Boarding Drones for Players, do they exist?

[Icehawk78]

They're actually quite good, but they're just like standard boarders: without support, they're useless. The easiest way to do that is to...well, blow up the med bay. Anyone who complains about medbay cycling really should take measures to easily disable them. Personally I prefer breach bombs, but most bombs do quite well. They're especially nice because people actually in the medbay are usually there because they're hurt. A well timed bomb will put both them and the med bay out of commission.

waste of combat xp to not land a kill on them.

If there's a medbay, depending on the size of your own boarding crew, you might not be getting a kill on them at all without the boarding drone.

[Real]

They're actually quite good, but they're just like standard boarders: without support, they're useless. The easiest way to do that is to...well, blow up the med bay. Anyone who complains about medbay cycling really should take measures to easily disable them. Personally I prefer breach bombs, but most bombs do quite well. They're especially nice because people actually in the medbay are usually there because they're hurt. A well timed bomb will put both them and the med bay out of commission.

I used this tactic with my boarders on the last boss. It works. Even bomb your own dudes if they have enough health, it can be good to smite the enemy's crew before they get the chance to run.

[Drasha]

bombing my rocks is probably a good way to prevent them from running. I will have to remember that though it will cost me some xp.

[UberFubarius]

bombing my rocks is probably a good way to prevent them from running. I will have to remember that though it will cost me some xp.

My favorite tactic involve fire bomb medbay first, THAN rock dude.
Even if the medbay isn't destroyed out right, the fire will finish that job.
BURN SUCKERS BURN!

[Forumrabbit]

They're actually quite good, but they're just like standard boarders: without support, they're useless. The easiest way to do that is to...well, blow up the med bay. Anyone who complains about medbay cycling really should take measures to easily disable them. Personally I prefer breach bombs, but most bombs do quite well. They're especially nice because people actually in the medbay are usually there because they're hurt. A well timed bomb will put both them and the med bay out of commission.

Whilst they're cycling on the other side of the ship on their medbay, my 1-2 rocks are tanking them as I put 2 more crewmembers on their ship to destroy everything.

At the very least their ship becomes unmanned and lets me get their weapons down easily when they can't repair, I never solely rely on 1 method of attack for any playthrough.

[DaemonX]

Contrary to what some have said, Boarding drones are totally sick.

Obviously they don't do a great deal alone, though they can cause some additional systems harassment so their crew can't repair quickly, which may or may not help. But when you have your own boarding team, oh goodness gracious they are INSANE. How to exploit:

1) Drop a boarding drone in first, it will cause a breach, and start breaking a system. Enemy crew will engage, take O2 damage and combat damage.

2) Before their health drops too low, jump your boarders in somewhere far away from the drone but still in a high-priority system (O2, Shield, Weapons). At this point, make sure anti-personnel weapon is charging (ideally breach or fire bomb, at least a small bomb. A fire beam or bio beam in a pinch but you will need to take down shield with boarders or lasers first). If you really have no access to such a weapon, then a missile will do.

3) If you start to break the key system, the damaged crew will be diverted toward you to engage. After they start fighting, drop your prepped weapon into the med bay to disable it, or if you have no fire damage, wait someone's in there and drop the bomb on them.

4) The crew, damaged from possibly the breach, the drone, and your boarding party now get hit by missile/bomb damage. If this doesn't kill them outright, the fires will. If this doesn't, the medbay will be disabled, so send your boarders in and finish them off before they can repair.

5) ALL WHILE THIS IS GOING ON, your boarding drone will be wandering around destroying their stuff. If there's widespread fire or O2 is running out, just bring your men home and wait for them to die - esp if you took out door controls.

The boarding drone isn't strictly necessary for boarding to work. But it acts as a serious force multiplier, by causing two serious threats in two distinct locations.