Throughout Stellar Blade you’ll be followed by your little Drone companion, but here’s how to upgrade it and create the best builds for your Drone.
During the opening hours of Stellar Blade, your Drone will be operated by Adam to provide Eve with instructions and exposition while she explores the game world. It can also be used to highlight things on your map or HUD. However, as the game progresses the Drone becomes a lot more helpful and can be upgraded with various abilities.
It can be used to unlock higher-level loot containers out in the world and eventually doubles up as a gun to blast enemies at range. Here’s how to upgrade your drone in Stellar Blade and the best ways to use it effectively in combat using some powerful Drone builds.
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How to upgrade the Drone in Stellar Blade
You can upgrade the Drone quite early in Stellar Blade once you pick up your first Drone Upgrade Module in the building site. This will allow you to add the Hacking Tool to the drone so that you can open more loot containers around the world, there may even be some from earlier you’ll want to go back and open.
The Drone can be upgraded by accessing the Repair Console at a campsite and scrolling across to the Drone dropdown menu. You’ll also notice slots for Slugs, Stinger Missiles, and a Charge Blaster Railgun. There’s also an option to upgrade the Drone’s Scanner to make locating items in the wasteland easier to find.
Once you reach the game’s hub area of Xion, you’ll then be able to use your Drone as a gun. This happens automatically in the story as Lily upgrades it for you, but from there you can decide how to upgrade your Drone’s firepower.
Best Drone builds in Stellar Blade
Drone Upgrade Modules will be limited at first, but in time, you’ll get enough to upgrade your Drone’s gun fully. However, before this, you’ll need to be a bit more selective and prioritize the path that’s most useful to you.
It’s tempting to try and unlock all three gun options as soon as possible and upgrade them equally, but this will make you a Jack of all trades and a master of none. So, instead try to stick to one of the following Drone builds:
Balanced Drone build
When we say balanced, we don’t mean upgrade everything equally. So for this build, spend some upgrades on your basic gun (Slugs), some basic upgrades on your Scanner, and choose either Stinger Missiles or the Charge Blaster Railgun, but not both.
This way, you’ll be able to use your gun to shoot targets at a distance, which is necessary for some puzzles, and not worry about running out of ammo as often. Of course, you’ll also have a more powerful option for elite enemies and bosses.
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We recommend maxing out which over option is most helpful to your playstyle. So, if you use your gun often in combat, prioritize Slugs, but if you mostly use your gun as a tool, focus your efforts on Stinger Missiles or the Charge Blaster Railgun – not both. This way you’ll have some powerful ranged options in combat.
Exploration Drone build
This build involves prioritizing your Slugs and Scanner and fully upgrading these skill trees as soon as you can with Drone Upgrade Modules, rather than bothering with Stinger Missiles or the Railgun. This means while you’ll have less heavy firepower, you’ll have a powerful and reliable gun that can be used against most enemies including bosses.
However, the only downside is you’ll need to rely on your melee skills in tougher battles, as your gun will just be one other weapon in your arsenal and can’t be relied on for heavy support. But in truth, melee alone can carry you through most boss fights.
Boss Drone build
While you’ll still be able to use your Slugs against the average enemy and in puzzles, your main focus here will be on upgrading your Drone to use against bosses and other elites. This will involve you using all of your Drone Module Upgrades on either Stinger Missiles or the Charge Blaster Railgun.
Ammo will be limited of course, but you’ll have a very powerful gun to use against bosses when you get an opening. For those who are happy to rely on melee and basic Slugs while exploring the wasteland, but want some extra ranged support in boss fights, this is the build for you.
Once you’ve fully upgraded one of the two heavy weapons, consider investing some Modules into your Scanner. That was you can find more items while out in the world.
Of course, in time you’ll be able to upgrade your gun down all three of these paths, fully upgrading Slugs, Missiles, and the Charge Blaster Railgun. But while Drone Module Upgrades are scarce, it pays to choose one of the above Drone builds.
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