Psa: Sentient Drone Appearance Is Signalled By Flickering Lights.

[BlazenFury]

Other stuff:

It can spawn in boss nodes.

EQUIP A CODEX SCANNER. You have to scan the drone before it flies away. if you're rushing ahead or lagging behind, gg.

It's blue. HELIOS WORKS!

It's a stage prop, basically. No hp bar, can't shoot it. Once you see it, or it sees you, scan it before it leaves. Lotus will contact you a few minutes later.

My drone spawned in Tyl Regor's node; and the patch implies it appears anywhere as long as everyone is MR3+.

Hope this helps!

Edited August 1, 2015 by BlazenFury

[0Pinger]

Not enough info, does it show up on Grineer/Corpus/Void etc tiles?   Is it destructible, will have to not use amprex or other aoe weapons/frame abilities if it is.

[FierceRadiance]

Yeah, I went directly to Cephalon Cyphalis because I read that you buy the thingie from him. But no joy from him unless the scanner scans you first, I guess...

[BlazenFury]

Updated.

[Iceheart125]

apparently, if someone who has encountered it and has the quest invites other people without it, there are drones in the first mission, and scanning them initiates the quest. https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/499871-if-you-have-the-nathal-quest-you-can-help-others-get-the-quest/

[0Pinger]

Helpful bit of info from the wiki, Trinculo the capture node.  First try and found one, until I tried it I had been doing sabotage missions with no luck since Saturday

[PAX_NL]

I noticed running missions in a full squad seems to up the chances to. Got them to appear 3 missions in a row that way.