Skip to content
Zero Company Builds
Build

Mechanic

Zero Company focus trees and focus points explained

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. From Cycle 3 you can respec at the Personnel console for free, and changing Specialization refunds every Focus Point spent in the class tree — the one exception being points invested in an authored character's fixed Talent, which never come back. Every ability's ladder is now published — one Ultimate and one Standard at six ranks, one passive at five, and one passive per class that cannot be upgraded at all — so the Squad Builder can record which rank a build assumes. The per-rank *costs* are still unpublished, so it cannot tell you whether you can afford it.

Confirmed
Confidence
Confirmed
Verified
8 September 2026
Version
Pre-release evidence, plus retail launch-build observations (August 2026)

Where the points come from

Focus Points are mainly gained from Bonds, with missions and Operations as additional sources. That connects two systems that look separate: who you field together determines how fast every Operator develops.

The Bond half of that is now a schedule rather than an adjective. Eight ranks pay 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 4 and 7 points, to **both** Operators in the pair — so a pairing carried all the way yields 36 points across two Operators, and a pairing abandoned at rank 5 yields 10. Freeform Training adds +2 more on any rank where it is one of the three drawn.

There is a third source, and it is the only one that pays every Operator at once. Zone Influence, earned from Operations at the Mission Table, unlocks tiered rewards per zone — and two of those rewards are flat grants of Focus Points to the whole company: +1 at Zone Grek's first tier and +2 at Zone Besh's second. Twelve zones have three tiers each, so choosing where to spend Influence is a progression decision as much as an equipment one.

There is a fourth, and it is the largest: **Crew Focus**, a line under the Crew tab of the Den's base upgrades. Its three ranks grant +2, then a further +3, then a further +4 Focus Points to every Operator on the roster — nine points each, bought rather than earned. One guide prices the second rank at roughly 1,750 supplies and nobody has priced the other two.

Both of those are worth planning around precisely because they are company-wide. A Bond pays two Operators and a mission pays whoever went; these pay everybody, including the recruits who have not been fielded yet. Crew Focus is also the one source whose timing is entirely yours, which makes it the natural answer to a mid-campaign roster expansion — recruit four Operators and the third rank has just paid you sixteen points you did not have.

What they buy

Focus Points upgrade Talents, Abilities and Passives. Since Talents are the specialization layer that carries one or two abilities, and some authored Operators have fixed Talents, the tree is where an Operator's identity gets sharpened.

A full Focus Tree planner is one of the highest-value tools this site can build — and it cannot be built responsibly until the node data exists. It is tracked as a post-launch priority.

You can take it all back, from Cycle 3, for nothing

Respeccing unlocks at Cycle 3 — early, in a campaign measured in dozens of cycles — and it is done by interacting with the Personnel console beside the map table. Changing an Operator's Specialization costs nothing and refunds every Focus Point spent in the class tree, so the reallocation and the class change are the same transaction rather than two.

This closes the question this record carried for three days with a deliberately pessimistic reading. A launch-week review said Focus Points could be reset 'at any time', and this page refused to read that as free, on the grounds that a reset costing Credits or a cycle would be a real constraint. Two launch-week guides now say plainly that it costs nothing. The caution was right to exist and is now resolved in the reader's favour by evidence rather than by hope.

One thing is not refunded, and it is the exception worth remembering: on an authored character, Focus Points spent on their fixed Talent at the top of the tree stay spent. Hawks' Fearless Leader and Trick's For My Brothers are the kind of node you invest in rather than experiment with. Everything below them in the class tree comes back.

So the practical rule is asymmetric. On a recruit, nothing is a commitment — Talent and Specialization both change, and the points return. On an authored Operator, one node is permanent and the rest is not.

What it means for how you play the first ten cycles

Spend early rather than banking. The argument for hoarding Focus Points was that the trees were invisible and a wrong pick was permanent; neither half survives Cycle 3, and an Operator sitting on unspent points is simply weaker than one who guessed.

Take Freeform Training's +2 Focus Points at every Bond level that offers it. It was already the compounding choice against three flat combat bonuses, and a free respec removes the only argument against taking it early.

Retune rather than re-recruit. When a squad meets a wall — a droid-heavy chapter, an enemy with high Defense — the cheapest answer is respeccing an Operator you already have Bonds with, not fielding a fresh one whose relationships start at zero. Bonds do not respec; Focus Points do.

