Drone Launcher
Weapon · WeaponMelee3★Fires off drones that go hunting and attack on their own. As many as 9 can be in the air at once, which keeps the suppression going.
Drone Launcher is 43rd of 79 melee weapons by attack, at 230 against the 2,400 of Laser Sword.
It feeds no other recipe, which makes it a terminal item: craft what you will actually carry and stop there.
Details
It does not stack, so every spare copy costs an inventory slot. At 7,071,070 gold it is worth real money to a merchant.
Drone Launcher Crafting Recipe
Paloxite Ingot×122
World Tree Holy Water
AI Core×14
Ancient Civilization Core
Ancient Civilization Parts
Wood×2,800
Ore×1,330
Pure Quartz×560
Coal×504
Crude Oil×420
Soralite×402
Flame Organ×392
High Quality Pal Oil×280
Paloxite×244
Sulfur×196
Electric Organ×140
Chromite×56
Hexolite Quartz×56
Venom Gland×56Crafting it takes 223 materials across 5 types.
Where to Find Drone Launcher
The recipe is not on the Technology tree — it is locked behind a schematic you have to find first. The best single source is fishing in the World Tree at 1.1% per container, and the table below lists every tier and where each one drops.
Every Tier of Drone Launcher
The same piece exists at 5 rarities, and the gap is not cosmetic: attack runs 200 to 240, a 1.2x swing. Which one you end up with is decided by the rarity of the schematic you built from, not by the recipe — so a legendary copy of this is worth more than the next item up built from a common one.
| Rarity | Item | Attack | Durability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0★ | Drone Launcher | 200 | 6500 |
| 1★ | Drone Launcher | 210 | 9750 |
| 2★ | Drone Launcher | 220 | 13000 |
| 3★ | Drone Launcher (this one) | 230 | 19500 |
| 4★ | Drone Launcher | 240 | 26000 |
Schematics That Unlock Drone Launcher
The Technology tree hands you the plain Drone Launcher at level 77 for 4 Technology points, but nothing above that base version — the rarer builds are schematic-only. One schematic grants the recipe, and they are world loot — chests, boss Pals and the late-game pools — rather than anything you research. Higher-rarity copies of the same schematic raise the quality of what you end up crafting.
Fastest route. The fastest route is fishing in the World Tree, and the reason is the ladder rather than the top rung: that pool stocks every tier, so the common copies it hands you fuse upward into the one you want. Counting them, a top-tier Drone Launcher schematic works out at roughly 125 containers against the 275 the 4★ drop rate alone suggests. Spare low tiers are progress, not clutter. Schematics fuse five-to-one, so a lower tier with better odds can beat the top tier outright. Counts are containers of that source, not time.
| Schematic | Rarity | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
 Drone Launcher Schematic 3 | 3★ | fishing in World Tree, World Tree fishing treasure spots, Treasure map digs (tier 5) +5 more — best 1.1% (grade 1/5/6) |
Alternatives and Upgrades
Step up from here and you get Drone Launcher at 240 attack; step down and it is Legendary Meowmere at 222. The size of that step is what decides whether the crafting bill is justified yet.
Other melee weapons at a similar tier, for when you want to weigh this against the rest of its class:
