Maize breeding population with a wide genetic diversity is required to develop superior drought tolerant varieties. The objective of this research was to obtain information on genetic diversity, heritability value and grain yield performance, yield components and agronomic traits of maize genotypes derived from top cross under severe drought stress. One hundred and fifty maize genotypes derived from top cross and four hybrids maize as check varieties, were tested in Probolinggo, East Java, and Gowa, South Sulawesi during dry season of 2013. Factorial randomized block design with two replications was used in thisexperiment. Each hybrid was grown in two rows of 5 m length plot, one plant per hill spaced 70 cm between rows and 20 cm within row. Results showed that top cross hybrids had significantly different responses to drought stress. Broad sense heritability, value of silking, number grain-rows per ear, and shelling percentage were high. Heritability estimates for of anthesis, anthesis-silking interval, plant height, ear height, weight and ear performance, ear length, 1000 seeds weight and grain each yield were intermediate. The 20 best hybrids based on the highest grain yield, consisted of 17 genotypes with good combining ability with P21, 2 genotypes had good combining ability with Bima 11 and only one genotype had good combining ability with both the top cross parents, (P21 and Bima 11). Grain yield of 20 top cross hybrids in Probolinggo ranged from 4.8 t/ha to 6.7 t/ha significantly higher than that of tester varieties, while yields in Gowa ranged from 4.5 t/ha-6.7 t/ha. Only 4 tested hybrids significantly outyielded the four tester varieties. For the purpose of further selection, determining of the best S1 genotype should be done per location to overcome large environmental effects.