Confirmed

The rules as officially stated

  • Focus Points are used in Focus Trees.
  • They upgrade Talents, Abilities and Passives.
  • They are mainly gained from Bonds.
  • They are also earned from missions and Operations.
  • Applying a Focus Point is a pre-release achievement, which confirms the spend is a deliberate player action rather than an automatic upgrade.
  • Bonds teach paired Operators passive abilities and unique tricks as well as paying Focus Points, so the relationship layer feeds progression twice.
  • Focus Points can be completely reset and reallocated at any time. Retail-reported from a launch-week review.
  • Zone Influence rewards grant Focus Points to every Operator at once: +1 at Zone Grek Tier 1 and +2 at Zone Besh Tier 2. Retail-reported.
  • The Den's Crew Focus upgrade grants Focus Points to every Operator at once, at three ranks: Focus Point I gives +2, Focus Point II a further +3 and Focus Point III a further +4. Retail-reported. Two guides carry the first two ranks and one carries the third.
  • Focus Point II costs approximately 1,750 supplies. It is the only price published for any rank of any Focus Point source.
  • A Bond rank pays Focus Points to both Operators on a schedule: 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 4 and 7 across the eight ranks.
  • Every ability's ladder is published: six ranks for a Specialization's Ultimate and Standard, five for one of its passives, and no ladder at all for one more — two, on the Heavy. That is why a Specialization band shows three rows in the tree.
  • What no source has published is what any single rank costs, which is why a Focus Point budget can be stated and not checked.
  • Respeccing unlocks at Cycle 3, at the Personnel console by the map table.
  • Changing an Operator's Specialization is free and refunds the Focus Points invested in the class tree.
  • Focus Points spent on an authored character's fixed Talent are not refunded.
  • Recruited Operators can change their Talent as well as their Specialization.

Planning

What this means for squad building

  • Bond planning is Focus Point planning — they are the same decision.
  • Nothing spent here is lost, and from Cycle 3 nothing is charged for taking it back. A Focus allocation is a working hypothesis rather than a commitment, which makes experimenting with a tree the cheap option and hoarding points the expensive one.
  • Budget one permanent decision per authored Operator: the Focus spent on their fixed Talent. Everything else on every Operator is reversible.
  • Answer a difficulty spike by respeccing an Operator who already has Bonds rather than fielding a new one. Focus Points come back; Bond progress does not transfer.
  • Take Freeform Training's +2 Focus Points early. Its only argued risk was spending them badly before the tree was understood, and a free reset removes it.
  • Hold all 'best early nodes' guidance until the trees are visible — but hold it because the nodes are unknown, no longer because a wrong pick would be permanent.

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.

  • Every Focus Tree node's cost. The income side is now well published — Bond ranks, Zone Influence and Crew Focus all carry figures — and the spending side carries none, which is why the Squad Builder can record a Focus Point budget and cannot check it.
  • Whether trees differ per Specialization, per Operator, or both.
  • Whether Crew Focus rank III exists as published. Two guides carry ranks I and II with matching figures and only one carries the +4 third rank, so the progression is 2/3/4 on one source's word.
  • What Crew Focus costs at ranks I and III. Only rank II has a price, of roughly 1,750 supplies, and no source says whether the ranks must be bought in order.
  • Whether a respec is possible at all before Cycle 3, or simply unavailable until the Personnel console unlocks.
  • Whether changing a recruit's Talent refunds the points spent inside that Talent, the way a Specialization change refunds the class tree.
  • What a Specialization change costs in Credits, if anything — 'free' is stated of the Focus refund, and the two guides describing it do not separate the two charges.
  • How many points a full campaign yields. The pieces are now countable — 18 per Bond pairing, 3 from zones, 9 from Crew Focus, an unstated amount per mission — and the missing piece is how many pairings and missions a campaign holds.

Questions

Common questions

The way these come up in search, answered directly.

What are Focus Points and how do you earn them?
The currency spent in Focus Trees to upgrade an Operator's Talents, Abilities and Passives. They come mainly from Bonds.

