you get on.
 
With runs long enough it might still work.
Dont expect to see a clear result after 2 runs... You need to give it some time
 
I'm also on the Argo missions (about to finish the 5K).

Recently I found the most practical and eco setup for me :
- Unplated Gnome (I guess Pixie can do it as well)
- Breer M2a (L) + 102 for tagging & softing: tagging allows me treating 1 mob at a time and the Breer is bigger than Opalo for softing them. When they arrive at Pistol range they are at 60-75%.
- Breer P4a (L) + 104, the most eco combo in that DPS level.
- Opalo SGA + 101 as finisher.

I use a FAP only if several Ninjas spawned on me, and its a T1 when between mobs.
Otherwise I have a nice 0.0 decay bill on FAP.

I could reduce the armor and hunt half-naked but the armor decay is very low (<1% of total expenses) and I dont want to battle-fap and lose on regen.



Another advantge (at least for me) is that swithcing between 3 weapons is kind of sport and makes these long missions a little bit less boring.
 
Gnome FTW! :D
Back in the days Rascal was very popular for argos. I still use it from time to time as it gives a very good protection against them, but higher decay than Gnome ofc.
 
doubt u will make a fortune, but I have been grinding them for a few months without needing to deposit. I use

adj embra c1 (I do 800ped TT runs with it)
hunter + 3b
2600 fap (they miss so often you rarely have to even use it, on an 800ped run you only do like 6ped decay on it)

Been cycling the same 800ped for a few months now. Every now and then you have a few good runs and build up some excess ped. I always burn it on a bigger mob (i'm a sucker like that) then head back to drones when I lose the profit.
 
Blacktear said:
Question is simple, is it still worth hunting drones ( camping them ) ,or not
as equipment id use probably
P4a+a104 or can go for P5a+a104

valiant+6a or rascal+3b or shogun +3b
tt vivo and hedoc sk-20 (L)

post your thoughts, any advice welcome.

thanks
Click to expand...

long ago i managed to get preditor for 105% and used 3b. it was a really nice setup for the small drones while using p5a+104. decay was low on the armor and i had about 11 or 12 dodge. i did have to fap some after 4 or 6 drones and used t1 for that and sk20 or t20 in battle. the decay bills on armor and fap rarely went past 4 or 6 ped on 1 amp. i would consider that good. but this was over 2 years ago don't know really what is best now. preditor isn't cheap i think 115% on auction or so .. might not be a good option... it is just glorified shogun anyways that decays less. i think using a tagger is a good idea also if you hadn't tried that yet. not getting swarmed will save you peds.
 
I quit hunting those again because, even with a good MU supply which is gazz,
Their TT return overall tend to be the lowest I get throw all the mobs I hunt latelly
I use p5a+TT blade as finisher, Hunter+1b
Defensive decays are as low as I can make them, and still they ain't working for me
 
gazz has markup again :yay:

thats the only thing you will get with markup basicly.. but you need to kill alot to get enough to sell..

argos, specially big ones gives alot more iron (tt) compared to drones with their gazz.. but the iron is almost tt these days.. I have gotten the impression that 50-80% of your total loot from argos is just iron.. while drones give alot of junk.. but I have not hunted drones much.. I used to hunt argos when iron MU was higher..

has anyone hunted minerbots latley? they might be better than drones when it comes to markup
 
so i tried to hunt drones, i decided for setup rascal+3b vivo t1 and hedoc sk-20 and as weapon P5a+a104, tt knife as finisher. as far as i can say, my loots are pretty same like from argonauts or other mobs of same range,maybe a little better,at least in this small sample ( 1000 ped tt of ammo) and ive lost only like 60 ped if i include markup of LR41 and gazzurite looted,so not that bad,one global should make it up again. i am curious aswell so i post here if anything interesting will happen. but i noticed i have great skillgains from drones ( level 23-24 laser pistoleer in 5 runs ,which is not bad really)
 
STYRM said:
gazz has markup again :yay:

thats the only thing you will get with markup basicly.. but you need to kill alot to get enough to sell..

argos, specially big ones gives alot more iron (tt) compared to drones with their gazz.. but the iron is almost tt these days.. I have gotten the impression that 50-80% of your total loot from argos is just iron.. while drones give alot of junk.. but I have not hunted drones much.. I used to hunt argos when iron MU was higher..

has anyone hunted minerbots latley? they might be better than drones when it comes to markup
Click to expand...

Argos Iron is currently 105%

I get around 40 PED of iron per 100 argos, so per run I get about 2% better returns just from the markup on the iron alone.
 
Mikeemooo said:
Argos Iron is currently 105%

I get around 40 PED of iron per 100 argos, so per run I get about 2% better returns just from the markup on the iron alone.
Click to expand...

big or small argos?
 
Turned over some small K Ped like 2 months ago on them and i all i have to say: their tt return just sucks comparing to very constant looting argos
 
I think this is an excellent thread showing that while avatars may be equal in some regards, when it comes to getting consistently equal loot from the same mob, they might not really be all that equal.
 
drones do fine, low level 1-5 N of Jason.. I use korss h400 / p5a or h21 unamped. I go overkill on armour cause I can't be bothered switching so use vigi+6a lol I know.

per 100ped of ammo usually get 26-30ped of gazz (sells for %120-%122) sometimes more, lots of junk to TT and odd L armour bit.

Considoring I dont grind them i'm not best candidate for advice but acceptable returns in my books.

Now I say that though I'll go hit them and get no gazz and cry :silly2:
 
They`re not worth it. You get gazzurdite for around 30% of the total loot, rest being tt stuff(robot junk). Items in globals are worthless.

There`s also no drone iron challenge to justify grinding them.
 
Mikass said:
They`re not worth it. You get gazzurdite for around 30% of the total loot, rest being tt stuff(robot junk). Items in globals are worthless.

There`s also no drone iron challenge to justify grinding them.
Click to expand...

well.. not just robot junk.. even the odd lr41 is worth something these days..
 
i did testing run on argos, it is small sample but still. i looted some iron,about 70 ped tt, i know there were runs i had 150 ped tt of iron,but really @ 105% ,i dont know. aswell i looted cb 19 worth 108% ,not even 50 ped worth of eye oil worth 103%

for comparing on drones i looted in average 65 ped tt of gazzurite (125%) and LR41 worth 115%

after my previous experience with argonauts i can say following :
argonauts are more stable,but lot less MU , drones need more ped to turnover ,but if you can survive bad streak hunts markup of gazzurite and LR41s will make you some ped

as for argos, finished 5k mission now average cost per kill since i started using P5a+a104 on them is 1.1112 ped and i am -1500 peds with markup,or maybe even more

on drones atm im down 160 ped without markup but got like 400 ped tt of gazzurite that makes it down to roughly -60 ped. one global could fix this to break even.

so final decision is even harder .



that is my personal sumary, but i am looking forward to hear more opinions .
 
I went to drones last year for a good while before i started my mining ventures. The outcome was always very much tied to the Gazz MU. Basically to say The Erdo and Gazz stacks and the odd LR41 were markup stuff. Though i also sold low TT TP chips and the bear(L) stuff in auc, most of the stuff is TT junk ( hmm robot residue was 105% so i also collected them ).

When Gazz was > 125% i did ok on them.

It really got hard when the Drones Elite were in the crater for so long time and gazz dropped even below 120%.
( That was the point i went out mining).

So it might work for you, but it can be very tough with Gazz fluctuatiing around 120-125%
 
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