Build

Hawks Critical Hit Build

Sharpshooter first, Gunslinger second, and every rank bought points at one number: the chance a shot criticals. The dual specialization is what makes it work.

Theorycraft

Confidence: Theorycraft
Verified: 31 August 2026
Version: Pre-release evidence, plus retail launch-build observations (August 2026)

Build summary

Players who have reached the dual-Specialization unlock and want Hawks to be the squad's damage rather than its support.

Campaign phase: mid
Difficulty: Any
Game version: Pre-release evidence, plus retail launch-build observations (August 2026)
Strong against: elite, cover-heavy, high-defense

This build has not been tested

Every mechanic cited below is confirmed and all of them exist in the retail build. The combination of them is our reasoning rather than anything played: this squad has not yet been tested by Zero Company Builds. It will be re-labelled when it has.

Loadout

The four bays

Weapon choices below are role-based. Damage and Action Point costs are in the database from launch-build reporting; accuracy is not, and no squad here has been tested end to end — so treat these as reasoned starting points rather than optimised picks.

Bay 1
Hawks
Sharpshooterlongarm
The whole build. Sharpshooter supplies Zero In, which is the engine — three stacks of Lethal for +15% chance-to-hit and +9% critical chance — and Gunslinger supplies Keen Eye on top of it, plus something cheap to do with a spare Action Point. A Longarm shot costs 2 AP of a 3 AP turn; Quick Draw costs 1. That is the pairing in one sentence.
Bay 2
Custom Operator
Scoundrelpistol
Identify Weakness makes a chosen enemy Vulnerable so the next attack criticals outright. On a squad whose whole plan is raising a percentage, one guaranteed critical on the target that matters is worth more than another few points of chance — and it is the only published way to stop a critical being a roll at all.
Bay 3
Custom Operator
Scoutrifle
Open Fire costs 9 Advantage, which is most of a pool that caps at ten and starts empty. Combat Recon generates on demand and Tactical Timing generates on kills, so this slot decides whether the finisher fires once a fight or twice. It also applies Spotted, which is the condition the rest of the squad shoots into.
Bay 4
Custom Operator
Heavyrepeater
A sniper who has spent an action setting up does not want to move. Bulwark taunts a group into attacking the Heavy instead, which is the only confirmed way to buy Hawks the turn Zero In needs to be worth its Action Point.

Reasoning

Why it works

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

Every weapon in the game starts at 5% critical chance. That is the number this build is multiplying, and it is why stacking is worth so much more here than it reads: Keen Eye alone more than doubles it, and Zero In's +9% on top of that is another near-doubling before any mod is fitted.
Zero In is the action the turn is built around. Three stacks of Lethal at +15% chance-to-hit and +9% critical chance, on an Operator whose shots are expensive enough that a miss costs two thirds of a turn.
The two Specializations answer each other's weakness rather than repeating each other. A Sharpshooter's problem is that a Longarm shot costs 2 AP, so a turn is one attack and a fidget; Quick Draw costs 1, does not trigger Overwatch or Retaliation, and refunds its own point on a kill. The Gunslinger half is what a Sharpshooter does with the spare action.
Open Fire is the finisher and it is priced accordingly: 9 Advantage of a pool that caps at 10. It fires twice at any combination of enemies, so it is spent on the turn two targets are both worth killing rather than on cooldown.
Fearless Leader is running underneath all of it. Hawks is required on every story mission, so a squad-wide assist damage and Defense bonus is not a bonus this build has to arrange — it is the floor it starts from.

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.

Step 1
Turn 1 — Scout: fire from range to apply Spotted and put the first Advantage in the pool.
Step 2
Turn 1 — Heavy: advance and taunt, so the enemies that would otherwise walk onto Hawks have somewhere better to go.
Step 3
Turn 1 — Hawks: Zero In, then fire. The stacks are worth more on the shots that follow than the action costs on the turn it is spent.
Step 4
Turn 1 — Scoundrel: Identify Weakness on whatever survives, so the next attack criticals rather than rolls.
Step 5
Turn 2 onward — Hawks fires the Longarm, then spends the spare point on Quick Draw rather than moving. Hold Open Fire until two targets are worth it at once.

Strengths

The largest concentration of critical chance a single Operator can reach, on the class whose shots are worth criticalling.
A cheap action that costs 1 AP, refunds itself on a kill and cannot be punished by Overwatch — which is the thing a pure Sharpshooter does not have.
It is built on the one Operator guaranteed to be in every story mission, so nothing about it is conditional on a recruit.
Fearless Leader is squad-wide and free, so the other three slots are better than they would be in anyone else's company.

