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
- Version
- pre-release (no retail build)
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.
What we don't know yet
The game has not been released. These are open questions we have chosen not to guess 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