Yes, you always need battery to run motors. Not enough power in just USB.

Makes sense, thanks.

I'm starting to get rolling with this thing. I took out the FPV camera since i'm not using it yet and the reduced weight helped a lot with response and flight time. I've read this quad is a little underpowered so it helped.

I also applied the Project Mockingbird tunings in Betaflight. That made a huge difference. It's a whole new machine now. So much tighter and snappier. So far so good!