The Drill Ranger is a light military unit of the Space Age Asteroid Belt. It is unlocked by the technology Simplified Repair Process and can be trained in the Drill Ranger Depot. It is preceded by the Space Marine and succeeded by the Observer Drone. It has the special skills Keen Eye and Contact!. Like all other units, it takes 4 hours to train and heals at a rate of 24 minutes per hit point.
Compared to its predecessor, the Space Marine, the Drill Ranger improves by 300 attack and 100 defense as well as the usual 5% buff to 25% with its Keen Eye ability. However, movement is reduced to 26; its range stays the same and it swaps off the Dragon Breath ability for its Contact! ability.
The currently available units that can attack a Drill Ranger without retaliation are any units with ranged attacks and light units with the Dragon Breath ability. In fact, past the Progressive Era, the Drill Ranger's Contact! ability only works against Drone Swarms, Warrior Monks, Augmented Samurai and Hover Hammers (and themselves of course).
Usage[]
The Drill Ranger is most reminiscent of the Augmented Samurai in the Virtual Future; in this era, they once again have a melee range and a useless Contact ability. Its movement, although fast in comparison to other units, is useless with its melee range. In the practice, the Drill Ranger is easily finished by ranged and artillery units, and even has trouble when facing fast units (except the Hover Hammer) on the first turn. Despite having bonuses against heavy units and stronger stats than previous-age Dragon Breath units, they are also equally vulnerable to them as they can avoid the Drill Ranger’s retaliation whilst the Drill Ranger has to receive retaliation for each of their attacks. The Drill Ranger only works against the Hover Hammer in this era and fails miserably against everything else with a matched boost. This is definitely a very impractical unit and should be best avoided.
Against Same Age Units[]
Hover Hammer[]
The Drill Ranger is somewhat effective against the Hover Hammer, mostly as they can actually retaliate against the Hover Hammer and cause a lot of damage to them, though they still have to take retaliation after their attacks, as they have a melee range. When paired with rogues, however, the Drill Ranger can easily finish an army of Hover Hammers.
Nail Storm[]
The Nail Storm is a big threat to the Drill Ranger as they can attack them on the first round and easily snipe the Drill Ranger multiple times from a distance before the Drill Ranger can reach them. Therefore, the Drill Ranger is weak and should be avoided when facing Nail Storms.
B.E.L.T.[]
For the same reason, the BELT's long range and higher initiative easily makes the Drill Ranger very vulnerable to them. The BELT is in fact a bigger threat to the Drill Ranger with their longer range and stronger attack, and the Drill Ranger should be totally avoided when facing them.
Shredder[]
Theoretically the Drill Ranger is strong against the Shredder, but the Shredder's range allows them to avoid the Drill Ranger's retaliation and damage them. Meanwhile, the Drill Ranger has to suffer retaliation when attacking the Shredder, making the match-up on the practice much less useful for the Drill Ranger.
Drill Ranger[]
Drill Rangers are generally strong against Drill Rangers, only when paired with rogues. As the enemy Drill Rangers target the rogues, the Drill Ranger-rogue will take no damage and retaliate against the Drill Rangers, whilst on the following turn, all of them can be eliminated easily.
Other Military Units[]
Legend: 
= Light Unit Class 
= Ranged Unit Class 
= Artillery Unit Class 
= Heavy Unit Class 
= Fast Unit Class