unit-assembly-drone

Assembly Drone is a small helper unit spawned by the Assembler building to assist in constructing large, multi-block items and structures. It exists only while its parent Assembler is present and positions itself around the Assembler's build boundary to place blocks and perform assembly tasks; multiple drones will arrange themselves to cover the corners of the Assembler's boundary and will reposition if one is destroyed.

Assembly Drones occupy a very small footprint (reported as 0.75×0.75 blocks, tying them with Mono as the smallest units in the game) and have an internal item capacity of 20, though they do not pick up items from the ground and cannot be directly ordered to collect or carry resources. They are spawned and controlled automatically by an Assembler and will automatically despawn if that Assembler is removed.

When spawned, drones fill each corner of the Assembler’s boundary in a counterclockwise order beginning from the northeast corner; this placement is independent of the Assembler’s rotation. If a drone is destroyed, the remaining drones rearrange themselves to maintain coverage of the boundary corners. Drones are physical units and can be affected by collisions and pushes from other units: any air unit (including the Core unit) can push an Assembly Drone. If pushed out of its assigned position the drone will attempt to move back into place; however, if it is pushed too far it will halt its building actions until it can return.

Because Assembly Drones are tied to their Assembler, their availability and behavior are constrained by that building: removing the Assembler removes its drones, and their activity is intended solely to extend the Assembler’s construction reach rather than to function as independent laborers or combat units. Notably, the Assembly Drone is the only non-core unit that is exempt from the usual unit-cap limit, allowing Assemblers to create these helpers without affecting unit count caps. This combination of automatic placement, tiny size, and Assembler-dependent lifespan makes them specialized tools for expanding build area rather than general-purpose units.

• They do not pick up items despite having an internal item capacity.
• Placement is deterministic: corners, counterclockwise, starting at northeast, unaffected by Assembler rotation.
• Drones rearrange if one is lost and despawn when their Assembler is removed.
• Can be pushed by air units and will try to return; being pushed too far stops building.