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: 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

  • 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

  • PC Review — 'Star Wars Zero Company'

    WorthPlaying · Tier 3 — Retail review · accessed 27 August 2026

    Supports: Weapons — "Regardless of specialization, operators can use any of the game's four ranged weapon types: blaster pistols, blaster rifles, longarms (sniper rifles), and repeaters (machine guns)", and "Blaster pistols deal the least damage but always cost one AP to fire. Blaster rifles cost one AP for the first shot and two for the second, using all three AP an operator starts with each turn. Longarms always cost two AP but offer the longest range." No cost is given for the Repeater. Progression — "Focus points can be completely reset and reallocated at any time, so you're never stuck with a bad build." Bonds — "Reaching a new bond level lets you choose one of three permanent buffs for both operators, including increased health, ranged accuracy, movement range, or additional Focus points." Published 2026-08-26

  • Hands-on report: Star Wars Zero Company

    PlayStation.Blog · Tier 3 — Retail review · accessed 27 August 2026

    Supports: "I got fired into the fray with the full game ahead of its August 27 launch". Combat abilities listed as examples include "a 100% accurate shot for the sharpshooters" and "a party-wide stats buff", with no cost given for either. Bonds — "Good bonds earn Focus points to enhance an Operative's skills, as well as teaching each other passive abilities and unique tricks", raised by siding with an Operator in a Dilemma, partnering them for assists, completing missions together, or taking character-driven quests. Bylined Corey Brotherson, a contributor rather than PlayStation staff. Published 2026-08-26

  • How to respec in Star Wars Zero Company

    PC Gamer · Tier 3 — Retail review · accessed 29 August 2026

    Supports: Respec guide: class change unlocks "once you reach Cycle 3", performed by interacting with "the Personnel console by the map table"; "There's no cost to changing class and it will also refund all of your Focus Points, letting you respec entirely"; "The only thing this doesn't refund (if you're respec-ing a story character) is the Focus Points you've put into your talent at the top." Same retrieval caveat as retail-pcgamer-talents — the body sits behind a membership interstitial — and the Cycle 3 unlock, the absence of a cost and the Focus refund are each corroborated by retail-keengamer-talents.

  • Star Wars Zero Company – Best Talents & Focus Tree Guide

    KeenGamer · Tier 3 — Retail review · accessed 29 August 2026

    Supports: "10 universal talents" available to Custom Operators, each walked rank by rank. Anticipation — "Gain 1 Evasion once per turn" (Rank I), twice per turn (II), three times per turn (III), applying to allies (IV). Grit — "+2 Health and 1 Invulnerable stack" (I) to "+12 Health and 2 Invulnerable stacks" (IV). Cold-Blooded — "1 Vicious stack once per combat" (I), two uses per combat (II), three uses (III), "2 Vicious stacks" (IV). A Life of Labor — "+5 Health/+1 Defense" (I) scaling to "+7 Health/+2 Defense/+4 Melee Damage/+4 Critical Hit Damage" (IV). The Bigger They Are… — +2 Elite/Boss Damage (I) to +6 (IV). Taunt — "Taunt one enemy once per turn" (I), reducing target damage by 2 to 6 across upgrades. Sabotage — once per combat (I) to Unlimited (IV). Fortitude — "+2 Defense" while injured (I) to "+6 Defense and removes Injury accuracy penalty" (IV). Thievery — +150 Credits (I) to +300 (IV). Espionage — +5 Intel (I) to +12 (IV). Respec — "You unlock full respeccing very early, around Cycle 3", "Changing a Specialization is free and refunds the Focus Points invested", recruitable Operators can change both Specialization and Talent, and story characters' fixed Talents are not refunded. Bylined Ali Amir, dated 2026-08-28

