An Informer. Make that shot count!
Informers are Grineer spy drones introduced in the Spy Drone Event starting on July 5th, 2013. They appear as miniature weather balloons that float in place on random points of the map. Informers cannot attack, or even move aside from hovering slightly in the same space. Informers are equipped with Orokin cloaking tech, which they will activate upon being damaged and escape, meaning they must be killed with the first shot.
Informers have the special ability of disrupting the player's minimap when in its proximity, which is also an effective way of knowing when one is nearby. They can also negate Enemy Radar at a radius slightly larger than its minimap disruption radius.
Top view of an Informer
During the duration of the event, Informers will be found on any Grineer missions that are level 15 or above. Killing 20 will qualify the player for receiving the Snipetron Vandal as a reward after the event ends. They can be often found on Grineer systems above level 15 (Earth, Sedna, Ceres) in Grineer missions, Especially on Cambria (Earth).
Trivia
- Informers will disappear upon receiving damage from Grineer units as well.
- Informers will respond to your movements and can "see" you, turning towards your direction while staying in the same postition.
- Given a long enough radar range, it is possible to detect an Informer with Enemy Radar by staying out of its range with altitude.
- Informers spawn on ground level, before floating up to its proper height.
- Banshee's Sonar can spot them even when your map is almost completely disrupted by them.
Notes
- Since the Informer will escape if the first hit doesn't kill them, high-power accurate weapons such as the Paris, Lex, Glaive, Vulkar, and Latron should be used if you are hunting them. Also Kunais and Despairs with a few damage mods are able to destroy them.
- However, weapons such as shotguns can also easily destroyed them, if they are strong enough. This means that there's actually a small amount of frames in which the player can damage the drone, instead of disappearing after the first damage received.
- Sentinel fire and abilities will cause it to disappear, unless the damage is high enough (like Dethcube's Vaporize), however they will not target it directly.
- Informers are plentiful on Cambria (Earth), yielding 20+ if the map is searched through thoroughly.
- Informers can be found on Kappa(Sedna) and have a 100% chance of spawning.
- Informers can be found in number from 1 to 5,6 on Sycarox (Uranus)
- Informers can be found in great numbers on Prospero (Uranus). If you clear the map, complete the objective, and reclear the map, you can take down all 20 in one run.
- Setebos (Uranus) shows sililar numbers to Prospero but is a sabotage mission instead of a raid mission and can contain much larger rooms.
- Kiste (Ceres) can also sometimes yield high numbers, ranging from just a few to 20+. Solo play tends to yield better results, given the player is equipped to handle the large number of enemies found in mobile defense missions.
- Every Perk with a certain AoE like Rhino Stomp, Avalanche, Overload, Mag Crush (confirmed) are able to destroy the Informers. (Other Perks need confirmation)
