Ranked, and labelled
Zero Company weapon tier list
Pistol first, then Rifle and Longarm, then Repeater. The Rifle deals the most damage per Action Point spent on an opening shot — 10 for 1 AP, where a Pistol pays the same point for 6 — and the Pistol holds S on the ability text built around firing three times a turn. Every figure here is one outlet's observation of the retail build, not an EA stat sheet.
- Confidence
- Theorycraft
- Verified
- 27 August 2026
- Version
- Pre-release evidence, plus retail launch-build observations (August 2026)
This ranking is theorycraft, not measurement.
What is being ranked, and for what
The question these bands answer
A ranking with no stated question is taste. This is the question.
- What an attack costs out of a three-point turn, what it deals, and how many confirmed abilities, Talents and upgrade ladders specifically reward the type. Ability coverage was the only published weapon evidence until 2026-08-26; costs and damage followed within two days, and where they disagreed with the ability reading, the numbers won.
- Any class can carry any of the four. Weapons are not tied to Specializations, so this is a question about builds rather than about roles.
- Fully invested, and on standard difficulty, matching the other two lists.
- Explicitly not accuracy. No hit-chance figure, range distance or critical rate is published for any type, so nothing here is ranked on reliability — only on price and output.
- Damage per Action Point is used for three of the four and refused for the Repeater. Its shot consumes every remaining point and gains an unpublished bonus for spending more, so dividing its 8 by anything produces a number that describes nothing.
The bands are claims about squad slots rather than grades, so each one is checkable:
- S Wins its slot
- Worth a quarter of the squad in almost any composition, and changes what the other three slots can afford.
- A Strong pick
- Worth its slot in most squads. Asks something of the composition around it, and repays it.
- B Conditional
- Excellent inside a squad built for it and quiet inside one that is not. The condition is named in each entry.
- C Needs building around
- Earns its slot late, or only once the rest of the squad is arranged to cash what it sets up.
4 ranked
The weapon tier list
Each entry gives its reasoning and the thing that would change it.
S
Wins its slot
Worth a quarter of the squad in almost any composition, and changes what the other three slots can afford.
More confirmed ability text rewards a pistol than any other type, and the retail figures say why: 1 AP a shot is the cheapest of the four and the only cost allowing three attacks in a standard turn, at 6 damage each. Eighteen damage a turn is the highest raw ceiling on this list, and it arrives in three separate packets — which is what the abilities are built to exploit and also what makes it fragile, since flat Defense is subtracted from each one. The Gunslinger's whole economy — Onslaught stacking +1 damage per shot within a turn, Quick Draw refunding its Action Point on a kill — needs several attacks per turn, and cheap attacks are what allow that. The Heavy's taunt rides on its primary blaster attack, so a pistol lets one Heavy taunt several targets across the field in a turn where a long arm taunts one. And the Scout can build around a pistol up close, spotting several enemies a turn so that everyone else lands theirs. Three of the eight classes have published reasons to want it.
Moves if Enemy Defense is published at 3 or more. Defense is flat reduction subtracted per hit, so it taxes this weapon three times a turn where it taxes a Longarm once — at 3 it halves a 6-damage shot, and at 4 it removes two thirds. That is the number that sinks this placement to B, and it is now the only thing standing between the Pistol and the Rifle. No enemy Defense figure is published, which is the sole reason this is still S.
A
Strong pick
Worth its slot in most squads. Asks something of the composition around it, and repays it.
The only type with a class built entirely around it — the Sharpshooter's suggested weapon list contains nothing else — and the only one with a confirmed terrain interaction, since high ground raises hit chance and long range is what exploits it. Luco Bronc's Combat Gas grants +5% chance to hit and +1 ranged damage per stack and costs no Action Point, which exists to solve the specific problem a long arm has: range imposes hit-chance penalties, and a missed 2 AP shot can cost most of a turn. The 2 AP was an inference when this was written and is now reported from the retail build — a Longarm always costs two, which leaves one point over for a reposition and never enough for a second shot. The Scout's Spotted removes distance penalties against a marked target, which is worth most to exactly this weapon. It is A rather than S because the developers state that line of sight and mission structure limit pure sniper strategies, and because it is the type that most needs the rest of the squad to set it up. The retail figures are 12 base damage and a +12 critical bonus, the highest of the four on both counts — and 6 damage per Action Point, the lowest. You carry a Longarm for the size of one hit, never for the rate.
Moves if Maps turn out to have long sightlines more often than the preview footage suggests. That would make positioning cheap and move this to S. The retail figures neither helped nor hurt: 12 damage for 2 AP is the worst rate on the list at 6 a point, and the +12 critical bonus — the only one equal to its own base — is the best single hit available to a guaranteed critical. Those cancel, which is why this stayed at A while the Rifle moved.
