Mata Hari Manners (30 Spy Drones) - Tips & Advise

[PhantomFear94]

Having finished this achievement on Xbox yesterday (https://www.trueachievements.com/gamer/NoHeroes94), this is what I would advise people. For context, it took me around 6 hours to get 27 drones, so I did this in one day more or less from scratch. 

 

CRITICAL:
- Re-load your save if you miss a drone, under any circumstances. It is absolutely not worth trying to find them again. Re-loading your checkpoint ALWAYS works.  They also stay in the same place, so no need to find the drone again. 
- Only unlock Spy Drone, Data Pad, and Storage Container tracking in your projects (you have to unlock the latter two as part of the skill tree, unfortunately). If you're clearing out an area, follow your tracker to get rid of the storage containers and data pads. If your sensor is still going, its a drone, if not, move on. The problems only really start when you start unlocking the Ark chests and Feltrite containers, as I can only imagine your sensor is always on the go.
- The sound of drones is a dead giveaway. This is a big one. You can (usually) hear drones throughout the entire location you're in. By the time I did my last 10 or so drones, I knew there was one as soon as I entered the location, so I just sprinted through on easy, destroyed it, and moved on. If you can't hear any form of buzz when you arrive at a location, there is a pretty good chance there isn't a drone. The exceptions to this are super large bandit dens (e.g. Doomsayer Peak in Twisting Canyons), its worth searching in this case. If you are deaf or hearing impaired, this is still very possible with the sensors, so don't worry too much, this is just helpful to do if you can.

- Drones can spawn almost everywhere, but they can only spawn overground. They will never spawn within buildings, down pits, etc. They are usually affixed to a building or a wall, and it will always be on the exterior. The only buildings it will ever be "inside" are ones with blown walls or roofs. 

- Progress on drones only "saves" when you get to a new location. Manual saves immediately after finding drones didn't bank my drones. It also didn't bank if I fast traveled to a trading town. It is a stupid system, but manual saves basically back up your most recent autosave. If you reload a manual save, it'll put you at the most recent autosaved location. Your progress is only saved if you finish an area's main objective (i.e. kill all enemies, destroy all gas containers), as you get a new autosave. To get around this, just go to the closest possible location and it'll autosave your progress, you're then fine to back up with manual saves and close your session. If you don't finish the main objective of an area, kill a drone, save, then reload it, it'll take you back to the start of that area and the drone won't have been added to your log. I got caught out by this 3 times. If you do, reloading your manually save effectively works the same as reloading an autosave, so just get the drone again. 

 

HELPFUL:
- The stats tracker is completely broken for spy drones, but don't worry. Trophy progress is tied to your log. I had 30 and it popped at the right time. My stats said I had 7 ?.  This is generally the case for any accumulative trophies (i.e. kill X many people with Y).

- Drones were most common at Exploration Locations, Bandit Camps, Pit Stops, and Ark Locations (for me, at least)  I had the most luck with exploration locations (particularly smaller ones) and bandit dens  (roughly 18 - 20 between these two). Arks probably had one 1/3 of the time (I found 4 at Arks). I found the rest at Recharging Stations, Road Blocks, Ranger Echos and Crusher Locations (only if they have an exterior) but nowhere near as many, so I'd leave these type of areas to the end of your grind. I personally NEVER found any at authority turrets, so don't bother there. 
- Write down/log"successful" and "unsuccessful" locations. I kept a log of the name, location type, and region of every drone I found, but also where I didn't find one. This meant that I wasn't looking in the same places more than once, and there is a ton of locations. 2 kind souls linked me this map https://game-maps.com/RAGE2/Full-Rage-2-Map.asp which was helpful, as it may show you some places to search that isn't on the map.
- This is reportedly accumulative between playthroughs. I can't confirm this, as I did do it in one playthrough, but someone on TA was very helpful and did it this way, apparently. 

Edited May 20, 2019 by phantomfear9494

[Infected Elite]

well following 3 peoplea guides. 2 DRONES were at same location. i only have 9.

so fuck this trophy .

[PhantomFear94]

8 minutes ago, LegacyJKO09 said:

well following 3 peoplea guides. 2 DRONES were at same location. i only have 9.

so fuck this trophy .

 

I had a bit more luck. I followed PowerPyx's locations and got 12/33. I then got another 4 from watching PS4trophies' video.  The other 14 I found myself. 

[Infected Elite]

6 minutes ago, phantomfear9494 said:

 

I had a bit more luck. I followed PowerPyx's locations and got 12/33. I then got another 4 from watching PS4trophies' video.  The other 14 I found myself. 

well i had 1 out of 6 so far for ps4 trophies. 

i also have 0 patience to run around a huge empty map to find these stupid things.

 

balloons are easy but jesus christ. how hard is it to have fucking icons for the god damn collectables.

they can still fly around BUT SHOW ICONS. its sad when a 2nd gen pokemon game with jump around legendaries does it better than a modern game. im not even gonna finish rage 2 anymore. i have other shit to play

[FielVeredus]

Can it be spawn at the same location again ?

 

I am thinking dropping this game for now until if they added collectible map in some way. if any. didn't worth scratching my head over tedious work like this  

 

Balloon is manageable by reload the save and grind but Drone isn't work like that for some reason.

[Infected Elite]

got the balloons trophy

 

however about these awful drones...

 

i had 9 data logs when i started today. i killed 3 drones while playing and being annoyed by this shit.

 

now i have 10 data logs..so clearly that tracking is fucked too. 

 

what a piece of shit game as it is already. only 7 main story missions. a bland open world. untrackable collectables. not needing every ark ability. yep. rage 2. a real winner. 

[rdhight]

I did the exact opposite of this. Unlocked all radar trackers, let a few drones get away, did not follow a guide, wrote nothing down.

 

It sucked.

 

Don't be like me. Follow OP's instructions.

[Diddi89]

these drones are so aweful. Dont unlock the other radars, only for the drones. 

[OverHypedG]

It glitched to me positively. I had 29 and trophy popped. Found them most at the exploration places, then bandit dens and last pitstops nad roadblocks. There are at least 3 or 4 at shroudded outposts.

[DoctorBaofu]

19 hours ago, phantomfear9494 said:

- Only unlock Spy Drone, Data Pad, and Storage Container tracking in your projects (you have to unlock the latter two as part of the skill tree, unfortunately). If you're clearing out an area, follow your tracker to get rid of the storage containers and data pads. If your sensor is still going, its a drone, if not, move on. The problems only really start when you start unlocking the Ark chests and Feltrite containers, as I can only imagine your sensor is always on the go.

 

I posted this in another thread too, but you don't have to unlock data pad tracking AND storage container to get to the drone one.  You just need one of them.  It looks like you need both, but you don't.  I went with data pad since a lot of places don't even have any of those and when they do it's just 1 or 2 of them.

 

That said, I'm really hating the idea of getting this platinum.  I have all trophies except the drones, balloons, goon kills, car kills, and the racing one.   I hate the race so much it's making me question if I should just send the game back to Gamefly or not.

Edited May 21, 2019 by DoctorBaofu

[Infected Elite]

1 hour ago, DoctorBaofu said:

 

I posted this in another thread too, but you don't have to unlock data pad tracking AND storage container to get to the drone one.  You just need one of them.  It looks like you need both, but you don't.  I went with data pad since a lot of places don't even have any of those and when they do it's just 1 or 2 of them.

 

That said, I'm really hating the idea of getting this platinum.  I have all trophies except the drones, balloons, goon kills, car kills, and the racing one.   I hate the race so much it's making me question if I should just send the game back to Gamefly or not.

the race took me 2 tries.

i followed tips from @Crispy_Oglop to get Balloons and Car kills.

 

as for goon kills. find a den with 15+ . kill 90% of them. it goes quick. i think Crispy had a tip for that as well that i followed too

[PhantomFear94]

4 hours ago, DoctorBaofu said:

 

I posted this in another thread too, but you don't have to unlock data pad tracking AND storage container to get to the drone one.  You just need one of them.  It looks like you need both, but you don't.  I went with data pad since a lot of places don't even have any of those and when they do it's just 1 or 2 of them.

 

That said, I'm really hating the idea of getting this platinum.  I have all trophies except the drones, balloons, goon kills, car kills, and the racing one.   I hate the race so much it's making me question if I should just send the game back to Gamefly or not.

 

Drones: Cover that in OP (obviously). Honestly, this is the only annoying one you have left tbh.

 

Race: I got the race first try, 3:01. I personally didn't find it too bad but I love driving in games.You just need to boost whenever it isn't a turn, and whenever you have a boost bar. PS4Trophies (Brian) has a video on this, just abuse the boost. I actually crashed once or twice and still just about made it. You're probably getting overly frustrated, I'm sure you'll be able to do it. 

 

Goon Kills: I mopped up around 700 goon kills in roughly 1.5-2 hours by farming the Doomsayer Peak bandit den (Twisting Canyons). It's probably the best den in the whole game, and the enemies aren't a super high level. Got 40 kills every 4 or so mins. Just watch Netflix whilst you do it, if you're bored. there are around 50, but I found it quicker to just reload before doing the upper most section at the very top of the elevator.

 

Car Kills: I personally waited until the mission "The Signal". When you get to the main location (Razorneck Post), there are 2 unattended bikes right outside, and a stationary tank around a small way forward. 3 kills every 20 seconds, took me around 25 minutes to grind out my last 80 (had roughly 50). Even if you've done the story, if you didn't destroy these you can just go to the location and farm them via autosave. Really handy, because they are sitting duck targets. 

 

Balloons: This one is very easy, just random. The advice seems to be to circle the eastern area of the Oasis, and just wait for the random drops (took me around 1-1.5 hours to get my final 10 this way). This area doesn't have a higher rate, but is extremely open so they are super easy to spot. My advice would be to circle this area (or just the map in general) once you have the Icarus (hover bike) (Level 7 of one of the 3 factions, can't remember which). It's purely a case of just waiting for the drop. For me, there were normally 2-3 very close together, then a wait of around 5-6 minutes. Check your map regularly, and again, I'd advice having Netflix on in the background. 

Edited May 21, 2019 by phantomfear9494

[Infected Elite]

more or less decided to just clear each region. so far its going decent. been finding drones around all my "?" places as stated. and at spots very few guides have mentioned. im too lazy to screenshot these things though.

 

sitting at 21 intel. tho i know ive killed more. so 9 or less to get the spydrone trophy.  then just rush main story 

 

i have 23 drones done. getting used to the  noise they make. hopefully the other ones pop up while im clearing the Dens/Exploring locations.

Edited May 21, 2019 by LegacyJKO09

[DoctorBaofu]

16 hours ago, phantomfear9494 said:

 

Drones: Cover that in OP (obviously). Honestly, this is the only annoying one you have left tbh.

 

Race: I got the race first try, 3:01. I personally didn't find it too bad but I love driving in games.You just need to boost whenever it isn't a turn, and whenever you have a boost bar. PS4Trophies (Brian) has a video on this, just abuse the boost. I actually crashed once or twice and still just about made it. You're probably getting overly frustrated, I'm sure you'll be able to do it. 

 

Goon Kills: I mopped up around 700 goon kills in roughly 1.5-2 hours by farming the Doomsayer Peak bandit den (Twisting Canyons). It's probably the best den in the whole game, and the enemies aren't a super high level. Got 40 kills every 4 or so mins. Just watch Netflix whilst you do it, if you're bored. there are around 50, but I found it quicker to just reload before doing the upper most section at the very top of the elevator.

 

Car Kills: I personally waited until the mission "The Signal". When you get to the main location (Razorneck Post), there are 2 unattended bikes right outside, and a stationary tank around a small way forward. 3 kills every 20 seconds, took me around 25 minutes to grind out my last 80 (had roughly 50). Even if you've done the story, if you didn't destroy these you can just go to the location and farm them via autosave. Really handy, because they are sitting duck targets. 

 

Balloons: This one is very easy, just random. The advice seems to be to circle the eastern area of the Oasis, and just wait for the random drops (took me around 1-1.5 hours to get my final 10 this way). This area doesn't have a higher rate, but is extremely open so they are super easy to spot. My advice would be to circle this area (or just the map in general) once you have the Icarus (hover bike) (Level 7 of one of the 3 factions, can't remember which). It's purely a case of just waiting for the drop. For me, there were normally 2-3 very close together, then a wait of around 5-6 minutes. Check your map regularly, and again, I'd advice having Netflix on in the background. 

 

That's the thing.  The only one that really annoys me is the racing one.  The others are just a bit time consuming, which is nothing really.  Nothing bothers me in games more than shitty controls, and I completely hate the driving.  I don't get why every non-racing, open world game feels they have to stick some sort of race in, especially when the car controls are almost always shit.   I've already tried the race for over an hour.  Got 3:04 one time and haven't gotten close again yet.

 

Only other one that annoys me a bit is the balloons just because it's stupid to have to just sit around waiting for something random.  The drones don't really bother me.  Just go to a location and see if my radar pops up. If it does go shoot a rocket at the drone and repeat.  I've got 13 already(according to the intel section) just through playing the story and that's while not even looking for them unless I hear one, or see it on the radar once I got it.

 

I know I'll get through the race at some point since I already got so close once....I just hate it so much.

[HansReaver]

Really starting to hate these drones . Only got these and the crushers (simply because i haven't gone for them). Then i just need to complete the story, but damn if these drones aren't taking ages. May see if starting a new playthrough and doing it that way will help.

Edited May 22, 2019 by HansReaver

[PhantomFear94]

6 hours ago, DoctorBaofu said:

 

That's the thing.  The only one that really annoys me is the racing one.  The others are just a bit time consuming, which is nothing really.  Nothing bothers me in games more than shitty controls, and I completely hate the driving.  I don't get why every non-racing, open world game feels they have to stick some sort of race in, especially when the car controls are almost always shit.   I've already tried the race for over an hour.  Got 3:04 one time and haven't gotten close again yet.

 

Only other one that annoys me a bit is the balloons just because it's stupid to have to just sit around waiting for something random.  The drones don't really bother me.  Just go to a location and see if my radar pops up. If it does go shoot a rocket at the drone and repeat.  I've got 13 already(according to the intel section) just through playing the story and that's while not even looking for them unless I hear one, or see it on the radar once I got it.

 

I know I'll get through the race at some point since I already got so close once....I just hate it so much.

 

What difficulty are you playing on? I did it on easy, which may be why I didn't find it a problem. 

[Rio__HUN]

Drones:

Careful with the powerpyx guide. I've checked every area and i've found on a different spot in a mentioned location. So the screenshot is not useful at all. Actually it can be everywhere.

[Snake2410]

15 hours ago, DoctorBaofu said:

 

That's the thing.  The only one that really annoys me is the racing one.  The others are just a bit time consuming, which is nothing really.  Nothing bothers me in games more than shitty controls, and I completely hate the driving.  I don't get why every non-racing, open world game feels they have to stick some sort of race in, especially when the car controls are almost always shit.   I've already tried the race for over an hour.  Got 3:04 one time and haven't gotten close again yet.

 

Only other one that annoys me a bit is the balloons just because it's stupid to have to just sit around waiting for something random.  The drones don't really bother me.  Just go to a location and see if my radar pops up. If it does go shoot a rocket at the drone and repeat.  I've got 13 already(according to the intel section) just through playing the story and that's while not even looking for them unless I hear one, or see it on the radar once I got it.

 

I know I'll get through the race at some point since I already got so close once....I just hate it so much.

Use your boost in quick and short bursts to propel the car and only use the regular throttle if you get too low on boost, and then use your hand break to maneuver around corners.  Using the regular throttle is what gave me a ton of issues with it.  After I stuck to boost bursts to propel me forward, I got it in a few tries.  It gave me far better control.

[DylanWhite86]

Datapads unlock locations on the map, so I suggest finding as many of those as you can since its better than stumbling upon locations. For sure write down the name of a place you find a drone so you don't have to recheck later.

 

Last night I basically went to each map marker on every section of the map and ended up missing 3 and had to recheck a bunch of places and pick up datapads. Turns out one was at an undiscovered location and another was on the last Ark. The only place I NEVER found one was an Authority turret. If you want to break it down into smaller sections, check them by type, so start with Crusher spawns, then Arks, etc, it'll help your sanity a bit.

[Gage]

9 hours ago, Rio__HUN said:

Drones:

Careful with the powerpyx guide. I've checked every area and i've found on a different spot in a mentioned location. So the screenshot is not useful at all. Actually it can be everywhere.

 

Which one? If they can spawn anywhere in the possible locations then basically all guides are useless aside from just listing which locations people have found drones 

[HansReaver]

Got my drone trophy and it does work over multiple playthroughs, thank god for that.

Now to finish the easy stuff

[DoctorBaofu]

17 hours ago, phantomfear9494 said:

 

What difficulty are you playing on? I did it on easy, which may be why I didn't find it a problem. 

 

8 hours ago, Snake2410 said:

Use your boost in quick and short bursts to propel the car and only use the regular throttle if you get too low on boost, and then use your hand break to maneuver around corners.  Using the regular throttle is what gave me a ton of issues with it.  After I stuck to boost bursts to propel me forward, I got it in a few tries.  It gave me far better control.

I started the game on normal, as I usually do, but put it down to easy once I realized that I don't really like it all that much and just wanted to get through it as painless as possible.  I finally managed to get through the race in like 3:01 or something.  And that was after getting 3:03.08 one time....that was infuriating.  Thanks for listening to me rant a bit.  I just needed to vent some of that frustration.  Now I just need to finish the story, kill goons and get about 7 more drones.   I only had to get about 4 balloons in the dunes area.  The rest I got while riding to places looking for drones.

Edited May 23, 2019 by DoctorBaofu

[Gage]

I'm up to 73 confirmed locations in the guide on Powerpyx's website (and 4 I've not had image confirmation for on the drone spot). Whoever came up with this idea for a collectible setup is an ass. I feel they were intending it so that you just explored the map, but if that's the case they should have just had a trophy for completing every location instead because then everyone isn't running around looking for random spawning items. ?

[PhantomFear94]

3 hours ago, Gage said:

I'm up to 73 confirmed locations in the guide on Powerpyx's website (and 4 I've not had image confirmation for on the drone spot). Whoever came up with this idea for a collectible setup is an ass. I feel they were intending it so that you just explored the map, but if that's the case they should have just had a trophy for completing every location instead because then everyone isn't running around looking for random spawning items. 

 

1) I love DGD to death, so your banner is everything.

 

2) I agree. I actually had fun for the most part with this achievement, as it forced you to explore but doing it in the form of a collectible is the wrong way. If they were going to do altering locations, then they should have implemented a feature similar to Far Cry where you could purchase a map with in game currency to tell you the spots. That way you'd at least know the possible locations (i.e. 60 locations for 30 drones), and it would still encourage you to explore those locations to find the drone with the comfort that you weren't going on a wild goose chase.
 

Edited May 23, 2019 by phantomfear9494

[Hanzoadam]

Most I've met have disappeared before I got them, but I will keep it in mind now to restart checkpoint if i miss it.

 

I'm still not a 100% on the platinum for this game atm think I will see how I go.