not sure if this has been suggested the search bar didn't show anything close to this as far as i could tell
we have all seen them... deactivated mecha knights in a level we can pay 5 units of energy to make an ally, but no one uses them unless they are a noob/want that achievement/or just for fun.
so the idea is for gremlins (i want to say all gremlins not just menders) could activate them to become enemies rather than just go to waste since no one uses them. the mechanic would work similarly to menders' "Arise!" ("Activate!"?). In addition mecha knights activated in this manner yield no drops to preserve the current balance of loot drops.
just throwing this out there
I guess this would maybe make the derelict knights a little more interesting, but I think they'd still basically be worthless. If they don't drop loot and they behave the same as regular Mecha Knights, I don't really see a point in this. Granted, it makes sense that gremlins would be able to reactivate their own constructs (unless they aren't actually made by gremlins - conspiracy!), but perhaps there could be something done that makes them have a little more purpose.
Of course, the alternative would be to just buff the deactivated knights to give players some incentive for activating them, but perhaps that's for a different thread.