The Evolution of Halo's Covenant - The Drones 

What's your favorite Drone and why? What Halo Evolution should I cover next? Leave me a comment down below. Thanks for watching :)

Always felt like the drones got overlooked by so many people and just written of as some annoying enemy. But when you actually take a closer look you will see how much love and effort were put in to them.

Shielded drones have ended so many heroic/legendary firefight games. Combined with Black Eye they're deadly as hell.

Random thought but if Drones and Hunters ever split off into their own post-Covenant faction, they’d be a damn good defense against the Flood

Drones always seemed to be the odd ones out in the Covenant IMO - They don't really have any unique relationships with other Covenant species, at least not in-game. We read about their roles in the books. They're more often than not found in isolated "waves" -Gameplay-wise they're more akin to the flood, being low in health but overwhelming in numbers. I think of them as flying combat forms. Fun to mow down with an auto weapon. - They don't display much "culture" if that makes any sense. Their armor is just their chiton with a few antigrav lights. They seem about as mindless and animalistic as the flood or the promethean crawlers. - Variants are a bit...lackluster. It reminds me of the many Halo 3 blue brute ranks. Same tactic, exact same silhouette, slight variations in color. Reach was headed in the right direction with the horns. I'd love to see them return with a few overhauls: - Ranks having more distinct functions like in an actual hive. Workers that move crates, Equipment users, engineers, the typical warriors, flightless melee males that craw along the walls, etc. - Boss ranks? One with very long arms that can quadruple wield for instance, or one with a marksman weapon - Having their limbs and wings be shoot-offable - No energy shields! The flying shielded enemy class has enough already, with the Rangers, Sentinels, Watchers

They were a great enemy and should definitely come back, because just like the Hunters, they were a "OH SHIT" moment each time they appeared.

I never realized how little we see of the drones. Gives me a newfound respect for the encounters we do have

Unironically one of my favorite covenant enemies, and I so want them back in the games

Absolutely hated the drones growing up, in a good way. The way they would swarm you out of NOWHERE, with their disgusting roach-like hissing and appearance, it just seemed like such a smart way to incorporate flying enemies. Like, okay, yeah. They’re a bit weird. But I can buy the idea of flying beetle aliens much more than whatever those lame gremlin things were in Infinite. The way they used them in Reach was great.

I'm surprised you didn't mention that one other piece of Halo 4 concept art, which showed the Drones as having a more mosquito-like appearance. Also worth mentioning that the drone eyes in Halo 2 are mounted on stalks, akin to a crab or snail. Their Reach design even reintroduces their stalk-eyes as their third, backmost pair alongside the first two set-in pairs.

I’ll always have an affinity for the Reach drones. Their satisfying headshot gibbing just makes you feel good.

Two things I've always wondered about drones - Why weren't they ever paired with Halo 2 ranger Elites? Why weren't they ever featured in flying segments? They're one of my favorite enemy types to face, but their placement in level design is very formulaic. There are plenty of opportunities to make neat gameplay segments with them.

Great video, once again! Only thing left to cover is the Flood, the Sentinels, an Prometheans

While it wasn’t featured in the game, since the Halo lore mentioned that Drones have a Queen Caste, it would’ve been a cool boss fight to feature one where she acted as a breeding factor for the Drones.

Halo 4 drone concept looks so cool, shame we never got them!

Drones shined in ODST and unfortunately just weren’t as good in the other games. Though the halo 3 swarm sizes were ridiculous in a good way

For me, drones legitimise dual wielding in Halo 3. Since I suck with grenades, volume of fire becomes the best way to thin out drone swarms

I think it would be cool to see the evolution of the spartans, and how their look has changed

Sorta wish they implemented Drones back into the modern Halo games. It is nice to have a change of pace fighting ground units all the time. Anyways, i'd like to see more evolution videos involving the Halo Infinite designs!~ :D

The lack luster Skimmers of Infinite gave me a new appreciation for Drones. Way better AI both alone and in groups, can hijack, and don't carry hit-scan weapons.

