The Heavy Defense Drone is a powerful enemy that acts as the mini-Boss battle at the end of Stage 12. It is heavily-armed for its relatively small size, with a high speed projectile-shooting cannon and radial cannons.
Appearance[]
The Heavy Defense Drone has a main body of a metallic machinery core that has a bright blue LED light on top. The electric engine in the core generates the thrust of the drone which leaves a trail of blue lighted rings, similar Frying Falcon's Radial Cannons and Quattropus' Electric Pod, as well as Omega's engines in the Prologue Stage. The Drone slowly spins around in flight, changing direction often.
Depending on the game version, the Heavy Defense Drone has a few differences in its look:
- On the widescreen versions on computer/console, the Heavy Defense Drone has three spinning tesla coils facing different directions, with an plasma orb between their output terminals. On the core at the areas where the coils are connected are three grooved stripes each.
- On mobile versions, the core is much simpler in appearance, where instead of tesla coils it simply has three black vertical thrusters.
The Heavy Defense Drone loses a Tesla coil/thruster for each obliteration, and the color of the light on the core changes to pink after losing its first weapon. After the second obliteration, the core loses its rotating ring of blue lights.
Behavior[]
General[]
At the end of the Stage, after the player encounters two SAM Turrets, the Heavy Defense Drone engages after quickly ascending from the bottom of a large hollow. The Drone then takes on a flight pattern of alternating between straight dashes at random angles and stationary periods. If the player fails to destroy the Drone before it reaches the Mysterious AI's hologram at the end, it escapes flying to the left and off the screen, resulting in a Chain Loss. At higher difficulty levels, the player has less time to attack as per the shorter time frame before the Drone flees.
In order to destroy the Heavy Defense Drone completely, three obliterations are needed, each of which casts away one of the Drone's remaining weapons. Otherwise the Drone remains active and will break any active Chain Bonus once it leaves.
Even if the Drone is left intact, the clusters of Stars as seen can still be passed by and collected.
As a powerful enemy, when damaged, a red health bar appears near the Drone's core along with the remaining health displayed as percentage, disappearing after it is left intact for a while.
A Heavy Defense Drone cannot be collided with; the Plane simply flies past them.
Armaments[]
A Heavy Defense Drone possesses three armaments, which attacks separately with different projectile types and cooldown periods.
Rapid-fire Radial Cannon[]
Shoots 100 projectiles in long twisting streams, consisting of 20 projectiles in five directions each round.
Each projectile is small and dark blue in color, floats across the screen slowly and deals low damage. The shooting patterns/directions remain unchanged, regardless of the position of the player's Plane. This is the first armament to be destroyed.
Supercharged Mantis Cannon[]
Fires four successive streams of 30 projectiles directly at the Plane.
Similar to the Supercharged Mantis Cannon Turrets, each projectile is thin and pink in color, dealing slight damage. They are fired from the cannon at high velocity and then drastically slow down mid-range. This is the second armament to be destroyed.
Recharging Radial Cannon[]
Shoots three bullets in 16 directions (48 in total) at occasional intervals. Each bullet is blue in color, travels quickly and deals high damage to the Plane on contact.
Spinning Retaliation has this same cannon mounted on its rotor blades. The cannon is integrated with the core which glows bright blue in color increasingly strongly and the screen shakes also moments before discharge. The weapon is similarly destroyed along with the Drone's body itself.
The Supercharged Mantis Cannon is the only tracking weapon on board the Drone, thus the only able to be distracted by Holo Granny Technician to waste time shooting at any active decoys instead of the Plane.
The Heavy Defense Drone's health, damage and fire rate increase along with higher difficulty levels.
These projectiles only damage the Plane (and phase through other enemies) and cannot be destroyed by its projectiles and Laser power-up. However, it can be absorbed by Energy Shields, destroyed by Mega Bombs and Iron Clad's Main Weapon Supercharge shockwaves, and slowed by Slo Mo Chan's ability.
Strategy[]
- Strong Planes and gadgets are ideal for combating the Heavy Defense Drone's high health, including The Classic with Laser Whip, Gladius and Octopus, Main Weapon Supercharge, Lasers, Energy Shields and Mega Bombs to clear away the hazardous bullets and save time on dodging. This is especially necessary on higher difficulties due to the scaling health, the quicker retreat due to faster screen scroll and the increased fire rate that is problematic as the Drone exists for longer period.
- Be cautious of the Recharging Radial Cannon. Keep track of the core and when it glows brightly with screen shakes, position the Plane to avoid the incoming projectile swarm and heavy damage by placing it between the bullet clusters.
- If possible, keep distance with the Drone as its Supercharged Mantis Cannon projectiles drastically decelerate at far distance and it is easier to react to the Recharging Radial Cannon there. Pair this strategy with the Slo Mo Chan Technician so that the Plane can approach closer.
- Bear in mind about the two survivors to rescue during the encounter, both of which are missable due to their small size at far distance and the pressure from the Heavy Defense Drone itself.
Trivia[]
- Initially when Stage 12 was released, the Heavy Defense Drone was not included until later along with Technician and the Prestige system.
- The Heavy Defense Drone shares a flying pattern with a variation of Drone Fighter, including the entrance animation.
Images[]
