How To Beat The Drone Carrier Boss In Orbitals

Published Sep 3, 2026, 5:25 AM EDT Although Kaitlyn grew up with a passion for both video games and writing, she never imagined she'd eventually combine them into a career. Now, with several years of experience in the industry across Guides, Features, News, & Reviews, Kaitlyn enjoys nothing more than continuing to deep dive into the games she's passionate about and share her findings with readers. In her downtime, Kaitlyn enjoys unwinding with her favorite horror films, despite being a major scaredy-cat. Considering that Orbitals is a relatively short game that primarily centers around solving puzzles with your companion, you won't have many true boss fights. In total, there are only two bosses in Orbital. The first will appear at the midway point, and the second is the final boss. Both boss fights will take place while operating the ship, so you won't ever be utilizing any of the tools as primary weapons against a boss. The first boss you'll face is a large stationary boss named the Drone Carrier. Since this is a two-player experience where each player will have a designated role and associated tasks, everything specifically tied to the Pilot role will be in Blue text and everything specific to the Gunner role will be featured in Red text. How To Defeat The Drone Carrier Phase One During the first phase of this fight, things will be the most straightforward and similar to tasks you've been completing while operating the ship up to this point. The pilot will obviously beresponsible for flying and avoiding incoming missiles targeting you. However, they'll also need to navigate to the left and right sides of the Drone Carrier, where bombs will be appearing. The bombs will alternate sides, and typically appear on the side opposite your current position. While in position, the Gunner will be responsible for pushing the bomb into the Drone Carrier to deal damage. In between pushing bombs, the Gunner will also need to shoot down the smaller drones attacking the ship. The Pilot can also use the Thunder Missile to shoot down incoming missiles. Once the Drone Carrier's health is reduced by a third, the next phase of the fight will begin. Phase Two During the second phase of this fight, you'll enter a top-down sequence in which the Gunner will need to continue firing at small drones while the Pilot avoids the missiles the Gunner can't shoot. Following the short top-down sequence, the Pilot will need tonavigate the ship to the icy, crystal-covered platforms that are connected to the two cables coming out from the bottom of the Drone Carrier. The ice will break at the start of this sequence, and two mechanisms covered in mirrors will appear. The Gunner will need to break all the mirrors to reveal a sensitive point that the Pilot will then need to hover in front of the exposed mechanism to bait the Drone Carrier to shoot it. When it begins to fire its laser at the mechanism, the Pilot will need to dodge out of the way. When it hits one of the mechanisms, a shield wall will appear blocking you from reaching the other one. The Gunner will need to shoot the shield to open a spot for the Pilot to fly through and then repeat the same process as before with the mechanism on this side. Once you break this one by having the Drone Carrier shoot it, phase three will begin. Phase Three During phase three, the ship will freeze, preventing the Gunner from shooting. This will kick the Gunner out of their seat, and they'll then need to go and grab the laser tool to destroy three large ice crystals that have appeared in the ship. While this is happening, the Pilot will need to avoid the drones that are slowly dropping and putting out ice damage. The Pilot will be unable to do anything other than avoid damage. So, if the Gunner takes too long to destroy the ice on the ship and get back in their seat, the Pilot will eventually run out of safe areas to navigate, so the Gunner needs to move quickly. Once the Gunner is back in their seat, the room will change, and the Pilot will essentially be playing a dodging game on rails. There will be three columns where large ice blocks will begin appearing, so the Pilot will need to navigate to the safe path while avoiding the incoming ice. As for the Gunner, you'll need to shoot the small drones that appear and wait for a bomb to appear in one of the columns. When a bomb appears instead of an ice block, the Pilot needs to navigate in front of it so the Gunner can push the bomb into the Drone Carrier. Once three bombs have been pushed into the Drone Carrier, the fight will end, and you will have defeated the Drone Carrier boss.