Customisation
How do you recruit new Operators?
The recruitment pool refreshes with a new selection every cycle, and recruits are bought with Credits.
- Confidence
- Confirmed
- Verified
- 23 August 2026
- Version
- pre-release (no retail build)
The short answer
The recruitment pool refreshes with a new selection every cycle, and recruits are bought with Credits.
In full
What that means when you are planning
Because the selection changes each cycle, passing on someone is not always a decision you can revisit. That puts recruitment on the same expiring-opportunity clock as missions and Operations.
The roster starts at seven Operators and caps at twenty. EA name three ways it grows — Den upgrades, story progression, and authored Operators joining — so some of that expansion arrives whether you spend on it or not, and the practical question is how much of the gap you are paying for.
Twenty is generous against a squad limit of four, which makes the roster a bench rather than a constraint. It is Bonds that make a wide bench expensive: relationships build between a settled pair, so an Operator you recruit and rarely field costs you nothing to keep and earns you nothing either.
Each recruit arrives with a name, a Talent, a primary Specialization, a weapon type and a backstory already attached, and can then be re-customised at the Den. The generated build is a starting point rather than a permanent one, so passing on an otherwise good recruit because the roll gave them the wrong Specialization is the wrong reason to pass. Custom Operators select a Talent from a pool rather than having one fixed, which is the main difference from an authored character.
What we don't know yet
The game has not been released. These are open questions we have chosen not to guess at.
- The Credit cost of recruiting, and how large each cycle's selection is.
- Which Den upgrades raise the roster cap, and by how much each.
- Which of the five generated properties can actually be changed, and whether changing one costs Credits, a cycle or anything else. That it happens at the Den is reported; the terms are not.
Next
Related questions
- Do Custom Operators have voices and personalities?
- Yes. Ten voices are available at the start, and each Custom Operator has a selectable, fully written and voiced personality.
- What are cycles in Zero Company?
- The campaign clock. Completing a tactical mission advances the cycle, and missions and Operations expire after a limited number of them.
- How many Talents are there in Zero Company?
- Eleven — ten a Custom Operator can choose between, plus Built-In Comlink, which only astromechs can take.
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
- Answering the Internet's Biggest Questions about Star Wars Zero Company
Electronic Arts · Tier 1 — Official · accessed 6 August 2026
Supports: Squad limit of 4, with additional characters controllable in certain missions; roster starting at 7 and capped at 20, raised by Den upgrades, story progression and authored Operators joining; no species or faction weapon-proficiency advantage; Clone Trooper and astromech recruitment; permadeath default and toggleable; Hawks required on story missions. The headline itself is the evidence for the game's abbreviation: "Answering the Internet’s Biggest Questions about SWZC"
- 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 preview — after 15 hours
Arekkz Gaming · Tier 3 — Hands-on preview · accessed 11 August 2026
Supports: 3:15–9:43 — conversations at the Den unlocking side missions; late companions forcing a rethink of squad composition; missions carrying a limited window; fighting alongside Anakin Skywalker late in the preview; fifteen hours without a crash
- Star Wars Zero Company Beginner's Guide: Combat & Mechanics
VULKK · Tier 3 — Hands-on preview · accessed 23 August 2026
Supports: Talents and recruitment sections — Fearless Leader granting the squad increased assist damage, Defense and Chance-to-Hit while Hawks is deployed, with upgrades improving all three; Combat Jump moving Cly Kullervo to a target location, pushing nearby enemies and applying Burn, with upgrades raising both jump range and the number of Burn stacks; recruits arriving with a generated Name, Talent, primary Specialization, weapon type and backstory that can subsequently be adjusted at the Den. Published 2026-08-22