Astromechs: How to Play the Strongest Character in Star Wars Zero Company

The Astromech, which defaults to the designation BR-1, is one of the strongest Operators in the game once you understand what it's actually for. It doesn't carry a blaster and can't go toe-to-toe in a straight firefight, but it breaks the normal rules of Action Points and provides supreme utility and tankiness.

This guide covers why the Astromech is worth a squad slot (or two), and how to play and build them.

The only downside is they don't come with a unique character - for those, you can read about in our best companions builds guide. To get a general idea of what other non-droid specializations are best, see our specialization ranked tier list.

Build

The Astromech is very Focus Point heavy, so you may have to budget your points. Generally, you want to get upgrades in the following:

• Built-In Comlink 2 (3 is ideal, but 13 Focus Points is a lot)
• Extended Storage Max (buffs and extra Utility uses)
• Coordinated Support (AoE AP)

Most other points are good, but preference in where you invest.

Playstyle

With this set up, the Astromech does not need to shy away from engagement. Put them on the front line but still within buffing range of your teammates so you can dish out free AP. You need to be up close and personal to wreack havoc with your grenade utilities and debuff enemies, and don't worry - the Astromech can handle it! They have lots of extra defensive passives and have an extremely strong self-heal usable each turn.

Below is a deep explanation of why they are so strong and how their kit works.

The Astromech's core strength is Action Point sharing. It can hand its own Action Points to any Operator within range, and once its ability tree is fully upgraded, the once-per-turn limit on that sharing disappears, so it can keep feeding your squad Action Points for as long as it has any left to give.

In practice, this means whichever Operator is best positioned that turn gets to act again. A Sharpshooter is no longer punished for moving before setting up Overwatch. A Gunslinger running an Onslaught stacking pistol build can chain extra shots and stack that weapon's per-shot bonus multiple times in a single turn. Feeding Action Points to your best-positioned Operator is almost always a stronger play than spending them on the Astromech's own attacks.

The Astromech's ultimate pushes this further: for 10-6 Advantage (depending on upgrades), it grants extra Action Points to the entire squad, INCLUDING ITSELF, once per fight. Those Action Points can then be shared out again on the same turn, so a single Astromech can realistically generate somewhere between five and eight extra actions across that turn. In effect, this means your team gets to take another free turn one per battle.

You don't need to build every Operator around receiving Action Points for this to be worth it. Even used opportunistically, on whichever Operator happens to be in the best spot that turn, Action Point sharing is one of the strongest things you can bring into a mission.

Send the Astromech into the open and it can heal a large portion of its own health every turn, with a minimum of 50% of its max health, up to 100% if you spend all your AP on it.

This is the strongest heal in the game and considering you can assign it extra Defense from its passive, Bond EXP, and even equip an Underlay if you really want, its effective HP is even more powerful.

The downside is the Mech can't heal itself with Medpacs, but they're weaker than its self-heal anyway. If you unlock the Self Preservation passive you permanently boost a random ally's defense by +1 whenever you're attacked too, further incentivising a tanky playstyle.

Astromechs get three utility slots and three uses per item, for nine total charges a mission instead of the usual one or two. That turns the Astromech into a mobile medic, grenade launcher, whatever you want, without spending any of your other Operators' own utility slots on it.

Common choices, by target:

• Droid Poppers against B1 battle droids and other droid-type enemies
• Thermal Imploders against organic enemies and elites
• Concussion Grenades to reposition enemies or knock them off ledges and into hazards
• Impact Grenades to destroy cover
• Smoke Grenades to cover an exposed ally
• Medpacs to heal allies

Concussion Grenades are also one of the more reliable sources of environmental kills in the game. On missions built around cliffs, ravines or water, it's worth clearing with concussion damage before spending Action Points on anything else.

The Astromech's AoE scan hits a wide radius for a single Action Point. Every enemy caught in it becomes easier to hit for your squad and has their defenses reduced. There's also a single target version that strips Evasion, good for those slippery enemies which would otherwise block an entire attack.

Evasion stacks are one of the more frustrating defensive mechanics on late-game enemies and bosses, so an ability that removes them outright is worth building into your standard opening move against anything evasive.

Running two or more Astromechs stacks everything above. Two Astromechs feeding Action Points into a single fast, mobile Operator like Cly can let that Operator chain attacks well beyond what a normal turn allows, generating enough Advantage from each hit to keep the loop going. As a Gunslinger, she can then stack up immense Onslaught damage, or set up a huge Electro Web team nuke.

There's also an achievement for finishing a mission using nothing but Astromechs. It's not recommended to do this until you have the Flamethrower unlocked, but Concussion Grenades can help one shot enemies by knocking them off the map.