  • Zone Influence and Best Rewards — Star Wars Zero Company

    Mobalytics · Tier 3 — Retail review · accessed 31 August 2026

    Supports: The complete Zone Influence reward table, twelve zones at three tiers each, read from the page on 2026-08-31. Bylined Mobalytics, "Updated on Aug 30, 2026". **Weapon Mods**: "Weightless Stabilizer Weapon Mod (Provides a 33% chance to gain Evasion when firing this blaster if this Operator does not already have this effect)" at Besh Tier 3; "Advanced Range Scope Weapon Mod (Reduces chance-to-hit penalties from Range by 10%)" at Forn Tier 1; "Assassin's Scope Weapon Mod (Increases Critical Chance by 12% when attacking with this blaster)" at Forn Tier 2; "Lightning Modulator Weapon Mod (Provides a 100% chance to Shock the targeted enemy when this blaster scores a Hit)" at Herf Tier 3; "Advanced Tracking Scope Weapon Mod (Increases this Operator's Assist Damage by +2)" at Isk Tier 1; and "Wildfire Modulator Weapon Mod (Inflicts 4 stacks of Burning when this blaster hits)" at Krill Tier 3. **Utilities**: "Medpac Mk. IV Utility (Heals 30% of the target ally's Health. Cannot be used on Droids)" at Aurek Tier 3; "Repulsor Units Mk. II Utility (Increases Movement by +1.0m. This bonus affects all of the Operator's moves)" at Besh Tier 1; "Prototype Imploder Utility (Throw a powerful explosive Grenade that deals excellent damage)" at Cresh Tier 3; "Trauma Kit Mk. II Utility (When this Operator Rallies a Downed ally, that ally returns to action Fully Healed. There is a 20% chance the healed ally is not Injured)" at Esk Tier 1; "Gas Dispenser MK. IV Utility (Sprays a stream of gas the Dazes all units in the target area)" at Esk Tier 3; "Custom RSKF-44 Utility (Fire a very powerful, but short range armor-piercing pistol shot)" at Grek Tier 3; "Ion Blaster Mk IV Utility (Fires an ion blaster at the target that severely weakens Ray Shields. Very effective against Droids but far less effective on Organic targets)" at Isk Tier 3; and "Reinforced Underlay Mk. III Utility (Increases Defense by +3)" at Krill Tier 2. **Permanent squad upgrades**: "All Zero Company Operators gain +2 Focus Points" at Besh Tier 2 and "+1 Focus Point" at Grek Tier 1; "All Operators gain +1 Weapon Mod Slot" at Forn Tier 3; "Increases Max Health by +4 for all Operators" at both Aurek Tier 2 and Esk Tier 2; "+30 Bond XP for everyone" at Herf Tier 2 and "+20 Bond XP for everyone" at Leth Tier 1. Also: Influence is "primarily earned through Operations at the Mission Table", and placing a Contact in a Zone earns "a significant amount of Influence, starting at +7".

  • Ultimate Star Wars Zero Company Gunslinger Build and Class Guide

    Hack the Minotaur · Tier 3 — Retail review · accessed 31 August 2026

    Supports: Per-ability progression tables, tier by tier. Open Fire six tiers, 9 Advantage at tier 1 rising through +5% to +20% Chance-to-Hit and a third shot at tier 6. Quick Draw six tiers, its Chance-to-Hit penalty falling 25/20/15/10/5% and tier 6 reading "Defeating an enemy restores 1 AP"; base card "Fire a lightning-fast sidearm pistol shot... Costs 1 AP". Keen Eye five tiers, Ranged Crit Chance +6/+9/+12/+15/+18%. Onslaught marked Cannot Upgrade — "Each attack in a turn grants +1 Blaster Damage, primary blaster only".

  • Star Wars Zero Company Bonds & Cross Training Guide

    Hack the Minotaur · Tier 3 — Retail review · accessed 16 September 2026

    Supports: Bylined Hack The Minotaur, "Latest Update: September 1, 2026". **The complete Cross Training table, fourteen rows, verbatim**: Speed Training "+0.50m first movement"; Target Practice "-5% range hit penalty"; Agility Drills "-5% enemy ranged hit chance"; Close Combat Drills "+1 Melee Damage"; Precision Shooting Games "+1 Critical Damage"; Timing Exercises "+3% Critical Chance"; Freeform Training "+2 Focus Points"; Ranged Combat Drills "+1 Ranged Damage"; Cover Combat Practice "+5% Cover Bonus"; Fitness Work "+4 Max Health"; Reflex Fire Training "+1 Overwatch Damage"; A Friendly Game "+40 Bond XP"; Grenade Training "+1 Grenade Damage"; Combined Fire Games "+1 Assist Damage". Introduced as "All known basic Cross Training rewards are listed below" — a claim about the author's knowledge, not a claim of completeness. **The eight-rank Bond ladder**, as a table of Rank / Tier / Total Bond XP to Unlock / Focus Points Earned / Cross Training: 1 Very Low 40 1 "1 Standard Upgrade"; 2 Low 70 1; 3 Low 80 1; 4 Neutral 100 1; 5 Neutral 125 1; 6 Neutral 175 2; 7 High 250 4; 8 Very High 350 7 "1 Unique Upgrade". Prose around it: "You also earn Focus Points by hitting each Bond Rank, with 8 Bond Ranks in total", and "There are 8 confirmed Bond Tiers... Very High is the maximum tier and the threshold the game's trophy list recognizes for reaching maximum Bond with a given pair." On the choice: "You get to select from 3 random Cross Training passives each time your Operators rank up in Bond XP. You cannot predict which options will appear at a given tier, only that they will be drawn from the total pool of available trainings." On stacking: "Cross Training STACKS on each Operator. This means you can have multiple instances of Fitness Work (+4 Max Health) or Speed Training (bonus First Movement) for example". On permanence: "Cross Training bonuses apply permanently to both operators in the pair once chosen, regardless of deployment status." On Bond XP: "Each completed mission awards 30 Bond points to every pair that participated"; Call for Backup is "a Free Action available once per turn to one randomly selected operator, at no AP cost", and "Both the operator who called and the operator who assisted gain Bond progress"; healing a specific squadmate builds Bond between those two; assigning two Operators to the same Operation does too. On the top tier: "The maximum-Bond Cross Training grants a Passive Ability unique to each pairing, which cannot be obtained through the Focus Tree or any other progression system." On permadeath: a dead Operator's Bonds are severed and "The Cross Training bonuses already earned and locked in from that pairing remain on the surviving operator." **Checked for and absent**: any Focus Point cost for any node, any figure for Bond decay, and any name for a single maximum-Bond passive. **Re-read 2026-09-16, "Latest Update: September 11, 2026", the table unchanged.** The XP column is headed "Total Bond XP to Unlock" and nothing in the prose says whether that total is per rank or running; the one sentence near it is "Unlocking each rank requires more Bond XP each time, so while your Operators will gain Ranks 1-5 quickly, anything beyond that will take significant investment to earn." This site read the column as cumulative from 2026-09-08. A reader playing the retail build reported on 2026-09-13 that each rank's figure is paid on top of the last, which the table supports — read cumulatively, rank 3 would sit 10 XP above rank 2 against a 30 XP mission award, and "more each time" would be false at that step. Filed as the per-rank reading from 2026-09-16; the full ladder sums to 1,190. **Checked for and absent** on the re-read: any statement of the ladder's total.

