Star Wars Zero Company has arrived as one of the most anticipated tactical strategy games set in the beloved galaxy far, far away. While the game offers a relatively accessible entry point for newcomers to the genre, make no mistake—this is a tactical game through and through. Success requires strategic thinking, careful resource management, and smart decision-making at every turn. Players must protect their companions, prioritize objectives wisely, and adapt to constantly evolving battlefield conditions. For those struggling to find their footing or veterans looking to optimize their gameplay, these seven essential tips will help ensure your squad survives the Empire’s relentless pursuit.

The tactical genre has seen a remarkable resurgence in recent years, with titles like XCOM, Fire Emblem, and Mario + Rabbids proving that turn-based strategy games can captivate modern audiences. Star Wars Zero Company builds upon this foundation while incorporating the rich lore and iconic aesthetic of the Star Wars universe. The game places players in command of a Rebel cell operating behind enemy lines, where every decision carries weight and every mission could be your last. Understanding the game’s core mechanics is essential before diving into the more advanced strategies that will separate successful commanders from those who watch their squads fall to Imperial blasters.

Building Strong Bonds With Your Allies Is Crucial

For a tactical game, Star Wars Zero Company is surprisingly narrative-rich. The game regularly offers opportunities to converse with your allies, and underestimating this feature would be a significant mistake. These interactions serve a dual purpose: they help players become emotionally invested in their characters while simultaneously earning valuable Link experience points. This experience is indispensable for developing combat abilities and unlocking new skills. The game’s philosophy centers on the idea that strong relationships translate directly into battlefield effectiveness—a well-bonded squad shares knowledge and techniques, resulting in substantial and stackable stat bonuses that can mean the difference between victory and defeat.

To maximize these relationship benefits, players should engage in conversation with allies whenever possible. Sending characters you want to develop closer bonds between on missions together—whether primary operations or field assignments—accelerates this process considerably. Battlefield interactions also contribute to relationship building, so pay attention to dialogue options during combat scenarios. Perhaps most importantly, when narrative choices present themselves, consider the relationship implications of your decisions. Maintaining positive relations across your entire squad ensures everyone benefits from enhanced capabilities. This social simulation layer adds remarkable depth to what could have been a straightforward tactical experience, echoing the relationship systems found in games like Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Persona 5.

Recruit Agents as Essential Support Personnel

The agents you recruit or customize throughout the campaign serve as invaluable assets, even if they don’t inspire the same emotional attachment as your main squad members. Players naturally gravitate toward using their primary characters for every mission, but this approach carries significant risks. Main squad members can be injured or, worse, killed—particularly devastating when permanent death mode is enabled, as losing key characters can effectively end your campaign. This is where recruited agents become indispensable tactical resources.

These supplementary soldiers can be deployed on dangerous resource-gathering missions where the risk of casualties is high, preserving your irreplaceable main characters for critical story missions. Additionally, agents can build relationships with your primary squad members, conferring stat bonuses that benefit your core team without exposing them to danger. Unlocking the Bar facility at your base and recruiting agents aggressively should be a top priority for any commander looking to build power quickly. While it may seem callous to treat these agents as expendable, the strategic reality is that losing a recruited agent is far less catastrophic than losing a main character. That said, investing in their development remains worthwhile—well-trained agents can substitute for injured primary members when circumstances demand flexibility.

Assemble a Balanced Squad With Complementary Classes

This advice might seem obvious, but maintaining a complementary squad composition can save your life in Star Wars Zero Company. The temptation to stack your team with damage-dealing classes capable of eliminating threats quickly is understandable but ultimately counterproductive. A balanced approach that includes one or two support roles—such as a Medic, Astromech specialist, or Sentinel—provides sustainability and tactical flexibility that pure offense cannot match. The old military adage holds true: sometimes the best offense is a solid defense.

Class balance becomes increasingly important as mission difficulty escalates. Early encounters might allow aggressive compositions to succeed through sheer firepower, but later missions introduce complex enemy combinations, environmental hazards, and multi-phase objectives that demand versatility. The Sentinel class deserves particular mention for its ability to generate Advantage points, a critical combat resource discussed later. Medics ensure your squad can sustain through prolonged engagements, while Astromech specialists provide utility options that can solve problems raw damage cannot address. Experiment with different compositions during easier missions to identify synergies that suit your playstyle before committing to a strategy for high-stakes operations.

