(As written in the N in-game help:)
Sluggish but deadly, these guys need a second or so of charging before firing; use it to run for cover.
Tactics[]
Laser drones are by far the slowest enemies in the game. They can see any location in a room that isn't blocked by a wall or door. Once they see you, they'll shine a small, harmless ray at you. Get out of the way quickly, because that little ray turns into a deadly laser in about a second. Neither beam moves from the place where the ninja was seen. Laser drones aren't too dangerous in open spaces without steep slopes like 03-4: Blast Doors. But if there are other enemies teaming up against you, things can get hard really fast. And in places where jumping is made harder by extremely steep slopes or curves, they become troublesome. These drones are both hardest and usually found in places with steep slopes or curves and several other enemies in the same areas that the laser drone often fires, like in 27-3: Suicide Mission.
Laser drone stages[]
- A simple laser drone, before a ninja enters the area
- The laser drone is charging up and trying to fire at the ninja
- The laser drone is now firing at the ninja, but luckily, the ninja has escaped.
Mapmaking Tactics[]
A common method in mapmaking to make good use of the laser drone is to enclose it in tiling, but allowing a "crack" in the tiling to allow the drone to shoot through. The first map known to execute this idea exceptionally well is Lucidium's "Compartment". [1]
Laser drones are also used numerous times in DDAs to create close calls. In these, the ninja is usually seen flying through the drone's laser a millisecond before it becomes lethal enough to kill.