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Zero Company what to do at the den explained

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.

Preview-reported
Confidence
Strongly supported
Verified
14 September 2026

Talk to everyone, first

Three previewers independently report that conversations at the Den unlock optional leads which then appear at the holotable as missions, and that some missions are tied to particular squad members. One warns plainly that you can miss content by skipping this.

Do it before you look at the mission board rather than after, because it can add options to the list you are about to choose from.

Dialogue choices also move Bonds, and Bonds feed Focus Points, combat bonuses and Operation rewards. The conversation layer is progression, not flavour.

Check the Medbay before planning anything

Injuries persist between missions and accumulate towards permanent death. A standard bed costs a cycle; a Bacta Tank costs Credits. You cannot treat everyone at once.

Since Patch 1.1 you cannot buy your way round that either. The tank is once per cycle — EA fixed it being usable more than once — so the decision at the Medbay is which one Operator gets the instant recovery, not whether you can afford to give it to all of them.

This is usually the constraint that determines the rest of the plan, which is why it comes before mission selection rather than after it.

Spend Focus Points

Focus Points are earned from missions and from Bond levels — and every Bond level grants them to both Operators in the pair. They are spent before missions, on class abilities and on each Operator's personal Talent.

There is a genuine opportunity cost between deepening a class role and deepening a Talent, and nobody has established which pays better. No Focus node has been named by anyone, so this site has no node recommendations and will not invent any.

Read what is expiring, then choose

Operations and missions are time-limited, and Intel is finite. Two warnings from previewers are worth carrying: ignoring certain Operations hands enemies upgrades that last the whole campaign, and Operations can injure the Operators you send. One previewer reports that on normal difficulty, every Injury he took came from Operations rather than from combat.

When choosing who to send, send Operators who get on. Operation success and rewards reportedly depend heavily on the Bonds between them.

Shop and upgrade last

Credits are contested by facilities, black-market equipment, Utilities, Medbay treatment and recruitment all at once — and the company begins the campaign deep in debt to the Hutts.

The Droid Bay is among the earliest facilities available and unlocks astromechs, which are the most mechanically distinctive squad option available early. Black market access and a droid repair station are also named upgrades. Recruitment refreshes each cycle, so an Operator you want will not necessarily still be there next time.

Confirmed

The rules as officially stated

  • The Den is explored in third person between missions.
  • Conversations with squad members unlock side missions and leads.
  • Some missions are tied to specific squad members.
  • Dialogue choices move Bonds.
  • Focus Points are spent before missions on class abilities and personal Talents.
  • Operations can injure the Operators sent on them.
  • Operation rewards depend on the Bonds between the Operators sent.
  • Recruitment offers a new selection each cycle, bought with Credits.
  • Ignoring certain Operations grants enemies lasting upgrades.
  • From Patch 1.1, the Bacta Tank can be used once per cycle.

Planning

What this means for squad building

  • Do the full conversation round before selecting a mission, not after.
  • Let the Medbay's state drive squad selection rather than the other way round.
  • Give the cycle's one Bacta Tank use to the Operator the next mission most needs, and put the rest to bed.
  • Send bonded pairs on Operations together.
  • Budget Credits against the Medbay, not just against equipment — healing competes with gear.

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.

  • Whether conversations expire or wait for you.
  • What a Bacta Tank costs, and how that compares with the value of a cycle. Its limit is now known — once per cycle from Patch 1.1 — and its price is not.
  • Which Focus purchases are strongest — no node has been named.
  • Whether Bond damage from a disapproved decision can be repaired.
  • The full facility list and upgrade costs.

Questions

Common questions

The way these come up in search, answered directly.

When and where is Star Wars Zero Company set?
During the Clone Wars, with the squad operating out of the Den — a defunct bulk freighter on the Ring of Kafrene.
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.
What are Operations in Zero Company?
The non-combat half of the campaign — intelligence work and political manoeuvring, run from the HoloTable at the Den between missions.
What is the Den in Zero Company?
Zero Company's base — a defunct bulk freighter on the Ring of Kafrene, explored in third person between missions.
Who are the non-combat characters at the Den?
Bennic Halloren, Neesh Renark, Runa Blask and M-3VO — none of them deployable.
How do you recruit new Operators?
The recruitment pool refreshes with a new selection every cycle, and recruits are bought with Credits.

Every question, answered with its sources

Related mechanics

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 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

  • 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: 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 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

  • 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

  • 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 — 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.