The campaign
Can an Operator leave the squad?
Yes. Bonds can fall, and a companion pushed far enough can leave Zero Company permanently.
- Confidence
- Confirmed
- Verified
- 15 August 2026
The short answer
Yes. Bonds can fall, and a companion pushed far enough can leave Zero Company permanently.
In full
What that means when you are planning
This is explicitly a different kind of loss from permadeath, and it survives turning permadeath off. Dilemmas are the mechanism: authored decision points where Hawks faces an important choice and each squad member argues from their own history and values. Agreeing strengthens your Bond with them; disagreeing can weaken or fracture it.
You cannot satisfy everyone, because the squad members disagree with each other. That is the design — the cost of a Dilemma is paid in relationships regardless of which way you go.
Open questions
Points the shipped game has not yet answered for us, or that need a controlled comparison to state as fact — recorded rather than guessed at.
- How far a Bond has to fall before an Operator leaves.
- Whether a departed Operator can be recovered.
Next
Related questions
- Do Bonds actually matter in Zero Company?
- Yes — they are the main source of Focus Points, so who you field together shapes your whole progression.
- Can you turn off permadeath in Zero Company?
- Yes. Permadeath is on by default and can be disabled in the settings.
Where this is covered properly
Sources
- 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
- Star Wars Zero Company: How Some of the Greatest Minds in Tactics Games are Pushing the Genre, Again
Xbox Wire · Tier 2 — Developer interview · accessed 6 August 2026
Supports: Greg Foertsch and James Brawley on the eight Specializations, Combat Stim + Gunslinger synergy, Advantage, and Specialization changes on authored characters
- Star Wars: Zero Company Hands-on Preview — XClones
Checkpoint Gaming · Tier 3 — Hands-on preview · accessed 13 August 2026
Supports: Advantage section — the Scout specialisation having several abilities that accumulate Advantage at a rapid pace, and the Scout/Cly pairing; Cly's electrified darts and chained electrocution; the specialisation kit structure of one or two passives, an action and one Advantage ability; the Bond system's choice of one of three shared stat boosts; the randomly selected assist each turn. Published 2026-08-12