The Back-up

The Back-up
Call drones for back up. Lasts 25 seconds.
Call 4 Strike Drones to fight for you. Lasts 25 seconds.
Rarity	Equipment
Cooldown	100s
Amount needed for permanent effect
6 Gesture of the DrownedGesture of the Drowned Dramatically reduce Equipment cooldown... BUT it automatically activates. Reduce Equipment cooldown by 50% (+15% per stack). Forces your Equipment to activate whenever it is off cooldown.	9 Fuel CellFuel Cell Hold an additional equipment charge. Reduce equipment cooldown. Hold an additional equipment charge (+1 per stack). Reduce equipment cooldown by 15% (+15% per stack).
Unlock	Mechanic

Strike Drone
Health	225 (+67.5 per level)
Health Regen	5/s (+1 per level)
Damage	7 (+1.4 per level)
Speed	17 m/s

"Backup" redirects here. For the common item, see Backup MagazineBackup Magazine
Add an extra charge of your Secondary skill.
Add +1 (+1 per stack) charge of your Secondary skill..

The Back-up is a returning equipment in Risk of Rain 2.

When activated, it summons 4 Strike Drones that follow the player and attack nearby enemies with fast-firing machine guns. After 25 to 28 seconds, the Strike Drones automatically self-destruct.

Notes

• The Strike Drone is the only ally that does not scale with the monster level, but instead with the player level. As such, it deals less damage as time passes, since monsters level up faster than the player. This is most likely a bug.
  • It is worth noting that Strike Drones spawned by an Equipment Drone or a ScavengerScavenger
    Item HoarderHP: 3800 (+1140 per level)
    Damage: 4 (+0.8 per level)
    Class: Ranged
    Speed: 3 m/s
    Armor: 20 will be at ambient level, since their summoner also scales accordingly.

Tips

• This equipment is extremely beneficial for CaptainCaptainThe Captain is a unique survivor that can control the battlefield with utility and damage - with help from the UES Safe Travels.
  Class: Ranged
  HP: 110 (+33 per level)
  Damage: 12 (+2.4 per level)
  Armor: 0
  Umbra: Tired Veteran, since his passive skillDefensive Microbots (Passive)Passively gain Microbots that shoot down nearby enemy projectiles. Drones are also given Microbots.
  Survivor: Captain grants every Strike Drone Defensive MicrobotsDefensive Microbots
  Shoot down nearby projectiles. Recharge rate scales with attack speed.
  Shoot down 1 (+1 per stack) projectiles within 20m every 0.5 seconds. Recharge rate scales with attack speed. until their duration runs out.

• Giving The Back-up to an Equipment Drone is quite useful, since the drone itself will activate the equipment when enemies are near. Both the Equipment Drone and Strike Drones will follow the player nearly all the time, since the Equipment Drone reduces its equipment's cooldown by about 80%.
  • This is especially useful as Captain, as the Equipment Drone and the Strike Drones will get Defensive Microbots.

• Due to its 100 second cooldown, it's best to use this against a horde of enemies or during the Teleporter Event, as the drones have a high rate of fire and can draw enemies' attention.

• This item has a hard limit of 20 drones that can be active at any one time. This cap is affected by other drones the player already has, and activating it will no longer have any effect if they have 20 drones already.

• It's possible to gain permanent uptime of the drones by having a Gesture of the DrownedGesture of the Drowned
  Dramatically reduce Equipment cooldown... BUT it automatically activates.
  Reduce Equipment cooldown by 50% (+15% per stack). Forces your Equipment to activate whenever it is off cooldown. and at least five Fuel CellsFuel Cell
  Hold an additional equipment charge. Reduce equipment cooldown.
  Hold an additional equipment charge (+1 per stack). Reduce equipment cooldown by 15% (+15% per stack)..
  • Interestingly, this equipment can still benefit from gathering more Gestures and/or Fuel Cells even after permanent uptime is achieved, since more than 4 drones can be summoned at once.
• Drones summoned will not receive the visual drone augmentations provided by Survivors of the Void - DLC Content
  Spare Drone Parts is part of the Survivors of the Void DLC. It is only available if the DLC is enabled when starting a run.
  Click for more info. Spare Drone PartsSurvivors of the Void - DLC Content
  This content is part of the Survivors of the Void DLC. It is only available if the DLC is enabled when starting a run.
  Click for more info.Spare Drone Parts
  Your drones fire faster, have less cooldowns, shoot missiles, and gain a bonus chaingun.
  Gain Col. Droneman. Drones gain +50% (+50% per stack) attack speed and cooldown reduction. Drones gain 10% chance to fire a missile on hit, dealing 300% TOTAL damage. Drones gain an automatic chain gun that deals 6x100% damage, bouncing to 2 enemies. but will receive the stat boosts.

Lore

"The inclusion of Rapid Response Drone Squadrons (RRDS) by local law enforcement marked a dire turning point of Plank's Rebellion. After its massive "success" in quelling the Rebellion - and subsequent implementation across Mercury - underground drone hackers became highly sought after by black market users."

-Overview of Drone Technology, Vol.2

Version History

Anniversary Update

• Quality of Life
  • Graphics Updates
    • Update visuals to match other assets

Early Access Artifacts Content Update

• Sound & Music
  • Fix The Back-up equipment not playing activation SFX correctly over the network

Early Access Hidden Realms Content Update

• Gameplay Changes
  • Increase size of Backup Drones

Early Access Scorched Acres Content Update

• QOL
  • ☂ Add 0.5s cooldown to repeatedly using The Backup equipment

Trivia

• Prior to the Anniversary Update, the Strike Drones shared the same model as the Missile Drone.

• The Back-up has a retro "walkie talkie" styled LCD screen, which can be read if examined in the logbook. It has a signal strength (or battery) indicator at the top, says that it's connected to Channel 2, and is set to 0/100 Voice Mod SVL (presumably standing for sound velocity levels).

• 

  A close up of The Back-up's screen.