When they’re not gathering alchemical ingredients, playing post-apocalyptic dress-up, or practising their mini-nuke touchdown throws, Fallout 4’s Sole Survivor can often be found fending off the many dangers of The Commonwealth.
Whether it’s pre-war Chinese soldiers lurking below the soil, power armour-wearing raider bosses looking for their next victim or imposing Brotherhood of Steel gunships patrolling the skies, the sheer range of enemies inhabiting the wasteland makes just staying alive a minor miracle.
If you’re a vault dweller who regularly relies on futuristic energy weapons and Institute tech to shield them from the perils of post-apocalyptia, a new mod might be worth taking a look at.
Feel like you need a tactical edge in Fallout 4’s skirmishes?
The mod in question is called ‘ACD-37 Drone’ and is the work of modder Vallesi, whose previous work has gifted the Sole Survivor a very quiet combat shotgun and some not-so-quiet explosive radroach bombs.
This time, they’ve decided to add a friendly sentinel drone, which is summoned into action for 120 seconds at a time by firing a special flare gun, to your irradiated arsenal, which will automatically attack any nearby NPCs who fall into the raider, gunner, super mutant and generic ‘player enemy’ factions on sight.
As you can see in the showcase video above, the drone is perfect for softening up hostile camps or dungeon exteriors before you properly launch your assault, with its laser fire inflicting some damage and also helping to drive enemies out from behind cover, setting them up for skilled snipers.
That said, don’t expect to be able to issue commands to the drone as you might a follower, as it’s only programmed to independently patrol the area it’s spawned into. In order to unleash automated fury on your foes, you’ll first need to craft both the unique flare gun and its ammunition at a chemistry station.
Also, if you like the idea of encountering these drones as part of enemy Institute patrols or crafting some to help defend your settlements on a permanent basis, you can check out ChoiceSpecsMawile’s ‘CSM's ACD-37 Drone Additions’, which makes both of those ideas possible, in addition to enacting a range of other quality-of-life changes to the drone.
Regardless of whether your Sole Survivor is now hiding behind a tree while their automated ally takes on a horde of angry super mutants, make sure to follow us for more updates on interesting mods like this one for Skyrim and Cyberpunk 2077. You can also check out our mods of the month for January 2023.