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Build

Gunslinger Burn Build

A Gunslinger built around a Weapon Mod that ignites the target on every attack, so the class that shoots most often applies a stacking status fastest.

Theorycraft
Confidence
Strongly supported
Verified
19 August 2026
Version
pre-release (no retail build)

Build summary

Players who want their equipment to decide their class rather than the other way round, and who are comfortable with a build whose key item has no published name.

Campaign phase
mid
Difficulty
Standard, permadeath enabled
Game version
pre-release (no retail build)
Strong against
grouped chaff, unarmoured infantry, Outlaw numbers

This build has not been tested

The game has not been released. Every mechanic cited below is confirmed, but the combination of them is our reasoning rather than anything played. It will be re-tested and re-labelled after 27 August 2026.

Loadout

The four bays

Weapon choices are role-based. No weapon statistics have been published, so treat them as starting points rather than optimised picks.

  1. Bay 1

    Hawks

    Gunslingerpistol

    The carrier. This is the configuration a previewer actually built — they respecced Hawks out of Scoundrel into Gunslinger specifically because they had the Burning mod. Onslaught adds +1 blaster damage per shot within a turn and Quick Draw refunds its Action Point on a kill, so every extra attack is both bigger and cheaper than the last, and every one of them is another application of the status.

  2. Bay 2

    Custom Operator

    Scoutrifle

    The funding and the accuracy. Tactical Timing pays Advantage per kill, which is what pays for Open Fire, and Spotted removes range and smoke penalties against a marked target — the Gunslinger's weak point is hit chance across many shots, not damage.

  3. Bay 3

    Custom Operator

    Medicrifle

    Combat Stim's damage bonus is flat and applies to every shot, so it is worth more on this Operator than on any other in the game. It is also the Injury insurance a build that stands in the open needs.

  4. Bay 4

    Custom Operator

    Soldierrepeater

    Defense is the hard counter to a volume attacker — a flat subtraction hurts six small hits far more than one large one. Fire bombs strip Defense as well as applying Burning, so this slot removes the one thing that turns the whole build off.

Reasoning

Why it works

Mechanic by mechanic. Anything stated as confirmed traces to a source listed at the bottom of this page.

  • The mod applies Burning on hit, and Burning stacks. Any on-hit effect is worth exactly as much as the number of hits you take, which makes the class that attacks most in a turn the correct carrier by construction rather than by preference.
  • The Gunslinger's economy compounds that. Quick Draw refunds the Action Point it costs whenever it kills, so clearing weak enemies is free — and every free kill still stacks Onslaught and still applies the status. Chaff is fuel, not a distraction.
  • Open Fire costs 9 Advantage and attacks one target twice or two targets once each, with Onslaught applied to both shots. On a squad with a Scout generating Advantage per kill, that is a purchase the build can actually afford more than once in a fight.
  • Keen Eye adds +6% critical chance on ranged attacks and invests to +18%. Spread across the number of attacks this build makes in a turn, criticals stop being an occasional bonus.
  • The Soldier's fire bombs answer the counter. A previewer reports Burning stacks reaching eight; Defense subtracts flatly from every incoming hit, which is precisely the damage profile a stacking-status volume build cannot absorb.

Interactions

Synergies in this squad

Found by running these four Operators through the same engine the Squad Builder uses, so this page cannot claim a pairing the builder would not report.

Execution

Example opening turn

An AP and Advantage plan. Costs are unpublished, so the order matters more than the exact budget.

  1. Step 1

    Scout moves and attacks to apply Spotted to the priority target, and to start filling the pool.

  2. Step 2

    Medic uses Combat Stim on Hawks. The flat damage rides every shot that follows.

  3. Step 3

    Hawks opens with Quick Draw on the weakest enemy in reach. If it kills, the Action Point comes back and Onslaught is already stacking.

  4. Step 4

    Hawks continues attacking as long as the refunds hold. Every attack is another application of the mod, and each one hits harder than the last.

  5. Step 5

    Open Fire when the pool reaches 9 and there is a target worth the whole purchase — by then Onslaught has been stacking all turn and both shots carry it.

