Open the world’s Edit Settings screen, go to Advanced World Settings, enable Enable Drones, and save. That switch allows qualifying pirate encounters to dispatch armed drones; it is not a command that immediately spawns ships at your location.
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What “Enable Drones” actually does
Enable Drones is a world-level rule governing pirate defenses in Space Engineers. When it is active, approaching or attacking an eligible enemy NPC station can cause the Pirate faction to send armed drones after you. The setting applies to the world, not just to one player or one ship.
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Turning the option on does not create a drone instantly, populate every pirate base, or replace the encounter system’s other requirements. A qualifying pirate antenna must be present, your directly controlled entity must enter that antenna’s broadcast radius, and the encounter must still have available drone capacity and NPC PCU budget.
The technical save definition identifies the setting as the Boolean value EnableDrones, whose documented default is true. A default in the save schema is not a guarantee that every existing save currently has drone support active: world settings can be changed, imported, or overridden by a custom setup. The in-game value shown for your world is the one that matters.
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Turn on drone support in the world settings
- From the main menu, load the target world, or select the save from the load-game list.
- Choose Edit Settings for that world. Do this before entering the world if you want to change the configuration from the menu.
- Open Advanced World Settings.
- Find Enable Drones and switch it on.
- Apply the change and save the world settings. Wait for the save operation to complete before returning to play.
- Load or resume the world, then travel toward a pirate station or other encounter that can provide a pirate antenna trigger.
If you are already playing a Survival save, you can make the same change by leaving the world, editing that save from the load screen, enabling the option, saving, and then loading it again. The setting is not limited to worlds created with drones enabled from the start.
What must happen before a drone appears
A pirate encounter must be eligible
The option only affects encounters that use the Pirate faction’s drone-defense system. A neutral station, a player-built antenna, or an unrelated NPC encounter does not become a drone source merely because the global switch is on.
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Encounter logic checks NPC-owned RadioAntenna blocks. The antenna’s HUD text, or its terminal name when HUD text is unavailable, must match one of the pirate antenna definitions used by the encounter system. That match identifies the antenna as a trigger capable of requesting additional ships.
Your controlled entity must enter the broadcast radius
The trigger is based on the entity you directly control entering the antenna’s broadcast radius. Flying a remote drone, camera, or unattended vehicle near a station may not satisfy the same condition if you are not directly controlling that entity. Move the character or actively piloted craft into range while watching for the encounter response.
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Available limits still apply
Even with a valid antenna trigger, the world can refuse additional ships when the configured drone cap or NPC PCU budget has been reached. These limits are controlled separately from the on/off switch and are especially important in busy worlds with several NPC encounters already active.
World controls that affect pirate drones
| Control | What it governs | What to check |
|---|---|---|
Enable Drones (EnableDrones) |
Whether qualifying pirate defenses may send armed drones. | Confirm it is enabled in Advanced World Settings and that the change was saved. |
Max Drones (MaxDrones) |
The world’s cap on the number of drone ships that can be active through the encounter system. | Make sure the cap is not set so low that no additional ship can be created in the current situation. |
NPC PCU or Pirate PCU (PiratePCU) |
The PCU budget available to pirate-controlled NPC activity, including additional ships. | Check whether existing NPC grids have consumed the available budget. |
| Random Encounters | A separate world option controlling random encounter generation. | Do not assume changing Enable Drones changes this setting. |
| Cargo Ships | A separate option for cargo-ship activity. | Enable or disable it independently according to the world you want. |
| Economy | A separate economy-system setting. | Its state is not automatically changed by drone support. |
| Planetary Encounters | A separate planetary encounter system. | It has its own toggle and does not become active as a side effect of Enable Drones. |
The names shown in the interface can differ slightly from the serialized names used in a save. Use the visible labels in the settings screen when changing the world; the code-style names are useful when diagnosing a save or a custom configuration.
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How to verify the setting without misreading the result
After saving, return to the world and use a controlled test rather than waiting in an arbitrary location. Locate a pirate station or encounter that is known to contain a qualifying antenna, approach it in a directly controlled ship or character, and remain within the broadcast area long enough for the encounter logic to react. Keep the test area clear of unrelated NPC activity so that a cap or PCU limit is easier to identify.
- Record the world’s current Enable Drones, Max Drones, and NPC/Pirate PCU values before testing.
- Approach the pirate structure gradually instead of passing through the area at high speed.
- Use the antenna’s HUD text or terminal name to determine whether it is the type used by the pirate encounter definitions.
- Watch for a new hostile grid rather than expecting a notification that says “drones enabled.”
- If you change a limit during testing, save the world again and repeat the approach; otherwise you may be testing the previous configuration.
A successful test is the appearance of an additional pirate-controlled ship after the qualifying trigger and within the configured limits. The absence of an immediate spawn at another location does not by itself prove that the switch failed.
