Astromechs

Overview

Recruitable astromech droids, unlocked during the campaign.

• Astromech comm link

  ◉Preview-reported

  Transfers an Action Point to another Operator. Requires proximity — a previewer checks whether he is close enough before using it.

  Build value: The second confirmed route for moving AP around a squad, and unlike Hawks' version it costs no Advantage. The proximity requirement is what turns an abstract support droid into a positioning problem: the donor has to travel with the receiver, which pulls the astromech forward into a fight it is not built to survive.

• Astromech enhanced scanner

  ◈Retail-reported

  Scans the battlefield, raising the squad's hit chance against the enemies it reveals.

  Build value: A squad-wide accuracy buff compounds with everything: more landed attacks means more damage and more Advantage, since the squad gains one every time an Operator damages an enemy. It is the clearest illustration of why astromechs are force multipliers rather than damage dealers — the droid contributes nothing to the kill count and improves every other Operator's.

• Coordinated Support

  ◈Retail-reported

  Grants all Operators 1 Action Point, up to the normal ceiling of three. It costs 10 Advantage at the first rank, falling to 6 by the fifth, and the sixth rank grants 2 Action Points instead of 1.

  Build value: The largest single swing in the game and the reason a weaponless droid earns a bay. Four Operators at +1 Action Point is a whole extra Operator's turn; the sixth rank is two of them, for 6 Advantage. Read the ladder as two purchases rather than six: everything up to the fifth rank is a discount, and the sixth is a different ability. The ceiling matters when planning the turn order — a point handed to an Operator already holding three is wasted, so this is cast before the squad has spent, not after. It also makes the astromech the squad's largest Advantage consumer, which sits awkwardly beside its inability to generate any by dealing damage.

• Extended Storage

  ◈Retail-reported

  All Utility Items that have limited uses can be used +1 additional time. It has no Focus Tree row of its own — it is the first step of the astromech's single four-tier passive line.

  Build value: This is the mechanism behind the observation that made astromechs interesting in the first place: a previewer saw one carrying three Utilities with two uses each, and this is why the second use exists. With Storage Optimization on top and the class's three Utility slots beneath it, a droid brings **nine charges of consumable to a mission** where a Medic brings six and everybody else brings three — which is the whole compensation for carrying no weapon. It costs nothing and cannot be improved on its own, so it is a reason to give the astromech the squad's most valuable limited-use item rather than a reason to spend Focus Points.

• Storage Optimization

  ◈Retail-reported

  All Utility Items that have limited uses can be used +1 additional time, stacking with Extended Storage's use rather than replacing it. It has no Focus Tree row of its own — it is the fourth step of the astromech's single four-tier passive line.

  Build value: This is where the class stops being a support Operator and becomes the squad's supply line. Three Utility slots at three uses each is **nine charges a mission** against one Operator's three, and it is the whole answer to what a weaponless droid contributes: nine Thermal Detonators, or nine Medpacs, or any mix of them. It is also why Grenade Training is the Cross Training a droid pair should be watching for — a flat +1 Grenade Damage applied nine times is a real damage contribution from an Operator with no attack.

• Improved Motors

  ◈Retail-reported

  Increases the astromech's Movement by +1.0m. The source states the bonus affects all movements. It has no Focus Tree row.

  Build value: Small, free, and pointed at the class's real problem. An astromech's abilities are proximity-bound — the comm link needs to be near its recipient, the scanner needs enemies in range — so the droid spends its turns closing distance it gains nothing from being in. A metre on every move is a metre it does not have to buy with an Action Point.

• Hardened Frame

  ◈Retail-reported

  Increases the astromech's Defense by +2. It has no Focus Tree row.

  Build value: The only survivability the class has, and it is the same +2 the Heavy's own armour passive grants — which says something about how the droid is meant to be played, since the Heavy takes it while taunting deliberately and the astromech takes it while trying not to be shot at. Defense is flat damage reduction, so it blunts chip damage and does nothing about a focused enemy turn. Plan the positioning; there is nothing to buy here.

• Built-in Thrusters

  ◈Retail-reported

  Allows this Operator to jump vertically without restrictions. It has no Focus Tree row.

  Build value: The third free-vertical-movement passive in the game, after Tel-Rea's and Cly's, and it makes the same point about all three: the Operators who cannot take a standard Specialization are also the ones who ignore the map's vertical geometry. For the astromech it matters most, because its abilities are proximity-bound and rooftops are where the Sharpshooter it wants to hand Action Points to is standing.

