Drones are one of the three weapons systems of EVE, the other two being turrets and launchers. They are robotic spacecraft with various functions. Combat drones serve as the primary weapons system of many Gallente ships but are utilized by all races by some extent. Drones also serve a utility role, preforming various tasks such as mining or electronic warfare. While their damage formula is identical to turrets, drones are a unique mechanic of EVE.

Drones are the EVE version of pets. Some ships use them as a primary weapon and those ships will usually get fewer high slots or hard points. There are several types of drones: Combat, Mining, Electronic Warfare and Logistics.

Gallente are the primary drone users with the Dominix and Ishtar, however Amarr also happen to have some excellent drone ships, such as the Pilgrim and Curse. All four of the newbie ships have drone bays, however the Gallente one has the largest bay emphasizing their drone usage. Drones were rebalanced some time ago (nerfed drastically) by giving ships two drone stats: Drone Bandwidth and a Drone Bay Capacity. The Drone Bay is a special cargo hold that fits your currently available drones (load it in station). The bandwidth determines how many drones you can actually control at a time. For both of these stats Small Drones use 5, Medium use 10, Large use 25.

Aside from motherships and carriers, you can have at most 5 drones deployed at a time. The actual limit is determined by your Drones skill level and the drone bandwidth of your ship.

In the overview you will have the ability to right click on a drone and select Move | New Group. You can then create a folders and move drones into via the right click menu.

How you choose to do this is really personal preference. While ratting I'll generally have a group of light drones to take out frigates/destroyers as well a group of medium or heavy drones to take on cruisers and battleships. As a Gallente pilot, especially in a Dominix, Eos, or Ishtar, creating groups is an invaluable tool to organize all your drones since you will be able to store so many. There are a lot of options here as you could create mixed groups of certain drones while fighting a specific type of enemy and really increase their effectiveness. Being able to recall and launch different groups of drones can make most NPC spawns extremely easy.

Certain drones are useless against certain classes of ships. This is a rough guide as to which ones work. Note that if you can web or slow down the ships, then Warriors become unnecessary for pursuit.