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Troubleshooting: pirate drones are not spawning
1. The setting was changed but not saved
Exit to the world list and reopen the settings for the same save. Confirm that Enable Drones is still on. If it reverted, apply the change again and wait for the save to finish before loading the world. A setting changed only in a temporary screen, or changed and then abandoned without applying, will not affect the saved world.
2. You are not at a qualifying pirate encounter
Enable Drones is conditional. It does not create a universal hostile response around every NPC station, asteroid, or player base. Move toward a pirate-owned station or antenna that belongs to the encounter definitions, and test there. If the structure has no matching NPC-owned RadioAntenna, there is no drone trigger for the system to process.
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The encounter checks whether the directly controlled entity enters the antenna’s broadcast radius. Being able to see the station, detect it at long range, or fly a separate remote craft nearby is not the same as entering that radius. Pilot the craft or control the character that is approaching and cross into the antenna’s active area.
4. Max Drones is limiting the encounter
Review Max Drones in Advanced World Settings. If the world has already reached its permitted number of drone ships, a new trigger can be valid without producing another grid. Remove or allow existing NPC drones to despawn, or raise the cap if that fits the intended difficulty, then save and retest.
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5. Pirate PCU is already exhausted
The NPC PCU/Pirate PCU budget can block additional pirate grids even when the drone count itself is below the maximum. Other pirate ships and NPC structures may be consuming that budget. Check the value and current activity before concluding that the Enable Drones switch is broken.
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Random Encounters, Cargo Ships, Economy, and Planetary Encounters are independent settings. Enabling drone support does not turn on those systems, and turning one of them on does not replace the pirate antenna requirement. Check each option separately when your test depends on a particular encounter type.
7. A custom or modded setup changed the assumptions
Custom encounter content can use different factions, antenna names, spawn rules, or limits. Compare the setup with the vanilla controls: whether EnableDrones is on, which faction and antenna provide the trigger, what MaxDrones allows, and how much PiratePCU is available. If the custom content does not use the pirate antenna definitions, the vanilla switch may not control it.
Vanilla worlds versus custom encounter setups
| Question | Vanilla world | Modded or custom setup |
|---|---|---|
| Is the global switch relevant? | Yes. Use Enable Drones in Advanced World Settings. | Possibly. Verify that the custom encounter reads the same world value. |
| What creates the trigger? | An NPC-owned pirate RadioAntenna whose HUD text, or terminal name as fallback, matches a pirate antenna definition. |
Confirm the faction, antenna identity, and trigger rules supplied by the custom content. |
| What limits ship creation? | Max Drones and Pirate PCU are the relevant documented controls. | Those limits may still matter, but custom scripts or encounter rules can add additional constraints. |
| Do other encounters turn on automatically? | No. Random Encounters, Cargo Ships, Economy, and Planetary Encounters remain separate. | No automatic relationship should be assumed; inspect each system’s own configuration. |
This distinction prevents a common diagnostic mistake: treating every hostile ship as a “drone” controlled by one master switch. The world setting belongs to a specific pirate-defense path. A custom scenario can contain hostile ships that follow entirely different spawning logic.
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Changing the difficulty without disabling the feature
If you want drone support but fewer simultaneous attackers, adjust the capacity controls rather than switching the feature off. A lower Max Drones value limits the number of active drone ships, while a lower Pirate PCU value restricts the total NPC grid budget. These controls affect how much pirate activity can be present; they do not change the antenna trigger itself.
Conversely, increasing a cap does not guarantee a spawn. The pirate encounter still needs its qualifying antenna, your directly controlled entity must enter the broadcast radius, and the encounter must be able to request a ship under its own rules. Treat the caps as ceilings, not spawn commands.
Quick diagnostic checklist
- Did you edit the intended save rather than a similarly named world?
- Is Enable Drones visibly on after reopening the saved world settings?
- Did you apply and save the change before loading the world?
- Are you testing at a pirate encounter rather than an unrelated station or structure?
- Does the encounter contain an NPC-owned
RadioAntennawith a recognized pirate HUD text or terminal name? - Is the directly controlled character or vehicle inside the antenna’s broadcast radius?
- Are Max Drones and Pirate PCU high enough for another grid?
- Are you relying on Random Encounters, Cargo Ships, Economy, or Planetary Encounters even though those toggles are off?
- If the world is custom or modded, does its content actually use the vanilla pirate-drone trigger?
Bottom line
Enable drone support by editing the world, opening Advanced World Settings, turning on Enable Drones, and saving. Drones then become available through qualifying pirate antenna encounters; they do not spawn everywhere on demand. When nothing appears, verify the pirate trigger first, then check the saved setting, Max Drones, and Pirate PCU before changing unrelated encounter options.
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