• Self Repair

  ◈Retail-reported

  Restores 50% of the astromech's maximum health, consuming its remaining Action Points as a final action. It is available every turn. Astromechs cannot be healed by Medpacs, which say so on the item card — "Cannot be used on Droids" — so this is the only way a droid recovers.

  Build value: The strongest heal in the game and the reason a droid can stand where nothing else can. Half a health bar a turn, with a +2 Defense passive under it, means an astromech in the open is not a mistake — it is the plan, and it keeps enemy fire off Operators whose health does not come back. The cost is the honest part: it takes the turn. A droid that heals is a droid that handed out no Action Points, cast no scan and threw no grenade, so the decision is really about whether the squad needs the AP more than the droid needs the health. Play it as a tank that pays for its own healing in tempo, not as a reaction to being hurt.

• Predictive Analytics

  ◈Retail-reported

  All allies gain Defense for the rest of the turn. The ability card reads "Nothing beats these odds". Five ranks grant +2, +3, +4, +5 and +6 Defense. **No Advantage cost is published for it**, which is unusual for an Ultimate and is the source's omission rather than the ability being free.

  Build value: The only squad-wide defensive Ultimate in the game, and it turns the astromech from a support unit into the reason a squad survives an alpha strike. Defense is flat damage reduction, so +6 across four Operators is worth more against many small hits than against one large one — which makes it the answer to a room full of B1s rather than to a Droideka. It is also the one Ultimate whose timing is obvious: it lasts the rest of the turn, so it is cast before the enemy acts, not after. Against the class's other Ultimate it is a genuine choice rather than an upgrade. Coordinated Support buys the squad actions; this buys the squad turns alive. A droid can afford one of them per fight on a 10-point Advantage pool, so a second astromech is how a squad gets both.

• Deep Target Scan

  ◈Retail-reported

  Conducts an intensive analysis on one enemy: Scans and Spots the target and removes all Evasion. Costs 1 AP. Five ranks extend effective range from 14.0m to 24.0m.

  Build value: The single-target answer to the one defensive mechanic nothing else in the game beats. Evasion blocks an attack outright rather than reducing it, so a stacked-up elite can turn a planned turn into nothing; this removes all of it for one Action Point, at rifle range. Read it beside the class's own Enhanced Scanners rather than against it — that one hits an area, negates Defense and does nothing about Evasion, so a fully developed astromech carries both and picks by what is in front of it. Against a boss, this first, then everything else.

• Self Preservation

  ◈Retail-reported

  When the astromech is hit by an Overwatch or Retaliation attack it gains 1 Action Point. Cannot Upgrade.

  Build value: The passive that pays a droid for walking into fire, and it is the mechanical argument for the tanking playstyle rather than a consolation for it. Every other Operator treats an enemy Overwatch cone as a reason not to move; an astromech treats it as an Action Point it did not have, which it can immediately hand to somebody else or spend on Self Repair. Deliberately triggering it — moving the droid through the cone first so the squad crosses it clean — is the play the ability exists for, and it is free.

• Telemetry

  ◈Retail-reported

  Increases Chance-To-Hit by +5% for all Operators on the team. Cannot Upgrade.

  Build value: The only squad-wide accuracy buff in the game that costs nothing and needs no action, and the reason a second astromech is not redundant if the two of them both reach Cycle 18. Accuracy converts misses into hits, and a hit is what generates Advantage — so this pays a squad twice: more damage landed, and more Advantage to spend on the Ultimates that damage is buying. It is worth the most to the Operators with the worst odds, which means the Longarm at long range and anybody shooting into cover, and it is worth the least to a Gunslinger stood next to the target. Whether two astromechs' Telemetry stacks is unpublished, and it is the single most valuable open question about droid squads.

• Perfect Integration

  ◈Retail-reported

  When the astromech is attacked, its data increases a random teammate's Defense by +1 for the rest of combat. Cannot Upgrade.

  Build value: The second passive that pays the droid for being shot at, and the one that compounds. It is not a buff with a duration — it lasts the rest of the fight — so a long engagement with an astromech in the open ends with the squad several points of Defense better off than it started. The randomness is the catch and it is a smaller catch than it looks: over a fight with enough triggers the points spread across everybody, which suits a squad taking chip damage from several directions rather than one Operator being focused. Together with Self Preservation and Self Repair it is the third reason the Analytics droid wants to be the target. That is the whole design of the band: an Operator whose defensive kit turns incoming fire into resources for the other three.

