Zero Company Bulwark

What it does

Taunts every enemy inside a large target area, compelling them to attack the Heavy, and raises the Heavy's Defense by 2 for the rest of the turn. Each rank widens the area and increases that Defense bonus, reaching 6 at maximum — a second guide now reports the same ladder, up to a 24-metre cast range over an 8-metre area at +6 Defense. The final rank also grants Impervious, which makes the Heavy immune to all status effects, and Immovable, which prevents it being pushed. **Immovable did not apply its bonuses at all until Patch 1.1**, so the sixth rank is worth more now than it was at launch. Usable once per turn.

The ladder carries its own evidence, and it is weaker than the ability’s. EA published what each ability does at its first rank; guide writers read the rest off the shipped game’s Focus Tree. Nothing here has been reproduced by this site, and no source has published what any rank costs.

Redirection rather than mitigation, and the difference matters: a Medic healing one predictable target is far more efficient than one chasing scattered chip damage. The max-rank state is what makes it a late-game keystone — Impervious and Immovable together answer the two things that otherwise beat a tank, status effects and forced movement. Paired with the Grit Talent's stacking invulnerability it becomes the strongest defensive pattern available: taunt the group, absorb the return fire, then kill freely. The half of that pairing to re-read after Patch 1.1 is Immovable. EA list it among the fixes — the status now provides its intended bonuses — so a Heavy who reached the sixth rank in the launch build was buying the most expensive node in the ladder and receiving Impervious alone. A tank built on this since 9 September is a different Operator from one built on it in August, and the ability card is word for word identical in both.

Other Heavy abilities

• Zero Company Unstoppable
• Zero Company Conditioning
• Zero Company Heavy Armor Training
• Zero Company Intimidating Posture

Sources

• Is Z-COM our new X-COM? Star Wars Zero Company gameplay deep dive

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

  Supports: 2:13–13:51 — Sweeping Salvo at 4 Advantage with three uses per mission; Hawks granting an ally 1 AP for 3 Advantage; Combat Recon granting 1 Advantage per unit scanned; the Grit Talent's stacking invulnerability; Heavy attacks taunting; the droideka ray shield; the Scout's Spotted status; Defense as flat damage reduction

• 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.

• Ultimate Star Wars Zero Company Heavy Build and Class Guide

  Hack the Minotaur · Tier 3 — Retail review · accessed 31 August 2026

  Supports: Per-ability progression tables, tier by tier. Bulwark six tiers, 16m taunt with 4m area and +2 Defense at tier 1 through 24m/8m/+6 at tier 6, which also "Grants Impervious and Immovable". Unstoppable six tiers, +2 stacks of Retaliation throughout with retaliation damage rising +1 to +4 and tier 6 adding "Can be cast on an ally". Conditioning five tiers, Max Health +4/+8/+12/+16/+20. Heavy Armor Training marked Cannot Upgrade, "Increases Defense by +2". Intimidating Posture marked Cannot Upgrade, "This Operator's primary Blaster Attacks now taunt the target on a hit" — the first published statement of that ability's effect.

• Star Wars Zero Company Heavy Class Guide: Abilities and Builds

  VULKK · Tier 3 — Retail review · accessed 10 September 2026

  Supports: Published 9 September 2026, the same day as Patch 1.1, and **it does not state which build it was written against** — which is why nothing taken from it is filed as 1.1 behaviour. Bulwark reported at "up to 24m cast range" with an "8m area" and its Defense bonus "scaling from +2 to +6": all three reproduce `retail-htm-heavy` exactly, and are the first corroboration that ladder has had. Unstoppable "costs 1 AP", "starts with 2 Retaliation stacks", and at maximum rank "can be applied to allies" and permits "up to 4 Retaliation stacks" — the AP cost and the four-stack ceiling appear on no other source read in this pass. Impact Underlay "reduces incoming melee damage by 50%", the first published effect for any Underlay outside the Reinforced line. On Intimidating Posture: its Taunt "also triggers from blaster-based AoE attacks and from Assist Attacks", and the guide draws the conclusion itself — a Heavy with Sweeping Salvo "can Taunt every enemy the cone hits". **Checked for and absent**: any Advantage cost for Bulwark, which remains unpublished everywhere.

• STAR WARS Zero Company — Patch 1.1 Notes

  Electronic Arts · Tier 1 — Official · accessed 14 September 2026

  Supports: Published 9 September 2026, the first post-launch patch; re-read in full on 14 September 2026, when it was still the newest entry on EA's News & Updates page. **Every item below is listed by EA under bug fixes**, which is what makes each one a statement about 1.0 as well as about 1.1. Secondary Specializations: their passive Cross Trainings "now correctly enter the selection pool at Relationship +8", and Secondary Specializations "now count for Specialization-specific Operation requirements and results". Chance-to-Hit: attacks displayed at 100% "can no longer erroneously miss". Scattergun: Tiers II, III and IV "no longer incorrectly use Tier I values". Droid Dismantler: Harmony "is granted only on Droid deaths, not on every enemy death". Tel-Rea: the Ranged Damage Cross Training bonus "is now applied once rather than twice" to her Force attacks, and Critical Damage bonuses "now correctly apply" to them. DC-17m Anti-Armor: it "can now critically hit" and "receives damage bonuses that apply to grenades". Ion Blasters "no longer double Critical Damage". Sweeping Salvo: "enemies outside the targeting cone are no longer hit". A Life of Labor II "can no longer infinitely accumulate bonuses when purchased repeatedly". Immovable: the status "now provides its intended bonuses". Bacta Tank, missed on the first read and added 14 September: "Fixed an issue where the Bacta Tank could be used more than one in a cycle" — EA's wording, typo included; the intended rule is one use per cycle. Overwatch, three lines, quoted verbatim on 14 September because the first pass had paraphrased the first of them too loosely: "Fixed an issue where Overwatch shots triggered against attackers caused the enemies to fire through solid objects at Operators they couldn't see" — an enemy-side line-of-sight failure, not the player's reaction shots passing through walls; "Fixed some instances of Overwatch triggering on a unit outside of the targeting cone"; and "Fixed various Overwatch issues that caused enemies and Operators to be unintentionally attacked". A fourth mentions it in passing: "Fixed a turn ordering issue that caused the Coil Captain to heal a target already slain by Overwatch". **Checked for and absent**: any figure for anything — no Scattergun tier statistics, no Harmony amount, no DC-17m damage, no figure for what Immovable now provides, no Bacta Tank cost. Also absent: any fix for Overwatch *failing* to trigger. Every Overwatch line corrects a shot that should not have happened, and none claims a shot that should have happened now does.