How many Action Points does each Operator get per turn?

Three, and they can be spent in any order.

What is Advantage in Zero Company?

A squad-wide resource: each time an Operator damages an enemy the squad gains 1 Advantage, up to 10, spent on powerful abilities that cost no Action Points.

What difficulty settings does Zero Company have?

Four are named by the pre-release achievement list — Story, Normal, Hard and Expert — plus a separate ironman option called Beskar Mode.

Start here

Star Wars Zero Company beginner guide

Everything below is a rule the game has confirmed, ordered the way a first session meets it: your squad, your three Action Points, the shot you are about to take, the Injury you are about to collect, and the four progression systems running behind all of it. No section tells you what is best — nobody has played the retail build yet, and the page that will say so is linked at the bottom.

This is a guide to the rules, not to the meta

Star Wars Zero Company is not out. Every rule on this page is sourced to EA, to StarWars.com, to the pre-release achievement list or to a hands-on preview, and each one carries the label that says which. What no page can honestly give you yet is a ranking that has been tested — so this one does not try, and the pages that do rank things say plainly that they are theorycraft until 27 August.

The shortest version

You control four Operators. Each gets three Action Points a turn, spent on movement, attacks, Utilities and Abilities in any order. Landing attacks fills one shared Advantage pool of at most ten, which powerful abilities spend without costing Action Points. Cover lowers an enemy’s chance to hit you; flanking and high ground raise yours. An Operator reduced to zero health takes an Injury, and three Injuries mean permanent death — which is on by default and can be switched off.

If you read nothing else, read that paragraph and the section on Injuries. The rest is depth.

First

Four Operators, three Action Points each

Squad size is the constraint every other decision answers to, and the turn is the constraint inside it. There is no move-then-shoot structure: movement, attacks, Utilities and Abilities all draw on the same three points, which is why the order you do things in matters more here than in most tactics games.

Action Points
Confirmed
Each squad member has three Action Points per turn. Movement, attacks, Utilities and Abilities all draw from that pool, and you can take those actions in any order. Attack costs vary by weapon, and some attacks consume every remaining AP — which ends that Operator's turn immediately.
Full guide

Second

Then you try to hit something

Every attack shows its chance to hit before you commit. Three things move that number, you control all three, and knowing which way each one pushes is most of what separates a good turn from a wasted one.

Chance to hit
Confirmed
Every attack shows a Chance-to-Hit percentage before you commit to it. Cover lowers it, flanking and high ground raise it, and Overwatch cones lose accuracy the further out you place them. The pre-release trophy list confirms both extremes are real: there are achievements for landing a shot at 10% or lower and for missing one at 90% or greater.
Full guide
Cover and flanking
Confirmed
Partial and full cover reduce the chance of being hit. Flanking around cover and taking high ground both improve your hit chance. Some cover is destructible, which means explosives can remove an enemy's protection outright rather than going around it.
Full guide
High ground
Confirmed
Taking high ground improves your hit chance. That makes elevation a positioning objective in its own right, and it is the main reason a long-range Operator spends Action Points moving rather than shooting. How much of a bonus elevation gives has not been published.
Full guide

Third

Advantage is shared, Overwatch ends your turn, and ledges kill

The two resources that separate a good turn from an average one, and the two ways to act outside it. All four are squad-level decisions rather than per-Operator ones — and pushing an enemy off a ledge kills it whatever its health, which is the cheapest thing a new player can learn.

Advantage
Confirmed
Advantage is a squad-wide resource: each time an Operator damages an enemy, the squad gains 1 Advantage, up to a maximum of 10. Powerful abilities spend Advantage instead of Action Points, so using them does not cost an Operator their turn. Because the pool is shared and holds ten, a squad whose Ultimates cost more than ten in total cannot fire them in the same turn.
Full guide
Overwatch
Confirmed
Overwatch sets a directional cone that fires when an enemy moves or acts inside it. Spending more Action Points can increase the number of reaction shots. Using Overwatch ends that Operator's turn, so it is a trade: you give up acting now in exchange for acting on the enemy's turn.
Full guide
Call for Backup
Confirmed
Call for Backup costs no Action Points. It adds a teammate's assistance to the next attack, and using it helps build Bonds between the two Operators. Because it is free, it is one of the few actions that never competes with movement or attacking for a turn's budget.
Full guide
Displacement
Confirmed
Displacement is any effect that moves an enemy without its consent. Force Push, Force Pull, Kabb's Uppercut and Concussion Grenades all do it. EA themselves recommend pushing a target into an ally's Overwatch cone, and the pre-release trophy list confirms two further outcomes: knocking one enemy into another, and knocking an enemy out of the combat space entirely, which defeats it.
Full guide

Fourth

Getting hurt is permanent unless you turn that off

The rule that makes the game tense, and the one setting most likely to change how you play. Read this before your first mission, not after your first funeral.

