The scout that costs you nothing to run and two bullets to lose
A drone is a remote camera you pilot while your body sits safely at a Computer Station inside your base. It burns no fuel, it costs no scrap per flight, and it lets you watch a monument, a road or your own front gate without putting yourself anywhere near it.
It is also one of the most fragile things in the game. Two rifle rounds kill it. Bumping a tree does too.
So the skill in flying a drone is not the flying. It is not losing the drone — and every common reason people lose one is on the list below.
Craft and setup
| Stat | Value |
|---|---|
| Workbench | Level 2 |
| Ingredients | 200 metal fragments + 1 CCTV Camera |
| Craft time / yield | 30s / 1 |
| Stack size | 1 |
| Item ID | 1588492232 |
| Fuel | None needed |
| Required to fly | A Computer Station |
Sources disagree on the recipe. Corrosion Hour, working from game files, lists 200 metal fragments plus one CCTV Camera. Other guides list a Targeting Computer in the recipe, or add 2 tech trash and a 125-scrap research cost. Check what your server actually wants before you commit the components.
You also need a Computer Station, which is its own craft — one guide lists it at 5 HQM, 1 Targeting Computer, 1 RF Broadcaster and 1 RF Receiver — and it needs power.
Setting it up
- Place the drone on a flat surface. Do it away from buildings and trees.
- Hold E on it and choose Set ID. Give it a name like DRONE1. The ID is case-sensitive, and only the player who placed it can change it.
- Sit at the Computer Station and type that exact ID into the device field to add it.
- Click the drone in the saved list to take control. You see through its camera.
Put the station somewhere safe inside your base. Your body sits there the whole flight and does not move — if someone walks in and kills you at the station, you lose the drone too.
Controls
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| W / A / S / D | Move forward, back, strafe |
| Mouse | Turn and aim the camera |
| Shift | Climb |
| Ctrl | Descend |
| Mouse click | Drop the storage-slot item |
| Esc / leave station | Stop piloting |
Movement is direction-relative — the way the camera is facing is the way W goes. That is the thing that throws new pilots: turn the mouse 90 degrees and W now goes somewhere else.
Sources disagree on the drop key. One guide says right mouse button, another says left. Try both.
Range — and why yours will be different
Every source gives a different number:
| Source | Reported range |
|---|---|
Console default (drone.maxcontrolrange) | 500 m |
| Corrosion Hour | 250 m — “just under 2 square map tiles” |
| frozen-rust | ~500 m — “about 3.33 grid squares” |
| dronedirectory | up to 600 m, signal loss ~750 m |
The console default is 500 m and server owners can change it. That is the only number that is certainly true. A drone that falls out of the sky at 250 m on one server will fly twice that on another.
As you approach the limit the black-and-white feed pixelates more and more until you lose the signal. When you do, the drone hovers in place — it does not fly home. You can reconnect later from the station, but in the meantime it is a stationary target.
The storage slot (October 2025)
This is what changed the drone from a camera into something else.
The Meta Shift update gave the drone one storage slot. Put a single stack of anything in it before you take off, fly to the spot, and click to drop it.
| What you drop | What it does |
|---|---|
| Syringes, large medkit, ammo | Resupply a teammate pinned at a monument |
| F1 grenade, beancan, molotov | Armed and detonates on impact — a real weapon |
| Supply signal | Pops smoke where it lands |
An explosive dropped on a roof camper is a genuine threat, and it is the one way a drone can kill.
Two limits: it is one stack, not a cargo hold, and the drone is slow and loud. Expect it to be shot the moment it hovers over anyone.
How everything kills your drone
It has 100 HP by one account, ~150 by another. No source makes it sound tough.
| Weapon | Hits to destroy |
|---|---|
| Assault Rifle, Bolt Action, M39, M249 | 2 bullets |
| LR-300, Semi-Automatic Rifle | 3 bullets |
| Thompson, MP5, Semi-Auto Pistol | 3 bullets |
| Python Revolver | 2 bullets |
| Shotgun (buckshot) | 1 shell |
| Hunting bow (wooden arrow) | 2 arrows |
| F1 grenade, any rocket, C4 | 1 |
| Any melee tool | 1 hit |
And the things that shoot it without a player
- Auto turrets. Since October 2025 they fire on drones belonging to players who are not authorised on the turret. Your own turrets leave your drone alone.
- SAM sites target player drones too. The 2026 Breach and Clear update made SAM missiles faster with a bigger blast against drones, so a SAM on a roof is now a reliable counter.
- Cargo Ship and Bradley have anti-drone scripts that shoot drones automatically. Do not scout them.
- Marketplace delivery drones are never targeted — those are separate, automated, and immune.
Six ways people lose a drone
- Flying past the range. Lose signal and it hovers there as free loot. Always know where your station is.
- No Computer Station. A drone without a station cannot be flown at all. Placing one first is wasting components.
- Using it as a weapon. It has no gun and it dies to two rounds. Recon, not assault.
- Leaving it in the open. A landed drone can be picked up by anyone after a short delay. Keep it inside or hidden in cover.
- Forgetting to add the ID. Without it in your station the drone will not appear in your list. The ID is case-sensitive.
- Bumping into things. Even minimal contact with a tree or building can destroy it. Take off from open ground and climb before you travel.
What it is actually for
- Scout an enemy base before a raid. Turret or no turret, before you commit explosives.
- A permanent early-warning camera. A drone hovering behind a tree at your front gate costs nothing once placed. Most clans run two or three at fixed positions and switch between them like CCTV.
- Hover it over your Tool Cupboard. From inside the room, it gives you live overhead intel when raiders breach, without opening the door.
- Resupply under fire. One stack of meds or ammo to a teammate who cannot move.
- Marketplace orders. Order at a Bandit Camp or Outpost terminal, then wait — the Marketplace drone autopilots the parcel to your base. That one you do not fly.
Related guides
- Rust Electricity Guide — powering the Computer Station
- Rust Base Building Guide — where to put the station
- Rust Best Base Designs — the scout positions worth watching
- How to Open a Locked Crate in Rust — the run a drone is for
- Rust Oil Rig Guide — a monument worth scouting first
- Rust Cargo Ship Guide — the one place not to fly it
- Rust Raiding Guide — what the recon is for
- Rust Tips and Tricks — the small things