• Two Astromechs✦Achievement

  Two Astromechs. The load-bearing row: droid-to-droid Bonds reach the top tier, which is what makes an all-astromech squad a progression strategy rather than only a legal one.

What a Bond level actually pays out — and which of the three Cross Training options to take — is on the Bonds database page.

Builds featuring Astromechs

• Full Astromech Squad◇ Theorycraft
  Open in Squad Builder →
• Taunt and Absorb Wall◇ Theorycraft
  Open in Squad Builder →
• Astromech Support◇ Theorycraft
  Open in Squad Builder →
• Mandalorian unlimited turn squad◇ Theorycraft
  Open in Squad Builder →

Sources

• 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"

• 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

• 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

• 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 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

• 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

• 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

• Star Wars Zero Company: A New Hope for Turn-Based Tactics

  Xbox Wire · Tier 3 — Hands-on preview · accessed 19 August 2026

  Supports: Difficulty — the writer played on Hard, "third highest out of four difficulties", and "the cutely named Beskar mode is this game's equivalent for XCOM's Ironman, with no reloading previous saves". That line was the basis of this site's difficulty record from 2026-08-19 and was missing from this locator until 2026-08-27; a cited claim whose location is not recorded is a claim nobody can re-check. 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 is a very safe XCOM descendant, but its most interesting parts are found in its Midnight Suns DNA

  PC Gamer · Tier 3 — Hands-on preview · accessed 19 August 2026

  Supports: Combat section — a tank-like Operator taunting a group and activating a Retaliation ability, with four enemies in that encounter forced to target it and each of their shots drawing an immediate return shot; astromechs as support units providing extra Action Points, squad-wide buffs and self-healing; pistols being weak in raw damage but firable more often, supporting a crit-focused Gunslinger. Published 2026-08-11

• 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.

• All Companion Abilities & Skills | Star Wars Zero Company

  Dantics · Tier 3 — Hands-on preview · accessed 20 August 2026

  Supports: 1:05–3:40 Kabb — starts Scoundrel; Uppercut costs 1 AP plus travel, once per turn, and refunds every point spent on a kill. 5:05–7:00 Trick — starts Soldier; For My Brothers rank by rank: half health, full health, no Injury, then an immediate stand-up refunding 1 AP. 7:02–8:34 Jae — starts Assault, changeable; Final Shot fires once per turn at 4 health or less, rising to 10, cannot miss, and is inactive while she is dead. 8:34–13:50 Tel-Rea — Specialization cannot be changed; Padawan Training's 30% base deflection; Harmony at 4% per stack to six; Noble Stance at +10% per AP; Lightsaber Strike at +4 damage per stack, consuming three; Shockwave at 6 Advantage; Force Meditations in place of Utilities, one slot rising to three; Force Pull, Lightsaber Throw and Elegant Weapon in place of a second Specialization. 13:50–17:55 Cly — Specialization cannot be changed, but dual Specialization adds any of the eight; +3 base Defense from Mandalorian armour; Combat Jump at 2 Advantage and no AP, triggering neither Overwatch nor retaliation; Ruthless at +2 critical damage rising to +6; Electro Web Dart at 2 Advantage; Electro Web Surge detonating on every darted target and ignoring Defense. 17:55–20:05 Luco — starts Sharpshooter; Combat Gas at 2 Advantage, no AP, once per battle, granting Sharpened Senses stacks worth +5% hit and +1 ranged damage each, two rising to six, one consumed per ranged attack. 20:05–21:15 Astromechs — three Utility slots, no blaster, an Action Point handed to another Operator, and an extra passive, ability and Ultimate at dual Specialization