  • Complete Star Wars Zero Company Den Guide & Upgrades

    Hack the Minotaur · Tier 3 — Retail review · accessed 8 September 2026

    Supports: Bylined Hack The Minotaur, updated 26 August 2026. The Crew Focus upgrade line, verbatim: "Focus Point I: All Operators gain +2 Focus Points." and "Focus Point II: All Operators gain +3 Focus Points." **Only two ranks appear on this page**; the third is registered from `retail-dtgre-den` and the difference is recorded on the record rather than merged away. Other roster-wide lines named: Increased Crew Quarters I–IV, raising the roster cap by 1, 1, 2 and 2; "Additional Utility Slot: All Operators gain an additional Utility Item Slot"; "Additional Weapon Mod Slot: All Operators gain an additional Weapon Mod Slot". The Zone Influence rewards it repeats — "+4 Max Health for all Operators" at Aurek Tier 2 and Esk Tier 2 — match `retail-mobalytics-zones` exactly. **Checked for and absent**: any Credit or supply cost for any Crew upgrade.

  • Star Wars Zero Company The Den Guide: Every Facility, Upgrade & Unlock

    DTG Reviews · Tier 3 — Retail review · accessed 8 September 2026

    Supports: Updated 1 September 2026. **Unbylined** — a publication name and no author, which is why it is registered as the corroborating source on a figure and never as the originating one. The Crew Focus line at three ranks, verbatim: "Focus Point I: All Operators gain +2 Focus Points."; "Focus Point II: All Operators gain an additional +3 Focus Points."; "Focus Point III: All Operators gain an additional +4 Focus Points." Ranks I and II match `retail-htm-den` and `retail-games-gg-focus`; **rank III appears on no other source read in this pass**. Other Crew lines named without figures: Combat Readiness (starting Advantage), Teamwork I and II (Assist Damage) and the Lounge (passive Bond XP for Operators not deployed). **Checked for and absent**: any cost for any rank.

  • Star Wars Zero Company Focus Points Guide: How to Earn, Refund & Reassign

    games.gg · Tier 3 — Retail review · accessed 8 September 2026

    Supports: Bylined Larc, published and updated 1 September 2026. Registered as the second independent account of the Crew Focus line and for the one cost figure anybody has printed for it: Focus Point II gives "+3 Focus Points across your whole roster" and costs "approximately 1,750 supplies". It names the Crew tab as where the line sits. On the other sources of Focus Points it agrees with what this database already holds: Tactical Missions award them to active Operators, a Bond level grants "+1 Focus Point" to both Operators, and Freeform Training grants "+2 Focus Points to both operators". On refunds: "Every point can come back for free between missions", node by node rather than as a full wipe, and a Change Specialization refund "becomes free once you reach Cycle 3". **Checked for and absent**: Focus Point I and III, and any total for a campaign.