Injuries and permadeath
Confirmed
When an Operator is downed they suffer an Injury. Three Injuries cause permanent death on standard difficulty. Allies can Rally a downed Operator to bring them back up. Permadeath is enabled by default, but it can be disabled in the settings — so the risk level is a choice you make before the campaign, not a fixed rule.
Full guide
Difficulty and Beskar Mode
Achievement
The pre-release achievement list names four difficulty tiers — Story, Normal, Hard and Expert — with achievements for completing the campaign on each. Beskar Mode is separate: an ironman-style option with no reloading of earlier saves. The hardest achievement in the list asks for Expert and Beskar Mode together. Permadeath is on by default and can be disabled.
Full guide
Status effects
Preview-reported
Preview footage shows at least five status effects. Defense reduces every incoming attack by a flat amount. Burning stacks and deals damage each turn. Spotted removes range and smoke penalties against a target. Disoriented lowers enemy accuracy. Invulnerability, from the Grit Talent, absorbs whole attacks. None has a published duration or magnitude.
Full guide

Fifth

Between missions, a clock is running

The campaign layer is not a menu you visit when you feel like it. Missions expire, healing costs time, and doing nothing is a choice with a cost.

Cycles
Preview-reported
The campaign runs on cycles. Completing a tactical mission advances the cycle, and one previewer reports you can run only one full combat mission per cycle. Missions and Operations expire after a limited number of cycles, so anything you cannot reach is lost. Healing an Injury in a standard Medbay bed also costs a cycle.
Full guide
What to do at the Den
Preview-reported
Between missions you return to the Den and explore it in third person. Talk to every squad member first — conversations unlock side missions and leads that never appear otherwise. Then check the Medbay, spend Focus Points, read what is expiring at the holotable, and pick your next mission last.
Full guide
Operations
Confirmed
Operations are the non-combat half of the campaign — intelligence work, political manoeuvring and shadow activity, run from the HoloTable in the Den between Tactical Missions. They are launched with Intel, which combat missions earn and the Espionage Talent adds to. They pay out Credits, Weapon Modifications, Utilities, Zone Influence, sometimes more Intel, and story consequences. They also expire: an Operation whose window closes is gone permanently.
Full guide
Dilemmas
Confirmed
Dilemmas are authored decision points where Hawks faces an important choice and each squad member argues from their own history and values. Agreeing with an Operator strengthens your Bond with them; disagreeing can weaken or fracture it. Choices can drive a character away from Zero Company entirely — a second way to lose an Operator that has nothing to do with permadeath.
Full guide

Sixth

Then you make them stronger

Four progression systems run at once, and they are not interchangeable. This is where a first campaign is usually won or wasted.

