Drone Combat Boost/Skill chips

Combat boost:

Combat Boost is a crucial mechanic that globally enhances the effectiveness of all your active drone skill chips. It acts as a universal multiplier, increasing the overall power of your drone and the benefits derived from its equipped chips.

Upgrade: Combat boost Exp  + unused skill chips  

Use SSR basic chip material to constantly craft SSR chips (even when your slots are full). Below is the priority guide. You can use the unused chips to level up the combat boost (only SSR chips can be used for combat boost).

Crucial levels: 150 (2nd preset slot) - 300 (3rd preset slot) - 400 (4th preset slot)

Chip lab:

The chip lab is available at HQ level 15 and server day 82. It is used to craft drone chips in the same way as the gear factory. You can reset (disintegrate) unused chips to use for upgrading Combat Boost.

Upgrade the chip lab to level 20 as soon as possible to unlock all SSR and UR chips.

Types of chips:

There are 4 categories of chips: Initial Move, Attack, Defense and Interference

• Initial move: These chips are primarily defensive. Their main purpose is to provide shields that activate at the beginning of a battle, designed to absorb initial heavy damage. Ideal for frontline tanks.
  
  
• Attack: These chips are designed to increase damage output. They enhance the attack power. Attack chips are best suited for aggressive strategies aimed at quick eliminations
  
  
• Defense: These chips focus on improving durability. They boost the defense stats. Defense Skill Chips are valuable when maintaining a strong defensive line is essential.
  
  
• Interference: Interference chips are used to disrupt opponents. Their primary function is to extend the duration and intensity of drone attacks. These are particularly useful in prolonged battles.

Power Beyond Numbers: While drone chips might not significantly inflate "squad power" displayed on paper, their effects from these categories - such as shields, damage reduction, and increased damage output - provide significant, real combat benefits, contributing to their "hidden power".

SSR-chips:

• EM Shield (Initial move):  
  Provides a shield at the beginning of the battle.
  
  
• Ultra Frequency Resonance (Attack):  
  Provides an attack boost every time the drone attacks.
  
  
• Photon Armor (Defense):   
  Provides a defense boost at the beginning of the battle
  
  
• Armor-piercing Pulse (Interference):  
  Provides a damage increase every time the drone attacks

UR-chips:

• Absolute Quantum Field (Initial move): 
  Provides a shield at the beginning of the battle. When the shield drops provides a damage reduction for the rest of the battle.
  
  
• Lethal Firestorm (Attack):  
  Provides an attack boost every time the drone attacks. The drone hits more targets.
  
  
• Gravitational Resonance (Defense):  
  Provides a defense boost for everyone at the beginning of the battle. Provides an extra defense boost to your front row for the rest of the battle.
  
  
• Memory Ultra Fission (Interference): 
  Provides a damage increase to the back row every time the drone attacks and reduces all damage of enemy tactics.

Preference for Tanks: Defense and initial move
Preference for Aircraft: Attack and interference
Preference for Missile: Attack and interference

Chip sets:

Strategic Team Complement: An effective drone strategy necessitates creating a balanced set of chips that specifically complements the strengths and weaknesses of your hero team. This means chip selection should be hero-type dependent, directly benefiting your diverse hero team.. For instance, while Tank teams prioritize Defense and Movement chips, Aircraft and Missile teams focus more on Attack and Interference chips.

The way your chip set is composed is especially important in mixed teams!

Upgrade Strategy:

1. The "Attack > HP > Defense" philosophy is a general rule of thumb for prioritizing drone skill chip upgrades, derived from combat mechanics. It serves as a guiding principle aiming to maximize offensive pressure while maintaining sufficient survivability.
   
   
2. Always prioritize your 1st squad before investing in other squads.
   
   
3. The 2-star power jump is crucial to maintain. The boost from 1 star to 2 stars is significantly larger than other level upgrades. This means you should get all your chips to 2* first and then focus on 1 chip to invest all chip materials in for further upgrades.
   
   
4. When upgrading from SSR to UR chips keep in mind that higher level SSR chips are stronger than lower level UR chips. A 8* SSR = 3* UR and a 10* SSR =  4* UR

Below you'll find the upgrade order per hero type. 

IMPORTANT!: 

1. Only 1 SSR chip should be upgraded further than 2 stars (Ultra Frequency Resonance)
2. When replacing SSR chips with UR Chips, disintegrate the non-used chips and use them to upgrade combat boost.
3. Combat boost levels (150-300-450 milestones):  +  

Tank: 

Initial craft order:      ➩      ➩     ➩   

Upgrade order 2* :      ➩      ➩     ➩   

Upgrade 10* :   

UR craft order:      ➩    ➩      ➩   

Upgrade order 2* :     ➩    ➩      ➩   

First to upgrade to 5* :   

Aircraft and missile:

Initial craft order:      ➩      ➩      ➩   

Upgrade order 2* :      ➩      ➩      ➩   

Upgrade 10* :   

UR Craft order:      ➩    ➩      ➩   

Upgrade order 2* :      ➩    ➩      ➩   

First to upgrade to 5* :   

Deploy in combat:

1. Make a preset per team (to unlock preset 2 and 3 you’ll need to upgrade combat boost to level 150 and 300). 
   
   
2. Adapt your presets on the heroes in your squad based on the information above. For 1-type squads the choice is obvious but with mixed teams you’ll need to adapt.

Example mixed team: Williams - Murphy - Kimberley - DVA - Tesla

Preset: Absolute Quantum Field (Tank) - Gravitational Resonance (Tank)

Memory Ultra Fission (Missile) - Lethal Firestorm (Aircraft)

Presets can also be assigned to other squads before initiating an attack (same as composition buffs).