Weaknesses

A mid-campaign arrangement. Before dual Specializations unlock this is a Sharpshooter with a spare Action Point and nothing to do with it.
Two of the four slots exist to protect the first one, which is a lot of squad spent on one Operator.
Open Fire at 9 Advantage competes with every other Ultimate in the squad for the same pool. In practice the Heavy and the Scoundrel are not spending theirs.
Quick Draw takes no benefit from Weapon Mods, so the mods fitted for the Longarm do nothing for the cheap half of the turn.
The critical chance figures are published at first rank only. How much of the ladder is reachable by the unlock is unknown, because no Focus Point cost has been published for any rank.

Alternatives

Safer and more aggressive versions

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

Safer: Medic in place of the Scoundrel. It gives up the guaranteed critical for injury cover, which on permadeath is the trade most players should take.
More aggressive: Drop the Heavy for a second damage slot and accept that Hawks will be shot at. Faster, and it removes the only thing buying him the turn Zero In needs.
The other Hawks sniper build: Hawks Stationary Sharpshooter answers a different question — how to hold one very good position — and does not assume the dual-Specialization unlock. This page is the crit engine; that one is the position.

What still needs testing

Play this squad in the retail build, recording version, platform and difficulty, then update the status label from theorycraft to tested.

Mechanics this build depends on

Other builds

Sources

STAR WARS ZERO COMPANY: Hawk Scharfschützen Build – S-Tier
Dr33dTV · Tier 3 — Retail review · accessed 31 August 2026
Supports: Published 2026-08-28. A complete Hawks build, described in the video description in enough detail to reconstruct without watching. Talent "Furchtloser Anführer" (Fearless Leader), described as giving "Hilfestellungsschaden + Verteidigung für alle Einheiten" — assist damage and Defense for every unit. First Specialization "Präzision" (Sharpshooter), with "Erledige Sie" (Pick Them Off) "für massiven Überwachungsschaden auf enorme Distanz", "Schusshaltung" (Zero In) called "Kern des ganzen Builds", and "Präzisionsschuss" (Precision Shot). Second Specialization "Schnellfeuer" (Gunslinger), with "Scharfes Auge" (Keen Eye) "bringt bis zu 15% mehr Krit-Chance", "Schnellziehen" (Quick Draw) which "kostet nur 1 AP (statt 2 mit dem Präzisionsgewehr!)", and "Freie Zielwahl (Doppelschuss)" (Open Fire) as "unser Haupt-Finisher — trotz 9 Vorbereitung", which independently gives Open Fire's cost as 9 Advantage. Weapon: "Präzisionsgewehr"/"Präzisionsblaster" (Longarm Blaster). Mods named but not matched to any English record here: "Präzisionszielfernrohr Typ 3", "Einzelspulenkondensator", "personalisierte Ergonomie", "Entzündungsmodulator". Equipment: "Zielerfassungssystem (+10% Treffer, +9% Krit)" and "Repulsoreinheit" (Repulsor Unit), with the reasoning that grenades are wasted on a sniper at the back. Chapters give the structure: Fokustalente & Skill-Reihenfolge 2:01, Spezialisierung Präzision 3:58, Zweite Spezialisierung Schnellfeuer 4:59, Waffe & alle Mods 7:04, Ausrüstung 9:09.
STAR WARS Zero Company™ Specializations and Weapon Classes
EA Help · Tier 1 — Official · accessed 30 August 2026
Supports: "Every Specialization includes a unique set of abilities" and "Each Specialization includes three types of abilities" — Ultimate ("a Specialization's most powerful ability"), Standard ("an active ability you can use during combat") and Passive ("always-active abilities... without needing to be activated"). Note that this is three *types*, not three abilities: nothing on the page says how many Passives a Specialization has, and the per-Specialization ability lists sit behind collapsed accordions that are not in the retrieved text. "Most abilities cost Action Points (AP) to use... These special abilities cost Advantage instead of AP. Advantage is a shared resource that your squad can earn as a battle progresses." On authored characters: "Authored Operators have assigned Talents that you can't change, and some Authored Operators have Specializations that you can't change." On dual specialization: "Later in the game, you'll be able to choose an additional specialization for your Operators." Combat stat definitions — Weapon Damage "The amount of damage dealt by the weapon when attacking"; Critical Hit Damage "The additional damage applied when an attack Critically Strikes"; Critical Chance "The chance the weapon has of critically striking a target for extra damage"; Range "The optimal weapon range for combat. Attacking outside of this range incurs a Strike Penalty." All four Weapon Class panels, read on 2026-08-30 by expanding the page's accordions in a browser — combat stats as printed: Blaster Rifle "Weapon Damage 10, Critical Hit Damage +6, Critical Chance 5%, Range Medium"; Repeater "8, +4, 5%, Medium"; Blaster Pistol "6, +4, 5%, Short"; Longarm Blaster "12, +12, 5%, Long". **All four are 5%.