• Ultimate Star Wars Zero Company Astromech Build and Class Guide

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

  Supports: Bylined Hack The Minotaur, "Latest Update: August 31, 2026", with an on-page change log reading "v1.4 – August 31, 2026 – Updated utility items" and "v1.2 – August 27, 2026 – Actively updating build, focus progression, and cross-training". **The Analytics table — the astromech's second Specialization, published here for the first time anywhere this database has found.** "The Astromech's Secondary Specialization called Analytics cannot be changed", and "Secondary Specializations cannot go about [sic] Tier 5 for Focus Tree upgrades". Predictive Analytics (Ultimate) "All allies gain Defense for the rest of the turn. Nothing beats these odds", five tiers +2/+3/+4/+5/+6 Defense. Deep Target Scan (Standard) "Conducts an intensive analysis on an enemy. Scans and Spots the target and removes all Evasion. Costs 1 AP", five tiers of Effective Range 14.0m, 16.0m, 18.0m, 20.0m, 24.0m. Self Preservation (Passive) "When the Astromech is hit by an Overwatch or Retaliation attack it gains 1 AP", Cannot Upgrade. Telemetry (Passive) "Increases Chance-To-Hit by +5% for all Operators on the team", Cannot Upgrade. Perfect Integration (Passive) "When the Astromech is attacked, its data increases a random teammate's Defense by +1 for the rest of combat", Cannot Upgrade. **No Advantage cost is printed for Predictive Analytics.** The primary Astromech table reproduces `retail-htm-focus-trees` and is not re-entered from here, with one exception that matters: this page explains the two storage passives as ranks of one four-tier line rather than as two rows — "Tier 1 adds one extra use to all Utility Items the Astromech is carrying. Tier 2 adds 1 meter of movement. Tier 3 adds 2 Defense. Tier 4 adds another extra use to all Utility Items, stacking with the tier 1 bonus for a total of two additional uses per item." The Storage Optimization card itself reads "This effect stacks with Extended Range", the same proofreading error as on the Focus Tree index. On capacity: "Unlike operators, your Astromech has three slots for utilities and cannot increase the number to four." On Medpacs, in the recommended-Utility table: "Heals 30% of ally Health. Not on Droids." On squad legality: "EA confirmed that all three remaining squad slots can be filled with Astromechs on non-story missions, since only Hawks is required." On chassis: the R2, R3 and R4 series and the BR-1, "a new droid design created specifically for Zero Company by Bit Reactor". **Checked for and absent**: any ability called Self Repair, and any Focus Point cost for any node.

• Astromechs: How to Play the Strongest Character in Star Wars Zero Company

  Mobalytics · Tier 3 — Retail review · accessed 8 September 2026

  Supports: Bylined Mobalytics, "Updated on Sep 7, 2026". Read in a browser; the page returns 403 to an automated fetch, the same retrieval note that travels with `retail-mobalytics-zones`. On capacity, verbatim: "Astromechs get three utility slots and three uses per item, for nine total charges a mission instead of the usual one or two." On the self-heal: "Send the Astromech into the open and it can heal a large portion of its own health every turn, with a minimum of 50% of its max health, up to 100% if you spend all your AP on it", and "the Mech can't heal itself with Medpacs, but they're weaker than its self-heal anyway". On multiple droids: "Running two or more Astromechs stacks everything above. Two Astromechs feeding Action Points into a single fast, mobile Operator like Cly can let that Operator chain attacks well beyond what a normal turn allows, generating enough Advantage from each hit to keep the loop going. As a Gunslinger, she can then stack up immense Onslaught damage, or set up a huge Electro Web team nuke." On the Ultimate: "for 10-6 Advantage (depending on upgrades), it grants extra Action Points to the entire squad, INCLUDING ITSELF, once per fight", producing "somewhere between five and eight extra actions across that turn". On the Talent: "once its ability tree is fully upgraded, the once-per-turn limit on that sharing disappears". Build advice names a Focus Point price no other source prints: "Built-In Comlink 2 (3 is ideal, but 13 Focus Points is a lot)". **One naming error, recorded rather than followed**: "If you unlock the Self Preservation passive you permanently boost a random ally's defense by +1 whenever you're attacked." That effect is Perfect Integration on the ability card `retail-htm-astromech` reproduces, and Self Preservation there grants the droid 1 AP after an Overwatch or Retaliation hit. The card is taken as correct and this sentence as a mix-up.

• Star Wars Zero Company: How the Astromech Class Works

  allthings.how · Tier 3 — Retail review · accessed 8 September 2026

  Supports: Bylined Kabir Anand, updated 2 September 2026. On the self-heal, verbatim: Self Repair "Consumes all remaining AP to restore 50% of the droid's maximum health." **This is the source that contradicts Mobalytics** on whether spending more AP heals more; both readings are recorded and the disagreement sits on the record. On capacity: an astromech has "all three unlocked" Utility slots, and with both storage passives "one Impact Bomb becomes three throws" — the third independent statement of the three-uses figure, after `retail-questdaily-astromech` and `retail-mobalytics-astromech`. On the class: astromechs are "locked to a single specialization called Astromech". **Checked for and absent**: any mention of Analytics, and any interaction between two astromechs.