This achievement was a serious pain in the ass, as finding my remaining 28 drones took me hours upon hours of additional exploration.
If you don't know what spy drones look like, hit
, go to the Projects tab, select "Search & Recover" (which you might need to unlock first), hit
, then highlight the 2nd perk of the 3rd tier; "Spy-Drone Tracking". This is the most important perk when going for this achievement, and the perk-related video shows you exactly what spy drones look like.
I found spy drones at any kind of location: bandit dens, arks, pit stops, exploration spots, repowering stations. They're always outside, usually (not always) several meters above the ground, and upon aiming at a spy drone, its blue light turns red, and then it flies away. I used the assault rifle to take them out. Also, you can hear them when you are close to them; they make a whirring sound. Therefore, I would clear a location of possible enemies, search for items indicated on my compass, and as soon as I heard/spotted a spy drone, I would save the game. If you can't destroy one before it flies away, just reload your most recent save.
Now, the big "mistake" I had made prior to going for this achievement, which later made searching for the spy drones a time-consuming nightmare, was purchasing the perks "Embedded-Feltrite Tracking", "Storage-Container Tracking" & "Ark-Chest Tracking" pretty early on in the game (with some of them being mandatory purchases if you want to unlock the tracking for spy drones). The non-mandatory purchases turned out to have been a serious mistake, as all items use the same signal-strength indicator on the compass.
I don't know how many spy drones there are in Rage 2, but upon finding my final one and unlocking this achievement, I had visited every single location on the map and I literally had no idea where else I could search. The highest spy-drone log I unlocked for destroying a drone was #0034, meaning there could be 34+ drones in the game.
You can check how many drones you've found by hitting
> Log > Info > Lore > Spy Drones.
Edit May 16th, 2019: I found a YouTube video uploaded by PS4Trophies a few hours ago, which provides further assistance. According to this video, the drones spawn randomized.
Edit August 29th, 2019: Upon replaying this game months after its release, I noticed the devs recently implemented several improvements in order to make obtaining this achievement way easier. Players are now able to see collectibles by holding down
, and even the signal-strength indicator has been patched to now show what collectible you are looking for, making this solution near-redundant. I'm not removing it, though. It will stay as a reminder on how annoying and time-consuming this achievement was pre-patch. 😂