Bodycam: How to Use the Drone

To use the drone in Bodycam, equip it as a gadget in your loadout, deploy it in a match or in the Lobby, and fly it from its first-person camera in either the Stabilized flight mode or Full Manual (Acro). Since the v0.9 update on November 13, 2026, you can fly it with a gamepad or with a real FPV radio controller or joystick, and the Lobby has a drone race built with TRYP FPV to practice on.

Below is how to equip and deploy the drone, how the flight modes and controls work, which controllers to use, the Lobby race, and how to use a drone in a real match.

The Bodycam Drone at a Glance

How to Equip and Deploy the Drone

1. Unlock it. Reissad’s 2026 roadmap says “Drones and RC-Cars can be unlocked through progression,” so check your loadout’s gadgets for its status.
2. Equip it in a loadout. Open your tablet in the Lobby, go to your loadouts and set the drone as your gadget. Swapping loadouts adds an extra cooldown, a rule Reissad added in v0.8 “to prevent abuse.”
3. Find your gadget key. Reissad has not published default drone keys. Check the key bindings in the settings; since patch #4, perk inputs and character inputs have their own dedicated keybinds.
4. Deploy it. You switch to the drone’s FPV camera and fly from there.
5. Watch the cooldown. After you use it, a cooldown indicator counts down and an audio notification plays when the gadget is available again.

Drone Controls and Flight Modes

Bodycam’s Steam page says the drone “faithfully recreates authentic FPV piloting with realistic flight physics,” with Stabilized and Full Manual (Acro) flight modes and tuning for rates, throttle curves and flight profiles.

• Stabilized is the easier mode to start in. Reissad’s roadmap also promises new pilots an easier way in: “Don’t worry if you’re not [an experienced drone pilot], the casual mode is still available.”
• Acro is full manual flight, based on “real physical properties, like a real simulation,” in Reissad’s words. It is the mode for anyone who flies FPV drones in real life or in simulators.

v0.9 changed Acro in three ways, per the v0.9 release notes:

• Top speed was lowered from about 300 km/h to 150 km/h, “with added aerodynamic drag.”
• Acro physics no longer depend on frame rate, so the drone flies the same whatever your FPS.
• A bug that made a drone pilot invisible to players who joined mid-match was fixed.

Our advice: learn the routes in Stabilized, then move to Acro once you can fly the Lobby race cleanly.

Which Controller to Fly With

A gamepad works. When drones arrived in v0.8, Reissad’s note said they “cannot use dedicated radio controllers in this update” and “can currently be controlled with standard Xbox and PlayStation controllers,” with radio controller support in development alongside the flight simulator TRYP FPV.

Radio controllers and joysticks work since v0.9. The update added “FPV radio controller and joystick support, developed with TRYP FPV.” Reissad’s instruction: “If you have a radio controller, plug it in and give it a go. This is a first version that we’ll keep improving.” Our guide on whether Bodycam has controller support covers gamepad setup and Steam Input.

The Lobby Drone Race

The v0.8 Lobby shipped with its drone and RC car room closed. v0.9 opened it, and in Reissad’s words the lobby “gets its biggest room yet.” The notes describe:

• A pit stop cafe area built around two circuits.
• A drone race designed with the TRYP FPV team, “with official-style gates and checkpoints.”
• An RC car dirt track with checkpoints and slalom sections.
• Lap timing on both circuits. TV screens show your current and previous times, and you can run as many laps as you want.
• A session leaderboard with the best drone and RC car times in your current lobby. Times reset with each new lobby, so invite friends to race the same board.
• No gadget cooldown in the Lobby, so you can redeploy freely, and players are invulnerable there.

Our Shoot House guide covers what else in the Lobby is open, and our guide on how to play Bodycam with friends covers Lobby invites.

Using the Drone in a Match

Reissad added drones in v0.8 so players can “scout, create pressure, gather information, and interact with the battlefield in new ways.” The Steam page adds that drones and RC vehicles can “scout enemy positions, gather intelligence, strike targets, and support your squad.” A few rules to know:

• Drones carry team lights. v0.8 added “a team LED identification system to drones and RC,” so check the lights before you shoot one down.
• Trenches is built for them. Reissad’s Trenches devlog mentions “dedicated areas designed for FPV drones and RC cars,” and its roadmap warns that on Trenches “the threat will also come vertically: watch out for the drones and the experienced pilots.”
• Do not swap loadouts to reset it. Loadout changes add their own cooldown, and v0.9 fixed cooldowns stacking when swapping loadouts.

If the drone view stutters, our best settings guide has the settings that help frame rate most, and our guide to whether Bodycam is coming to PS5 or Xbox explains why the Xbox and PlayStation controller line is about PC gamepads, not consoles. Every guide is on our Bodycam hub.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the drone controls in Bodycam? Reissad has not published default keys. Equip the drone as your loadout’s gadget, then check its deploy key in the settings’ key bindings and fly in Stabilized or Acro mode.

Can you use a radio controller for the Bodycam drone? Yes, since v0.9. Reissad added FPV radio controller and joystick support with TRYP FPV.

Can you fly the drone with an Xbox or PlayStation controller? Yes. Reissad’s v0.8 note says drones can be controlled with standard Xbox and PlayStation controllers.

What is Acro mode in Bodycam? Full manual flight with realistic physics. Since v0.9, its top speed is 150 km/h and its physics no longer depend on frame rate.

Where is the drone race in Bodycam? In the Lobby’s new drone and RC car room, opened in v0.9, with lap timing and a session leaderboard.

Why can’t I deploy my drone in Bodycam? It is probably on cooldown. Wait for the audio cue, and avoid swapping loadouts, which adds its own cooldown.