Grunts: BIG SCARY THING RUN AWAY!!! Drones: hold my human

Reach has easily the best looking drones. So goddamn cool. I’ll always be a Brute/Jackle/Drone loyalist

Ultimate strategies for Crows Nest on Legendary: - After clearing the Hangar, bring a turret and just aim at the vent duct they come out from. Guarantee most if not all die. - Bringing fuel rod after clearing bomb room for the swarm fleeing the exploding base.

Ahh these damn, roaches lol Considering H2s development, I think Bungie did amazing. The speed and accuracy of elites, w the health of a grunt? They're the perfect glass cannon, as a swarm. They definitely made me think, before running into anything. Another great video, famlyy, glad u still grinding 😁👌

Maybe do the sentinels evolution? I strongly suggest and would be happy to see it

If Drones appeared more in halo reach, they would be my all time favorite version of them. But ODST beats them by being in the campaign more than thrice.

We want the drones back..the fact that some game “journalists” prefer Skimmers instead is mind boggling smh.

I hated these guys so much. My brain never could get their movement figured out which made killing them a bit of a chore practically. Still liked them as a way of changing up how you handle certain encounters though.

Couldn’t tell you where to find it, but I remember for reach that devs said in a blog post that they intentionally left them out of firefight. Drones were pretty unanimously seen as obnoxious in firefight by the community, so bungie decided to mostly cut them from reach.

It’s thanks to these guys I always nickname my Yanmega’s in Pokémon “Drone”

Excellent video. I’m really glad that you finally did one on the Drones. Some people think they’re annoying, but I think that’s due to the fact that they were so poorly utilized. Personally I really liked them because they break up the normal enemy encounters, and make you fight them with radically different tactics. Luckily mods like Vengeful Vadam’s Reach Evolved uses the Drones a lot more, and gives them ranks similar to the ones in ODST. In terms of visuals the H2A ones are my favorites, but the ODST ones are my favorite in terms of gameplay. I’m sad that we didn’t get to see them in 4. That would have been interesting. If they made it so they were very inaccurate when shooting while flying, but more accurate when standing on a wall they could probably have worked. I really hope that 343 adds in Drones to Reach’s Firefight mode. Along with the cut Schism Firefight mode, and a mode where you play as Elites against the UNSC. That would be cool.

I read somewhere that the Skimmers for Halo Infinite were going to be Drones originally but where changed to be something completely new

The most underrated and underused Covenant race for gameplay and appearance I’d have to give it to halo 3 ODST the only enemies that could be covered are Huragok Flood and Sentinels

Skimmers are alright but Drones deserve more love

I think, for Halo infinite DLC, if they plan on adding drones, emphasise their swarm mentality. Have them fly around as a giant cloud, picking up vehicles and fusion coils to throw at the player. You could have a single skimmer be leading them, kind of like an Elite, that would pop in and out of the swarm giving you a few seconds to kill it, dispersing the swarm and turning them into a more classic drone form. Imagine them as a mini boss fight when you first encounter them, which then becomes a more common tougher enemy in the later levels.

Dude, keep it up man! I watch this serious on my lunch at work and I get genuinely excited when I see that you upload. You've got a keen eye for detail!

clearly the most under utilized halo enemy in the entire series, would have much preferred they appear in halo infinite instead of the skimmers

I’ve been looking forward to this.

I love your videos man. Alot. Please keep them coming

I love your overview videos. Always so comprehensive and relaxing. My favourite drones are probably Reach. The different horns of the higher ranks are awesome, especially the kabuto-like Ultras. Shame the enemy is still so under-utilized.

I think the history of the forerunner enemies would be cool next step even if i find them kinda lame. Other than that there's also the halo vehicles and weapons

EBR thanks for making such great context I really hope you get way more popular you deserve way more views likes and subs with these kind of vids love you man :) oh i also expect The Evolution of Halo's Traffic Cones😎

I'm no game designer and could be talking out of my ass but I'm guessing the reason the drones were lack luster is due either time or tediousness. I believe Bungie had to put each drone 1 by 1 and have them follow certain commands for each of those encounters like ones in "The Storm" and could perhaps take too much data for the missions if you have too many encounters with the drones. But idk, I'm just speculating. But I will say, the drones are definitely a fun unit to fight against, they're like a counter part of the grunts but more on a harder scale do to their numbers and mobility. It would be nice to see them again and see them actually do some engineering stuff (According to lore they apparently deal with engineering covenant tech)

YEEEEEEESSSSS! I have been waiting for a long time for this video.

