The Drone Swarm is the fast military unit of the Future Era. It is the slowest fast unit in the game. It is unlocked through the Quantum Communication, and is the first unlocked unit of the Future Era. It is trained in the Drone Swarm Hub and two unattached Drone Swarms can also be received from completing the Clear out Bonta Town Story Quest.
Compared to its predecessor, the Combat Drone, the Drone Swarm improves by 15 attack points and 20 defense points, and gains massive bonuses against ranged and artillery units, as well as very strong terrain bonuses. However, movement is nearly halved and now has a range of 1, making it the first melee unit since the Industrial Age Lancer. It also gains the Rapid Deployment ability, however, which still allows it to spawn randomly on the battlefield and get the first turn.
Usage[]
The Drone Swarm is arguably an extremely bad unit, all because of the lack of range and even mobility. It goes in the record for being the slowest fast unit in the game, slower than that of mounted cavalry units in the early ages. Despite its Rapid Deployment and Flying skills, it sometimes struggles to reach units on the first turn, leaving them vulnerable to attack in the middle of the battlefield. Even though the Combat Drone can be used as a higher era unit, this is generally one to avoid, especially as pairing them with rogues is often useless, as the initial Drone Swarms will often be the very first target for attack, resulting in a lot of damage taken before the rogues are even transformed.
Despite the poor movement and range of the Drone Swarm, they still have a very strong attack and a somewhat decent defense in proper terrain and often take little damage against artillery and ranged units, though other same age units are far more effective at this job than the Drone Swarm.
Against Same Age Units[]
Hover Tank[]
Although the Hover Tank's Stealth and bonuses against fast units are negligible, Drone Swarms are pretty weak when fighting Hover Tanks. Most of the time, they cannot reach the Hover Tank on the first turn, and secondly, the Hover Tank has enough range to avoid Drone Swarms attacking them on the next turn. Even if the Drone Swarm does manage to attack the Hover Tank, their effectiveness is limited by the Hover Tank's Force Field ability and they have to receive retaliation back.
Satellite Spotter[]
Whilst the Drone Swarm has bonuses against ranged units, they are still rather limited by mostly not being able to attack them on the first turn. However, the Satellite Spotter cannot generally do much damage to the Drone Swarm, but their long range means that Drone Swarm will have to take many hits before being able to counterattack. Generally the Hover Tank is much more efficient at defeating waves of Satellite Spotters in general, especially as they can hide over their long range.
Exoskeleton Soldier[]
The Drone Swarm is extremely weak against the Exoskeleton Soldier, especially as the Exoskeleton Soldier has massive bonuses against fast units. Even worse, the Exoskeleton Soldiers can attack Drone Swarms at a distance, and when the Drone Swarms attack the Exoskeleton Soldier at melee range, they will face a retaliation with the combined force of their Blast and Close Quarters skill, receiving significant damage back.
Rail Gun[]
The Drone Swarm is usually strong against the Rail Gun, although the Drone Swarm's slow mobility may not guarantee them the first strike. Despite the Rail Guns being able to deal considerable damage to the Drone Swarm, the Rail Gun's Recharge skill (having to fire every two turns) should allow the Drone Swarm to be effective nevertheless. Usually it is the units defending the Rail Guns that cause trouble for the Drone Swarms, not the Rail Guns themselves.
Other Military Units[]
Legend: 
= Light Unit Class 
= Ranged Unit Class 
= Artillery Unit Class 
= Heavy Unit Class 
= Fast Unit Class