Strengths

  • It is the only build on this site whose central component is an item rather than a class, which makes it the one that gets better the moment mods are properly documented.
  • Damage arrives twice: immediately from the shots, and again over the following turns from the stacks. An enemy that survives the turn is not necessarily a failure.
  • The Gunslinger's refund economy means chaff clearing and priority damage are the same activity rather than competing for the turn.
  • Every component except the mod is a named, specified record. The uncertainty is concentrated in one place rather than spread across the squad.

Weaknesses

  • The mod has no published name. Nobody can tell you where to get it, whether it is rare, or whether more than one exists — see the Weapon Mods guide, which says so at length.
  • Burning damages your own Operators too. A previewer walks a squadmate through fire deliberately, which is fine as a choice and expensive as an accident.
  • A previewer describes the Burning stack halving after it ticks rather than counting down by one. If that is right, heavy applications decay fast and the build rewards front-loading rather than maintenance.
  • Flat Defense hurts this squad several times more than a single-hit squad, which is why a whole slot is spent answering it.
  • Onslaught resets between turns, so the curve starts from zero every round and a turn spent repositioning is a turn spent at the bottom of it.

Alternatives

Safer and more aggressive versions

Including what to do when an authored Operator in this squad is permanently lost.

Safer
Drop the mod dependency and run the Medic + Gunslinger Combat Stim build instead. It uses the same carrier and the same damage-per-shot logic with nothing unnamed in it.
More aggressive
Swap the Medic for a second Advantage generator and fire Open Fire more than once a turn — it has no per-turn use limit. This trades the Injury insurance for a second payoff shot.
If Burning turns out not to stack per attack
If the mod triggers per hit rather than per attack, or if multi-shot attacks apply it once, the whole argument narrows to ordinary Gunslinger damage. The build is still functional and no longer distinctive.

How this will be verified

Re-test in the retail build, recording version, platform and difficulty, then update the status label from theorycraft to tested. Specifically: find the mod's real name, record whether it triggers per attack or per hit, count the stack cap, measure damage per stack, check whether Open Fire's two shots apply it twice, and confirm whether the stack halves or decrements.

Mechanics this build depends on

Other builds

Sources

  • Star Wars Zero Company: A New Hope for Turn-Based Tactics

    Xbox Wire · Tier 3 — Hands-on preview · accessed 19 August 2026

    Supports: Combat and squad sections — Advantage accumulating when a squad member successfully deals damage, and capping at 10; respeccing Hawks from Scoundrel into Gunslinger to exploit a Weapon Mod that applied an accumulating Burn status on every attack; unique-specialisation recruits being unable to respec the same way; an astromech with no basic attack, carrying three different Utility items with two uses each; a Concussion Grenade knocking enemies clean out of the combat space. 15-hour preview build.

  • I played 54 hours of Star Wars Zero Company

    Dantics · Tier 3 — Hands-on preview · accessed 11 August 2026

    Supports: 5:26–11:55 — an injury is taken only on being reduced to zero health; normal, hard and expert named, plus an Ironman-style toggle; crisis operations; weapon mods slotted freely before missions; a second Specialization after cycle 18; every Bond level granting Focus Points and one of three joint training bonuses; the Sharpshooter's unmissable shot and the Soldier's rocket barrage

  • Star Wars Zero Company is a very safe XCOM descendant, but its most interesting parts are found in its Midnight Suns DNA

    PC Gamer · Tier 3 — Hands-on preview · accessed 19 August 2026

    Supports: Combat section — a tank-like Operator taunting a group and activating a Retaliation ability, with four enemies in that encounter forced to target it and each of their shots drawing an immediate return shot; astromechs as support units providing extra Action Points, squad-wide buffs and self-healing; pistols being weak in raw damage but firable more often, supporting a crit-focused Gunslinger. Published 2026-08-11

  • Lead Zero Company To Victory on August 27

    Electronic Arts · Tier 1 — Official · accessed 6 August 2026

    Supports: Operator introductions; 3 Action Points per turn; Advantage caps at 10; the eight Specializations; Bonds in the Personnel Facility; Hawks' species options