Great video

i love that the chapters are quotes about drones "buggers heading over the rooftops" is something my brother and i still say

I love the drones 🥰

So many hours of playing ODST firefight on lost platoon back in the 360 days, it's always an interesting round when the 4th wave has drones and hunters.... especially when you don't even kill all the drones and then suddenly you've got 3 brute chieftans chasing you and some invisible brutes lurking around.

Engineers next? Great videos btw!

Great video, you made a couple mistakes with regard to the Halo 3 and ODST Drones that I feel I should point out but otherwise was spot on. 6:04 You actually can't headshot drones in Halo 3, they just have very low health which is likely why the drone in the clip you showed died. You can confirm this by turning on campaign scoring and "headshotting" drones, you will not receive a headshot medal. This was only added in OSDT, which in my opinion was a very welcome change. 9:21 These are not called "Hatchlings", but rather "Pupas", which is a word for juvenile insects. Everything else you said about them was accurate. I really agree with your assessment that the drones throughout the games they appear in are either misused or underused. With the amount of cool playspaces The Ark in Halo has with verticality, it would've been very cool to see them make an appearance there, as well as on the final area of The Storm like you mentioned or on The Covenant. I think having the player go up against drones when they are piloting a Hornet would've been very cool. Reach's underuse of the drones as well is sad, their exclusion from Firefight especially doesn't make any sense to me considering they are utilized very effectively in ODST's Firefight. I think the Drones are very interesting as a true flying unit and personally find the drones to be much more interesting than the Skimmers in Halo Infinite (which are actually just a ground unit under the hood) and hope they make it to that game in the future. It would actually be neat to see Drones and Skimmers trying to compete for superiority on the battlefield when they are (much to their chagrin) forced to fight on the same side.

Great video! I’d suggest doing sentinels next but also a quick engineer video would be a good holdover. Probably wouldn’t be more than eight minutes long, get some views and it’s one more covenant species down for a completionist sake. Just an idea tho

I always had a mixed opinion of the Drone’s gameplay, and I agree with a lot of your points relating to the limited amount of their appearances and their high damage I feel there’s a bit of doubt regarding a re-appearance in Infinite, since the Skimmers debut as a new enemy But I have a few ideas on how they could their behaviour could be affected to be distinct Make them a support unit to other Banished species Drones could carry a grunt to another spot, which can allow for creative encounter ideas Pick up fusion coils, and fly above the player, then drop them Scavenge weapons from fallen allies/enemies and bring them to Elites/Brutes While slightly reducing their numbers to compensate for them working with other species, and modifying their flight patterns Of course, it’s not a perfect idea, but I’d love to see them make a return for the series!

I would have loved to see Drones in Halo Infinite. Adding more content would be a game changer!

Halo 77 All 50 missions are about the drones include one in which you play as a drone EBR: Unfortunately, they did not feature the drones enough

I ❤️ fighting them in halo 2, 3, ODST, reach it made the gameplay more challenging when being in larger numbers of them but fun have an adaptive enemy to fight.

I don’t mind the limited times we fight Drones. It makes each encounter, to me at least, more special and not just another firefight

I really hope 343 adds them to Reach Firefight. Alongside Zealots, Field Marshals, and BOB Elites. Surprised Bungie didn’t include them in Firefight

The next Halo evolution should be the Hunters or better yet the Flood... Hopefully in the future you do evolution of vehicles i think that would be amazing either way keep up with the great work that you do

I loved that Halo 4 drone redesign that had them hold plasma weapons in their mouth and shoot with their jaws, thought that was creative

Nice a new vid!