Master Environmental Tactics to Gain the Upper Hand

Star Wars Zero Company embraces the tactical genre’s emphasis on positioning and terrain utilization. Every combat encounter rewards players who take time to analyze their surroundings before committing to action. Cover is essential—placing your units behind obstacles provides defensive bonuses while exposed positions invite devastating enemy fire. However, the environmental system extends far beyond simple cover mechanics, offering creative commanders numerous options for turning the battlefield itself into a weapon.

Destructible cover changes the tactical landscape mid-combat. A seemingly wasted shot that destroys an enemy’s protective barrier can expose them to devastating follow-up attacks from your other units. Environmental hazards like electrical generators, fuel tanks, and unstable structures can be triggered to create chain reactions—explosions, smoke clouds, and fire hazards that damage enemies or provide concealment for repositioning. Perhaps most satisfying is the ability to push enemies off the battlefield entirely using knockback abilities, guaranteeing elimination regardless of their remaining health. Before executing any turn, survey the environment thoroughly and consider how interactive elements might enhance your tactical options. The most efficient victories often come not from superior firepower but from superior environmental awareness.

Leverage the Advantage System for Maximum Impact

While Action Points (AP) fuel your basic combat actions, the Advantage gauge represents Star Wars Zero Company’s most powerful combat resource. Advantage points unlock your units’ most devastating abilities—the kind of attacks that can eliminate tough enemies, heal critical wounds, or completely reverse losing situations. Generating and spending Advantage efficiently separates skilled commanders from those who struggle through missions by attrition.

The key to mastering Advantage lies in generation consistency. Certain actions and abilities produce Advantage as a secondary benefit, allowing you to build resources while accomplishing other objectives. The Sentinel class excels at Advantage generation, making it a strong candidate for inclusion in nearly any squad composition. Once accumulated, don’t hoard Advantage unnecessarily—these points cap at maximum capacity, meaning any generation beyond that limit is wasted. Identify moments when powerful Advantage abilities can create decisive swings and deploy them confidently. The rhythm of tactical combat in Zero Company often follows a pattern of building Advantage through standard actions before unleashing devastating ability chains that break enemy formations.

Strategic Base Development Determines Long-Term Success

Base management might seem secondary to tactical combat, but intelligent development decisions determine your campaign’s trajectory in Star Wars Zero Company. Different facilities provide various benefits—experience generation, equipment improvements, squad capacity expansions, and more. On higher difficulty settings, suboptimal base development can create insurmountable obstacles as missions outpace your squad’s capabilities. Each upgrade requires time measured in mission cycles, meaning poor planning early can leave you under-equipped for critical confrontations later.

Prioritize the Bar facility for its ability to generate experience for agents even without combat deployment—passive progression that compounds over time. Equipment upgrades deserve early attention as well, since statistical improvements benefit every subsequent mission. Plan your development path several upgrades ahead, identifying which facilities require prerequisites and ensuring you’re gathering appropriate resources through operations and secondary missions. The strategic layer of base management interweaves with tactical missions in satisfying ways; success in the field provides resources for base improvements, which in turn enhance your capabilities for future missions. Embrace this gameplay loop rather than treating base management as an interruption between combat encounters.

Never Underestimate Operations and Side Missions

Field missions provide Star Wars Zero Company’s most engaging gameplay moments, but operations and secondary objectives constitute the campaign’s essential foundation. Operations are missions requiring no direct tactical gameplay—instead, you assign agents and make decisions that determine outcomes. While potentially repetitive, these low-risk activities generate resources and experience that fuel your campaign’s progression. Spending intel to participate in operations before major field missions ensures your squad enters combat with every possible advantage.

Secondary field missions similarly deserve attention despite their optional status. These encounters provide focused resource acquisition opportunities, allowing you to target specific materials needed for desired base upgrades or equipment improvements. Both operations and secondary missions feature expiration timers, adding strategic tension to mission selection. Monitor remaining cycles carefully and prioritize time-sensitive opportunities that offer resources aligned with your development goals. Operations also provide excellent relationship-building opportunities—agents deployed together develop bonds without the injury risks associated with field combat. Treating these supplementary activities as integral campaign components rather than optional distractions significantly improves your chances of building a squad capable of challenging the Empire’s mightiest forces.