HAN-D, its drones and changing stages

[Percussigant]

TL;DR : I think HAN-D should be allowed to keep its drones when changing stages.

From what I have seen in pubs and on various threads, HAN-D is one of the least played and liked survivors. I think it is in part due to its slow, simple kit, but more importantly due to the fact that it does not carry over its drones into the next stage after teleporting.

It's not a big deal in singleplayer since you're going to be the one making all of the kills, but it's a bit annoying in multiplayer, where your more mobile/longer-ranged teammates will probably end up doing the kills you need to replenish your drones.

It also really hurts when looping (before you get to godlike levels of damage where everything dies no matter what you do at least).

And it's also a bit weird that Drifter gets to keep her scrap from stage to stage, but HAN-D does not keep the main part of his kit.

[Plaguelight]

You know, does Backup Mag even do anything for HAN-D if the drones disappear between stages and you have to kill to get them? Is it a literal dead item on 'em?

[Percussigant]

Originally posted by Plaguelight:

You know, does Backup Mag even do anything for HAN-D if the drones disappear between stages and you have to kill to get them? Is it a literal dead item on 'em?

From what I have seen, what it does is that you get +1 drone slot per stack of Backup Mag.

You might be on to something there pointing that out actually. That's one of the ways HAN-D's kit could made less clunky, for that matter : have Backup Mag straight up also give +1 drone at the start of each stage (and on pickup).

[Plaguelight]

Originally posted by Percussigant:

Originally posted by Plaguelight:

You know, does Backup Mag even do anything for HAN-D if the drones disappear between stages and you have to kill to get them? Is it a literal dead item on 'em?

From what I have seen, what it does is that you get +1 drone slot per stack of Backup Mag.

You might be on to something there pointing that out actually. That's one of the ways HAN-D's kit could made less clunky, for that matter : have Backup Mag straight up also give +1 drone at the start of each stage (and on pickup).

Really? I'm playing him right now, with two Mags, no extra drones comin' from kills. Weird... I mean, that would be crazy cool if that is how its supposed to work.

[laslax]

This is a reasonable opinion if you don't run explosive drones. I think HAN-D is really fun with them, and you can deal massive amounts of damage similar to Sniper, which in turn makes it easier to get and maintain drones. If that doesn't work, you can always try being by yourself too. Only thing that really sucks about HAN-D is the lack of drones vs Providence, but it's not that bad.

Speaking of unpopular, nobody picks Miner or Enforcer either even though they're pretty good.

[Percussigant]

Originally posted by Plaguelight:

Really? I'm playing him right now, with two Mags, no extra drones comin' from kills. Weird... I mean, that would be crazy cool if that is how its supposed to work.

Really ? I could have sworn I had 11 drones in my last HAN-D run (I had one Backup Mag). My bad then.

Originally posted by laslax:

This is a reasonable opinion if you don't run explosive drones. I think HAN-D is really fun with them, and you can deal massive amounts of damage similar to Sniper, which in turn makes it easier to get and maintain drones. If that doesn't work, you can always try being by yourself too. Only thing that really sucks about HAN-D is the lack of drones vs Providence, but it's not that bad.

Sure, but even if you're running those, you still need to kickstart your drone "economy" reliably every stage once you're past the point where you need several hammer strikes to kill a single enemy. To me it feels a bit too janky to be intentional design since it relies so much on the items you find (I'm talking about longer runs ofc). Drones are so important for HAN-D that there's no way this isn't an oversight imho.

[laslax]

Originally posted by Percussigant:

Sure, but even if you're running those, you still need to kickstart your drone "economy" reliably every stage once you're past the point where you need several hammer strikes to kill a single enemy. To me it feels a bit too janky to be intentional design since it relies so much on the items you find (I'm talking about longer runs ofc). Drones are so important for HAN-D that there's no way this isn't an oversight imho.

FORCED_REASSEMBLY deals the same damage as an explosive drone, and DISASSEMBLE deals more damage (720% with OVERCLOCK), but is generally unsafe due to locking you into a close ranged attack that doesn't "stun". An explosive drone is basically a stored FORCED_REASSEMBLY you can use at any time, and you only really need 1 or 2 to start your economy on grouped up enemies.

Oh, I also forgot to mention. The drones you buy can also give you your drone ability if they get a kill.