Drones



"The drone. Okay. I'm proud of this little guy. They may be small and fragile, but they're super maneuverable and pack a punch. We've got a decent range on one from the truck, and you'll be able to shock people with the built-in stunner. Or if it's a kamikaze mission, the detonator should take someone out."

- Paige Harris, shortly when the player uses one from the Terrorbyte.

Drones are functional devices initially featured in Grand Theft Auto Online as part of the After Hours update. Nano Drones are featured in The Diamond Casino Heist update.

Description
Drones are depicted as generic quad-rotor drones primarily intended for surveillance within a safe place or distance. They are generally small in size, more so than the RC Bandito.

Drones are deployed from the Terrorbyte if the Drone Station is available. Nano Drones are available from either the Arcade or from the Interaction Menu, if the Drone Station upgrade is available for the property.

Drones
Drones are used in a similar manner to a helicopter, being assigned with controls for movement, elevation and camera, along with three levels of zoom intended for observation. Similar to the RC Bandito, drones have an Off-Radar feature, which, combined with their small sizes, makes them difficult to detect one visually. Drones make a distinctive buzzing sound coming from the rotors, which players can hear at close proximity.

Drones have decent speed, enough to keep pace with players running on foot, but they generally fail to chase vehicles. Nano Drones seem to have slightly increased speed, but again they cannot chase vehicles efficiently.

Drones are sensitive to damage, as they can be destroyed with a few shots or if it scratches with a surface, wall or ceiling for too long. They are also destroyed if a player walks right towards it.

Drones have a limited range based on the position of the player; a warning may appear if the player goes past 450m (1476ft) and will be deactivated past 500m (1640ft). Nano Drones have a further decreased range when deployed with the Interaction Menu; a warning may appear if the player goes past 200m (656ft) and will be deactivated past 250m (820ft). Nano Drones deployed from the Arcade, however, have a seemingly infinite range.

When a drone is used during regular gameplay, a 1-minute cooldown is applied before using another (or a 5-minute cooldown in the case of Nano Drones). It should be noted that the cooldown timer is shared for both drones, meaning if the player has used a Drone from the Terrorbyte, they must wait one minute before using their Nano Drone (or five minutes for the opposite).

Features
Drones have a set of features the player can use for their advantage:


 * A booster that lasts for four seconds and takes 15 seconds to recharge. This increases the drone's speed for a bit, but the continuous boost difficults the maneuverability, especially on enclosed areas.
 * A stun gun that works similarly to its weapon counterpart and takes 12 seconds to recharge. The stun gun has very limited range, but makes up for stunning targets that are even inside vehicles, as long as they are directly exposed (i.e. having the car's windows broken).
 * A self-destruct sequence that makes the drone explode, serving as a remote explosive. It takes seven seconds to actually trigger the explosive and it resets if the self-destruct sequence is cancelled, so players must time the explosion correctly. Explosions have the same effectiveness as thrown explosives, such as Grenades.

On certain Arena War game modes, spectators can use a version of the drone with no booster or extra features, while versions provided by the Arena War Wheel on the Spectator Box or used in Games Masters are provided with booster and an EMP pulse that operates the same way as the stun gun, but has a larger radius and can disable arena vehicles temporarily, in a similar manner to EMP mines.

Client Jobs

 * Targeted Data
 * Diamond Shopping

Arena War

 * Carnage
 * Games Masters (Spectator team)
 * Hot Bomb
 * Tag Team (Spectators)
 * Wreck It

The Diamond Casino Heist

 * Heist Prep: Nano Drones (LSPD variants)
 * Casino Heist (Silent &amp; Sneaky, optional)

The Cayo Perico Heist

 * Cayo Perico Heist finale ("Recon Drone" support crew, optional)

Trivia

 * The Terrorbyte's interior appears to contain three different drone props on a bench. While there is the functional quad-rotor version, there are two extra drones that only serve as decorations:
 * The first one has the layout of a basic helicopter, similar to the, a military micro UAV.
 * The second one is shaped like an orb with the camera on it, and has two small "wings" and antenna on the front.
 * Unlike the RC Bandito and Invade and Persuade Tank, the Interaction Menu's Nano Drones were originally available during non-freemode activities, such as heists, contact missions and deathmatches. This option was disabled as part of the Los Santos Summer Special update.