Focus Trees and Focus Points
Confirmed
Focus Points are spent in Focus Trees to upgrade an Operator's Talents, Abilities and Passives. They come mainly from Bonds, and also from missions and Operations. The full tree layout — nodes, ranks, prerequisites and costs — has not been published, so no node-by-node planner exists yet.
Full guide
Talents
Confirmed
A Talent is a build layer that sits alongside an Operator's Specialization rather than inside it. There are eleven: ten a Custom Operator chooses between — Anticipation, Cold Blooded, Espionage, Fortitude, Grit, A Life of Labor, Sabotage, Taunt, The Bigger They Are and Thievery — plus Built-In Comlink, which only astromechs can take. Each has three ranks bought with Focus Points, and the final rank often changes what the Talent does rather than only scaling it. Authored characters carry fixed Talents that are not in the pool; Hawks' Fearless Leader persists across every Specialization he takes.
Full guide
Bonds
Confirmed
Bonds are relationships between pairs of Operators. Building a Bond unlocks permanent combat bonuses, and reaching maximum Bond unlocks a passive. Bonds are also the main source of Focus Points, which drive the Focus Trees — so who you field together shapes your whole progression, not just one mission.
Full guide
Cross Training
Confirmed
Cross Training converts Bond progress into permanent capability. Each time a pair's Bond reaches a new level you choose one of three joint trainings, and it applies to both Operators: Timing Exercises for +5% Critical Chance, Reflex Fire Training for +1 Overwatch Damage, or Freeform Training for +2 Focus Points. At maximum Bond a special Cross Training grants a Passive Ability instead — the strongest tier. The relationship meter lives in the Cross Training menu.
Full guide
Dual Specializations
Confirmed
Most Operators take one of the eight standard Specializations as a primary. A secondary Specialization unlocks around the middle of the campaign — one previewer puts it at cycle 18 — producing dual-specialization builds. Which combinations are legal, and whether every pairing is allowed, has not been published.
Full guide
Weapon Mods
Confirmed
Weapon Mods slot into a weapon's Modification Slots, alter its stats and can apply effects of their own — at least one applies stacking Burning on hit. Slot count rises over the campaign, and a pre-release trophy proves at least four mods fit on one weapon at once. Mods are bought from the Black Market with Credits or earned from Operations and Tactical Missions, and are swapped freely between missions.
Full guide

Before your first mission

Five things worth deciding in the menu

Not advice about what is strong. Settings and habits that are awkward to change later.

Decide about permadeath before you start. It is on by default, it is a separate switch from difficulty, and turning it off later does not bring anyone back.
Beskar Mode is a third switch again — no reloading earlier saves. It is not a difficulty tier and can be combined with one.
Hawks cannot permanently die and is required on story missions, so plan the other three slots around a fixed fourth.
Advantage starts every fight empty and is earned by landing attacks. A squad of expensive abilities and nothing generating the pool does nothing on turn one.
Overwatch ends the Operator's turn and its hit chance falls the further out you place the cone. It is a commitment, not a free reaction.

Questions

Questions new players ask

Each answer restates a record held elsewhere on this site, and cites the same sources.

How many Action Points does each Operator get per turn?: Three, and they can be spent in any order.
What is Advantage in Zero Company?: A squad-wide resource: each time an Operator damages an enemy the squad gains 1 Advantage, up to 10, spent on powerful abilities that cost no Action Points.
What difficulty settings does Zero Company have?: Four are named by the pre-release achievement list — Story, Normal, Hard and Expert — plus a separate ironman option called Beskar Mode.

Every question, answered with its sources

What a beginner guide cannot tell you yet

The game has not been released. These are open questions we have chosen not to guess at.

The Action Point cost of individual weapons and abilities. Attack costs are confirmed to vary and no figure is published, so no turn plan here can be costed exactly.
What each difficulty tier changes. The four names come from achievement text; nothing states whether higher tiers add enemy health, accuracy or numbers.
Every Focus Tree layout. Not one node has been named by anyone, so the progression section can tell you the system exists and not what to spend on.
Everything past roughly the first third of the campaign. The preview build was capped, so no guide written before 27 August — including this one — describes the late game.