** Action types and costs, verbatim: the Blaster Rifle is fired "once per turn as a Fast Weapon using 1 x AP" with "additional shots in the same turn cost 2 x AP"; the Blaster Pistol "is a Fast Action weapon, which means each shot costs 1 x AP"; the Longarm Blaster "is a Slow Action weapon, which means each shot costs 2 x AP"; and the Repeater "deals significantly more damage if you invest additional AP while firing it. The more AP you spend, the more Rapid Fire Damage it deals", with no fixed figure given. The eight per-Specialization panels expand too, but their ability lists are **inside screenshots** rather than in text — the Assault panel's image reads "SWEEPING SALVO / ULTIMATE / Unleash aggressive blaster fire that deals damage and Disorients all enemies within a large cone", "BULL RUSH / STANDARD / Charge into an enemy, dealing Melee Damage and Pushing it backwards", "FLEET OF FOOT / PASSIVE / Increases this Operator's First Movement by 1.0m", "STRIKE THE FLANKS / PASSIVE / This Operator gains a +20% Critical Chance bonus against Exposed enemies". An image caption on the same page names a "Final Action attack". Page header "Updated 2 days ago", retrieved 2026-08-30.
BEST DUAL SPECIALIZATION Builds in Star Wars Zero Company
Jay Dunna · Tier 3 — Retail review · accessed 30 August 2026
Supports: The video's own description carries a chapter list naming the build each section covers, and it is cited here as much as the frames are: "0:17 Player Character: Medic/Gunslinger", "2:12 Trick: Heavy/Soldier", "4:02 Jae: Scout/Sharpshooter (or Scoundrel, Assault)", "5:41 Tel-Rea: Padawan/Wayseeker", "6:51 Cly Kullervo: Warrior/Assault or Gunslinger", "9:11 Kabb Uppercut: Soldier/Scoundrel", "9:56 Astromech Droid", "10:10 Weapon Mods for the Team", "12:00 Utilities", "13:08 Always Spend Influence!". Plus ten frames of the retail build screens, captured 2026-08-30; published 2026-08-29. PERSONNEL → FOCUS TREE, three Operators. The tree is three bands — TALENT, SPEC 1, SPEC 2 — with one ability row in the Talent band and three in each Specialization band, columns numbered 2 to 6, a Focus Point cost printed beside every unbought node, and rows of visibly different lengths (four, five and six nodes all appear on one screen). Hawks: "TALENT: FEARLESS LEADER" padlocked, "SPEC 1: GUNSLINGER", "SPEC 2: MEDIC", "1 FOCUS POINT REMAINING". Cly Kullervo: "TALENT: COMBAT JUMP" padlocked, "SPEC 1: WARRIOR" padlocked, "SPEC 2: ASSAULT" not padlocked, "2 FOCUS POINTS REMAINING". Tel-Rea Vokoss: "TALENT: STRONG WITH THE FORCE", "SPEC 1: PADAWAN", "SPEC 2: SEEKER", all three padlocked. Ability tooltips print cost, kind and rank together: "ADV 2 | COMBAT JUMP | SPECIAL ACTION"; "AP 1 | 8 BASE DMG | QUICK DRAW | FAST ACTION" with "RANGED. Fire a lightning fast sidearm pistol shot", "This skill applies a Chance-To-Hit Range Penalty of 25%", "Defeating an enemy restores 1 AP", "This ability does not trigger enemy Overwatch or Retaliation", "This Sidearm Attack does not receive benefits from Weapon Mods"; and the same ability at maximum, "AP 1 | 14 BASE DMG | QUICK DRAW VI", whose first clause becomes "Chance-To-Hit Range Penalty no longer applies". "FEARLESS LEADER II | PASSIVE" — "…eases Assist Damage by +1 for all Operators", opening clause obscured by the presenter's camera. "PADAWAN TRAINING V | PASSIVE" — "Allows Tel-Rea to equip a third Meditation. Meditations are managed in the Armory." An unaffordable node shows "CAN'T AFFORD — Gain additional Focus Points by growing bonds or completing missions"; a bought rank offers "REFUND". CHANGE SPECIALIZATION screen: "SPECIALIZATION ABILITIES" lists four per class with their kind — Gunslinger's are "OPEN FIRE | ULTIMATE | Fire 2 Times at any combination of enemies", "QUICK DRAW | STANDARD | Fire a lightning fast sidearm pistol shot", "KEEN EYE | PASSIVE | Increases this Operator's Critical Chance for all Ranged Attacks by +6%", "ONSLAUGHT | PASSIVE | Each attack within a single turn grants this Operator +1 Blaster Damage. This bonus applies only to attacks with this Operator's primary blaster" — with the class blurb "The Gunslinger specializes in multi-target blaster attacks and fast strikes that allow them to spread offense across numerous targets." The same screen offers eight Specialization cards under each of SPEC 1 and SPEC 2, the card taken by one row padlocked in the other, and states "This talent cannot be changed for this operator" over Hawks' Talent. ARMORY → WEAPON: tabs WEAPON, UTILITIES, BLACK MARKET; four equipped slots of which two are filled (a primary and a sidearm) and two padlocked; weapons named as a class plus a model with five statistics — Blaster Rifle DC-15A "WEAPON DAMAGE 14, CRITICAL HIT DAMAGE +9, CRITICAL CHANCE 17%, RANGE Medium, MELEE DAMAGE 10", Blaster Rifle WESTAR-M5 "12, +11, 20%, Medium, 10", Blaster Pistol G40-5 "9, +10, 17%, Short, 10"; and an inventory grouped into BARREL, CELL, SCOPE and STABILIZER. Mods carry a rarity word and a credit value — "ION MODULATOR | WEAPON MOD | BASIC — Increases Blaster Damage against Droids by +1 and against Ray Shields by +16", VALUE 200, shown under CELL; "DUAL COIL CONDENSER | WEAPON MOD | SUPERIOR — Increases Critical Hit Damage by +3 when firing this blaster", VALUE 350; "GRADE II ION MODULATOR | WEAPON MOD | SUPERIOR", against Ray Shields by +24, its Droid figure and its value partly obscured. In-game glossary panels define BLASTER ATTACK ("all attacks that use the Operator's primary blaster… Attacks that use a secondary blaster are considered Sidearm Attacks"), DROID ("weak against Ion effects and cannot be Healed"), CRITICAL HIT ("A hit that strikes a weak point, doing additional Damage on top of the equipped weapon's Base Damage") and PASSIVE ("benefits that are always active… never require AP").

