Rage 2 is out now, and it boasts a whole open world to explore, drive over, shoot, and just generally blow up. And there’s certainly a lot of things in this game to shoot and/or blow up, but some of those things are more useful than others. You can massacre every Goon Squad member in the wasteland and all you’ll get is some bullets and health, but if you want something a bit more challenging you can track down the Rage 2 Spy Drones.
These special drones are spies for Amazon… kidding, it’s the Authority of course. They’re hard to notice beyond the tell-tale buzzing sound as you get close to them, and even if you see them you might think they’re just a piece of scenery. Well, at least until they fly away and you lose your chance to shoot them. We’ll show you below how to track down the little flying varmints and get that elusive Rage 2 Mata Hari Manners achievement/trophy.
What are Rage 2 Spy Drones?
If you’re exploring Rage 2, and you should be, while clearing out a location of enemies and searching for Ark Chests and Storage Containers you may have heard a strange buzzing, like getting too close to a cheap bug-zapper. Alternatively, you may have spotted the source of the buzzing as a dark metal robot with a three-pronged blue light. If you look at it for too long, the lights turn red, and the robot suddenly takes off and flies away. These are Authority Spy Drones, and like anything made by the Authority, you have to destroy them as quickly as possible. If you don’t, they’ll fly away and may never return to that location.
What is needed for the Mata Hari Manners achievement/trophy?
The Mata Hari Manners achievement/trophy is actually one of the toughest in the game simply because the Spy Drones are so difficult to find, and just as tricky to hit, let alone destroy. If you’re not specifically hunting them, and know where to look, this achievement can take ages. To get it, you need to defeat a total of 30 Authority Spy Drones in Rage 2. You don’t have to get every drone in the game, nor do you even need to do it in the same playthrough if you’ve got more than one. Of course, you have to find them in the first place…
How to find Rage 2 Spy Drones
There are a number of points that make Spy Drones particularly difficult to find in Rage 2‘s world. They’re small and blend in to the background, especially during the night time, and aside from their buzz and the three-point light there’s nothing really to distinguish them when you’re just wandering around, seeing as the locations are so large and full of clutter. Then, if you do happen to spot them, if you’re not ready they’ll take off and fly away, giving you only a second or two to aim and shoot.
What makes it especially hard to track down these Spy Drones for the achievement (or gold trophy) is the fact that they’re randomized. You can find one at literally any location in Rage 2‘s wasteland, but they may not be there for anyone else, and if they fly away they might not come back to that place again. It makes writing a guide about how to find and destroy them a real pain, let me tell you. You just have to pick a location, fully clean it out of enemies, and keep your eyes and ears out for their distinctive lights and buzz. Fortunately there’s an easier way than just randomly walking around every place in the game…
Is there an easy way to track Rage 2 Spy Drones?
The good news is that there’s a simpler way to track and find Authority Spy Drones in the game, since there’s a special Project upgrade specifically for that purpose. You’ll need to unlock the “Search and Recover” Project line, so for that you’ll need to meet Dr Kvasir in the Sekreto Wetlands first as part of the story (although you can do this at any time). Once you’ve tracked him down he’ll ask you to complete a mission for him at the Eden Space Center. Call down the pod, get the upgrade, defeat the Authority Titan, and head back to Kvasir. He’ll get to work on Project Dagger, and unlock his Search and Recover Projects.
The one you need to unlock is in Tier 3 of Kvasir’s Projects, called “Spy Drone Tracking.” You’ll have to buy a few first to open up that Tier layer, and in particular you’ll need the Tier 1 Projects that allow you to track Datapads and Storage Containers, as Spy Drone Tracking is linked to both (and done in the same way). Once you’ve bought this skill for three Project points, you’ll have the ability to track Spy Drones.
If you’ve got and used the tracking for Storage Containers or Datapads, this is done in exactly the same way. As you get close to one of these items, such as a drone, you’ll immediately see a new icon just under your compass (at the top of the screen) that looks like a WiFi signal. It gets stronger as you get close to what you’re tracking, and when it’s fully lit you’re very close. If it’s a Spy Drone you’re tracking, at this point you should be able to hear it distinctly. The downside of this tracking ability is that it uses the same tracker for Datapads, Storage Containers, Spy Drones, and Ark Chests, so you don’t know what you’re tracking until you’re close to it. With Spy Drones, you’ll just have to be careful to listen out for them, as looking too closely will see them fly off, and you’ll likely lose your chance to get them.
How to destroy Spy Drones
Once you’ve found one, and it hasn’t flown off yet, you’ll need to prepare yourself. Make sure you have equipped a strong long-range weapon, such as the Assault Rifle or the Hyper-Cannon. The Pistol is probably a little too underpowered to take a drone down, the Shotgun and the Pulse Cannon are too close-range, and the Firestorm Revolver and Grav Dart Launcher will do nothing. The Rocket Launcher will take it down easy, but you’ll have to be sure of your shot, as the tracking alt-fire will be too slow.
After that, simply shoot the drone and it’ll take off immediately, and you’ll have a second or two of it moving slowly where you can lock on to it and take it down. Eventually it’ll shoot off at high speed, and you’ll have missed your chance, so make sure you destroy it before then. As long as you stay focused on it, it should go down after a few bullets.
What else do you get for shooting Rage 2 Spy Drones?
Aside from the achievement, you get two things for shooting down Spy Drones. The first is reputation points with Dr Kvasir, which you can build to get more Project points. The other is the Spy Drone’s log, which will get added to your intel. There’s no particular benefit to these logs, but they’re frequently amusing, and so are well worth checking out every time you take one of the irritating swines down. They at least help you to keep track of how many drones you’ve shot down.