I think an interesting video idea you can do is one showing certain ranks and variants of the covenant would look like in Halo games they never appeared in. Like a grunt ultra or heavy in Halo CE like Ruby’s Rebalanced mod but to look like how Bungie would have implemented them.

Great video. When will you continue with the Halo Infinite updates ?

I always had a fascination about insects and when the drones came to Halo they instantly became my second favorite alien race. Right behind the elites but they were also a pain in the ass on the harder difficulty.

I love your videos, hope you do a video on the flood soon.

you forgot that ranger elites also can fly in H2 , jump brutes in H3 and tangers in reach were more "jump" then fly but h2 rangers defenitly were flying ( and so also did the heretic leader boss and regret. also flood could also board and smack player in vehicels

Babe, wake up. New EBR video just dropped

Man, those Halo 4 redesigned Drones look amazing. Wish they made the cut.

343 should add Drones to Halo: Reach Firefight, it's actually really easy to do with the mod tools so there's no reason why they couldn't do it. I modded them into the Installation 04 Firefight map and they hang down from the cubicles in the Spirit dropship like bats when they appear

I miss the drones so much. They were so unique and cool

The sniper drones mask for Halo 4 look like faces of Insecticons from Transformers Prime. I wonder if that's where they got their inspiration for the art? Probably.

Finally its here

Nobody: Halo drones: pelvic thrust!

Can't help but to mention how you said the drones are the only bungie era flying enemy besides sentinels.

Post Halo 2 drones can be described with the words "Good things come in small packages"

Flood evolution would be cool

While drones were underused in the games they were in, I think it is hard to utilize them aside from set pieces. They require greater numbers than the other cannon fodder enemies to be a big enough threat to force movement from a player due to how easy it is to swat a few down but if too many are in play with other enemies, combat grinds to a halt and can become a damned if you do damned if you don’t situation

I wish we saw banished drones in halo infinite, maybe we will see them in a campaign dlc or a firefight mode if that ever happens but the drones are my favorite of all the covenant, yes they are annoying but thats what they are meant to do, they concept of their hives is so cool.

Never thought of this before but in H2 the drones look like those insects/aliens in turok 2

I miss theses guys

Where the Hell U Been I been looking all everywhere for you Grrrrr

on halo 2 legendary these guys made blow many fuses aha they just fire so fast

4:00 you forgot about the Elite Rangers afn jetpack brutes in Halo 3. And technically also two bossfights. The Heretic Leader (and his clones) and Prophet of Regret fly as well.

I want to point out that halo wars had a cut drone type which was the Recon drone

It's almost like Bungie realized that they're annoying enemies

Have you considered doing a Flood Evolution video?

I remember in H3 ODST they tried to play up the drones almost like the flood. I guess as a regular human they are scarier but I already meet them 2 games ago.

Can you be doing one for the Sentinels? I'd love to see their compare and contrast with Drones, or what you think made them fun or boring to fight!

I think the reason the dron never had an animation in the game is because they expected the player to shoot the drome and save the marine but i still love the drones just wish they had more time in the games

Gotta say, I really think the visual design of the H2 drones with the round eyes looks better than the 3/ODST/Reach oval eyes. H2's basic design updated with all the colors and design additions of the subsequent iterations would be ideal imo. A white pearlescent Ultra rank with shields that uses all four limbs to quad-wield plasma rifles would make an awesome boss enemy like a Brute Chieftain or Elite Zealot.

Evolution of the Spartans

Ever tought in covering Doom demons ?

We need Drones in a(possible) infinite dlc

Marlin was my favorite drone

You could try to do a Master Chief evolution. That would be interesting.

I actually wanted a video of drones from the brute video

Hot take: Drone swarms in halo 2 are more dangerous than jackal snipers in halo 2 mainly due to how many there are, how quick they are, and how fast they can kill you

Evolution of Sgt. Stacker and Sgt. Johnson

@EBR can you recommend doing a evolution of halo infinite brutes please

Huh, I've never been boarded by a drone before. Didn't know they could do that.

Flying sniper Jackals. Pog