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Authored Operator

Hawks build guide

The customisable former Republic officer who leads every story mission and can restore a squadmate's Action Point.

Confirmed
Confidence
Confirmed
Verified
19 August 2026

Overview

A former Republic officer and the player's commander. Required in story missions.

Type
Authored — joins through the story
Story missions
Required in every story mission
Spoiler level
None — nothing here spoils the story

Confirmed

What changes how you build them

  • Species, first name, appearance, clothing and Specialization are all customisable.
  • Species options are listed as Devaronian, Human, Mirialan, Togruta, Twi'lek and Zabrak — a previewer working through the creator confirms the same six.
  • Species and appearance can be changed later, between missions, at the Den's customisation station. The starting choice is not permanent.
  • Hawks is the only Operator who cannot permanently die. Hawks falling ends the mission instead.
  • Spending 3 Advantage grants an ally one extra Action Point — the only known way to add AP to a turn.
  • His fixed Talent is Fearless Leader: while Hawks is in combat, every Operator in the squad gains increased assist damage, Defense and chance to hit. It cannot be swapped and it persists across Specialization changes.
  • Because Hawks is required in story missions, Fearless Leader is running in every story fight — treat it as a squad-wide baseline rather than a choice.
  • A former Republic Army captain, dismissed after a Separatist defeat and injured in the attack on Antine, where Trick was wounded protecting him. Both left the service together.
  • The Specialization choice determines Hawks' passive stats and core active abilities.
  • There are two voices, masculine and feminine, and both are written as the same world-weary veteran. There is no cheerful option.
  • Required in story missions; skirmish missions allow other combinations.

Unique abilities

Abilities only Hawks has

  • Pico-5

    Retail-reported

    Grants a targeted ally one additional Action Point for the turn, paid for in Advantage rather than Action Points, so Hawks can use it after moving and attacking. Each use also adds 4 Bond Points to the Bond between Hawks and that ally, capped at 20 Bond Points per character per mission. A previewer spending it pre-launch named the cost as 3 Advantage; the retail guide that names the ability does not repeat a figure.

    Build value: Two tools in one action, and the second one is the one nobody plans around. As an action-economy tool it is the only confirmed way to add AP to a turn, and whether the trade is good depends entirely on who receives it — an AP spent by a Padawan mid-combo is not worth the same as one spent by a recruit with a pistol. As a **Bond tool** it is the fastest source of Bond progress in the game: five uses is the 20-point mission cap, which is two-thirds of what a completed Tactical Mission pays a pair, on top of the mission itself. Bonds pay Focus Points at every rank, so a turn spent handing Hawks' Advantage to the ally you are trying to bond with is progression as well as tempo. Because it belongs to the Operator every story mission requires, every squad has to budget around it — and every squad can aim it.

Specializations

Recommended Specializations

These are our reading of the character's confirmed identity, not confirmed starting classes.

  • Medic

    Stacks two support roles on the one Operator that is always present, which frees the other three slots for damage and control.

  • Soldier

    Flexible offense on a mandatory slot, with the AP support ability still available every turn if it is indeed his.

  • Scout

    Pairs setup with turn extension, if the Scout's kit turns out to be about creating openings.

  • Sharpshooter

    A previewer built him this way and reported an ability that raises damage and accuracy while he stays in one place — which suits the one Operator who is in every story mission and can therefore be positioned first and left there.

  • Gunslinger

    A previewer respecced him out of Scoundrel into Gunslinger to exploit a Weapon Mod applying Burning on every attack. The class fires more often than any other, so it is the one that turns an on-attack effect into a build.

Bonds

Confirmed Very High Bond pairings

Each of these is required by a pre-release trophy, so the pairing is evidenced to reach the top tier. A pairing that is not listed is unknown, not impossible.

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

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 the AP grant is limited to once per turn, and whether it persists across Specializations. Both are reported everywhere and stated by nobody citable.
  • Whether the six listed species are the whole set open to Hawks. EA introduces them with 'such as', though a previewer working through the creator saw the same six.
  • The size of Fearless Leader's three bonuses, at any rank, and whether they apply to Hawks as well as to allies.
  • Whether Fearless Leader has a range limit or covers the whole map.
  • Base stats and how the custom species choice affects them, if at all.
  • Whether changing species at the Den costs anything, or is limited in frequency.
  • Whether Hawks' starting weapon is customisable.
  • The name of the stationary damage-and-accuracy ability a previewer used on him as a Sharpshooter. It is described and not named, and no captured interface shows it.

How this Operator is ranked

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

  • 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 game page

    StarWars.com · Tier 1 — Official · accessed 15 August 2026

    Supports: Setting, developer and publisher credits, authored Operators. Re-read 2026-08-15 for the genre line: "a single-player turn-based tactics game", "developed by Bit Reactor in collaboration with Respawn Entertainment and Lucasfilm Games". This is the only source on this site that states single-player in so many words — EA's own game page does not

  • Hawks — Star Wars Databank

    StarWars.com · Tier 1 — Official · accessed 6 August 2026

    Supports: Former captain in the Grand Army of the Republic; leads Zero Company

  • 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: 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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.

  • 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