Your Drone
The AV-1 “Lumen” is the only hull in the water. Seven slots decide how it flies, how far it sees, how much it can carry and how hard it hits — every change to any of them shows immediately, both in the water and in the numbers.
01 Seven slots, one drone
Every part the AV-1 wears fits one of seven slots — lamps, dome, hull, engine, claw, weapon and wrap — and every one of them is visible on the model, never a hidden number. Weapon is the newest of the seven, split off the claw so a gun and an arm can finally be upgraded on two separate tracks; see Weapon & Rockets for the full nine-mount catalogue. Open the Rig — your drone’s mounted loadout — with I to see what’s fitted and swap anything you’ve earned; the fit is instant.
Slot map
02 Stock issue versus earned
Every pilot ships out with the same coastal-tier loadout: Standard Floodlamps, a Cast Acrylic Dome, Tideworn Plating, a Standard Impeller, a Utility Claw and a Single-Tube Flare Launcher. Honest gear — the impeller gives a small push to thrust, the launcher fires against both the Breachstone and any breakable rock you find in open water, and the rest mostly just keep you moving and afloat. The real gains come from what you earn.
Six parts are granted the moment you cross a one-time milestone rather than a shop — see The Bay for exactly what triggers each. They aren’t the whole catalogue, though: every slot now carries a real range of gear beyond these six — see The Part Catalogue for the full 45, seventeen of them reachable today between stock, salvage, milestone and siege.
| Slot | Part | Rarity | Effect | Earned by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lamps | MK-II Floodlamps | Twilight | +80 light radius | Chart the Twilight crystal field |
| Hull | Reinforced Plating | Twilight | +40 Fleet Haul | Bank 500 lifetime crystals |
| Engine | Tidal Thrusters | Midnight | +30 speed, +60 thrust | Reach 2,000 m |
| Claw | Salvage Claw | Midnight | +15% yield | Record every catalogued creature |
| Hull | Pressure Carapace | Abyssal | +700 depth rating, +20 Fleet Haul | Unlocks at 2,600 m — build at the Workbench |
| Wrap | Brasshead Wrap | Abyssal | +1 luck · recolors the hull | Unlocks at 2,700 m — build at the Workbench |
A stock lamp radius of about 190 m plus a fitted pair of MK-II Floodlamps reaches roughly 270 m — the single biggest jump in how much dark water you can actually see, for the entire loadout.
The MK-II Floodlamps and the Salvage Claw are also both grapple-able straight out of the water with the salvage arm — a faster route to the same two parts than the milestone above. See The Salvage Arm.
03Skins & wraps
The wrap slot is cosmetic, not a stat slot in spirit even though the one earned wrap today happens to carry a small luck bonus alongside its look. Two liveries exist:
The standard-issue hull every recruit ships out in. No wrap needs to be equipped for this to be what you fly.
A riveted-copper wrap pulled from the old surface fleet — warm in a place that has forgotten warmth. Earned, not bought, by reaching 2,700 m.