Promoted from B on 2026-08-27, on exactly the observation the old placement named in advance. Its first shot costs 1 AP and deals 10, where a Pistol pays the same point for 6 — the same price for two thirds more damage, which is what the previous entry said would move it and is now published. The second shot costs 2, so two Rifle shots are 20 damage and the entire turn; that escalation is a real constraint and it is the reason this is A rather than S. It is also still the only type with no ability, Talent or upgrade that names it — so it is ranked here purely on arithmetic, which is a thinner argument than the Pistol's even though the numbers are better. It is the best opening attack in the game and the worst weapon to be holding when you need to move afterwards.
Moves if Enemy Defense turns out low enough that three Pistol shots beat two Rifle shots after reduction, which would restore the Pistol's separation and drop this to B. Or an ability, Talent or Weapon Mod is found that specifically rewards a Rifle, which would remove the one argument keeping it under the Pistol and make it S.
B
Conditional
Excellent inside a squad built for it and quiet inside one that is not. The condition is named in each entry.
The all-or-nothing weapon, and the only one whose cost is a rule rather than a price: a Repeater shot always consumes every remaining Action Point. That was recorded here as Trick's Final Action and turns out to be a property of the weapon, which any Operator carrying one inherits. It is a suggested weapon for the Heavy, the Assault, the Gunslinger and the Soldier, so it is the closest thing to a frontline default. It holds at B on the number nobody has published. Base damage is 8, the second-lowest, and the shot is reported to gain a significant bonus at 2 or 3 AP without that bonus being stated anywhere — so the weapon is either the best closer on this list or a whole turn spent on 8 damage, and the evidence does not distinguish those. The shape is also wrong for the classes it is suggested to: a Gunslinger's value is acting repeatedly, and this ends the turn.
Moves if The 2 AP and 3 AP damage values are published. That single number decides this placement and could move it to S or to C — a 3 AP shot near the 22 damage one preview recorded for Trick's version makes it the best closer in the game; anything close to the 8 base makes an all-AP attack indefensible. This is the most under-determined placement on the site, and it is under-determined by exactly one figure.
What would have to be measured to make this a real ranking
The retail game is out. These are the points we have not yet reproduced or measured reliably enough to state as fact — recorded rather than guessed at.
- Accuracy curves, hit-chance modifiers and critical rates for all four types. Damage and cost are published; reliability is not, so nothing here is ranked on whether a weapon actually connects.
- Enemy Defense values. Defense is flat reduction subtracted per hit, which means it does not tax the four types equally — it is worth three times as much against a Pistol firing three times as against a Longarm firing once. It is the single figure that would most change this list, and the Pistol's S sits on its absence.
- What a Repeater shot deals at 2 AP and at 3 AP. Its cost is now known and its output is not, which is why its placement is the least determined here.
- Which Abilities consume every remaining Action Point. That was a question about weapons until the costs arrived; the Repeater's ordinary attack answers it for one weapon, and Trick's Fire Repeating Blaster remains the only named Ability of that shape.
- How many Modification Slots each type has. Four mods are confirmed to fit on one weapon, which is a floor rather than a cap, and nothing states whether the four types differ.
- The in-game names of individual weapons. EA name the four types and not the guns inside them, so there may be meaningful variation this list cannot see.
- Whether Ion is a weapon type, a Weapon Mod or a Utility. The counter against Separatist droids is confirmed; how you equip it is not.
- Every Weapon Mod name. Not one has been published, and mods are the layer most likely to decide which weapon is actually best.
Related pages
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
- 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.
- 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 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
- 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
- Star Wars Zero Company — najlepsza klasa broni: blaster, karabin i pistolet
PPE.pl · Tier 3 — Retail review · accessed 27 August 2026
Supports: Weapon class table, columns "Klasa broni | Koszt PA | Obrażenia broni | Obrażenia krytyczne | Zasięg | Typ broni", repeated in the per-weapon descriptions below it. Blaster długodystansowy (Longarm) — "Obrażenia: 12 | Krytyczne: +12 | Zasięg: Długi", "Wymaga 2 PA do wykonania strzału (wolna broń)". Karabin blasterowy (Rifle) — "Obrażenia: 10 | Krytyczne: +6 | Zasięg: Średni", "Pierwszy strzał w turze kosztuje tylko 1 PA (jako broń szybka), a każdy kolejny w tej samej turze wymaga 2 PA". Blaster powtarzalny (Repeater) — "Obrażenia: 8 | Krytyczne: +4 | Zasięg: Średni", "Ciężka broń automatyczna. Ma niskie obrażenia bazowe, ale zyskuje znaczne premie przy strzałach za 2 PA lub 3 PA. Oddanie strzału zawsze zużywa wszystkie pozostałe PA w danej turze" — no figures given for that bonus. Pistolet blasterowy (Pistol) — "Obrażenia: 6 | Krytyczne: +4 | Zasięg: Krótki", "każdy strzał kosztuje zaledwie 1 PA". The guide's own verdict names the Rifle the best general-purpose weapon, for economical AP use and balanced damage. No accuracy figure and no Modification Slot count anywhere on the page. Bylined Mateusz Wróbel, published 2026-08-26