Open this squad

Load these four bays into the builder to change them, check the warnings, and share your version.

Open in Squad Builder

Rubric

Scored 1–5 against pre-launch evidence. Each score shows its basis — no unexplained numbers.

Damage5/5

The most critical chance one Operator can stack, on the weapon with the largest critical bonus in the game.

Control2/5

One taunt. Nothing here displaces, exposes or disorients.

Survivability3/5

A taunt and Fearless Leader's Defense, spent protecting an Operator who does not want to move.

Mobility2/5

Deliberately low. Zero In rewards standing still and the Longarm punishes doing anything else.

Ease of use3/5

The order matters — set up, then shoot, then spend the spare point — and getting it wrong wastes the setup.

Campaign value4/5

Built on the Operator every story mission requires, so it is never the squad you cannot field.

Editor’s note

Added 2026-08-31 from a German-language build guide (retail-dr33d-hawks-sniper), which is the most detailed single-Operator build this database has found anywhere and the first source here in another language. **Nothing was taken from it by transliteration.** Every ability name in that guide is a localisation, so each one was matched to a record by its described *effect* rather than by its words: "Erledige Sie" is Pick Them Off because the guide describes Overwatch damage at range, "Schusshaltung" is Zero In because it describes a shooting stance granting accuracy, "Scharfes Auge" is Keen Eye because it describes critical chance. Where an effect matched nothing recorded here, nothing was invented — four mod names and one Utility from that guide have no English equivalent in this database and are left in the source locator rather than turned into records. The Hawks slot is his. **The other three are ours**, because the guide describes one Operator and not a squad; they are argued from the same mechanics every other build here uses. And his own Longarm mods are not reproduced, for the reason above. It sits alongside Hawks Stationary Sharpshooter deliberately rather than replacing it, and both pages say so. That one is about holding a position and assumes no unlock; this one is about stacking a percentage and does not work before dual Specializations. Two Hawks sniper pages competing for one query would be worth avoiding if they were the same build, and they are not.