Camera Drone (Subnautica)

The Camera Drone is a controllable drone that is used in conjunction with the Scanner Room. They are made using the upgrade fabricator found in the Scanner Room. When the Scanner Room is first constructed, it will provide two Camera Drones.

Camera Drones can be moved around and can be replaced if destroyed.

Uses
To use a Camera Drone, the Player must go to the camera station, which activates the drones.

A Camera Drone features a HUD displaying depth, distance, health and energy, which can be used for navigation and safety. Camera Drones have infinite range. However, the Camera Drone will get fuzzy around 300 meters away from the Scanner Room and around 500 meters away the screen will almost go black.

If a drone's health is depleted, it becomes inoperable and must be fixed with a Repair Tool in order to work again. If a drone's energy is depleted, it must be retrieved manually and placed back into its slot on the Scanner Room for recharging.

Players can use Camera Drones to scan the surrounding area for resources. After the player selects a desired resource, the room will emit a sound and yellow dots will soon appear to mark the resource locations on the hologram.

Each Scanner Room has a beacon that only drones can see, which can be used to navigate back to the Scanner Room.

Hazards
Stalkers can grab Drones in their mouth, treating it similarly to Metal Salvage, and will chase down Drones attempting to escape, even going so far as to pull them out of Scanner Room sockets. Stalkers may even leave their respective biome and navigate a short distance to grab a Drone. This may result in a Drone getting carried hundreds of meters away. Crashfish are also a threat, and can destroy the drone by exploding. Lava Geysers will also damage Camera Drones periodically if the drone is within range of the lava. Brine in the Lost River will deal 2 1/2 damage per second. Building a scanner room above sea level is not recommended as Scanner Drones cannot move across land.

Trivia

 * Camera Drones used to have a max range of 500 meters. Once they reach the max range the screen would say ¨No Signal¨ and the player would have to go pick up the drone.