Where to go next

Sources

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
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
Complete Star Wars Zero Company Trophy List — How to Get All Achievements & Trophies
Insider Gaming · Tier 2 — Achievement list · accessed 19 August 2026
Supports: Full trophy table — Very High Bond as a named relationship threshold, and the named pairings reaching it, including two astromechs and two Custom Operators; completing a mission with four astromechs; equipping four Weapon Mods to one weapon (“Fully Geared”); applying a Focus Point; using Force Push or Pull to knock one enemy into another; knocking an enemy out of the combat space; defeating enemies from higher elevation; landing a shot at 10% or lower Chance-to-Hit and missing at 90% or greater; the difficulty tiers Story, Normal, Hard and Expert, and Expert with Beskar Mode. Published 2026-08-17
Star Wars Zero Company Xbox achievements
TrueAchievements · Tier 2 — Achievement list · accessed 19 August 2026
Supports: Achievement list — independent corroboration of the same requirements, including the four-Weapon-Mod achievement and the difficulty tiers.
Star Wars Zero Company: A New Hope for Turn-Based Tactics
Xbox Wire · Tier 3 — Hands-on preview · accessed 19 August 2026
Supports: Combat and squad sections — Advantage accumulating when a squad member successfully deals damage, and capping at 10; respeccing Hawks from Scoundrel into Gunslinger to exploit a Weapon Mod that applied an accumulating Burn status on every attack; unique-specialisation recruits being unable to respec the same way; an astromech with no basic attack, carrying three different Utility items with two uses each; a Concussion Grenade knocking enemies clean out of the combat space. 15-hour preview build.
Star Wars Zero Company: turn-based tactics that aren't just for XCOM experts
IGN · Tier 3 — Hands-on preview · accessed 11 August 2026
Supports: 2:15–12:39 — Advantage earned from successful attacks; four difficulty settings; ringing a droideka with Overwatch cones; Bonds granting health and critical damage; changing Hawks' species at the Den; the Bespin guest mission; preview-build defects including shots passing through solid cover
I played Star Wars Zero Company early — new gameplay and details
Star Wars HQ · Tier 3 — Hands-on preview · accessed 11 August 2026
Supports: 5:01–12:48 — one full combat mission per cycle; Hawks alone cannot permanently die; the exotic classes restricted to Cly, Tel-Rea and astromechs; recruitment refreshing each cycle with a name, Talent, Specialization and weapon type; Medbay bed and Bacta Tank costs; ignoring Operations granting enemies lasting upgrades
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
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 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
Star Wars Zero Company Hands-On Preview — Tactics on Tattooine
Press Start Australia · Tier 3 — Hands-on preview · accessed 13 August 2026
Supports: Unit abilities section — Trick's one-time-use rocket launcher costing 10 Advantage, against Hawks spending much less to regenerate an ally's Action Point; many abilities limited in uses per fight; Advantage generated as enemy units are dispatched. By Harry Kalogirou
12 hours in, Star Wars Zero Company is a solid strategy RPG, but it's missing XCOM 2 or Baldur's Gate 3's spark
GamesRadar+ · Tier 3 — Hands-on preview · accessed 13 August 2026
Supports: Abilities section — Trick charging a long-range explosive strike; the astromech entering battle armed not with a blaster but with grenades, ally buffs and enemy disruption; the Jedi Padawan's kit as battlefield control, Force pushing enemies and deflecting blaster fire back at them; the Backup system selecting one character per turn. By Ali Jones
I played Star Wars Zero Company — my honest thoughts
EckhartsLadder · Tier 3 — Hands-on preview · accessed 11 August 2026
Supports: 3:18–12:36 — no hunker-down action, so a spare AP goes to Overwatch; astromechs carrying three utilities and extra uses of each; Trick able to negate some injuries along an upgrade path; twelve galaxy zones; super battle droids telegraphing a rocket one turn ahead; many of the 150+ planets being text-only
Star Wars Zero Company Trophies
PSNProfiles · Tier 2 — Achievement list · accessed 19 August 2026
Supports: Trophy list — independent corroboration of the trophy descriptions and of the Very High Bond terminology.
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"
Star Wars Zero Company — official game page
Electronic Arts · Tier 1 — Official · accessed 15 August 2026
Supports: Release date of August 27; platforms given as PC, PlayStation and Xbox, without a console generation; "Turn-Based Tactics" in the page title; premise
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 hands-on impressions — story and gameplay
Star Wars Explained · Tier 3 — Hands-on preview · accessed 11 August 2026
Supports: 0:00–7:39 — the company opening 80,000 credits in debt to the Hutts; dialogue choices moving Bonds; Operations forcing a choice between squadmates; rescue and escort objectives; reaching cycle 7 in roughly eight hours
Star Wars Zero Company is full of (excellent) surprises
Skill Up · Tier 3 — Hands-on preview · accessed 11 August 2026
Supports: 2:09–15:14 — the Gunslinger's core ability refunding its point on a kill; half and full cover; Hawks' two voices sharing one personality; companions able to leave the squad entirely; a closed-doors developer briefing and the studio's Firaxis lineage
Zero Company full character creation
RuthlessNightsister · Tier 3 — Hands-on preview · accessed 11 August 2026
Supports: 1:07–14:15 — the creator's full species list including Rodian; per-species options; ten Custom Operator voices against two each for Hawks, clones and astromechs; blaster patterns applied per part; weapon mods visibly changing the model; the explicit statement that all of it is the start-of-game set only